Book Fair 📚

Students will be visiting the book fair by class when we return from Thanksgiving break. Please see our book fair schedule below. Families may attend the book fair on Tuesday, November 29th from 5:00-7:00pm or visit the online store at https://www.scholastic.com/bf/churchillschool153. Thank you to our PTA volunteers for coordinating this event. All purchases go towards helping our school!

Tuesday Nov. 29 (8:50am-11:15am) & (5:00pm-7:00pm)

Wednesday, Nov. 30 (12:40pm-2:40pm)

Thursday, Dec. 1 (8:50am-11:15am)

No School 🏫

There is no school for students the week of November 21st due to Parent-Teacher Conferences and the Thanksgiving holiday.

Club Announcement 📢

The last day of Session 1 clubs is Thursday, December 2nd. Session 2 club offerings will be sent out to all families on Thursday, January 5th with the Sign-up Genius link following as a separate email and in the Bulletin on Friday, January 6th.

Cold Weather Attire ❄

Students will go outdoors for breaks, PE, and recess unless there is rain, heavy snow or temperature/wind chill below 20 degrees or above 99 degrees. As the temperature drops and we begin to see more precipitation, please send your child prepared to go outside. On snowy days, snow pants, gloves and boots are required to play in the snow.

Tech Reminders 💻

• Students need a dedicated space at home to charge their laptop each night. Having a consistent location will help with creating a nightly routine and ensuring a fully charged laptop each day.
• When not in use, charging cords should remain in the student's case.

Arrival and Dismissal 🚌

Thank you, families, for working together to make arrival and dismissal a safe and happy time for everyone. We appreciate your attention to safety and your cooperation in following our procedures.

Principal's Advisory Committee 💬

Thank you to all that responded to the invite to be a part of our Churchill parent advisory committee. A separate email with an invite and agenda will be sent soon for Tuesday, Nov 29th at 6pm. The group will meet at Churchill with Zoom as an option. This group will be working with Dr. Schnoor to provide feedback and to create an action plan for (continued or new) special projects to take place this school year.

Staff Shout-Outs 🏆

Please take a moment to express your gratitude for an amazing team member at Churchill.

As you review your child's Trimester 1 report card, below are some answers to some frequently asked questions:

• Churchill uses a 4-point grading system for all assignments and assessments. This system allows us to focus on assessing essential standards and accurately reflecting a student's level of mastery of those standards.
• We do not use the traditional 100-point grading scale because it is not best practice and focuses on points accrued, not demonstrated mastery of standards and skills. Our percentages are adjusted to better reflect level of performance based on a 4-point scale. It does not indicate in any way lesser expectations of our students.
• Though our staff may assign homework, it is not issued a grade. Research tells us it has minimal (close to zero) impact on student learning and performance and is not an effective indicator of student learning. Punitive homework practices can even negatively impact student growth and performance. Common homework assignments are unfinished classwork, a special family project, reading a book, IXL, Lexia, XtraMath, etc. so students can stay current with their studies and access additional practice at their level on important skills.
• The Churchill Grading Handbook can be found at our school website. Review it here to learn more about our philosophy and practices.

Looking for more information about interpreting your child's Illinois Assessment of Readiness data? Please review the letter below and log-in to Pearson's Parent Portal. Student reports will be provided at conferences, but creating a log-in will allow you access in future years to receive score information sooner.