Hunting Ridge Hawk Happenings

December 20, 2024

Dear Hunting Ridge Families,

We wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season! May the spirit of the holidays bring you peace, joy, and happiness! December at Hunting Ridge School was filled with enthusiastic learning, warm and cozy spirit days, and lots of time to build connections and community with each other. We are looking forward to all of the wonderful opportunities that 2025 will bring to our students, staff, and community. We thank you for your partnership and support!

Happy Holidays!

Warmly,

Kate Arenberg, Principal

Alison Friedman, Assistant Principal

Kimberly Johnson, Student Services Coordinator

Spelling Bee!

Hunting Ridge held the school Spelling Bee on Wednesday, December 18, 2024! We are proud of all of our fourth and fifth grade students who won their classroom bee!

Spirit Week!

We kicked off Spirit Week on Monday, December 16, 2024 with "Dress like your Favorite Holiday Character!"

Team Building Activities!

Students in Mrs. Dunavan's fourth grade classroom worked together with various SEL and team building activities!

November "Students of the Month" - Gratitude! We are proud of all of you!

Staff Highlight: Interventionists and Multilingual Team

From: Mrs. Downs and Dr. Schlup, Reading Specialists and Ms. Kopcinska, Academic Interventionist

Reading At Home: How Parents Can Help

Children need a great deal of practice reading. Whenever someone learns something new, he or she needs to learn new techniques and then practice, practice, practice. Enclosed are some suggestions and activities that can help you accomplish reading at home.

Read aloud to your children, young and old, every day.
Alternate parents reading aloud with your children so both male and female models are given.
Read and write for authentic purposes to serve as a model to your children. (Read yourself and read often to your children.)
Encourage your children to select books by interest and not necessarily by reading level. Children who are interested in a particular topic may enjoy a book on that subject that they might otherwise consider too easy or too difficult.
Discuss books with your children.
Establish a reading time, even if it is only 10 minutes a day.
Establish one evening a week for reading (instead of television viewing.)
Encourage activities that require reading. For example, cooking (reading a recipe) or constructing a kite (reading directions).
Encourage your children in all reading efforts.

From the Multilingual Team: Ms. Bazel, Ms. Byambadorj, Ms. Cardenas, Ms. Hwang, & Ms. Sutrop

Hunting Ridge's multilingual students will be participating in the ACCESS test during the months of January and February. Please review the information below:

During the months of January and February, your child will be participating in the ACCESS 2.0 or Alternate ACCESS test for the State of Illinois as required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). These assessments measure the English language proficiency level of your child in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. All students who qualify for English language support are required to be administered this assessment regardless of whether or not they are currently receiving direct programming support or have refused services for the 2024-2025 school year.

The 30-minute kindergarten test and Alternate ACCESS test are given 1:1 and will be administered during a time that is least disruptive to your child’s schedule. Grades 1-8 will be administered the ACCESS 2.0 listening, reading, and writing assessments in groups, and the speaking assessment will be given either 1:1 or in a smaller group setting. For EL students with significant cognitive disabilities, the Alternate ACCESS for ELs is administered. In all cases, these assessments will be administered during times that are least disruptive to your child’s school schedule.

Additional information regarding the ACCESS test can be found at https://wida.wisc.edu/resources/what-access-ells. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via email at urbanskr@ccsd15.net or phone at 847-963-3136. Thank you very much for your support of this assessment which provides us with valuable data as we design instruction to help our multilingual students develop high levels of proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English.

From the PTA!

Thank you to the amazing Hunting Ridge PTA for sponsoring the December Breakfast Buddies this week! What a great way to start the day with a sweet treat and fantastic company!

Join the 2024-25 Hunting Ridge PTA!

We've got some big goals to reach, and you can help us! We're on the road to 338 members so we can match our membership count from last year. We're still at only 283 members, which puts us at about 84% of the way there. We've got so much planned for the rest of this school year, but we need YOU to make it happen. Join us and be a part of the amazing community behind Hunting Ridge Elementary School!

JOIN TODAY!

Please mark your calendar for future PTA meetings:

Thursday, January 16

Thursday, February 13

Thursday, March 13

Thursday, April 17

Thursday, May 15

These meetings will be held in the school library at 7:00 p.m. We hope to see you there!

Breakfast Buddies!

Thank you, PTA, for hosting three days of delicious donuts to share with our favorite buddies!

Breakfast Buddies!

Thank you, PTA, for hosting three days of delicious donuts to share with our favorite buddies!

Breakfast Buddies!

Thank you, PTA, for hosting three days of delicious donuts to share with our favorite buddies!

Every Day Counts! Strong Attendance at School Matters!

Good Habits Start with Daily Attendance!

Did you know? Daily attendance builds good habits for the future.
Tip: Create a family calendar to track school days and events. Aim for 9 or fewer absences for academic success!

Winter Recess Guidelines and Reminders

Cold Weather Recess Guidelines:

Please make sure that students are dressed appropriately for the weather. If you need support with winter gear, please reach out to the school office. Here is the cold weather recess plan we will follow:

If the temperature outside, together with the wind chill, is below 0°F, all students will remain inside for the entire lunch hour.
If the temperature outside, together with the wind chill, is between 0°–10°F, the preferred procedure is a rotation of 20 minutes for lunch, a 20-minute outdoor recess, and a 20-minute indoor recess. However, at the principal’s discretion, the students may be kept inside for the entire lunch hour.
If the temperature outside, together with the wind chill, is above 10°F, students will have regular outdoor recess

For more information, please review the guidelines we follow when making decisions about indoor vs. outdoor recess and inclement weather days.

e-Learning Days during Inclement Weather- What to Expect

On e-Learning Days, students and staff will transition to virtual learning from home, following their regular school schedule. Should we need to call an emergency/inclement weather day, we will notify families through email, text message, and phone calls via our Mass Notification system. The information will also be posted as a popup notification on our District and school websites, as well as on the CCSD15 mobile app. Live instruction will be provided online through a Google Meet to ensure continuity of learning. This means: