~~ April News ~~

** Please send in clear empty 2 liter soda bottles to be used in Science Class **

Upcoming Dates:
• 4/12-4/27: Feinstein Challenge (see details below)
• 4/21: NO School – Institute Day
• 4/22: NO School – Good Friday
• 4/26: Family Reading Night (Please see below or the electronic backpack for more details)
• 4/27: Progress Reports sent home
• 5/3: Author Night – Paula Kluth (see details below)
• 5/4: ACES – All Children Exercise Simultaneously
• 5/20: Olympic Day

Student Council: Fantastic Fridays (some upcoming dates)
Weird Hair Day (April 29)
Blast From the Past Day (May 6)
PJ Day (May 13)
Blue and White Spirit Day (May 20)
Twin Day (May 27)
Tie-Dye Day (June 3)
Flip-Flop Tuesday (June 7)

Reminders/Notes:
• Author Night: DO YOU HAVE AN EPIC COLLECTION? On May 3rd, Longfellow will be welcoming Paula Kluth for its annual author night. Her book, Pedro’s Whale, tells a heartwarming story about a boy who loves whales and eventually begins to collect pictures of them, with the help of his classmates. In anticipation for Longfellow’s author night, we want to know what you collect!

• Family Reading Night: is coming, Tuesday, April 26th (6:30 – 7:30 p.m.) - “Read, Recite, Recycle” The “Recycle” part will again include a book swap! Begin collecting gently used children’s books. Bring the books to your homeroom teacher by Tuesday, April 19th. Your teacher will help you keep track of how many books you donate. Come to the Family Reading Night on the 26th, and you will take away “new” books to enjoy! There may be a limit of taking 7-10 books that evening. However, if you can donate more, that will help us make another very successful book swap!

• PE NEWS: Exciting news! Gymnastics is coming to Longfellow from Thursday, April 7 through Wednesday, April 20. Students will be learning skills on the balance beam, parallel bars, rings, uneven bars and mats, as well as rope climbing. Your child may participate either in regular gym shoes or gripper socks. Gripper socks have non-slip coating on the bottom. These can be purchased or homemade using "puffy" paint from a craft store. No one may participate in stocking feet without non-slip bottoms. All students should have gym shoes on PE days, just in case. Also, Long hair needs to be tied back during gymnastics classes.
Please contact The PE Team if you have questions. We are looking forward to two exciting weeks of gymnastics! The Physical Education team.

• Feinstein Challenge: April 12 -27 - Each spring philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein challenges food pantries across America to collect as many food items and cash donations as possible. To spur donations, Feinstein donates $1million dollars to feed the hungry. Those funds are divided proportionally among competing food pantries based on what they collect (cash and food items) during the months of March and April. Last year the OPRF Food Pantry collected an incredible $64,938 and 21,618 food items in response to the Feinstein Challenge and this year, they know they can do even better.

• Custom Typing: We are continuing formal keyboarding lessons and students will routinely go to the computer lab for Custom Typing. This offers the opportunity for your child to become familiar with “home row” and allows for an increase in words per minute. This program can also be accessed at home through our school’s homepage. In order to access a child’s particular screen, that can be accomplished by typing “d97username” (i.e. = d97melsmith). The password is your child’s student ID #. Students should be familiar with this process and can access the program at home for more practice.

• Take Home Folder/Assignment Books: Your child should be bringing home their assignment book and a take home (homework) folder everyday. Please check both for assignments, notes, and other information.

• Verification of Residency this year: When families first enrolled their children in District 97, they provided several documents that verified their residency in Oak Park and their children’s eligibility to attend our schools. We are asking parents/guardians of all current students to participate in this important process again to ensure that we continue to provide the children of this community with a quality education in accordance with state law and district policy. To access information about the re-verification process please visit the following website: http://www.op97.org/Verification%20of%20Residency%20for%20all%20Current%20D97%20Students.pdf

• ACES - All Children Exercise Simultaneously – is the world’s largest exercise class. On Wednesday, May 4 all Longfellow students and staff will participate in this even. This event, occurring at 10:00 AM, will happen in many countries all over the world in efforts to promote physical fitness and health. Please be sure your child has their gym shoes on this day!

• Olympic Day: Friday, May 20 is Olympic Day! There will be a climbing wall, tug ‘o war, crab soccer, relay races, and so much more! Students in grades 1, 3, and 5 will participate in the morning, and students in grades K, 2, and 4 will participate in the afternoon.

• District Referendum Information: Referendum information can be found at: http://www.op97.org/referendum/index.html

• Digital Backpack: Access the school’s digital backpack, to get papers from the school and district. If you need paper copies, please let us know. You can simply go to the district’s website and access it that way.

• Special Education Parent Nights: Please save the dates for upcoming K-5 Special Education Parent Nights. There was a change in some of the dates, so please take note of these new dates: March 22nd, April 26th, and May 24th. All parent nights occur at Whittier from 6:30-8 in the library. In March, parents of middle school and high school students with special education needs will be sharing their experiences at parent night. Hope to see you there.

• PBIS: PBIS program is still accepting donations from families and community partners. You can visit the PBIS blog at http://longfellowpbis.blogspot.com/ for a wish list on the right side menu; it is titled “Bears’s Den Wish List.”

• New Last Day of School: Due to our snow days, the last day of school is no longer Friday, June 3. Instead the last day of school will be Tuesday, June 7.

Curriculum Notes:

Reading: This week we continued our reading and discussion of “Frindle”, by Andrew Clements. Students should read the final few chapters over the weekend. We will have a small project, related to “Frindle”, due at the end of next week, so look for details next Monday.
Next week we will also begin Open Court, Unit 4, “Survival”. In this Survival Unit, the students will read various fictional and true stories about extreme situations. Our discussions with the different stories will center on how the characters stand up to the situations, and how we might respond if we were in their place. The selections include accounts of real and fictional people and the many ways they have learned to survive. In a variety of circumstances, these survivors exhibit a great deal of strength, courage, and thought. Some of the stories are about ordinary people who found themselves in extraordinary situations.

Math: Next week students will continue working on Unit 9, Percents. The unit focuses on the links among fraction, decimal, and percent names for numbers, with a special emphasis on percents. Students will practice conversions among fractions, decimals, and percents. They will use grid pictures, the multiplication rule for renaming fractions, memorization of simple conversions, and a calculator for more complex conversions.

Social Studies: Students will begin their six week Social Studies rotation next week, which will continue through the end of the school year.