December 2023

If your student has a change in their health or has a healthcare need at school, please contact Susan Martin via email at susanm.martin@oshkosh.k12.wi.us. or contact the office at 920-424-0165.

If your student will need to take a medication during the school day, please have your child’s provider fill out and sign the appropriate form below. These can then be returned to the office or faxed by the provider to: 920-424-7583.

Over the Counter Medication Form *parent signature only required

Prescribed Medication Form 

Inhaler/Asthma Action Plan  

Epipen/Allergy & Anaphylaxis Form

*Reminder: The directions on the medication bottle/box must match the written order on the medication request form.*

REMINDERS:

• Stock Epi-pens do NOT go on field trips. 

• Please fill out an Emergency Epi-Pen/Anaphylaxis Plan even if you don’t have a personal Epi at school.

• PRN medications (Ibuprofen, Tyelnol, Tums etc.) must come in a New and  unopened Bottle.

• Is your child up to date with their immunizations? Please contact the doctor for physicals and immunizations! All students at Jefferson are required to have their Tdap, Polio, MMR, Varicella and Hep B! Please check with your doctor to see what wellness requirements are needed for your child.

 

A Letter from the Health Office - December Blessings

Susan Martin LPN/Health Assistant and Liz Lynch, BSN, RN, NCSN

Enjoy the beauty of the season, surround yourself with the love of family and friends, and cherish the memories throughout a happy and healthy New Year.

 

Cold and Flu Season

Washing your hands is the first and best defense to protect yourself against germs.  Use Hand Sanitizer to help stop the spread of germs.  Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.  Clean and disinfect common surfaces that are frequently touched that may carry germs.  School age children should get between 9 to 12 hours of sleep a night.  Drink lots of water to keep your body healthy and safe.  Talk to your Pediatrician about yearly vaccinations to protect against diseases. 

 

 Fire Safety (Smoke Detectors and Carbon Monoxide Detectors)

Practice fire safety. Most residential fires occur during the winter months, so don’t leave fireplaces, space heaters, food cooking on stoves, or candles unattended. Have an emergency plan and practice it regularly.  Smoke Detectors and Carbon Monoxide Detectors should be checked on a monthly basis and change out the batteries.

Healthy Eating Tips

Prepare food safely. Remember these simple steps: Wash hands and surfaces often, avoid cross-contamination, cook foods to proper temperatures and refrigerate foods promptly.  Eat healthy, stay active. Eat fruits and vegetables which pack nutrients and help lower the risk for certain diseases. Limit your portion sizes and foods high in fat, salt, and sugar. Also, be active for at least 2½ hours a week and help kids and teens be active for at least 1 hour a day.

Holiday Family Bucket List Inspiration

Holiday Bucket List

In December we have a lot to look forward to in art class! On December 9th the Masonic Art Show is happening and the students selected for the art show can attend with family and friends! Congrats to the students who were selected! When it comes to art work in the art room
we are still working on our previously started projects from November. Kindergarten and 1st grade are working on their Color Theory Rainbows. We have learned the rainbow order, along with the primary colors and now we are officially starting to learn about secondary colors. Each
color we learn, we paint a paper that color and when all the paper is painted we will assemble a sketch book with the painted papers, and then move onto our Color Theory Rainbows! Second and Third graders have started their Watercolor Resist Mountain scape. We have worked with oil pastel and watercolor, along with two different watercolor techniques called Wet on Wet and Wet on Dry, along with experimenting with watercolor and salt. We will soon be assembling our
mountains onto our background paper! Fourth and fifth graders are working hard on their Weaved Landscapes. We have started and finished our background pieces where we have just started to create our loom that we will begin weaving on!

The Winter Concert, "December is..." is just around the corner! The K-5 students have been working very hard singing, dancing and preparing some special performances just for you expressing all the joys of December. Be sure to mark your calendars for December 18th from 6:00-7:00 pm at Alberta Kimball Auditorium for this wonderful evening of music!
Mrs. Cibula 

 

 

Help Boost Kids’ Safety, Privacy, and Security

When kids start to go online, whether they're playing multiplayer games, using educational apps, or just following their curiosity on Google, it's important that they understand the basics of online privacy and safety. With some general guidelines around what information is and isn't OK to share, and some help from parents when they're unsure, kids can have fun and learn a lot in the digital world.

Check out these 5 tips:

Discuss personal vs. private info. Talk about the difference between what's OK to share online (favorite color - personal) and what's not (home address - private).

•  Use privacy settings. Together, go through the settings on all new apps to make sure you both know what information your kids are sharing. Especially in the beginning, it's better to share very little. 

• Avoid location tracking. Location-aware apps can be super helpful. But apps that use a device's location to help people find your kid or offer them ads for nearby businesses should be used with caution. Turn them off if you can.

•  Power up passwords. Work together with kids to help them come up with complex passwords. Use phrases and special characters that make passwords hard to guess but easy to remember. Remind kids to keep passwords private and change them regularly. 

• Skip quizzes. Help kids identify and avoid clickbait, quizzes, special offers, and anything that asks for personal or private information. This helps keep information secure and devices safe.

K–5 family tips: Privacy & Security. Common Sense Education. (2021, January 5). Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/family-tips/k-5-privacy-and-security. 

 

 

With winter break approaching, it is important to keep reading every day. As a fun challenge for students, we’ve attached an optional Winter Break Reading Bingo Challenge for students to complete if they are looking for a fun way to keep reading going this month.

 

Math Fun and Gift Giving Ideas

It’s that time of the year again! Time for gift giving ideas and family time spent indoors on cold days. Did you know that playing board games has many benefits for kids?  Playing games is a great way to encourage your children to have a positive attitude toward math and children love to play with friends and spend quality time with adults. The games listed below all work on specific math skills, but don’t forget the old favorites not included in the list below  such as Candy Land, Checkers, Monopoly, Battle Ship, Yahtzee and Cribbage.  

Here are just a few benefits of board games:

Problem solving skills

Basic math concepts

Language and communication skills

Social skills: taking turns, sharing, how to handle winning and losing

Following directions

Improved memory and attention

Sum Swamp  Add and subtract your way through the swamp.  Young children get to practice their essential arithmetic facts while having fun.  This game received an Oppenheim Best Toy Award.

Equate  If your eight year old likes crosswords, this game will be a hit.  Making equations can be a challenge. Eight year olds can begin making equations using addition and subtraction but older children can get more points using division or fraction tiles.

Head Full of Numbers Shake the “head” cup to roll the dice. Set the sand timer. Write as many equations from the numbers and symbols on the dice before sand runs out. Good for any number of players and level.  This is an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award Winner.

Sequence Numbers The brightly colored cards have questions and the answers are printed on the game board.  Place a tile on the answer. With five in a row, you have a Sequence!  This bingo-like game is great for ages seven and older.

Money Bags: A Coin Value Game This game makes making change so much fun!  Earn money while completing chores, like setting the table or for selling lemonade. The spinner makes exceptions such as, no nickels to make sure kids make use of the higher value coins. Money bags is great for developing critical thinking and counting/coin sense.

Pizza Fraction Fun Game Better be hungry for pizza as you play seven games in one!  Identifying, adding and subtracting and matching equivalents help make making pizzas and working with fractions fun. The double sided spinners allow the difficulty level to be easily adjusted.

Dino Math Tracks Place Value Game Dinosaurs rule with place value.  Roll the dice to make four digit numbers. Get your dinos to their base before other players do.  An Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award Winner.

 Sumoku Play five different versions, including a solo one, of this addition/multiplication game.  Set tiles up crossword style to add up to multiples of the number on a die.  Connect all the numbers for a complete Sumoku!

 Pay Day Board Game Family finance is fun in Pay Day.  Get paid and decide how to spend your money. Whoever has the most money at the end of the game wins.  This classic game is for suitable for ages eight and up.

Set Set is an amazing card game! This is a game that your 6-year-old will be better at than you are. This is a matching game that can be played solo or with any sized group. The rules are relatively simple. A set is three cards which all have the same type of an attribute or miss-match an attribute. Perhaps a set is three cards all have ovals with a striped pattern on them but each card has a different number of shapes (1, 2, and 3) and different colored (purple, green and red) There is also a Junior version for ages 4 and up. 

Connect 4 Every family needs a noisy, clattering, pieces-get-everywhere kind of a game. Connect 4 is a childhood classic that supports geometric thinking, planning and pattern recognition. It is a two player game and great for two children to play together. Basically, it’s an advanced version of tic-tac-toe. This is a great game to entertain the kids while you are finishing dinner or something.

20 Express  This game is great for parents to play with your kids! It’s a number game which focuses on consecutive ordering. The scoring may take parental involvement as it is a little weird at first sight. However, the cool part about this game is that everyone tries to organize the same numbers at the same time. So you, as a parent, can compare answers with the other players. “Oh, that was a good choice, I didn’t think to do it that way!” The only negative to 20 Express is that it obviously uses math and that may turn off some kids. This game is good for traveling as it doesn’t require a central table and any number of people can play at once. Each player just needs a pen and something to write on.

Zingo 123  What better way to build reading and counting skills than with Zingo. 1-2-3, the newest game in the award-winning Zingo. product line. With Zingo. 1-2-3, players match numbered tiles to images on their cards. The first player with a full card wins by yelling "Zingo." Two levels of play focus on counting and addition. This fast-paced game will have the whole family yelling "1-2-3 PLAY".

Prime Climb  An award-winning, beautiful, colorful, mathematical board game. Color-coded board makes multiplication and division as easy as combining colors.  Prime Climb is easy to learn and perfect for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up. Also great for younger players with adult guidance. Dynamic mix of strategy and luck makes Prime Climb endlessly replayable.