Sieden Prairie June Newsletter

Juneteenth, Celebrated on June 19th, is Freedom Day and is an official holiday in the state of Illinois. But why do we celebrate it?

Juneteenth (June 19) is the one of the oldest known commemorations related to the abolition of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth celebrates the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people of African descent located in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from the slavery system in the United States.

Freedom was granted through the Emancipation Proclamation signed on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. Texas was the farthest of the Confederate states, and slaveholders there made no attempt to free the enslaved African Americans they held in bondage. This meant that President Lincoln’s proclamation was unenforceable without military intervention, which eventually came nearly 2.5 years later.

From 1865 forward, the day has held special meaning for people of African descent in the United States. Juneteenth continues to be celebrated in cities with Black populations through a series of parades, family reunions, speeches, and consuming of specific foods with a red color including barbeque, watermelon (an African fruit), and “red soda water” (primarily strawberry soda). The use of the color red in ceremonies is a practice that enslaved West Africans brought to the United States. Contemporary food items that maintain this cultural connection include kola nut tea and hibiscus tea, also known as bissap in the Caribbean or jamaica (ha-MY-kah) in Latin America.

We get it. Your child worked hard this year, and has earned their well-deserved break, but research shows that when students stop learning over the summer, they will test lower when they return to school in the fall, and have to spend the first weeks or even months of school relearning what they have lost.

What can you do?

There are some strategies you can follow at home to help your student stay sharp, so that when they return to school in the fall, they can hit the ground running.

If your child does better with predictable schedules and routines, I recommend that you sit with them and talk about what that can look like at home. Once you identify two or three activities each day, take a picture of the child doing them and post them in a place where they can use it daily. The goal with creating a predictable schedule is that you and your child can know what you will do together and when. Ask your child to place the picture of each activity they choose to do, in the morning, midday, and afternoon. Choosing together can also help you plan the day and set expectations.

Independent reading level refers to books that your child can read by themselves or know about 95% of the words. This practice is important in building fluency and comprehension. Set these kinds of books in a basket, so that your child can pick one each day. You can also find some of them online and even in a variety of languages. Remember these books are read without any help from adults.

For this activity, the goal is for your child to read the book to you, a friend, a stuffed animal, a favorite doll, or a pet. They will be asked to read it twice and try to come up with questions. Once they are done, they can put the book back in the basket and prepare for the second activity reading with help from a parent/adult.

Instructional reading level refers to books where the child needs assistance with many words. They may recognize many common words, which we call “sight words,” but they are encountering new vocabulary, sentence structures, and decoding patterns.

The Repeated Reading Strategy involves having the parent/adult and child read the book or text three times.

1. The first time the adult reads it using their finger as they are reading each word.
2. The second time you ask the child to try and read the words he knows together while you read.
3. The third time you ask your child to try and read it alone and you help while showing each word as they read.

Vocabulary refers to the learning of new words for a child. Vocabulary is a large predictor of comprehension. Helping your child to add new words to their vocabulary will help them continue to connect concepts and practice new sentences that increase communication and interaction about the word.

Each day tell your child to look around the home and community to find one or two words or things they don’t know nor are familiar with them. For example, it can be finding new words at the grocery store, or on a TV show, in a book, or even a word someone said. Focus on talking about what the word means, write the word down on a 3 x 5 index card, talk about how they can use the word, and then model using it, and challenge your child to come up with ways of using it, throughout the day. Once you have five words, you can have the child review all the words during the week, to practice reading and vocabulary

This month, our Sieden Prairie scholars learned about the life cycle of butterflies. Each class received caterpillars that built cocoons and hatched into beautiful monarch butterflies. The monarch is endangered, and the Chicago area is an important part of its habitat. Each year, the Monarch migrates from Canada to Mexico and back again, and the Chicago area is in its flight path. So, not only did our students learn about the life cycle of the butterfly, but they also helped an endangered species!

The Awards Ceremony was a beautiful morning of celebrating our students and their many accomplishments during the school year. We celebrated grades, test scores, and social-emotional achievements in every grade. A special recognition goes out to our Kindergarten and First grade, who experienced the most growth in Math in the entire school.

We had a wonderful Spring Concert with Ms. Shaffer this month, where more than half of our students performed for parents and community members. The focus was on Folk music around the world, and even after the concert was over, we could hear their little voices spreading the joy.

We held a coloring contest this month, and one student per grade level won! Please congratulate our Coloring Contest Winners.

For our PBIS reward this month, Sieden Prairie welcomed a Magician, Magic Matt! Students were wowed by the magic happening right before our very eyes.

It's important to create regular outlets to reward students for making good choices, because that makes them want to choose well.

We'll build on this positive behavior foundation next year as grow a strong learning environment.

Sieden Prairie is a multilingual community, and this month, we celebrated our English language learners and their families with a Bilingual family dinner. Mrs. Flores-McCoy organized a delicious dinner for our families, and our students performed for us.

Congratulations to our Students of the Month, finishing out the school year on a high note! The Students of the Month celebrated their success with a pizza party with Mr. Davis and Mrs. Baader! We are so proud of you.

The Students of the Month are:

K1 Azahra Lynn

K2 Camilla Mendoza

1A Mari Spencer

2A Aaryn Dunlap

2B Richard Burrell

2C Dalary Sanchez

3A Logan Galindo DeSantiago

3B Aislin Macias

4A Janney Sanchez Espinoza

4B Cayden Williams

5B Yahir Garcia De La Torre

There's no better way to learn about something than to see it firsthand, and that's what our SP Scholars did when learning about reptiles. Our students were introduced to many different cold-blooded friends, and our brave students even handled them!

Our Fifth Graders had their annual soccer tournament again this year!

Mr. Curtis's class competed against Ms. Ward/Mr. Wynne's class and the entire school came out to cheer them on. The competition was fierce, but Mr. Wynne's class came out ahead.

On May 28th, we celebrated Field Day with our Sieden Prairie Community. Students competed in many events and rounded out the day with fun in a bounce house and an obstacle course!

We started a new tradition at Sieden Prairie Elementary this Spring: The Fifth Grade Clap Out. In order to congratulate and say goodbye to our fifth graders, the entire school lined the hallway and celebrated them as they exited the classroom.

As they move on to the Colin Powell Middle School, we know that they will make us proud. Congratulations, Mustangs. We can't wait to see what you do next.

If you have not already registered your student for next year, you can find the information you need here on the district website.

If you have a Kindergartener starting this year, we will begin screenings again in August with our Kindergarten team, Mrs. Parrish, Ms. Mison, and Ms. Dominguez.

From Nurse DeJuana Hussey:

ATTENTION PARENTS! Miles of Smiles, Ltd. is providing preventive dental services at your school to eligible children in all grades. Services may include exam, cleaning, fluoride varnish, and sealants if needed. This also satisfies the dental requirement mandated by the State of Illinois for school children (Kindergarten, 2nd , 6th, and 9th ). Please sign up your child today to receive this wonderful service. There is no cost to the family or school.

Thank you for a wonderful school year, and we can't wait to see you back next year.

We have a wonderful, dedicated staff at Sieden Prairie, and we will do our best each and every day to support you and your children.