Hometown Families:

We hope each of you enjoyed the beautiful weather that this past weekend had brought us. It was great to get outside and enjoy some sunshine.

We are excited to have our parent volunteers come in on Thursday morning for game day. Parents will be receiving a flyer with their assigned time to join the classroom based on availability of the classroom schedule.

District 123 will host parent teacher conferences this Thursday and Friday. Parents should have signed up for a time to meet their child's teacher. If you do not have a time, please reach out. We are looking forward to seeing all of our families.

District 123 is hiring! Please see the flyer and visit our website under employment.

For the month of February, Miss Merrion's room is focusing on a Social Studies unit. The theme this month is "Natural or Human-Made". They are also working on a variety of Valentines activities, as well as Kindness activities. Miss Merrion's kiddos made a Valentine wreath and Valentine cupcake, along with Valentines to give one another. They wrote about their crafts afterward. Students also are working on making a "Sprinkling Kindness" activity, where students are making paper donuts with ways to spread kindness written on the sprinkles. Students also are completing a journal about Sprinkling Kindness. They also completed some Valentine math too. The literacy core word this week is "what" and they are working on what habitats animals can be found in.

We had an amazing week during our Kindness Week celebration. Students did several different activities each day to spread kindness around like confetti. Students wrote letters to former teachers to brighten their day, they came up with a list of activities to do at home to help their families, and they gave friends notes of kindness. We also had some fun dressing up each day! Hat Day, Orange Day, School Spirit Day...and our favoite....PJ day!

We will have a half day of school on Thursday and no school on Friday due to parent teacher conferences.

We will have game day on Thursday, February 23rd. Please make sure you bring in a game to play for the morning.

We are looking for your input! Please let us know how we are doing! Complete the survey.

We are only at 4% of a response rate. We need your help to make our goal of 20%. Please take a moment to ensure your voice is part of the process by participating in the survey. The 5Essentials survey helps school administrators in District 123 prioritize and plan for the upcoming school year. Our school will only receive the results of the survey if enough families, staff, and students participate.

CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED

Our district will be hosting a parent university on Wednesday of next week. This will be a virtual session. Our district is working on restorative practices in the classroom as well how families can bring some of these strategies into their own homes. Restorative practice is an emerging social science that studies how we can strengthen relationships between individuals, as well as social connections within communities. This is a parent university you don't want to miss!

We are looking to fill spots on our PTA board. If you are interested or know someone who would be great at it, please fill out the form below. Please note, we will work alongside of you and not leave anyone alone.

We are looking forward to hosting our family math night. Please print the attached flyer to sign up.

We just completed our annual fundraiser with the American Heart Association with the Kids Heart Challenge! Our School raised $8739.58! Congratulations to everyone involved, we are very appreciative of your support in helping fight heart disease. Below are the students that were the top fundraisers for their grade level. These students earned the exciting role of being the PE teacher for the day which will be on Tuesday, February 21 during their PE time.

Kdg- Charlotte Lee

1st Grade- Sophia Bucio

2nd Grade- Daniel Pecina

3rd Grade- Shea Weber

4th Grade- Riley Thiel

5th Grade- Joey Feliciano

The top fundraiser in the entire school this year is Shea Weber! He raised $1,060.64 for the American Heart Association. Good Job Shea!

In other news, we are finishing up our basketball unit. We spent two weeks dribbling, passing, and shooting. Prior to our basketball unit we worked on jump roping and team building. In the team building activities we found a unique way to incorporate literacy and math skills. The kids loved it. We also have new Olympians of the month. Congratulations to our new Olympians below:

Kdg- Leilani Hernandez

1st Grade- Savanna Lopez-Smith

2nd Grade- Daniel Pecina

3rd Grade- Charlie Vandermolen

4th Grade- Kataliha Gutierrez

5th Grade- Deckard Eaton

We are excited to bring the book fair back in the spring. We will host the book fair February 28th-March 2nd. The teachers will reach out with the times each class will attend.

We are excited have canvas and cookies. Our very own art teacher, Mrs. Evans will be instructing on the painting. We look forward to seeing the masterpieces! Please make sure you reserve your spot!

Join us next week as we celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday with Read Across America Week. The National Education Association launched Read Across America in 1998 as a year-round program to celebrate reading. Given Dr. Seuss’ impact on the reading world, his birthday (March 2) was declared Read Across America Day. This also begins Read Across America Week and Read Across America Month.

Five Fun Facts about Miss Linnert

1.She has never traveled outside of the country, but she would love to!

2. She used to own a Ford Mustang; it was her first car!

3. She has been dating her boyfriend for almost 10 years and they just bought a house together!

4. She used to play volleyball, basketball, and badminton. She even played the clarinet!

5. When she drove to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to stay at a cabin for a vacation, it was surrounded by 3 black bears when she arrived! She wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to get in!

Please register your child for the upcoming school year for Preschool/Kindergarten. The links are provided.

2023-2024 Preschool Registration is now open!

For more information and to start the process please visit:

https://www.d123.org/departments/student-services/early-learning-programs

2023-2024 Kindergarten Registration is now open!

For more information and to start the process please visit:

https://www.d123.org/departments/teaching-learning/programs/kindergarten

Kindergarten, second, and fifth grade families received dental forms last week from Nurse Sheila. Please turn forms in as soon as possible. If you are in need of a form, please reach out to Nurse Sheila.

Please see the attached flyer for tacos and trivia.

Email: abencik@d123.org
Phone: 708-423-7360
Twitter: @AmandaBencik

Website: d123.org/hometown
Location: 8870 S Duffy Ave, Hometown, IL, USA
Phone: 708-423-7360
Twitter: @d123hometown