From Mrs. McCoy: March 2010

Dear McDole Families,

As you know, McDole is a building filled with multi-talented students. Our students recently were able to showcase their talent at the 3rd Annual McDole Talent Show. What an enjoyable event for everyone and serves as a reminder of what truly amazing students we have! We also have students in our building who are taking on humanitarian causes. Allie Ganz and several friends proposed having a fundraiser for Haiti by having a bake sale after the Talent Show. The group was quite successful! Another 5th grade student, Jimmy Pullano, is raising awareness for the people of Haiti by having a Share your Soles collection where we can do-nate gently used shoes of any size. These shoes are brought to the people of Haiti. Please continue to donate your gently used shoes at McDole during the month of March. McDole continues to be a donation drop-off for the Sugar Grove Food Pantry. Please send in any non-perishable food items and they will be sent to the local food pantry.

The first two weeks of March, students in third through eighth grade throughout the state of Illinois take the Illinois State Achievement Test (ISAT). These tests are used to measure reading, math, writing and science for students. Each student receives feedback on their achievement typically in the fall. I am confident that the teaching and experience provided by each grade level at our schools prepare each student for the ISAT. As always, we ask that parents help by providing students a good night’s rest and a healthy breakfast in the morning.

Kaneland is holding its Kindergarten Fair on Saturday, March 13th at the Kaneland High School Cafeteria. If you have a child who will be entering Kinder-garten in the fall or know of a neighbor or friend who has a child this age, please pass the information along. The day can be enjoyed by parents and the soon-to-be Kindergartener. Parents are also able to register their child at this time. It is truly a wonderful event.

Enjoy Spring…and the Spring Break! Mrs. Martne McCoy

Calendar of Events

Mar. 1-12 ISAT Testing

Mar. 8 Young Rembrandts 4:35-4:35 p.m.

Meteorologist Amy Freeze

visits 2nd Grade

Mar. 13 Kindergarten Registration

KHS - 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Mar. 15 Young Rembrandts 3:35-4:35 p.m.

Mar. 16 Fun Lunch

PTO Meeting @ KME 7:00 p.m.

Mar. 18 Mad Science 3:35—4:35 p.m.

Mar. 19 End of 3rd Quarter

PTO Family Fun Night

7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Mar. 22 Young Rembrandts 3:35-4:35 p.m.

Mar. 23 PAC Meeting @ KME in MPR

6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Mar. 24 First Grade Field Trip to

Shedd Aquarium

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Mar. 25 Report Cards Go Home

Mad Science 3:35 - 4:35 p.m.

Mar. 26 NO SCHOOL - School

Improvement Day

Mar. 29 - April 3 SPRING BREAK

Messages from McDole

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KINDERGARTEN February 11th was the 100th day of the school year. To celebrate, each child shared a collection of 100 items which are on display at school. We enjoyed many fun counting activities too! We are currently learning about fish, reading both fiction and non-fiction books. We’ve named our classroom pets and each child has a Fish Journal to record observations and new facts they are learning.

SECOND GRADE Second grade is very busy this time of year. The stu-dents are finishing up their President research. The students have had a great opportunity to learn valuable researching skills with Mrs. Carlson in the library. Sec-ond grade is also welcoming Amy Freeze, the Chief Me-teorologist at FOX Chicago News, on March 8th. She will be coming in to talk with us about weather. Second graders know a lot about weather because it’s part of our Science curriculum. We wonder if we’ll teach Amy Freeze a few things!

FOURTH GRADE The fourth grade classes celebrated National Engineers Week by participating in an Engineering Unit. The stu-dents used critical thinking skills while planning and con-structing pasta cars and spaghetti bridges. Next week, the students will race their cars against one another to determine whose car travels the farthest. We will also test our spaghetti bridges to see which holds the most weight.

FIRST GRADE Glub, glub, glub...Can you taste the salt water? Can you see the fish? Can you hear the sea when you hold the shell to your ear? The First Grade Students can! We are beginning our Ocean Unit by diving into non-fiction conventions, student led research with Mrs. Carlson and a hands on activity. To conclude our Oceans Unit, we will be swimming our way to the Shedd Aquarium on March 24th. Read to the Principal is underway. Many students have turned in several record sheets. Keep up the great reading at home.

THIRD GRADE The entire school had the opportunity to see Bill Buczinsky, a poet, during a whole school assembly. Furthermore, Mr. Buczinsky visited all the third grade classes and held a mini-workshop. He taught our students some elements of poetry and helped the students find their own poetic power. Additionally, a local dentist visited third grade students to inform them about the importance of dental health.

EARLY CHILDHOOD We travelled back in time in Early Childhood to learn all about dino-saurs! We know that the dinosaurs are all gone, but we learned that some were big, some were little, some flew in the air, some walked on land, and some swam in the water. T-Rex was the fierc-est of all! We learned that we can see dinosaur bones at a museum and that special scientists called paleontologists(!) dig the bones out of the ground and put them together to make skeletons. We had fun digging for and sorting “bones” “teeth” and “claws” in our classroom, decorating huge paper dinosaurs (check out our bulletin board!) and playing lots of dinosaur games and singing dinosaur songs. We’re not sure we want to come back to the future!

NEWS from the

CLASSROOMS

K N I G H T S

of the

R O U N D T A B L E

The names below are the students that were honored to sit at the Knights of the Roundtable during the months of December and January. These students joined Mrs. Moeller and classroom teachers for lunch at the table after they were presented with a sash. Following lunch, students got their picture taken as the rest of the classes clapped for them.

Please note that PAST Knight winners can ALWAYS wear their sashes again on the Knight lunch days. They should be proud that they have earned a sash because they worked hard for it and if they choose, they can wear it on the days of the Knight of the Roundtable lunch. Students can ask their teachers for the specific date if they are interested!

First Grade

Sara Michaelson

Councial Glenn

Mateo Tapia

Delaney Douglas

Second Grade

Liliana Guerra

Taylor Spears

Veronica Latka

Abraham Hernandez

Third Grade

Brianna Contreras

Autumn Hurkman

Lindsey Talbott

Rachael Lutter

Fourth Grade

Matthew Payton

Kyle Konrad

Fifth Grade

Bryce Burton

Alyssa Murabito

Mackenzie Mulder

Riane Ruchaj

FIFTH GRADE McDole 5th graders sponsored a bake sale for Haiti after the Talent Show on Friday, February 19th. The bake sale was a HUGE success! We raised $320.00 to help the Haitian people during this difficult time. We would like to thank all of those who supported our fundraiser by baking and/or donating funds. We are very proud of our 5th graders for their caring and willingness to help others.

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On February 9th, McDole students were mesmerized by author/poet Bill Buczin-sky. His whimsical poems, engaging sto-ries, and magic stirred the poetic voices of students in kindergarten through third grades. In addition to performing two assemblies, he also conducted work-shops for each of the third grade classes in preparation for their poetry unit. Even reluctant writers were anx-ious to get their poems on paper and share them with their classmates.

Mr. Buczinsky is not only a poet, a per-former, but also, a fish-kisser. He is founder of A Child’s Voice, a company dedicated to teaching young people to love poetry. The students of McDole definitely have a new found love for verse! We hope to be able to invite him back again soon!

Author BILL

BUCZINSKY visits McDole Elementary

McDole raised $5,919.66 for the American Heart Association in last week’s Jump Rope for Heart event! Way to go McDole! We ROCK!

JUMP ROPE For

HEART

Congratulations to Bruce Burton and Bryan Zollinger for their per-formances this weekend at the IGSMA Solo and Ensemble Contest. They both received “Superior” ratings which is the highest score at the contest. You did a great job and were wonderful representatives for Kaneland.

IGSMA SOLO and ENSEMBLE CONTEST

Students are not permitted on school property before 8:30 a.m. After 8:30 a.m. supervision is provided by the school for the stu-dents. Thank you for following the rules of the school that were established for the safety of the students. Also, when dropping off children, please remember to use the west parking lot only.

School Improvement Goals for 2009-2010 School Year Goal 1: During the 09-10 school year, use established rubric and probes (from 08-09 SIP) to develop grade level base-lines for measuring student improvement of comprehension skills on the reading extended response for the purpose of facilitating student learning.

Goal 2: Increase student awareness of consistent school-wide behavioral expectations to promote a safe and positive learning community measured by the completion of the following activities: expectation walks, knight tickets, and the use of a safety patrol during the 2009-2010 school year.

Goal 3: Maintain community awareness of student successes at McDole during the 2009-2010 school year by communi-cating monthly with the district, parents and the local community.

Attention Kindergarten Families Please return to the class-room teachers the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVDs that were distributed to the kin-dergartners at the beginning of the year.

SHOES for HAITI

The family of Jimmy Pulano is collecting shoes for Haita. Gen-tly used shoes are being collected in the bin located in the front hallway in front of the office until March 12. For more information check out the website: www.shareyoursoles.com

Important Reminder

BETWEEN FRIENDS FOOD

PANTRY

The Sugar Grove pantry serves all of the Kaneland School District areas. We have a drop off bin in the front hallway across from the office for your conven-ience. Any contribution would be greatly appreciated by the needy families in our community.

Visit our website: www.sugargrovefoodpantry.org

THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR!