Friday, November 18, 2011

11.18.11

Highlight of the Week
Our Family Reading Night, Passport to Reading, was a huge success this past Thursday.  Students and parents had the opportunity to experience literature from five different countries as they traveled through the red pod listening to teacher readers.  Families also had the opportunity to cozy up in the library while reading with each other.  A big thank you to Mrs. Nielsen, Mr. Vanderwerff, and Mrs. Novak for planning this successful evening.  


Lockdown Drill
This past Thursday, we conducted our first lockdown drill of the school year.  Lockdown drills are conducted twice a year to prepare students for any potential situations that may require a building lockdown.  District 96 Liaison Officer Staci Kupsak from the Buffalo Grove Police Department assisted us with the drill.  Our students and staff did an excellent job.   



Child Care for Parent-Teacher Conferences
Prairie School’s 5th Grade Girl Scout Troop 41416 will be providing child care services during the upcoming Parent-Teacher Conferences for children ages one and older. (Diaper changing services will not be available).  Please help Troop 41416 feed the hungry by utilizing their services.  For one hour of child care, Troop 41416 kindly requests one non-perishable food item or a $2.00 donation per child.  All donations, monetary and food items, will be given to the Vernon Township Food Pantry.  Your support helps the girls of Troop 41416 earn their Bronze Award.  This award is the highest Girl Scout service award for Junior Girl Scouts.  Locations are as follows:

Monday, November 21st - 4:45pm - 6:00pm in Room 19
Monday, November 21st - 6:00pm - 7:15pm in the Gym
Tuesday, November 22nd - 1:45pm - 7:15pm in the Gym

Parents may not leave school and must provide a cell phone number and conference room location.  For additional information, please email troop leader and Prairie parent, Mrs. Nina Strezewski at nina_strez@yahoo.com.




PTO Highlight
Don't miss out on this opportunity.  The Square One Art deadline has been extended to Monday, November 21st.   Please visit the PTO Newsletter for further details and to learn about more upcoming PTO events.  
   
A message from Paul Louis - Director of Curriculum and Assessment


Dear Parents,
As you know, our first Trimester Report Cards go home today for students in grades 1-5.  Our Kindergarten Report Cards are being provided to you during your scheduled Parent/Teacher Conference.  We are very pleased to share our newly developed standards based report cards with you as we believe that they clearly communicate student achievement of grade level specific learning targets and student work habits.   We have worked hard over the last weeks and months to prepare for these new report cards.  Our teachers have been amazing throughout this entire process from gathering information about each of the learning targets listed on the report card and building consistency across their grade level to learning the new process of inputting grades into the program.  

Please understand that with any new system, we may find a few glitches or issues during this first round of report cards.  Some we may not have been able to anticipate until the entire process was completed.  We will work hard to correct or improve any of the issues over the coming months and into next year.  We appreciate your patience and understanding through this process.  Please feel free to direct any questions comments to your building principal or to me directly (plouis@kcsd96.org).  Please remember to fill out the Parent/Teacher Conference Evaluation Form provided to you during your conferences.  Your feedback will be used as we continue to make improvements to the system.

Sincerely,
Paul Louis
Director of Curriculum and Assessment