A Letter from the Principal
Dear Rockland Parents and Guardians,
We have officially ended the first trimester of the school year and winter break is right around the corner. We had our first trimester PBIS celebration assembly last week which was a great success. We celebrated classes who are following our ROAR expectations and ended the assembly with a surprise. Students receive a raffle ticket each month when they do not receive an office discipline referral. At the trimester celebration assembly we selected 12 students to silly string some of our amazing staff members. A big thank you to Mr. Baker, Mrs. Castaneda, Mrs. Nyland, Mrs. Wickboldt, and Mrs. Lesniewicz for being good sports and being covered in silly string. I would also like to thank our RFA and all parents who donated to the Thanksgiving Bread event. Our staff felt very much appreciated and always enjoys this long held Rockland tradition. The D70 vaccine clinic was a great success with approximately 350 students receiving their first dose. The students received lab coats and fidgets, visited with Wrigley the therapy dog, and watched movies while attending. Thank you to all of the staff and parents who helped to make this happen.
Here are a few winter reminders:
Recess and Playground Arrival:
Students will be outdoors for recess if the temperature is above 10 degrees with a wind chill above zero. If it falls below either of those, students will have indoor recess and follow inclement weather arrival procedures. Please make sure your child is prepared for the weather.
Winter Clothing:
Students must wear their “Five Points” if they want to play in the field/snow/playground. The “Five Points” include hat, gloves, boots, coat, and snowpants. If they do not have their “Five Points” students must remain on the blacktop. Please remember to send shoes to change into if they wear their boots to school.
Circle Drive Arrival:
With the colder weather, we will have more students being driven to school. Please keep the following in mind if you are using the circle drive to drop off:
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Please make sure students are ready to hop out of the car when pulling up to the circle drive.
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Students should exit vehicles anywhere along the circle drive. Do not wait to drop students off until the front. This creates a backup.
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Students dropped off in the circle drive between 7:45 and 8:07 will proceed to the playground. Students dropped off after 8:07 will enter the main entrance.
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Students arriving after 8:15 are considered tardy. Parents must exit their vehicle and sign them in on the clipboard in the vestibule. This ensures accurate attendance and lunch counts. Please keep in mind there is no supervision outside after 8:15.
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No left turns out of the circle drive during arrival and dismissal. This creates backups in the drop-off line and is against the law.
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If you have a grandparent, caregiver, or other person dropping off, please make sure to give them this information.
PBIS at Rockland:
As many of you are aware, we have implemented a system of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports in District 70 and at Rockland. Mrs. Vertanen, our school psychologist, has created a video to help explain the PBIS system, how it is used at school, and how you can use it at home. The video is approximately 4 minutes and will provide you a great overview of this initiative. If you prefer to read the information, I linked a PDF of the presentation as well. We are seeing positive results and we look forward to using PBIS to grow and support our students.
PBIS for Parents Presentation PDF
Masks:
Please remember to send your child with at least 2 well-fitting masks each day. With the colder weather and more time indoors we need to be extra vigilant to keep our classrooms open.
Dates To Remember:
Friday December 3 - Sports Spirit Day - Wear your favorite team gear
Friday December 10 - Rockland Raptor Spirit Day - Wear your raptor gear or blue and green
Thursday December 16 - 4th and 5th Grade Talent Show 6:30pm Rockland Gym
Friday December 17 - Tie-Dye Spirit Day - Wear your brightest tie-dye clothes
Monday December 20 - Board of Education Meeting 6:00pm
Thursday December 23 - Winter Break Begins - No School
Monday January 10 - School Resumes
Sincerely,
Jim Cieciwa
Principal
3rd Grade Updates
This past month, 3rd graders at Rockland School have been working hard on solving all kinds of problems, reading a variety of texts, using their creative thinking brains, and having a ton of fun!
In math, students have been working on solving addition and subtraction problems using different strategies including estimating, using number lines, and using the standard algorigthm. Ask your child which strategy he or she prefers! Students are also practicing multiplication facts and are looking forward to the next unit on fractions!
In reading and language arts, 3rd graders have enjoyed reading and writing about a variety of themes, characters, and topics. They are working on answering questions with text evidence. All 3rd graders read a novel, Molly’s Pilgrim, before Thanksgiving. While reading this book, students explored character traits and theme. Students are also learning about different kinds of informational text features and making connections.
In social studies, we are learning about people who came to the United States about 150 years ago through Ellis Island! Students are working on a special project about what school was like long ago, and students will soon complete a project about family traditions.
ELL News
This is my second year working with the EL students here at Rockland. It has been a great year working with the EL student's so far. We just finished learning about what it means to be thankful and writing about what we are thankful for. All of our Rockland EL students are thankful for their families, school, teacher and friends. This year at Rockland school we have newcomers who don’t speak English. We have students from all over the world here at Rockland. Some of the places are Russia, Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Germany, and the Philippines. In January students will be taking the Access test again. This test shows how proficient a student is in English. With EL students we focus on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Here is a website with great resources for those that want to learn more about EL or for parents of an EL student.
https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Resources-for-Families-of-English-Learners.aspx
Let’s continue to have a rocking raptor year.
Mrs. Johnson
RFA News and Updates
ROCKLAND CARES
Winter Caroling:
Join Mrs. Vente, the Chorus Club and other students as they sing winter/holiday songs to passersby’s/vehicles at the sidewalk in front of Dos Amigos (**note location change**) on Friday December 10th at 5:30 p.m. Festive attire welcomed. Enjoy a warm cup of hot chocolate and spread some holiday/winter cheer! Music sheets will be available at the event. Sign up is requested: https://signup.com/go/jozxOFb.
Rockland Mitten Tree:
If you would like to participate in this annual Rockland giving event, please sign up by December 6th: https://signup.com/go/jozxOFb. More information will be emailed directly to you upon sign up. Labeled gifts are due in the main office vestibule by December 16. We are SO grateful for the ongoing generosity of our community! QUESTIONS? Contact Jill Sahagian at jillsahagian@gmail.com.
Social Mixers:
Please look for information on the 3rd & 4th grade Social Mixers in the New Year!
Book Fair:
A huge shoutout of thanks goes to all the families from Rockland who purchased and donated funds to purchase books through our book fair a couple weeks ago. Including our online sales, we hit over $7500 in sales!! This is about $2000 over our historical average for the fall fair.
Thanks to all of our sales, we had about 220 shoppers to the fair, 12 students received $25-35 worth of donated books, and an additional $170 was donated to the library for some new books. We earned $1000 in cash to go to the RFA, PLUS we purchased about 250 books from the fair to help start our new Birthday Book program next school year.
All in all, an incredible book fair for our school!
Thanks!!
Keri Woodward
LOTS OF THANKS
Veteran’s Day:
Thank you to all those who sent in thank you cards in honor of Veteran's Day!
Thanksgiving Bread:
Thank you to all our volunteers for contributing & blessing our staff for Rockland's Thanksgiving Bread! Also, a special thank you to Toni Parvis for organizing!
The Bruschuk Family
The Buntic Family
The Chadwick Family
The Dahlke Family
The DeBartolo Family
The Deering Family
The Graham Family
The Grinnell Family
The Hartwell Family
The Hillyard Family
The Hormel Family
The Ihle Family
The Janzen Family
The Ktsanes Family
The Kuhlman Family
The Logsdon Family
The Maloney Family
The McMahon Family
The Mezger Family
The Mickiewicz Family
The Noll Family
The O'Neil Family
The Randall Family
The Schaer Family
The Sick Family
The Taylor Family
The Timony Family
The Tse Family
The Vacek Family
The White Family
Bingo Night:
Our first in-person Bingo Night was a blast! Thank you to all the families that came out! Also, huge THANK YOU to Robert Debartolo and Jessica Longly for chairing the event and the following committee members for helping put it together!
Jamie Schaer
Jennifer White
Juliet Rojas
Katie Sanderson
Kristy Ciaglo
Lindsay McMahon
Nicole Slobe
Nikki O’Neil
Tracey Janzen
VIP/Daughter Dance:
Thank you to Lauren Barrille and Nicole Nesbitt for chairing this awesome *new* RFA event! All the Rockland girls and their VIPs had a great time. Also, Thank you to Chris Colton for DJing the event!