What to Watch for This Week:

Hello Wickliffe families!

This week, as you are scrolling through our news feed below, please watch for:

Our January restaurant fundraiser thisWednesday (1/13). Make dinner a selfless act by ordering from Chipotle at Kingsdale! Show the flyer, or use the coupon code CPH8PXB, when you order between 4pm and 8pm on Wednesday, January 13th, and they'll donate 33% of your order to our school.
The UACA golden apple award nominations are open! Please consider taking a moment to nominate any teacher or staff member you'd like to see recognized for the difference they have made in students' lives, by completing the form on the UACA website here.
And, we are continuing to provide snacks for our awesome teachers, if you'd like to contribute please sign up here.

For the remote meal program, lunch pick up is only on Wednesday 11:45am-12:30pm, this week. See below for the details and this week's order form. Please note: if you cannot make that time slot, the PTO would like to help by bringing your child's meal pack to you - please reach out to us (wickliffepto@gmail.com) and we will work with you to drop off the meal to your house.

Don't miss Counselors' Corner! Scroll to find the latest counseling team updates, including new group offerings, and we welcome two new members, Megan Ruiz and Jihyeon Choi, to our Wickliffe counseling team. Plus, Dr. Kassoy shares sage advice to guide us in our conversations about the events that unfolded in Washington, DC, this week.

Finally, please check the calendar for the upcoming important dates, including NO SCHOOL on Monday (1/18) for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Have a great week!

Kelley Swiney and the whole PTO.

News and links to our website:

Restaurant Fundraiser - Chipotle

Make dinner a selfless act on Wednesday this week (January 13th)! Come in to the Chipotle at 3090 Kingsdale Ctr. between 4:00pm and 8:00pm, for our restaurant fundraiser. Bring in this flyer, show it on your smartphone or tell the cashier you’re supporting Wickliffe Elementary PTO to make sure that 33% of the proceeds will be donated to our school.

NEW! ORDER ONLINE FOR PICKUP:

Use code CPH8PXB before checkout in ‘promo’ field. Orders placed on Chipotle.com or through the Chipotle app for pickup using this unique code will be counted towards the fundraiser.

Please share this flyer with family & friends.

UACA Golden Apple Nominations

UACA Golden Apple Award nominations are open! Anyone is welcome to submit a nomination for any faculty member (outstanding teacher or favorite longtime staff member) by completing the form on the UACA website here, by Friday, February 26.

Teacher Appreciation

Thank you to all who have donated snacks and drinks for the teachers and staff members. The teachers and staff real enjoy and appreciate the treats and drinks! We need your help to keep it going!

If you would like to contribute individual prepackaged food and drinks, our amazing teachers would really appreciate it. Please sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/teacher_appreciation

Requested items include: candy, chips, cookies, nuts, trailmix, soda, San Pellegrino flavored water, La Croix, cold brew coffee. Please drop your items off at Kelley Swiney's porch at 3942 Newhall Rd. If you have any questions please contact Jennifer Waddell at jenniferawaddell@yahoo.com. Thank you for your support!

Box Tops are now online!

Box tops are now online and are an easy way to help earn money for Wickliffe!

1. Download the app

2. Choose Wickliffe Elementary as your school

3. Scan and upload receipts

It’s that easy! We have a goal of $1,000 and have quite a ways to go. Please download the app and start uploading your receipts. Happy New Year!

Download on the App Store: BoxTops for Education App

Get it on Google Play: Box Tops for Education

Hybrid/Remote Meal Program

There is currently no charge for elementary students to buy school lunch through the end of the school year due to a USDA National Waiver.

IN-SCHOOL: To pre-order meals from Nutritional Services on the days your student is in school, please click here to make your selection, orders need to be placed by 10pm one day in advance. The lunches are delivered to the classrooms.

REMOTE: Multi-day meal packs will be available for pick up for Independent Remote Learning days (at home days and online academy). A remote pickup form will need to be completed each week if you would like to pick up a remote multi-meal pack that week. For the week of January 11, please complete this form.

*All students can pickup on Wednesday.
*Meal pickup will be Wednesday 1/13 from 11:45am - 12:30pm, at Wickliffe.

Please note: if you cannot make that time slot, the PTO would like to help by bringing your child's meal pack to you - please reach out to us (wickliffepto@gmail.com) and we will work with you to drop off the meal to your house.

Click here for more information

Directory - Search by Teacher

Tips and Tricks: How to assign your student's classroom teacher in the directory

The directory is set up to allow you to search for the contact information of your student's friends in multiple ways - by student or by parent, by name or by grade.

We also have the option to search by classroom teacher but in some cases the assignment is missing. Please match your student to their teacher:

click the link below,
if prompted, sign in (with your email address and password)
select the appropriate teacher name from the list, and
click save.

https://wickliffepto.membershiptoolkit.com/membership_step2

If you notice a friend is missing their teacher assignment, please pass this tip on!

For privacy reasons, the directory is only available to PTO members - to join please click here. If the $25 dues are a barrier to joining, please send an email to wickliffepto@gmail.com for the fee to be waived.

Counselors' Corner

Counseling Team Updates

We hope everyone had a good first week back at school.

Our counseling team has doubled in size! Please welcome Megan Ruiz, a second year masters student and Jihyeon Choi, a doctoral student, both from The Ohio State University school counseling program.

Because we know many of you attended Dr. Emily King’s webinar entitled, “Pandemic Parenting,” we will resume our Parent Coffees in February. We hope that hearing Dr. King left you feeling affirmed that you have been navigating the last 10 months with strength and grace.

Below is an update on the groups we are offering. Please email Dr. Kassoy by January 15th if you would like your child to participate (fkassoy@uaschools.org).

Mindful Mornings - This group will be co- facilitated by Shawna McEvoy, Wickliffe teacher and Urban Zen Integrative Therapist, and the Wickliffe Counseling Team. As we all know, this school year has been a challenge. As a result, children may be having a difficult time navigating their emotions. In this 8-week group, students will explore ways to stay present, calm, and effective in the midst of worry and stress. Participants will engage in mindful movements, guided breathing practices, and guided body scans to promote awareness. We will practice and discuss how they can feel empowered to use these strategies in their day-to-day lives. Mindful Mornings will take place from 8:30-9am on Tuesdays (Cohort 1) and Thursdays (Cohort 2). Online Academy learners and homeschooled students may join us on either or both days via Zoom.

Lemonade Brigade - We will also be offering Lemonade Brigade, which is for students who are experiencing changes in their family structure. This can include students experiencing a divorce, separation, remarriage, or blending of families. When experiencing family changes, many kiddos may have big feelings. This group will help students connect with peers who are a part of a changing family while also providing students with skills to cope with and celebrate those changes in family structure. Online Academy learners and homeschooled students may join us!

Dr. Kassoy's Food For Thought

As the events in Washington DC unfolded this week, we relied on the expertise of community professionals to guide us in our conversations. Below is a letter from Dr. Parker Huston, the Clinical Director of the On Our Sleeves initiative at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, that might be helpful.

As always, you know your children best. So take what works for you and leave the rest behind.

From: Dr. Parker, On Our Sleeves Clinical Director <onoursleeves@nationwidechildrens.org>

I wish we were coming to you to talk about a more positive topic. However, as has been the case far too often in the past few years, current events necessitate a different discussion.

No matter your personal views, the events in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol Building affected all of us to some degree, and children are no different. Civil unrest is not new to our country, especially in the past year, but for reasons beyond the scope of this message, yesterday’s events caused a different kind of distress. As parents and adults who care about children, we would like to think we can shield our children from traumatic events in the world, but that is not the case. Kids hear and see things despite our best efforts to protect them. If you don't address events like this with them, they are left to process on their own and may turn to other unreliable sources.

How do we talk with the children in our lives about scary, violent or otherwise traumatic events they may be exposed to?

Be proactive by making time to talk. If possible, first take time to process the event(s) yourself. Then, ask them what they know or have seen and/or heard. Be ready to listen and not discount what they are telling you. Empathize with their concerns.
Leave the door open for further discussion. Try to ask open-ended questions, such as “How do you feel about that?” “What does that make you think about?” or “Do you have questions about what is happening?”
Encourage them to share their feelings appropriately. Avoid sensationalizing the event(s). Try not to say you are terrified or horrified, even if that’s how you feel. Instead, model statements like “I’m feeling very upset right now,” or “I’m worried for the people affected by this.”
Reassure them in a realistic way. Remind them that your job as a parent or adult in their life is to keep them safe. Let them know you are there to help them understand the situation and get through it.
Know it’s OK to not have all the answers. It’s OK to let the kids in your life know you don’t have all the answers. Look up an answer together, if age appropriate, or tell them you don’t know the answer to their question yet, but you’ll try to find it for them. Most importantly, remember there isn’t a good explanation for events like this.
Focus on the good. Talk about the people in the community you know are helping throughout the event. Talk about their braveness or about the positive changes that could come from the event.
Avoid talking badly about groups of people. This can include political groups, races, religions or countries. Help them understand most events like this are carried out by a very small group of people in relation to the overall population.

Last evening, at our dinner table with our 8 and 5 year olds, we followed these steps as best we could, given what we knew at the time. In a way, it also helped me process the events because I wanted to make sure I could model that for them.

We need to keep talking with and listening to our children to help them develop into the best humans they can be. Sometimes that means making sense of when bad things happen and learning to cope in healthy ways.

Be well, practice gratitude and act with kindness,