The Wickliffe PTO invites you to shop our Online Book Fair and support our school! The Fair runs from November 30-December 13. Our Fair will feature a Virtual Fair walk-through so you and your kids can experience the magic of the school shopping experience: Browse titles by grade, meet popular authors, and much more! 

• The Wickliffe book fair homepage will have two options for browsing books this year! It will go live on November 30. 
• Check out a sneak peek of what’s to come! bit.ly/ElemSizzleReel

All purchases will benefit our school directly (25% back in rewards!). Don’t miss these two weeks of events, fun, and books. 

Questions?​ Contact Dawn Hofherr (​dawn.kuritz@gmail.com​) or Jennie Lawrence (​jcisarlawrence@gmail.com​)

Thank you to everyone that dined at City BBQ last week. We raised $255.49 that will be donated directly to the PTO.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR for our next Restaurant Night on Wednesday, December 9th at Dewey’s Pizza in Grandview. More details in the coming weeks. 

• If you would like to choose a child or a family to shop for you can access the Sign Up Genius here: Holiday Gift Sign Up so you can select a child to help this holiday season. 
• We will have a contactless drop off for gifts the week of December 14th- 18th, more details will be provided nearer the time.

We are excited that we can still help others this year even though we can’t volunteer in person. If you have questions, please email Sarah Oberlin at soberlin@uaschools.org.

These organizations donate money to our school as you shop! Please consider using these reward programs to benefit Wickliffe PTO as you are doing your Black Friday and holiday shopping this year. Thank you for supporting our school.

Shutterfly Storefront

If you would like to pick up meals for your student’s remote learning days, or for your Online Academy student, please contact the Director of Nutritional Services, Irene Hunt, at ihunt@uaschools.org.   Once you are added to their list, you will receive additional information about how to order and when and where to pick up your meals.

What is the cost for meals? Thanks to a USDA waiver, all students enrolled in Upper Arlington Schools (preK-12) will be able to receive free lunch through the month of December, or until federal funding is no longer available. 

• Please join us on Sunday evening, December 6th, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PMhttps://zoom.us/j/7191866057 for our next Parent Coffee. This conversation is entitled, “Navigating the Holidays.” As we know, staying connected with our Wickliffe families is more important than ever. We hope you can join us for this discussion.

• Online Academy MeetUp - Please have your OA learners join us for a Holiday Hangout on Thursday, December 3rd from 11:00 to 12:00 on Zoom  https://zoom.us/j/7191866057 for games and a craft.  All your child needs is 6 pieces of paper (any kind will do), a glue stick, and their imagination. It is a great way to stay connected with each other while learning apart.  

• A gentle reminder to  please limit your news consumption and adult conversations in the presence of your kiddos. With a constant barrage of information about the increase in COVID cases and the ongoing coverage of the election results and transfer of power,  we need to be a source of calm and reassurance for our children. At a time when children are worried about the things that they cannot control, reminding them of the importance of mask wearing, handwashing, and social distancing empowers them to make choices about things they can control. As always, please reach out to us if you have any questions or need additional support.

I hope that some of you had the opportunity to read last week’s message about gratitude. I wanted to share one more thought before Thanksgiving.

As we continue to teach children a historically accurate and authentic narrative of Thanksgiving it can be hard to find great books about Thanksgiving and First Nations/Native American culture. After a quick Google search (since I can’t go to my local library during COVID), I found this short list. Thanksgiving Books: Authenticity and Accuracy 

It was a good reminder to me about the importance of diverse books. According to Rudine Sims Bishop, professor emerita from OSU, literature can be “mirrors” for indigenous children to have the opportunity to see themselves in books while providing “windows” to other children to have insight into a new culture. So, this Thanksgiving I hope that one of these books might be a window or mirror for your child and family.

Onward,

The Counseling Team (Felice and Rebecca)