Barack Parent Newsletter

It is hard to believe that we are in the third month of the year already. The month of March is full of changes and important things at Barack.

Women's History Month is celebrated in March, Daylight Savings time begins March 12th, IAR testing takes place March 20th - 31st and 3rd quarter ends March 24th.

We need your support ensuring that your scholar is at Barack and in class on time, prepared to learn. We need all walkers, car riders and bus riders at school daily by 8:15 am and ready for class no later than 8:25 am. We offer breakfast for all scholars at 7:50 am daily. We want to ensure our scholars have had a good night's sleep and are prepared to focus on their school assignments.

All scholars will take their IAR (Illinois Assessment of Readiness) tests this month as well. Our testing window is March 20th - 31st. The IAR test assesses Illinois students’ reading, writing, math, and science skills in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics as well as Critical Thinking strand grades 3-8,

Remember to join us for our monthly PTO meeting this month. We still need parents to support all areas of learning and extra curricular activities at Barack.

Thank you for your continued support of your scholar by staying connected with school and your scholars' teachers.

Mrs. Phelps

Principal

Parents,

Please complete the 5Essentials Parent Survey for our school. Your thoughts and opinions matter for our school. We need to have at least 50% of our parents complete the survey. We have 10% that have completed the survey.

Link for parents to take the survey: http://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/survey/parent/

Thank you for your support in this matter!!

March 3 - 6, 2023 - Mid-Winter Break

March 7, 2023 - School Resumes at 8:15 am

March 12, 2023 - Spring Forward - Daylight Savings Time

March 14, 2023 - Monthly PTO Meeting @ 6:30 pm

March 16, 2023 - Early Dismissal @ 12:30 pm

March 20 - 31, 2023 - IAR Testing for the Entire School - All students should be on time daily.

March 24, 2023 - End of 3rd Quarter

March 27, 2023 - Month School Board Meeting - Barack will present at 6 pm.

Some of our 5th grade scholars participated in the Park Forest Writing Competition. They did a wonderful job reading their dreams. Thanks to Ms. Gladstone for your leadership in the classroom by supporting our scholars!!

New protocols are in place to ensure the safety of each scholar. All scholars were gifted with a new clear bookbag to use daily. We also ask that purses and fanny packs remain in their locked lockers with their phones.

Job well done by our scholars for their Black History Presentation - "In Living Color" We remembered the 90s with politics, entertainment, music and sports.

Thank you to all the staff and a special thanks to Ms. Chatman for your choreography for our Dance Troupe.

Teaching theme to students helps them to relate to the characters. “In contemporary literary studies, a theme is a central topic, subject, or message within a narrative. Themes can be divided into two categories: a work's thematic concept is what readers "think the work is about" and its thematic statement being "what the work says about the subject".

For more information and ideas, refer to: https://secondaryenglishcoffeeshop.blogspot.com/2016/11/teaching-theme-tips-and-resources.html#:~:text=I%20teach%20my%20students%20that,or%20world%20in%20some%20way.

Try the resources on flocabulary for this strategy: https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/theme/

Check out this video:

Acceptance is the tendency to be receptive to one's thoughts and emotions. People high in trait acceptance relate to their thoughts and feelings non-judgmentally, rather than resisting their internal experience.

Email: vphelps@sd163.com
Website: www.sd163.com
Location: 401 Concord Drive, Chicago Heights, IL, USA
Phone: 708-668-9100
Facebook: facebook.com/www.facebook.com
Twitter: @OLS163_