Good morning, Rockdale Families!
Our tutoring program will resume after winter break. There will be no tutoring or academic support sessions next week, December 16-20th. Please be on the look out for more information once we return in January.
STEM sessions will still meet next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Should you have any questions, please call the main office at 815-725-5321.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Just two days left to make donations to our collection for the Salvation Army! Stop by and see our 8th graders in the morning or after school!
This evening, we had groups of 6th-8th grade students present their projects at the ExxonMobil Science Expo. Our students shared their amazingly innovative thinking and did a wonderful job! Their projects included an obstacle sensing walking stick for the visually impaired, a salt removing water still, and the science behind the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Thank you to ExxonMobil, Mr. Olson, and Ms. Lee for giving our Rams the opportunity to tap into their scientific talents!
Good evening, Rockdale Families!
This week, December 9-13th, our 8th graders will be collecting monetary donations for the Salvation Army. Students will be outside with a red kettle from 8:15-8:50 AM and again after school from 3:30-3:45 PM. Please consider making a donation this week!
Yesterday, Mrs. Campbell's and Mrs. Sommers's Kindergarten classes took their FIRST FIELD TRIP to see "Elephant & Piggy's 'We Are In a Play!'" at Lewis University-they had an awesome time! Thank you, Lewis University for hosting our K-1 students this week and providing such a special experience for our kindergarteners!
Today, Mrs. Blenck's and Mrs. Olino's 1st grade classes got to go see "Elephant & Piggy's 'We Are In a Play!'" at Lewis University-they had an awesome time!
Our 6th graders took a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry on December 3rd! They had a great time seeing all the amazing exhibits the museum has to offer.
Shout out to Ms. Lee, Mr. Meister, and Mr. Olson for organizing such an awesome experience for our 6th graders!
Did someone say pie?!
Our Student Council hosted their Stuff the Turkeys contest throughout the month of November. The winning classes got to pie a staff member of their choosing! Student Council was able to raise $527.21, and our friend Tyler Engle, from Equitable, made an additional $200 donation (to pie Dr. Merritt). That's a grand total of $727.21!
They plan to use this money to purchase soccer nets for the park across the street from school.
Thank you to our pied staff: Mr. Mooney, Mr. Busse, Mr. Domenico, Mr. Meister, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Breen, Mrs. Blenck, Ms. Kirk, Ms. Darlin, Dr. Merritt, and Mr. Hamilton
Happy Thanksgiving, Rockdale Rams! We are so grateful to have such a wonderful community of learners, staff, and families!
On Tuesday, our Kindergarten and First Grade classes shared a Friendsgiving Feast. Their hallway was full of laughter and lots of snacks! Thank you, Mrs. Sommers, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Blenck, Mrs. Olino, and Mrs. Breen, for all your hard work to make this tradition a continued success!
Our 7th graders got to take a trip to the Shedd Aquarium this week-they all had a great time learning about marine life!
Our kindergarteners have been learning about how pushes and pulls can change the directions of an object's motion. Shout out to Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Sommer's for bringing hands-on science to our youngest learners!
Our first grade students crafted some CREEPY carrots after reading Aaron Reynolds's book with Ms. Walls. What a fun way to bring illustrations to life!
For the second time in 3 years, Rockdale School District 84 was fortunate to be the recipient of a grant from the Home Depot Foundation. The $6000 grant was used this Fall for a number of improvements around the school. Some of these include: repainting our playground United States Map; a new outdoor basketball hoop; and painted tac toe, hopscotch , and four square games. The grant also funded new trees, bushes, and perennial plants for the school grounds and the park across the street.
What makes this grant special is that the Joliet Home Depot also provided a team of volunteers, with store manager Matt Cope, that spent the day painting and planting. A special shout out to Mr. Matt Olson, for his continued work with Home Depot and his success in securing this funding for Rockdale School; to Ms. Lauryn Lee, who helped plan out and paint the framework for all the playground games; and to the 8th grade students, who helped with additional planting, watering, and painting.
The Home Depot Foundation and the Joliet Home Depot will be recognized at the November School Board Meeting.
On behalf of our Rockdale students, staff, and community: THANK YOU, HOME DEPOT!
Our Rockdale Staff have been hard at work this month helping young minds grow and DECORATING PUMPKINS! They all did an AMAZING job, but we need your help deciding which pumpkin is the winner! Please LIKE the photo of the pumpkin you think should win. The pumpkin with the most likes on October 31st at 12:00 PM will be our champion! We will announce our winning team at our in-service the afternoon of Halloween. Good luck to all our contestants!
There will be a parent meeting for the boys basketball team on Monday, October 28 at 5 PM in the gym. Contact Mr. Domenico if there are any questions.
If your family or a family you know is in need of assistance, please reference this list of upcoming food drives in the surrounding area. Please share this information with those who may need it.
Ashley Searing, the owner of RejuveNate Plants and Wellness in Crest Hill, completed a mental health activity with our 6th-8th graders on the afternoon of Thursday, October 17th and it was a HUGE success! The students were engaged, calm, and focused on their art therapy while receiving a lesson on the importance of mental health and suicide prevention. Thank you to Ms. Hamilton for organizing this opportunity for our students! We're looking forward to having Ashley back for art therapy sessions with our Kindergarten through 5th graders throughout the rest of the school year!
2nd graders had fun on their field trip to Dollinger Family Farm on October 15th! They came back with pumpkins to take home and lots of stories to tell. Thank you to Mrs. Vallera, Mrs. Chojnicki, and Mrs. Flores for making sure the field trip was a success for our students!
On Thursday, October 17, the 7th grade students had an opportunity to virtually travel to Arizona and have a conversation with a National Park ranger to expand their learning on changing the earth For the first quarter of the the school year the students have been learning about the forces that change the earth's surface, plate tectonics, and geographical features. Ranger Victoria from the Petrified Forest National Park provided great insight into current geographical features, fossils, and how they formed as well as many of the other amazing things the park has to offer. Students also had the opportunity for a Q and A session about the park wildlife, the life of a park ranger, and the many career opportunities the park service has. Each student also conducted research on a national park, so the conversation also included questions they had from their research. Way to go Mr. Olson for bringing our students these wonderful experiences to go beyond the textbook, talk to an expert in the field, and hopefully inspire students to get out and explore nature!
Didn't get a chance to stop in at the Scholastic Book Fair last week? Already read through all of your new books over the long weekend?
Rockdale's Scholastic Book Fair is still accessible online! Use the following link to access the Book Fair and help support our school!
https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bf/rockdaleelementaryschool
Thanks to everyone who has shopped and shout out to Ms. Walls for all her hard work in bringing the Book Fair to Rockdale School!
