Ideal Times
December 2013
All School Activities
Panther Pals
Historical Fiction All School Meeting
The fabulous fifth graders hosted our December All School Meeting! They taught us that historical fiction stories are made up stories, but that they often are set back in a particular place in time. Often the characters are important people in history. Also many times when reading historical fiction, we learn to connect to people of the past. The fifth graders wrote opinion essays about the historical fiction books they read and shared them with the school. We loved learning about the genre from them! Also the fourth graders shared energy vocabulary words and some motions to help us remember them. The Drama Club performed a fun holiday play that was very well done, and the Ideal Orchestra played holiday music for our enjoyment. It was a fun meeting jam backed with learning and celebration. Great job fifth graders! Our next All School Meeting is January 30th.
Grade Level News
Preschool
In the season of giving, students learned that making gifts, giving help, sharing a talent and showing love are gifts from the heart. Students made a gift for their family and shared what gift from the heart they would like to give to a loved one. Feel free to look through the online magazine at http://letsfindout.scholastic.com/issues/11_04_13 using our classroom code: ELP135 . We also had a great time at our Annual Holiday Party with Santa and a magician.
The Kindergartners Are Doing an Amazing Job With Their Letter Sounds!
Miss Larocca is mad-very mad! Each day she tries to trick the kindergartners on their Jolly Phonics letter sounds and she can’t!!! The children are practicing their sounds and actions every day at home and doing FANTASTIC!! The children are also sounding out and writing words with their sounds every day. These kindergartners are going to be super readers and writers!! Miss Larocca might be “mad,” however she is so proud of her children and so thankful to their parents for the time they are spending at home helping their children.
1st Grade: Graphing Fun!
This month 1st grade has been working with their 5th grade buddies on interpreting graphs. We took time to get to know one another better by asking each other what our favorite colors were. We then collected data on everyone’s favorite colors. After that, we put the data into a bar graph. Once all of the data was in a bar graph students got together and wrote story problems about the graphs. Look for our story problems and graph in the cafeteria. You will be able to answer our questions there! Can’t wait for everyone to see and practice math with us!
2nd Grade
During the month of December, Second Grade has been researching holiday traditions. We learned all about Christmas in the United States, Las Posadas in Mexico, Hanukkah in Israel, and Kwanzaa in Africa. We read books, watched videos, and read articles to learn new information. It was very interesting to learn about the traditions of different cultures! One tradition that all cultures take part in is giving gifts to loved ones. We participated in this by bringing in gifts for all second graders.
3rd Grade:
Third graders are S.M.A.R.T! This quarter in reading, we have been working so hard on setting realistic, measureable goals for our learning. We challenged ourselves to read 8-10 books spanning three different genres. We have been reading up a storm and have enjoyed all we have learned from these realistic fiction, fantasy, and informational text books. To celebrate reaching our goal, we snuggled up with good books in the library for a whole afternoon and got to pick a new book – thanks to the generous donation from the Ideal PTO! Way to go, third graders!
The Fourth Graders Visits the Museum of Science and Industry!
The fourth grade classes spent a day of fun and learning at the Museum of Science and Industry this month... we were able to make great connections to our learning about earth science, engineering and technology, and even reading strategies like cause and effect. Each group of students brought a camera through the museum with them and documented their learning with photos and video, which they are now compiling into presentations to share with their classmates as evidence of what they saw and did there. Our feet were tired at the end of the day, but the kids (and teachers) had a hard time deciding what were our favorite parts of the day. Three cheers for field trips!
5th Grade
In Math we are working on word problems and fractions. 5th graders will have daily math and reading practice over winter break so please be sure to allow some time for that in your busy schedules.
Lastly, 5th grade took an amazing field trip, provided by the City of Countryside and the DARE program, to the Chicago Wolves hockey game. The Wolves were victorious over the Hampton Bulldogs. The kids enjoyed the game very much and loved getting to know the officers a little better as well. A big thank you to both the City of Countryside and DARE for offering this great opportunity for our students!
Have a great winter break and remember to read 30 minutes a day and practice math for 20 minutes a day. Visit www.ixl.com to try out your math skills.
6th Grade
Over the last few weeks, the 6th graders have been learning about ancient Egypt. After the holiday break, each 6th grader will chose a topic related to the time period and will become an “expert” on the topic. They will throughly research their chosen topic and prepare an elaborate presentation to demonstrate what was learned. The students will then share their presentations with the class! This project will provide the 6th graders with an opportunity to improve their researching skills and practice strong presentation skills. We are looking forward to learning a great deal from our ancient Egyptian “experts”!
District 105 First Annual ReSale: Huge Success!
For the first time, staff members and families donated gently used items that they no longer needed and we were able to sell them at a minimal cost to other school families. It was a fabulous way to clear out items our families have outgrown to allow other families the chance to enjoy them. Thanks to all our social workers who organized this great event!
The Ideal Bulletin Board
Birthday Books
If your child would like to share the gift of reading for his/her birthday, consider buying a book for the Ideal Library in honor of your child. Click here to see the library's Amazon wishlist. You can purchase a book from this list OR bring $10.00 to Mrs. Rodkey in the LLC and she will help you pick out a perfect birthday book.
January Breakfast and Lunch Menus
See what's cooking at Ideal School. Click here for the Ideal Breakfast and Lunch Menu.
PTO Events
January 16 PTO Meeting (rescheduled) 8:45 am
January 16 Market Day Pick Up 3-3:45 pm
January 25 Flying High FUNdraiser Night 7:30 - 10:30 pm
January 29 Ideal Fun Lunch
District 105 Events
1/6 School Resumes
1/14 District 105 Foundation Board Meeting
1/16 End of 2nd Quarter
1/17 Teacher Inservice/ No School for Students
1/20 MLK Day- No School
1/24 Family Movie Night at Hodgkins
1/27 Board of Education Meeting
About Us
Email: lrodkey@d105.net
Website: www.d105.net
Location: 9901 West 58th Street, Countryside, IL
Phone: (708)482-2750