MPS & MIS Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we say good-bye to February, we're thrilled to reflect on the successful parent teacher conferences that took place earlier this month. It was truly heartwarming to see so many of you actively engage in discussions about your child's progress, aspirations, and academic journey. Your support and collaboration continue to be a vital partnership, and for that, we're immensely grateful.

Here's a quick recap of what made this year's parent-teacher conferences so wonderful:
Meaningful Connections: We witnessed inspiring conversations between teachers and parents, where insights were shared, questions were asked, and strategies were discussed to ensure each student's success.

Celebrating Achievements: From academic accomplishments to personal growth, it was a joy to celebrate the achievements of our students together.

Setting Goals for Growth: Together, we set actionable goals to support your child's continued development. Whether it's improving study habits, mastering a particular subject, or fostering social-emotional skills, our collaborative efforts are geared towards empowering every student to reach their full potential.

Looking ahead, we're excited for report cards that will be coming home next week. We encourage you to take the time to review the report card together with your child, celebrating achievements and identifying areas for growth.

Lastly, we are asking that you complete the 5Essentials Survey for each school your children attend. This feedback for us as a school and district will help guide us in making our own growth plans and goals.

Thank you once again for your continued partnership in nurturing the academic and personal growth of our students.

Kindly,

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

Monday - 3/3

• MPS/MIS - Casimir Pulaski Day - NO SCHOOL

Tuesday 3/4

• MPS/MIS - Report cards go home

Friday - 3/7

• MPS/MIS - Fun Fair at Medinah Middle School (5:30-8:00pm)

Thursday - 3/13

• MPS/MIS - Picture Day - Spring
• MPS/MIS - 2:00pm Early Dismissal

Monday - 3/17

• MPS - St. Patrick's Day - Wear Green

Friday - 3/28

• MPS/MIS -11:45am -Half Day

Monday - 3/31-4/4

• MPS/MIS -SPRING BREAK - NO SCHOOL

Unit of Study: This month we learned about Buildings. We talked about how they are made, the materials used and who builds them.

Literacy: We worked on recognizing if letters from our own names were also in our friends' names.

Math: This month we focused on looking at quantities up to 5 and being able to recognize how many were in the small sets without always counting them.

Thank you to all the families who came and participated to conferences. We enjoyed being able to communicate with you on your child's progress.

Writing: Continuing to use our letter-sound knowledge to write words and sentences independently

Math: We are beginning to discuss decomposing numbers. We are also using number bonds to show the relationship of the parts and the whole.

We enjoyed meeting with all of the families in February for our parent-teacher conferences. We are looking forward to the rest of the school year with the children and the continued growth they will make to be ready for 1st grade.

Literacy: We have been reading books with a theme of diversity. During this time we have been focusing on students recalling characters, setting, beginning, middle and end. We will be moving onto folktales where we will focus on distinguishing the problem and solution.

Writing : In writing we just finished our informational animal writings. We were reading informational books about animals, while taking notes on important information we learned. We utilized our notes in order to write a paragraph with an introduction, two facts and a conclusion. Now we are going to move onto writing biographies. We will start by writing an autobiography about ourselves.

Math: We are finishing Module 5 which focuses on place value concepts to compare, add and subtract. Students have been using their understanding of tens and ones in order to apply different strategies when adding and subtracting. We will be moving onto Module 6 which focuses on attributes of shapes while building on their place value skills.

Social Science: Currently we are in our History unit. During this unit students learn about timelines, comparing the past to today, and biographies. We will be moving onto our Behavior of Light Science unit. In this unit the big question we will be investigating is “why can't we see in the dark”.

SEL: We are in our Emotion Management unit. This unit goes over identifying our feelings, having strong feelings, ways to calm down, and utilizing self talk.

We enjoyed meeting with all our first grade families at parent-teacher conferences! Thank you for your support in your child's learning. We look forward to watching them grow even more!

Literacy: We just completed an author study featuring Steve Jenkins. Writing: We are continuing to work on informational writing and learning about different animals.

Math: We are wrapping up Module 3 Geometry and telling time.

Social Science: Students just completed our unit on goods and services. Science: We will begin Properties of Matter soon.

SEL: Empathy and Kindness Thank your for your support with the home biography project. The students did a wonderful job! Also, thank you for your continued support at conferences. Bridging school and home is key to student success.

Reading: “Making Decisions”—fiction based unit; recount story events, explain how characters’ actions influence story; determine the central message or lesson in a story; compare and contrast themes in stories by the same author

Writing: Realistic Narratives–reading mentor texts; identifying problem and solution; writing an ending to an already existing narrative

Math: Fractions as Numbers–Partition a Whole into Equal Parts; Unit Fractions and Their Relationship to the Whole; Fractions on the Number Line; Comparing Fractions; Equivalent Fractions; Weekly Mixed Facts Tests

Social Science: Economics–goods vs. services; What are the Public Services in Our Community?; Who Works at City Hall?; Geography

Thank Yous: A huge thank you to parent volunteer Shelly Sangha for the incredible work on our February bulletin board! We’d also love to thank all the families that were able to come to PTC this February. Please remember that we’re always here to help!

As always, if there are any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask your child’s teacher!

Reading: Unit 5- "Technology for a Green Future," focusing on developing new technologies to promote environmental sustainability. Throughout this unit, they enhance their comprehension skills by identifying key details, summarizing information, analyzing features of news articles, determining main ideas, and comparing and contrasting supporting reasons and evidence in texts.

Writing: Big Cheese Shared Writing, Capitalization and Punctuation Rules, and using Correct Conventions (C.U.P.S.) to edit our writing. Opinion process paper: Should plastic straws be banned?

Math: Module 4- Foundations for fraction operations. We have may have just begun Module 4 but we have covered so many topics already! We have done; decomposing fractions, comparing fractions, making equivalent fractions, adding fractions, and subtracting fractions!

Social Science: Civics; U.S. Government. We learned about the three levels of government (Local, State, and Federal) and what are each of their jurisdictions and duties. We also focused on the three branches of government (Legislative, Executive, and Judicial). Students created posters at the end of this unit displaying all they have learned!

It was great seeing you all at parent teacher conferences, we appreciate all of the support from home! Please feel free to contact your child's teacher if you have any questions!

Reading: Unit 6 - Up Against the Wild – What compels us to survive? Comparing and contrasting characters, identify key events and summarize, determine the theme.

Math: Module 4 - Place Value Concepts for Decimal Operations

Writing: Narrative Journal Entry

Science: Earth’s Systems Interactions and Water Cycle

SEL: Unit 3 – Empathy and Kindness

Thank you to everyone who attended Parent Teacher Conferences. We look forward to continuing to work with you as a partner in your child's education!

February has been busy and fun in the LMTC! Book check out days are bustling and students have been excellent about returning their books on time. Students voted on who they thought would win the Super Bowl (Eagles won our vote!) and also guessed how many candy hearts were in a jar to win a chance at a free book!

Kinder: Media literacy and Black History Month (learning about Mae Jemison and Garrett Morgan)
1st Grade: Facts vs Opinions and Black History Month (learning about Mae Jemison and Dr. Patricia Bath)
2nd Grade: Finding books in the non-fiction section and using our online catalog to find books we want to read. This unit has been a lot of fun and students are doing great at becoming independent library users!

February has been a busy month in the LMTC. We finally wrapped up our Bluestem incentive. Students who read at least 4 books were able to vote for their favorite. Their vote will be included in the tally for the State of Illinois Reader’s Choice Award for 2025. We will find out in March which nominee will be this year’s winner. I know many of our students are hoping for Invisible, Garlic and Vampire or Marshmellow and Jordan to be the winner.

Special congratulations to Alexadria R. and Ariana P. in Mr. Leli’s class and Victoria P. in Ms. Spencer’s class for reading all 20 Bluestems. Such determination and stamina these girls have to have accomplished such a feat.

The third graders have enjoyed exploring realistic fiction and fantasy genres. We have had so much fun reading and discussing realistic fiction and fantasy books. The students can think and talk about how specific parts of the story contribute to its genre. The students’ Google Slide presentations are off to a good start too! Next up, science fiction and mystery.

4th grade library classes have been busy learning valuable research skills. Lessons have been focused on understanding the research process, note taking, website evaluation and determining a thesis statement. Each student has chosen a topic of interest to study and will use their researching knowledge to create a project to present to their classmates at the end of the unit. Some examples of topics are coffee, Lebron James, Poland, gymnastics, Smoky Mountains, & Wildfires.

The fifth graders are now prepared with the knowledge they need to be the changemakers for our environment. With their green minds and eager hearts, they are ready to leave a positive footprint on the planet. With this understanding and motivation to help, they are going to create iMovies encouraging others to make environmentally friendly choices in their daily life. We can influence others to care for the environment and build a more sustainable future.

4th and 5th graders, be on the lookout for sign-up sheets for this year’s Battle of the Books. Books will be announced mid march and teams will be formed thereafter. More information will be given out soon.

Kindergarten
--Continued showing the beat in music in a variety of ways and began exploring high and low sounds.

1st Grade
--Performed, identified, and composed rhythms using quarter notes and pairs of eighth notes.
--Discovered that there is a pitch higher than so!

2nd Grade
--Labeled our new, long rhythm that is worth 2 beat as a half note!
--Increased our comfort level with our new pitch, do, through analyzing many favorite songs and games.

3rd Grade
--Read, wrote, improvised and composed melodies with low la.
--Began learning about the instruments in the Woodwind Family.

4th Grade
--Wrapped up learning about the string and wind instruments of the orchestra.
--Began learning about note names in treble clef in preparation for playing the recorder!

5th Grade
--Labeled our NEW pitch as fa and used this unique pitch to begin learning about key signatures.
--Improved our rhythm counting skills and increased our knowledge by adding sixteenth notes.

MIS students are so excited to share with you their weaved art works!
As part of our exploration of learning different art techniques students have been focusing on weaving with yarn. Students have made a variety of different things.

Here are some key points they have learned:
Understanding the basics of weaving- Students used a cardboard loom and practiced a “under-over” technique.
Color theory- Students have experimented with using a variety of color combinations.
Creativity and expression- Each students’ work tells a story through their choice of colors and patterns.
(K, 1st, 2nd)

This month MPS students created a variety of projects exploring different materials!

Students used chalk pastels to create their own Valentine’s day heart art.
Students used oil pastels to make their own scratch art with different designs.
Created a landscape piece inspired by artist Ted Harrison.

The last month at both the Intermediate and Primary building has been a lot of fun playing a bunch of different games and different unit. At MIS, We have been doing our Basketball unit for the last few weeks working on different skills such as passing, dribbling and shooting and playing some fun games that work on those skills such as "3 Chances" a fun game to practice their shot at the rim, as well dribble knockout, regular knockout, and king of the court getting to add all of these skills. Moving forward we are now starting our tumbling and gymnastics unit and moving onto volleyball afterwards.

At MPS, the students have been playing a bunch of different games and working on different skills such as kicking as we played both kickball and a soccer game called line soccer which the students had a lot of fun with. Recently we been now using the parachute and playing some fun games last week as well as continuing to play multiple different games

Throughout Medinah, we are seeing an increase in illness among students. Influenza (Flu) is the most contagious during the first 48 hours. A child who has a fever should remain at home until they are “fever free” for a minimum of 24 hours, without the use of any medication. Often when a child awakens with vague complaints (the way the flu begins), it is wise to observe your child at home for an hour or two before deciding whether or not to bring them to school. Your child should be physically able to participate in all school activities on return to school. In addition to the increased handwashing among students and staff, we have increased cleaning throughout the schools both in the hallways, bathrooms, classrooms and common areas. Please don't hesitate to reach out to the health office if you have any further questions or concerns.

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.