On September 6th, we will be focusing on school safety. We will conduct our fire drill, bus evacuation drill, lockdown drill, and practice our "shelter-in-place" for hazardous weather. Additionally, we will have a discussion in each advisory about general safety with classmates and learning about many of our community partners that help to keep us safe at school and in the community. This day will also kick off our Safety Poster competition where advisories will express their own creativity with a message for their peers. Be on the lookout for the next newsletter so see some of the winners!

Please let me know what questions you have about safety and MacArthur!

We hope you enjoyed the open-house format for our Back to School night! It was a more relaxed pace for you to flexibly meet your needs of learning more about the school, finding out more about a teacher, or learning from our community resources. Speaking of community resources, a huge thank you to Link Together Coalition, our D23 PTO, and librarians from Prospect Heights and River Trails! The learning opportunities and need for support never end!

In ELA class we finished our iReady reading diagnostic tests and began our new reading curriculum this week - StudySync. In SS, students are creating artifacts from their assigned hominin group, reading, researching and working collaboratively to present their information to their peers via a group presentation.

Our 7th-graders in math have just completed their Fall iReady Diagnostic test and have their personalized learning paths set! We have also been working through Unit 1 in our Ready Math Curriculum on Proportional Relationships, specifically with scale factors. Previously in 6th-grade, students learned how to identify equivalent ratios, calculate rates, and represent these concepts through various models such as tables and double number lines. Building on that prior knowledge, students apply the same concepts of equivalent ratios and unit rates to recognize scale drawings and copies to compare the drawings and copies to the objects and figures they represent. Students are learning how scale drawings are typically used when objects are either too small or too large to be shown at their actual sizes. We have seen real-world application problems of scale factor and drawings with examples relating to floor plans, maps, and enlarged/minimized pictures!

Please be patient when depositing money onto lunch accounts if sending money to school. The kitchen updates all the accounts after they are done serving lunches for the day so money should be available for the next day.  This only applies to ice cream and snacks since they can not be purchased if there is no money on the account. Students may still purchase lunches if their account is negative.

Online deposits on the Mealtime account should be available immediately.

Now that school has started, it is time to start up the activities. Innovation Club, Student Senate, Intramural Basketball, and Yearbook Club have all had their first meeting. Newspaper Club, Robotics Club, Creativity Club and Art Club will be starting soon! For a complete list of all our activities, use the link below:

All 8th grade students will take the PSAT on 10/29. Please save the date for your calendars. D214 will be sending more information to you in early October!

SHIELD Screening

As a service to our community, District 23 will again offer weekly COVID screening for students. This requires an "Opt In" to the program by completing the form linked below. We plan on starting this screening on Thursday, Sept. 8.