Official WGMS News

School library fines will be forgiven and wiped away for all students that participate in Peoria Public Library's Summer Reading Program! Sign up even if you are going to be gone most of the summer.

Have a great summer break! We can't wait to see you bright-eyed and ready to learn in August!

Please schedule Doctor and Dentist appointments during the summer, so as not to disrupt the school year. Make sure to get your Sports Physical when you get the School Physical, so that students are ready for anything.

Check out the Riverfront Farmers Market every Saturday morning for fresh foods, music, crafts, and other vendors.

Make sure to visit your local branch of the Library to keep those brains in shape. Summer Reading participation can help! Read a new series or catch up on one you already started. Listen to an audiobook if you are driving somewhere for vacation.

ICC and Bradley have some great summer classes and camps for kids.

Peoria Park District has summer camps and classes to keep you active all break long!

Peoria Players, Community Children's Theatre and Corn Stock for Kids will be showcasing some of Washington's current and former students. Check them out!

Have you been to Illinois' desert? Check out Sandy Ridge State Park for cacti and sandy desert areas. How about the super-secret Rocky Glen, nearby? Peoria Parks District can show you where it is.

Our school supply list was given to all students and is also available under the Students & Parents tab.

Before buying school clothes, please revisit our dress code under the "About Us", "Our Policies", "Student Uniform Policy"

Reading is a skill, and the more you use it, the better you get at it!

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Headlines & Features

Remarkable Readers

All PPS K – 8 students can participate in the Remarkable Readers program and be eligible to win prize drawings. Students must read 30 minutes a day, four days a week to be entered into the prize drawing. Parents/caregivers must verify the students progress and forms must be turned into the student’s teacher by Friday, August 24. Remarkable Readers will be recognized at a Board of Education meeting in September. Students can also count the books they read for the Peoria Public Library Summer Reading Program for the raffle!

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Peoria Public Library Summer Reading

Help Washington win again!!! Washington has had the most Summer Readers for 23 years and we want YOU to help keep our streak alive. Sign up beginning in May for the Peoria Public Library Summer Reading Program and read all summer long. Even if you are going to be away for the summer, your sign-up counts as long as you read books somewhere.

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Online Enrollment Verification Begins in July and Ends in August

In May: Schedule any dentist or doctor appointments for the summer. K, 6, 9, 12, and transfer students may need dental, physical, or eye exams. Any student interested in Sports needs to get a Sports Physical as well. Before June 1st: Confirm that you have your Family Access username and password or get it from Mrs Pantages. In July: Make sure to complete online registration through Family Access. You will need to have your username and password in order to log in. Fees may also be paid online through Family Access. You can register from any computer with internet access, or at one of our registration hubs. Registration Hubs: July 25 & 27, August 2, 8am-6pm at Manual, Peoria High, Richwoods and Glen Oak. August 5th, 9am-2pm at Manual, Peoria High, Richwoods and Glen Oak. Online student registration can be completed through the online enrollment verification process starting July 24th by logging on to Skyward Family Access and clicking on the Enrollment Verification link. Instructions are available in the "Virtual Backpack" or by clicking here. Enrollment Verification allows us to confirm or change the info we currently have about your student(s) and also allows us to contact parents when necessary.

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Methodist Nursing Learn & Serve Camp

Methodist College is hosting unique community service camps for middle school students and high school freshmen in summer 2018. The camps will feature upper level Methodist College Nursing students as the camp leaders who will design the curriculum and deliver it to the middle school campers. Practical learning experiences in health care and healthy living are taught in the morning and real-life service projects in community organizations are conducted in the afternoon. Register at www.methodistcol.edu/learn-and-serve-camp if you are interested in your child participating in one of the Methodist College Summer Learn and Serve camps. For more information contact Dr. Eileen Setti esetti@methodistcol.edu/309.282.8458

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Former Washington Students Do Amazing Things!

Washington students go on to do great things in high school, college, and beyond. A few current examples are the students at Richwoods that won IHSA Sectionals and went to the State Finals, the RHS Robotics teams that made it to the playoffs of their divisions, Jennings Rule, who scored very high on the PSAT and ACT. Click the headline for more information.

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7th Grade Students at Washington Learn from Community Mentors

Recently Washington hosted a variety of community mentors who helped 7th grade students with their research papers on Peoria issues. These generous individuals met with students and explained the ins and outs of various local problems and projects including school safety, transportation and roads, environmental concerns, business development, Peoria Park District initiatives, and funding both for the city and for the school district. After meeting with their experts, students used the information they learned in their papers and listed their interviewees as one of their information sources. Thank you to our community mentors: Mr. Gregory Wilson, Peoria School Board; Mr. Cesar Suarez, City of Peoria; Mr. Steve Montez and Mr. Tom Miller, Peoria Park District; Ms. Anna Ghidina IDOT; Mr. Patrick Kirchhofer, Peoria County Farm Bureau; Mr. Sid Ruckriegel, Peoria City Council; and Mr. Chris Waible, PS-Dewberry. They illustrate how by working together we can make our home of Peoria even better!

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Law Day Essay

Law day essay winners Katie first place $100.00 winner & Evie 2 nd place $50.00 winner in grade 5/6 category. Essay topic: Framework for Freedom: Separation of power

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Mathcounts Gold Level Status

Washington is the first school in Illinois, and the 9th school in the U.S. to achieve Gold Level this school year! After our school signed up our Mathcounts team for the competition season, we were able to start working for our Silver and Gold Level due mainly to the high level of participation this year. Our Mathcounts team has had an average attendance of 20-25 students during most of the weekly practices. After 5 weeks of high attendance, Mrs Klungseth sent her attendance stats into the National Math Club and we were awarded Silver Level. To achieve Gold level this year, the project was creating math games. Students created 2 games and sent them in to Mathcounts with our club information. Washington has officially been awarded Gold Level! This is all because of the kids' dedication in coming and practicing their skills each week. WE ARE SO PROUD OF WHAT THEY ACCOMPLISHED!

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2018 Young Authors’ Results

Twenty schools participated in this year’s Young Authors’ Program. There were over 2000 manuscripts completed this year representing the work of students in grades K-8. Of these manuscripts, 110 manuscripts were submitted for district level judging. The top 4 district level winners are invited to represent Peoria Public Schools at the statewide Young Authors’ conference on Saturday, May 19, 2018 at Normal Community West High School. All students will be honored at an upcoming school board meeting. Washington's own Hiruni Bopearatchy is one of these great authors! Congrats Hiruni and thanks to everyone that participated. We are proud of all of you!

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Washington Competes in State Speech Tournament

Washington Gifted Middle School students competed in the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) State Speech Tournament in November. Two WGMS student teams and two individual students earned Judges Choice Awards. Riley Millard and Sarah Allen both won for their solo performances. Samantha Campbell and Vaisnavi Malipeddi won for their duet, Anybody Want My Sister…Again. Kelsey Hayes, Neve Kelly, Riley Millard, Liz Setti and Grace Therkildsen won the Team Improv Judges Choice Award. WGMS speech coach Kelly Nelson explains that the improvisation speech event is particularly challenging because students are not given a title or subject in advance. The team must improvise three different speeches from judges’ prompts. “Students must really think on the spot,” says Nelson. About two dozen WGMS students participated in the speech tournament.

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Study Skills

Knowing how to study is an important skill to have. Students who use strategies to understand and remember what they read, such as underlining important parts of the texts or discussing what they read with other people, perform better in class and on tests. One of the biggest differences between top students and everyone else was that when they study, they take practice tests. Only 11 percent of students do this, but they perform better because they are studying in a way that goes beyond memorizing material. Also helpful is to create a study timetable & stick to it-- first include things you like/need to do on your schedule and then work study time in after. This method naturally ensures that you are doing things you like to do every day in addition to studying, so you don’t burn out and give up. These kind of balanced schedules are easier follow. Here are some ideas and strategies to help students learn more:

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Renaissance Home Connect for Parents

Parents- We are hoping that you will soon begin using Renaissance Home Connect as a way of monitoring and encouraging your child’s reading practice. It can be a valuable tool for monitoring your child’s progress. Research confirms that parental involvement in a child’s education is a strong predictor of student achievement. Thank you for your involvement in your child’s education. What is Renaissance Home Connect? Renaissance Home Connect is a tool that connects the school and home to keep parents informed of their child’s progress in Accelerated Reader, and encourages the child to practice reading at home. How does Renaissance Home Connect help me improve my child’s reading progress? • You can view your child’s progress toward reading goals and view all books that your child has read and quizzes your child has taken. • You can access an online search tool, AR BookFinder, to search for books using various criteria, including author, subject, or reading level. • You can receive emails that reveal results for Reading Practice Quizzes and provide links to the website where you can check progress. The same login and password that your child uses at school will work at home with Renaissance Home Connect.

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Student Pick-up and Drop-off Guidelines

7:05-7:30am and 2:00-2:40pm, CARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE FRONT PARKING LOT and students may only be picked up and dropped off in the North Parking Lot located near the ball fields. For student safety, only buses may drive in the Main Parking Lot during these times. Thank you for your cooperation in helping keep our students safe.

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8th Graders Visit Springdale Cemetery

The 8th grade class of Washington Gifted Middle School will go to Springdale Cemetery for an outdoor field class. As a cross-curricular trip, students complete learning projects with several subject areas. Assisted by Mike Rucker from Peoria Wilds, 8th graders help maintain the savannah restoration lands there. Students also make their own cemetery tour of prominent Peorians and use math to make a graph of average life expectancies. Though cold, the students enjoy learning more about Peoria history and lands in the beautiful historic cemetery.

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Grandparents Day at Washington

Grandparents’ Day was held at Washington Middle School on Monday, November 20, 2017, 9am-10:30am. It is always a wonderful experience to meet grandparents and special people in the children’s lives, so we always enjoy this special day in our school! On Monday, breakfast was served, Band and Orchestra play, the Book Fair was open, and grandparents were able to purchase photos taken by Builder's Club to commemorate the day. We feel that the time factor is a good one for our guests as they spent personal time with their grandchildren and enjoyed entertainment offered by our talented students as opposed to only visiting classrooms. It is also greatly appreciated if parent volunteers could also make sure the students are putting trash in the correct place, as our custodians are great people and we want to make sure they don’t have any extra work!

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