Email: em-office@d64.org
Website: https://www.d64.org/ems
Location: 8101 North Cumberland Avenue, Niles, IL, USA

Student Portal - TLC Schedule

Dear Parents/Guardians:

The Illinois Assessment of Readiness Test, an assessment for all students in Illinois in grades 3-8, will be administered in District 64 from April 1-April 11.

The best preparation for the IAR has been the quality instruction our teachers have provided this school year. However, there are things you can also do to promote your child’s success:

• Make sure your child gets a good night’s sleep and eats a healthy breakfast before each day of testing.

• Provide your child with words of encouragement. While we don’t want our students to feel anxious about any assessment, we do want them to do their best.

• The IAR is an online assessment and students will be using their Chromebooks to complete these tests. Please make sure your child brings his or her Chromebook to school each day, fully charged.

Below is our school’s schedule for test administration:

Monday, April 7: ELA Test 1 and Math Test 1

Tuesday, April 8: ELA Test 2 and Math Test 2

Wednesday, April 9: Math Test 3

If you would like to learn more about the IAR tests, sample tests are available for your review. Thank you for your support in helping your child be prepared for upcoming testing.

Sincerely,

Maria Soulias

Assistant Principal

A detailed email was sent to all 8th grade families today. Please see the seperate email for more detailed information.

8th Grade Trip to Maine South for Anastasia: April 29, 2025

8th Grade Promotion Party: May 16, 2025

8th Grade Great America Trip: May 21, 2025

Promotion Practice: May 27, 2025 - (must ride bus from Emerson to Maine East)

Promotion: May 27, 2025 - 5:30pm

**NEW THIS YEAR - LAST DAY OF ATTENDANCE FOR 8TH GRADE**

May 27th will be the LAST DAY OF ATTENDANCE for our 8th grade students. 8th Grade students will attend a mandatory promotion practice at 9am at Maine East after homeroom attendance is taken (more info and permission slips forthcoming). Students will load buses at 8:45 am and return to Emerson at 11:30. They will then eat lunch and WILL BE RELEASED AT 12:15PM. Please fill out THIS FORM to indicate if your student will need to ride a bus home at 12:15 or if they will be picked up/walk home. We will be running limited bus routes (our usual 4pm activity routes) for any students who need bus transportation home. We need your reply so that we can assure that we have enough buses to accommodate those who need transportation. Thank you for your help!

To Parents/Guardians:

The Illinois 5Essentials school climate survey for parents opens today! I am pleased to invite all parents to participate and would like to encourage you to share your thoughts. The survey should take about 20 minutes or less to complete.

The survey focuses on the five “essential” areas that research has shown are key components for school success: Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Involved Families, Supportive Environment, and Ambitious Instruction.

Your participation will help us understand the conditions at our school and guide improvements. Your identity and individual survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child. The 5Essentials Survey is sponsored by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and was developed in collaboration with the University of Chicago.

Three helpful tips before you enter the survey:

• Please focus on your experiences during the current school year.
• Take care to select the correct school and community (you’d be surprised how many schools in Illinois have the same name)!
• If you have a student at more than one school, we invite you to complete a survey for each location.

Please visit this link to begin: https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/

The survey will close on March 31, 2025.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and helping to improve the environment for student success in District 64.

Sincerely,

Tessa Shulman

Principal

6th Grade:

Ravah Islamoglu: Notes From Space

7th Grade:

Kamila Yenhalycheva & Manisha Mugunthan: Gemini Rising

8th Grade:

Gioia DiniBaima: Angel Dance

Congratulations to the winners! They will move on to the District Young Authors Contest.

Best of luck!

Emerson will host a Career Day for 8th graders on Wednesday, May 14th! The purpose of Career Day is to expose students to a variety of careers in order to jumpstart their thinking about the future. We are currently recruiting parent volunteers to speak to homerooms (30 students) for 15 - 20 minutes. Parents will rotate to 4-5 homerooms. In addition to sharing information about your career, each session will include a few minutes for student questions. Career Day activities will occur between 8:40-11:20 a.m.

If you, a family member, or friend is interested in volunteering to speak about a career, please complete this form by Thursday, April 17.

March is here, and that means spring is on the way! This month in homeroom, students learned more about Ramadan from our fellow classmates. Ramadan is not only a time of strict fasting from dawn until sunset but also an important time for spiritual reflection, self improvement and prayer. Collectively as a homeroom, students put together a calendar that guided their personal reflections throughout the remainder of Ramadan and month of March. In addition, students had some team time to read, clean, and prepare for upcoming events like the sixth grade Olympics.

Attached below are the Second Step lessons taught this month along with questions to ask your student. Students continue to grow and learn the skills necessary to have success in school, get along with others, and prevent violence, bullying, and substance abuse. Second Step is based on research in three key areas: early adolescent development, risk and protective factors, and instructional practices to support the program’s goals. Each lesson is specific to and appropriate for each grade level.

Spring is just around the corner, and what better way to welcome it than by supporting Emerson Middle School through our Flower Power Fundraiser!

Shop Online: https://bit.ly/EMSflower

Now through May 15

Orders ship after April 1 (directly to your home, $6.99 shipping fee)

Products include: Bulbs, seeds, and seed mats

50% of all sales go directly to the Emerson PTO to support student events, classroom supplies, arts & music programs, staff appreciation, and more!

Your purchase helps our school bloom—thank you for your support!

As a reminder, the state deadline for 6th grade dental exams is in May. If you have not already done so, please upload your completed dental examination form to PowerSchool. An exam dated after 11/15/23 will fulfill the requirement. If you need to schedule an appointment, please do it now to ensure completion by the deadline. Thank you!

Monday 3/31 - Math Room 209, LA Room 109

Tuesday 4/1 - Math Room 301, LA Room 102

Thursday 4/3 - Math Room 301, LA Room 207, Science/Social Studies Room 203

In ASSP, you can get help in math, language arts and miscellaneous (science and social studies) with a teacher from 3:05-4:00 PM. Come to ASSP if you need to:

• prepare for a test

• get questions answered from your homework

• review a concept that you missed or confuses you

• finish that writing assignment

“Midnight in Paris” Friday, May 16th 7-9 pm. Tickets will go on sale now. https://emersonmspto.membershiptoolkit.com/form/m/321507

Join the Emerson PTO for a Pre-Release Screening of "A Minecraft Movie" on Thursday, April 3rd! The cost to attend is $20 per person. This includes the movie ticket, small drink and popcorn. Doors open at 6, movie starts at 6:30PM in the BIG theater! All students must have an adult present. Please follow the link below to purchase your tickets.

https://emersonmspto.membershiptoolkit.com/form/m/322997

Join us for our last movie night of the school year

Park Ridge Public Library Strategic Planning

Our friends at the Park Ridge Library have recently launched their strategic planning process, which cannot happen without input from the community. Please take a few minutes to respond to our online survey. Your answers will help the Library formulate a plan for the next four years, so they can continue offering programs, services and materials that work for the whole community.

Spiritwear Store

There are sales posted every week with flat rate shipping regardless of order size. Check out our updated store.

Not a PTO Member Yet or WANT TO VOLUNTEER with an Event?