MPS & MIS Newsletter

Dear Families,

Thank you for an amazing school year! We have had so much fun celebrating the students’ hard work these last couple of weeks. Thanks to our PTO and all our parent volunteers for making field trips, activity day, and ice cream socials special for the students. We are very much looking forward to seeing our students come back next year and getting to know new friends!

Students will have access to their RazKids, Reflex and IXL accounts throughout the summer. We would like to encourage you to continue to read, write, and practice math facts with your children.

If you have not yet registered your children for school, please do so! We use that information to make class lists and decisions about next school year. Click Here

Thank you for sharing your children with us. We are looking forward to hearing about all the fun they had this summer when we see them back in August.

Erin Berwick, Medinah Primary School

Natalie Czarnecki, Medinah Intermediate School

Monday- 5/27

• Memorial Day - No School

Thursday- 5/30

• Activity Day: MPS-AM and MIS-PM

• Report Cards go home
• Activity Day for MPS & MIS
• PTO Meeting @ MMS at 6:15pm
• BOE Meeting @ MMS at 7:00 pm
• Last Day of School

Tuesday, August 13, 2024:

Cookie Social

Where: MPS & MIS

Time: 2pm-3pm

Details: Meet the Teacher, and bus assignments will be handed out

Thursday, August 15, 2024:

• 1st through 5th-First Day of School

Wednesday, August 21, 2024:

• MIS-Curriculum Night
• MPS Preschool & MPS Kindergarten First Day School

Unit of Study: Insects- Whenever we go outside, there is always a lot of interest in insects. Children find them, watch them, follow them, and try to capture them. Our study offers children an opportunity to learn about the characteristics of insects, the different types of insects, how and where insects live, how insects change, the people who work with insects and how insects help the earth.

Vocabulary: insect, head, thorax, abdomen, wings, colony, camouflage, ant hills, flowers, egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly, molt, gardener, beekeeper, photographer, exterminator, habitat, pollination, honey, beneficial insects, decomposition

Science: Lifecycle of a Butterfly - We had real caterpillars in our classroom & watched the different stages the caterpillar goes through.

Literacy: Retell the story of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and naming letters in different insect words

Math: Sorting and classifying insects by attributes, counting insects, and identifying numerals We had a fantastic school year and appreciated all the support from families.

Have a fun and safe summer 😎

Literacy/Writing: The students have made so much growth and are becoming great little readers and writers. Please continue to read, write and practice your child’s kindergarten sight words throughout the summer.

Math: The children have a great foundation of basic adding and subtracting. Math is all around you! Be sure to keep practicing adding, subtracting and counting to 100 over the summer. Make math fun!

It has been an amazing school year and we want to thank you for all of your help and support throughout your child’s kindergarten experience. Check out the local libraries also and READ, READ, READ!

Have a great summer!

Literacy: We are currently reading books about standing up for yourself, while working on retelling the beginning, middle and end of a story. Next we will move onto books with the theme of fun with imagination. We will continue working on retelling the beginning, middle and end of stories as well as being able to recall the main topic and three key details.

Writing: We have just begun learning how to write opinion pieces. To kick off opinion writing we started by writing our opinion on which animal the first grade classes should adopt from Brookfield Zoo.

Math: We are still working our way through Module 6 which focuses on attributes of shapes while building on their place value skills. Students will compose and decompose shapes to build an understanding of whole and part relationships. We will build on students’ knowledge of place value through 120. Students will be adding within 100 and begin solving more complex word problems.

Social Science: We are just finishing our Science unit, Behavior of Light. In this unit the big question we will be investigating is “why can’t we see in the dark”. We will begin our science unit on Communication next! In this unit the big question we will be investigating is “how do lighthouses communicate to ships and sailboats?”.

SEL: We are in our Problem Solving unit. This unit goes over ways to solve problems, fair ways to play, inviting others to play, and handling name-calling.

We have had such a wonderful year with your first graders! We are having so much fun with the ABC countdown! We are super excited for our field trip to Brookfield Zoo!!

Literacy: The students enjoyed exploring the world of fantasy. They worked on demonstrating understanding literary elements of a story.

Writing: We completed our animal informative writing and are wrapping up the year with opinion writing.

Math: The students are wrapping up the year with Module 6-Multiplication.

Science: Second graders have been learning about quick and slow changes and how this affects the world.

Social Science: The students completed work on studying landforms. We have enjoyed learning and working together.

We look forward on our field trip to the Brookfield Zoo!

Can you believe it’s already the end of the year? Time sure flies when you’re having fun! The third graders had an incredible year together and are definitely ready to be fourth graders next year! They’ve learned so many things and have made so much amazing growth and progress. We are all very proud of their hard work!

Here are three quick and easy ways that you can continue to support your child’s learning over the summer:

1. Encourage journal writing as a way to remember fun summer activities and to keep writing skills sharp.
2. Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division math facts each day—even if it’s only for a few minutes
3. Read, read, read, and read some more! The Roselle Public Library has a great summer reading program, so go check them out this summer! Reading aloud to your child is a great way to model good fluency and spend quality time together, so be sure to pick out some exciting books!

We sincerely hope that your families have an amazing summer! See you next year!

We are so proud of all of the fourth grade students! They have been working hard all year long and are ready to be fifth graders!

Reading: Unit 8- Earth Changes - Identifying Key Details to Determine the Main Idea, Describing the Overall Structure of a Text (Compare/Contrast, Chronological), Using Context Clues to Determine the Meaning of Unknown Words, Drawing Inferences, and Identifying the Author's Purpose, and Summarizing a Text.

Writing: Whole Class Opinion Writing - Including Text Evidence to Support Opinions as well as Text-To-Self Connections, Big Cheese Shared Writing.

Math: Fractions - Students generate equivalent fractions and equivalent mixed numbers. Students also added and subtracted fractions and mixed numbers. We worked on geometry skills such as identifying and measuring angles.

Social Studies: Economics unit- introduced basic concepts like supply, demand, and goods versus services, using engaging activities and real-life examples to help students understand how money works in our world. Through interactive lessons, students explore how people make choices about what to buy, how businesses produce and sell goods, and the importance of saving and budgeting.

Thank you for all the support this year!

5th graders have been busy this last month of school! We have been finishing many projects and helping them get ready for middle school!

Reading: Unit 8: Water (Fact and Fiction) - Identify Key Events and Summarize; Compare and Contrast Characters in a Story; Determine Two or More Main Ideas in a Text; Explain How an Author Uses Reasons and Evidence; Integrate Information from Two Texts to Speak Knowledgeably About A Topic

Writing: Biography Research Project & Presentations

Math: Module 6- Foundations to Geometry in the Coordinate Plane

Social Studies: The Declaration of Independence and The Revolutionary War

We hope everyone has a wonderful summer!

Thank you for a great year and good luck to our 5th graders in Middle School!

Highlights in the library:

Kindergarten: Designed our own cars after reading Chris Van Dusen’s If I Built a Car

1st Grade: Learned several draw-and-tell stories. Ask your child to show you one!

2nd Grade: Made tiny books and practiced illustrating book characters.

As many of you know, this is my last year at MPS. I will be retiring at the end of the year. Thank you to all parents and students for your support over the last 13 years at MPS. I have loved our time together and will miss the students, staff, library, and all the fun lessons over the years.

Thank you for being part of my story! -Mrs. Pickren

The Battle of the Books competition is in full effect! The participating 4th and 5th graders have completed three battle rounds and are awaiting the results. The highest scoring teams will compete in the final battle on the last day of school. Each person on the winning team earns a trophy and their name on the Battle of the Books plaque that is on display in the library.

The third graders have been enjoying their final lessons in our genre unit by focusing on poetry. We spent time reading, listening to and learning about poetry. At the end of the unit, the students used their creativity to write their own What I Found In My Desk poem.

The fourth graders are closing up the school year presenting their research projects. So wonderful to see how proud and confident they have been while presenting their work.

The fifth graders are now environmentalists. They are aware of the affects their actions are having on our natural environment and are prepared to protect and preserve it. After researching, each student created a presentation to inform and persuade other students on the impacts humans are having on Earth.

Summer Reading The youth outreach librarian from the Roselle Library has been visiting each class in person or via Zoom in order to promote their summer reading incentive. Any Medinah student is eligible to participate! They also offer special events and activities throughout the summer. If you would like additional information, visit the Roselle Public Library website or stop in. MIS is also offering a summer reading incentive. Your child should have brought home the MIS “Read to Play'' scratch off ticket this week. All they need to do is read 5 books and return the ticket to MIS or MMS at the start of next school year and they will receive a prize.

Don’t forget about the Medinah School District Little Free Libraries as a fun place to look for summer reading materials. Also, be sure to visit the MIS website and click the Library Media Technology Center to find links to Typing Club, academic games, book award lists and summer reading suggestions.

Kindergarten -Discovered that music has a BEAT which is steady and even and keeps the music alive. -Performed the steady beat with movements, instruments, and icons.

1st Grade -Labeled our “high” sound as la, the pitch that is one step higher than so and practicing reading and writing it on the music staff. -Mastered organizing our the music of our favorite songs into measures.

2nd Grade -Composed and identified many challenging rhythmic patterns containing half notes. -Discovered our “new” pitch is actually called re and it is a step away from do and mi.

3rd Grade -Created a new rhythm by dividing and combining two of our known rhythms. This rhythm is called one eighth note and two sixteenth notes and is performed ti-tika. -Independently wrote one of our favorite songs on the music staff.

4th Grade -Worked toward independent musicianship while completing our recorder sequence. -Many students signed up to join the MIS 5th grade band next fall!

5th Grade -Completed filling in the full diatonic scale on Solfa Street, including fa and ti! -Performed and improvised complicated rhythms containing dotted quarter notes.

Your children have grown immensely as musicians this year, and it has been an honor to be a part of their journey! Keep singing over the summer, and I look forward to seeing them again in the fall!

Kindergarten: investigated artist Alma Thomas and created paintings inspired by her work, recalled art jobs such as designers and created our own squishmallows, created monochromatic drawings

1st: investigated artist Alma Thomas and created paintings inspired by her work, created art using chalk outside

2nd: investigated artist Alma Thomas and created paintings inspired by her work, investigated the lascaux cave paintings, created our own cave paintings using limited tools like charcoal and chalk

3rd: reviewed line types and created art with our names, recognize ancient and cave art, investigate the lascaux cave paintings, created our own cave paintings using limited tools like charcoal and chalk

4th: explored printing as an art making process, printed our styrofoam relief prints in a radial design, investigated the lascaux cave paintings, created our own cave paintings using limited tools like charcoal and chalk

5th: experimented with sponge painting to make galaxies, recalled balance in art to create symmetrical spacecrafts, investigated Rene Magritte and the surrealism art movement, created surreal eyes inspired by Magritte’s “The False Mirror”

As the school year draws to a close, we can't help but marvel at how swiftly the time has flown by. It feels like just yesterday that we welcomed our students back to Medinah Primary School and Medinah Intermediate School, and now we find ourselves preparing for the final days of the academic year. It has been an incredibly rewarding year, filled with learning, growth, and memorable moments. We have watched with pride as our students have blossomed into more confident movers, embracing new challenges and opportunities with enthusiasm and determination.

Over the past few weeks, we have been busy preparing for our much-anticipated last day of school Activity Day. This event is a culmination of the hard work and dedication of our students and staff throughout the year. We are eagerly looking forward to welcoming parent volunteers to join us for this exciting day of fun-filled activities and celebrations. As we bid farewell to another school year, we want to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to our students, parents, and guardians for your unwavering support and collaboration. It is your commitment to education and your active involvement in our school community that makes Medinah Primary School and Medinah Intermediate School such special places to learn and grow.

As we head into the summer break, we wish each and every one of you a wonderful summer filled with good times, laughter, and plenty of sunshine. Take this time to relax, recharge, and create lasting memories with family and friends. Thank you for a fantastic year, and we eagerly anticipate the opportunity to welcome everyone back next year for another year of learning, growth, and success. Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable summer!

As we close out another healthy and successful school year and start preparing for the 2024-2025 school year, we would like to remind parents of required documentation so appointments can be made over the summer.

All incoming Kindergarten students will need a current physical with immunization records, dental and vision exams on file.

All incoming 2nd grade students will need a current dental exam form.

All incoming 6th grade students will need a current physical with immunizations, including Tdap and MCV vaccines and a dental exam.

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.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful and healthy summer! See you next school year!