Words from Walsh October, 2020
Staying connected with Walsh School
Greetings from Principal Martin
Dear Parents/Guardians:
Let me begin with a hearty thank you for your attention to our safety protocols of wearing a mask, socially distancing, and hand washing. The kids are doing a great job with that at school, so you obviously did a good job preparing them for what will happen while they are here. I also have been so pleased that our students are remembering their golden tickets; it is making arrival go much smoother. However, there are some specific things we need to address for car riders, so please the article below. Thank you again for your partnership in this!
This month, our students will learn a lot about safety as we conduct fire, tornado, lockdown, and bus evacuation drills, all while socially distancing and staying safe. I am confident they will do a wonderful job, as they have made such a quick and smooth adjustment to in-person learning and our safety procedures so far! This month, our students will also have the opportunity to meet members of our local fire department. This is also a good time for you to review safety measures in your own home.
I'd like to send a reminder for our remote learners and those in-person learners who still have an hour of remote/asynchronous learning in the afternoon after they go home. This is still part of the child's 5-hour school day, so please make sure your son or daughter is completing those final tasks each day and submitting the required work.
Starting October 26th, we will celebrate Red Ribbon Week. This is a special week where the whole school participates in activities that teach us how to stay healthy and substance-free. Our kindergarten and first-grade students will also celebrate Halloween with a class party on October 30th with their teacher. Have a fun, safe and enjoyable October! ~ Mrs. Teresa Martin
Car Rider Lines and Golden Tickets...
Also, please hand the golden ticket to your child as he or she is preparing to leave the car, instead of digging it out of the backpack. We know this is not the most convenient way to start your day, but it should help our line move a little faster.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we try to make coming into the school the most efficient, as well as the safest, way possible for our staff and students.
Important Dates in October
Mark Your Calendars
6 - Bus Evacuation Drills
9 - Progress Reports
11 - Spirit Day (Favorite Team)
12 - No School - Columbus Day (Remote Planning Day for Staff)
12 - Remote Learning Supply Pick-Up 8:00am-3:00pm (Kgtn Only)
16 - School Spirit Day - Favorite Team Apparel
20 - Board of Education Meeting 7:00 pm
26-30 - Red Ribbon Week
28 - Remote Learning Supply Pick-Up 8:00am-3:00pm (1st Grade Only)
30 - Regular Attendance Day - No Early Dismissal/School Improvement Day
30 - Halloween Classroom Parties - wear your costume
Mark Your Calendars!
November 3 - Election Day - No School
November 6 - First Trimester Ends
November 9 and 10 - Picture Day
November 23 & 24 - Parent/Teacher Conferences
November 25-27 - No School/Thanksgiving
Remote Learning starts at 8:50 a.m.
Blended In-Person Learning starts at 8:50 a.m.
Remember to call the office by 9:00 a.m. if your child will be
absent, tardy, or has internet connection issues.
Office hours are 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. ~ 815-838-7858 www.d92.org
Please note: AM Early Childhood Hours are 8:30-10:30 a.m.
PM Early Childhood Hours are 11:15 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
Virtual Backpack
Welcome Back!
Golden Ticket Holders Arrive at Walsh
FirstView Bus App - Not Available Yet
Reminders from the Nurse
If your child has any food allergies that were not mentioned in their physicals or health information, please let the health office know.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, schools are required to perform hearing screenings for preschool, kindergarten, first, second and third-grade students yearly. This is not an exam, it is just a screening to see if the child needs further follow up. We will begin these in November, and parents will be notified only if their child did not pass or will be re-screened.
All kindergarten students (in-person or remote) who have not turned in their physicals yet should do so by October 15th. Please call the nurse if you are running into issues getting a doctor appointment.
Nurse Jeri and Mr. Wallace are missing their lunchtime fun, where they would reward students who brought in healthy lunches. Don't hesitate to take a picture of yourself enjoying a healthy lunch and send it to Mr. Wallace or Nurse Jeri...they would love to see it!
Click here to see great nutritional information which is posted on our website, including a link to a Smart Snack Calculator.
RED RIBBON WEEK October 26-30
RED RIBBON WEEK
Red Ribbon Week is dedicated to remembering to be healthy and to remain smoke and drug free. At Walsh School, we emphasize being healthy to ourselves, our environment, and to others. A list of scheduled events for the week of October 26-30 is posted on our website and our calendar. Please support your child as we emphasize healthy living.
Fire Prevention Week
October is fire prevention month and our students are learning about fire safety, first responders, and how to cook safely. The Lockport Fire Department has offered a virtual lesson for our students, and shared a special surprise...three fire house tasty recipes! Each of the videos has step-by-step, kid friendly directions on how to make: sloppy joes, strawberry sundae shortcake, and bananas foster french toast. Yum! Check out the links below to see "what's cooking" at Walsh and at the firehouse!
Fire prevention presentation:
“Cooking With Kids” videos
Episode 1: https://youtu.be/0cNm-XFtXeo
Episode 2: https://youtu.be/tseY2fzWP9c
Episode 3: https://youtu.be/B5H7GaDCoJU
P.E. News by Mr. Wallace
Kindergarten News
Welcome to our students and families! We are off to a wonderful start to our school year, with the honor of being the first class of kindergartners in District 92 to begin the year with full remote learning! As some students make the transition to in person learning, we are getting to know our teachers, our classroom, our staff, and our friends! Our focus has been to build a friendly, safe, learning environment!
We are excited to begin work on developing good reading habits. We will be working on concepts of print including: book handling, identifying what the role of author and illustrator are, pointing to words as we read, to name a few. We will be focusing on the letters, letter names and letter sounds. The sights words we have been learning are: a, I, zero, and one. We are learning how to identify the beginning sounds of words, as well as name words that rhyme. We are continuing our math series Bridges with learning about numbers 0 to 5.
You can continue to support the smooth transition to in person learning by providing two healthy snacks, checking your child's take home folder daily, and making sure he/she gets enough sleep at night. These three tips will help us to sustain a successful year!
Clever ways to keep our space
Super Stars!
First Grade News
Welcome back to school! The fall season has begun, and the weather is finally starting to reflect that! It’s nice to have cooler weather. We have been busy in first grade. We have spent the last month working on what it means to be a “well rounded” reader. We have been looking at levels of books, different genres, and what interests us as readers. We have been looking at the best places to read, and what makes us good readers. We will begin our new unit on nonfiction. We have been practicing readying strategies that we will use during our reading groups, and will be ready to start them at the beginning of this month. Please remember to have your child read nightly to you as it is essential to their learning this year!
In math, we will be working on sensible strategies for adding and subtracting single-digit numbers using math manipulatives. We will be learning about fact families and story problems.
We will be learning about fall and doing activities based on the season. Even though we cannot have a parade for Halloween this year, we will still be doing Halloween themed activities in our first grade classrooms. We will be continuing our Social Emotional Learning this month as well. We expect to have so much fun! Thank you, as always, for your continued support with your child’s education!
Our Amazing Early Childhood Friends!
Love Mask Break Time!
Early Childhood News
The month of October will bring many fun, engaging and learning opportunities for our littlest learners. We will work this month on a fall unit, farm unit and explore many seasonal activities including pumpkins, spiders and bats. The early childhood students will learn about life on the farm through our “Read It Once Again” literary selection, “The Big Red Barn”. We will be learning the sound and formation of letters D, E, and F, and will continue expanding math skills by counting to 20, and naming those number symbols. Pumpkins and leaves provide numerous opportunities for counting, sorting, patterning, graphing, and measuring during Number Corner. The students’ fine motor skills are improving as we work daily on tracing, printing, coloring, and cutting. Halloween will bring lots of fun as we learn new games and songs. Enjoy the beautiful fall season.
Music News by Mrs. Moan
What a month of music-making at Walsh! I have been having a wonderful time bringing music to your homes during August and September. Let the fun continue!
Kindergarten: We have been “Goin’ to the Farm”, and meeting all kinds of farm animals. We met ducks, chickens, sheep and cows this month. Poor Mary lost her little lamb, and the students helped her find it by singing to the lost sheep and tiptoeing quietly. Little Bo Peep also needed some Kindergarten help, and the students played a listening and finding game using maracas. We studied the book, Rosie’s Walk, by Pat Hutchins, and staged our own play! All the students enjoyed playing the role of Rosie (a chicken) and the fox (watch out!) The song “Tall and Small” taught us about high and low sounds in music. Students raised their arms to show if the sounds were high or low. We had a great time experimenting on the drums and playing animal footsteps. Ask them to demonstrate them for you! The students will be practicing a steady beat throughout October, and playing our instruments. We will also be doing some dancing!
1st Grade: The first graders are excited about instruments! We have been learning about mystery instruments, like the violin and trumpet. We also practiced some musical opposites, like high and low, and loud and quiet. We went on a Bear Hunt through the music room, and learned a new partner song called “Circle Round the Zero”. In the song, “Hickory Dickory Dock”, we practiced listening for up and down. Then, the students identified sounds going up and down on our small glockenspiel. We used our scarves in the “Syncopated Clock” and woke each other up with an alarm! In October, we will be continuing our steady beat practice and learning about music notation.
Thank you for treating your music kit with care and respect! We will continue to use these music tools and instruments throughout the year. If you have not already done so, please send your music kit back to school if you are learning in-person. Remote students will keep their kits at home.
See you soon!!