Let it be known throughout the kingdom… Where are the days and months going? It is hard to believe that January, 2015, is winding down and February with all of its love and romance (just not at the elementary level-some experiences can wait for high school) is February, 2015 peeking around the calendar corner. After ‘a long winter’s nap’, students returned to school on January 6th, only to find themselves back at home for the next two days because of the bone-chilling temperatures. Since then, Mother Nature has been pretty calm. Winter benchmarking took place with all of our students, assessing them in the areas of math, English language arts, and mastery of the second quarter curriculum. This data provided educators and parents a snapshot of their student’s growth and improvement. Many teachers have already sent information home with report cards. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher for more information on their progress in school. It is important that we keep you informed on how your son or daughter is progressing comparing their own growth measures as well as theirs’ to peers’. The afternoon of February 6th is set aside for another round of conferences. Typically, teachers do not meet with every child’s family at this time. However, if you would like to meet with your child’s teacher, please contact them for a conference time. Positive, open, partnerships between home and school is one of the key factors in student success. There is always a standing, open invitation for a parent/teacher conference at any point in the school year. All it takes is a phone call/email to your child’s teacher to arrange for a mutually agreed time. Another important January “happening” was the St. Jude Math-a-Thon kick-off assembly. Mrs. Olivia Anderson and Mrs. Christina Leonard are the parent coordinators. Special guests, twelve year old, Ms. Hanah Friel (a cancer survivor and past patient of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital) and her sister, Ms. Autum Friel, helped us understand the wonderful things that happen at St. Jude’s and how we can help with someone’s medical expenses, quite possibly saving their life. Thank you, Mrs. Leonard, for inviting these brave girls (also known to you as sisters) to participate in this assembly. It really helped put a face on why we do the St. Jude’s Math-a-Thon. The special days in February are many. Ground Hogs’ Day leads us into the new month and hopefully, depending on whether or not Phil sees his shadow, into spring. Presidents’ Day recognizes the birthdays of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Ah, and then there’s February 14th, Valentines’ Day. Sugary candy hearts, cupids with arrows drawn, heart boxes filled with chocolates and beautifully decorated Valentine cards. A day set aside to show those we love that they hold a special place in our hearts. And if hearts and flowers aren’t your thing, there’s always the pigskin….Super Bowl Sunday is February 1st. One special “card” you will not want to receive is a speeding ticket. Our local Sandwich Police Department has asked that we give you a friendly reminder to be conscientious of your speed, not only when coming to the school, but also when leaving the parking lot returning to and traveling on Castle Street. The maximum speed limit in a school zone is 25mph. Motorists should treat all areas around a school zone with care and concern since small children are generally present. Please slow down to help us keep all children safe and avoid having to pay an expensive ticket. Happy Valentine’s Day! Miss Sherrie L. Stricklin, Principal IMPORTANT DATES – FEBRUARY 2015 February 4 February 5 February 6 February 6 February 10 February 11 February 13 February 16 February 17 February 26 February 26 Dojo Class – 2:50 – 3:50 2nd Grade Disney on Ice Field Trip Multi-Cultural Day 11:10 Dismissal - Parent/Teacher Conferences Noon – 3:00 Kindergarten – Opera House Field Trip Dojo Class – 2:50 – 3:50 11:10 Dismissal – School Improvement No School – Non Attendance Day School Board Meeting @ SMS – 7:00 p.m. Spring Picture Day 3rd Grade – Opera House Field Trip Parent Teacher Conferences Friday, February 6th, we have parent-teacher conferences scheduled from noon until 3:00. School is dismissed at 11:10. If you wish to schedule a conference please contact your student’s teacher. Our school phone number is 815-786-8811. St. Jude’s Math-a-thon The St. Jude’s kick-off assembly was held on Monday, January 12th. St. Jude treats children from all 50 states and families never receive a bill from St. Jude for any services. Our goal is to raise $1,500.00 by the end of January for this great cause. All money raised helps the children treated at St. Jude fight life threatening diseases. The students are practicing their math skills while earning money for St. Jude. Thank you for supporting this worthwhile program. Will we reach our goal????? Watch for updated information in March. Erin’s Law Erin’s Law is a state mandated legislation that requires all schools (Pre-K through 12th) to provide age-appropriate curriculum for kids on the sensitive topic of sexual abuse. The presentation will cover educating kids on safe touch, unsafe touch, safe secrets, unsafe secrets, how to get away and tell today. The goal is to teach students at any early age what to do and who to tell if they are ever in an abusive situation. Sandwich CUSD #430 has made arrangements with Safe Passage to do classroom presentations. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call the office at (815) 786-8811. The Kiwanis Club sponsors a program to provide fresh fruits or vegetables to the elementary school children in Sandwich School District. Their mission is to help establish and reinforce healthy eating patterns at an early age. They will be providing a serving of fruit or vegetable two times a month. The number of times they can offer this program per month is directly tied to how successful their fundraising efforts are. You may have seen the half-page flier about purchasing a bracelet for $2.00. It is not too late to send in money for one of these bracelets. All funds go directly to the Kiwanis for support of this program. You are welcome to send in a donation (of any amount) at any time of the year. Please clearly mark that it is for Fruit for the Room. We would like to say thank you to the Kiwanis Club for sponsoring this wonderful program. Student Placement Please know your child’s educational experience is of utmost importance to us and we take it very seriously. Over the past few years there has been an increase in parent/guardian requests for student placement. Students are placed in classes by a combination of well studied and thought out processes. Classroom placement will be based on the following criteria: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) Performance Assessments Learning Style Teacher (s) Input Academic Performance Male/Female Balance Social Balance Teacher Compatibility Students Compatibility Special Program Schedules Physical Handicaps Student Personality and Emotional needs We appreciate your understanding of this matter. Together, as a team, we can accomplish much! Lost and Found Has your student lost a coat, hat, mittens, etc.? The lost and found basket is overflowing. Please have them check our basket in the hallway outside of the Learning Center. Parents are always welcome to come in to check it out too. News from the School Nurse ….. FEBRUARY IS NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DENTAL HEALTH MONTH Remember: Brush and floss your teeth every day Eat healthy foods Choose healthy snacks and drinks Visit your dentist regularly Wear mouth guards when playing sports The State of Illinois requires all children enrolled in Kindergarten, Second and Sixth grades to have a dental exam on file with the school by May 15, 2015. Any Second or Sixth grade students not meeting this requirement will have their final report card held. Any questions, please contact your school nurse. SMILE ILLINOIS MOBILE DENTISTS The Smile Illinois Mobile Dentists will visit Prairie View on Thursday, March 12, 2015. They provide preventative exams, which are covered by most dental insurances, public aid/All Kids. Grants are available for students needing financial assistance. Parents must complete an application/permission form before they can participate in the program. Students currently in kindergarten, second, and sixth grade are required by law to turn in a current dental exam form by May 15, 2015. The Smile Illinois Mobile Dentist program meets the state’s dental exam requirement. Permission forms were sent home last week. If you do not receive one and would like your child to participate in this program, please contact the school. CAFETERIA For those parents who choose to use the regular or electronic payment plan for hot lunch or snack milk, please make sure you pay in advance on your child’s account. This way, you will avoid carrying negative balances from week to week on your student’s lunch card. If you have any questions please call the office at 815-786-8811. WINTER WEATHER Please make sure your child is properly dressed for winter weather. Our school policy is to go outside for recess any time the temperature, including wind chill, is 10 degrees or higher as stated in our handbook (page 16). Children should have a warm coat, hat, mittens/gloves, etc. so they are properly dressed for going outside. Students need to have snow pants and boots in order to go off the blacktop to play in the snow in the morning and at lunch recess. Parents will be notified if we feel their child is inappropriately dressed for the weather conditions. We are in need of some snow boots for a couple of our students. If you have a Boys’ size 1 (first grader) or Girls’ size 1 (to fit a third grader) and are willing to donate them, please call the school. INSIDE DISMISSAL FOR PARKING LOT PICK-UP During inclement weather students are sometimes released by an “inside dismissal” so they are not outside in the weather for a great length of time. This type of dismissal does add time to the entire process and means that the adults that help our students in the parking lot must be outdoors in some of the worst weather conditions for longer periods of time. You can help us speed up this process by using your car visor sign. Keep in mind this type of dismissal is used only in extreme weather circumstances and everyone’s safety, children and adults, must be taken into consideration. DROPPING OFF STUDENTS Please plan your children’s trip to school so they arrive between 7:45 – 8:00 a.m. School personnel are assigned on a daily basis to supervise students on the playground or in the gym in case of inclement weather. This supervision starts at 7:45 a.m. each day. If you are dropping your student off to school after the 2nd bell rings at 8:10 you need to come into the office with your student and sign them in. It will be marked as a tardy. Your cooperation is very much appreciated. Prairie View would like to acknowledge and congratulate the following students for having perfect attendance for the second quarter and first semester of the 2014-2015 school year. Students with perfect attendance for the second quarter are the following: Taysha Baldwin, Pryor Bode, Tyler Butler, Jonathon Carlson, Dylan Chaplin, Thomas Condon, Payton DeWitt, Phillip Ferrer, Aiden Galvan, Chloe Gyurkovics, Jackson Heilemeier, Henry LaBolle, Chance Lange, Brooklyn Marks, Jakob Mikkelson, Grace Pearson, Samantha Pfaff, Jack Phillips, Lexie Randa, Isabelle Rodriguez, Savanna Strawn, Brock Sondgeroth, Brooklyn Thomas, Candice Vece, Jackson West, Jeffrey White, Brinley Wolf, and Michael Zyskowski. Students with perfect attendance for the first semester are the following: Pryor Bode, Thomas Condon, Payton DeWitt, Phillip Ferrer, Henry LaBolle, Chance Lange, Brooklyn Marks, Jakob Mikkelson, Brock Sondgeroth, Jackson West, and Brinley Wolf. For those who may not know, PPA stands for Primary Parent Association. Membership is open to all parents and/or guardians of current Prairie View school students. Each member is entitled to attend and participate in all meetings and activities of the organization. In addition, each member is entitled to cast one vote on each issue brought before the organization and is eligible to be elected to an officer position. The objective of the PPA is to promote the welfare of children in the home, schools and community; to promote understanding, cooperation, and communication between students, parents, and school personnel; to promote active involvement in volunteer programs, fundraisers, and school-sponsored activities; and to assist the school in obtaining necessary educational equipment and materials. In December, we hosted a luncheon for the staff. Thank you to Rosati’s for their donation to the meal. Special thanks to Melissa Barbanente, Gina Carlson, Georgeann Greco, Christina Leonard and Trish Quinn for your contributions. We had a wonderful turn out for volunteers for the Staff Breakfast as well. Thank you to Gina Carlson, Georgeann Greco, Claire Guzior, Judy Kassing, Kylie Leonard, Mr. Maier, Trish Quinn, Kim Wolf, and Saranda Zulbeari for taking time out of your schedules to supervise the children of Prairie View, so our much deserved staff could enjoy a meal together. Special thanks Hanah and Autum Friel for speaking with the students during the Math-a-thon kickoff. Thank you to Olivia Anderson and Christina Leonard for your help with this great cause. The class that brought in the most Box Top for Education labels was Mrs. Johnson’s class. Mrs. VanPelt’s class total was so close that we decided to reward both classes. Congratulations and thank you for clipping! The next scheduled meeting is to be announced. News from the classrooms ………… January was a busy month with lots of assessments. It is so exciting to see how much growth the Kindergarteners have had since the beginning of the year! We are now able to sound out simple words, are becoming more confident with writing sentences, and many of us can count to 100! We will continue to focus on rhyming, word families, and number concepts. We spent the last week of January doing lots of snow-themed activities. We even had a "snowball" fight in gym class! February is Dental Health Month! A local dentist will be coming in to talk to our classes about proper dental hygiene. We will learn how to correctly brush our teeth and gums and how to floss between our teeth. We will read some "toothy tales" and also learn some new poems too. We will also be studying the country of Austria in preparation for our Multicultural Day later this month. We will learn about Austria's geography, climate, culture, music and people. Recently, Mr. Dell came to Prairie View to share pictures and information about the great Pilgrim Plantation. He also read a story called "Sarah Morton's Day". He discussed how she had to tend the fire, set the table, and tend the chickens and other animals. The children also watched a slide show on a vintage projector about Plymouth Plantation. Pictures showed how food was grown, what type of clothing was worn(petticoat, stockings, garters, skirt, waist coat, cap, pocket and apron), the different type of houses in the villages, brick oven for baking, and wax paper windows . As a kick off to our penguin unit, Mr. Dell returned to share a heartwarming story about a penguin called "A Wish for Wings That Work". Mr. Dell has been sharing his wonderful story telling skills with many generations of Sandwich children. The third graders completed their standardized tests recently in Math, Reading, and Language Arts. These online assessments, called MAP Tests, are given in August, January, and May. They are very similar in content and structure to the new Illinois PARCC test, which will be given to our third graders state-wide in March, in place of the ISAT test. In the computer lab, students have been practicing keyboarding to help prepare them for PARCC testing. They also use programs to reinforce math skills, especially multiplication. Third graders conducted water experiments in Science class during the cold snap in early January. The students set cups and containers of water outdoors in the single-digit temps to freeze. After bringing their frozen cups inside, they poured table salt on the ice to discover the effects. In another experiment, students filled containers “heaping with snow”, then predicted, or hypothesized, that the melting water would overflow the lip. Their results surprised them. They had not taken into account the multitude of air pockets between snowflakes, resulting in the snow melting in their containers to only a fraction of the original volume. COMING SOON! Our Scholastic Book Fair! Prairie View School March 2 – 6 How the Book Fair Works During the week, each child visits the Book Fair with his or her class to preview and then purchase books. A Book List that previews only a few of the extraordinary selections available will be sent home before the fair. We have books for all ages, including adults! And while you may order from the flier, plan to come to our Book Fair and experience the excitement firsthand with your child. Your family and friends are invited to come, too! Family Night will be Tuesday, March 3 from 4 to 6 p.m. Your Participation Matters . . . Your involvement enriches the lives of your children, their teachers, and your community. Please drop by our Scholastic Book Fair — your presence does make a difference. Plus, you’ll have a great time! P.S. Our Book Fair accepts credit cards! Discover, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and secured debit cards (with MasterCard or Visa logos on them) are all welcome. WE DO HAVE TO CHARGE A 6.25% TAX RATE on all purchases. Please Join Us! Monday (3/2), Wednesday (3/4), Thursday (3/5) Fair Hours (8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Tuesday (3/3) (8:00 a.m. – 3:00 and 4 - 6 p.m. for Family Night Friday (3/6) Fair Hours 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Sandwich CUSD 430 Mr. Glen Bloemker Director of Technology [email protected] “Our mission is to provide opportunities for our youth to develop educationally, emotionally, physically, and socially to the fullest extent of their ability…” Phone 815-786-2187 ext. 6 Fax 815-786-6229 720 South Wells Street Sandwich, Illinois 60548 Date: 01/21/2015 To: Parents Re: 2015-2016 Registration Season It is my pleasure to inform you that Sandwich CUSD 430 will be transitioning to a new, fully integrated online registration system. This new system can be accessed through your current Tyler Parent Portal link where you are checking grades, lunch account balances and any other fees that have been or need to be paid. Once you have signed into your Parent Portal, you will see a ‘new’ link for Online Registration as shown in the example below. Once you have accessed the new area, you will see a list of the forms to be completed. Once you begin the process, the system will continue to the various forms after each completion. There are ‘electronic’ signature boxes where you & your child will be asked to ‘check’ a box or select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. This signature is the same as if you were completing the form manually & signed the form with a pen. Beginning with this registration season, the default method of registration will be electronic or online. If you are not able or do not have the ability to use this method, you will need to contact your attendance center for a printed form to fill out or you can print the form from the District website, http://www.sandwich430.org/forms, in the 2015-16 Registration Form section. If you do not have a Parental Portal account setup, please contact your attendance center and they will be happy to assist you. You will need to provide them with a valid email address. Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me at 815-786-2187 ext. 6 or email at [email protected]. Regards, Glen Bloemker Glen Bloemker Director of Technology Sandwich CUSD #430 Grandparents Day! We are pleased to announce Our eighth annual Grandparents Day. When: Friday March 20, 2015 Kindergarten & Second Grade are 9:00 – 10:30 First & Third grades are 1:00 pm - 2:30pm Where: Prairie View School Why: To support the education of your cherished little loved one Please save the date. More details will be provided closer to the date of the event.