Reed School's February Newsletter
Home of the Rockets
Arrival and Dismissal
We understand that dismissal plans can change unexpectedly. If possible, could you please make changes in your child's dismissal by 11:00 of that day. You can let us know by sending a note or email or call the front office. Thank you for your help.
What's For Lunch?
Celebrating Valentine's Day
Kindness Week Theme Days
Paying It Forward
Mark Your Calendars: "Conversation with the Superintendent" on February 7th
This month, I am very excited to remind our parents and guardians about the upcoming "Conversation with the Superintendent" event on Tuesday, February 7, at Ludwig School from 6:30-8:00 p.m. All District 92 parents and guardians are invited to attend!
The purpose of the event is to share information about standards-based learning and grading, gather parent input on sexual health standards, and provide time for an open Q & A with the Superintendent. Additional details on the sexual health learning standards can be found in Dr. Arnold's January newsletter. Hope to see you there!
Second Step's February Focus: Friendship Skills
Some topics covered during the unit on Friendship skills include:
-Inviting to play
-Playing Fairly
-Making Amends
-Handling Name Calling
SEL Connection and Mind Yeti
Below please find sample Mind Yeti videos below that focus on self-awareness and self-management.
Social-Emotional Learning and Next Steps: Vision Statements
As most of you know, a few years ago, our district spent the better part of a year working collaboratively on a Strategic Plan; part of that plan focused on Social-Emotional Learning. The district created a vision statement, and subsequently, the Reed SEL Team created an SEL vision statement, which complements the district one.
District’s SEL Vision Statement: Working together, the community of District 92 will build social emotional competencies in order to develop safe and trusting relationships and a culture of acceptance and resiliency.
Reed’s SEL Vision Statement: Reed School will work collaboratively to create a community of acceptance through empathy, respect of differing viewpoints, while promoting a culture of inclusiveness and belonging.
Our Motto: They’re all our kids.
I've also added our motto since it's one that we've been using since I started here five years ago. It really ties into the Professional Learning Community philosophy, which embraces the mindset that we're all in this together for all of our students.
Emotions and Self-Awareness
As we continue to build on our CASEL competencies, here's information on how to help your child at home with self-awareness and understanding and managing emotions.
Emotional self-awareness involves identifying and understanding one’s emotions – including “big feelings” that can sometimes overwhelm us. Seven-year-olds can begin to identify complex emotions in themselves and others, and they can talk about how feelings can affect a person’s behavior. For example, they can begin to see that feeling jealous of a friend might make you act grouchy toward that friend. They can also understand that people may have more than one feeling at the same time.
Below are some tools for helping your 7 year old understand and manage his or her emotions.
Here are two ways that you can help to build your child's emotional vocabulary:
Teach "I" Statements
To help children understand the cause and effect between external experience and internal emotions, show them how to form an "I" statement: "I feel _______ (insert feeling word) when _____ (share what caused this feeling)." These statements open up the door to honest communication and creative problem solving. Here are some examples of how "I" statements can be used to reframe emotions and clearly articulate feelings.
- I feel mad when my little sister goes into my room without asking me first.
- I feel sad when you go to work and I have a babysitter.
- I feel left out when my friends have a playdate and I can't go.
- I feel peaceful when we color together and I wish we did it more often.
Introduce and Normalize Complex Emotions
Continue to build children's emotional vocabulary by introducing more complex, nuanced emotions such as frustration, loneliness, grief, jealousy, anticipation, wonder, gratitude, hope and peace. When you see them experiencing one of these emotions, share your observation: "It's been two weeks since your friend moved away. Are you feeling lonely?" Use specific words to describe your own emotions so that children see that everyone has feelings: "When I sit outside and listen to the birds, it helps me feel peaceful"; or "I felt really frustrated today when I couldn't find some papers that I needed for work." Visit the website below to see more ideas for children 2-8 years old.
https://www.pbs.org/parents/learn-grow/all-ages/emotions-self-awareness
(Taken from PBS Kids for Parents)
Calming Cube: Ways to Support SEL and Self-Management at Home
As we continue to teach our students about the CASEL5 SEL Competencies, here is an idea that you can try at home to help your child learn to work through some of the big emotions they might be feeling.
Reed School's January Students of the Month
Reed students who demonstrated responsible citizenship throughout January were celebrated in a very special way. Students selected from each classroom were recognized for their outstanding efforts. Students nominated for this prestigious honor demonstrated the 3 B's (Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be Peaceful) consistently throughout the month.
All students nominated for the monthly award were recognized and celebrated at the school. The District 92 Foundation for Educational Excellence generously funded the lawn signs for this school-wide project. Look for Student of the Month signs soon in your neighborhood!
Going on Vacation?
News from the Music Room
February is a month of celebrations in the Music Room! Second Graders will learn and Third Graders will review The President Song, in honor of President’s Day. Mrs. Riopell has lots of Valentine’s Day songs and activities up her sleeve. Students will also be singing, playing instruments and moving to some spirituals this month, in honor of Black History Month. We will also be learning about our February Composer of the Month, Louis Armstrong.
Choir Families, you should have received information about our upcoming performance at the Chicago Wolves hockey game on March 19. Please let me know if you have any questions! The ticket forms and payment are due February 10. Another upcoming performance will be our D92 Elementary Choral Festival on April 18. Mark your calendars!
Second Grade Families, mark your calendars for May 19. This will be the day of our Second Grade Musical! More information will be coming about this as it gets closer.
Physical Education News
On February 7th during PE students from the LWSRA will be coming to do a PE takeover. Please turn in your permission slips to participate. Students will be able to experience wheelchair basketball, goal ball and sit volleyball. LWSRA’s mission is to provide recreation and leisure services for individuals with physical or intellectual disabilities while promoting greater disability awareness in the community. This is a hands-on learning experience of various adaptive sports in station format during P.E. classes. This brings awareness to students and gives them the option to learn about inclusion. Then on February 28th there will be an amazing fundraising game for the school and LWSRA. It will be wheelchair basketball, D92 Staff vs LWSRA. More information will be coming home soon about that.
In January we worked on our dance unit and fitness testing. We still have many units to work on before the end of the year. Our next unit will be volleyball. The students in the past years have really enjoyed this unit. We will be working on forearm pass, set and underhand serving. We do have a week where the students play volleyball games against each other. It will be about a 3 week unit. Mid March we will be welcoming Miss Mane who is student teaching at a high school right now. Many exciting things to look forward to in the gym. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Mrs. Kolcz and Miss T
News from the Media Center
After book check out, students have been learning about Lunar New Year during their library time. My power time groups have been using their STEM skills to construct parade floats as part of their stop motion animation parade project. We have also been improving our word building and deductive reasoning skills with board games, such as Scrabble, Spill and Spell, Guess Who, and Headbands.
Welcome to my newest chess club members: Reese, Easton, Kayden, Emmett, Mia, Brennan, Jax, and Hunter!
Good luck to my math power time group, who will be competing in the 24 math tournament this week! Way to use those mental math skills!
News from the Art Room
The 3rd grade classes will be learning about German-American artist Peter Max. Max is famous for his colorful flat poster style paintings during the 60's and 70's, as well as his paintings of celebrities, presidents, and iconic images such as the Statue of Liberty. We'll be creating a painting in the style of Max, using a variety of bright colors, simple shapes, and lines.