Longfellow Weekly News: January 18th 2018
Hello Longfellow Families,
It's been a chilly week and we wanted to take a moment to review our "child care weather watch procedures". Our guidelines and recommendations are to not allow children to be outdoors for more than short periods of time (10-15 minutes) when either the air temperature or wind chill is in the single digits. We closely monitor the weather during the winter months and when it reads 9 degrees or below in either of these categories, we keep students indoors for arrival or lunch recess. The only other situation that we stay indoors for lunch recess is when there is a steady rain. As long as the temperature allows, we go outside even if there is a light drizzle or snow! Therefore it's important that your child have snow pants, boots, a warm coat, gloves, and a hat this winter. If you need support obtaining these items for your child or family, don't hesitate to reach out to me or your child's teacher so we can be of assistance.
Maggie Cahill, Asst. Principal
Supports at Longfellow School
There are a variety of supports that our students can access at Longfellow. Each week we will be highlighting one support in depth to help our community understand what it is, who it serves, and how it can be accessed. This week's featured support is:
Check In/ Check Out: Check In/ Check Out is an evidenced based intervention that supports students in showing our Bear Necessities across the school (Respect, Responsibility and Safety). The support works best for students who struggle with work completion, motivation, and/or behavioral struggles. It involves students being paired with a positive adult in the school other than their teacher. They begin the day checking in with this adult, receiving encouragement, and a goal sheet from them. Throughout their day they receive feedback across all subjects on the goal sheet. At the end of the day they check out with their adult, receive additional encouragement, and take the sheet home to be signed and returned to school. The goal of the support is to increase positive feedback and attention, further connect home and school, and establish a "pure positive" relationship with an adult at school. This support is offered to students upon teacher referral, parent referral or when students receive more than 3 behavioral referrals. The support is monitored and coordinated by our PBIS team (Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports). We have over 20 students participating in this support across all grade levels! Please let your classroom teacher know if you have any questions about this support.
Teach Us All Information Panel
On Monday, January 22nd our PTO Diversity Committee will host a screening and panel discussion from 7pm- 9:30 pm in the Longfellow Auditorium. The focus of the panel will be on two key questions: “How can Educational Equity be a PROBLEM in our diverse village?” and “How do we build capacity in our community to take action?” LeeAndra Kahn, Isaiah Makar, Marcus Croom, Terry Keleher, Nadine Naber, Angela Dolezal, Jackie Moore, and Samina Hadi-Tabassum will be our panel members and we encourage YOU to come and invite your friends to this engaging, important event! Click here to register today for your seat and for childcare. For more information e-mail [email protected].
5Essentials Survey
Please provide input by completing the Illinois 5Essentials Survey. Currently 19% of our families have completed this survey and we need 20% for our parent voice to be documented. This survey is based on the Five Essentials for School Success, an evidence-based framework developed by the University of Chicago. This framework identifies how school performance on five factors or “essentials” can lead to important student outcomes, including improved attendance and larger test score gains. Prior research has shown that schools strong on three or more of the 5Essentials were 10 times more likely to improve student learning gains than schools weak on three or more of the Essentials. Those 5Essentials are: Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Involved Families, Supportive Environment and Ambitious Instruction. These reports will be sent to schools and districts this Spring and will be included in each State School Report Card which is released by ISBE in the fall of 2018. 5Essentials Reports for our school will also then be publicly available via the Illinois 5Essentials website. Please help us get an accurate representation of our parent perspectives by completing the survey before January 31st. The survey can be accessed by visiting https://survey.5-essentials.
Student Recognition
We would like to recognize students and adults who make a difference at Longfellow School! If you would like to nominate an individual who makes a difference at our school, please fill out this form. The individual you nominate will receive a printed form with a description of their contribution to making Longfellow a great place to be. Have you observed a child making an effort to improve our school, to make a positive impact on another student, or contribute to the community? This is a great way to recognize them!!
Second Step
This week our Second Step lessons were all about coping! Our kindergartners were taught how to calm down strong feelings, our first graders were taught now to calm down anger, our second graders were taught how to manage anxious feelings, our third graders were taught how to manage disappointment, our fourth graders were taught now to avoid jumping to conclusions, and our fifth graders were taught now to resist revenge. The home links for this week are: Kindergarten, Fourth Grade, and Fifth Grade.
Math-a-thon
Every year our school partakes in the Mathathon where students practice their math skills and raise money for children at St. Jude Children's Hospital. Depending on how much money student's raise, they can also earn prizes. Consent forms/donation submission form with more information regarding prizes were sent home on Friday, December 8th. Students are able to participate online or by doing their math in funbooks. (These do not need to be returned.) Students get sponsors to donate a flat amount or pledge a certain amount per math problem they complete. All checks are made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Money is due to Ms. Bennett by January 30th (in an envelope that was connected to the consent form along with the donation submission form). If you'd like to donate by credit card, please visit our event page. The class that raises the most amount of money TOTAL by Jan. 30th will earn 10 bear necessities each. You can register your child online using the following link.
PTO Winter Carnival on Feb. 10
The PTO Winter Carnival will be on February 10th. New This Year: A Facebook page dedicated to all things Winter Carnival! It’s your one stop for Volunteer Opportunities, Pre-Sale Ticket info, Pie-in-the-Face updates, Auction and Raffle prizes, and much more!! Like our page: @LongfellowPTOWinterCarnival for the latest news. The volunteer sign-up genius link is open (http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080b4ea5ad2fa0fa7-longfellow) and ticket sale info will be coming soon! Over the break… hang on to those gift cards and unwanted holiday gifts. We can use them for prizes and the raffle! Direct any questions or donations to [email protected] or message us on the FB page.
Book Fair!
The Scholastic Book Fair will run during conference week from Monday, February 5th- Friday February 9th. If you're able to volunteer for the event please click here to sign up! If you're not able to sign up, we hope to see you there perusing the books and supporting our PTO.
Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES) Presentation
Señora Liza Lynch and Señorita Esmeralda Ojeda presented important information about the FLES instruction students receive at Longfellow at our January PTO meeting. If you weren't able to attend the meeting you can find a link to their presentation here and on the digital backpack!
Upcoming Events
Monday, Janurary 22nd: Teach Us All Panel from 7- 9:30 pm in the Auditorium
Friday, January 26th: No School- Institute Day
Tuesday, January 30th: Mathathon Donations Due
Monday, February 5th- Friday February 9th: Parent/Teacher Conferences and Book Fair
Thursday, February 8th & Friday, February 9th: Half Days, Dismissal at 11am
Saturday, February 10th: Winter Carnival
Tuesday, February 13th: Spring, Yearbook, and 5th Grade Picture Day
Thursday, February 15th: Transracial Adoption Seminar at 7 pm in the Auditorium
Monday, February 19th: No School- President's Day