Dear Families,
Brrrrrr! This week brought the chilliest weather we've had yet this season. Do you know what that means? Two words: indoor recess. I think we can all agree that we look forward to warmer days so that our students can run and play outside. Thank goodness for five days of physical education.
This is the first blog of the new year where we have no schedule reminders for you for next week. We have five full days ahead! Enjoy!
Kindly,
Christine Pfaff - Principal
NEW *Masking Reminder*
As a reminder, all individuals present on school grounds must continue to wear a face-covering consistent with Board of Education policy 4:182 until further notice. Any individual's refusal to wear a face-covering shall constitute a violation of the District's applicable rules of conduct and may subject the individual to disciplinary action or prevent the individual from entering or remaining on school district property. We are hopeful that, in the not too distant future, conditions will be conducive to reducing our mitigation measures. Thank you for your continued cooperation as we begin to see a decline in our positive cases!
NEW *Spring Parent/Educator Conferences*
Spring Parent/Educator Conferences are around the corner! The conferences will take place on Monday, March 14th from 5 PM to 8:30 PM and Tuesday, March 15th from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM.
Spring conferences will be in a collaborative format with students leading the conferences. Collaborative conferences are focused on reflection and growth. Students must be present at the conferences. These conferences will be 15 minutes in length.
We will continue using Meet the Teacher as an electronic sign up for conferences. A sign up link will be shared by the district with parents via email on Thursday, February 24th at 6:00 PM. The default option for conferences will be virtual, but parents and guardians will be able to schedule an in-person conference if they wish. Along with the classroom teacher, specials teachers and any related service providers that work with your child will also be available.
NEW *News from the Library*
Last year, our district purchased an online library called Sora that lets students access books through their iPad. It empowers students to discover ebooks and audiobooks for their enjoyment. It should already be downloaded, but if it is not, then students can find it in "Self-Service" on their iPad.
If you need to log in, remember we use our district name (Kildeer Countryside School District 96), NOT Prairie School. Students can see me if they have any difficulty logging in to the app. We have so many of our most popular books including all our Monarch and Bluestem nominees.
Thank you,
Mrs. Spivack
NEW *Kids Heart Challenge After School Event Info*
The Kids Heart Challenge (KHC) is in full swing! One of the sheets sent home with your child last week is a permission slip to stay AFTER SCHOOL from 3:00 PM -4:00 PM to participate in our celebration for the KHC. Students must be picked up promptly at 4:00 PM or return to Clubhouse. Permission slips should be returned to school by Friday, Feb. 4th so we can get an accurate number of participants. It’s not too late to participate in the ONLINE challenges and/or raise donations to American Heart Association. To sign up your child on the Prairie KHC website click HERE.
As always, thank you for being a Heart Hero,
Mrs. Lehtman & Mr. Nickle
REPEAT *PTO News*
Special Lunch
February 18th’s Special Lunch will be provided by Culver’s. Head over to MTK to get your order in.
Orders for February are due on February 11th. If you have any questions please contact Susan Dettman at [email protected].
Dessert Day
If you haven’t signed up yet for Dessert Day head over to Prairie's Membership Toolkit and pay only once this school year and get an ice cream dessert from Hershey's during a designated Dessert Day each month starting from January 2022 to May 2022! Once you purchase a membership, your child will be given a ticket on Dessert Day to use towards their favorite frozen treat, so you won't need to do anything else. No punch cards are necessary.
Please note that we disable the form on MTK a day before dessert day and reactivate it the day after dessert day is complete. If you have any other questions please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
REPEAT *IDPH/ISBE COVID-19 INFORMATION*
On January 11, 2022, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released new COVID-19 information related to school exclusion and test-to-stay protocols. Please find all updated information on our website.
REPEAT *Zoom Resource & Tech Trouble*
This information will be repeated weekly for families to access as needed. It is relevant for children who are approved for remote learning due to Covid-related quarantine or in the event of a remote severe weather day for all children.
ZOOM Resource - Remote Learning & Possible Emergency Weather Day
Please review this Zoom Tutorial Video Link with your child to prepare for remote learning. This is for students who have been approved for remote learning or in the event of an emergency weather day for all children.
Tech Trouble
If you are experiencing technical trouble on the iPad, here are a few tips that can help resolve the error you are receiving.
The first step is to completely remove Zoom through the iPad settings. Deleting Zoom from the Home Screen is NOT thorough enough to resolve this issue.
Go to Settings
Scroll down to General
Go to the right column and Select iPad Storage
Scroll down to Zoom
Delete the Zoom App
Open the Self Service App and reinstall Zoom
If the issue persists after this we would recommend following the next few steps.
Reset Network Settings:
Go to Settings
General
Go to the right column and scroll down to Reset
Reset network settings: The device will restart and you will have to reconnect to your home wi-fi afterward.
Next:
Go to settings
Scroll down to Safari
Scroll down to Clear History and Website Data
If you're still seeing that error after all of these steps then you may need to troubleshoot your network next. Unplugging your modem and router from power for 60 seconds and plugging it back in can sometimes be enough.
Please email [email protected] for further tech issues or additional support. Please also let us know at the school by calling our office, so we can inform your child's teacher. Call our office at any time with any questions. We completely understand any difficulties you are having and appreciate your patience as we troubleshoot your issue.
As a reminder, remote learning via Zoom will begin on the second full day of absence and is only available for students who meet one of the following requirements.
Student is asymptomatic (no symptoms) after receiving a positive Covid test result
Student is unvaccinated, asymptomatic, and under mandatory quarantine after being identified as a close contact to a confirmed positive Covid case.
Student is unvaccinated, has traveled internationally and is under mandatory quarantine upon returning home.
REPEAT *Cold & Snowy Weather and Recess*
Please remember to send your child to school daily with proper outerwear. Weather permitting students go outside for recess every day. In winter the temperature, wind chill, and weather conditions will be monitored throughout the morning. The weather website and playground will be checked to determine if conditions are appropriate for outdoor recess. When the temperature or wind chill is below zero degrees, students will be kept inside for recess. We weigh options when the temperature or wind chill is between zero to ten degrees, to determine if we have indoor or outdoor recess. We do try to allow the children to go outside whenever possible, so please help them to come prepared with gloves, a scarf, hat, snow pants, and snow boots. In order to play in the snow, students must have snow pants and snow boots.
REPEAT *Vaccination Cards for 5-11 yr olds*
You can provide vaccination verification after your child has received his/her full vaccination. Click HERE to complete the upload.
REPEAT *PRE-REGISTER FOR 2022–2023 KINDERGARTEN*
Please refer to the past few Principal Message blogs for full information on how to register your incoming Kindergartener.