Our Spring Break Adventures

Alex and his friend Lily had fun soaking up the sun and swimming in sunny Sanibel Island, Florida.  Look at the beautiful palm trees swaying in the background.  

Anthony went to the Museum of Science and Industry over Spring Break.  WATCH OUT for big sharks!!!!

Natalie had a wonderful time visiting the Chicago Art Institute.  Here she is observing the "American Gothic" painting.   So cool!

Caroline caught a queen lady fish while visiting friends in Clearwater, Florida.  Amazing!

Caroline is enjoying some ice cream with her brothers and sister.  Mmmm....delicious!

Caroline went to a spring training game of the Boston Red Sox.  She got a ball from Dustin Pedroia. Wooohoo!

Aidan is having a blast inside a jet at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

Aidan enjoyed being on the beach with his family in Florida.  Check out that sand fort!

 Addie had a great time with her family in Clearwater, Florida.

Addie had a wonderful time at Busch Gardens.  Too fun!

 Dallas and his brother had fun on their "stay-cation" by visiting the Chicago Art Institute.

Dallas was also able to visit Soldier Field.   So fun!

JJ at the Heinz History Center's Sports Museum (Pittsburgh is a HUGE sports town)

JJ riding the Duquesne Incline (a 137-year-old cable car with incredible views of downtown Pittsburgh)

George fishing in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with Dad & friends/neighbors.  Check out what they caught!   Yikes!

Brady celebrated Grandma's birthday and got to meet Auntie Patty's new dog, "Buddy."  Look how adorable!

On his birthday, Emilio was able to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children.  What a generous thing to do!

Emilio and his sister had a wonderful time at Orbit Skate Center.   Check out his moves!

 Mia enjoyed visiting the American Girl Doll Store in downtown Chicago.  Mia's always the ballerina!

Check out Mia about to jump off the diving board at Olympic pool!   Way to go!

Kay and her family had a spectacular time visiting beautiful Can Cun, Mexico! She's having fun sipping a cool drink and playing life size Jenga!  Check out the crystal blue water in the background.

Zachary & his brother Liam doing slot car racing.   What a blast!

Zachary indoor go carting. He even climbed a rock wall. Pretty fun day! 

Mrs. Hynek's daughter Alyssa having fun at the Bulls Game!

The Hynek family had a wonderful day playing at the new Dave and Busters.   (Pictured is Mrs. Hynek's son Brayden).

The Hynek Crew had fun filled day visiting the Museum of Science and Industry with Grandma and Grandpa Meli.   They were in town visiting from Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Classroom Snapshot of Events

February and March have proven to be such busy times in Room 116!   How is it possible that all these winter months have slipped away from us and we only have one more week until Spring Break?   

As a reminder, due to the make-up snow days, school will be in session this Thursday, March 20th and Friday, March 21st.  Spring Break runs from March 24-28th and we return back to school on Monday, March 31st. ISAT Testing is now officially over and we're back in the normal routine of learning this week. Wooohooo!  Here's a little snapshot  of what we've been covering in class:

Literacy:

Throughout the past month, the students have been working on the comprehension strategies of story structure, cause and effect, making inferences, sequencing of events, comparing and contrasting, and making and confirming predictions.   Moreover, during vocabulary time, we have been working on the concepts of idioms and multiple-meaning words.

This month, all students started a new novel and are having fun participating in Literature Circles.  During Lit. Circle time, each student put into a novel group suitable to their guided reading level. Independently, your child is assigned a chapter to read in their novel. Afterwards, each member of the group is assigned a particular job to perform that goes along with their reading. 

Additionally, the students have been working hard with learning how to compose an extended response question to short passages that they have read.   Moreover, we spent some time before taking our ISAT's to review various test taking strategies when given a comprehensive question.

During Grammar time, the students have been focusing on action verbs that involve present-tense, past-tense, future-tense concepts.   In addition, we have been studying irregular verbs, verbs of being, linking verbs, and verbs using contractions.   

Writing:

The students are really completing Unit 2 in our WEX Writing Program entitled "Response to Literature". At the beginning of the unit, together we read the book called Maria Isabel. Now we are taking excerpts from the book and learning how to describe and write about the character traits of the main characters. We are also having fun writing about particular moments in time that the characters have had to endure and comparing them to our own personal lives and situations. Throughout the lessons, the students continue to learn how to utilize the concepts of focus, details, and sentence mechanics to enhance their journal entries.   This week students will be writing a final piece in conclusion of our unit.

Math:

Our class recently completed Unit 6 that involved geometry.   The students learned about lines, segments, rays, parallel and intersecting lines.   Additionally, we were able to explore various concepts involving triangles, quadrangles, polygons, angles and turns, and symmetry. 

Last week we just started to dive into Unit 7 of math that focuses on multiplication and division facts and strategies and concepts.   It is important to have your student continue to review their math facts that they have been assigned to online at home in Xtramath.org.

Social Studies:

Over the past month, the students have been exploring Illinois History.   Our unit started off with students being divided into one of the following Illinois Native American groups:  Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, Late Prehistoric, and Illinois Native Americans.   Each group was then asked to take notes and record their research in an online Googledoc.   Our new LMC director, Mrs. Mika, has been helping  our class with learning how to take notes accurately, efficiently, and rephrasing in their own words.  Currently, from their notes, each student has to produce a poster of their Native American findings in an app called "Pic Collage".    Our posters will be on display to teach other classroom members about our findings.   This week, as a whole class, we continue to dive into our Illinois textbooks to learn more about the history of our state after the Native Americans were pushed out of their territories.   

A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of our parent classroom volunteers:

I would like to thank Mrs. Silvestri,  Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Murray for planning and implementing a spectacular sundae bar, art project, and game to play at our party.    We would also like to thank Mrs. Ciccone, Mrs. Freels Von Oesen, Mrs. Osterlund, and Mrs. Riley for their assistance with these room moms at the wonderful party!   Your time and energy is invaluable!   

We certainly appreciate Mr. Silvestri, Mr. Murray, and Mrs. Petrusonis  for conducting a wonderful Art Appreciation Lessons for us.  So much fun!

We would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Murray, Mr. and Mrs. Saunders, Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Silvestri, Mrs. Osterlund, Mrs. Petrusonis, and Mrs. Berg for coming in to assist with our Reader's Theater groups.

I certainly appreciate Mrs. Ciccone, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Petrusonis, Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Silvestri, and Mrs. Barnett for coming in to make copies for our class too. I know that sometimes it is a battle with that machine and we greatly appreciate your time!

I personally cannot thank Mrs. Petrusonis, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Silvestri for coming in to take inventory and organize our Science bins!   

A big thanks goes out to Mrs. Riley for posting our idiom projects outside in our hallway!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful, restful, and rejuvenating Spring Break with your families!   If you happen to be heading out of town for break, safe travels!   (Please make sure that you bring back some sun and warmth for your teacher!) :)

  

Summer U Registration Begins March 13th

Summer U Registration begins March 13th at 9:00 am!   Please click on this link for more information and registration procedures:

Summer U Registration Link

Iditarod Party Friday

In between all of our hard work with ISAT Testing, our classes have been having a blast following the Iditarod online.   The Iditarod is a dog sled race that takes place in Alaska covering over 1,000 miles, starting at the town of Anchorage and ending at the town of Nome.   To follow the race, each student has been assigned three mushers, the people who are in charge of driving the dog sleds.   Each musher is required to stop at various “checkpoint” cities throughout the race that will last about two weeks.   Everyday, the students will be keeping track of the checkpoints their mushers have reached, the place they are in that day, the miles they have traveled, and the number of miles they have to go in order to win the race.  Your child records their stats from a webpage called Iditarod.com.   Please  feel free to check it out for more information about the race.

In correlation with the Iditarod race, we have also been reading about the true story of Balto during literacy time.  This is about a dog that saved the city of Nome, Alaska from having a diphtheria outbreak in the year 1925.   Balto was able to save the people in Nome from dying of this disease by leading the pack of dogs sleds through the torrential weather to deliver medicine to all the people affected by diphtheria.

      As reward to the students for working so hard at school this week, our classes will have the opportunity to watch the movie “Balto” on Friday.   Since both classes earned a “Marble Party” for good behavior too, the teachers will be providing popcorn to eat at our event.    Please let us know if your child is allergic to popcorn or if you do not want them to eat it.   In addition, your students are welcome to bring in their own drink and additional treat tomorrow for the movie.  

It's ISAT Testing Time Next Week!

Hi Parents,

            Can you believe that it's almost March and the school year is quickly coming to an end?    March Madness brings on ISAT Testing that starts next Mon., Mar. 3rd and goes through the following Tues., Mar. 11th.

            Of course, we've been preparing the students for the "big week" all year, throughout our everyday curriculum, activities, and learning, but I was wondering if I could also get a little help from the parents in making sure that they have a successful testing week.

So, Mrs. H has compiled a few requests for both parents (and students too!):

1.   Please make sure that your student is on time for school.   All of our tests are given in the morning.  When students arrive late for school it creates undue anxiety.    I will like to try and prevent this next week so that our brains are ready to go!

2.   Please try your best to not schedule any doctor's appointments during the mornings of ISAT Test week.    If your child misses a day, they will have to make up their test another day.    It would help us if this could be prevented.

3.   Please DO NOT send your child to school if they are feeling sick.  There's no reason for us to force a test on a student if they're not feeling well.    Plus, they most likely won't perform at their best if illness gets in their way.   We can always make up the section that they have missed at a later time.

4.  Please help out by making sure that your child takes the time before leaving school to eat breakfast and also to make sure that it's a HEALTHY one!   (I told the students that sugary cereals and Pop-Tarts aren't going to make their brains function at their best. :) ).   

5.   Please be sure to pack a healthy snack for your students during test week.    We will try and eat our snack right before test time.

            In addition, I will be giving each of the students with a Wintergreen Lifesaver Peppermint to have right before they take their test.   Research shows that peppermint stimulates the brain and decreases test anxiety.   Feel free to read this article to find out more:

http://brainbasedbiz.blogspot.com/2007/03/afternoon-slump-cinnamon-mint-kickstart.html.

            Of course, if you do not want your child eating a peppermint or if they are allergic to them, please let me know before Monday! (As a side note, your student is not required to eat a peppermint if they don’t like them!)

            As always, thanks for your support in making it a successful test week for all!   We're going to do fantastic!

A Message Reminder From the Office......

• Due to snow/cold days school will be in session on Thursday, March 20th and Friday, March 21st. 
• Absent students will need to be reported to the office (847 506-6999 x7400)
• Spring Break is March 24th to March 28th

Symphony Orchestra Field Trip is Friday!

Get excited!  Our field trip to see the Symphony Orchestra is scheduled for this Friday, February 7^th.   Mr. Berger is requesting for students to wear nice, but regular school clothes for the event.  They do not have to dress up, but please try and refrain from wearing clothes with holes or frays. 

Because the performance starts at noon and we will be leaving for the event at 10:30 am, students will have the option of eating their lunch at school before we leave.    Students will then again be able to either finish their lunch or eat a snack again upon our return around 2:00 pm.   As a result, please make sure that you pack a lunch and drink for your child that also contains an additional snack.    Hot lunches and/or milk will not be an option for those that did not pre-order a sack lunch because we are not present at school when lunch is served.  

The following students pre-ordered a sack lunch that will be given to them in the morning as an option to eat from Mrs. Hynek’s and Mrs. Jensen’s classes:

Ursula J., Daniel K., Emilio R., Dallas S., and Amanda D.

It is highly suggested for these students that pre-ordered a lunch to also bring an additional snack to school upon their return to school.  

Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions.   We look forward to a fun and successful trip on Friday.   Thank you for your parental guidance.   Please feel free to visit Mr. Berger’s blog for additional information regarding the performance we’ll be seeing:

http://westgatemusic160.blogspot.com