Happy February Holidays!

If the books displayed in our I.M.C. are any indication, February is a big holiday month. We have quite a variety of reading materials. Let's see--first comes Groundhog Day. The younger children are pretty interested in that. Unfortunately, the staff agrees that we will have six more weeks of winter, regardless.

In the middle of the month, we will celebrate Valentine's Day. Students of all ages seem to enjoy that.

Finally, the two famous presidents' birthdays come along. We will honor George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and all the other presidents with a school holiday on the 16th. There is plenty to read on this topic.

Math-a-Thon

I am very pleased to report that, despite the shaky economy, the children at Elizabeth Ide School raised almost three thousand dollars to help the sick children at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Our children got sponsors, did the math problems, and collected the pledged money from their sponsors.

This week, I have been distributing the prizes the children earned for participating in Math-A-Thon.

Illinois Book Awards

At Elizabeth Ide, we are reading nominees for the 2009 Illinois Monarch Award during the month of January. These books are nominated by a panel of teachers and librarians, but the winner is determined by Illinois students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. We will hold our election in early February.

The fourth and fifth grade students at Prairieview have been encouraged to participate in determining the winner of the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award since the beginning of the school year. The voting for this award is open to Illinois students in fourth grade through eighth grade. The twenty nominees are determined each year by a panel of teachers and librarians. Voting for this award will also be held in February. To be eligible to vote, a student must have read at least three of the nominees.