We were so lucky to get to watch the play “Beauty and the Beas”t this morning.. The entire cast, including the crew, did a wonderful job preforming for our students and staff! Way to go! A big thanks to Ms. McVay and Mrs. Petrolpoulos for all of their hard work getting the students ready.
Below find the link to the May 11, 2012 Churchill Chatter. Be sure to check it for the many upcoming events we have in store the month of May.
Chatter 5-11-12
The teachers and staff at Churchill would like to send a big “thank you” for treating us all like “rockstars” this week. We truly appreciate all everyone did for Teacher Appreciation Week!
Dear Churchill Community
This past Wednesday marked another culminating tradition for our school. The students here worked hard to fine tune their writing and publish their work for you to see. It was truly heartwarming to watch our students take great pride in sharing their accomplishments with their families. We had another great turn out this year with over 450 students and guests attending the evening’s festivities. It was exciting to walk the halls and see students showcasing their best work, creating their very own Leo, participating in the book walk, listening to our “celebrity readers” (athletes from the Hoffman Hawks and Chicago Slaughter!) and visiting the PTA sponsored Scholastic Book Fair. Thank you for spending an evening with us!
As students continue MAP testing next week, please continue to support your child to be sure that he or she gets plenty of rest and have a good breakfast. The students have been working so hard to show what they know and meet their goal!
Enjoy a great weekend.
Mrs. Hopkins and Mrs. Lindblade
To view the Chatter click the link below:
Churchill Chatter 4-27-2012
Wow, what a week! Our 1-2 and 3-4 grade students completed their final MAP test of the year. We are so excited so many of us met our goals! On Wednesday, many of our families came for Celebrate Reading and Writing night at Churchill. We know everyone had a great time. Next week, 5-6 and kindergarten will be taking their MAP tests. Good luck.
Well the days are just flying past us! We are already into the middle of April and time to start looking at how we are progressing with meeting our goals. One way we measure this is through our Spring MAP testing. Your students have been working so hard day in and day out, so we know they are ready to “show what they know”. We have no doubt they will reach the goals they set earlier in the year. Our testing window for MAP begins the week of April 23 and ends May 11th. Your child’s teacher will inform you of their specific testing dates. Thank you ahead of time for encouraging your child to do their best to demonstrate what they have learned this year. Please inquire with your son/daughter about their MAP goals, their class MAP goals, etc. They are working to demonstrate to themselves, you, and their teacher, the terrific gains they made this year. We are so proud of them!
The Hoffman Estates High School Community Literacy Outreach Barnes & Noble Book Fair is scheduled for April 14th. All proceeds will benefit District 54 literacy programs. To maximize the fundraiser potential they have also coordinated with Fuddruckers for a Books and Burgers fundraiser on the same day. If you are unable to make it, the Barnes & Noble Book Fair is good for online purchases, just put in the Book Fair ID when checking out. Here is the website with more information: http://www.hehs.d211.org/ . Please consider supporting our schools by attending this very worthy event.
We look forward to seeing all of you at our next PTA Family Fun Night, April 20th and our annual Celebrate Reading and Writing Night on April 25th. You can read more about these events inside the Chatter attached! As always, if you have anyquestions, please don’t hesitate to give the us a call.
Mrs. Hopkins & Mrs. Lindblade
To view the April 13th Chatter click the link below:
April 13th Churchill Chatter
With ISATS over we are getting ready for our well deserved spring break. Spring break will begin Monday, March 26th with school resuming on Monday, April 2nd. Please make sure that you had a chance to read last week’s Chatter. There are many exciting events coming your way in April and information on the 2012-2013 staffing plan that you don’t want to miss.
We had a great assembly today. Our 1-2 students presented the 3rd-6th graders with some beautiful motivational posters to help send us into ISAT week. We are ready to show off what we know.
Happy Friday!
Please take some time to read the attached Chatter! It is filled with some very important information from our PTA and some reminders for ISAT testing. Your children have been very busy putting 100% effort into being students here at Churchill. In just two short weeks our 3-6th grade students will be ready to “Show what they know and meet their goal!” on the Illinois Standard Achievement Test. Please look inside the Chatter for some ways you can help your child be successful during testing. (March 5-9)
Congratulations to our third and fourth graders who entertained us this week with a wonderful music program. The students here at Churchill were impressed by your talents and your parents beamed with excitement Monday night.
We are looking forward to kindergarten registration on Thursday, February 23. If you have a child entering kindergarten this fall, you will need to register at your child’s base school. You can register between 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 pm or 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Please think about joining in the conversations at our next PTA meeting. It will be held Tuesday, March 13th @ 7pm in the school library. We are always looking for parents to share some great ideas for our students. The PTA works hard to provide family fun evenings, assemblies, hot food days, picture day, snack days, field day, and the list goes on! But all of these wonderful things don’t happen unless we have your support “behind the scenes” getting the job done. We are looking for more helpful hands! When you can share the workload it just seems easier to get the job done. There is no need to RSVP or even be a PTA member. You don’t need a reason to be there, just come and see how you can help.
If not you… then who?
Have a wonderful extended weekend!
Mrs. Hopkins and Mrs. Lindblade
Click to view Churchill Chatter 2 17 2012
First I just have to say, “WOW!” What a huge turnout we had for our PTA Family Fun night! Our gym was packed with Churchill families having fun together. Everyone was entertained with a night of magic, laughs, songs, and even some dancing. We all enjoyed seeing some of our students assist in the show, a few of our dads perform, and the kids anxiously waited to see Mrs. Hopkins get all tied up. A big thank you to our PTA who provided this family fun evening to our community free of charge! Thanks also to the PTA clean up crew, who certainly made quick work of putting back all of those chairs!
Our PTA works very hard to support our school. With their time and support they are able to provide nights like Tim Hannig – The Pro-Kids
Show!, fun food days, hot lunch days, field day, yearbook, school pictures, book fairs, and much more. This is a good time for us to remind you to join the PTA. A portion of our membership goes directly to events like those mentioned above. If paying for a membership is not what you wish to do, we also ask that you consider giving the gift of time to the PTA. When we share the responsibility to support our students the load lightens. Even 60 minutes makes a difference! Call any PTA representative to ask; “What can I do?”
Not only does our PTA work hard, so do our students. It is evident, from the many students who met their mid-year MAP goals that you and your families are finding time in your busy days to read with your children, ask them about books, and check their homework. We are very proud of the progress your students are making here at Churchill! We thank you for your continued support in your child’s education.
You are a very important person for your child’s reading and language development. You are your child’s first teacher and mentor. Children of all ages love to be read to and have people listen to them read. Encourage your children to pick books out of the library they are interested in and share them together. You could promote effective reading strategies by suggesting the following techniques when your child struggles with an unknown word.
(suggestions adapted from Attempting Unknown Words: Suggestions for Parents , by Katie DeSotell)
SKIP AND READ ON
When faced with an unknown word, your child should continue to the end of the sentence or paragraph. At that point go back to the unknown word and have them make a meaningful substitution and then reread the sentence with the substitution. Always encourage children to monitor their own comprehension by asking, “Does that make sense?” Often time, children will provide the correct word by utilizing the context clues.
PICTURE CLUES
Ask you child, “What do you see in the picture that may help you?” Attending to details in the picture may support your child’s attempts at unknown words. In addition to illustrations, encourage your child to use maps, photographs, charts, and diagrams to support their reading. All readers should be gaining meaning from the pictures as well as the words.
VOCABULARY CUES
Often times, a student’s oral vocabulary is greater than their written. Children are exposed to language so much more than they are exposed to print. Many times children will already know the unknown word and use the word appropriately in their own vocabulary, but may have never seen it in print to make the connection. You could say to your child, “Oh! You know this word. This is the word you use if you are very, very scared.” The unknown word in this case could be frightened. This helps students connect what they already know to the print in the
textbook.
SOUND IT OUT or “CHUNK IT”
Beginning readers should look at the letters in the word. Ask your child, “What sounds do you expect to hear?” Children can also think about word families that are familiar to them (such as cat, hat, sat). Ask your child, “Does this look like a word family you know? Does it rhyme with another word that you know?” Older readers should look for word parts they recognize‐‐base words/root, words within a word, suffixes and prefixes.
Happy Reading!
Mrs. Hopkins and Mrs. Lindblade