Please remember there is No School this Tuesday, March 15th for a Inservice Day. We will have school on Monday and the rest of the week.
Also, please send in your PARCC Motivational Slips. We don't have any yet and we know our students LOVE reading them. We would like them by next Friday, March 18th. We need to sort them and have them ready to go after Spring Vacation.
Please don't forget to take our 5 essentials survey. Today is our last day for taking the survey. We have 43% parents who have taken the survey. Our district looks at the results and so do the Whittier Staff. Please share how you feel about our school. The survey is focused on Whittier's educational practices and our overall school climate. Parents can access the survey from home at the following site: https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/
Have a wonderful week-end,
Leslie and David
Reading: This week we finished reading Number the Stars! The class did a great job describing the rising action, characters, and tone of the chapters in our class discussions. The class has done an amazing job participating in our class discussions. Many interesting ideas and thoughts were contributed by the students during our time reading the novel. We also worked on the tone and mood of different parts of the book. Ask your child what was their favorite part of Number the Stars.
Centers: This week we worked on proofreading example paragraphs, read an article and identified the author's purpose, practiced our typing, and finished describing the rising action of Number the Stars. While proofreading, we discussed, it is always important to remember the grammar rules we've learned as well as other important rules like proper capitalization, punctuation, and correct spelling.
Ask your child to tell you when you should and when you shouldn't use a capital letter.
Writing: This week we continued on with reading the One and Only Ivan. We have had some great discussions with this book and have had wonderful journal responses. One of the prompts we wrote about this week includes: "Imagine that you are an animal that lives in a zoo and that you can talk with other animals, just like the animals in The One and Only Ivan. What would you say?" Ask your child to show you their responses.
Math: We worked on Fractions that are greater than 1 this week. Most of the work we did was similar to the work we did with fractions less than 1 so this was helpful! We used a number line and found common denominators to compare the numbers. We also drew tape diagrams. Starting next week, we will continue working with fractions but will also practice a few other things to prepare for our PARCC tests. Ask your student if they can solve <,><, = 2 1/4 2 6/8
Social Studies: This week we continued our research on the Midwest. Groups are finishing their research and then we will begin our google presentations. Maggie shared a photo album from a vacation to Michigan and Brady shared a movie from his vacation to Michigan. On Friday we spent some time with Mrs. Spring who taught us how to ask questions for a mystery Skype. Next week we will be skyping with a class in another state and will have to figure out where they are by asking only yes or no questions. We will be using our previous research to help us! Ask your student if they are done with their research for the Midwest!
Science: Our students have finished their magnetism unit with Mrs. Darley. They will start with learning with Mr. Lukehart next week. Ask your child what they learned about Magnetism!
Miscellaneous Information
- The survey is focused on Whittier's educational practices and our overall school climate. Parents can access the survey from home at the following site: https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/
- Wonderful Whittier Families:I am in need of some gently used clothing for the Whittier health office:
- Sizes 2T, 4T, and 6T boys and girls pants
- Sizes 4, 6, and 8 boys and girls pants
Thank you for your assistance!Anne GuerrierWhittier School Nurse\ - Oak Park Education Foundation: Staszak Annual Gala on 4/16; Peter Sagal, host of NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" newsquiz, will be our host! Always looking for volunteers to help with this important event, if you or someone you know loves to plan a party -- or if you have an angle on potentially awesome auction donors -- please email opefgala@gmail.com (which will reach Gala co-chairs Kandy Shapiro and Carrie Cotter)
