Thank you to Mr. Cruz and all the parent volunteers who made this year’s Turkey Trot such a wonderful experience for all! Thank you to all the parents who came out to our PTO meeting this month to learn about student assessment and ways to support our students at home from our instructional coach, Ms. Polley. The home/school connection is so important in supporting our students’ growth!
During the month of November, the Hatch Student Council sponsored an activity in keeping with this year's #DoSomething theme and sponsored today’s spirit day. This week each class had students write notes to friends, staff members, and former teachers to say "Thank You" for something meaningful, and then delivered the notes to friends’ lockers or teachers’ mailboxes. There was a lot of excitement from the kids as they delivered their notes to their friends' lockers, or handed their notes to teachers! Please feel free to extend our celebration to your home by writing and delivering kind notes as a family.
Book Fair is here! The book fair will be open on Tuesday (3 - 6 PM), Wednesday (2:30 - 8PM) and Thursday (3 - 8 PM) in the Hatch Auditorium. Please swing by to check out some great new releases that make fantastic holiday gifts. On Wednesday, Mrs. Howe will be reading some great books from the book fair, so be sure to swing by anytime between 4:00 - 4:30 and again 6:30 - 7:00 PM to hear them. Even if you can't swing by, you can still support the book fair by shopping online. The order will be delivered to the school. If you want it to be a surprise for you child, be sure to have Howe listed as the homeroom teacher when you check out and Mrs. Howe will contact you when your order arrives.
Hour of Code Week is Next Week! December 3rd - 7th is a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science. The goal is for every student around the world to participate in one hour of coding. We will be completing the challenge of all the students participating in an Hour of Coding over the next few weeks during their library time. If you would like to have your student do some coding at home here is the website full of coding activities even broken down by grade levels.
5th Graders Built Lego Mindstorm Robots thanks to the Oak Park Education Foundation! During library, it took the 5th graders 2 weeks to build 10 robots and it took them 4 weeks to tackle 5 different coding challenges with the final challenge using all their coding skills to make their robot navigate through "The Road to American Independence Maze" Check it out here!
In order to ensure the safety of our students, we are asking parents who drive their children to please drive slowly and carefully when near school grounds. Please do NOT double park nor block the street nor driveways during drop off/pick up. Whenever possible, please opt to walk your student to and from school. Let’s all work together to keep our students safe!
The Winter Celebration is at the end of December. We encourage food free celebrations. However, if room parents plan to serve food as part of the classroom celebration, the food plan must be submitted to Nurse Rossi via e-mail no later than December 7th. If you have not submitted a plan by December 7th, then it is assumed that no food will be served at the celebration. The food chosen should be from the approved food list. Please let Nurse Rossi know as soon as possible what you plan to serve. Thank you so much for your patience and cooperation to ensure that we have a safe celebration for all of our children!
Sarah Mendez
Hatch School Principal
1000 N Ridgeland Ave
Oak Park, IL 60302
(708) 524-3095
PTO Reminders
- Tiger Cash: Get a jump on Holiday Shopping! Gift cards make the perfect gift for teachers, coaches, mail carriers, waste management workers and many others on your list. Tiger Cash is also an easy way to raise money for our PTO by simply buying gift cards. A portion comes back to support Hatch. Tiger Cash orders are due Friday, December 7 at 9:00 A.M. Our chair Karen will be collecting paper forms and checks on the blacktop before and after school this week. You may also send it in an envelope marked Tiger Cash with your child to turn in to their teacher. Questions? [email protected] or 815-263-6660.
- Use AmazonSmile and support Hatch. By connecting through Amazon Smile for your Amazon purchases, the Hatch PTO will receive 1.2% of your purchase as a donation. Please select William Hatch School Parent-Teacher Organization as your charity of choice on Amazon. https://smile.amazon.com/
- Save the date for the rescheduled Winter Book Fair, December 3-7. More than 55% of fair sales return to Hatch School in the form of books and supplies for classrooms and our library. In addition to all the new exciting books to browse, Ms. Howe, our wonderful Hatch School Librarian, will host two fun book readings on Wednesday, December 5. Please volunteer to run our pop-up book store and help Hatch students at check-out: http://signup.com/go/tjAgpfo
- Do you have a background in community outreach, marketing, community organization or communications? Consider applying for the D97 Committee for Community Engagement, a school board advisory committee. We strongly encourage members of our Hatch Community to apply! http://www.op97.org/news/1647049/district-97-seeking-members-for-committee-for-community-engagement
- Green Team “Textile Recycling Drive” – Starting now through Friday, December 7. Green Team is collecting used (but washed and clean) garments, towels and household linens (such as socks, pants and sheets with holes in them) for Chicago Textile Recycling. Please refer to this list of acceptable items. Help the Green Team prevent these items from going into the landfill! A collection box will be at the school entrance.
- Reminder: you can recycle old markers and mascara wands with the Hatch Student Green Team. Bins are located at the main entrance.
- Both the Student Green Team and the Babysitting chairs need parents to shadow them this year to take over the leadership roles next year. Please email [email protected] if you would like to fill any of these positions or have questions.