MPS & MIS Newsletter

Dear Families,
We have made it to the end of 2024! There is so much to celebrate at Medinah Primary
and Intermediate Schools. The students have grown so much academically and socially.
We can’t wait to continue this in 2025!

We need to send a huge thank you to our PTO! We started the month with the wonderful
Holiday Shop. The students were so excited and proud to be able to shop and wrap their
own presents. The volunteers were so patient and helpful. Then this week, we had our
wonderful holiday parties. Medinah MPS and MIS students and staff can not thank the
PTO enough for the partnership and dedication that makes our schools so special.

With our return in January, please remember to send your child with the appropriate clothing
to play outside. If there is snow on the ground, students need to have the 5 things: boots, snow pants, a coat, hat and gloves to be able to play in the snow. Also, please ensure that your child is bringing shoes to change into when wearing boots to school.

Also, just a reminder in the event of inclement weather and the need to use an emergency day, Medinah School District 11 will have an eLearning day. If we do have an eLearning day, your child’s teacher will communicate with you through the platform that they use on a regular basis (e.g. Seesaw, Google Classroom, etc.)

We wish each and every one of you and your families a happy holiday season and look
forward to partnering with you in 2025!

Erin Berwick, Medinah Primary Principal
Natalie Czarnecki, Medinah Intermediate Principal

Monday 12/23 - 1/3

• MPS/MIS - Winter Break - NO SCHOOL

Monday - 1/6

• MPS/MIS - Return to school

Tuesday 1/13

• MPS - Rubber Duckie Day

Thursday - 1/16

• MPS/MIS - Early Dismissal -2:00pm. On Early Dismissal Days, please call before 12:30pm for any pick-up changes.

Friday - 1/17

• MPS - Wear Winnie the Pooh

Monday - 1/20

• MPS/MIS - NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Day

Thursday - 1/22

• MPS - PALS Night- 5:00-6:15pm - 4 year old Preschool & Kindergarten

This month in preschool we have been learning about baking.

Vocabulary- bake, oven, oven mitt, cookie, pizza, temperature, stir, measuring cup, measuring spoons, bowl, whisk, spatula, blender, baking sheet, rolling pin, bakery, ingredients, decorate, spoon, icing, cookie cutter

Literacy- We read different books about baked foods and compared different cookie recipes. Students learned how to bake pizza and gingerbread cookies by sequencing the steps.

Math- We identified shapes and compared sizes of different cookies. We also connected numerals to cookie quantities and counted cookies.

SEL- Ways on how to calm down. Place hands on tummy and say stop. Name your feeling. Take belly breaths.

We hope that you and your families have a happy, healthy, and relaxing Winter Break! We look forward to seeing everyone in the New Year!

Literacy: We have been reading and discussing many different Folktales. We also had a lot of fun reading many different versions of the Gingerbread stories.

Math: We finished up our unit on two and three dimensional shapes. In this module we analyzed and learned the names of both two and three dimensional shapes. We also constructed shapes!

Writing: We wrote our first letter to our 3rd grade Pen Pals! We are so excited to learn more about them in the New Year! In our journals, we are encouraging kindergarten spelling to label their pictures they are drawing and form simple sentences.

We thank you for your continued support, donations and planning of our winter parties, grinch day and classroom activities to make them a success! We hope you and your families enjoy your winter break together! See you in the New Year!

Literacy: We have been diving into nonfiction texts to recognize how authors craft their writing to teach us facts. We will continue to use our knowledge of fiction and nonfiction to compare and contrast.

Writing: We had so much fun learning about Mo Willems, that we wrote our own version of a Pigeon book! We brainstormed silly topics and used story elements that Mo Willems uses in his books. We are continuing to work to add more details into our personal narrative stories as well.

Math: We have learned so many efficient math strategies to deepen our understanding of numbers and how they work together. The students are beginning to recognize tens as a unit and identify tens and ones within a 2-digit number.

Social Science: We have been focusing on goods and services. Goods are items we can buy or use and services are jobs we can do to earn money or help others. We also have learned about Holidays around the World to explore how others celebrate this time of year!

We wish you and your families a happy and healthy Winter Break! We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Reading: Our focus continues with non fiction texts. We wrapped up a nonfiction author study on Gail Gibbons. Ask your child about some of the cool facts they have been learning.

Writing: Students wrote directions on how to create your own coffee filter snowflake. Check out their cool snowflakes and try to make one at home.

Math: Students have been successful in using multiple addition and subtraction strategies. In the new year, we will review and assess these math skills.

Science: We have been learning all the ways that seeds travel and why pollination is so important in our world.

SEL: The past few weeks we have reviewed expectations and reinforced the MPS code of conduct. During class meetings, we continue to talk about how important it is to be safe, responsible, respectful and caring in our school.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy winter break!

Reading: Our focus continues with non fiction texts. We wrapped up a nonfiction author study on Gail Gibbons. Ask your child about some of the cool facts they have been learning.

Writing: Students wrote directions on how to create your own coffee filter snowflake. Check out their cool snowflakes and try to make one at home.

Math: Students have been successful in using multiple addition and subtraction strategies. In the new year, we will review and assess these math skills.

Science: We have been learning all the ways that seeds travel and why pollination is so important in our world.

SEL: The past few weeks we have reviewed expectations and reinforced the MPS code of conduct. During class meetings, we continue to talk about how important it is to be safe, responsible, respectful and caring in our school.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy winter break!

Reading: Unit 4 - “Understanding Different Points of View” In this unit, students will make inferences/predictions, explain key events and summarize texts, and analyze first person narrative points of view.

Writing: Big Cheese Shared Writing, Capitalization and Punctuation Rules, and using Correct Conventions (C.U.P.S.) to edit our writing.

Math: Module 3 - Multiplication and Division of Multi-Digit Numbers

Science: Rock Patterns and Changing Lands

Please feel free to contact your child's teacher if you have any questions!

5th graders are doing many wonderful things this month!

Reading: Unit 4 - “Recognizing Author’s Point of View”: In this unit, students will describe the author's point of view, summarize key details, and compare and contrast themes.

Math: Module 3 - Multiplication and Division with Fractions

Writing: Opinion Essays- Which character is your favorite in Unit 4?

Science: We are studying the scopes of Properties of Matter and Mixtures.

We hope you and your family have a safe and wonderful winter break! Please feel free to reach out to your child's teacher if you have any questions!

The library has been bustling with gingerbread fun! All students were sent home with a gingerbread template to decorate as their favorite book characters. Students who turned their gingerbread character back in to be hung up were given a prize! We've received all sorts of characters, from Piggie to the Grinch to Dog Man!

Kinder - learning about kindness and civility
1st grade - finishing up a unit on folktales around the world
2nd grade - the basics of coding and computer programming

A winter break reading challenge will be sent home before winter break. Read 150 minutes over the break to earn a prize! Have a safe, fun, warm winter break!

The LMTC would like to introduce our new Library Paraprofessional, Mrs. Sprinkle. Mrs. Sprinkle has already become such an invaluable part of our Library Team. She comes to our school with many years of teaching experience and a wealth of knowledge in children’s literature. Our school is very lucky to have her supporting our students and staff.

Library classes are busy as ever as we are preparing for our upcoming virtual visit with author, Monica Roe. Mrs. Roe is the author of Air, which was the novel from the One Book, One School Program. Each classroom teacher read aloud Air and completed activities and discussions on empathy and compassion with their students.

Students are also celebrating this novel by participating in an Adaptive Sports Day. The main character, Emmie, in Air was in a wheelchair and was an aspiring wheelchair motorcross athlete. Adults and children alike assumed Emmie was not capable of participating in such a dangerous sport as well as felt she was incapable of doing many things that other children could do. This left Emmie feeling frustrated and alone. In order to help our students to have a better understanding of what it is like for people in wheelchairs, they are participating in a morning of wheelchair basketball and volleyball and listening to a presentation by Synergy Adaptive Athletics.

Kindergarten
-Explored using our singing voices independently and moved our bodies steady and even to the music in a variety of ways.

1st Grade
-Performed and identified a variety of melodies with our high and low pitches.
-Discovered that combinations of long and shorts sounds create rhythm.

2nd Grade
-Labeled our lowest pitch as do and experienced it in many different ways.
-Discovered a new ‘long’ rhythm that is worth more than one beat!

3rd Grade
-Composed, improvised, and performed rhythms containing sixteenth notes.
-Labeled the pitch lower than do as low la and experienced it in many different ways.

4th Grade
-Performed, dictated, and composed 4-beat rhythm patterns using all of our complex sixteenth note combinations.
-Read and wrote melodies on the music staff that include the pitch lower than low la.

5th Grade
-Labeled our “long-short” rhythm as a dotted-quarter note and one eighth note and learned about the “amazing dot.”
-Began reading music from a tone ladder bringing us one step closer to learning a new pitch.

Our art teacher Mrs. Juan Diego had her baby! Lucas Enrique arrived on December 4 and is enjoying time at home with mom and dad. Mrs. Engel has been subbing the past few weeks. A long-term sub will be starting after break.

The past month has been all fun over at the primary building, students have been playing a variety of games to develop their locomotor skills, some of the games the students been playing this month has been working with how to work on personal space and various teamwork activities. They are continuously learning new games and engaging in fun activities. Some of those being our rock paper scissor relay, Learning new fun games that are inclusive working on personal space and other multiple skills students need to learn. Students also been doing a nice job playing in team games cheering on their classmates and being ready to learn when they come in.

Over at Intermediate, The students has been in their football unit working on multiple different skills and rules of the game. Some of the skills worked on has been Passing, Catching, route running, kicking. After coming off the soccer unit the ability to kick the football instead of a soccer was a cool but different take for all the students. As we go into break playing some fun games such as gaga ball and Mat ball, which is a lot like kickball.

It's that time of year: Flu and Cold season. With the weather changing and the temperatures dropping it is important to remember when to keep your child home and how to stay healthy If you have any questions, please reach out to the health office!

KEEP YOUR CHILD HOME IF THEY HAVE:
1. A fever of 100 degrees or greater--they can return to school after being fever-free for 24 hours
2. Vomited or had diarrhea--they can return to school after 24 hours illness-free
3. An earache--they can return to school after an MD evaluation/treatment
4. A persistent sore throat/cough--they can return to school after MD evaluation/treatment
5. Body aches/fatigue/paleness--they can return to school when rested/stronger
6. Itchy, draining eyes--they can return to school after MD evaluation/treatment after 24 hours WITH a physician's note to the Nurse
7. A skin rash--they can return to school after MD evaluation/treatment WITH a physician's note to the Nurse If you have any questions, please reach out to the health office! Let's have a healthy start to 2025!!! Enjoy the holidays with your family.

If you have any questions, please reach out to our district nurse, Renee Wesley at rewesley@medinah11.org or our Health office assistant, Ewelina Korzeniewski at ewkorzeniewski@medinah11.org.