IROQUOIS WEST COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT # 10
2 nd quarter 2003-2004 NEWSLETTER
1
Keeping Children Safe From
Strangers
It is important that children be aware of how to respond to potentially threatening situations involving strangers. Most parents tell their children “Don’t talk to strangers,” but don’t know how else to protect them. The warning alone is not enough-children often don’t understand that strangers can be people who act friendly and don’t necessarily look scary or dangerous. There are a number of basic safety rules kids can follow that will increase their awareness and lessen their chance of being harmed. Share these rules with your children; 1) Children should not get into a car or go anywhere with any person unless their parents have told them specifically that it’s okay. 2) If someone follows them on foot or in a car, stay away from him or her. Don’t go near the car or get inside it. Get to a crowded, well-lit place where others can help. 3) Don’t go anywhere with a stranger. Don’t respond to anyone they don’t know well even if the person asks for directions, help to look for a “lost puppy,” or tells them that their mother or father is in trouble and that he or she will take them to their parents. 4) Kids should always use the “buddy system.” Go with a friend, never alone. 5) Always ask for permission to leave the yard or play area to go into someone’s home. Let parents know where they are; be back when they’re expected. 6) Children should not go to a friend’s house unless an adult (parent) said it is okay.
Iroquois West Elementary-
Gilman/Danforth Welcome
The first quarter was extremely busy in the elementary buildings and we hope that our students and families enjoyed the first nine weeks of school as much as the faculty and staff did. The teaching staff has been busy implementing new curriculum in the areas of phonics, writing and math. In addition, during the month of September, we celebrated Mexican Independence Day and had an assembly for our students. In October we had our Club Choice Fund Raiser and appreciate all the hard work of our parents and students. Our top sellers were Lindsey Luehrsen and Danielle Meyer. Congratulations girls!
During the month of October several of our classes went on field trips, including the PreK classes, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. The Open House at Gilman and Danforth were very well attended, as well as the phonics night for our Kindergarten parents. As busy as the beginning of the year has been, the next couple of months promise to be just as eventful.
In November Parent-Teacher conferences will take place and offer an excellent opportunity for parents to receive feedback on the academic progress of their child. It is also an opportunity for the parent and school to forge a positive relationship that ultimately will benefit the student.
On November 6 we will have our Veteran’s Day Assembly at Gilman. The Star Lab will be in the district the first week of November and will provide our students an excellent opportunity to learn about the various constellations in our galaxy. November 20 will be our Family Reading Day. Throughout the day our students will be visited by guest readers, as well as attend an assembly with a storyteller.
In December the Christmas Program will be on Monday, December 15, at the Middle School in Onarga. Additional information will be forthcoming as the date approaches. The elementary schools will also be hosting the annual Christmas Dinner. The date is tentatively set for Wednesday, December 17. The date and times of the meals for the two buildings have not been finalized and are subject to change.
Congratulations to Kim Eggemeyer and Mary Talbert, second grade teachers at Gilman Elementary, for being “Best Practice Contest” winners. Mrs. Eggemeyer and Mrs. Talbert were recognized for the creative lessons they developed related to health science education. The award was sponsored by the Iroquois-Kankakee Life Education Center.
The first quarter flew by in a flurry of activity and learning. The second nine weeks promises to be just as eventful and to provide our students with opportunities to learn, grow, experience, and laugh. If you would like to visit one of our buildings and see first hand the wonderful things that our happening in our schools, please feel free to stop by. ------Kevin Carey, Principal
Iroquois West Upper Elementary News-New Playground Pieces Installed
New playground equipment was installed over the summer at IWUES. Thanks to the efforts of last year’s fourth and fifth graders and their parents, money was raised through fruit sales. Thanks also to Mr. Sherman, the School Board, the Gilman Women’s Club, the Onarga Lions Club and the American Legion Auxilary for their financial assistance.
In June, Mr. Roland Johnson, Bill Robinson and Paul Culkin installed the equipment. It was great to return to school and have new pieces of play equipment.
Thanks to the students, teachers and the community for all their efforts on this project. The playground is a safer, fun place to play thanks to everyone working together.
Team Quest Challenge
Iroquois West is taking teams from third grade through High School to the Team Quest Challenge at Nash Middle School in Clifton. In Team Quest, students from grades 3-12 are placed on a four-person team, and compete against their respective grade levels. They are asked to cooperatively think creatively and use problem-solving strategies to answer questions on music history, vocabulary challenges, and math.
IWUES Winter Concert
The winter concert for the fourth and fifth grade will be Thursday, Dec. 4th at 7:00pm at the Middle School in Onarga. The classes, the chorus and the band will perform.
IWUES Fourth/Fifth
Grade News
The Fourth grade is currently studying the Southwest region of the United States in Social Studies. They have been learning about the different landforms that are unique to this region and about important events in the history of the Southwest. In Math, the Fourth Grade students are tackling the area of telling time. In addition to reading what time a clock reads, they are also figuring out elapsed time between given events, and totaling up the amount of time given several events. They are gearing up to begin graphing next. The students all enjoyed watching chicks hatch in Science during our Embryology unit earlier this year. While they waited for the chicks’ arrival, they learned about the function of the different parts of an egg. Since then the children have been studying Electricity and Magnetism. They have performed experiments on static electricity, and they have created complete circuits, series, and parallel circuits. They also experimented with conductors and insulators. They are currently beginning a unit on Space.
Fifth grade students at the upper Elementary have been studying about Native Americans in Social Studies. Each class concentrated on a particular region of the country and the tribes that lived there. Students researched a tribe, gathering information on them, wrote reports and created a poster about their tribe. Many students also created a model of their home, village, or some of their crafts. They enjoyed sharing their presentations with the other fifth grade classes. If you come to the Upper Elementary, please check out the front display case to see the Fifth grade students’ Five Senses Presentations. The students created these projects to share what they’d learned in a Science unit on the Senses. Nice job, Fifth Grade. Keep up the good work!
Campbell’s Soup Labels/Box Tops For Education
SAVE! SAVE! SAVE! Yes! Save those Campbell product labels and General Mills Box Tops for Education. The grade school students are collecting both. Plus, this year a new product is in the lineup-Tyson products with the AT label. These are each worth $0.24 for the school. Lists of products have been made available at registration and Open House. There are still lists available. If you send a note with your child, one will be sent home or you may call into your child’s school to request a listing.---Diane Gustafson, chairperson
IWMS News For 2 nd Quarter
This year a new class has joined the ranks in the rotation schedule for the Sixth grade. CURRENT EVENTS has proven to be a popular, interesting experience for this group. Newspapers (the daily regionals, and the local weekly), TV, or weekly magazines are our textbooks. Not only are they gaining experience in searching and reading articles for the classroom bulletin board, they are learning to write summaries of the articles, gaining computer skills in typing their articles, but also, they are experiencing speaking before a group, as they present their offerings to their class. Their most enthusiastic enterprise has been the implementing of a new bulletin board (in the West upper hall), which contains articles they have written called IWMS CURRENT EVENTS. PLEASE COME VISIT!!
Students, Parents Explore Math and Science Together-----Fifteen families met at IWMS on Tuesday, Sept. 16th to participate in the Family Math/Science Workshops. The workshops under the direction of Mary Hauk, sixth grade science teacher, and Jill Murphy, sixth grade math teacher, were started last year as a collaborative action research project for a master’s degree. The workshops are designed for sixth grade students and their parents to explore different ways that math and science are being taught in the middle school. Students are able to help their parents learn about the academics through different activities and applying their new learning strategies to solve different problems. The activities are based on family members working together, integrating the math and science curriculum. The next Family Math/Science Workshop for sixth graders and their parents will be Tuesday, Nov. 4th from 6:30-7:30pm in the IWMS library.
IWMS sixth graders traveled to Joliet to view a play at the historic Rialto Theatre and enjoyed lunch and games at Haunted Trails. The students experienced a live production of “Dreams in the Golden Century”; a fictional story of a family of Russian Jews immigrated to New York in 1903. This particular production was chosen by the sixth grade team because of the relationship to their team theme, “Dreams”. Students are also studying immigration in the early part of the 20th century in social studies classes. The following day was designated “Dream Day” and students participated in a variety of dream related activities and ended the day with a video on Martin Luther King entitled “I Have A Dream”.
On October 22, 2003, selected seventh grade students from the IWMS visited residents of the Crescent City CILA. The CILA, or Community Integrated Living Arrangement, helps people with disabilities live and function within a community, while providing needed assistance. The students were able to visit the four residents that live in the CILA and were able to ask the caretakers questions regarding the residents and the CILA. Along with visiting the residents, the students brought a painted pumpkin, a flagpole, and a festive Halloween flag. It was decided that a flag would help decorate the CILA and the flag can be changed seasonally. In November, the students will present the CILA with a Thanksgiving flag. Also, the students brought along decorated placemats that the residents could enjoy. The CILA community service project continues to be a great success at IWMS. The students work hard to obtain funding through extra-curricular raffles and also work hard on decorating placemats. Also, the project gives students the opportunity to see a difference being made in the lives of the disabled. It is the hope of the seventh grade faculty that the students will witness that small acts of kindness will reap large rewards throughout the community.
The eighth grade “A” Team Awards for September were presented by each teacher to various students for academic successes during the first month of school. The “A” Team Awards will be presented each month for a variety of academic successes to encourage students to strive for an “A”. Eighth graders conducted the annual Balloon Car Races. The following students were class winners for the distance their car traveled. Second hour: Kourtney Crist, Nina Ravens, and Cheryl Weaver. Third Hour: Kaitlyn Summers, Lyndee Johnson, Alyssa Legan, Stacy Withaft and Stacy Eden. Fifth Hour: Oscar Santoyo, Jordan Schroeder and Blake Thorne. Seventh Hour: Darren Price and Ray Ramos and Zak Trumann and Wade Redenius. After class winners were determined in Science classes, the entire eighth grade met in the gymnasium for the Grand Champions with the distance of 18 meters, 30 centimeters. The Balloon Car Races are conducted in conjunction with Math and Science curriculum on Newton’s Laws of Motion and calculations for speed and acceleration.
Middle School Library News
Wendy Sigler, the Middle School’s library Program assistant has some creative ways to help the students gain library knowledge. Treasure hunts are one way. “Sometimes we’ll have as many as 10 or 12 clues,” explains Wendy. “The kids have a great time finding them-and learn about library organization in the process.” Another way is to play ‘library jeopardy.’ The questions are in categories such as Fiction or Nonfiction, Guess That Call Number, and The Card Catalog (AKA the “Black Hole of Knowledge”). There are also other categories, as well as fun questions about different books that we have read recently. I call the card catalog ‘the black hole of knowledge’ because it makes the game a little more fun for the kids. Everyone gets to have one prize even if they didn’t win. The prizes usually are Smarties because I tell the students that I hope Smarties will make them smarter. She has also had students construct models of their ideal library out of odds and ends. One student built a library whose books could only be reached by scaling a rock-climbing wall.