Washington Wildcat Chat

Dear Washington Families:

The school year is flying by, and it is hard to believe we are already into November! Thank you to our teachers, the PTO, and our room parents for helping coordinate Halloween celebrations this week. It was great to see the kids dressed up and enjoying the festivities, and we appreciate our parents for braving the weather for the parade.

This is an exciting time of year for our students, and this is also when we see many struggles with behavior both in and out of school. Second Step, our Social and Emotional curriculum helps to equip students with strategies that help them manage frustration, self-regulation, and anti-bullying. Please join us at the PTO meeting this Wednesday to learn more about these and other supports we use in addition to our school-wide response to behavior and discipline.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to share some resources with you. The ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza is heart-wrenching. Our students may see images in the media or overhear conversations and may have questions about these things. In a recent administrator newsletter from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), state superintendent Dr. Tony Sanders shared the following items, which you may find helpful in navigating these conversations at home:

• The National Association of School Psychologists has a downloadable flyer called Talking to Children About Violence: Tips for Families and Educators, strategies for each grade level, and suggested talking points.

• From Common Sense Media, an article called How do I talk to my kids about violence in the news? Reminds us to get a sense of what children know before launching into an explanation by using open-ended questions, like “What did you hear?” or “What do you know?” and “What do you think about it?”

Our theme for November is gratitude, and we have so much to be thankful for here at Washington! We are excited to kick off our first Wildcats Give Back this year with a food drive to benefit the Maine Township Food Pantry. We held assemblies this week to learn about this initiative and ways we can support others in our community. Classrooms will collect food and other household items through next Friday and package the items for delivery. Please see below for more information and the slide presentation shared with students earlier this week.

Thank you for the many ways you support our students and staff at Washington! We are grateful for our wonderful parent community and the opportunity to partner with all of you!

Warm Regards,

Angie

We are offering an exciting opportunity for all K-8 parents/guardians that pertains to our new mathematics curricula. On November 28th, at 7pm, at Emerson Middle School, we invite parents/guardians to engage in a lesson simulation with a D64 grade-level teacher.

You will sit in the seats as a student and fully understand what it means to be part of a math class with our new curriculum resources (Eureka Squared: K-5, and Carnegie Math (6-8))!

A teacher will offer a brief introduction to the program and then teach an actual lesson your child would experience this year. Space is limited, so please RSVP using this form. Be sure to click the appropriate math placement for your child.

If you are not sure of your child’s placement, please call your school’s main office. We look forward to seeing you there!

*Note: Students in 7th or 8th Grade Channels of Challenge or 8th Grade Accelerated Math are not utilizing the Carnegie resources. Therefore, this opportunity is not available right now for those parents/guardians.

Chess-Ed is excited to return to Washington School to provide lunchtime chess instruction

this Fall. The 10-week program runs from 12/01/23 to 02/23/23 and takes place on

Fridays from 11:35 am to 12:30 pm (during lunch). The program is open to students in

all grades and of all chess abilities (including those in full-day and half-day Kindergarten).

Professional instruction will include the basics for beginner and novice players and build

with opening theory, middle game planning, and end game combinations for continuing and

advanced students. Playing chess improves memory, uses analytical and critical thinking

skills, teaches problem solving, responsibility, sportsmanship, social skills and more! The

benefits of chess last a lifetime!

To register, please go to https://2023-2024washingtonchess.eventbee.com. Register

by 11/17/23 to take advantage of lowest available fee. For more information about the

program, please refer to the program flyer. Chess-Ed is looking forward to working with

your CHESS ENTHUSIAST this Fall!

All trimester 1 report cards will now be made available to view digitally this school year through the District’s parent portal! Instead of receiving a paper copy, parents will access their child’s report card at their own leisure and convenience. The trimester 1 report card will be available to view on December 1st at 8am. After viewing online, you will be asked to digitally sign off that you have viewed your child’s report card. To be sure you can access this report card, please follow these directions for how to login. We hope this will allow parents better access to their child’s educational achievement.

If you would still like to request a paper copy or are unsure of how to login, please contact the main office for assistance prior to December 1st.

The Washington PTO and Student Council will sponsor our first Wildcats Give Back initiative of the school year with a food drive benefiting the Maine Township Food Pantry. Please bring your donations to the school from November 6th through the 10th. Classrooms and the Student Council will package the food items to be donated on November 13th. Please see below for the list of requested items. Thank you for your generous support in helping those in need!

The PTO is bringing Griffin's Tale Children's Theatre Repertory Company to Washington! Griffin's Tale is Northwestern University's only Children's Repertory Theatre Company. They take stories and poems written by kids in the Evanston and Chicago areas and turn them into skits, sketches, songs, raps, dances, and more! Then, they visit the schools these students attend and perform their stories for them. Griffin’s Tale is collecting submissions from Washington students. One submission per student, please. Please turn in any student writing samples to the main office by December 1st.

Save the date! Washington's annual Holiday Sing will take place on Wednesday, December 20th. Our music team and students have been working hard to prepare for our performances and will be sure not to disappoint!

Please see below for the show times by grade level:

• 9:00 a.m. - Kindergarten and 3rd Grade
• 10:00 a.m. - 4th Grade and 2nd Grade
• 1:15 p.m. - 1st Grade and 5th Grade

• PTO Meeting, November 8

• Board Meeting, November 16

• Thanksgiving Break, November 20-24

• Report Cards Emailed Home, December 1

• Holiday Sing, December 20

Inspire all students to discover their strengths, embrace learning, achieve personal excellence, and demonstrate care. Students thrive in a rich, rigorous, and innovative curriculum delivered by highly qualified teachers. Each student learns and grows in a safe, nurturing environment. In collaboration with student, parents, teachers and the community, District 64 provides opportunities for each learner to investigate, be successful, be resilient, and become inspired and empowered as they contribute to our global society.