Western Avenue Elementary -

So happy to have the classrooms filled again.

All hands on deck this morning including Dr. Smith.

One of the best mornings in a while seeing these smiling faces again.

It was so great to welcome staff back today. PTO supplied great snacks, teachers collaborated about new students and we were busy finalizing room set ups.

WA students don't forget to vote for the first round of our March Music Madness! vote for our staff's favorite songs! Voting ends tk.orrow at 3:00!

Have you started reading yet? What are you waiting for?! Join us in the March to May Million Pages Challenge. Read or listen to any book, track the number of pages and the number of books you read using this form (http://bit.ly/3rdoWWa) and we will monitor our progress to reach our million pages goal.

Parents of car riders and walkers don't forget to come to the building this week to pick up your child's car/walker tag. Today is 3pm - 5pm, Thursday is 4pm - 6pm or any day during regular hours.

The countdown for our transition is on and we are busy getting ready for in-person classrooms as well as remote learning. Here is a quick glimpse into one of our rooms.

What an awesome personalized experience from Urban Gateway about the roots of black dance today during PBIS. We learned dance moves with them and celebrated Black History Month.

Our CKH team is leading the afternoon PD as we work on our plans to transition both our in-person and remote students and rebuild our classroom communities.

The Black History Month Committee has received an overwhelming number of requests for shirts- so we are giving you all one more chance to place a t-shirt order for your WA Students. Please only fill this form out if you MISSED the initial deadline. New deadline is Monday, 2/15 @ noon! This will be the final call for this year's shirt! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefIJ0SUQpkDf7RZV1sioEnH9wZzKBd3-HmrRj47nkxBYtCUw/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&gxids=7628

Next week is Kindness week. Don't forget to submit a smile to send to a WA staff member by tomorrow. Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzmHdZEJHn9d3f7QuXi-s_btq8nA67iXFN6cXXaUFonCf9mg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Mrs. Pasqua shared about the Lunch and Listen club during tonight's BOE mtg.

Each year our third graders go see the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and this year we kept that alive with a virtual field trip to their live performance. Conductor Terrance Gray stopped and talked with the students and answered their questions throughout the performance.

Don't forget to order your Black History Month t-shirt for your student. Today, Wednesday, is the deadline. Thank you to our PTO for sponsoring these. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecQGzzAMkXjn9kmwMJ_r0AM8AKWuRiK_dAOksJAhdxznRkiA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Keep sending us your photos from Dr. Martin Luther, King Jr. Day of Service. We love celebrating our students and their efforts to give back! #d161learns #WesternWolves

Honored to have Mrs. Budz as a recipient of the #aboveandbeyond awards at tonight's BOE mtg. for her dedication to her students and staff.

Today we welcomed a small group of learners back to the building for remote learning.

We were happy to welcome back our paraprofessionals today to prepare for our small group of remote from school learners on Monday.

Connecting with our kids interests makes for engagement. Had a fun time playing music note Among Us with Mrs. Pasqua's fourth graders today and learned about the game too. We only captured one of our three imposters but still had fun.