Feel the Love at JCB

Thanks to our many parent volunteers who made our final classroom party of the year--the Valentine's party--a wonderful time for our students. 

5th Graders Doing Their Thing

Every day, our fifth grade team of teachers, assistants, and support staff challenges our students to work hard and demonstrate what they are learning. They are really gearing these students up to face the demands of the junior high next year. Check out these pictures of some of our fifth graders recently. In a recent unit on debate, students used their research skills and newly acquired debate skills to host an ESPN-like sports themed debate experience. I sat in on a few and was very impressed. And using clay, students in science needed reading, math, and science skills to develop models of our solar system. This helped them understand the scope and size of the planets in relation to one another. Finally, in social studies, students recently completed a unit on Colonial Life. Butter making was a typical chore for a 10-year old--so they made their own butter and sampled it! They also practiced writing their names with quill pens and talked about school and home life of colonial children. Keep up the hard work, kids!

Solar System complete

Creating a Solar System

Practicing writing with quill pens

Sampling our butter

Shaking hands before the debate

JCBS Sports Center

Getting ready to defend

 

THANK YOU!!!

I have several things to report on that require thanks!

First, our Souper Bowl of Caring was very successful. We donated nearly 200 items of non-perishable food and $40 to FISH of McHenry Food Pantry. This is a time of year when the stock in the food pantries is low. After the holidays, they see a significant decrease in contributions and donations. They were very grateful for our help. So to everyone who participated--thank you. We will continue this tradition next year and see if we can do even better.

We are doing very well in our TREX plastic bag recycling challenge. We have sent in two donations so far. Our donation of plastic bags has reached 136 pounds! Please keep that plastic coming in. When you walk into the school, just past the office, you will see our container. We fill that container FULL every day. So you'll often see very large green bags near it. Just remember that it is plastic and not garbage. We just can't take it to our drop off site every day.

Finally, thank you to all of the parents who came to help at our Valentine's class parties last week. The kids had a blast. I'm still waiting for some more pictures to come in and I will post those soon.

Souper Bowl of Caring

This year, JCB will be participating in the Souper Bowl of Caring which allows youth across the nation to work to fight hunger and poverty in their own communities around the time of the Super Bowl football game.

In the week before Bowl Sunday, we will take up a collection asking for one dollar or one item of food for people in need. JCB will donate all food items and money to FISH of McHenry Food Pantry.

Please consider sending either $1 or a food item (or more if you wish and are able) to school from Feb 1-Feb 5. Students will turn it in to their homeroom teacher. We will report our donation through the blog after the following week. We thank you for your support and participation.

Hungry, Hungry Kiddos

A Message from the Food Service Team at JCB:

As you all know, good nutrition is key to your child’s academic success, and the FoodService Team works very hard devising nutritious and appealing menus each day.

We have noticed a good number of students purchasing a meal only to discard most of it.  Not only does this waste your money, but it also has a domino effect.  The students are hungry during the day, and many students are sent to the nurse with complaints of headaches and stomach aches. 

While the Nurse has a limited supply of snacks on hand, those are generally intended for our students with health concerns. We cannot provide food for students who do not bring a lunch or snacks and choose not to eat the school lunch.

Over the years, we have found it helpful if parents review the menu with their children so see what days they would like to purchase a meal and what days they would prefer a lunch from home.  Menus can be found both online under the School Information tab or in the vestibule of James C Bush School.  Several teachers also print them out and send them home in student backpacks.

If  you need assistance or have any questions regarding the menus, please feel free to email Anna Wolk, our FoodService Coordinator at: awolk@johnsburg12.org.  She will reply typically within 24 hours.

5th Graders go to Challenger Center

This week, our fifth grade students have been taking field trips, two homerooms at a time, to the Challenger Learning Center for Space and Technology in Woodstock. The field trip provides students with innovative science and simulated space missions. Each mission provides students with the opportunity to develop and implement team building, communication, and problem solving skills.

Our students completed the mission called Rendezvous with a Comet. In this mission, our students become scientists and engineers conducting a daring mission to take an up-close look at a comet as it streaks its way across the galaxy. Their goal is to plot a successful course to rendezvous with the comet, launch a probe while plotting the correct intercept course and completing station activities. What seems at first to be a routine exploration is filled with challenges and emergencies. Each obstacle that stands in the way of a successful mission requires students to work together as a team and use problem solving skills to develop a solution.

While the students were completing their missions, a reporter from the Daily Herald spoke with staff and students and took pictures in honor of and in commemoration of the Challenger Space Shuttle Mission. The article and pictures will appear in the paper on Thursday, January 28. Click on the link to check out the article that includes pictures and videos!

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20160128/news/160128910/


The Challenger Center offers summer camps and family fun nights throughout the year. If you are interested in learning more about those opportunities, please click on the links below:

Family Science Nights

Club Challenger

Summer Space Adventures

TREX Recycling Challenge

James C. Bush Elementary School is again participating in the TREX Recycling Challenge. TREX utilizes millions of plastic grocery bags each year to create its composite lumber product, keeping this material out of landfills locally and across the country. By building partnerships with schools, students can learn the importance of recycling, keep plastic out of the landfills and be rewarded for their efforts.

We are happy to accept the following plastic in our efforts:

• plastic grocery bags
• stretch film (no household saran wrap)
• plastic department store bags
• water bottle case wrap
• newspaper sleeves
• toilet paper/paper towel over wrap
• dry cleaning bags
• bread/cereal/produce bags
• Ziploc and other re-sealable bags
• ice bags
• salt bags
• bubble wrap

All plastic must be clean, dry and free of food residue!

By reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic film, you and your child can help reduce litter, prevent pollution and save natural resources. Please help by recylcing your plastic bags at James C. Bush Elementary School--February 1, 2016 through April 22, 2016. This program is brought to you by our school, the McHenry County School Environmental Education Program (MCSEEP), the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County, and the McHenry County Department of Health and Environmental Health.