February 2024

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 - February Blessings

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

Heart Disease Awareness Month

Avoid/ Quit smoking - Smoking can increase plaque in your blood vessels making them narrower and harder to pump blood through. This increases your risk of heart disease as well as increasing how hard your heart needs to work! 

Maintenance -  Obtaining and maintaining a healthy body weight for your body, blood pressure and total cholesterol levels will decrease your risk of heart disease and increase your overall health!

Screen for diabetes - It can easily be detected through a simple blood test. Ask about your need for a preventative screen with your provider.

Get active - Find an activity you enjoy (walking, jogging, dancing, biking, swimming) and get moving 2 to 3 times a week! Not only will this help keep your heart healthy, but your mind too!

Build your muscles - Lifting weights and strength training tones muscles and burns fat. This helps to strengthen your heart and reduce how hard it needs to work on a daily basis. It’s recommended to strength train 2 times per week.

Eat smart - Build your plate with heart-healthy foods such as: leafy greens and vegetables, fruits, whole grains, protein rich foods (fish, nuts, lean meats), and healthy oils (avocado, salmon, canola). Check out a new recipe book from the library!

Limit junk food - Added sugars, saturated fats, and excessive sodium (as good as they can taste) can add extra work for your heart and increase your risk of heart disease. Enjoy in moderation!

Stress less - Stress increases a hormone called cortisol, which leads to weight gain, fatigue/ poor sleep, emotional wellbeing etc. Try incorporating stress relieving activities into your daily routine such as: yoga, walks, reading, meditation, listening to music. Even if it is only 5-10 minutes at a time. 

Sleep more - Sleep restores the body, helps to decrease stress, and increase overall mood. Practice good sleep hygiene: sleep in a cooler temperature, darken your environment, avoid screens at least 20 minutes before bed, try to obtain 8 hours of sleep.

Smile - Do what lights you up! Make time for enjoyable activities and hobbies to help lower stress and improve your overall mood! Added bonus - smiling is contagious!

February Family Bucket List

 

Hello Jefferson Elementary Families,

The Kids Heart Challenge has kicked off, and we invite you to join us as we Celebrate a Legacy of Lifesavers and continue the fight against heart disease and stroke! Donations are due February 16th! Cash and check are acceptable and all checks can be made out to the American Heart Association.

Help us Save Lives by following these 3 steps:

1. Download the AHA Schools APP and Register:

 

2. Click “Send a Message” and TEXT 10 Friends and Family asking for support.

3. Be a Heart Hero and Complete Finn’s Mission and learn TWO life-saving skills as a family TONIGHT!

 or http://www2.heart.org/goto/jeffersonoshkosh  and Click “Sign Up”

When 50% of the school registers online with a parent/guardian email (120 students) and raises at least $1,000 our school will earn $500!

Buster (Leader) Keychain = Drawing for Students who Complete Finn’s Mission Online Jan. 19, Feb. 2, Feb. 16

Other FUN BONUS/INCENTIVE

Click HERE to hear from Phil and see how Kids Heart Challenge is saving lives!

NFL Bonus: The American Heart Association is excited to extend our work with the NFL to support improving health outcomes at home and beyond through the Hands-Only CPR education. Students that complete the Finn’s Mission learning module will earn an entry for two tickets to Super Bowl LIX in 2025 and your school will be entered to receive a $10,000 fitness equipment makeover for every 18 completed Finn’s Mission.

Thank you!

Samantha McGill-Freimund

Jefferson Physical Education Teacher

 

 

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. 

Elementary Hotspot InformationIf there is ever a need for a virtual learning day and you do not have wifi at home, please fill out this form if you have not already done so. This should be filled out only if your oldest child is in elementary school and you do not have access to wifi at home. Please note that the hotspots only connect to Oshkosh district devices such as Chromebooks.

Monthly Literacy Update - February 2023

Simple Yet Powerful Things to Do When Reading Aloud

Most parents recognize the value of reading to a child. Books are a terrific way to share the joys of reading: interesting words, beautiful illustrations, and the keys to unlocking the mysteries of letters, sounds, and words. Recently, several researchers published work that helps us understand that very simple, small actions during reading can have a big impact on what a child takes away from sharing a book with an adult.

It turns out that young children being read to almost always focus on the illustrations. And when they’re not enjoying the pictures, they are looking up at the adult reader. The child’s eyes almost never look at the print on the page, yet that’s where children can learn the most about letters, sounds, and words. To get the most out of a shared reading, encourage your child to appreciate the pictures, and also guide their attention to printed words. Doing so may help your child’s reading, spelling, and comprehension skills down the road.

To help direct your child’s attention to the print in a book, parents can focus on specific parts of it, including:

• The meaning of the print. This includes pointing out specific words within a book and drawing the child’s attention to the print. For example, “Here are the penguin’s words. He says, thank you.”
• The organization of the book and print, which includes understanding the way pages are read, the role of the author, and print direction. For example, “I am going to read this page first and then this page over here next.” Or “This is the top of the page. This is where I begin reading.”
• The letters, which includes helping your child know that letters come in uppercase and lowercase, and helping your child learn the names of each letter. For example, “This M in the red block is an uppercase letter. See how this uppercase letter is bigger than these lowercase letters?”
• The words, which includes helping your child recognize some written words, and the match between spoken words and written words. For example, “Let’s point to each word as I read it. Ready?"

Parents play such an important role in growing a reader. Keeping up with information like this is a great way to make sure you are doing as much as you can to nurture all the right skills in your child.

 

Math Corner with Ms. Reuter Math IST 

Looking for a good book to snuggle up and read with your child during these cold winter months? There are some wonderful books that connect with our math curriculum this month! Take a look at some of these! Enjoy and stay warm!

Kindergarten:

• Benny’s Pennies by Pat Brisson 
• Picking Peas for a Penny by Angela Shelf Medearis 
• Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells
• 100 Days of School by Trudy Harris 
• 100th Day of School (Celebrations in My World) by Reagan Miller 
• 100 School Days by Anne Rockwell 
• Happy 100th Day! by Susan Milord 
• The Night Before the 100th Day of School by Natasha Wing 
• Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate 
• Farmer Brown by Debbie Knill 
• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

First Grade:

• If You Were a Quadrilateral by Molly Blaisdell 
• If You Were a Triangle by Marcie Aboff 
• When a Line Bends ... A Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene  
• The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns 
• 100 Days of Cool by Stuart J. Murphy 
• 100 Days of School by Trudy Harris 
• 100th Day Worries by Margery Cuyler 
• Emily’s First 100 Days of School by Rosemary Wells
• It’s the 100th Day of School, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt 
• Ready, Freddy! The One Hundredth Day of School by Abby Klein 
• Centipede’s 100 Shoes by Tony Ross
• I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words by Michael K. Frith
• Wolf’s Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza

Second Grade:

• Whoever You Are by Mem Fox 
• To Be a Kid by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko 
• Wake Up, World! A Day in the Life of Children Around the World by Beatrice Hollyer
• Twelve Snails to One Lizard by Susan Hightower

Third Grade:

• All the Colors of the Rainbow by Allan Fowler 
• Spaghetti and Meatballs for All by Marilyn Burns
• A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman 
• What Comes in 2s, 3s, & 4s? by Suzanne Aker Dahl 
• One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab by April Pulley Sayre & Jeff Sayre  
• The Wishing Club: A Story About Fractions by Donna Jo Napoli 
• Full House: An Invitation to Fractions by Gayle Ann Dodds 

Fourth Grade:

• The Lion’s Share by Matthew McElligott 
• The Wishing Club by Donna Jo Napoli 
• Apple Fractions by Jerry Pallotta 
• Working with Fractions by David A. Adler 
• Hamster Champs (MathStart 3) by Stuart J. Murphy 
• Young Mathematicians at Work: Constructing Fractions, Decimals, and Percents by Catherine          Twomey Fosnot, Maarten Dolk
• The Greedy Triangle (Scholastic Bookshelf) by Marilyn Burns

Fifth Grade:

• Young Mathematicians at Work: Constructing Fractions, Decimals, and Percents by Catherine Twomey Fosnot, Maarten Dolk 
• The Lion’s Share by Matthew McElligott 
• Polar Bear Math: Learning About Fractions from Klondike and Snow by Ann Whitehead Nagda, Cindy Bicke