Harper Happenings
5.4-8 2020
What's Happening
Important Upcoming Dates-
- Monday, May 5: "Grey" Day during remote learning (information below)
- PTO Volunteers Needed by May 31st. WE NEED YOUR HELP. Details below under Announcements. Open Positions:
1. Book fair assistants x 3 positions
2. Enrichment 4th grade x 2 positions
3. Environmental Affairs x 1
4. Garden Committee x 1
5. Harper Hoedown assistants x 4
6. Hospitality x 2
7. Chorus x 1
- PTO General Meeting via Zoom Wednesday, May 20th: 2-245pm. Zoom details to be posted the week before the meeting in the Harper Happenings. Topics: Vote on PTO roles for 2020/2021 and Approve PTO budget for 2020/2021. Please join if you can.
Principal's Message
Hello Harper Families,
Today is May 1 which at Harper means MAY DAY BASKETS! Traditionally, we would ask students to share a small basket of flowers with friends and neighbors. The gesture is meant to spread joy, kindness, and good wishes to others.
Unfortunately, we cannot give the actual gift of a basket of flowers to neighbors this year because of social distancing and thinking of everyone’s safety. However, TODAY we encourage students to still spread joy to their neighbors by putting up a colored picture of a basket of flowers in their window. If you still want to participate, it is not too late…Here are two baskets to choose from (option 1 or option 2), color it in, and hang it up. These baskets hopefully will bring a smile to all those who pass your home!
Additionally, I was so impressed with all the students that participated in our Poem in Your Pocket Day challenge yesterday. April is national poetry month and to conclude the month everyone is encouraged to carry around a poem. I challenged students to send me a picture with their poem or send me a video reading their poem and I thoroughly loved all the emails I received. If you still want to participate, feel free to email me anytime!
To honor May Day and Poem in Your Pocket Day, here is an inspiring poem I found that I think is very fitting:
Kind hearts are the gardens,
Kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the flowers.
Kind deeds are the fruits.
Take care of your garden
And keep out the weeds,
Fill it with sunshine,
Kind words and kind deeds.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Let’s all continue to spread kindness!
Aaron
Social-Emotional Resources
- Harper Mystery Readers Library: Check out all of our mystery readers anytime you want to stay connected to your teachers.
- The next addition of Medsker's Mindfulness, a newsletter from our school social worker, Erin Medsker, is out providing you with social-emotional tips and resources. Please check out last week's focus on TAKING BREAKS: exercise breaks, mindfulness breaks, you name it. Check it out!
Staying Virtually Connected
Last week, the District hosted its 2nd webinar titled: Connecting Kids: How to Virtually Connect Kids at a Time When They Can’t Be Physically Connected. The full presentation is posted to our District YouTube channel. Here is the direct link. A few of the topics are:
Physical distance, not social distance. Keep students “social” and keep routines
Screen time information
Make it interactive
Structure the connection
Rules for use
Tools/Apps
Maintain privacy and safety
Staying virtually connected during a time when we cannot be physically connected can have a positive effect for your child’s emotional well-being. Connecting virtually can be as formal or informal as you’d like. Even a spontaneous call, chat or video can help kids feel close to one another. Please consider this information and adapt it to your families rules and comfort level.
Parent Planning Notes
District 39 Remote Learning FAQ: Informational resource HERE and it is constantly being updated.
Calendar Updates: The calendar is updated for the month of May. Monday Grey Days afford students the opportunity to work independently on assigned work. Students may focus on longer project-based activities, wrap up unfinished work from the previous week, work independently on enrichment activities, or complete service learning projects. Our K-4 students will also be provided lessons and projects for Science and Social Studies on these Grey Days. While teachers will maintain office hours on Grey Days, there will not be synchronous (live) core instructional meetings scheduled on these days. Your classroom teacher will email you the activities designed for the day.
We are continuing to work on additional plans for the end of the year including locker clean out, gathering belongings from the classroom, pick-up of medicine in the nurse’s office, and yearbook distribution. We also are working on end of the year celebrations including how to say goodbye to our fourth graders. We will keep you posted as plans are developed.
Kindergarten Parents – We have a limited number of iPads that we can send home to use. Since we have a limited amount, lending criteria will be based on need or hardship. If your child is struggling to complete electronic assignments or send/receive communications from their teacher due to a lack of device access at home, please place a request through this form.
Giving and Receiving Support in D39: Wilmette Public Schools support the academic, social-emotional and physical needs of each child through a collaborative partnership with the greater Wilmette community. Through the generosity of families, businesses and affiliate organizations, District 39 is able to provide additional support to families when they need it the most.
Announcements
- EduKits-It’s time to order your school supplies for next year! Online ordering STARTS TODAY and will end on Friday, May 15th. Don't miss out, order your 2020/2021 school supplies now by clicking here (https://www.edukitinc.com/find-your-school). All D39 school kits can be purchased in a single transaction by searching your other D39 school before checking out! Questions? Contact schoolkits@harperpto.com
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED PTO:
Open PTO positions for 2020/2021 in a snapshot below. Please consider volunteering and support the overall objective of PTO to enhance the learning experience of all students at Harper Elementary.
Thank you to all parents who have volunteered to date. We couldn’t do this without you.
Open Positions:
1. Book fair assistants x 3 positions
2. Enrichment 4th grade x 2 positions
3. Environmental Affairs x 1
4. Garden Committee x 1
5. Harper Hoedown assistants x 4
6. Hospitality x 2
7. Chorus x 1
iGNITE
http://harperpto.com/ignitetaxletter/
If you have not made a donation, it is never too late! We are still short of our goal that assures all enrichment activities are funded for our kids.
http://harperpto.com/ignite-donation/
If you have any questions or can't remember if you made a donation, please reach out to Jill Huebsch, jillhuebsch@gmail.com
Community News
- Wilmette Food Pantry is open every Tuesday 10:30-11:30 am at Trinity United Methodist Church.
- The Center for Gifted hosts summer programs. View flyers for details.
- NSSRA offers Campyardigans for Summer 2020. See flyer for details.
All announcements to be included in the Harper Happenings should be sent to Kelly Maggio via the Communication Request Form by Mondays at 9 am. If you do not receive an email response within 24hrs, please send an email to kwmaggio@gmail.com to confirm your Communication Request Form was received.
For more school information, visit the Harper PTO website.
For additional D39 community events, visit wilmette39.org