Words from Walsh April, 2019
Staying connected with Walsh School
Greetings from Principal Martin
Dear Parents and Guardians: WELCOME SPRING! Our children are excited to be back outside for recess and are enjoying the fresh air. Please remember to dress them appropriately, as we may still have a few cool days ahead. Take extra precautions when driving in and out of our parking lots, and remind your child not to dart across the lot when dismissing. Fresh air sometimes brings excitability and children move quickly. Keeping our children safe is our first goal, and we appreciate everyone’s cooperation.
Registration papers were due back to your teacher on March 29th. If you haven’t done so already, please return the registration forms as soon as possible. There is a $10 savings if you pay by May 17th, but we would appreciate the registration form back quickly to be able to update records in a timely fashion. If you have moved and need to change your address, you will need to prove residency again. Please contact the school office to get the necessary documents on file. If you are leaving the district, please call the office in order to fill out the proper transfer documents. Thank you.
Keep checking our school calendar to keep updated on what is happening. Make sure you mark your calendars, as our kindergarten students will perform in a musical on the 26th. There may be a few field trips in the planning stages, too.
Take a look at the St. Baldricks' article below...Walsh families were very generous this year, helping our students become aware that even the smallest amounts, and the smallest people, can help others in BIG ways. Thank you for your continued support. As always, should you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
~ Mrs. Martin
Important Dates in April
Dates to Remember
April
1-5 - Spring Break
8 - School Resumes
8 - Spikes' Super Students Assembly
8-12 - Volunteer Appreciation Week
11– PFA Meeting
12 - Spirit Day - Superhero!
15 - Bubble Assembly
16 - BOE Meeting
19- Board Holiday - No School
22 - Board Holiday - No School
26 - Kindergarten Musical
26 - Progress Reports
30 - Family Science Night
May
May 3 - Spike's Reading Program Ends
May 3 - Spirit Day-Star Wars
May 6-10 - Teacher Appreciation Week
Drop off times: no earlier than 8:40 a.m.
Please be prompt for pick-up at 3:30 p.m.
Remember to call the office by 9:00 a.m. if your child will be absent.
Office hours are 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. ~ 815-838-7858 www.d92.org
KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION
Registration is now underway for students who will be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2019. To register, please stop by the school office during regular school hours.
Please bring with you:
A. Original county-issued birth certificate
B. Current real estate tax bill, a copy of your lease, or if shared housing, fill out and notarize the 3rd Party Affidavit found in the registration packet.
C. Two forms of identification (i.e. driver’s license, utility bill, bank statement, etc.)
You will also be asked to pay a registration fee of $130.00. If you pay at the time of registration, or before May 17th, you can deduct $10 from the fee.
Registration for all current students was sent home in March. If you did not receive a packet, please call the school office. If you are moving out of the district, please send your packet back, indicating your intentions. Remember, you have all summer to return medical forms. Packets should have been returned by March 29th, so prompt return at this point is appreciated. Thank you.
ST. BALDRICK'S FOUNDATION FUNDRAISER UPDATE~
Our students were not ‘playing games' when they collected money for kids with cancer. So, to celebrate our success, students earned some time to play some real deep water 'baby shark' games with staff and members of the Lockport Police Department. (Look for pictures on our website soon.)
Thank you again for participating and helping our children help other children!
FAMILY EVENT - SCIENCE NIGHT - April 30th
P.E. News by Mr. Wallace
Hope the weather will finally break in April and we will get outside. We could all use the fresh air. We will continue to work on fitness, but hopefully outside. The seeds we started in the gym are starting to sprout, maybe we can move them outside in the garden by the end of the month. Speaking of the garden, if you see some flowers starting to sprout this spring, it is thanks to the daisies troop that worked hard and planted all the bulbs around the garden.
Kindergarten News
We are also busy as bees publishing our writing. We will continue to work on basic sentence structure-making sure to have capitals and end marks in all the right places.
Finally, we will keep putting our reading superpowers to work as we read and retell stories making sure to include all of the basic story elements in sequential order.
Have a wonderful and relaxing break!
First Grade News
Spring is finally here! It's about time that we can get out and enjoy the fresh air without our winter coats on! Now we just have to wait until all of the rain stops! There are many exciting things happening in first grade. We will continue on our academic journey through reading, writing, and math. The children have learned so much, and come so far in their reading skills in first grade, as well as in their writing and math skills. They have learned about fiction and nonfiction in reading and have learned how to write opinion, narrative and informational writing pieces. In math, they have built on their addition, subtraction, and problem-solving skills. They are being challenged even further with measurement, time and double-digit numbers. We will continue to review all of the academic areas that we have learned in first grade in preparation for second grade. First graders will be looking forward to visiting Reed School, during Step-Up-Day in May. We will also be taking an educational field trip to Brookfield Zoo in June. First grade has flown by, and your children have learned so much! As always, thank you for your continued support!
Early Childhood News
The early childhood and preschool classes continue to work extremely hard this year. During April, we will celebrate Earth Day and learn how we can take care of our planet. Our letters will be U, V, and W. We will study all sorts of ocean life with an under the sea unit. The Read It Once Again selections will be "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "From Head to Toe."
This month in math, children explore symmetry; sequence events; order numbers; compare sets; and create different combinations of 4, 5, and 6. We are preparing our afternoon students for kindergarten. Our afternoon classes will visit Safety Town in Romeoville. We will learn about 911 Usage and Pedestrian Safety. Thanks for your continued help at home! Happy springtime!
The Reading Corner by Mrs. Squires, Kindergarten Reading Specialist
Writing is a means by which children learn to express their thoughts and creativity. It helps them to organize ideas as well as become better readers. Here are some creative suggestions, courtesy of www.ReadingRockets.com to encourage and help engage your child in writing at home:
Planning a trip and leaving Fido in the care of someone else? Help your child write a list of basic instructions for taking care of the family pet. These will be useful as you plan summer vacations, too!
Write a letter or thank you note to a relative. Talk with your child about what he/she wants to say before the writing begins.
Write an online review together of a book you’ve recently read. Take a look at spaghettibookclub.org or dogobooks.com. These sites offer book reviews by kids for kids!
Find an interesting picture in a newspaper or magazine and have your child write a sentence or two to accompany it.
Start a family journal. Keep a notebook of paper on a table or counter. Encourage family members to write the date and a sentence or two about school or family events and successes throughout the week. At the end of the week, read aloud from the journal after dinner.
Create a scrapbook together with captions under the pictures.
Keep in mind that beginning writers will often use invented spelling when they begin to write independently. Stay positive and encourage this type of phonetic spelling as your child sounds out the words they want to write.
Music News by Mrs. Rutkiewicz
The kindergarten classes of Walsh School are preparing a spring musical program for Friday, April 26, 2019. Our program will feature our kindergarten students showing how much fun we have in music class! The children have been working hard and we can’t wait to see you here! It should be an enjoyable time for all! There will be two performances because of the number of kindergarten classes. The performances will be as follows:
Morning show 9:30 AM - BRUECKS, NAYLOR, FINNEN & WALSH
Afternoon show 1:30 PM – SADOWSKI, LOPEZ, TOMASEK & TYRELL
First-grade students will continue to explore musical symbols and concepts. We will also continue our adventures of Freddie the Frog and his adventures on Treble Clef Island. Freddie helps us to learn musical terminology and read rhythms!
Keep on singing!
Mrs. Rutkiewicz
News from the Media Center
The students continue to explore coding using Ozobots. During Media Center, the students explored and practiced coding using Ozobots and the Ozo app on our iPads. Students were able to test out codes they created and also complete challenges within the Ozo app. Students were challenged to solve problems using correct codes and get the Ozobot from a starting point to a finish point by inputting the correct code.
Next, we will explore more student-friendly sites to help us with research skills.
Mrs. Rusick
Art News by Mrs. Deckinga
The kindergarten students just finished their spring tulip still lifes and they're beautiful! I can hardly wait to hang them in the hall. This month, they will be learning about butterflies. We'll be looking at several books that teach us interesting butterfly facts. We'll also learn about symmetry in nature, and then we'll learn to draw a butterfly with symmetrical lines, shapes, etc. We'll be using a combination of oil pastel and paint to create our butterflies.
The first-grade students will begin the month painting large kites for the hallway. Since we recently learned the difference between abstract and figurative art, we'll be painting one side of the kite in an abstract way with simple lines, colors, etc., and the other side with figurative objects such as rainbows, suns, hearts, etc. They can let their imaginations soar!
Making Math Count by Mrs. Romeo
Students are continuing to work hard on their fluency goals. All kindergarten classes have just about completed the 100 Club challenge. Keep practicing your counting! Try counting to 200 by ones and tens. First grade is continuing to work on adding and subtracting within 20 using various strategies. They have also been challenged with story problems within 20.
Both grade levels also have the opportunity to use Dreambox. We have had a few students using the program at home but we would like to see more. Several incentives have been sent home. Keep working hard!