The Skokie Home Scoop
January 31, 2022
Dear Skokie Community,
In collaboration with the Lions of Leadership, our student leadership group, we are excited to launch two school-wide service projects. The Lions identified several needs in and around our community, and researched potential service project ideas to support those needs. The process of narrowing down the specific projects the team felt strongly about supporting has taken a lot of time, research, and thoughtful collaboration. An important element that students felt strongly about maintaining was student choice, and therefore, they’ve decided on two service projects that students can choose to participate in. Advisories will participate in at least one of them as a class, and students and families can certainly participate in both.
One service project we will support is Connections for the Homeless and the other is Project Linus. Below is specific information about both organizations. Students will be informed of these projects in our Morning Scoop today. Both drives will run from Tuesday, February 1st until Tuesday, February 22nd, with labeled bins in our front foyer for donations.
Connections for the Homeless ( linked above) strives to prevent homelessness by providing the assistance and support that people need. Lions of Leadership developed questions that we shared with them to help make our drive more targeted to their current needs. They shared the following specific needs for us to prioritize in donating. They are always accepting both clothing and food donations, but they are in more need of food at this time. We will have separate bins for clothing and food donations.
Clothing:
Gym shoes/sneakers
New socks
New underwear
Hats and gloves
Food:
Canned meals (i.e. ravioli, beef stew, SpaghettiOs, chicken and sausage gumbo)
Soup in a cup
Canned fruit
Individually packaged snacks (bags of chips or cookies, cereal bars, fruit snacks)
Protein bars
Project Linus (linked above) provides blankets to kids in the hospital who are ill or otherwise in need to help comfort them. Once donated to Project Linus, each completed blanket gets “Made with tender loving care for Project Linus” sewn on it before being delivered to the kids.
For this project, students can bring in fabric that they have already cut at home or it can be cut at school. There will be separate bins for pre-cut and uncut fabric in the front foyer. Also, students can make the tied “security blankets” completely at home or at school. Some donation guidelines are below.
They accept blankets that are square or rectangle with each size measuring 36" or longer. Larger blankets are always preferable. Fleece is the only fabric they accept for tied blankets.
They do not accept blankets made with “bunny ears”. This type of blanket involves cutting a slit on the top of each piece of fringe and threading the fringe through it.
They also accept donations of new skeins of yarn (no wool) or quilting cotton. We will collect these as well.
Designs should be child friendly. They do not accept blankets with holiday themes, skulls, or associated with diseases (i.e. ribbons for cancer).
For directions on how to make the blankets they accept, please click here.
On behalf of our Lions of Leadership, thank you partnering with us to support these causes!
Sincerely,
Betty Weir and Larry Joynt
Skokie Principal and Assistant Principal
Conference Dates: A Message from District Administrators
Some of our teachers have heard from families who have communicated that they are unable to attend conferences on February 17 or 18. Given that there is a Zoom option, we ask that if families would like a Winter Conference, they find 20 minutes to avail themselves to Zoom in and meet with the teachers on these days. It becomes unwieldy for our staff to accommodate conferences outside of our conference days, taking time away from other instructional obligations. Our goal is to consolidate the Winter Conference to two days in order to support families attempting to coordinate multiple conferences across buildings. The Zoom option supports families who may have busy schedules or other plans on these days with having an option to connect with teachers “live.”
What to Do if you Have an Injury
We hope that you and your family are able to stay injury free over this winter. If your child does have a need for crutches and/or an ortho boot while here at school, we request a doctor’s note to provide us with guidance on the use of stairs and if weight bearing on the injured leg is permitted. It is also helpful to know how long they are to remain away from KW. We want to keep everyone safe and also support your student with the correct guidance as they heal from their injury. Thank you!
Exploring Skokie:
French
Bonjour! Since the start of the year, we have added three new routines to our weekly lessons. We are doing short written warm-ups several times a week. We learn a tongue-twister each week (Je cherche Serge, Lili lit le livre dans le lit, and Le rat rit et puis il crie). I pay the students three compliments at the end of class and they respond chorally. (Ex: Vous êtes fantastiques! Oui, je suis fantastique!) These new activities are designed to nudge production (writing and speaking) skills. Although grammar is not taught in a formal or didactic manner, these routines are subtle introductions to adjective agreement, verb conjugations, ne/pas negation and more. We are also working through a set of stories. These stories each provide physical and personality descriptions of the characters, explain what the characters like to do (play sports, sing, etc) and in what season. Please ask your children about characters they have read about: Pencilio le Crayon, Peppie la Pizza, and Pouchster le Trousseau. And, as always, our weekly songs continue to be a lively source of high-frequency language input. The songs are all available on Schoology.
Spanish
Fifth grade Spanish students worked on a new story about a very smart puppy who eats dinner quickly and the trouble he runs into because of it. We are also doing some work getting ready to start a class novel! Students enjoy tremendously playing review games such as Gimkit to go over our class material.
Sixth grade Spanish students recently made postcards about their Winter Breaks! We read some postcards aloud and the class guessed who wrote them. Below are two examples!
Students have also been learning, acting out, and reading stories using a lot of vocabulary related to exercising. This will all lead into a longer story about a dog that does a variety of exercises at home. Students love playing games such as Crocodile Dentist or the Unfair Game to review material covered in class.
Upcoming Dates:
February 11th: Valentine's Parties from 2:30-3:30pm
February 17 and 18th: No School - Conferences
District Updates
February 2022 Conferences (Grades 1 - 8)
We wanted to ensure our families are aware that February 2022 conference sessions will be offered to parents only on the two designated conference days: Thursday, February 17 & Friday, February 18. Parents may choose to be in-person or participate via Zoom. Centralizing the conferences on these two days are intended to support families who need to schedule conferences for multiple children as well as ease the burden on staff. Kindergarten conferences will be offered on February 18 and 24 or 25.
Winnetka Parents Institute
Parent Education Sessions from District Partner Family Action Network (FAN):
District 36 is a co-sponsor of the Wednesday, February 2, 2022 event, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, featuring Dan Pink (FAN ’18) and Adam Grant, Ph.D. (FAN ’14 and ’16).
Zoom registration link: www.bit.ly/PinkFANSponsor
For other upcoming events, access FAN’s website here.
In Partnership with The Alliance for Early Childhood:
Community Screening of Chasing Childhood, February 24- March 3
Virtual Screening- Attendees will receive a link to the film via email
The post-film discussion will be held on March 3rd over Zoom.
Chasing Childhood is a feature length documentary that explores a phenomenon affecting kids from a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Free play and independence have all but disappeared, supplanted by relentless perfectionism and record high anxiety and depression. What’s lost goes well beyond our idyllic conceptions of childhood past. When kids don’t play unsupervised by adults, they don’t gain critical life skills: grit, independence, and resourcefulness. Though they may appear more accomplished on paper, by the time they get to college they are often falling apart, lacking the emotional tools to navigate young adulthood.
The film explores how we got here and how we might empower our kids. Potential solutions are offered by the leaders of this movement, including former Stanford Dean and author of How to Raise an Adult, Julie Lythcott-Haims, Biological Psychologist Peter Gray and others. Learn more about the documentary at: https://www.chasingchildhooddoc.com
The Kindergarten Experience in The Winnetka Public Schools
Educators from The Winnetka Public Schools hosted an informational Zoom meeting for current pre-kindergarten families. Barry Rodgers, Director of Innovation, Teaching and Learning, Beth Carmody, Principal of Hubbard Woods School, and Katarina Jaksic highlighted the District’s approach to learning and developmental readiness for a play-based Kindergarten environment. To view, click here.
Virtual Trolley Tour on the Winnetka History Express!
February 17th 7-8:15 pm
Join Winnetka Historical Society on a virtual trolley adventure that will take you through time and space, from the Native American settlement at Indian Hill Club, through Winnetka’s historic business district, to the scenic Skokie Lagoons, and lastly to sites along Sheridan Road. Play trivia to try and win a set of Winnetka notecards or a Winnetka coloring book!
Register through the link below ($10)
http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=frubp7abb&oeidk=a07eizvhoof2aaa0395
Sponsored by North Shore Community Bank and Trust (Winnetka)