Field Flash
November 5, 2021
Dear Field Parents and Guardians,
We hope that you've had a nice week! Thank you to the many families who have donated their extra candy for our troops and military Veterans. Our drive has now ended, and we will soon send off our donation. In addition, thank you for sending in your pictures of family veterans. We are creating displays throughout the building to showcase these special people. Please ask your child this coming week about their learning related to Veterans Day. Each grade level is engaging in age-appropriate learning and discussion. As a reminder, we are in school on Thursday, November 11th.
In other news, students received their school pictures last week. Our picture retake day is on Thursday, November 11th. If you'd like your child to have a re-take, they should bring their pictures back to school on that day. Afternoon kindergarten students who'd like a retake should come to the main office with a parent on that day at 9 a.m.
I also wanted to share a bit of information about students and music. While we typically host a holiday singing performance in December, we are not able to gather in large groups at this time, so our music team here at Field is preparing a family-style at-home sing along. I'll share more details in an upcoming Field Flash.
As a continued reminder, everyone should continue to monitor their health and stay at home if they develop any symptoms. In addition, all unvaccinated family members must remain home if a household member exhibits symptoms and/or is awaiting test results. Please know that COVID-19 symptoms vary widely, especially it seems in children. Our primary focus is to keep students safe and in-person, learning together.
Thank you for your partnership!
A few additional important reminders:
- Colder Weather: Now that the weather feels more like fall, please make sure that your child is dressing to be outdoors for the lunch/recess hour. We instruct students who bring coats or sweatshirts to wear them when we are outside. Please be sure your child is dressed for outdoor recess.
- CARES tickets: as part of our building-wise positive behavior system, students can earn CARES tickets. Each Friday, each classroom selects a winning ticket and that student comes down to the office for a small prize. As a building, we were working towards a building-wide ticket goal - students have selected the November incentive, which is "teacher switch day". If we reach our building-wide goal, our teachers will switch classes for 30 minutes on Friday, December 3rd. We are so proud of our students and their excellent respectful and responsible behavior!
I hope that you have a nice weekend!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Courtney Goodman
Principal
Dates to Remember
As a note, we have school each day until Thanksgiving week. There has been some question about November 2nd and 11th, both of which are school days.
Thursday, November 11th: Veterans Day (we are in school today!)
Thursday, November 11th: Picture Re-take Day from 9-11am (PM kindergarten retakes should come at 9am to the main office)
Friday, November 12th: End of Trimester One
Tuesday, November 16th: PTO meeting (virtual) from 7:30-8:30 pm
Thursday, November 18th: Board of Education meeting at 7:00 pm
November 22nd-26th: Thanksgiving Week - no school
Monday, November 29th: School resumes
Parents of 2nd Graders - Chromebooks
- Keep the chromebook in the protective case
- Create a charging routine at home each night
- Keep the charger in a safe spot
- Create a morning checklist (backpack, chromebook, lunch, etc) to help remember the chromebook each day.
Field's Green Team Tips
The Field School Green Team would like to encourage you to keep your pumpkins out of the landfill* this fall with 3 easy ways:
Smash & Bash 'em! ~ Saturday, November 6th, 12:30-1:30pm
Centennial Park Sled Hill
100 S Western Ave, Park Ridge
Drop ’em at Public Works ~ Saturday, November 6th, 9am-Noon
Park Ridge Public Works’ drive-thru pumpkin drop
400 Busse Highway, Park Ridge
Feed ’em to the Critters!
Just put the pumpkins in your yard to compost and let the critters snack away!
*Landfills create methane gas. It's best to keep biodegradable/compostables out of landfills.
Lunch & Recess - Updates
As this year evolves, so have our lunch & recess plans. Our primary goal during the lunch/recess hour is to keep students safe in terms of minimizing the potential for close contact while also ensuring students have the opportunity to play and enjoy their friends.
With those goals in mind, we will continue to eat lunch outside as much as possible. For the recess portion, we'll also continue to be outside as much as possible. We do use the Childcare Weather Watch system to determine when it's safe to be outside for the recess portion (once we hit the winter months).
We are adjusting our plans for indoor lunch. The primary reason we are adjusting our indoor lunch plans is to shift to having students 6 feet apart while they eat (as compared to the 3 feet we do currently indoors). With students 6 feet apart while unmasked, we will have fewer close contact situations during the school day. In order to be 6 feet apart during lunch, we will return to our picnic style lunches when indoors. We did this last year with all 5th graders, all 2nd graders, and some 3rd graders (our current 3rd graders and 4th graders), and it was a success. Essentially, students will eat in their current assigned large group spaces, as well as in some hallway areas, and students will use their towels, as they do outside, to eat picnic style, 6 feet apart from others.
We will continue to make our final lunch and recess decisions by 11:00 a.m. If you would like to know our decision, please call the main office after 11:00 a.m.
As always, children are also permitted to leave school for the lunch recess hour. Parents need to come to the main office and sign out their child(ren). Students would remain home for the full hour of lunch/recess, which runs from 11:40 until 12:35 (Wednesdays from 11:15-12:10).
Two Easy Ways to Support the PTO!
Donating made easy! There are two simple and virtually effortless ways your everyday purchases can support the Field School PTO. Please consider using both of them!
- Amazon Smile: Amazon Smile will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases. To use Amazon Smile, go to http://smile.amazon.com. Enter Eugene Field School Parent Teacher Organization in the search box, then click "start shopping"! Be sure to bookmark it, as you must use smile.amazon.com when purchasing to apply donations toward the Field PTO. Amazon Smile is now available on the Amazon app! Click here for details.
- Box Tops for Education: Download the Box Tops app to your phone for another simple way to help the Field PTO earn money on everyday purchases. Just remember to scan your receipt within 14 days for credit on items purchased! Click here for instructions.
See what’s going on in our community!
From the library to the park district, our communities of Park Ridge-Niles have lots to offer, even virtually. For information on all the latest happenings, be sure to check the Community Info & Events webpage.
Eugene Field Elementary School
Website: www.d64.org/fie
Location: 707 N Wisner St, Park Ridge, IL, United States
Phone: 847-318-4385
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fieldparkridgeniles/?fref=ts
Twitter: @fieldd64