An Update from Hough Elementary

Please plan to join us on Wednesday, September 4th at 6:30 PM for Back to School Night. In the first session teachers will provide an overview of the curriculum being covered for the upcoming year. At 6:55 p.m. parents will be dismissed from classrooms and encouraged to join me in the gymnasium, along with our PTO co-presidents, Taylor Knapik and Christina Grana, where we will provide information regarding the upcoming school year. In the second session our teachers will provide the exact same presentation that they gave earlier in the evening. This second session will run from 7:30 p.m. to 7:55 p.m. Parents are welcome to attend either the 6:30 PM or the 7:30 PM session in their child's classroom. Parents are also invited to visit with some of our community partners (Quest Food Services, Cub Scouts, etc.) in the Hough Library during the evening. As a reminder, Hough Back to School Night is for adults only.

September 9th - 13th, Hough, along with Barrington 220, will focus on Safety and Security. We will discuss a variety of age appropriate, safety/security topics throughout the week, along with conducting safety drills, including fire, inclement weather, bus evacuation and law enforcement. We will also discuss railroad safety. Our students and staff had an opportunity to review the procedure of "Secure the Building and Teach in Place" during the law enforcement situation on August 20th. I want to thank all of you again for your support and understanding as it delayed dismissal. I could not have been more impressed with how our staff and the children navigated this unusual situation on the second day of school.

We are excited to kick off the year with outdoor education at all grade levels. You will be hearing more from your child's teacher shortly regarding their area of study and the related field trip. Below are the dates we look forward to getting a little dirty.

9/4 - 1st Grade Stillman Nature Center

9/9 - 2nd Grade Grigsby Prairie

9/23 - 3rd Grade Wormery Center (yup - worms!)

9/24 - Kindergarten Crabtree Nature Center

9/24 - 4th Grade Flint Creek Savannah

10/22 & 23 - 5th Grade Camp Timber-lee

Hough students have done a great job showing kindness the past two weeks during our Kindness KickOff. Students identified ways to be kind, shared how it can positively impact others, how a kind act makes them feel, and sent shout-outs to classmates that were caught being kind. Next month, our Character Strong theme will be respect. Students will discuss what it means to be respectful and how they can show respect to others. We will encourage them to "see value in all things and people and treat them with care." Hopefully they will talk about this at home and show you how they are practicing being respectful. We also are going to continue to work on being quiet in the hallways. This shows respect to others learners that are engaging in classroom activities and need a quiet environment. We will be recognizing students that are caught being respectful and celebrating a classroom each week that has been able to remain quiet and respectful in the halls. I am excited to see how our Hough family conquers this goal!

We are through the first week of fall MAP testing for our 2nd - 5th graders. We will continue testing through September 11th, with make-ups scheduled on September 12th and 13th. Spring 2024 IAR test results for last year's 3rd - 5th graders will be sent home in backpacks on Friday, September 6th.

It's that time of year for the ever popular Run Club! Run Club is open to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. We will meet Mondays (9/9, 9/16, 9/23, 9/30 ,10/7, 10/14) from 2:45-3:15. Our final run will be Monday, October 21st at Beese Park for the Elementary Cross Country Meet. Fifth Graders will run a mile at the meet, and the half mile run is open to any students K-4th grade (more details to come). We also need volunteers to stand on the corners of the streets around the school to ensure safety. There is a place to sign up on the electronic registration form (parents of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders were sent an email on 8/29). If you have any questions, please contact your run club sponsors, Coach Keller @ ekeller@barrington220.org or Coach Laughlin @ kholmberg@barrington220.org.

This Friday, September 6th, is picture day! Please click here if you are interested in ordering school pictures. The "school event code" necessary for online ordering is: 10043101 Pictures may be ordered prior to picture day or after (there is a shipping fee associated with orders placed after picture day and they will be mailed directly to the student's home). Make-ups are scheduled for October 16th.

Room Parents - Attention all parents. We need your superpowers! Don’t miss out on participating in your child’s class this year. Please check out this Google Form to join forces as a Lead Room Parent or Party Helper in your child's class. Dive into the details of Room Parent duties at our first PTO Meeting on Thursday, September 12th from 6:30 - 7:30 PM at Hough.

Please reach out to Veronica Vides at videsv@gmail.com with questions.

PTO Meetings - We invite all parents to our monthly PTO meetings on Thursday evenings from 6:30-7:30 PM in the Hough STEM room (the May meeting will be held offsite). Babysitting is provided during meeting in the gym. Please mark your calendar with the meeting dates:

1. September 12th
2. October 10th
3. November 14th
4. No December PTO Meeting
5. January 16th
6. February 20th
7. March 13th
8. April 10th
9. May 15th (Location TBD)

Packs of Plenty (POP) - POP packing begins September 5th. Please sign up to help our community and pack food at Sunny Hill Elementary!

Stock the Lounge - Let’s show our teachers and staff how appreciated they are by stocking the staff lounge with yummy snacks and drinks. Please sign-up to contribute. You can drop off donations at the front office anytime before Friday, September 13th. Thank you.

Open PTO Positions - If you are interested in joining one of the PTO Committees, please click here.

We also have a few leadership positions that we are looking to fill immediately:

• Assembly/Author Visit Chairs (1-2)
• 5th Grade Recognition Chairs (1-2 additional)
• Supplementary Fundraiser Chairs (2)

Stay Connected - For more information, check out our Hough PTO website https://hough.barrington220.org/families/pto and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/HoughStreet220. Please direct PTO related matters to hellohoughpto@gmail.com and Hough Hawkline content can be sent to HoughVPofCommunication@gmail.com.

-Wednesday, September 4th: Back to School Night 6:30-8:00 PM (Parent/Guardian event)

-Friday, September 6th: Picture Day (retakes October 16th)

-Safety Week 9/9-9/13

Monday, September 9th: Second Grade Field Trip, First Grade Fit Factory Club Begins (2:40-3:30 PM) & Third-Fifth Grade Run Club Begins (2:40-3:15 PM)

Thursday, September 12th: Second Grade Fit Factory Club Begins (2:45-3:30) & PTO Meeting (6:30 PM-7:30 PM)