Dear Families,
Welcome back and Happy New Year! It has been incredible to see our students this week. It’s very clear that the time during winter break helped us all to reset and begin this year refreshed!
One of my favorite thoughts thus far about 2021 is “12 chapters and 365 chances”. It resonated with me to think about the year ahead in smaller chunks and to be intentional each month about different goals. I wonder what chapters our students will write in 2021? I look forward to seeing them in action.
Fondly,
Jenny Smith, Principal
Upcoming Calendar
JANUARY
4-10th – Visit the Willow Grove Mitten Tree (see details below)
13th – Asynchronous Wednesday for AM students (see details below)
18 – NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
26 – EARLY RELEASE DAY
NEW *January 13 Asynchronous Wednesday for AM*
Once per month, District 96 students will participate in asynchronous activities for a portion of their school day. As we are half-day, these days will only impact your child every other month. The dates for each of these asynchronous Wednesdays are identified below. You will notice that each date is identified as either AM or PM. If for example, AM is indicated, this means that students in our AM classrooms will participate in the asynchronous activities during the morning or AM portion of the school day, and PM students will have their typical classroom teacher-led school day. Specific times are indicated below with each identified date. Teachers will communicate with students to be sure that they understand the expectations for each of these days.
These monthly asynchronous days were created to give students the opportunity to participate in topics that will enhance our current curricular content, and so that teachers have time to collaborate and plan with each other to determine the best way to approach future instruction.
Asynchronous Wednesdays will take place on the following dates.
December 16: PM Asynchronous
January 13: AM Asynchronous
February 24: PM Asynchronous
March 17: AM Asynchronous
April 21: PM Asynchronous
SPECIFIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE UPCOMING ASYNCHRONOUS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13
The asynchronous portion of the day will take place in the morning or AM portion of the school day. The asynchronous focus for this day is social-emotional learning. Students will be engaging in a variety of social-emotional learning activities.
PM Blended & Kindergarten: Students will engage in instruction with their teacher as they typically would in the afternoon from 12:30-3:00. For kindergarteners, the morning optional specials will not take place on this day.
AM Blended & Kindergarten: Kindergarten students will have the option to engage in their regular afternoon specials (PE and music) as they normally would from 12:30-3:00. In the morning, from 8:30-11:00, students will participate in the asynchronous activities shared with them on SeeSaw. Teachers will not be available for live instruction for the AM students as the asynchronous activities were created for students to work through without teacher support. We recognize that these independent activities may require substantial parent guidance for early childhood students and kindergarteners, so please participate in the activities provided at the level that is comfortable for you and your child.
Blended (Early Childhood) and Structured (Early Childhood and Kindergarten): Additional information will come directly from your child's teacher.
NEW *Willow Grove Virtual Cultural Fair - Together, WE are Willow Grove! Parents, WE NEED YOU! VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTIONS SURVEY DUE JANUARY 15*
As a reminder, mark your calendars for the evening of February 18th at 6 PM for our virtual cultural fair family event. We cannot possibly do this event without the contributions of families, as this event is centered around our Willow Grove community.
We are now opening the survey to collect what families will contribute. The survey will close on January 15th. CLICK THIS SURVEY LET US KNOW YOU'LL CONTRIBUTE TO MAKE THIS NIGHT A SUCCESS!
There are so many ideas for how you can share about your family to have your child participate in this event and learn about one another. For more information and inspiration, see the "Repeating" information below. Contributions will be due by January 31. Once we have the list of volunteers on January 15th through our survey, we'll share instructions with families for submitting what they are sharing.
Cultural Fair "All About Me" Student Submissions
We are hoping to collect something from every student to showcase every family on our evening! Please CLICK HERE to get the template for your child and family to create an "All About Me" visual representation. The template includes an example (also below) and several layout options for designing this. It may be done with photos or drawings. It can be completed electronically, like the example, or you may print the template and take a photo of your finished product to submit. Next week we'll provide directions for submissions, but your child can get started on it now! Your child can include anything at all in the boxes that showcase your family. These will be due by January 31.
NEW *Missed Material Pick Up*
Thank you for participating in supply pick up today. For those families that were unable to make it today, you may come by our office anytime between 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM, M-F. If you have any questions, please contact the front office.
PTO News
RESTAURANT DAY TOMORROW AT TASTY SPIN, BUFFALO GROVE!
Support our local business and our school by dining from Tasty Spin–a locally owned and operated restaurant–and help our community get through these challenging times together!
Show THIS POST while ordering and 10 percent of the proceeds will be donated to our Willow Grove PTO!
When: Tomorrow, Sat., Jan. 9
Time: ALL DAY!
Where: Tasty Spin, 1038 Weiland Rd., Buffalo Grove
REPEATING *Willow Grove Family Mitten Tree* - Come on by through Sunday, Jan. 10
We'd love to celebrate winter and our wonderful Willow Grove community by creating a Family Mitten Tree! Print THIS PAGE (also in our Virtual Backpack) or draw your own mitten and have your child draw/color their mitten in a way that represents your family! Children can draw family members, holiday traditions, places you've lived/been, special objects to your family, favorite family foods or traditions, activities your family enjoys together, family values or messages (i.e., love, respect), etc. This is an opportunity to talk about these special things with your child and share them with our community on the Willow Grove Family Mitten Tree! Have your child cut out his/her family mitten, bring it to Willow Grove and place it on one of the trees on the left of the walkway leading to the main entrance (pictured below) starting when we are back from break, January 4th, and going through January 10th. As of January 4th there will be clothes pins by the trees to attach your family mitten to the tree. While you are there, look at the other family mittens and celebrate the beauty of all the families that make up Willow Grove!
I shared about the Family Mitten Tree in our WILLOW GROVE WEEKLY video and one child already got a jump start!! What fun to share this wonderful example with you!
Where to hang your mittens:
A beautiful example:
REPEATING *Together, WE are Willow Grove! Virtual Cultural Fair Coming in February!*
On the evening of February 18th, we’ll be hosting a virtual family event, showcasing the many families and cultures represented in our school community. We hope to encourage our students to learn about other cultures, to celebrate what makes us all unique and to recognize cultural traits that we share. We cannot do this without your support and are looking for parents who would like to share information from your family, around the country, and even the globe with our students and families. With our format being virtual this year, we are looking for families to submit videos, photos, or pdf activities that families will get to experience together.
Examples include:
Performances (dance, singing, music)
Recipes - could be video or written recipe or photos
Reading a children's picture book that your family enjoys (could be in a language other than English)
Activities - pdf coloring page, game board or instructions, art activity instructions, origami, etc.
Videos or photos of your family celebrating a holiday or special traditions
Collage of photos
Our evening will include a full school zoom gathering to kick-off the evening, followed by a choose-your-own-adventure path exploring family submissions to celebrate our school community. We will work with families prior to the event to provide instructions for uploading videos or submitting pdf activities. We'll then close the evening as a group.
With many holidays falling around this time of year, we wanted to bring this exciting opportunity to your attention, as it may be something to plan for or capture over break or in the upcoming months.
Families can share about traditions and anything that is special to your family. We are all unique and can learn from one another. We are so excited about this event! We hope that you’ll consider sharing with our school community. We would all love to get to know you more and learn from you! More on this exciting event to come.
Here are some of the ideas staff will be sharing, in an effort to give some inspiration:
- Mrs. Smith will be sharing a family recipe for Pfeffernusse cookies, which is a traditional Christmas cookie that is German-based but also is found in Scandinavian countries and Denmark. Mrs. Smith is German, Norwegian, and Swedish, so it's no wonder this cookie is special in her family!
-Mrs. Smith and her kids will read a story that was a family favorite when her kids were the same age as Willow Grove students.
-Mrs. Smith will share ways stories of her family are gathered and passed onto continued generations. She'll even share a funny story or two!
-Miss Longman will read the Channukah story, Meet the Latkes!
-Mrs. Scoville will read the story of The Christmas Pickle and show her pickle ornament for a German tradition she does every year.
-Mrs. Scoville will share about an old ravioli recipe that her Great Grandmother, from Italy, made.
-Mrs. Santucci will read one of her favorite stories about an Italian immigrant who comes to America with a special item from Italy. Then she will show you how to make ravioli using a special item her grandma brought to America from Italy, too!
REPEATING *Pre Register for 2021–22 Kindergarten Beginning Jan. 11*
Preregister incoming 2021–22 kindergartners beginning January 11 and no later than January 31 to receive a free T-shirt for your incoming student. SEE MORE INFO
REPEATING *Preordering Free Meals in 2021*
***Preorder by 10 AM on Thursdays***
Pick up preordered meals 11 AM–2 PM on Mondays (3 breakfast/lunch meal packs) and Thursdays (2 breakfast/lunch meal packs) at either Twin Groves or Woodlawn Middle School.
The first step to preorder is for families to create an account online and add each child receiving meals to the account. Please CLICK HERE for details and brief instructional videos of the account set-up and pre-ordering process.
Please direct questions to the public information coordinator [email protected]
REPEATING *Tech Hub*
The District 96 Family Technology Hub is designed to guide families through technology tools related to Enhanced Remote Learning. On this site you can find links to the recordings and the corresponding Slides decks for the parent/family informational sessions from last week. You can also find tutorials on how to use ZOOM, Schoology, Seesaw, Clever, Notability, and other iPad essential tools for student learning. Additionally there is a link to email the technology support desk. Please save or bookmark this site. It will be updated with tools, resources, and tutorials through remote learning to better support your family.
Please email [email protected] with any tech-related support needed.