Skokie Home Scoop

January 29, 2024

Dear Families:

We are looking forward to seeing the sunshine later today and this week! Everyone has been extremely flexible with the need for indoor recess across some of our cold and rainy days, but we are looking forward to getting outside on a more consistent basis!

This Friday will be our last day of Skills Cycle Two, and we will begin our third cycle on Monday. Please look for communication from your students’ advisors regarding their upcoming cycle.

Students from one of our Project Based Learning groups put together a one minute video as snapshot of Skills that was shared at last week’s board meeting. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into our Skills period!

Clubs

Climbing Club sessions for February are live on the webstore and have open spaces available.

Exploring Skokie

Spanish: 6th Grade students recently finished learning a story about a Llama trying to cross the road. They wrote and retold the story in their own words and even shared the story with a family member. Students honed their writing skills and completed a timed writing assessment to demonstrate their understanding. Since then we have started a new story about a giraffe that likes to swim. We will be completing it shortly. Students enjoyed playing the games in the classroom to demonstrate their understanding of the stories and language, and always look forward to our vocabulary review games on Blooket, Gimkit, and Textivate. Students were completely immersed in the “hacer ruido” (to make noise) activity, where each of them cheered and made noise with classroom prop instruments.

Spanish: 5th Grade students have been working hard on new vocabulary and a new story in class. It’s about a snowman that sneezes and the troubles he has, based off of the trailer for the original Frozen movie. Students have great energy when coming to class, and participate eagerly in our activities. We are hoping that they will soon be able to share this story with a family member. To have fun while learning the vocabulary for this story, students engaged with a slippery-stairs game show video where they practiced “se resbala” (slips) and “se cae” (falls down). Our fifth graders greatly enjoy our silent reading time in class (FVR) and are always eager to try reading different books. Our class library has recently expanded to include three new books about a manati, a toucan, and a spectacled bear all in their native habitats. These new titles have been very popular.

This year's dance marathon benefiting Lurie Children's Hospital will take place on Friday, March 15th from 3:30-5:30 at Washburne. If you haven't received a fundraising link from your child or his/her/their advisor yet, you can find your link here. Advisory Links

Where does the money go? Children's Miracle Network

The energetic and creative Dance Marathon Student Steering Committee has set its sights on beating our total from last year, which made us the top fundraising middle school in the country! Our total last year was $83,186.70.

Last, there will be plenty of ways to volunteer to help plan and run the dance Marathon through the PTO. That information is forthcoming. Stay tuned!

End-of-School Date Change

Note that the last day of our school year will now fall on Friday, June 14, 2024. This is due to the emergency day taken when we experienced a winter storm last week.

2024/2025 Calendar Now Available

Families may now access the calendar for the upcoming school year, also available on our District website.

Single-Subject and Grade Level Acceleration

The Accelerated Placement Act requires Illinois public school districts to adopt and implement policies on acceleration that provide opportunities for single subject and grade level acceleration. To learn more about District 36’s acceleration policy implementation, click here to view an infographic and click here to visit our updated webpage. Note that the acceleration request form will be open February 26-March 22. If you have questions about the policy, please contact the Asst Supt of Innovation, Teaching and Learning, Dr. Becky Mathison, at beckymathison@winnetka36.org.

You’re Invited to the Winnetka Public Schools Foundation Carlson Event

January 30, 2024

6:30-8:30 P.M.

Location: Skokie School

Join WPSF at their free annual event to learn about findings from the literacy pilot and to see a showcase of recently funded grants in D36. Teachers will be participating in a panel discussion on reading education. Don't miss this opportunity to learn firsthand from faculty and district leaders and to see #grantsinaction. If you plan to attend, please RSVP via this link.

Winnetka Parents Institute

The District offers regular sessions for families to learn more about a variety of topics.

Click here for the Winter/Spring 2024 schedule.

Videos of the Fall 2023 sessions are available here:

Online Pre-Registration for Incoming Kindergarteners & New Students for the 2024/2025 School Year has begun.

Registration for incoming kindergarteners and students new to The Winnetka Public Schools in 2024/2025 is now open. Children who will be five-years-old on or before September 1, 2024, are eligible to enroll. Questions related to School Admissions and age requirements are addressed in School Board Policy 7:50 School Admissions and student Transfers to and from Non-District Schools.

Please note: There are two steps to completing new student registration.

Step 1: Complete the online pre-registration form; Step 2: Visit the District Office (1235 Oak Street) to provide the following:

Proof of residency. Click here to view the list of documents that will meet these requirements. For your convenience residency documents may be uploaded during online registration.
Original or certified copy of your child(ren)'s birth certificate and a parent photo ID.

Completing both steps (online and in-person) is required for your child(ren) to be enrolled as new students. Click here to begin the online segment.

2023/2024 Calendar

To view the calendar for the 2023/2024 school year, please click here.

Follow us on Social Media!

Please follow the District via the following social media platforms in order to see day-to-day happenings and more.

Facebook and Twitter: @Winnetka36

Instagram: @WinnetkaPublicSchools

Sincerely,

Michelle Cooney and Larry Joynt

Principal and Assistant Principal

The Skokie School