School Spotlight: Wayzata’s New North Woods Elementary School
At North Woods Elementary in Plymouth, kindergarten teacher Jenna Quick is responsible for getting her group of students started on the right track.
“I love kindergarten,” said Quick, a North Woods Elementary kindergarten teacher. “Kindergarten, little learners, are just such little sponges. They absorb everything and they bring such excitement and enthusiasm for school each day.”
At that age, it’s about getting the students to enjoy the idea of learning.
It certainly helps that Quick has the kids play educational games to accomplish that task.
“Our number one goal is that they fall in love with learning and have that dedication towards coming to school and feeling positive about learning here at school,” Quick said.
The hope is that everyone feels welcome, especially considering that most of the students wound up at North Woods because of district boundary changes.
Building a sense of community at North Woods Elementary
“I would honestly say from talking with students that I have not seen any students struggle with coming to North Woods,” said North Woods Principal Jenny Berg. “I think the anticipation of coming was stressful for many students, just wondering who will I sit next to at lunch, wondering who will be in my class.”
Berg says that in the two months since North Woods opened, they’ve begun to form a sense of community.
“We have a very active parent organization who I meet with monthly, and I think bridging that partnership between the district and the parent partnership has made a huge difference in people’s anxiety going down,” she said.
In the coming months and years, they’ll continue working to build that sense of community as enrollment continues to grow.
“Growth is something that I’m used to, and fluctuation is something that I’m used to,” Berg said. “And I think this community expects that it’s gonna grow, so we’ll be ready.”
North Woods will have an official dedication event on Sunday, Nov. 3 from noon to 2 p.m. People can tour the school and enjoy refreshments. A formal program will take place at 1 p.m.
