Winter is Surely Coming

Hi everyone!

Wow, what a snow we got over the weekend! It was beautiful to watch! This blog has some information for upcoming events and reminders for winter.

Toys for Tots

Toys for Tots is a program that provides new, packaged toys for children who are less fortunate.

Please bring in new (unused) toys in the original unopened packaging to the office marked Toys for Tots by December 14.

Any toys, books, arts and crafts supplies are fine. No weapons or food products.

Thank you for giving this holiday season.

Home Depot Project
One of the Occupational Therapists at our school scheduled an amazing, hands-on activity with employees from Home Depot. The students will take about 45 minutes total from their day on Friday, December 9, to make a white board for themselves. This will be amazing fine motor practice and incorporate other skills such as direction following and other motor planning. We are so excited!

Shopping Wednesday
A Reminder that this Wednesday, we will be shopping instead of our normal swimming.

Spirit Day
There is a spirit day this Friday. It will be Sports Wear, so students can wear any sports shirt or jersey.

MAP Testing
We will be working on our second round of MAP testing this week.

Winter Parties
Please remember that if you are donating snacks and/or drinks for the winter parties on December 16th, these items MUST come from the Approved Snack List. Please also have these items at school by Friday, December 16th at 10:00am to be approved by the nurse. 

If you have any questions, please let me know! 


Have a great week!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi everyone! Happy Thanksgiving this upcoming week! I hope it is a time for family and rest for all of you! I am so appreciative of all of your support as we team to make school the best environment for your kids! Thank you!

Some notes for the week:

A note from our PTO:

Ivy Hall PTO has partnered with Papa John's Buffalo Grove for a month-long fundraiser. Every Wednesday in November, mention Ivy Hall when you order pizza and earn money for Ivy Hall Elementary - it's as easy and tasty as that! A flyer is available in Virtual Backpack with more details.

Thanks for helping to support the PTO! 

Parent/Teacher Conferences

A reminder that if you still need to sign up for a conference, please do so ASAP as we try to assemble as much of the team as possible for these. Please e-mail if you have any questions! The link is here: Parent/Teacher Conference Sign up

Report Cards

Report cards will be sent home this Friday, November 18th. You will receive IEP goal updates as well as a narrative report card from all service providers and specials teachers.

Library Books

Please return library books on Friday mornings so your child can get new books from our awesome library!

Pajama Day

We will have a spirit day celebration this Friday, November 18th: PAJAMA DAY! Please make sure your student has appropriate shoes for PE class.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please send me an e-mail. Thank you for your continued collaboration! Happy Thanksgiving next week!

Happy Halloween

Hi everyone!

Just a few quick updates for this week's blog!

Monthly Theme:
We are finishing up our nature and fall theme for October! We read about an Apple Tree and the life cycle of an apple seed. Your child created a flow map of the sequence of apple seeds. To have some fun with sequencing, we put pictures in order of making a peanut butter and kelly sandwich!

We also read a story about two monsters who have a pumpkin growing contest. We were able to relate this story to our work with the apple seed. In the story, the two monsters have a contest to see who can grow the largest pumpkin. We looked at a pumpkin and students had to make guesses on the width and height of the pumpkin. The winner received a prize!

Halloween Note
Please be sure to read the Principal's Message for school guidelines around appropriate costume attire for our Halloween festivities.  If you are unsure about whether or not something in your child's costume is appropriate, please contact me.  Also included in Mrs. Gluck's blog are the guidelines around students going home for lunch on Halloween.  If you plan on bringing your child home for a costume change, please be sure to review the procedures.    ~Thank you


Dog Therapy
We had our first session of dog therapy this week! The students loved petting Riley! He was such a joy to have! We had Mrs. Friziellie as a guest visitor who read a story to the students and Riley. It was a great morning!

Library Book Reminder:
Reminder to please return library books to school on Friday so your student may look for new books. Thank you!

If you have any questions, please e-mail me! Also, let me know if you have any questions for Halloween! Happy Halloween! And GO CUBS!!

Let's Go Cubs!

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone was able to enjoy the weekend, and if you had the time off, I hope it was restful. I am just going to update the blog as we only had two days of school this week. The weekly communication logs will resume next week!

Holiday Parties:
It's Party Time! Classroom Party Parent Volunteers Needed!

Each classroom's Room Parent will be organizing three parties this year, and you're invited to help! Each party needs parent volunteers to help out with crafts, games and snacks. To sign up, please click here for more info and to add your name to the list. Room Parents will make every effort to provide all interested parents the opportunity to attend at least one party this school year.

A few things to note:
-For safety reasons, only one room parent and three parent volunteers are allowed at each party. No exceptions. No siblings may attend the party with a parent volunteer.
-Because the volunteer parent positions are so popular and fun we do sometimes have waiting lists. Please consider volunteering as a Party Photographer for your child's grade as an alternative!  It's fun and there is NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! There are other opportunities to help, including sending party supplies and snacks.
-Please sign up for ONLY ONE classroom per party if you have multiple children at Ivy Hall. You may also sign up as an alternate for another party in the classroom under the Alternate section.

Halloween Reminders:

Stores are full of Halloween costumes already, and I'm sure that your child is excitedly looking forward to getting a Halloween costume together for this year's festivities.  When selecting or creating a costume with your child to wear at school, please be sure that the following expectations are followed.

Must be appropriate for school
No masks, blood, super scary stuff, general iciness, or weapons
No cigars or cigarette items
No bare tummies
Please keep hair coloring and make-up simple
**If you are unsure about a costume or costume prop, please contact your child's classroom teacher.  Students whose costumes do not meet these expectations will be asked to adjust their costume for the school festivities.**

PLEASE CHECK PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE FOR MORE DETAILS

Cooking:
This week, we prepared for our upcoming CBI trip to Jewel. We planned our rolled apple pies. We listed out our ingredients, tools needed, and steps for cooking. We will be shopping on Wednesday, October 19th, and cooking the following Friday, October 21st.

News-2-You:
This week, we read about the 90th anniversary of the Winnie the Pooh books. There will be a new book coming out on October 25th. The students all loved reading about the characters and Winnie the Pooh. We watched a song The Honey Song which all of the students liked and have been singing.

Please check the Principal's blog for lots of important information! 
Principal's Blog
*As a note, when parent/teacher conferences are posted, ours are 1 half hour session, as opposed due 15 minutes due to class size. Please make sure you get a time as soon as possible so we can make sure as many team members as possible are there.


GO CUBS!

End of September

Hi everyone! We are nearing the end of September and we have been very busy! Here are some highlights, upcoming events/activities, and information.

CBI Trip
Everyone did an amazing job on our CBI trip to Mariano's. We had a bus delay, but everyone did an awesome job waiting. When we arrived at the store, each student was paired with an adult and had to find items on their list. Because we were making fruit salad, most of our items were produce or canned fruit, so the students did not need too much time. They did a nice job finding their item, bringing it to our class cart, and checking it off of their lists.

We will be going on our next CBI on October 19th in place of swimming. Please note that all other Wednesdays, we will be swimming.

This Month's Theme
This month we have been working on community helpers, and safety. We are working to describe what community helpers such as police officers do, and who and when to go to someone when we have a problem. We will be finishing this in September.

Next Month
Next month, we will be focusing on nature, the life cycle of a seed which will include sequencing events. More to come as we get into October.

Book Fair
Last week, we sent home flyers for the book fair. We will be going as a class on Monday, September 26th to preview the books. Your child will come home with a wish list that has the name and price of the book. If you wish to purchase a book, please send in money, and circle or let us know which book(s) the money is for. We will be able to go in and purchase those during the day on Tuesday.

Pictures!
Here are some pictures from the students' work in OT/Speech group as well as Social Work Group

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Happy August

Hello everyone! I can't believe we are at the end of August already! We have been working hard the past two weeks to really get to know each other and get back into our school routines.


Communication
A reminder that each week, I will send out a communication log. This will have updated information in regards to academics and anything exciting or different happening in our classroom. Related service providers will write at the end of each month to summarize what they have been working on in their sessions.

I will always e-mail with any information that is more urgent or needs attending to more quickly. Please do not hesitate to e-mail me with any questions, comments or concerns. The team appreciates input and communication from you as well, so we are happy to hear from you!

This blog will also be updated every other week. I will send an e-mail with the link when it has been updated.

A list of all of the service providers as well as other contacts was provided in the handbook handed out at curriculum night if you attended, and if not, it came home in your child's folder on Friday.

Classroom Programs/Activities
 Some programs we use in our classroom:
Edmark: (used for some students)- a sight word reading curriculum used for development of sight words as well as comprehension. It includes various worksheets that aid in comprehension, matching, and writing practice.

News-2-You: This is a group time that we are fortunate our Speech Pathologist and Occupational Therapist can push into. We read a news story together and answer comprehension questions about the story. We work on different skills with vocabulary words from the story. We practice cutting, glueing, writing, and defining the words.

Theme Times: We have a monthly theme that incorporates either science or social studies concepts. Each week, we have a time dedicated to the theme and our related services have developed activities that they will implement based on the theme. These will be reported in the communication log as they occur.

Swimming/CBI
This year, we will continue to swim on Wednesday afternoons. Please send your student with a swimsuit. Towels are provided by the fitness center. Once a month, we will be participating in curriculum based instruction at a store. We will plan what we are going to cook, and shop for the materials on one Wednesday in place of swimming. We will cook the Friday of that week. This will help students to vote, create lists, practice social skills in a store, money skills for some, and then the practice of cooking with the materials.

Schedule Times
Normal bell schedule 8:20 (we get students off of buses or from parent drop off)
Pick-up 2:50 (buses or parent pick up)

Early release: Students are dismissed at 1:50

Please read the principal's message every week, as well as check into the PTO blog for information.

Spirit Wear
This is the last week to purchase spirit wear. If you wish to do so, please order through the link below.
http://www.jelligoods.com/spirit-program/ivy-hall