THANK YOU to all of our parents who volunteered to plan and facilitate our Halloween parties this past Friday! It was a very exciting day for our students and certainly resulted in a lot of fun for our school. Thank you also to our families that supported the parties with supplies, food items, and donations in order to make the party a success, even if you were not in attendance. We loved seeing families outside cheering us on during the parade as well. Friday was definitely a great milestone for us to be able to celebrate and carry on many of our traditions together! 

Bully Prevention Month Concludes

While we have been highlighting Bully Prevention this month, our lessons and dialogue will continue with students throughout the year. We believe that it is important to keep our school a safe place where all members of our community continue to make Grove a great place to live and learn!! We hope that you will also continue the dialogue with your children at home about how much kindness, acceptance, and inclusion makes a difference for everyone in our school community. 

One topic that our library teacher, Mrs. Banach, will cover during the year with our students, is internet safety. We also discuss online bullying with our older students in our Second Step lessons as well. I have included a link for parents with information regarding social applications, as there can be a place where students may experience issues with bullying and it is helpful for both school staff and parents to monitor student’s interactions with others online closely. 

Change to COVID Notifications to Parents

Please note, we will no longer be sending individual letters to families regarding positive COVID cases. Instead, I will include a link to our district COVID dashboard each week in the Grizzly for parents to click on to view our numbers each week. The district and school COVID-19 dashboard shows the weekly number of positive covid cases and quarantine cases among students and staff. Please note: 

• A positive case is counted on the day it is reported. Every day after, it is placed in the quarantine category. 

• Quarantine cases are total students and staff not attending school due to testing positive or exposure to a positive case. 

• Positive cases for students are only counted for students who have been in the building for any reason (academic, athletics, clubs, etc.) 

Erin’s Law Presentations

Our School Psychologist, Tonya Tompkins-Wisz, will be starting our Erin’s Law presentations with classes during the first week of November. There will be one lesson per class and it might take into December for her to go into each classroom in the school. Erin’s Law requires schools to teach children, at age appropriate levels, about personal body safety. Please be sure to click on the link to our official letter regarding Erin’s Law to learn more about the Law and what will be covered in the lessons. Please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Tompkins-Wisz or Mrs. Matthews directly if you have questions after reading the letter. 

Reminders

• Please send your child to school with extra masks in their backpack!!! 

• All students need to be in their classrooms by 8:00 a.m. If your child arrives at 8:00 a.m. or after, you must come into the main office with your child to sign them in for the day

Upcoming Dates

Thursday, November 4th - End of 1st Trimester 

Friday, November 5th - No School for Students, Teacher Institute Day 

Sunday, November 7th - Daylight Savings Time Ends, Clocks Fall Back 

Tuesday, November 23rd - Report Cards Posted in IC

Wednesday, November 24th - No School, Thanksgiving Break 

Thursday, November 25th - No School, Thanksgiving

Friday, November 26th - No School, Thanksgiving Break 

 

District Cross Country Meet Participants 

Congratulations to all of the Grove students who participated in the Districtwide Cross Country Meet for 5th graders and Fun Run for students in Grades K-4! All of our participants are listed below!!!

 

5th Grade Girls 

Penelope Smith - 7th Place Female Runner Districtwide

Isabelle Taylor 

Siena Venuto 

Aratrika Singh 

Quinnlan Khorzad

Mavis Heffernan 

Auden Khorzad

Edith Heffernan 

Ellen Renaud 

5th Grade Boys

Ryan Parenti - 5th Place Male Runner Districtwide

Tyler Boulos 

Logan Gent

Sebastian Andrews 

Isiah Gonzalez 

Carter Crosson 

Dylan Mazgaj

Isaac Elizade 

Aiden Kurzawski 

Saahil Dalvi 

Jahaan Verandani 

Agastya Kandikonda 

Austin Yeh 

Arith Viswanath 

Shon Pottow

1/2 Mile Participants Grades K - 4

Kayla Kiss, Brooklyn Cleys, Molly Vlaming, Jocelyn Wang, Amelia Billen, Yovita Zymancius, Margaret Dever, Kennedy Cornwell, Emely Diaz, Lynn Hanaishi, Vivian Eustice, Priya Dhillon, Emmie Hunt, Laiqa Patel, Layla Cabana, Manya Nerkar, Lucy Oryszczak, Sareena Desai, Leela Upadhyay, Reese Erickson, Claire Duncan, Keena Desai, Emma Faherty, Naomi Breckan, Olivia Sarantopoulos, Emery Szabo, Hadley Chapman, Evelyn Williams, Natalie Giusti, GyuYeon Lee, Anagha Kandikonda, Sarah Rajendram, Amayah Mehanti, Maanya Varandani, Kathleen Dever, Emma Plackal, Diya Yadla 

Joey Sukel, Weston Eustice, Max Bosch, Owen Redlich, Leo Billen, Chris Ortiz, Carter Redlich, John Black, Sam Cohen, Hank Vlaming, Isaiah Feffer, Haydon Pope, Dante Torres, Arjun Tran, Eli Cohen, Matthew Ortiz, Vincent Petrov, Jimmy Urbaszewski, Samuel Rajendram, Georgie Urbaszewski, Joel Plackal, Michael McGivern, Shlok Patel, Om Shah

Erin’s Law Presentations

Our School Psychologist, Tonya Tompkins-Wisz, will be starting our Erin’s Law presentations with classes during the first week of November. There will be one lesson per class and it might take into December for her to go into each classroom in the school. Erin’s Law requires schools to teach children, at age appropriate levels, about personal body safety. Please be sure to click on the link to our official letter regarding Erin’s Law to learn more about the Law and what will be covered in the lessons. Please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Tompkins-Wisz or Mrs. Matthews directly if you have questions after reading the letter. 

Halloween Celebration Reminders

We are looking forward to having a great Halloween this year at Grove! Below is information regarding our Halloween festivities. 

Lunch: Please be sure to complete the Halloween Lunch Plans Google Form as soon as possible in order to indicate whether or not your child will be going home or staying at school for lunch on Halloween!

 

Celebration Details: Details regarding costumes, the parade, and volunteers for parties, as well as, a schedule for the festivities for the day were shared in last week’s Grizzly and can be accessed by clicking on the link to Halloween celebration details. 

Volunteers: All volunteers who are attending our Halloween parties must either provide proof of vaccination or submit a negative COVID Test (within 7 days prior) to be permitted to enter our classrooms. In addition, just as we always have done, we require volunteers to provide state identification to also be run through our Visit-U system in the main office. We strongly encourage our volunteers to stop by the main office before Friday in order to do this, as we can then have visitors’ badges prepared ahead of time and visitors can gain access to the building to set-up for parties immediately. Please know that if you are volunteering and do not do this ahead of time, there may be a wait as we process this information for each volunteer attempting to enter the building. 

Bully Prevention Month Continues 

We had great participation in our Unity Day this past week! Check out a few photos from the day at the end of this post!

Classes are continuing to have conversations about Bully Prevention this week. We will be talking about kindness, inclusion, and the difference between Bullying and Conflict. In addition to saying the “Pledge of Allegiance” and “The Power of One Pledge” each day, our students also say “Grove’s Pledge”, which addresses how we should resolve conflict when it occurs. I have included the Grove Pledge below for your information. 

Grove’s Pledge 

We pledge to keep Grove Avenue School a safe place. 

Our Grove Family resolves differences through talking, not fighting. 

We care for, protect and respect one another’s person, property, and feelings. 

Conversations with students throughout the month have also included what to do if they or someone they know is experiencing bullying. This includes standing up for themselves, standing up for others, and reporting bullying. We highly encourage students to report directly to staff members with whom they are comfortable, however, we also know that students may also be reporting to their parents. As a result, we ask that parents approach staff either in person, by phone, or email and describe an incident so that we may respond accordingly. We do recognize that bullying, especially as students get older, may not be reported using these traditional channels of communication. As a result, I have included a link to our district page regarding bullying, where there is also a place for bullying to be reported. 

 

Reminders

• The online Book Fair will still be available for families to order through October 26th. Online orders will be shipped directly to your home.

• Decorated Garden Stones should be returned this week on either Monday or Tuesday. Please bring the stones to the Grove Avenue side of the building. There will be signs indicating where to drop them.

• Please send your child to school with extra masks in their backpack!!! 

• All students need to be in their classrooms by 8:00 a.m. If your child arrives at 8:00 a.m. or after, you must come into the main office with your child to sign them in for the day

  
  

Upcoming Dates

Monday, October 25th - Drop off decorated Garden Stones 

Tuesday, October 26th - Online Book Fair Closes 

Tuesday, October 26th - Drop off decorated Garden Stones 

Friday, October 29th - Halloween Parade and Halloween Parties to follow 

Wednesday, October 3rd - Tae Kwon Do after school program begins! Must register to attend!

Thursday, November 4th - End of 1st Trimester 

Friday, November 5th - No School for Students, Teacher Institute Day 

Sunday, November 7th - Daylight Savings Time Ends, Clocks Fall Back 

Tuesday, November 16th - November PTO Meeting, 9:15 a.m., Dr. Hunt to Join Meeting!

Tuesday, November 23rd - Report Cards Posted in IC

Wednesday, November 24th - No School, Thanksgiving Break 

Thursday, November 25th - No School, Thanksgiving

Friday, November 26th - No School, Thanksgiving Break

W. Kim Tae Kwon Do’s Program’s 6 Step Character Development Program

1. Why you should be a good student.

2. Why you must think for yourself and not follow the crowd.

3. Learning Skills: Focus your eyes, Focus your ears, Focus your Body, Focus your mind application.

4. How to deal with a Bully. Communication Skills.

5. Why you should never be a bully.

6. A, B's and C's of conflict avoidance.

Click on the link to Register on RevTrak or use the QR code above!!

It was great to see all of our parents this week at Parent/Teacher Conferences either in person or via zoom! Thank you for your continued support and collaboration as we work together to ensure the growth of all of our students. 

Also, thank you to everyone who attended our Book Fair. The online Book Fair will still be available for families to order through October 26th. Online orders will be shipped directly to your home. Families who ordered the garden stones from PTO to decorate should return the completed stones to Grove on either Monday, October 25th or Tuesday, October 26th. More details regarding the return will be sent out to families soon! 

Halloween Celebration Reminders

We are looking forward to having a great Halloween this year at Grove! Below is information regarding our Halloween festivities. 

Lunch: Please be sure to complete the Halloween Lunch Plans Google Form as soon as possible in order to indicate whether or not your child will be going home or staying at school for lunch on Halloween!

 

Celebration Details: Details regarding costumes, lunch, the parade, and volunteers for parties, as well as, a schedule for the festivities for the day were shared in last week’s Grizzly and can be accessed by clicking on the link to Halloween celebration details. 

 

Reminders

• Please send your child to school with extra masks in their backpack!!! 

• All students need to be in their classrooms by 8:00 a.m. If your child arrives at 8:00 a.m. or after, you must come into the main office with your child to sign them in for the day

Upcoming Dates

Friday, October 15th - No School 

Monday, October 18th - Elementary Fun Run for Grades 1-5 and 5th Grade Mile Run @ Beese Park, 4:00-5:30 p.m. 

Tuesday, October 19th - PTO Evening Meeting , 7 p.m. via Zoom 

Wednesday, October 20th - Wear Orange for Unity Day 

Friday, October 22nd - Spirit Wear Order Deadline 

Monday, October 25th - Drop off decorated Garden Stones 

Tuesday, October 26th - Drop off decorated Garden Stones 

Friday, October 29th - Halloween Parade and Halloween Parties to follow 

Friday, November 5th - No School for Students, Teacher Institute Day

 Last chance for the Fall Spiritwear! Orders due Friday, October 22nd 

Halloween Celebrations 

We are looking forward to having a great Halloween this year at Grove! Below is information regarding our Halloween festivities; please read the sections about volunteers and costumes carefully. 

Lunch – October 29th  

• At 11:15 a.m., students may be picked up if it is easier for them to dress and eat lunch at home.  Please do not expect your child to leave before 11:15 a.m. 

• Students do not need to be signed out individually in the office, but if you plan on picking your child up for lunch, be sure that you have indicated this option by clicking on the link to the Halloween Google Form. 

• There will be adults supervising the parking lot during the 11:15 pick-up and by the Grove entrance. Please focus on safety! 

• Students should return to school by 12:55 p.m. 

• If your child is staying at school for lunch, please send your child's costume to school. Lunch and recess times for students staying at school will stay the same and students will change into their costumes following lunch and recess. Please be sure to communicate if your child is staying at school by indicating this option by clicking on the link to the Halloween Google Form. 

 

Parade – October 29th   

• Our parade for kindergarten through 5th grade will begin at 1:15 p.m. and will follow the route below:

• Leave from the Grove door and travel north to Wisconsin.

• Travel east on Wisconsin to Summit.

• Travel south on Summit to Yale.

• Travel west on Yale to Cook.

• Travel north on Cook to our parking lot entrance.

• We love parents and guests cheering us on. 

• We will be back at school at about 1:45 PM

• If it rains, we will not be able to hold the parade, however, we will have classroom teachers take pictures of their class as a whole and we will post the pictures in the Grizzly for parents to see and include them in the morning announcements the following week for students. 

 

Party – October 29th– 1:45-2:30 p.m.

• After the parade, students will return to classrooms for our fabulous room parties organized by our PTO room parents. The three room parent volunteers will be the only parents permitted to enter the building this year. 

Costumes

Please review the following guidelines when selecting a school Halloween costume for this year:

• Students should not wear costumes to school, as they will go home to change into costumes or change at school after lunch and recess. Half day kindergartens are invited to stay the whole day or return in the afternoon for the festivities.

• Consider safety and the appropriateness of a costume for an elementary school.

• Costumes involving fake blood or violent attributes are not allowed.

•  Look-alike weapons are prohibited on school grounds as noted in the student handbook.

• Masks are a safety concern, and therefore, will not be allowed. 

• Please keep face paint to a minimum as students need to be easily recognized and often become uncomfortable. Examples of appropriate face paint include: cat whiskers, Harry Potter’s scar, “eye black” on an athlete, etc. 

 

Parent Volunteers 

There will be three parent volunteers per class to coordinate and run the parties on October 29th. The three room parents for each classroom will be the only parents permitted to enter the building for the parties, as we are still required to follow social distancing guidelines and limit contacts due to COVID. Each volunteer will need to show proof of vaccination, or provide a negative COVID-19 test to participate as mandated by Gov. Pritzker and outlined by District #220 (English and Spanish).   

All parents will be able to attend the parade which will be held outside (weather permitting).We encourage parents to spread out along the parade route to wave at students and take pictures! We hope to create a safe and fun event for our students, so thank you for your cooperation! 

Bully Prevention Month 

October is Bully Prevention Month. We will be highlighting this throughout the month in our morning announcements and with activities with students. We started this week with a review of our schoolwide expectations of following The Grove Avenue Way of being respectful, responsible, safe, and being learners throughout the various areas of our school. These videos will continue into next week and we will touch on further concepts in regards to bullying such as recognizing, reporting, and refusing bullying later in the month. 

We are also relaunching the use of our Grizzly Claws and Golden Hearts to recognize the positive actions we see our students display on a daily basis both as individuals and as a class. This is an ongoing activity that we implemented on a regular basis prior to distance learning and we are excited to bring it back to highlight our students for their commendable efforts when it comes to making our school a safe place to live and learn. 

One of our daily routines in the morning with each homeroom is to say the “Power of One Pledge” together as a class. I have included the pledge below for your knowledge. The purpose of this is to remind students of their ability to be an upstander and help prevent bullying in our school by standing up for what they know is right. We will spend time this month reviewing the pledge and recommitting to it by signing a Bully Prevention Oath poster that we will display in our school. 

Grove’s Power of One 

I will not bully others. 

I will not stand by while others are bullied. 

I will report bullying whenever I see it. 

I have the POWER OF ONE!! 

On October 20th, we will celebrate Unity Day as a school by wearing orange to show unity for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion and to send a visible message that no child should ever experience bullying. Please join us in these efforts in order to continue the dialogue with your child at home to make the commitment to live out our “Grove Power of One Pledge.” We hope to have a sea of orange throughout the school on October 20th!! 

Social Emotional Survey for Students in 2nd-5th Grades

Our school values input from our students to continue to monitor and improve programming for your children in the areas of Social and Emotional Learning.

In order to learn more about the experiences of your child at school, we are asking for their feedback via a brief online survey that will be administered starting this week through November 4th. This experience is similar to the SEL surveys conducted over the last 2 years.

All survey responses are confidential. No students at our school will see how your child responds to the questions. A separate organization, ECRA Consulting, will manage all data collection to ensure confidentiality.

The survey will take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete, and will be an invaluable source of information for Barrington 220 as we work to improve upon the supports for our students in the area of social emotional learning.  

We thank you in advance for your support.  Should you have any questions about your child’s participation, please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher or Mrs. Matthews directly.

Fall Parent/Teacher Conference Sign-Up 

The sign-up for our fall Parent/Teacher Conference is currently open and will remain open until October 10th. Please click on the link below for directions to our sign-up platform “Meet the Teacher” in order to sign-up. When signing up, parents will need to indicate whether they plan to attend the conference in person or would prefer a conference via Zoom. Conferences will be scheduled for 20 minutes, with 15 minutes of that time being used for the conference and 5 minutes being used for cleaning between conferences. All parents coming in for in-person conferences will be required to complete a COVID screener before being allowed to enter and must be wearing a mask. Please access the document, print and complete, and bring it with you to the conferences. We will continue to practice social distancing guidelines. Also, we are trying to limit the number of people in the building on these days, therefore, two parents will be permitted to attend per child. However, children will not be permitted to enter the building on these days unless they are  a student leading a conference with their teacher. As a result, if this is not possible for your family, please sign-up for a Zoom conference.

Grove “Meet the Teacher” Parent Guide in English 

Grove “Meet the Teacher” Parent Guide in Spanish 

When parents log on to Meet the Teacher, they will be able to sign-up for conferences for multiple children and for any staff member that works with their child. Conferences with specials teachers are not required but are an option we are offering to parents. In addition, all related services staff members will be available to meet with parents. As a result, parents can also schedule conference times with our Social Worker, Speech and Language Pathologist, Reading Resource Teachers, English Learner Teacher, Special Education Resource Teachers, and our Extended Teacher. It is highly recommended that parents meet with any related service staff member who works with their child. 

 

Conferences are being held on Wednesday, October 13th from 4-8 p.m. and Thursday, October 14th from 1-7 p.m. Please be sure to plan accordingly in order to attend conferences during the days that have been designated by the district for teachers to meet with parents. This is valuable time to discuss the individual growth and skills of your child, as well as, work together with the teacher to plan and set goals toward your child’s individual progress.

Fall Book Fair

We are so excited to bring back in-person book fairs on October 13th and 14th! Below is Grove’s Scholastic website if you would like to preview and set up eWallet for your child. There is also a virtual book fair that starts on October 13th and goes until October 26th.  If you would like to help out during the book fair, below is the SignUp Genius for volunteer signup.  Thank you so much! 

Scholastic Book Fair Page

Book Fair Volunteer Signup 

Reminders

• Please send your child to school with extra masks in their backpack!!! 

• Sign-up for Parent/Teacher Conferences by October 10th 

• Picture retake day is this Tuesday! 

Upcoming Dates

Monday, October 11th - Garden Stone Orders Due

Tuesday, October 12th - Picture Retake Day 

Wednesday, October 13th - Parent/Teacher Conferences, 4-8 p.m. & Book Fair in the Gym 

Thursday, October 14th - No School for Students, Parent/Teacher Conferences, 1-7 p.m. and Book Fair in the Gym 

Friday, October 15th - No School 

Monday, October 18th - Elementary Fun Run for Grades 1-5 and 5th Grade Mile Run @ Beese Park, 4:00-5:30 p.m. 

Tuesday, October 19th - PTO Meeting, 7 p.m. via Zoom

Wednesday, October 20th - Wear Orange for Unity Day

Friday, October 29th - Halloween Celebrations

Garden Stone Sale

Last chance to order your Garden Stones and leave your mark on Grove! 

Orders will only be available through Monday, October 11th until 4pm.  Don't forget to pick up your Stones at Parent/Teachers conferences. PTO representatives will be set up inside the building by the Grove Street entrance. If you forget to purchase online, PTO will have some extras available for purchase during the conferences.