Ms Ellis's blog

We are all aware that this is a presidential election year, and with Election Day a month and a day away, things are getting very exciting. Under the goal of “Global Awareness”, the pullout students have begun a month-long unit of study on the election. They will learn about the process, the vocabulary, the candidates, and the issues. The students will also be participating in a presidential race of their own: a scavenger hunt to see who can earn the most points for our election unit. How can a student earn points? A few examples include:

-Bring in a picture of a major party presidential candidate. (1 point)
-Bring in a political cartoon about the presidential race. (2 points)
-Make a crossword puzzle using the election vocabulary, minimum of ten words. (15 points)

Parents of fourth and fifth grade pullout students set the date: Friday, October 31st from 9:30-10:30 the students will be performing Halloween-themed poetry for their fellow students, and you are invited to attend. The event will take place in the Rutledge Hall library. Invites will go home as the date approaches, but it is always helpful to know what is coming ahead of time. (Third grade parents, your students are also performing for their peers, but theirs is a student-only audience this year.) If you would like, you can help your student by playing the role of attentive audience member over the next few weeks so that s/he can practice performing in front of actual people. Feel free to offer suggestions for possible hand gestures and different voices to accompany the poetic presentations.

I work with the advanced reading class teachers at each of the three grade levels. It is a wonderful opportunity to further work with the students, as well as to team-teach with the teachers. At every grade, the students are reading books within a particular genre, both individually as well as with the whole class. We have also had visits from, or visited, both the Rutledge Hall librarian and the Lincolnwood librarians to further our studies of the books each genre has to offer.

The third graders have begun a study of folktales from around the world. As a class, they are focusing on Cinderella variants, tracking the similarities and differences and how geography (proximity) affects the number of similar elements among the stories.

The pullout students have had a busy week. In the realm of creativity, they designed their own stars for our “What’s Our Focus” board. Each student decorated his or her star to represent the most important aspects of his or her own unique personality. The stars are very colorful, filled with photos of the kids and their friends and families, as well as pictures of everything from soccer balls to Harry Potter books to Reduce-Reuse-Recycle symbols. The children also expressed themselves through their letters to me, and each student will receive an individual letter back. It’s a great way to get to one another or reconnect after the summer vacation.

Greetings from Mrs. Ellis! The pullout program officially begins tomorrow, Thursday, September 4. In this blog you can find a copy of the pullout schedule as well as a short list of supplies that I have asked all students to bring to the classroom and an overview of the goals of the Lincolnwood Gifted program.

PULLOUT SCHEDULE

Third Grade (McNeil)
Monday 9:30-10:00
Tuesday 1:30-2:30
Wednesday 9:30-10:00
Thursday 9:30-10:00
Friday 9:30-10:00

Fourth Grade (Taliya) (tentative until the band and orchestra schedule is finalized)
Monday  10:30-11:00
Tuesday 10:30-11:00
Wednesday   8:30-9:30
Thursday 10:30-11:00
Friday 10:30-11:00

Fifth Grade (Almer and Battaglia)
Monday-Friday  11:30-12:00
Friday   1:00-1:30


SUPPLIES

Several parents have been asking when you will find out about next year’s placements in advanced classes. The answer: letters are being mailed home by the end of this week. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at lellis@sd74.org.

I’d like to thank everyone for making this such a great first year here as a teacher at Rutledge Hall. It’s been a memorable year with lots of gratifying moments.

I wish all of the students and their families a summer filled with laughter, relaxation, good books, and fun. Be safe, rest up, and I’ll see you in the fall, ready for more teacher torture! Heh heh.

As you know, many of the pullout students have done very well in various contests and publications this school year. The Board of Education would like to honor these students at their next board meeting on June 4, 2008 at 7:30. The students’ names will be read along with explanations of their accomplishments. This will be the first part of the meeting and should be done by approximately 7:45.
    The pullout students and their parents are cordially invited to join in this time of public acknowledgement. Letters are going home today and tomorrow with the students about the meeting.
    The location is the Lincolnwood Village Hall, located at 6900 Lincoln Ave. I hope to see you there!

Back in the fall, the third, fourth, and fifth grade pullout students competed in Storyworks Magazine’s Create-a-Character contest. Each student created a character whom they hoped would be interesting enough to stand out among the more than 7,000 entries submitted from across the nation. The winning character was selected by well-known children’s author Pam Munoz Ryan, who has written novels such as Esperanza Rising and Becoming Naomi Leon. Ms. Ryan incorporated the winning character into a short story that was published in the April/May issue of Storyworks magazine. One of the fourth grade students was selected as a runner up in this prestigious competition. A huge congratulations to Emery P, and a good job to all of the students for their very creative characters!

The third, fourth, and fifth grade pullout students submitted poems to a competitive publishing opportunity through Creative Communications. Typically, a school that does very well with this anthology might see up to half of its submissions accepted, but the pullout students managed a most impressive feat: all of their poems were accepted! Congratulations to the creative kids of Room 41! Here are their winning poems. Enjoy!