JANUARY 2023 NEWSLETTER
A Message from the Principal, Mrs. Ford
Happy New Year!
Winter Weather Procedure
We will be outside as long as the wind chill and/or temperature are 10 degrees or above. Please have children dress appropriately.
Students should be reminded that snowball fighting is not allowed before or after school or during recess.
Also, poor weather conditions mean that streets and sidewalks will be slippery and proper care needs to be taken whenever walking to and from school, especially with traffic congestion before and after school. For those of you who are going to start picking up your child as the weather gets worse, follow the rules to keep all children safe. This means dropping children off on the east side of the street to cut down on students in the street and no cell phones in a school zone. Please do not pick up or drop off behind the school. The parking lot can be a very unsafe place with it being difficult to see students and teachers between cars. When the weather turns colder there tends to be more traffic due to student drop off, so please plan accordingly.
Thank you!
Free and Reduced Information
We want to send a reminder to all families that it is time to pay your student fees for the 2022-2023 school year if you haven’t already done so. To check your status or to make a payment please follow the steps below.
Login to Tyler
Fees and billing will be located on the left side of the screen.
Click on fees and billing then select online payment at the bottom right corner of the screen.
*If you have multiple students, you can toggle between students by using the drop-down arrow at the top middle of your screen.
We ask that all families complete payment on their student fees as soon as possible.
District Spirit Wear
District Spirit Wear Store
While it may be too lat e to get spirit wear shipped in time for December 25th, it's always a good time to show your school and district spirit. Click the link below if you're in the market for some Sandwich Spirit Wear.
Fantastic 4th Grade
Fourth Grade was very busy before break, and we are ready to hit the ground running in January with learning many new skills and reviewing others.
In math, we wrapped up the topic on problem solving. We will continue to review that skill throughout the year, because it is such a tough skill to master. Our next topic focuses on factors, multiples, and prime and composite numbers. Students need to keep getting their “greenlight” on Reflex each day and five lessons on Dreambox each week.
Each module in reading has three texts that focus on a common theme or topic. Each text is written differently so students can learn about the topic through several lenses. We recently read about Native Americans, and our next module will take us into reading about earthquakes. The students will read and respond to both fiction and nonfiction texts to learn about the experiences of characters during earthquakes and the science behind them.
Before break, the students started learning how to support their opinions with examples and evidence using Oreo writing. You may have seen the Elf for Hire writing come home. The students really enjoyed that project, and they turned out so cute! We will continue to practice supporting their opinions while reading about earthquakes. We will start with some shorter daily practice. By the end of the month, they will be able to write an opinion piece and support it with three reasons and supporting details from their text. This is such an important skill, and we want to give them plenty of opportunities to practice it.
In social studies, we will continue researching and learning about Illinois. By the end of the unit, the students will create a presentation about our state. In science, we will continue with Mystery Science, but we are heading into Energy and Electricity.
Fabulous 5th Grade
Happy Winter, everyone!! The students and staff are settling in for the long, cold months ahead. We are continuing to work on understanding the rules and expectations of fifth grade. Students should continue to show their responsibility by turning in their best work, being kind and considerate to others, and being prepared for class with charged chromebooks and having their necessary materials here at school.
After we return, the students will take their FastBridge winter benchmark tests to show how they are progressing since the beginning of the school year. In math, students will continue to work on the fractions unit. We will continue adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators, and then move into mixed numbers and improper fractions. These can be difficult skills for many students and we will do a lot of practicing. In reading, students will work on the skills of quoting accurately from a text, understanding the story elements, comparing and contrasting elements in text, and working on figurative language. Our young writers will be writing a research paper explaining the courage exhibited by one of the heroic individuals we have been learning about. We are also working on writing R.A.C.E. responses in order to help the students expand/elaborate on their writing. The R.A.C.E. rubric involves restating the question, answering the question, citing evidence from the text, and explaining how their evidence supports their answer. In grammar, we will be working on subject-verb agreement, suffixes, and using the proper writing conventions–capitalization, punctuation, spelling and grammar. The current science unit is the Water Cycle and Earth’s Systems. This unit helps students to understand the importance of water as a natural resource. They will investigate the distribution of water, and how it cycles through all of the planet’s systems and the effect water has on human societies. The cold won’t slow us down, we have too much learning to do! Enjoy your winter break with family and friends!
Monthly Music Notes
Fourth and Fifth Grade worked hard on playing two part holiday tone chime songs. Students had to focus on their parts and use elements of teamwork to play songs together! We wrapped up the last week before break by playing Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies and Carol of the Bells. Students will begin to learn the basics of playing guitar starting in January.
The fifth grade band had their winter concert on the 11th and all of the kids did a fantastic job. Our next concert will be on Tuesday, February 28th with more details to come. After winter break we will be using Essential Elements Interactive; a practice and recording app. This app is free to all students with a band book and is accessible on computers and mobile devices.
Learning Center/Lunch Time Volunteer Help
We would love your help! Students learn in many different ways and from many different
people. We would love you to come help at Dummer. There are many different opportunities
for you to help make a difference in our students’ lives. Some areas would be a classroom
helper where the teacher may have you work with a group of students (Don’t worry, we don’t
expect you to teach), help in our Learning Center interacting with students playing games
and/or reading, recess or lunch just interacting and having fun with our students, participating in our Dummer Parent Group, or sharing a skill, talent, or occupation with our students. We have a wealth of resources right outside of our Dummer doors – YOU – and we would love it if you would like to be a part of something that makes a positive change in our students’ lives. If this is something you would like to pursue, please fill out a Sandwich CUSD #430 Volunteer packet and contact the Dummer office at (815)786-8498. We look forward to having you!
Sign up form:
Dummer Family Game Night
November 2022 Character Counts
4th Grade November Students of the Month
Front row: Abbi Farley, Bodee Harmon, Abel Hawkins and Jacob Sauter
5th Grade November Students of the Month
Front row: Tricia Harbacek, Jackson Miller, Gavin Chalfin and Joey Butz
Not Pictured: Max Labolle
Holiday Fun at Dummer
Science Guy from NIU Provided by our Dummer PPA
Staff Training for Professional Learning Communities with Jack Baldermann
January Lunch Menu
January Breakfast Menu
Important Dates
January 5 - School Resumes (Normal Day)
January 6 - Growth Mindset Presentation for 4th and 5th
January 9 - Art Club 3 p.m. 4 p.m.
January 11 - Our Character Counts Club 3 p.m.- 4 p.m.
January 11 - Dummer Parent Group Meeting 6:30 p.m.
January 12 - Art Club 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
January 13 - 11:10 Dismissal
January 13 - Progress Reports Go Home
January 16 - No School - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 17-20 - FastBridge Testing
January 17 - School Board Meeting 7:00 p.m.
January 20 - Candor Health for 5th Grade Students
Herman E. Dummer School
Email: dgoodbred@sandwich430.org
Website: www.sandwich430.org
Location: 422 S. Wells Street, Sandwich, IL, USA
Phone: 815-786-8498
Facebook: facebook.com/HermanE.Dummer