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Greetings Skokie Community,
As you know, one of our primary goals this year is to support our school community's social and emotional selves. The first step in doing this is to ensure students feel safe and welcomed here at school. As I returned from my leave yesterday and greeted the students as they entered and exited the building, I was overwhelmed by the wide smiles, warm "welcome backs," and genuine questions about my well-being the students extended. Your children made me feel at home; I am incredibly grateful to work in such a wonderful school community.
After greeting the students this morning, I had the pleasure of joining one of our fifth grade classes during their SEL lesson. The students watched a video that taught them about why we lose control of our emotions sometimes. (Please take a moment to watch the video by clicking this link
if you are interested!) The concepts presented in the video provide students with an understanding of how the brain works and language to describe how human emotions are impacted. Mr. Joynt highlights some of this language in his AP Corner below.
After watching the video, the students were asked to think of examples from their own lives when they lost control of their emotions and went into "flight, fight, or freeze" mode. Students shared a myriad of examples, from encountering a wolf in the wild to losing it with their younger siblings at home when trying to get them to take a both (I could relate as a mom of two toddlers!). I was impressed by how quickly and easily the students were able to connect what they learned in the video to their own lives. They also compared what they learned about the brain to the Zones of Regulation they had been introduced to in previous weeks.
On another note, please make sure you have taken the time to sign up for a Fall conference with your child's teacher. Links to the conference sign ups are below or you may have an email from your child's teacher that contains the link. Our staff looks forward to connecting with you in the coming weeks to celebrate your child's start to the year, identify areas for continued growth, and answer your questions.
Warm regards,
Betty Weir
Graf
Gehrig
Agouridis/Lambros
Cell Phones
Please remind your kids about keeping their cell phones in their backpacks while they're inside the school. They can use them before or after school, but they should not be seen inside the building. Our staff is continuing to be diligent about this and we appreciate your support.
Crosswalk Safety
With the delightful weather, many of our students are biking to school. Please review bike safety with your child.
- Always use a crosswalk
- Wait for the crossing guard to signal you to cross
- Do not walk diagonally through the intersection
- Walk you bike or any non-motorized device in the crosswalk.
Grand Foods Receipts
Collecting Grand receipts is an easy and no-cost way for you to support the Skokie-Washburne PTO (so ultimately our schools!) and also support The Grand, a fabulous local grocery store. It is simple, too. Just collect and drop off your Grand receipts in the colorfully wrapped boxes labeled "Grand receipts" located in the front foyer of Skokie School. In fact, your 5th or 6th grader can easily get involved in the process and drop off the receipts themselves. The Grand generously donates 3% of the pre-tax amount to the PTO on each receipt collected from their Winnetka or Glencoe stores. Don't forget to bring in the Grand Food Center receipts that you saved over the summer.
iPad Chargers
This year we are giving families the option for 5th Graders to take a charger home to charge their school iPad. In the past we gave 5th graders iPad chargers for home use with the added responsibility that they had to turn in that charger at the end of 8th Grade or if they left the district. If they did not turn in the charger and cord, the family was charged a $20 fee.
At Skokie School students have access to a cart to charge their iPad at school. At Washburne students are solely responsible for charging their iPad at home each night.
We understand that families may have chargers available for charging all the devices in their household. This is a reason why we are giving you the option to take a charger home with the same responsibilities as before.
A 5th Grade family can request and receive a charger from school with the understanding that at the end of 8th Grade or if they leave the district, they are turning the charger back in to the school district or being charged a $20 fee.
If a 5th Grade family does not request a charger via this form they are still responsible for charging their iPad at home, but they will not be responsible for turning a charger in at the end of their 8th grade year or leave the district.
If you have any questions please contact Maureen Miller (Director of Technology) or Matt Boyer (Technology Integration Specialist at Skokie School).
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @skokie36
Memory Books
Please use
this link
to order a Memory Book for this school year! There is a promotional cost of $20 until October 4th, after which the cost will be $25. There is an additional cost for personalized icons and all ordering is done online.
Bullying Prevention Month
October is Bullying Prevention Month, so if you could just reiterate at home that we should be kind to each other and let your kids know that there is a bullying form available online and on paper if students want to talk to one of our social workers,
Mrs. Weir, or Mr. Joynt about feeling bullied. Thank you for your support in preventing bullying and promoting kindness.
Skokie Families,
This year, Skokie is again collecting tabs for the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) near Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. Ronald McDonald House's mission "...is to care for families of children with complex medical needs by providing comfort, compassion and a sense of community... by keeping families of hospitalized children together in a 'home away from home'." For more information, visit http://rmhccni.org/about-us/mission/.
Why tabs? United Scrap Metal, a local recycling company picks them up from RMH. They recycle the metal and then pay them the market value, plus a charitable match on a percentage of their profit. United Scrap Metal recycles all types of metal; however, they focus mostly on pop tabs since they are clean, compact, easy to collect and the aluminum in the tab is a higher-grade so it has a higher recycling value.
All types of tabs are accepted - from juice cans, pop cans, to cat food cans.
Last year Skokie collected over 50 pounds of tabs...it was quite amazing.
This year, we are hosting a competition between the advisories. The advisory with the most tabs, as determined by the weight, will win a prize.
Thank you for your support of this program.
Marla Goldberg
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Assistant Principal Corner
This week, we continued our second Social Emotional Learning (SEL) theme of the year about
Understanding How to Get Your Brain and Body Ready to Learn
, and I've heard and seen great conversations and activities paired with engaging videos to learn about how different parts of our brain work together.
Our two vocabulary words this week were:
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Upstairs Brain = Prefrontal Cortex: (tops of fingers):
This is the area where we can access our
positive problem solving and decision making skills, use flexible thinking, use reasoning skills, intentionally think, and focus.
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Downstairs Brain = Amygdala: (thumb/palm):
This is our emotion center.
Please ask your kids to show you a model of how this works with their hands, and how our amygdala sometimes causes us to "flip our lids".
We were able to get feedback from all the students this week during lunch about our SEL Advisory time and our school-wide assemblies, and we plan to use that feedback to help guide our planning and instruction during those times to continue to make them relevant, meaningful, and engaging to students.
Our student leadership team met Wednesday morning and voted on their name. Their name is now the Lions of Leadership! We also started working on video ideas to remind students of the expectations in common areas, and once finished, they will be shown during our morning announcements.
We'd love it if you would talk to your kids about what they've been doing this week in school, especially related to their thoughts about their upstairs and downstairs brain.
Thank you and have a great weekend!
Larry Joynt
Assistant Principal
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District News
Redistricting 2020
After three years of evaluating redistricting scenarios, The Winnetka Public Schools Board received a recommendation from Superintendent Kocanda at the School Board Meeting on September 24, 2019 endorsing Option 2 as the option best aligned to the Board's Redistricting 2020 Guiding Principles. The Board will make final approval of a change in attendance boundaries at the October 22, 2019 School Board meeting.
The September 24 meeting included a presentation from Cropper GIS, the District's demographer, summarizing data from a newly updated forecast model on student enrollment in the district. This updated forecast suggests a stabilizing enrollment for the district over the next ten years, and a continued imbalance amongst our three schools without a change in attendance boundaries.
Feedback from the community as well as input from the Village and Winnetka Police Department was reviewed at the meeting. Community concerns largely centered on changes in traffic patterns and the need for safety measures (signage, lighting, crossing guards) at the newly traveled intersections. The Village and Police are committed to partnering with the District in efforts to make this transition a safe one for families.
The School Board also continued discussions on "phasing-in." Phasing-in allows a subset of students to remain at their current school AFTER new boundary lines go into effect. The Board gained consensus on phasing-in the following students who reside in the redistricted zone (representing 2020-2021 grade levels):
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All 4th graders
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2nd and 3rd graders who attended D36 Kindergarten
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2nd and 3rd graders who did not attend D36 Kindergarten
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1st graders who attended D36 Kindergarten with an older sibling who attends Crow Island
Students that will not be given phase-in consideration are as follows:
Community members are invited to attend the following upcoming School Board meeting:
October 22, 2019
7:15 p.m. at Greeley School
School Board Meeting
The School Board will approve the plan for Redistricting 2020. New attendance boundaries and "phase in" accommodations will be approved at this meeting.
A Traffic/Pedestrian Request from The Winnetka Police
Working in collaboration with the Winnetka Police Department, we are addressing specific concerns regarding the traffic/pedestrian impact of the Streetscape Project in the West Elm Business District.
We strongly encourage pedestrians and bicyclists to consider alternative routes to avoid the road construction and lack of normal sidewalk accessibility at Elm Street and Chestnut Street. If traveling from the east, recommendations include detouring north or south on Green Bay Road one block to Oak Street or Spruce Street. Pedestrians and bicyclists may utilize the sidewalks on either street westbound to Birch Street, which are much clearer of any related construction concerns. Traveling from the west, recommendations include utilizing Birch Street in either direction to Oak Street or Spruce Street to avoid the construction when traveling east. The Winnetka Police Department is increasing their presence to assist with crossings of pedestrians and bicyclists at Elm Street and Chestnut Street.
Officials at the Winnetka Police Department have expressed confidence that with your cooperation during this period of inconvenience, the use of these alternative routes create the safest travel conditions possible. The Village anticipates the substantial construction of the Streetscape Project will be completed by October 18th.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month - Learn about the District's Prevention Plan
In 2015, The District piloted its Bullying Response and Prevention Plan in accordance with School Board Policy 7:180. The Plan creates processes and mechanisms for identifying, reporting, investigating, and responding to bullying behavior and school violence. To assist with identifying bullying behavior, common terminology and definitions were introduced in grades K-8 to highlight the differences between mean, rude and bullying behavior and provide consistency as students move through the District. We invite you to incorporate this vocabulary as well and continue this discussion at home.
Click here to view.
From the Alliance for Early Childhood:
From Family Action Network:
Family Action Network (FAN) is a 501(c)(3) organization that curates a high-quality speaker series each academic year. All FAN programs are free and open to the public. To view a calendar of upcoming events, visit the FAN website: https://www.familyactionnetwork.net/.
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Dates to Note
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