5Essentials Survey
Thank you to all of the parents who have already completed the 5Essentials Survey. If you have not already completed the survey, your assistance in completing this survey would be greatly appreciated. Detailed information regarding this survey and the survey link are listed below. Thank you for your time!
http://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/survey/parent/
2025-26 School Year Registration
Online registration for next school year will be open later this month on TeacherEase. In addition to registering online, each child will have a paper packet of information that will need to be completed and returned to the school. Families will be notified once online registration is officially open.
IAR Testing
The Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) is the state assessment and accountability measure for Illinois students enrolled in a public school district. IAR assesses the Illinois Learning Standards incorporating the Common Core and is administered to all students in grades 3-8. Our students will be completing this assessment March 6-14. Please ensure that your child gets a good night's sleep and comes to school with their iPad fully charged.
Student Council
Student Council's plan for the month of March is to collect gift card donations that can be used to purchase items for Pet Project. If your family is willing to donate to this cause, please send in one of the following gift cards for these businesses:
Amazon
Farm and Fleet
Walmart
Brothers Country Supply
We hope to help as many animals as we can!
Book Madness - Tournament of Books
For the month of March, all McKinley students will listen to stories and vote on their favorites. The winning book will be announced to students before spring break. We look forward to finding out the winning book for this tournament!
John Ourth
Congratulations to Melina S. and Ryland H. on being recognized as McKinley's John Ourth Award winners. These two fourth grade students attended a student recognition breakfast to be recognized for their outstanding character throughout their time here at McKinley. We are proud of you!
Yearbook Cover Winners
Congratulations to Caleb A. and Brynn R. for being selected as the yearbook cover contest winners. We look forward to seeing your artwork on this year's yearbook cover!
Calendar Dates
March 5
-Spring Pictures
March 12
-PTO Meeting (5:30 p.m.)
March 14
-Mother/Son Game Night (6:00-7:30 p.m.)
March 18
-OES Board Meeting (6:00 p.m.)
March 19
-3rd Grade Music Concert (6:00 p.m.)
-4th Grade Music Concert (7:00 p.m.)
March 21
-Half Day (11:30 a.m. dismissal)
March 24-28
-Spring Break (No School)
March 31
-School Resumes
March Lunch Menu
PTO
It’s hard to believe we are already in the last trimester of the year!
We hope all the girls and their special guys had a great time at the dance! It was decorated beautifully and everyone looked great! All the girls that had their pictures taken, had the pictures sent home with them.
March 14th will be our 80’s themed Mother and Son Bingo Night! The forms need to be returned by March 5th. It will be a fun night of bingo along with mini games in between. We will provide pizza and water. There will also be snacks for purchase. We will have lots of prizes and something fun for the boys to take home. We can’t wait to see everyone dressed in their best 80’s gear!
We will be having a bookfair in April. The office will reach out for volunteers closer to that.
Soon we will start planning our Staff Appreciation week and what we want to do for Field day. So please come to the meeting and bring all of your ideas!
This year we have two positions up for election on the PTO board! The Vice President and Treasurer. You have to attend at least 3 meetings to be able to run. Elections will be held at the April meeting.
On the PTO Facebook page, there is some great information on redeeming box tops. It really is an easy way to get some money for your kids school by purchasing things you already buy!
A reminder that our spirit wear link is still up. You can order anytime and pick up locally on the Southside or you can have it mailed to you.
Spirit Wear Link - Click Here
Our next PTO meeting will be held on Wednesday March 12th at 5:30 in the gym! Anyone is welcome to attend.
If you have any questions you can reach out to any of our board members or send us a message to the McKinley PTO Facebook page
Amanda Waddell- President
Darlene Hess- Vice President
Casey Clemens- Treasurer
Amy Anderson- Secretary
DON’T FORGET…
-Like our Facebook page McKinley School PTO
-Save your Handy Foods receipts and send them into school. We can redeem these for gift cards to use for school events
-Join Kroger Community Rewards if you haven’t already. Select McKinley school as your organization to support and you can help our school just by grocery shopping!
Champion of the Charter
Congratulations to our February Champion of the Charter students! All of our Champions are invited to attend the March board meeting to be recognized.
Kindergarten
Kurtis Z., Kylie K., Cora S.
1st Grade
Ryver K., Morgan J., Jameson K.
2nd Grade
Sophia M., Emma F., Nate W.
3rd Grade
June T., Miles J., Brody B.
4th Grade
Charlie S., Alex S-W., Lacei J.
Life Skills
Ronan M., Jameson W.
D/HH
Ayden M.
Kindergarten
Our kindergarten students have been working hard in Math. Students have been experimenting more with solid and flat shapes and learning how to differentiate between the two types. They have also been writing math equations in their Math Journals.
February has been full of extra activities for all to enjoy. Students enjoyed celebrating Valentine’s day parties and sharing cards with their friends. The 100th day of school was another fun day in Kindergarten. We dressed up like we were 100 years old! Students practiced staying fit during our Jump Rope for Heart event.
Students experienced the process of predicting real life events for the Super Bowl and Groundhog Day. They predicted and graphed whether or not the groundhog would see his shadow. In addition, students completed a Super Bowl graph which showed all kindergarten students’ predictions for the outcome of the big game.
-Kindergarten Team
1st Grade
February was a very busy month in 1st grade. We celebrated the 100th day of school with a “100 Days Brighter” glow day. We enjoyed time with our grandparents or special friends at a pancake and sausage grandparent breakfast. Students were able to share their reading skills and make meaningful bookmarks together. It was a nice time for all. Valentine’s Day was also a day of celebration of the friendships and love that we’ve built in our classroom. We ended February by participating in jump rope for heart. We are excited to see all the fun that March will bring.
-1st Grade Team
2nd Grade
Second grade has been working so hard at being kind and being a good friend! We recently had another "Friendship Friday" where we interviewed a new friend, made a heart to explain how to be a good friend, and discussed characteristics of a good friend. Each student went home with a friendship bracelet!
We've been working hard in the classroom, too! We are wrapping up our subtraction math unit and moving onto graphing. We've written small moments for writing. Students have learned solids, liquids, and gases. We've experimented with Valentine's Day candy and even learned tons of facts about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
-2nd Grade Team
3rd Grade
3rd grade has been working hard this month. We learned about President's Day and had Mrs. Roth from the Little Red Schoolhouse come in to teach us some fun facts about Abraham Lincoln. In math, we are continuing to work on our multiplication mastery. This month we also celebrated our 100th day of school. We spent some time learning about Valentine's day and had a lot of fun at our classroom party. We also learned about making healthy choices as we participated in Hoops for Heart. We are looking forward to another great month in March.
-3rd Grade Team
4th Grade
We have been busy in 4th grade! In February students celebrated the 100th day of school and participated in Hoops for Heart. They have also been hard at work learning many new skills! We recently wrapped up learning about factors and multiples in math and will now move onto our fractions unit. In reading we have been completing a variety of skill reviews in order to prepare for the IAR test this month. We are continuing our literary essay unit, and students are doing a great job of writing about their chosen texts. In science we are beginning to explore electricity. It’s hard to believe these students are entering their final trimester at McKinley. We are looking forward to spring, warmer temperatures, and a lot more fun to come!
-4th Grade Team
Life Skills
The life skills classes had a great month learning all about family and relationships! We hosted our first Special Person Day and had a blast sharing our school day with our loved ones. We look forward to celebrating with them again in the future!
-Life Skills Team
D/HH
World Read Aloud Day: Feb 5th
We started Feb. by participating in World Read Aloud Day. The students read to the class and we joined 55,000 other students in watching live web events where authors and illustrators read their books.
Super Bowl Party: Feb. 7th
We celebrated the Eagles and the K.C. Chiefs at our Super Bowl party. We predicted the Eagles would win and they did. We have several big Eagles fans.
Our e-learning day on the 12th went well. We read stories, made cars and worked on our language.
Our Valentine's Day party was a great success. Thank you to Mrs. "Mema" Clausel for doing our parties for us this year. We greatly appreciate all your support.
-D/HH Team
PE
Starting the second half of the year, we have finished the kids’ heart challenge with the students learning how to have healthy hearts and how to live healthy lifestyles. Grades K-2 participated in jump rope activities while grades 3-4 engaged in a basketball activity. Next, all grade levels will move on to stations performing various skills at the appropriate grade level. These stations will include cup stacking, strength bands, balance beam work, and cooperative activities with bean bags. We look forward to going outside in the next couple of months!
-Mr. Ummel
