Principal's Update 01-18-2013 and 01-25-2013

The month of January has been flying by quickly! On Wednesday, January 16th our Playground Committee had its first meeting. We had three staff representatives, four student representatives, and four parent representatives. During our meeting, the committee determined what the priorities are for our school in terms of the actual playground equipment that will be installed this coming summer. The Woodridge Park District representatives will be using the information they gathered from our committee to obtain design proposals from various manufacturing companies. Our committee will be meeting again in February to look at the proposals, and the committee will narrow down the options for the Willow Creek student body to then vote to determine the final design.

On Friday, January 18th we celebrated our Students of the Month from the month of December by having pizza with the principal! These students were chosen either by their teacher or their classmates for this honor. Individuals who are nominated for Student of the Month have demonstrated an ability to follow the school rules, be caring citizens, and show academic responsibility. December students of the month were as follows: 

Kindergarten: AM- Lindsy Vela     PM- Gianna Larocco
1st Grade: Boots- Bailey Mongello     Cannis- Ne'Zira Russell
2nd Grade: Armstrong- Ricky Rudolph     Mack- Jeremy Sauseda
1/2 Wiese: Daisy Zaldivar Zuniga
3rd Grade: Driessens- Josh Llaneta     Leonard- Gracie Lapacek     MacNeil- Christian Sauseda
4th Grade: Chapman- Eli Poloski     Durkin- Jacob Poeschel
5th Grade: Mehok- Clark Kelly     Wilkinson- Justin Esposito
6th Grade: Franson- Amanda Smith     Keogh- Anna Kombrink

Last week was a busy week for our students! Our school Spelling Bee was held on Tuesday afternoon in order to determine the students from Willow Creek who will be moving on to the District Spelling Bee on February 6th at Edgewood School. All of our WC Spelling Bee participants did an excellent job! Our finalists who are moving on for the District #68 Spelling Bee are Samantha Vallo, Syed Farhan, and alternate Megan Murphy! We wish them the best of luck at the District Bee!



We also had our 1st and 2nd Grade Music Performance "Flakes" this past week. Our first and second graders performed for the student body on Thursday afternoon and for their families on Thursday evening! Our students looked and sounded fantastic! They certainly had a lot of fun and worked extremely hard to prepare for the show. A special "Thank You" goes out to Mrs. Hector who put the show together and prepared the students for such an excellent performance! Not only did our students sing, they also played instruments, had speaking parts, and showed off their dance moves!!




Final conference slips went home with students this past week containing exact conference times for each student. Please be sure to complete the conference form to confirm your conference time with your child's teacher and return it to school by Friday, February 1st.

Our students began winter benchmark testing last week and will continue into this week. Each student in grades 1-6 will take the STAR Math and STAR Reading computer assessments during this assessment window. All students will also be assessed for reading fluency this coming week on Tuesday or Wednesday. The data collected will be reviewed by our Willow Creek staff members in order to make instructional decisions for each individual child, and the information will also be sent home to parents with the report card. Please don't hesitate to ask questions regarding the information that is shared in the report card when you come to meet with your child's teacher on February 7th or 8th for conferences. I have also included a link to a STAR Parent Resource for more information about STAR. 

The Willow Creek PTO is offering a spring spirit wear order. Order forms were sent home with students and are due by February 15th. Orders may be turned in to school or orders can be placed online at http://www.boomerts.com/yourstore/willowcreek.html. If you have questions, you may contact Jessica Venouziou at jvenouziou@hotmail.com. 

This Thursday, PTO will be sponsoring a Supper Club at Nonnie's Pizza Restaurant.  Be sure to turn in the attached coupon and Willow Creek School will receive 20% of all purchases. Eat in, pick-up, or delivery orders will all be included as long as the coupon is presented. 

I have included a link to the January Band Beats Newsletter from Mr. Payne. This newsletter is for our band families or any other interested parents who want to read about what is happening with band!! 

Check out the January issue of Building Readers in either English or Spanish. There is a section about the similarities between Reading and Math. Our new Common Core Standards require teachers to integrate content areas including reading and math in order to prepare students for the future.  

Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, January 30th: Band Solo and Ensemble Festival, 5-8 p.m., JJH
Monday, February 4th: School Board Meeting, JJH, 7:30 p.m. 
Tuesday, February 5th: WC PTO Meeting, 1 p.m., Art Room
Wednesday, February 6th: District Spelling Bee
                                              Report Cards Go Home
Thursday, February 7th: 1/2 Day for students, 8:20-11:40 a.m. 
                                           Parent Teacher Conferences, 3-8 p.m. 
Friday, February 8th: Parent Teacher Conferences, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. 
Tuesday, February 12th: Band Winterfest, JJH, 5:30 p.m. dinner and 7 p.m. concert
Monday, February 18th: NO SCHOOL, President's Day
Thursday, February 21st: Cultural Arts Assembly, Jabali African Acrobats, 1:45 p.m. 
Tuesday, February 26th: Election Day
Thursday, February 28th: Willow Creek Roller Skating Party 

Check out the picture below of our students whose names were chosen in the Positive Paws raffle on 01-18-2013!

Check out the picture below of the our students whose names were chosen in the Positive Paws raffle on 01-25-2012!