Ridgewood January 2025 Newsletter

Vision: Academically, socially, and emotionally preparing today's students for tomorrow's world.

Mission: Ridgewood Elementary School will work collaboratively to provide a rigorous, standards-based, student-centered learning environment for all.

Core Values: Achievement, Equity, Integrity

January 30th & 31st - Parent/Teacher Conferences

January 31st - No School Due to Conferences

February 5th - 11:30 Dismissal, Teacher In-Service

February 17th - No School, Presidents' Day

February 18th - No School, Teacher In-Service

Each Day We Strive To:

Be Respectful

Be Responsible

Be Safe

Ridgewood School will complete at least 25 paws on our school paw chart by giving their "Best Yes." How will we do this? If students are asked to do something, they will respond with an acknowledgement such as yes or ok and give their best effort on the task. Every 5 best yeses in the classroom will equal one golden paw on our hallway chart. When we reach 25 golden paws, we will celebrate with a Super Hero Day!

WHAT: Ridgewood Students will participate in a ST Math challenge competing against all grade levels to see which class has the most puzzles achieved on ST Math. The challenge will start January 13th and go through March 6th, In addition, we will also be competing against the Rock Island Center for Math & Science to see which school has the most puzzles achieved on ST Math. The overall winning class at Ridgewood will be announced as well as which school achieved the most puzzles.

WHY: This challenge will help each of us grow in Math while having a fun and friendly competition.

HOW: The amount of puzzles will be counted weekly to see which classes are in the lead. The top classes will be displayed on a bulletin board in the hallway. In addition, we will count the number of puzzles weekly to see which school has the most. We will also track which school is the lead on the bulletin board in the hallway.

WINNING CLASS: There will be a weekly winner and an overall winner at the end of the competition. The weekly winner will get to display the ST Math trophy in their classroom. The class with the most puzzles at the END of the competition will have a celebration where they will get 3D JiJi keychains made by John Deere and Chipper Ice Cream Sandwiches from Whiteys!! But wait, that’s not all, there will be a special visit from JiJi at the celebration!! Get to solving those puzzles and cheer on your classmates!! Let’s have some more FUN!!!

WINNING SCHOOL: There will be an overall winner at the end of the competition between our two schools. We will partake in an assembly on March 6th and stream in the Rock Island Center for Math & Science at our assembly to announce the winner. JiJi will be present at the assembly of the winning school. If Ridgewood wins the competition, Ms. Peterson and Mr. Von Thun will get a pie in the face at the assembly.

Let’s get solving those puzzles.

Go Ridgewood!

I’m excited to share that we’ll be celebrating East Moline Math Week from February 3-7, 2025!

This is a free experience designed to make math fun for the whole family. Our community goal is to

reach 50,000 minutes! There are activities for every day of the week, so you can participate

whenever you have the time.

To play, visit https://www.mindresearch.org/math-week-eastmoline and pick a day. Select your grade and language and then flip the card over.

Each time you spend time together, please use the survey on the website to log your minutes.

Have fun with math!

On Tuesday, January 28th, we celebrated our 100th day of school. Classrooms did a variety of activities centered around the theme of "100." Some of the activities included:

• Counting to 100
• Items on a hundreds chart
• 100 kindness cards
• Writing activities
• Math problems centered around 100

It was a great day centered around learning and fun!

Our district holds Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee (BPAC) meetings every third Thursday of the month at 5:30 PM at the Glenview Library.

BPAC members must be parents or legal guardians of children enrolled in a TBE program or Transitional Program of Instruction, transitional bilingual education teachers, counselors, and representatives from the community.

We would love to see you there!

This is just a reminder that when it snows, students need a coat, snow pants, boots, a hat, and gloves, in order to go out in the field and play in the snow. If they do not have all these items, they will play on the blacktop only. Please also help us in reminding your child that snow stays on the ground. Thank you!

\We are looking to start a PTO back up at Ridgewood. We are looking for anyone who might be interested in taking the lead on this or collaborating with a couple people to get this organization up and running. If this is something you might be interested in, we will be having an informational meeting on Thursday, February 20th at 4:30 in the Ridgewood Library. Thank you!

When dropping off and picking up your child in the drop off/pick up lane, please stay in your car so that the car line keeps moving. If you are looking to get out of your car, please park in an available spot or along the street. Please do not pass along the left side after you have dropped off or picked up your child. This can be dangerous, as we have students that could be crossing in the crosswalk or students that could be getting out of vehicles. Thank you for your cooperation!

We are no longer utilizing e-learning days for inclement weather. Real snow days are back.