Grand Prairie January Newsletter

Happy New Year Grand Prairie!

We hope all our Grand Prairie families have a wonderful winter break creating magical memories with family and friends! We are excited to welcome all our young learners back to school on Tuesday, January 7th and can’t believe that January 17th will officially end our second quarter!

During the month of January, GP students and staff are encouraged to wear their favorite sports team apparel as we celebrate maintaining a positive attitude all month long!

A few highlights for the month of January include:

• GP social workers will administer the second and final lesson of Erin’s Law to students on January 8th and 9th. Classroom teachers will send out their specific schedules.

• Our second-grade students will participate in their first step up day to Chelsea! On Friday, January 10th second grade students will travel to Chelsea to visit their buddy classroom and begin to learn all about life at Chelsea!

• Grand Prairie first and second grade students will participate in Fast Bridge testing during the week of January 13th!!

• No School on Monday, January 20th in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

• Report cards sent home on Friday, January 24th.

As communicated in December, Grand Prairie will be updating their dismissal procedures for their car riders and walkers. The original communication follows below.

Dear Grand Prairie Families,

The safety and well-being of our students is always our top priority. The district office has been working with Grand Prairie leadership to review student dismissal procedures to improve both the safety and efficiency of all our students leaving school each day. Therefore, we are implementing important changes to our current afternoon pickup process.

Effective Tuesday, January 7, 2025, the first day of school after winter break, we will now have a new afternoon pickup routine for car riders and walkers. To ensure a smooth and safe process for all, we strongly recommend that parents remain in their cars when picking up students. If you still wish to get out of your car to get your child from the school at dismissal, you must now designate your child as a “walker.” If you are intending to designate your child as a “walker,” we kindly ask that you please contact Mrs. Cialdella the school office via email at acialdella@fsd157c.org by December 16, 2024, to change your child’s dismissal status to "walker." We ask that you park in the visitor parking lot, located off Sutton Dale Lane. Parking in the main parking lot is discouraged as it presents safety concerns when adults and children walk in front of moving buses to get to their cars in this lot. We have asked all dismissal supervisors to address parents who do not adhere to this safety protocol.

Families of walkers will be given new placards for identification purposes when picking up student(s). Upon dismissal, walkers will exit the building and be monitored by district staff behind the gates of the front playground until parents are able to pick up their children at the designated location (noted with a red X on the map). We ask that parents wait in the designated parent staging area noted on the map until all car riders have exited through the gated playground. We ask that you bring your placard to the gate so school staff can release your child to you in a timely fashion. While we strive to know all our parents, there may be instances where we will still need to verify your identity for the safety of our students.

We appreciate your cooperation and understanding as we work to create the safest possible dismissal environment. We recognize that change can be difficult, and we expect there may be some delays as we implement these new procedures. If you have any questions or need to update your child’s dismissal status, please don’t hesitate to contact the school office.

Thank you for your continued support.

Please click the link below for a quick video outlining our procedures.

https://youtu.be/DvdAmaaZBkc

Sincerely,
Kim Szudy, Principal

Nichole Reiser, Assistant Principal

LeeAnn Taylor, Ed.D., Director of Finance and Operation

Our 2nd graders are excited for their first Step Up Day visit to Chelsea on January 10th. Each 2nd grader has been assigned a special 3rd grade pen pal. The students have been exchanging letters back and forth and will continue to do so throughout the school year. During our upcoming visit to Chelsea, students will have the opportunity to meet their pen pal, visit a 3rd grade classroom, and ask some questions about 3rd grade and Chelsea School. We are all looking forward to our visit!

Happy New Year!! We had such a fun December. Our field trip to see Mrs. Claus at the Beverly Performing Arts Center was such a hit. We also had so much fun learning about Holidays Around the World and how different cultures and parts of the world celebrate their holidays. We hope you had a restful break and you're ready to start the new year!

January will start with a lot of new beginnings in First Grade. Before break we wrapped up Module 2 in Math. We will be starting the new year in Module 3 which is a measurement unit. We will be ordering and comparing length measurements as numbers. There are lots of fun topics with hands on learning. We will be comparing length measurements, learning about standard and non-standard units of measurement, and looking at data and how to interpret it.

We wrapped up "How to Writing" and are jumping into writing Non-Fiction. We are working hard at learning how to write with independence. Our first graders will be writing to teach information. They will be learning author craft moves to make their writing interesting. We will also learn the important process of researching that goes into Non-Fiction writing. We continue to focus on conventions and how to make our writing easy to read. Our writing checklist includes using capital letters at the beginning of the sentence, using finger spaces, using end punctuation, and remembering to use the words to spell high frequency words.

At the reading table, it's been so amazing seeing our learners make that shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Keep up the great work with reading at home and using those fluency bag books to stay in text. We hope that they are eager and happy to show off their skills to you at home. Thank you for your continued support! It makes ALL the difference in the world.

The week of January 13th will also bring our Winter Session of Fast Bridge Testing.

Kindergarten has been busy this year. Keep reading to find out about our latest reading, writing, and math adventures! We are looking forward to more learning after winter break!

Reading:

As readers, our kindergarteners will begin to tackle more challenging books! We will practice using strategies to help us figure out the tricky words in our books, where the pattern changes! Some things we can do to figure out tricky words are look at the picture, think about what is happening, and get our mouths ready to say the first sound of the word. We will also start to notice consonant clusters and digraphs to help us solve unknown words.

Writing:

As writers, our kindergarteners will write true stories that readers really want to read! We will use checklists to help us make powerful stories and use a vowel chart to help us with writing the middles of words.

Math:

In math, we will begin Module 4 where we will learn to model composition and decomposition of numbers using fingers, linking cubes, pictures, and number bonds! We will use drawings and equations to show addition and subtraction problems and solve word problems!

Here in Early Childhood, we are learning all about gingerbread and baking. We are practicing understanding the sequence of baking using words like first, next, then and last. We are learning baking vocabulary words such as measure, sift, mixing as well as different ingredients we need to bake. We are reading different stories about the gingerbread boy, which are true classics. But there are also so many books about other gingerbread characters we have been reading too, like the Gingerbread Baby, the Ninja bread Man, and the Gingerbread Girl. We are creating life size gingerbread classmates so come check them out! Our Gingerbread study will culminate with our Gingerbread House Making day with our families.

Germs! Germs! Germs!

It's the time of year when many viral and bacterial infections are occurring. Although it may seem like catching one of these illnesses is inevitable, there are many things you can do to prevent them!

Here at Grand Prairie, we follow the Illinois Department of Public Health recommendations regarding common illnesses.

• If your child is ill, please keep them home until they are 24 hours fever, vomit, and/or diarrhea free.

• Fever reducers, such as Tylenol, are great tools to lessen the symptoms of some illnesses, but this medication should not be used in order for the child to attend school that day due to a fever. If you administer a fever reducer in the morning for a fever, please keep your child home.

• Please practice effective hand washing habits! This is the BEST way to prevent illnesses. Below is a link to a helpful IDPH infographic regarding the proper way to wash your hands.

• Infographic - Hand Washing

• If you have any questions regarding your child's attendance due to an illness, please feel free to contact the school nurses.

We will start Vision and Hearing Screenings at Grand Prairie in January. Mandated by the state of Illinois, the following children will be screened:

• All Pre-school students will be screened for both vision and hearing.
• All kindergarten students who have not turned in an eye exam will be screened for vision and all students will be screened for hearing.
• All 1st graders will be screened for hearing
• All 2nd graders will be screened for vision and hearing
• All students with an IEP will be screened for both vision and hearing
• All teacher and parent referrals will also be screened.

If you do not want your child screened for hearing and/or vision, please contact the school nurses at mginn@fsd157c.org or kcogan@fsd157c.org

During the month of December, kindergarten, first grade, and second grade STEM students used the “Code and Go Mice” that were generously granted to our classroom by the Frankfort Education Foundation to code a battery-operated mouse to get to the cheese.

The week of December 9 was national “Hour of Code Week,” so kindergarten played an uplugged coding activity to find a path to get a skier down the mountain safely. During “Hour of Code Week,” first and second grade students continued with their progress using the online application called “Kodable.” “Kodable” is an educational application designed to teach the basics of coding through games. As students' progress through the levels, they earn more accessories to change their fuzzball (avatar).

During the final week of December before winter break, kindergarten and second grade students used the “Seesaw” application to complete an activity about a gingerbread and first grade used pattern blocks and cubes to create different winter holiday themed pictures.

Thank you for beginning or continuing to partner with the Grand Prairie staff in implementing the concepts of the ZONES of REGULATION curriculum at home. Last month, we gave an overview of feelings in the yellow zone and different strategies that your child can utilize!

This month we want to focus on the BLUE ZONE and some language and strategies that might be helpful at home to help your student identify how they are feeling and then get back to the GREEN ZONE (happy, calm, and ready to listen/learn). In the Zones of Regulation Curriculum, the blue zone represents emotions that cause your body to move slower or have lower energy than the GREEN ZONE. Feelings in the BLUE ZONE are SAD, SICK, TIRED, and BORED. Strategies that can be helpful for the BLUE ZONE are going for a walk, jumping jacks/ exercise, talking to an adult, taking a break/ resting. These are strategies that help to increase energy, alertness, and positive feelings. Trying different strategies is important to determine which strategies help your child’s body regulate. When your child tries a strategy, you can ask them questions such as, “How does your body feel now?” This will help them notice whether the strategy is working and help them move back into the GREEN ZONE. All strategies may not work, and that is okay! You can make this a fun activity by playing charades to have your child guess different strategies or by pretending to be in the BLUE ZONE and allowing your child to suggest strategies for you! Remember, it is expected that everyone is in the BLUE ZONE during some part of their day! The important part is to help your child recognize how they are feeling and choose strategies that will help them stay safe, be a good friend and be an awesome learner! When your child is showing an emotion, you can have then “check-in” by asking, “What Zone are you in?” Having a visual handy for when emotions are high or low can be helpful so that your child can point to the color or emotion. The more you talk about the Zones of Regulation in your home, the more you will help your child learn to notice how their body is feeling throughout the day. Below is the link for additional resources and visuals that can be utilized within your home on the Zones of Regulation website!

Resources | The Zones of Regulation

We know sometimes your child needs to stay home.

Coming to visit Grand Prairie?

Please put your child’s name or initials on their lunchbox and water bottle. This will help if it ends up if the item is lost. Then we know whom to return it to.

Lost and Found Table – Is your child missing a water bottle? Is your child missing a coat? Please have your child check the Lost and Found table that is across from the office.

As the weather begins to change to a more fall/winter feel, and we have colder temperatures; we are doing our best to encourage students to wear their coats outdoors for outdoor recess and dismissal.

Please be aware that students will go outside until the real feel temperature (including wind chill) drops below 20*.

• January 7th - Welcome Back
• January 9th - FSP Hot Lunch
• January 10th - Second Grade Step Up Day to Chelsea
  Last day to purchase hot lunches for February.
• January 14th - Fast Bridge Testing
• January 15th - Fast Bridge Testing
• January 16th - Education Foundation Hot Lunch
• January 17th - End of Second Quarter
• January 20th - No School, MLK Day
• January 23rd - Band Boosters Hot Lunch
• January 30th - Chorus Boosters Hot Lunch