Official WGMS News

Back-to-school packets are given to ALL students on the first day of classes. Please read, sign, and return planner fees immediately.

Planners are distributed to students on our first Friday. Please read over the Student Handbook inside, sign and return the signature page today.

Washington won again! We had the most participants in the Peoria Public Library Summer Reading Program. We are all so proud of you!

Did you get the latest 'Sunday Night Call to Parents'? You can find it here on the website if you missed it, and please update us if you didn't receive the call or email.

Make sure to come in for Back-to-School Night at 6:30pm on August 24th.

Be sure to come to the PTO Picnic on Tuesday, August 29th at 5:30pm to visit with friends, family, and teachers.

The Girls Basketball parent meeting is rescheduled for August 30th at 6pm.

During the 2017-2018 school year, Washington will have the Bookmobile visiting during lunch recess on Thursdays. Make sure to bring your Library Card on August 31st!

Students will start checking out Library books and taking AR tests immediately. Ask your student what they are reading for SSR!

Wear your College Colors with uniform pants on Friday, September 1st.

Have a great 3-day weekend! Monday, September 4th is Labor Day and NO SCHOOL!

Regular school hours (7:30am-2:30pm) resume September 5th.

New Students: don't miss Big/Little Game Night! We get to know each other, play games, and have snacks at Washington, Sept 8, 6:30-8:30pm.

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Headlines & Features

Student Pick-up and Drop-off Guidelines

7:05-7:30am and 2:00-2:38pm, NO CARS ARE 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.

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Remarkable Readers Raffle for K-8

Research shows that…summer can set kids on the right or wrong course. The research is clear that children who don't read during the summer can lose up to 3 months of progress and it has a cumulative, long-term effect. Peoria Public Schools wants to encourage all our students to stay on the right course this summer. So Dr. Kherat and her team have developed the Remarkable Readers Raffle, an initiative to get all students reading this summer. How Does It Work? Every K-8 student reads. They then track their reading during the summer weeks. Students must read a minimum of 30 minutes, 4 times each week, all 11 weeks and successfully complete the document to be submitted into the raffle. Students then turn the tracking document their teacher by the first week of the 2017-2018 school year. Winners will be drawn at the district office and awarded their prizes at a September Board of Education Meeting. A winner will be drawn from each grade level. Click for Tracking Document

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District Fees Due by August 20th

All fees incurred for the current school year (2017-18) must be submitted by the end of August if you are using online fee payment. This includes the Textbook Fee ($55.00) . Textbook Fees can be paid online. If paying by check, please make your check out to “Board of Education”. Planner fee payments ($6.00) cannot be made online. Please send cash or a check made out to “Washington School” to the office. Please call the school office if you have questions.

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Congratulations from Peoria Public Library

The numbers have been totaled up and we have our school winners for the 2017 Peoria Public Library Summer Reading Program! Washington Gifted had 44 students. Representatives from the Peoria Public Library will take a picture of our participating students and are making a summer reading poster for our school! They will also bring some neat coupons for the kids who helped us win the middle school division of the Summer Reading Program. Great job Moises, Javen, Brianna, Maleah, Mia, Kiara, Lena, Kenneth, Alexi, Georgia, Theo, Destiny, Beth, True, Mackenzie, Monica, Hiruni, Nethmi, Aiden, Jasmine, Michael, Guy, Chase, Emily, Lilyhan, AJ, Kirsten, Nylah, Taurus, Bella, Ethan, Liv, Audrey, Henry, Lauren, Lilia, Fatema, Ibrahim, Victoria, Mia, Owen, William, Savannah, Brady, Adler, Kanye, Sofia, Phoenix, Amelia, and Hania.

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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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First Quarter AR Goal

Students and parents,even though school hasn't started yet, you can still get a head start on your AR. Hopefully you have been participating in at least one Summer Reading Program during your break, and you can use any of those books for AR. Just keep a record of the books you read, bring it to school the first week, and you'll reach your AR goal of 40 points with no problem!

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Young Authors' Winners Announced

Nearly 2,000 Peoria Public School kindergarten through 4th grade students from 20 schools participated in the 2016-2017 Young Authors’ program. 120 manuscripts were submitted for District judging. Here at Washington, Isabelle M won in her grade range. We are all so proud! The student-authors who won top four Overall District Winning Manuscripts will be honored at the Illinois Young Authors’ conference on Saturday, May 20 at Illinois State University. Overall winners, honorable mentions winners and winners in the most meaningfully illustrated categories will also be honored at the April 24 Board of Education meeting. Congratulations to this year’s Young Authors!

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WGMS 8th graders present Supply Chain capstone project, modeled on Shark Tank

Washington Gifted Middle School 8th grade students presented their Supply Chain capstone project this week, the culmination of a six-lesson program presented by CGN consultants to teach students about how businesses coordinate the materials, manufacturing and distribution of a product. The project is modeled on the critically acclaimed reality show Shark Tank.

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Washington Speech Team

Congratulations to the members of the Speech team who represented Washington so well at the tournament this past Saturday at Peoria Academy. Many of our students took top honors in their events, and we are very proud of you! Thank you to Ms. Nelson for getting the students prepared! Washington had the most entries of all participating schools: 10 for Solo Acting, 20 for Duet Acting, 4 for Improv Duet, 3 Original Script Duet, 10 Small Group Acting, and 1 Team Improv. Great job, Wildcats!! Peoria's Bradley University is known across the US as the BEST Speech Team there is! It is great to see our students participating in this Peoria tradition of excellence!

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8th Graders Visit Springdale Cemetery

On Thursday, Oct. 29th the 8th grade class of Washington Gifted Middle School went to Springdale Cemetery for an outdoor field class. As a cross-curricular trip, students completed learning projects with several subject areas. Assisted by Mike Rucker from Peoria Wilds, 8th graders helped maintain the savannah restoration lands there. Students also made their own cemetery tour of prominent Peorians and used math to make a graph of average life expectancies. Though cold, the students enjoyed learning more about Peoria history and lands in the beautiful historic cemetery.

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Washington Help-a-Thon

Dozens of Washington students and parents gathered again for breakfast before spreading out around Peoria to complete community service. The Help-a-Thon encourages students to collect donations in return for a pledge to volunteer in the community. Last year participants completed the following projects: visited residents at Grand View Memory Care Center, prepared and served meals for Loaves & Fishes, cleaned classrooms at Crittenton Centers, readied holiday and birthday cards for Meals on Wheels, handed out packets for Run River City, set up activities for an event at Wildlife Prairie Park, completed several projects for the Center for Prevention of Abuse. That fundraiser was a great success, and not only raised valuable funds for the school, but also allowed students to have fun while helping their community.

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“Bigs & Littles Game Night” Makes for an Exciting Evening at Washington

Despite the heat Friday night, approximately one hundred students gathered in the hot, sweaty gym to get to know their new classmates at Washington. After introducing all of the new students, mostly 5th graders with a few 6th, 7th and 8th graders, students rotated to multiple game stations, which included Crazy Bat, Balloon Burst, A-Z Freeze Tag, Steal the Bacon and more. "Bigs and Littles" is a mentoring program designed to help new students ease into the rigors of middle school life and help all feel welcome here at Washington. What a great chance to make new and lasting friendships!

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Grandparents Day at Washington

Grandparents’ Day was held at Washington Middle School on Tuesday, November 22, 2016, 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! Tuesday, 9:00-10:30 a.m. breakfast will be served, Band and Orchestra play, the Book Fair is open, and grandparents are 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 enjoy entertainment offered by our talented students as opposed to only visiting classrooms. It would also be greatly appreciated if parent volunteers could also make sure the students are putting trash in the correct place, as our janitors are great people and we want to make sure they don’t have any extra work!

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WGMS Monthly Exploratory Fridays!

Students learn fun skills in our monthly Exploratory Classes at Washington Gifted Middle School. In the High Altitude Balloon Launch Project, students learn what near space is and how it impacts a high altitude balloon. Students build and launch a near space payload that includes student designed and constructed experiments. The students also learn the basic steps in preparing for, launching and tracking a high altitude balloon using amateur (ham) radio and the internet. Science offers a wide-ranging science track where topics include Forensics, Real-World Chemistry, Planes, Pop Bottle Rockets, Science Communication, and more! Students in Writing & Reporting for Social Media learn about the different social media platforms used to report the news and how to write for each one. Students will learn how to write in ways that: get to the point quickly, keep it brief, use images, and how to use tone. We'll discuss the role of ethics in deciding what to write, and when it is OK to give your opinion and when it is not. In Awesome Archery, students learn about the history and rules of archery. We learn all about the parts of the equipment, types of archery, and learn to shoot a bow! Photography and the Art of seeing - This class not only teaches you how to see artistically but also how to capture what you see photographically. Early Education- Do you love children and have an interest in helping them learn? Create lessons and interact with early education students at Valeska Hinton School. 3-D Art – Students learn about different types of 3-D Art, including Glass Blowing, Koons Balloon Animals & paper mache, clay, and more. Students will also explore other artists’ creativity with a field trip to Sculpture Walk Peoria. We also have: Yoga, Breadmaking, Money 101, Historical Events Captured in Song, All Things Automotive, Table-Top Role Playing, Chess, Survival Skills, Tumbling, Oil Painting, Running/BodyWeight Workouts, Knitting...

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