The Skokie Home Scoop

October 10, 2022

Dear Skokie Families:

We are looking forward to welcoming you this week for Parent Teacher conferences. Our 6th grade students will be joining their conferences to share their goals, work and accomplishments from the year thus far.

Important Dates:

Thursday, October 13: Half day AM 11:50 dismissal, Parent Conferences PM
Friday, October 14: No School/Parent Conferences

Bike Safety

Please continue to encourage your students to wear their bike helmets and to bike safely to and from school. This morning, there was an accident involving a bike and a car as a student was biking to Skokie. We want to share that the student is okay, but as we all know, this can be extremely scary. Encourage your child to fully stop at stop signs and to make eye contact with the driver as they cross at intersections. On a different, but related note, we are communicating with students to avoid biking through elementary school pick up on Mondays. We have had a few students on bikes impacting pick up at Hubbard Woods.

Social Media “Skokie Ships”

We wanted to bring your attention to a recent development we’ve been hearing about from students: students’ names are being posted by other students on Tik Tok accounts using the Skokie logo and the name “Skokie Ships.” Students are using these accounts to pair students together, saying they should be in a relationship. Students have expressed they are uncomfortable with their names being used in this way.

This came up last year as well, and in collaboration with parents, we were able to address it with those students. We wanted to make parents aware in the hopes that you could engage your child in a conversation about this topic and review their social media accounts together. We recognize that not all of our students have devices or social media accounts.

We regularly discuss digital citizenship with students at school and the importance of using technology responsibly. We specifically teach students about digital etiquette and safety, such as keeping personal information private, not posting information about others without permission, and the importance of posting cautiously due to the permanence of information on the internet. Please reinforce at home that students should not be sharing names of other students via social media or otherwise without their permission.

Exploring Skokie Band:

5th Grade Cadet Band has started well, and all students are beginning to organize their "beginner sounds" into more refined musical melodies. Students are expected to bring their instruments home on non-lesson days so that they can practice materials assigned to them for the next week's lesson. Before-school Cadet Band will begin on October 11th and October 13th starting at 7:30 AM. Cadet Band students are only required to attend one before-school session per week.

6th Grade Concert Band just completed their Bb Major Scale assessment, and have been working on music for our upcoming concert in December. Students are beginning to work together as an ensemble, rather than as individuals or small sections of instruments. So far, selections for our concert include "Coldwater Creek" and "Blue Note Rock." In the upcoming weeks, students will be learning their Bb Chromatic Scale, the Star Spangled Banner, and this year's 6/7/8th grade combined piece. At the last District 36 School Board meeting, members of the 6th Grade Concert Band represented all of the District 36 bands by joining forces with the Skokie Chorus and 6th Grade Orchestra to perform the new "Skokie School Song." Thank you to those musicians for their strong representation!

Orchestra:

5th Grade Elementary orchestra is off to a fantastic start! We were able to play through an entire song at the first group rehearsal, which was awesome!! We will continue to work on exploring group sound, learning to become aware of the other sounds in orchestra and following the conductor's baton! Students are working hard on the music for our December concert!

6th Grade Concert Orchestra has been working on music for our upcoming concert in December. The orchestra has been working on refining ensemble skills learned last year, while expanding their playing technique by working on more difficult repertoire. Our favorite song so far is Falconer! At the September District 36 School Board meeting, members of the 6th Grade Concert Orchestra represented all of the District 36 strings by joining forces with the Skokie Chorus and 6th Grade Band to perform the new "Skokie School Song." Thanks to Mr. Chester for arranging parts for all of the instrumental musicians to perform! Thank you to those musicians for their strong representation!

Spanish: Fifth grade Spanish students have been intensely working on our story about a Litterbug at the beach, exploring different types of readings, and especially loved our squeak-read. You may ask your student about that! They have created small picture dictionaries in their notebooks and enjoy working with whiteboards.

Sixth grade Spanish students have been busy creating details, acting out, and working with a story about a baby that goes to the store with a parent. They have been engaging in different types of reading in class, as well as modifying the story based on student input. They have also been listening to some original songs in Spanish by different artists.

French: Sixth grade French students have learned several useful expressions to maximize spoken French in the classroom. Ask them if they can say “Sorry to disturb you, can I go to the bathroom?” They also have been creating a story about “baby coconut” and his family while reinforcing vocabulary in the classroom. Lots of great acting going on!

Kinetic Wellness: We shared information about our Kinetic Wellness classes last week. Please see below for a picture of this work in practice!

Upcoming Clubs

Pokemon Club:

The Pokémon Trading Card Game is an Easy to learn and fun 2-player game in which players use 60-card decks to battle. In the Pokémon TCG, players build decks around cards that feature Pokémon characters, and then take turns using attacks to try to defeat their opponent. The game requires some strategy and planning to win.
Wednesdays 7:45-8:15am, starting 10/26
Registration opens tomorrow morning at 9am

Art Club:

One part social club and one part studio experience, Skokie's Art Club is a place for students to be creative in a small group setting. In order to make sure that everyone who is interested gets to participate, please only sign up for a single four-week session.
Tuesdays 3:30-4:30pm (sessions starting 10/18 and 12/6) OR Wednesdays 3:30-4:30pm (sessions starting 10/19 or 12/7)
Registration opens tomorrow morning at 9am

Bike Safety in the Village

As the weather continues to remain pleasant enough to ride a bike to and from school, we want to ensure that we are reinforcing safe practices both amongst our students and amongst resident drivers surrounding our campuses. We remain in collaborative partnership with the Winnetka Police to help enforce safe practices on our roads and sidewalks, and benefit most from that work together when the community helps to do the same. Our principals reviewed bike and pedestrian safety practices with students at the start of the school year; however, we have already received reports of several instances in which a driver or bike rider was either distracted or disregarding safety practices. We ask that you take a moment to review the following information with your family:

Illinois law prohibits the use of cell phones or other electronic devices while in a school zone, even if it's hands free. It is dangerous and is enforced as a moving violation by the police.

Please do not use pick up and drop off time to check texts, etc. This potentially endangers others.
Please remind your students that they should not be using cell phones or other electronic devices while biking.

Crossing guards are present at busier intersections near our schools to assist with safety. Please respect the authority of the crossing guards and follow their directions
Please talk to children to ensure that they understand the importance of using caution and following all traffic signals.

Note that there are not stop signs at every intersection, especially on Oak and Elm Streets, which are heavily used thoroughfares to Crow Island, Skokie and Washburne.

We STRONGLY recommend that all students who bike, skateboard, or scooter to school wear a helmet regardless of age.
Students should bike on the sidewalk wherever possible, and be respectful to pedestrians. Also, children are expected to walk their bikes through crosswalks.
Each elementary school also has specific traffic procedures and parking restrictions that are enforced by police. We encourage you to review these procedures and contact your building administrator if you are unclear.
The speed limit in our school zones is 20 miles per hour during school days. For the safety of all, please follow the posted speed limit.

Recommended safe routes to each neighborhood school are as follows:

Thank you for your help reinforcing this information at home as well as modeling safety while traveling through the Village. We are grateful for your collaborative efforts to support our children's well-being.

2022 Downsized Capital Improvement Plan: Referendum

As a member of The Winnetka Public School community, we want to ensure you are informed about the improvements to all five schools as part of the 2022 Downsized Capital Improvement Plan: Referendum, which was adopted as a resolution by the School Board on August 16th and will be on the ballot November 8th. You are invited to attend an upcoming informational session, in person or via Zoom. Please see the image below for further information, or visit our website at www.winnetka36.org.

Parent Education Sessions from District Partner Family Action Network (FAN):

For upcoming events, access FAN’s website here.

Please follow the District via the following social media platforms in order to see day-to-day happenings and more.

Facebook and Twitter: @Winnetka36

Instagram: @WinnetkaPublicSchools

Sincerely,

Michelle Cooney and Larry Joynt

Principal and Assistant Principal

The Skokie School