October 2026 IB Connection

• October 7th ~ CDPH Vaccine Clinic (9am-1pm)
• October 7th ~ Pre-ACT9 (HS Admissions) Exam
• October 12th ~ No School: Indigenous People's Day
• October 14th ~ School Photo Retakes
• October 15th ~ Spanish Oratory Competition
• October 16th ~ PAC Meeting (8am)
• October 20th ~ Chipotle Fundraiser
• October 23rd ~ End of Q2
• October 29th ~ BooFest (3rd-5th, 3-4:30pm+ 6th-8th, 5-6:30pm)
• October 30th ~ Halloween Parade (PK-3rd)

Our annual SchoolStore fundraiser is officially live! It’s a fast, hassle-free way to support Locke without door-to-door sales or cash handling.

How You Can Help:

• Shop Online: Visit schoolstore.com and enter School ID# 174321. Shop at over 300 top retailers (like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy), and Locke earns up to 50% cash back at no extra cost to you.

• Support Teachers Directly: Donate a "Caring For Classrooms" gift card so teachers can purchase essential learning supplies.

• Win Student Prizes: Help your child log in and email family and friends to share the link. Students earn fun prizes just for participating!

See the link here for a video for parents to learn more about the fundraiser. It takes less than five minutes to sign up and supports our classrooms all year long. Thank you for your support!

This school year, our core teaching goal is shifting toward a facilitator-led model that builds agentic learning environments. Learner agency isn't a skill that we teach—it is an innate capacity all students already hold to act on their own inquiries, bring their own perspectives, and actively shape their learning journey. By pairing agency with inquiry, we empower students with voice, choice, and ownership over their learning.

Creating spaces where learner agency can thrive is not only limited to the classroom. We invite our families to consider these ways to promote voice, choice, and ownership at home.

• Solicit Voice & Choice: When making decisions as a family, even as simple as how to spend time together on a weekend or what to eat for dinner, include your child in the process.

• Push Thinking: When your child encounters a problem, prompt their thinking instead of giving immediate answers. Ask, "What strategies have you tried?" or "How did you arrive at that conclusion?" to encourage them to defend their reasoning.

• Encourage Self-Advocacy: Prompt your child to consult resources or discuss ideas with classmates and siblings before turning to an adult for help.

• Foster Goal Ownership: Help them track their own progress against goals and self-assess their work. Ask what feedback they received on recent assessments and how they plan to adjust if given another chance to practice those skills.

Karen Schwartz School Counselor, PYP Grades PK-4

ksschwartz@cps.edu

Eunice Smith, School Counselor, MYP Grades 5-8 + PYP Bilingual PK-4

emarce@cps.edu

Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills help students become self-directed learners, and some of the most crucial skill-building happens before the school day even begins. Establishing consistent morning and evening routines helps students master Self-Management Skills and self-regulation. With the new school year underway, now is the ideal time to build habits that ensure on-time arrival. We encourage families to use the tips below to establish predictable routines at home that foster confident, independent learners. Please reach out if you have any questions!

On September 22nd, our community came together to host a High School Transition & Opportunities Fair, bringing local 7th and 8th-grade students face-to-face with counselors, program coordinators, and student leaders from several area high schools. Designed to bridge the gap between middle school and high school, the event provided young learners with a clear roadmap for their upcoming academic journeys and community involvement.

Did you know that your child can access a PK-12 International Baccalaureate (IB) education right in our neighborhood schools? As part of our local IB continuum, Steinmetz College Prep invites prospective students and families to explore the high school experience awaiting them.

Steinmetz is hosting two upcoming Open House events:

• Wednesday, September 30

• Saturday, October 17

Take a tour of the campus, meet the dedicated staff, and explore the outstanding academic pathways, extracurricular activities, and unique opportunities available for your child. Whether your student is gearing up for high school or you are exploring future options, we strongly encourage our families to come check it out and see what makes an IB education so powerful.

Please see the attached flyers for complete details and times. Should you have any questions about Steinmetz' IB Programme, please contact their coordinators:

Jenni De Los Reyes - MYP Coordinator - jcdelosreyes@cps.edu

Rachel Rezny - Diploma Programme (DP) Coordinator - rlrezny@cps.edu

Locke’s annual Hispanic Heritage Night brought our school community together for a vibrant evening of cultural celebration and connection. Families explored hands-on traditions across the school, creating Mini Piñatas, Papel Picado, Talavera Tiles, Flores de Papel, and Muñecas Lelé. Attendees also joined in traditional games like Lotería and Pirinola, enjoyed Paletero Man storytime, sang karaoke, and shared sweet snow cones.

As open-minded IB learners, our students broadened their global perspectives while celebrating rich heritage traditions. This wonderful event was hosted by our Culture and Climate Committee and made possible by our staff volunteers and our Bilingual Advisory Committee. We are deeply grateful for their time and energy in making this night so special for our entire school family!

Students in Ms.Bloss and Ms. Tzakis class (146) have been hard at work learning about similarities, differences, and personality traits that make us unique. In small groups, students created circle process art using bubble wrap, cups, and paint. Then, students answered "interview" questions to share more about what makes them unique. The result...a beautiful collage of unique all about me artwork!

During our Who We Are Unit, students in Ms. Lauren and Ms. Morgan's class (150) are starting to understand that learning about ourselves and others builds community. We are exploring the concept of "form" through an investigation into what we look like. Our students read the book "The Colors of Us" and discussed how all skin tones are shades of brown. We had some fun mixing up chocolate, vanilla and butterscotch playdough with our fingers and finding the right blend of our own unique skin tone. We also worked together to mix up the colors from the book and stamped our hand prints to create a melanin rainbow to celebrate how much we love the skin we are in!

Students in Ms. Staunton's class (144) practiced their independent reading skills on the carpet. Students created letters (and other creations!) out of playdough.

Students in Ms. Ramirez' class (Room 231) worked in teams to estimate the quantity of real life objects. Students then explored efficient ways to determine how many objects were in their collections. At the end, students reflected on the accuracy of their estimates.

Our 2nd-grade scientists have been getting their hands dirty as we kick off unit 1 on Plant and Animal Relationships! Working collaboratively in teams, students took full ownership of their learning by deciding how much soil, water, space, and sunlight their radish seeds needed to thrive. Daily observation and journaling have turned our classroom into a lively laboratory where students record growth, notice changes, and reflect on their hypotheses. Students developed curiosity by asking testable questions about plant growth and expressed their daily discoveries through structured scientific journaling.

During our unit, students began to wonder about needs in our school community. Students in Ms. Lee's class (106) decided to advocate for a cleaner school community by making signs to post around the school campus and writing to the alderman to ask for additional outdoor trash cans.

In Mr. Angeles' 5th grade science class, we are investigating what an ancient artifact might have depicted. Our astronomers are learning about how Earth's rotation and orbit affects why we see different stars at different times. This week we are headed outside to model Earth's rotation. Ask a 5th grader about the patterns they observed in the Mount Nose Experiment and be amazed.

In Mr. Rizkallah's I&S class ,students extensively studied and took notes on the most important aspects of ancient Egypt. Students wrote claims, evidence, and analysis responses about the most unique aspect of ancient Egypt.Students then created mummies and pyramids to highlight the uniqueness of this civilization.

Students in Ms. Garcia's science class created a scale model of the Earth's interior layers. Slices were then pieced together to form a model of our Earth's interior

Students in Mr. Bermudez' I&S class were tasked to investigate Hispanic people who made a positive contribution to society & made a difference.

In Ms. Garcia-Kitch's science class, student groups designed a system that would be powered human energy for the Skyline Unit, Harnessing Human Energy, exhibiting Creativity, Inquiry and Communication.

We can take inspiration from how other cultures approach what they eat:

• Italy’s Slow Food Movement: Born in 1986 to counter fast food by championing local heritage, seasonal crops, and regional farmers.
• Japan’s Mottainai Ethos: A deep-rooted respect for resources that discourages waste and values finishing every bite.

Here are some suggested challenges that our Locke IB students and their families can take on to actively participate in World Food Day this October:

• Zero-Waste Dinner (Principled): Cook a dinner made entirely from ingredients you already have on hand to reduce food-waste.

• Culturally Curious Tasting (Open-Minded): Cook a dish from a new culture and learn about where the ingredients originated and how they were produced to be brought to your table.

• Plant-Based Swap (Balanced): Try swapping in plant-based proteins for a couple of meals to explore lower carbon-impact eating.

• Support Local (Caring): Support a vendor at a local farmers' market or drop off canned goods at a local food pantry.

To learn more, click here to learn about Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and their advocacy on World Food Day 2026.

Ms. Anna Ziemniak - IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) Coordinator (5-8) - aziemniak@cps.edu

Direct Line: 773- 534-3358