Our Spring flower sale is underway! This flyer and catalogs came home with in-school students last week, if you haven't received yours please email martaroberson@hotmail.com. Online Academy parents can pick up a physical catalog too, by stopping in to the school office.

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Please follow these steps to place your order:

* Please place your order under one code per household, to make pick up easier * all rewards go directly to benefit the school (there are no individual prizes for meeting sales goals) *

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! Our April restaurant fundraiser is ALL DAY Tuesday, April 13th (9am to 9pm) at The Chocolate Café!

The Chocolate Café has something for everyone! They serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and of course don’t forget all their chocolates and sweet treats. For every order placed 20% will be donated to the Wickliffe PTO! Please share this flyer with family & friends.

Sandwiches ~ Salads ~ Soups ~ Kids Menu ~ Specialty Drinks

Chocolate Candies ~ Truffles ~ Ice Cream ~ Cakes

We want to show the teachers and staff at Wickliffe how much we appreciate all of their hard work and support during the school year! We invite you to sign up and adopt a teacher or staff member for either a month or for the rest of the school year. Up to 3 families can sign up to adopt the same teacher/staff member. 

During the time you have adopted the teacher/staff member let them know that you are thinking about them! Send them encouraging e-mails, mail them a card, drop off a small treat at the Front Office, etc. 

You do not need to spend a lot of money adopting the teacher/staff member just let them know you and your family are thinking about them and are thankful for all of the hard work!

Sign up to adopt a teacher or staff member The teachers/staff members completed a survey about their likes, favorite candy, etc. Click here to find out more about your teacher/staff member.

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

• Please drop your items off at Kelley Swiney's porch at 3942 Newhall Rd (or order online and have the snacks delivered to Kelley's address).
• Requested items include: candy, chips, cookies, nuts, trailmix, soda, San Pellegrino flavored water, La Croix, cold brew coffee.

If you have any questions please contact Jennifer Waddell at jenniferawaddell@yahoo.com. Thank you for your support! 

Dr. Imhoff shared this message from our school nurses, on the symptoms to watch for before sending our students to school each day:

• Daily symptom checks: Please continue to conduct a daily symptom check at home for any symptoms related to COVID-19 —  fever of 100.4ºF or higher, chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore threat, new or worsened nasal congestion, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea. If your student is experiencing any of these symptoms, please keep them home, and you may call your school nurse, Janice Walsh, for advice. 

For more information, the UA school district's responsible restart webpage is here.

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: Students let their teacher know their lunch choice on the day (no ordering ahead). To view the full lunch menu, with meal descriptions and nutrition information click here. Below is this week's lunch menu:

• ONLINE ACADEMY: the meal pickup services will continue. Updated information and details will come from Ms. Evans, and on the UA Nutritional Services webpage here. 

If you have any questions, please contact our Nutritional Services department at (614) 487-5244, or by emailing ihunt@uaschools.org.

A special thank you to this year’s counseling interns, Megan Ruiz, Rebecca Meeks, and Jihyeon Choi. Both Megan and Rebecca will be graduating from The Ohio State University this spring and pursuing counseling jobs in the central Ohio area. Jihyeon will be heading home to South Korea this summer to see her husband (they were newly married over winter break) and returning this fall to continue her doctoral studies. I’d also like to acknowledge Syd Powers, a Capital University counselor education student, who has been helping out this semester before she begins her own internship in August.

If your children have been working with any of these graduate students and need additional support after Megan, Rebecca, Jihyeon, and Syd leave, please let me know.

Also, it is not too late to join Mindful Mornings or our Moving Up group, designed to ease the transition to middle school. Email Dr. Kassoy at fkassoy@uaschools.org to sign your student up for these opportunities.

According to their website, “The Autism Society of America has been improving the lives of all affected by autism for over 50 years and envisions a world where individuals and families living with autism are able to maximize their quality of life, are treated with the highest level of dignity, and live in a society in which their talents and skills are appreciated and valued” The month of April is now a time to move away from using “awareness” to using “acceptance” to foster change and inclusivity for those affected by autism.

The concept of neurodiversity was introduced in the 1990s by Judy Singer, an Australian sociologist. The idea that there are brain differences are just that: differences. Those differences appear in how the brain is “wired” and how it functions to support thinking and learning. Autism is one type of neurodiversity. 

As we continue to honor and celebrate diversity, neurodiversity is definitely embraced at Wickliffe. Although COVID temporarily paused Wolfpack, this is an amazing example of children at Wickliffe supporting one another. The Wolfpack, created by Kelsey Trausch, is a peer collaboration program in which students learn and work with their classmates who are neurodiverse during classroom activities and social opportunities with the goal of promoting acceptance of individuals of all abilities and creating lasting friendships. We eager to restart Wolfpack this fall.

Common Sense Media has shared several apps that are designed particularly for kids on the autism spectrum. I hope these resources are helpful.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/apps-for-kids-on-the-autism-spectrum

Until next week,

The Counseling Team (Felice, Rebecca, Megan, Jihyeon, and Syd)