Letters from Limestone Walters

Feb.6th: PreventED: Bullying Program begins for grades K-6 (see below)

Feb. 7th: House Council Meeting @7:15am

Feb. 9th: Wheel Spin Day & Sweetheart Dance 6:30pm-9pm (see below in PTO Points)

Feb. 12th: K-1st Grade Spring Conferences (teachers will send home more info)

Feb. 14th: Valentine's Day SPIRIT DAY

Feb. 15th: Pack the House Night for Easter Seals

Feb. 16th: SIP Afternoon *student's dismissed @11:20am, LCHS Registration @ LW starting at 11:30am

Feb. 19th: No School! President's Day!

Feb. 21st: House Competition Day (wear your House shirt)

Feb. 23rd: Wheel Spin Day! & K-4 Field Trip 8am-11am

Feb. 25th: LW's Pages, Popcorn, and Pals Book Club @6pm (see below)

Feb. 26th: Tech/Curriculum Committee Meeting @5pm & Board Meeting @6pm

We are very excited to announce that at our last Board Meeting, Mr. Dan Lamboley was approved to be our new superintendent starting for the 2024-2025 school year! Mr. Lamboley will be joining us from McClean County Unit 5 School District where he is currently serving as the Director of Secondary Education. He has 28 years of experience in education that include building administration for 6th-12th grades and teaching high school social studies. We look forward to introducing him to the LW Rocket life!

February's Book - The Chinese Menu (Restaurant & Food Truck)

This book is an anthology of myths and legends surrounding your favorite Chinese American foods you get from your favorite restaurant.

ZOOM Read Aloud Event will be Sunday, February 25th @6pm. The link is emailed to parents by Sunday afternoon. Please fill out the form below by Monday, Feb. 19th to be emailed the link AND ensure you receive your popcorn from The Popcorn Shoppe.

*Inspired by: Growing Book by Book: A Year of Good Food and Books Each month there will be a focus food or food-related theme to the month. There's everything from tea, to cookbooks to dumplings. Best of all, we are going to learn about different cultures. So, let’s get reading and eating.

Please make sure we are following these procedures below in order to ensure our drop-off line is efficient and safe:

• Make sure an adult (usually Mrs. Pitzer) is out before letting your students leave your vehicle.
• Please make sure your child exits the vehicle anywhere within the white box on the arrival map picture.
• This way several cars are unloading at the same time vs. some pulling all the way up to the main door which causes the line to stop and then get backed up.
  
• Please have your child ready to exit the vehicle.

This month Aramark's monthly limited time entrée (LTO) will highlight flavors from Southeast Asia with Thai Shrimp Noodle Bowl. This dish features eggs and will be offered Feb. 12th-16th. Students simply need to let their teacher know they want the monthly special.

Featured Ingredient: Eggs

DID YOU KNOW? Eggs are pretty much the perfect food. They contain a little bit of almost every nutrient you need. To tell the difference between a raw egg and a hard cooked one, spin it. Hard cooked eggs spin easily, raw eggs wobble.

It has been great to see so many of our students trying new foods and discovering new favorite meals.

In collaboration with The Center of Prevention and Abuse, our K-6th graders are participating in the PreventEd: Bullying Program. This will occur once a week for 12 weeks starting on February 6th. This program focuses on social and emotional learning and development in the areas of respect and empathy, emotion management, communication, problem solving, peaceful conflict resolution, overall bullying prevention and bystander intervention! This also pairs perfectly with the CASEL Framework which is integrated throughout our Into Reading Literacy Series & Social Studies Curriculums.

We are looking forward to providing our students with skills and strategies that support kindness, acceptance, and inclusion. Our 7th-8th graders participated in this program in the fall so we are thrilled the rest of the school will be able to benefit from this as well!

In the event of inclement weather, you will receive a text 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. Similar to last year we had emergency days built into our calendar. We have currently used 4 of our 5 emergency days.

We will be in session the on following days :

• Monday, May 6th
• Monday, May 13th
• Monday, May 20th
• Thursday, May 23rd

May 28th is currently our last emergency day if needed.

Into Reading K-6

This month, K-6 students will be wrapping up Module 5 and beginning Module 6 at various time depending on the class. Below you will find the grade level essential questions and the social emotional/learning mindset focus.

Social Studies

This month, grades 4th-8th will be continuing with Topic 4. Topics can last anywhere from 5-6 weeks. Below you will find the graphic that shares grade level questions and social emotional focus.

It is hard to believe it is already time to be thinking about LCHS registration for our 8th graders. On Friday, February 16th from 11:45pm-2pm LCHS counselors will be coming to LW in order to help your child register for their freshman classes.

Starting last year, we have appointment slots for this event to provide less wait time for you and your family, smoother and quick transitions from one appointment to another, and counselors knowing who they will be seeing so they can prepare more effectively.

That being said we are going to use the same system we have used for parent teacher conferences. This way you aren't having to navigate a whole new system. Since counselors are assigned based on last names, Mrs. Powers has already organized it to go directly to the counselor you will be seeing. If you could please select a time by Friday, February 9th this would be greatly appreciated. To access the sign up, please click on the button below.

We look forward to savoring last times at LW with you and your child over these next few months.

Feb. 1sr: Practice/First Match Prep 2:45pm-3:45pm

Feb. 5th: Home Match vs. Peoria Christian @4pm

Feb. 13th: Practice 2:45pm-3:45pm

Feb. 15th: Practice 2:45pm-3:45pm

Feb. 20th: Home Match vs. Peoria Heights @4pm

Feb. 22nd: Practice 2:45pm-3:45pm

Feb. 27th: Home Match vs. Bartonville Grade @3:30pm

Feb. 1st: Home Game vs. St. Jude @5pm

Feb. 3rd: 7th Grade Invitational @ Monroe TBD

Feb. 5th: Home Game vs. Norwood @4pm

Feb. 6th: Away Game @ Brimfield starting at 5pm *bus leaves at 4pm

Feb. 7th: Away Game @ Oak Grove starting at 4:30pm *bus leaves at 3:45pm

Feb. 10th: 8th Grade Invitational @IVC TBD

Feb. 12th: Home Game vs. Georgetowne @4:30pm

Feb. 13th: Away Game @ Pleasant Valley (B Game) starting at 5pm *bus leaves at 4pm

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

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

Feb. 20th: Away Game @ Mossville starting at 5pm *bus leaves at 3:45pm

Feb. 21st: Away Game @ East Peoria starting at 4:15pm *bus leaves at 3:15pm

8th Grade Team

Jan. 27, 30, 31: Regional

Feb. 1st: Sectional

Feb. 10th & 15th: State

5th & 6th Grade

Feb. 2nd: Home Game vs. St. Jude @5pm

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

Feb. 7th: Home Game vs. Bartonville @4:30pm

Feb. 8th: Away Game @ Hollis starting at 5pm *bus leaves at 4pm

Feb. 12th: Away Game @ Oak Grove starting at 5pm *bus leaves 4pm

Feb. 14th: Away Game @ Parkview starting at 4:30pm *bus leaves at 3:30pm

Feb. 21st: Away Game @ Norwood starting at 4:30pm *bus leaves at 3:30pm

Feb. 22nd: Home Game vs. Monroe @5pm

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. I curated this list over the last couple of years that covers a wide variety of ages, genres, topics, themes, etc. Your purchase means it will be shipped directly to the school, find its way into a classroom, and have a label with who donated it! Please make sure to include your name when purchasing.

Please feel free to share our list with family and friends! I can't wait to see where our farthest book comes from!

Our PTO meets the first Monday of the month at 7pm in the library. 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 closer to the date.

PTO updates:

Concessions Sign-Up for LW Boosters-- There have been times where our concessions almost weren’t able to run and we want to ensure that doesn’t happen. Please take a moment to sign-up for a time below. We know everyone is busy but even one time slot helps more than you could know. Check out the sign-ups below and let’s help make our concession stand something that can run from here on out.

🏐 ➡️ https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0F4AADAF23A6FBC52-47176736-lwgirls

🏀 ➡️ https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0F4AADAF23A6FBC52-47176500-lw5th

Volunteer for PTO Sponsored Events-- Do you want to be involved with the PTO or would like more information? The PTO sponsors or helps with several things throughout the year and we need your help! Use this link to indicate where you'd like to volunteer. Please see the attached flyer for more information about LW PTO or attend a meeting on the first Monday of the month!

⚾ Cards, Cubs, or Wild Card WINNER

The money has been counted for our super fan fundraiser and the winner is.....

💘 LW Family Sweetheart Dance

You won't want to miss out on this PTO sponsored event and we hope to see you there!

Remember

I remember seeing everyone again, trying new games during lunch time, and having students rush to check out a First Chapter Friday book.

Gratitude

I'm grateful for Liam, Luke, Savvy, and their parents who saw me moving cones in the morning and jumped out to help!

Goals

• continue conducting formal observations for tenured staff members
  
• attend PreventED lessons with our K-6 students
• prep for SIP and Institute professional development
• gear up for the Tech/Curriculum meeting this month

~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