Mrs. Patricia E. Donoghue, Principal September

McCord Mustangs News

Dates to Remember:

August 28

First Day of

Kindergarten

Back to School

Night (K-6)

7-8 p.m.

September 1

No School -

Labor Day

September 24

Board Meeting

District Office

7:00 p.m.

Reminders:

Please call the office at 599-4411 every day your child is absent. If we do not have verification of absence, we are required to call the truant officer. Please send a note when your child returns.

If your child is absent FIVE or more consecutive days, has an undiagnosed rash, or communicable disease, a doctor’s note is required upon returning to school.

Please update the parent contact emergency number as often as necessary. It is critical we have an emergency contact number in case your child is injured, becomes ill or needs medical attention.

A supply fee of $75.00 is due on or before September 30, 2014 for all students. A $25 additional charge is added beginning October 1, 2014.

Send all money in an envelope with the reason for the money and your Child’s Name & Grade.

Please comply with the following starting times:

1. Students are not supervised and should not arrive to school before 7:35 a.m. if they are eating breakfast.

2. Student should not arrive to school before 7:45 a.m. if they are not joining us for the breakfast meal.

Classroom Party Guidelines: In an effort to promote student wellness,

good nutrition and a safe environment for students with allergies or other medical conditions, District 111 is

requesting that only non-food items be brought in by students for class-room

parties or birthdays. Examples include pencils, coloring books, stickers, erasers,

crayons, books, bookmarks, gift certificates, board games, and puzzles. Thank you for your cooperation in this

matter. If you have any questions or con-cerns, please contact your child’s

school.

These are some of the Resources that can be found on the District website:

www.bsd111.org

Student/Parent Resources

A+ny Where

STAR Reading

STAR Math

Rosetta Stone

Reading Plus

Follett

Accelerated Reader

Online Textbooks: Grades 3-5 Science, Grade 6 Science, Grade K-6 Math

**Please note that in some cases, not all features will be available from non-school

computers (i.e., students will be unable to take Accelerated Reader tests from home)

Welcome back to everyone! We are looking forward to a wonderful and productive school year. We are

starting the school year with the basics. We will continue to introduce letters and letter sounds, retell-

ing stories with a little help and learning some sight words. The class will practice colors, shapes, count-

ing, number recognition, and position words (above,

below, behind, in front of, next to). We will also be

reading lots of stories together while practicing our

listening skills. We are also getting to know our new

friends in our class. This is a great group of students

and we look forward to sharing the year with them!

Mrs. Jennifer Smith & Mrs. Helen Johnson - Early Childhood

McCord Mustangs News

Mrs. Allen & Ms. Horan - Kindergarten

Mrs. Gorman & Mrs. Conway - Pre-Primary

Seventeen happy preschoolers have started their academic careers in room 108 here at McCord School!

Miss Jenny and Miss Helen are very impressed with their very good manners.

We started out the school year with an All About Me and Going to School

Theme. We will then segue into “My Family.” We will learn about what

makes a family, as well as what families do together. We also have a

vocabulary list for each week. Parents receive pictures of the vocabulary

words and a list of questions to review with their child. So far, table time and

music time are big hits with students. They especially enjoy dancing to a song

called “The Freeze.” We will end the month of September with a unit on

Apples. We will count them, sort them, describe then, and make apple print

paintings. Be sure to check out our artwork when you pass us in the hallway.

Have a great school year!

During the first several weeks of school, we will be working to develop our classroom routine and

establish rules. In Reading, our class will be focusing on key skills that will provide

a strong foundation for our learning this year. Please rein-

force uppercase and lowercase alphabet letters and reinforce

letter sounds. In Math we will be reinforcing positional

words, introducing classification and sorting concepts. Please

have your child practice writing his or her first and last

name.

All meal accounts are to have a positive balance

in order to purchase meals. The meal program is

a debit account not a credit account.

Please ensure that your child’s account has a

positive balance whenever they are purchasing a

meal.

Thank you!!!

Well another fun-filled summer has come to an end and we are looking forward to

a rewarding year of new and exciting experiences! We hope to challenge and stim-

ulate all our eager, young minds. Remember, in order to have a successful school

year, we need your participation and input too! Feel free to contact me about any

questions or concerns you may be having this school year. To start the school

year off right, we will be focusing on developing some of our foundational reading

skills: establishing phonemic awareness, identifying letters and giving the corre-

sponding letter sounds, and identifying sight words. In math, we will be working on identifying numbers,

counting, one to one correspondence, and the beginning stages of addition and subtraction. Remember to

take interest in what your child is doing here at McCord. They are working so hard and are so excited to

show you what they know! Your participation and cooperation are essential for your child’s experiences

at McCord to be a good one.

Welcome to 2nd grade! We are so excited to get to know our new second graders.

During September, our focus will be on setting routines: for arrival, bathroom

breaks, lunch time, travel in hallways, and dismissal. By practicing daily at the start

of the year, these procedures will become habits. Math lessons this month will focus

on mastering addition and subtraction facts, and on measurement. The students will

use computer practice on xtramath.org and participate in timed

quizzes. Measurement activities will include estimating, measur-

ing, and recording results. In the area of reading, we will start the month with les-

sons reviewing phonics patterns and skills good readers use. Then, we will move on

to reading about how friends depend on each other and how families around the world

celebrate. Parents, please be sure that your child has all of the supplies from the sec-

ond grade list. We have already begun to use many of them. You can help your child

this month by practicing addition facts or allowing your child to log in to xtramath.org at home. Also

encourage your child to read every night. There is so much to learn this year. We are glad to finally get

started.

Mrs. Novak & Mrs. Kalousek - Second Grade

Ms. Cerny & Mrs. Hlad - CC First Grade

Mrs. Burt & Mrs. Wedster - First Grade

Dear First Grade Parents,

Mrs. Burt and Mrs. Wedster are very excited to welcome you and your child to first

grade. It is a very important year for learning how to do so many new things. It will

be fun to work together to help the children reach their full potential. We have a new

reading program so we will be learning along with the children. There will vocabu-

lary reading lists and spelling lists for the children to study and

learn in order to become a good reader. Please help them with this. We will begin

with number sense and counting in math. We will study about our families and John-

ny Appleseed. In phonics we will be checking to be sure your child knows all the

sounds of the letters in the alphabet. We will begin with the sounds of m,s,p,t,r, and

a. We will send notes home in the childrens' folders so please check their folder every

night when we begin th send homework assignments they will be in their folders. We

look forward to an exciting and productive year of learning and fun. Please don't hesitate to call or write

with any questions or concerns you might have.

Thank you,

Mrs. Burt & Mrs. Wedster

Welcome back! We know it’s going to be a busy and interesting year. We are excited to begin our new

language arts program called “Wonders.” This program is fully aligned with the Common Core Stand-

ards and contains all sorts of interesting fiction and non-fiction stories. The

series provides activities for improving reading skills, vocabulary and com-

prehension. Grammar, spelling, and writing activities are integrated each

week. In addition, we be working in small guided reading groups, using the

leveled readers that go along with each unit. A big change this year is that

there are no third grade workbooks. All written work will be done on work-

sheets, in journals, or on the computer. Our first thematic science unit is on

weather. Watch for the fun, creative project coming home. Starting in Sep-

tember “scootpad” activities on the computer will provide extra practice in

math and reading. Letters will be coming home telling you how to access

these from home. We’re looking forward to a great 2014-2015 school year!

Welcome to fourth grade!!! We are going to have an exciting year. My motto this year is "Make it

Work". That is what we will do. This year, there are going to be many changes. The

first one is the adoption of the new reading series. It is very exciting. I can say that

from firsthand experience since I piloted the program last year. Another change is

the new state testing on the Common Core. This is new to eve-

ryone. One thing that I do know, is that your child should

know their multiplication facts by now. If they don't, please

start practicing. That is our first unit in Math. We will be

starting with multiplication and then with division. I am look-

ing so forward to this year and to everything that we shall accomplish. If for any

reason you need to contact me, you may call the office, write a note or just send me

an email at cbarker@bsd111.org. I check my email multiple times a day, including

from home. I anticipate on having a great year. This is my 26th year at McCord

and I am looking so forward to it.

McCord Mustangs News

Mrs. Green - Third Grade

Mrs. Barker - Fourth Grade

Mrs. Augustyn - Third Grade

Welcome back to a new school year! The beginning of each school year brings the opportunity for a

fresh start. Third grade is an exciting year with many new experiences in store.

Students are in the intermediate wing of the building and have

lockers for the first time. Along with the fun of having a locker

comes the responsibility of making sure it is neat and remember-

ing to close it when they are finished. Students are also excited to

begin multiplication and cursive handwriting. There are so many

adventures awaiting the new third graders.

Visit Burbank School District 111 website at:

www.bsd111.org

Welcome Back to School! It was so nice to see all of the McCord family excited to be back in school. Lots

of students told me about their summer reading. BRAVO! Thank you parents and guardians for pro-

moting reading at home, it is one of the most beneficial ways

you can help your child. We are wasting no time in Literacy

this month. All grades will be working on story elements- char-

acter, setting, plot, theme- this month. Please ask your child

about the books we are reading. Talking about books with

your child sends the message that reading is important and

can help them develop an appreciation for literature. Discus-

sions at home will also help their performance in school. Some fun questions to get

the discussions started are: If you could be friends with any character in the book, who would

it be and why? What was the most exciting part of the book? How would you change the end-

ing of the story? What did this story remind you of? If you were a character in the story, what

would you do differently? During Literacy this month, we will also get back into the computer

lab working on our keyboarding skills. Students will learn and review keyboarding posture

and home row finger placement.

"Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks." — Dr. Seuss

Mrs. Arvetis - Literacy

Mrs. Schmidt & Mrs. Ellis - Sixth Grade Welcome back students, parents, and staff. I am looking forward to working as a team with both par-

ents, students, and staff to help my 6th graders achieve the skill necessary to be successful this year and

life skills for the future. Our theme this year is based on the Lego Movie song, “Everything is awesome

when we’re part of a team.” I am launching a new program based on the Four R’s,

Routine, Respect, Responsibility, and Reputation. Students have discussed the

meaning of these words and the importance of their application to be effective in

school. We are going to work together to become “master builders of learning”. I am

looking forward to meeting parents on our Open House night. Please come out to

meet the staff and be involved in your child’s learning environment. I will be call-

ing parents this week to introduce myself and ask for their help and support this

school year.

Mrs. Schmidt & Mrs. Weigus - Fifth Grade

Welcome back parents and students! We hope you had a wonderful summer and are ready to get back

into the school year routine. This year’s 5th grade teachers are Ms. Schmidt and Mrs. Weigus and we are

looking forward to a wonderful year together. There will be many changes made in the curriculum this

year with the launch of our new reading series and Common Core being in full ef-

fect. We hope that you will use our information given at

Open House to help create clear communication of the ex-

pectations we have for your child and the school year.

Math will begin with basic whole number computation and

how to apply it. Much of the unit will focus on extending

previous skills of multiplication and division to multi-digit

whole numbers. Please make sure your child is completing their nightly reading

log as it is an important component of their grade and to understand the importance of reading. In

Health we will prepare for D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and discuss the negative effects

of tobacco products. Again, clear communication is a great way to start the school year off and we are

looking forward to a great year in 5th grade.

Welcome back to the new school year! I hope everyone had a wonderful summer! I am so happy to be a

part of the McCord School family as the new Learning Resource teacher. I am excited to meet everyone

and get started working together to accomplish our goals for the year! In the coming weeks, we will be

conducting initial assessments to determine how each student can be best support-

ed with specific strategies and activities aimed at building upon the individual suc-

cesses of every student. Of course, we will have a bit of fun too, as we get to know

each other. Our focus will be to improve reading and math skills through adapta-

tions, accommodations and interventions that are best suited to each student’s

unique and individual need and learning style. Great things happen when parents,

teachers and students all work together! Real life opportunities

are an important and meaningful way to reinforce and “bring to life” the concepts

your child is learning and developing at school. Consider having your child help you

write out your grocery list and estimate the total cost of a few of the items or perhaps

they can help you prepare a meal by reading and following a recipe. You might also

have them retell a favorite part from a movie or TV program that you watch together.

The benefits of a daily family reading time are substantial, so everybody grab a good

book or magazine and enjoy! I am very excited to have the privilege and opportunity

to work together with the students and staff of McCord School. I can tell already that

this is a special place and that the coming school year is certain to be a fun-filled and

productive one! Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.

“Each child has a different learning style and pace, each child is unique, not only capable of learning but

also capable of succeeding.” - Robert John Meehan

McCord Mustangs News

Mrs. Kolb - Leaping with Learning - Resource Room

Ms. Bylinski - Reading Specialist

Welcome Back! I hope everyone had a relaxing and restful summer. I also hope we all did some reading

over the long summer break. Reading every day for 15-20 minutes is the best way to ensure your stu-

dents’ success in school. You need to practice to become better, and good reading skills are a big part of

being a successful student. Here are a few tips to help make reading a part of your day to day family

time

Read bedtime stories every night together

- Read to younger children and ask questions.

- Have older children read to you or switch off and discuss

what you are reading.

Play board games

- Plenty of directions to read and it’s fun too!

Visit the local library

- Check out books for the whole family.

Read while grocery shopping

- Your child is in charge of reading the list and telling you what you

need to buy.

Read a recipe and make breakfast/dinner/lunch together

Create a place for reading in your home

- A comfy chair or quiet place is great for reading.

Have plenty of reading materials in your home.

- Books, magazines, comic books, newspapers are all good reading materials.

Happy Reading!

Ms. Lindemulder - Art News

Hello! My name is Rachel Lindemulder and I am so excited to be teaching you child art

this school year. I graduated from Illinois State University as an Art Education major.

I have been teaching elementary art for nine years. I am looking forward to meeting

and getting to know each of the students and their families. During art class in the

coming week’s students will begin exploring the relationships between line and shape.

We will be applying this knowledge to create a variety of artworks that will surely be

gallery worthy.

Mrs. Swanson - Music Notes

Welcome back!!! I hope that you had a relaxing summer and are all set for the new school year. I am

very excited to being my 22nd year teaching music at McCord school. We will be

using a variety of materials and activities to explore and learn about mu-

sic. For more detailed information on the McCord music program, please read

the article on my web page (found on the Burbank School District 111

Web-site) entitled Music Class Infor-

mation. Other useful information that you will find

on my web page includes: My schedule, patriotic

song lyrics, links to web pages with information on

local activities in music and drama, game pages that

enhance musical skills and information on how to be

an advocate for school music. During the month of

September we will be focusing on the concepts of steady beat, rhythm and duple/triple meter and their

relationship to musical compositions and song. Our composer of the month is J.S. Bach. We will be

learning about his life and musical contributions to society.

Ms. Kropornicka, Mr. Merenda, Ms. Ismail, & Mrs. Abu Al-Rub - ELL

Welcome back Students of McCord!!! So excited to get this year under way and get back into the tradi-

tion of school once again. Services for ELL students will be beginning on Septem-

ber 2nd and we look forward to another successful year like last year. The same

returning ELL staff will be at McCord for this year. We all look forward to enrich-

ing the lives of our students and motivating them to achieve their best in the school

setting. ACCESS score reports will also be coming home for parents to review. If

parents have any questions about the score reports, then they are more than will-

ing to call the school and we will assist to the best of our ability. We hope all is well

and let’s have a fantastic year!!!

Upcoming Activities for Physical Education

Grades Month Activity/Test

K - 2

August/September Orientation/Warm ups Procedures

October Fundamental Locomotor Move-

ments

November Yoga

Grades Month Activity/Test

3

August/September Orientation/Rules/Procedures

October Zumba/Yoga

November Introduction to Fitnessgram

Grades Month Activity/Test

4 - 6

August/September Orientation/Rules/Procedures

October Zumba/Yoga

November Fitnessgram

Ms. Swan - Physical Education

Wear your ID everyday! Wear your gym shoes on gym day!

Mrs. Gawel & Mrs. George - Speech Department News

Welcome to the 2014-2015 year!! Our speech/language pathologists are busy with kindergarten screenings this week; however they are

looking forward to catching up with the speech and language students soon. Mrs. Gawel and Mrs.

George are both returning to McCord School. Mrs. Gawel will be working with the early childhood and

special education programs. Mrs. George will be working with the general education students. Mrs.

George will be working part-time at McCord and at Maddock. If you have any questions or concerns re-

garding your child’s speech/language development, please contact either Mrs. Gawel or Mrs. George.

They are also available to refer to you to the appropriate person(s) regarding concerns with your

children aged birth to preschool.

McCord Mustangs News

Greetings McCord Parents and Families!

I am so excited to start a new school year at McCord. I look forward to work-

ing with classrooms, small groups, and individual students by providing social-

emotional lessons, counseling, and skills training sessions. Across Burbank District

111 elementary building social workers are providing social-emotional classroom les-

sons in grades 2, 4, and 6 so all students will be worked with at least every other

school year. I will continue to oversee the Peer Mediation program and mediation ser-

vices will be available to all McCord students. The Peer Mediation Program helps students resolve their

differences respectfully and helps to make McCord School a peaceful place.

Another part of my role at McCord is to provide students and families with information about

community resources. The Burbank community is fortunate to have many support entities (e.g., emo-

tional, behavioral, health, financial) nearby. Knowing that many of

McCord’s families have their own family members overseas in turbulent

areas of the world, I encourage the use of these community counseling and

support services. You can find information about these services in the

McCord School vestibule and/or contact me directly.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss your student and/or re-

source needs. You can reach me by phone at (708) 599-4411, send a note to

school, stop by the school during school hours, and/or email me at

aconlin@bsd111.org. I look forward to my continued work with the McCord community this school year!

Power Up with Breakfast Eat Right from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Breakfast gives you energy to start the day. A healthy breakfast is important for everyone. Get

the morning nutrition you need with these quick breakfast ideas.

• Make instant oatmeal with low-fat milk instead of water. Toss in raisins or dried

cranberries and chopped walnuts.

• Layer low-fat plain yogurt with your favorite crunchy cereal and blueberries.

• Blend a breakfast smoothie with low-fat milk, frozen strawberries and a banana.

• Make one packet of microwave oatmeal with low-fat milk. Mix in 1/4 cup un-

sweetened applesauce. Sprinkle with apple pie spice or cinnamon.

• Top a toaster waffle with low-fat yogurt and peach slices.

• Stuff a whole-wheat pita with a sliced, hard-cooked egg and low-fat shredded

cheese.

• Spread a flour tortilla with peanut butter. Add a whole banana and roll it

up.

• Spread low-fat cream cheese on a whole-grain toasted bagel. Top with

sliced strawberries.

• Add lean ham and low-fat Swiss cheese to a toasted whole-grain English

muffin.

Power up with a healthy breakfast and you’re off to a great start!

For additional food and nutrition information visit www.eatright.org.

Mrs. Johnson, R.D., L.D., - Nutrition

McCord Mustangs News

Ms. Conlin - Social Work

- SchoolReach Parent App

Type in “SchoolReach Parents” at the Apple App Store, or

Android Market place, remember SchoolReach is one word

and download the free App.

The Free Parent app is available to Parents of students who

go to any school (or other organization) that uses

SchoolReach® notification services. You'll be able to listen to

any voice calls or read any text messages that you've received in the last 30 days,

opt in and out of texts or voice calls, view current contact info and send updates

to the organization, and even send requests for transcripts.

It's critical for schools to have open channels of communication with parents.

SchoolReach ParentsTM provides a simple way for you to take control and get

changes and additions to your phone numbers and email addresses directly to the

right school administrators. If you're finding that you're receiving unwanted

messages from certain schools, the SR Parents App gives you the power to

instantly opt out of those messages. You'll also find a very easy way to request

that your student’s transcripts be mailed, emailed or faxed to any address you

provide. There's also an option allowing you to type and send a custom request to

the school.

The only thing required to use this free application, is that your mobile phone

number is currently part of a SchoolReach® contact list.

Once configured, you'll have 24/7 access to all of the above - take control today,

become a SchoolReach Parent.

Once the app is downloaded the verification process will take up to 10 minutes.

The parents will receive a text message back with a code to enter into the system.

From there they will follow the steps outlined.

- SchoolReach Message Retrieval Line

Effective, March 11th the Caller ID for all SchoolReach Messages

will be a toll freenumber 855-955-8500. This is a SchoolReach

message retrieval line where you can redial the number from the

same phone that receives the calls and the message will be replayed

for you.

For Parents of Burbank District 111 Students: Please contact your school to change your home phone and emergency phone

number in School Reach.

Attendance & Truancy Policy

Attendance Illinois State Law requires parents to call each day their child is absent and allows students to be absent with valid cause 5% of the school year (9 days). Daily school attendance is essential for academic success and required by law. Students with fever or vomiting should not attend school. Children should be without fever or vomiting for 24 hours before returning to school. Any student with an undiagnosed rash or communicable disease must have a note from his/her physician releasing him/her to return to school. Any student absent for five or more consecutive school days must pro-vide a note from his/her physician. A physician's note may also be required if a student is absent without valid cause for more than 9 of the previous 180 regular attendance days and is thereafter absent due to illness, the student's school activity is to be restricted in any way, or as the Building Principal may deem necessary. Absence(s) will be considered "unexcused" and without valid cause if they do not meet the require-ments of Board policy, or if any required documentation is not provided. When a student is absent without valid cause, he/she can be considered truant or chronically tru-ant. K-6: Please contact the school office by 8:00 a.m. to report an ab-sence. All students arriving late must first report to the school office. All students who report to class after 8:05 a.m. are marked “tardy.” LJHS: Please contact the school office by 8:30 a.m. to report an absence. All students arriving late must first report to the school office. All students who report to class after 8:30 a.m. are marked “tardy.”

Truancy When a student is absent without valid cause, he/she can be considered truant or chronically tru-ant. The School District offers supportive services to truant or chronically truant students, includ-ing parent-teacher conferences, student and/or family counseling, or infor-mation about community agency services. Students who are truant or chronical-ly truant that have been provided available supportive services, and other school resources without success, or have been offered and refused those services and resources may be in violation of State law, Board policy, or Burbank Ordinance No. 7-7-11, Section 9-84. If judged to be truant at a hearing in violation of the Burbank truancy ordinance, the student and/or legal guardian shall be subject to a fine or community service, or both. A detailed copy of the Burbank truancy ordinance can be downloaded from the City of Burbank (www.burbankil.gov/schools.html)

September 2014 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

LABOR DAY NO SCHOOL

2 3

No after school programs

PFC Meeting

7:00 p.m.

4 5

SPIRIT

WEAR

6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15

READ

EVERYDAY

16 17

CONSTITUTION DAY

No after school programs

18 19

SPIRIT

WEAR

20

21 22 23

FALL BEGINS

24

BOARD MEETING

DISTRICT OFFICE

7 P.M.

25 26

JOHNNY

APPLESEED’S

BIRTHDAY

27

28 29 30