As we begin March, I like to borrow a term from the basketball world to describe this time, March Madness. Like basketball teams that work to play their best during March tournaments, our teachers and students have worked hard this year to grow in all areas. This Spring we will take the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (PARCC) test as we did last year. The testing window is April 1 through April 26. Students in third, fourth and fifth grade will test in reading and math after Spring break. Students have a few sessions in each area, they do not test every day. I have included a few ways you may assist your child: Make sure your child is here on testing days. Make

appointments on days off or later in the day. Be on time to school. Testing will start promptly at

9:00am in some classes. Encourage your child to get a good night’s rest. Eat a healthy breakfast. Encourage your child to do their best!

Thanks for supporting us this year.

Mr. Matt Harr Principal

March 2019

March Events

3/6 Literary club 2:30-3:30

3/12 Kindergarten registration 8am & 1pm

3/13 Late start 8:45

3/13 Literary club 2:30-3:30

3/20 Literary club 2:30-3:30

3/25-3/29 Spring Break- No school

Looking Ahead

4/1 Parcc testing begins

4/3 3CO to DD Mansion/History Museum 9-2

4/3 Literary club 2:30-3:30

4/5 Spring pictures

4/10 Late start 8:45

4/10 Literary club rehearsal 2:30-3:30

4/10 Literary club performance 5:00-6:00

4/12 3S/3AK to DD Mansion/History Museum 9:00-2:00

4/12 Karnival 5:00-8:00

4/17 5R & 5RS visit to KJHS 9:30-11:00

4/18 School Improvement Day– No school

4/19 Board Holiday– No school

4/22 5KR & 5SR visit to KJHS 9:30-11:00

2602 E. College Ave Bloomington IL, 61704 Phone: 309-557-4420

March Madness

"Knights are Respectful, Responsible , and Ready"

M c l e a n C o . D i s t r i c t # 5

Northpoint Knights News

Every month at Northpoint we select students

from each class that have earned

“Northpoints” to have points pizza with the

principal. In addition to individual winners, we

reward classes with the most class Northpoints

for respecting the hallways with a popcorn

party. Here are our winners:

January– KS- Mihika; KD- Owen; KJC- Bella;

KP- Aadi; 1AC- Natalie; 1K- Aadya; 1EO-

Mishika; 12B- Anna; 2B- Camden; 2Y-

Finley; 2TH- Bella; 3AK- Lena; 3CO- Aiden;

3S- Mallorie; 35C- Satchel; 4J- Ellie; 4H-

Rudra; 4L- Alaina; 5RS- Parker; 5SR- Nick;

5KR- Cooper; 5R- Drew

Respect the Hall January winners- Mrs. Copenhaver (Kdg), Mrs. Dawson

(Kdg), Mrs. Yard (2nd), Mrs. Barrettsmith

(2nd); Mrs. Knauf (3rd), Mrs. Hartke (4th);

Mrs. Luering (4th), Mrs. Rapp (5th)

Thanks to the PTO for funding these

activities!

PBIS Positives

Kindergarten Pre-Registration

Northpoint Kindergarten pre-registration will be Tuesday, March 12th at 8:00 am and 1:00 pm. Call the Northpoint office at 557-4420 to set up an appointment. Your child must be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2019 to register for the 2019-2020 school year. If you know of any families with children that will be eligible for Kindergarten it would be appreciated if this information could be passed on to them: For registration you will need to bring the following: Your child

Your child’s certified birth certificate from the court-house in the county where your child was born

Proof of residency (a recent bill with your name and address on it, a copy of your lease agreement or a copy of your tax bill)

Physical examination with current immunizations dated 8-16-18 or after is due BEFORE the first day of school

A vision exam is needed by Aug. 16, 2019 as well as a dental examination by May 15, 2020

Pennies for Patients

We raised $1,150.00 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Spring promises us that it will eventually come and that means Karnival is just around the corner! Please be on the lookout for order forms coming home and ways that you can help support our hard working Karnival committee. This fun night is a great chance for our school community to come together, have some fun, and allow our PTO to continue to support our school, staff and students in some amazing way. Just this past month, the PTO was able to give each classroom a designated amount of funds to purchase sensory support items. Teachers are able to purchase alternative seating options or other items all because of your financial giving and the funds raised through our Unraiser and Karnival. In turn, students in each grade and each classroom will hopefully find better support in their learning days at school. That is a win for all. Thank you for making that possible! If you know an incoming Kindergar-ten family, reach out and invite them to join us on Karnival night. It's a fabulous chance for their child to come and explore their soon to be school and get excited to be a Northpoint Knight. We're looking forward to meeting our incoming kindergarten students at registration on March 12th. An additional thank you to each family that came out this past Friday for the Movie Night! We always love these casual opportunities to connect both as families and a school. And thank you to Catie Myers and others who helped make the evening possible with their planning, popcorn making, and facilitating. As you begin summer activities planning (how is that possible already?) and looking ahead, it is my re-quest that you consider if getting more involved with our PTO is something you could do for next year. Currently, we have an incredibly faithful but smaller team who are holding their positions and are committed to do so, again, next year. But with both our Unraiser and President terms coming to an end, currently our PTO does not have individuals who are able to fulfill these positions next school year. Unraiser is a role that is easily fulfilled by an individual who hasn't been involved in PTO previously. And with Aimee Ott transitioning it to a mainly online donation process this past year, it has become an overall simpler time commitment that is able to be managed entirely on your own. It is helpful if these individual can make most meetings to provide support to the president but not mandatory. While the president role holds a bit more of a time commitment to both meetings and outside of school, this too can largely be done so on your own schedule and after the beginning of the year, becomes more of a delegation role due to our awesome committee chairs. If you have any questions or would be open to considering how you might get involved, please email me at raprevo@yahoo.com With thanks, Amber Prevo PTO President

PTO Information

SAVE THE DATE!!

Northpoint Karnival Knight will be held on April 12!

Karnival Thank you to all our families who have given monetary donations to help support our Karnival baskets! If you would still like to donate, it’s not too late! You can send your donations to the office labeled for Karnival. Thank you to all who are sponsoring baskets this year. What a fun way to support Karnival! If you signed up to donate a raffle basket item through our Karnival Wishlist on Sign Up Genius, those donations are due Friday, March 8th. Our committee is so excited for this wonderful family night and look forward to seeing you all on Friday, April 12th from 5:00-8:00. Don’t forget to mark your calendars!

March Notes from the Nurse…

****Parents/Guardians of CURRENT 5th grade students… The State of Illinois has adopted requirements for ALL students entering grade 6. Those students will be RE-QUIRED to have received the Tdap AND Meningococcal immunizations PRIOR to entry into school beginning in the fall. Since the state also requires a 6th grade physi-cal exam, you will have the opportunity to meet those requirements at that exam. 6th grade students also have a dental requirement. That exam must be dated between 11/15/18 and 5/15/20; it is due by 5/15/20. It is not too early to schedule those ap-pointments…beat the summer rush! Also, if your student receives the required exams and/ or immunizations before the current school year concludes, turn it in to me and I can enter the information into the system. By doing so, you will save some time waiting in lines at registration! ******************************************************************** For everyone’s protection, sick children should be at home, not at school. When re-porting the student’s absence, please report the reason for the child’s absence. The school needs to be informed of any student having a special health problem or com-municable disease. Children with the following conditions should not be in school: A fever within the last 24 hours Vomiting or diarrhea within the last 24 hours A frequent or disruptive cough or other signs of an acute respiratory infection Any contagious illness such as “strep throat” that requires antibiotic therapy.

Once a student has been fever free without use of fever-reducing medications and on antibiotics for at least 24 hours, he/she may return to school.

Any undiagnosed skin rash. A student with a rash may attend school upon pre-senting a physician’s note stating the rash is not contagious.

Pronounced lethargy or fatigue that interferes with participation in learning activ-ities

All Kindergarten and 2nd grade students are required to submit a completed dental exam BEFORE May 15, 2019. Reminders have been sent to those who need to com-plete this requirement. I will continue to send reminders prior to the deadline. I am required to submit a report to the State of Illinois with information regarding students who have not completed the requirement. ******************************************************************** FINALLY...ALL medications, including prescription and over-the-counter types must be accompanied by a Unit 5 self-administration form that is complet-ed by a physician and signed by the parent. Students will NOT be permitted to administer any type of medication (including cough drops that contain menthol) without this completed form on file. ********************************************************************

Looking forward to spring and some sunshine!

Student Council March 13th - Next Late Start (only 1 late start in March) Money collected will go to Miller Park Zoo for Adopt-an-Animal program. Spirit Week - March 18th-22nd (week before Spring Break) Monday: Mystery Day / Class Choice Tuesday: Teachers Dress Like Kids / Kids Dress Like Teachers Wednesday: Dress Up - What you wish to be when you grow up! Thursday: Sports Day Friday: Extra Recess Day

P.E. News This month the 3rd – 5th grades will be participating in the Kids Heart Challenge. This is a program sponsored by the American Heart Association designed to teach kids how to keep their heart healthy from a young age. There will be a culminating Kids Heart Challenge ob-stacle course event during P.E. classes on March 22nd. In addition, students will also have the opportunity to collect donations for the American Heart Association to help in the fight against heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes of death in the U.S. If students choose to collect donations, they will earn thank you gifts from the American Heart Association. Students should bring home an informational packet/envelope March 1st. If your child choos-es to collect donations, the easiest and most convenient way to do so is online. This is the di-rect link to Northpoint’s site: http://www2.heart.org/goto/Northpoint Envelopes and donations are due by March 20th to your student’s P.E. teacher. There are al-so some educational and fun activities on the Kids Heart Challenge App. All of the infor-mation is included in the packet that should come home with your child. Thank you in ad-vance for your support of this good cause.

Unraiser Update! Thank you for continuing to donate to the Unraiser. Since we started this year’s drive, we have accepted more than $7,000 in donations. This number includes family donations given online, sent to school, and contributed through workplace paycheck deductions and company matches. Thank you so much for your generosity! Please remember that there is no deadline for dona-tions, and you can make them through check/cash turned into the main office with the dona-tion form OR you can donate online through our PTO website: http://northpointelementary.my-pto.org/. If you need a donation form, or have any questions about donating, please do not hesitate to contact me at aimeeott5@yahoo.com. Aimee Ott, PTO VP - Unraiser

Our Knight Mission Statement

Northpoint students, teachers, staff, and families work together to inspire individuality through social, personal, and academic excellence.

Our Knight Vision Our vision is to provide a safe, caring, stimulating environment where our students will achieve their fullest

potential, so they may become lifelong learners.

K nights Get your Arrrmor on! Respectful, Responsible, Ready/Safe N orthpoint Community Pride I nspiring Life Long Learning G uiding Individual Excellence for All Students H ome to school Connections T eamwork S tudent Centered Success

Northpoint Young Author School winners

We had many great student books submitted for the Unit 5 District Young Author’s contest.

Great job to all who submitted books. Maheen Ahmed, Elliott Smith, and Lauren Brooks

advanced to the next level. Good luck!

Transportation Changes?

If your student plans to ride home on the bus with a friend please follow the steps below:

Notify the transportation department of the change in plans, 557-4287.

Send a note to school with your student outlining the change in plans. The student can

bring the note to the office to be signed and can give that to the bus driver.