Letters from Limestone Walters

Feb. 1st: House Council Meeting 2:40pm-3:45pm

Feb. 7th: PTO Meeting @7pm

Feb. 10th: Wheel Spin Day and Sweetheart Dance 6:30pm-9pm

Feb.14th: Valentine's Day

Feb.15th: LCHS Music Tour visits @2pm

Feb. 17th: Early Dismissal @11:20am (no lunch served)

--> also students receive spelling lists and pledge sheets (see below)

--> also LCHS Registration 12-2pm here at LW

Feb. 20th: No School! Presidents Day

--> also Board Meeting @ 6pm

Feb. 24th: Wheel Spin Day

Feb. 26th: LW's Cookie and Bookies Book Club @6pm (see below)

February's Cookie and Bookie

Cookie: Banana Bread Cookie (National Banana Bread Day is Feb. 23rd)

Bookie: What the Bread Says: Baking with Love, History, and Papan by Vanessa Garcia

Baking with Papan is always an adventure as stories swirl in the kitchen. Join Papan and Vanessa as they go from the bumpy Pyrenees Mountains into fancy Paris and to the tropical island of Cuba while kneading, dancing and singing along the way. Based on a true story, this was how Vanessa Garcia (author) learned to bake bread with her grandfather when she was a little girl. While baking together, her grandfather told her incredible stories of his life. Through his stories, Vanessa learned about her roots and the power of love and family.

ZOOM Read Aloud Event will be Sunday, Feb. 26th @6pm.

Fill out the form below to be emailed the link AND ensure you receive your cookie on Friday, Feb. 24th

We appreciate your continued efforts with this process. We are noticing a few things with it being the winter months:

• Please pull all the way up and/or as close as you can to either first cone and/or next vehicle
  

• Please continue to have your child exit the vehicle anywhere within the white box on the arrival map picture.
  

• Your child does not have to wait until they are at the main doors to exit.

• Yes, it is getting colder and snowier, but having students get out of all vehicles within that white box helps move the line along and prevents stops and starts

Please make sure you are communicating transportation changes with your child's classroom teacher AND the office. This makes sure that in case someone is absent more than one person have received the message and we can get your child where they need to be. Calling these in prior to 2pm also helps so we know prior to dismissal.

Attention Parents of Children in Grades K-4...your PTO is sponsoring a Spell-A-Thon again this year.

Individual Prizes: $50 Cash - highest money collected (among all participating classes)

$25 Cash - most words spelled correctly (among all participating classes*)

Classroom Prize: Treat Party- Highest amount of money collected among participating classes.

Note: each class will have 2 winners who will win a candy bar of their choice. (Class winners will be the students with the highest word correct that participated in collecting pledges.)

*in case of a tie the winner will be the child that got the most pledges and correctly spelled the most words.

Important Dates:

February 17th: Students receive spelling lists and pledge sheets to take home and begin getting pledges and studying their words.

March 6th: Spell-A-Thon Pledge sheets are due back to your child's teacher.

March 8th/9th: SPELLING TEST DAY K-2nd! (home test - more instructions to come)

March 10th: SPELLING TEST DAY 3rd and 4th! K-2nd return test papers.

March 17th: Pledge sheets are returned so donations collecting can begin.

March 24th: Money due to the classroom teacher in order for student to be eligible for prizes/class party

In the event of inclement weather, you will receive a message from the school and information will be posted to local news stations. In the event of a school cancellation, please know this will be a snow day with no remote learning. To accommodate possible emergency days without adding days to the end of the year, there are 3 built into our school calendar. This allows us to hopefully be finished prior to Memorial Day and not add as many make up days to the end of the year.

As of now we have May 8, 15, & 22 as not in session so long as we do not have any snow days to make up. Should we have a snow day (s) to make up we will start filling in with May 8, etc. until we have our full calendar of days. The reason for the earlier days than the later is to account for the academic grading periods.

Into Reading K-6

This month, K-6 students will be starting/continuing with module 4-5 and beginning module 6 at various time depending on the class. Below you will find three graphics that share grade levels essential questions and the social emotional/learning mindset focus.

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.

Feb. 2nd: TRYOUTS 2:45pm-3:45pm in the cafeteria

Feb. 7th: Practice (2:45pm-3:45pm) & Parent Meeting 3:45pm-4:00pm (cafeteria)

Feb. 9th: Practice 2:45pm-3:45pm in the cafeteria

Feb. 14th: Practice 2:45pm-3:45pm in the cafeteria

Feb. 16th: 1st Match Prep 2:45pm-3:45pm in the cafeteria

Feb. 21st: Match @ Peoria Heights starting at 3:30pm *bus leaves at 3pm

Feb. 23rd: HOME MATCH vs. Pleasant Valley @3:30pm

Feb. 28th: Match @ Bartonville starting at 3:30pm *bus leaves at 3:15pm

5th-6th Grade

Feb. 1st: Away Game @ Christ Lutheran starting at 4pm *bus leaves at 3pm

Feb. 6th: Home Game vs. Elmwood @5pm

Feb. 8th: Away Game @ Bartonville starting at 4:30pm *bus leaves at 3:45pm

Feb. 9th: Home Game vs. Hollis @4:30pm

Feb. 13th: Home Game vs. Oak Grove @5pm

Feb. 15th: Home Game vs. Parkview @4:30pm

Feb. 17th: Away Game @ St. Jude starting at 5:30pm * bus leaves at 4:30pm

Feb. 22nd: Away Game @ Elmwood starting at 5pm *bus leaves at 3:45pm

Feb. 23rd: Away Game @ Monroe starting at 5pm *bus leaves at 4:15pm

*7th Grade Tourneys

Regional: Jan, 21st, 23-26

Sectional: Jan. 30th

State: Feb. 4th & 9th

*8th Grade Tourneys

Regional: Jan. 28, 31 & Feb. 1-2

Sectional: Feb. 6

State: Feb. 11 & 16

Feb. 2nd: Away Game @ St. Jude starting at 5:30pm *bus leaves at 4:35pm

Feb. 4th LW 7th Invitational time is TBD

Feb. 6th: Away Game @ Norwood Primary starting at 4pm *bus leaves at 3:30pm

Feb. 7th: Home Game vs. Brimfield @4:15pm

Feb. 8th: Home Game vs. Oak Grove @4:30pm

Feb. 11th: IVC 8th Invitational time TBD

Feb. 14th: Home Game vs. Pleasant Valley @4:30pm

Feb. 15th: Away Game @ Monroe starting at 4:30pm *bus leaves at 3:50pm

Feb. 16th: Away Game @ St. Thomas starting at 5pm *bus leaves at 4pm

Feb. 21st: Home Game vs. Mossville @4:30pm

Feb. 22nd: Home Game vs. East Peoria Central @4pm

Feb. 23rd: Home Game vs. Morton @4:15pm

Our PTO will meet Tuesday, February 7th @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 posted on our website closer to the date.

Remember

I remember watching students try to catch snowflakes, our first Cookies and Bookies Book Club event, and hearing about all of the academic growth between fall and winter MAP tests.

Gratitude

I'm grateful for the LW community and LW staff. You both are the reason why we are able to do what we do and your support is greatly appreciated.

Goals

• Continue working on Social Studies curriculum
• plan for LW hosting the Limestone Area Principals (we meet once a month and this month LW hosts)
• Attend Regional Office of Education (ROE) 48 and ROE 53's Social Emotional Learning Collaborative with Ms. Applen and Mrs. Holt
• Attend the IDEAcon (Illinois Digital Educators Alliance) Conference with Mrs. Lingenfelter and Mrs. Holt
• Present two sessions at the IDEAcon conference. One is about writing instruction and the other is about the most important lessons I have learned as principal.

~Mrs. 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