Letters from Limestone Walters

Summer Office Hours Begin (M-F 8am-1pm)

June

June 3rd: Peoria Park Library Summer Reading Kickoff

June 6th: Alpha Park 2023 Summer Reading Kickoff

June 13th: PTO Meeting @7pm

June 26th: Board Meeting @6pm

July

*Playground Build Date TBD**

July 24th: Board Meeting @6pm

July 26th-29th: LW Registration for the 2023-2024 school year

Below you will find our finalized school calendar for the 2023-2024 school year. We will be starting the year with two institute days and two different parent information nights:

K-4th will be Monday, August 14th (time TBD)

5th-8th will be Tuesday, August 15th (time TBD)

Our purpose with two separate nights was to:

• ensure primary students weren't up too late the day before the first day of school
• allow parents the opportunity to hear all the information they need
• provide middle school students an opportunity to practice locks on their lockers
• set-up the first day of school to be about building classroom community

Similar to last year we have 3 emergency days have been build into our calendar. This allows us to hopefully be finished prior to Memorial Day and not add as many make up days on to the end of the year.

The following Mondays we will not be in session unless an emergency day is used:

• Monday, May 6th
• Monday, May 13th
• Monday, May 20th

If we do have emergency days we will have session on the above Mondays depending on how many we need. Our other two emergency days will be after May 24th and May 25th.

We wanted to take a moment to welcome Mrs. Barbara Vlachos as our new 5th grade teacher. Mrs. Vlachos is a LW alumni and has been a substitute teacher in our district since 2017. She has a student first mentality, a focus on student engagement and student growth, and a willingness to try new things that will serve our LW community well. She is currently enrolled in Western Illinois University's Alternative Licensure Program where she will obtain a Master of Arts in Teaching. It is with great pleasure that we welcome her to begin her teaching career as a LW Rocket!

If your child is interested in any sports next year, the summer is an excellent opportunity to get updated physicals. They will then be good for 390 days which would allow you one less thing to worry about during the season.

Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option sponsors can use No Kid Hungry’s new Summer Meals Outreach to promote meals in their community. (All children 18 and under)

No Kid Hungry’s summer texting hotline has a new number. You can text FOOD or COMIDA to 304-304 during the summer months to find a site near you with free meals for children 18 and younger. The old texting number, 877-877, is being phased out and currently instructs individuals to text 304-304 instead.

To find free meals, families can also call (800) 359-2163, which is staffed by the Illinois Hunger Coalition. Or they can visit SummerMealsIllinois.org, where you can use the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Meals Site Finder.

I am pleased to announce the Board of Education approved the purchase of McGraw Hill Social Studies for grades 4th-8th starting in the 2023-2024 school year! The biggest draws to selecting this curriculum were:

• Aligns with C3 Framework Inquiry Arc
  • College, Career, and Civic Life
  • Inquiry based learning experiences
• Curiosity is at the center
• Print and Digital Access
• Inquiry Journals, textbooks, magazines, primary sources
• Differentiation for ALL learners
• SEL - CASEL Framework
• Flexible pacing for teachers
• Building blocks for critical thinking & ELA integration

One of the exciting pieces to our social studies curriculum is that the CASEL Framework for social emotional learning is the same framework that is integrated into our literacy series. This building wide common language is a key piece that will lead to stronger student application.

We are also very excited about offering SMARTs executive function curriculum to our 6th graders as they transition to all things junior high and take on new academic challenges starting the 2023-2024 school year. The biggest draws to selecting this curriculum were:

• Emotional Health need recognized
• Skills addressed: goal setting, cognitive flexibility, organization, prioritizing, memorizing, self-checking, and monitoring
• Skills are explicitly taught and then opportunities provided for students to apply tools to specific academic challenges
• 30 lesson plans: include presentations, videos, reflection opportunities, skill practice, and more
• Students develop the self understanding to know which strategies work best for them as well as why, where, when, and how to use those strategies to complete their work.

These opportunities help us to ensure our students leave as kind leaders, deep thinkers, strong communicators, and empowered citizens. LW truly is the place to be and I'm excited for what next year has to offer our students.

Lunch time read alouds are one of my favorite ways to build a culture of readers here at LW. On Wednesdays, I read picture books to all K-4th grade students and on Friday's I read the first chapter of a novel to all 5th-8th graders.

Readers thrive when they are surrounded by a supportive reading community which gave me the idea of a Book Wishes Amazon Wish List. This will help with getting even more books into classrooms as well as provide family and friends, who may not live directly within our community, an opportunity to donate as well.

I pour over book blogs and websites, reach out to fellow educators, and grab titles as I read too. I used these resources to carefully curate a selection of books that cover a wide variety of ages, genres, topics, themes, etc. I then added these titles to our #LWRocketsRead book wishes list on Amazon. Your purchase means it will be shipped directly to the school, find its way into the classroom, and have a label with who donated it! Please make sure to include your name when purchasing.

The first 9 books listed are from our Book Club and would go to our school Library. Next are first chapter books and then picture books are more toward the bottom of the wish list.

The number requested lets you know what grades it will be for:

For chapter books:

2: 5th-8th

1: 7th-8th

For picture books:

5: for all classrooms K-4

3: for K-2 classrooms

2: for 3-4 classrooms

1: for our school library (Book Club Books)

If you are interested in donating please click the link below. Please feel free to share our with family and friends! I can't wait to see where our farthest book comes from.

Our PTO will meet Tuesday, June 13th @7pm. This is a great way to get involved in fundraisers and activities that support our school. If in person doesn't work for you, they also have a virtual Zoom option. The links are always emailed out via TeacherEase closer to the date.

Several volunteers will be needed to help with prep work and installation of our new playground. Installation will be happening in July, on a Saturday, so please try to keep your schedules open. Please also stay tuned as we will be sending out sign ups and an actual firm date soon!

Remember

I loved my second year as principal at Limestone Walters and will forever cherish all of the memories made and lessons learned.

Gratitude

I'm grateful for every core memory made this year, cheers for We Read Wednesdays, conversations sparked from first Chapter Fridays, and moments that reminded me that life as a LW Rocket is out of this world!

Goals

-finalize the master schedule, gear up for curriculum purchases/renewals, clean up my office, and prep up for a wonderful 2023-2024 school year

~Stefanie Pitzer, Principal

Email: spitzer@limestonewalters.com
Website: https://www.limestonewalters.com/
Location: 8223 West Smithville Road, Peoria, IL, USA
Phone: 309-697-3035
Facebook: facebook.com/LWrockets316
Twitter: @lwrockets