November Dates
- November 1 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 4-8pm
- November 2 - No School - Parent/Teacher Conferences 10-8pm
- November 3 - No School
- November 8 - PTN Dine-Out Chipotle
- November 9 - PTN Meeting 6:30-8pm
- November 10 - Veteran's Day Celebration 8:10-9:10 am / 2:45-3:15 pm
- November 13-16 SIP Data Mid-Point Collection (Narrative Writing)
December Dates
- December 6 - PTN Night Out - Noodle & Co.
- December 7 - PTN Meeting at 6:30 PM
- December 12 - KST Spelling Bee (3rd - 5th grade) 1:30-3:30 pm
- December 13 - Fun Lunch - Culver's
- December 13 - PTN Night Out - Beef Shack
- December 15 - 1st Grade Music Concert 9:30-10:00 am
- December 19 & 20 - 1 Hr Early Dismissal
- December 21 - January 7 WINTER BREAK
Supporting Writing at Home:
Writing is a terrific way for children to express their thoughts, creativity, and uniqueness. It is also a fundamental way in which children learn to organize ideas. And learning to write well helps children to be better readers.
When engaging in writing, young children often mirror what they see around them: adults and older children writing lists, letters, and text messaging. They are observing the way writing is used in our everyday lives.
WRITING AT HOME:
Here are some suggestions that engage your child in the writing process:
- Have your child write instructions for taking care of the family pet. These will be useful as you plan your summer vacations!
- Write a letter or thank you note to a relative. Talk through what your child wants to say before writing begins.
- Make a shopping list before going to the grocery store.
- Write an online review of a book or an item you recently purchased or a recipe you tried.
- Talk about the presidential election and write a description of the kind of president you want.
- Find a picture in the newspaper and write an article to accompany it.
- Start keeping a personal diary, a household guestbook, or a baby book for a younger sibling.
From the Behavior Facilitator:
Did you know each person has an emotional piggy bank and every interaction we have impacts our running balance? Consider these strategies to ensure your child’s emotional piggy bank is an emotional goldmine.
What is an Emotional Bank Account?
An Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor that helps us visualize and nurture our relationships with our children. It’s how we stay emotionally connected. It works exactly like any regular savings account: You make deposits and withdrawals. And just like a regular bank account, it can have a positive balance or a negative one.
Making sure there are many more emotional deposits than withdrawals is critical for ensuring a child doesn’t go into overdraft. A child in emotional overdraft has no reserves. This means that when someone asks them to transition or do a less-than-desirable task, they have a big reaction that appears to come out of nowhere. That last withdrawal put them into overdraft!
As an example, think about all the instructions, questions, and corrections a child likely gets during the day at school. When you give one “simple” instruction they explode or melt down. Essentially, that “simple” instruction crossed the threshold into overdraft.
One of the ways we can prevent this “emotional overdraft” is by making more emotional deposits than withdrawals in a day. We must be intentional about filling up the piggy bank so that the next time life throws our kiddos a curveball, they have the emotional balance to handle the hit. Deposits build resilience.
You may be thinking, “Wait, I should never ask questions? No commands? My child doesn’t listen unless I raise my voice!” Please hear us… not all withdrawals are bad! As parents, we have to give our children instructions, set boundaries, and, at times, issue age-appropriate
Kaneland IgKnight Academy
The Kaneland Personalized Learning Academy is expanding to include 9th grade beginning the 2024-2025 school year. A family informational night for students going into grades 3-9 is being held on Wednesday, November 8th at the Kaneland Meredith Academic Center from 5:30-7:00 p.m. See the flyer below for details.
Veterans Day Celebration Reminder
On Friday, November 10th, 2023, Kaneland John Stewart Elementary School will be holding a Veterans Day celebration. We ask that all students dress in patriot colors.
Veterans will be honored with a morning breakfast which will take place at 8:10 a.m. in the teacher’s lounge. Our flag-raising ceremony will immediately follow in front of the school at 8:50.
We are inviting Legion members and KST parents or family members who are veterans to join us for both the breakfast and morning flag ceremony. We are hoping to have many veterans in attendance.
The 4th graders will also be presenting an afternoon choral concert that honors veterans in the gym at 2:45 p.m.
These annual events help teach our students about the importance of good citizenship. Please email Mary Kunstman, KST music teacher, at 10274@kaneland.org with any additional questions. We hope to see you there!
Halloween Parties, Parade, and Pictures
I could say with confidence that Halloween is one of the most favorite times of year for our students. They get so excited to wear their costumes and show them off to their classmates. The fun party and parade helped top off the day! Thank you to all those who braved the crazy winter weather we had to watch our Halloween Parade. Click HERE to go to our Facebook Page to see our Halloween Pictures.
This Is Us Bulletin Board - Reminder
Please send us your family photos!! This year's theme at school is "This Is Us" - we are brave, strong, smart, hard-working, loving, and so much more which is what makes us such an awesome school!! To celebrate this theme with us, we would love to have our families join our whole school bulletin board. Please email a family photo to Jessica.Bottorff@kaneland.org so we can print it off and add it to our bulletin board in the main hallway. Thanks for participating!
