Thanksgiving

Turkeys and Thanksgiving go together. Families gather together to share a meal on Thanksgiving. Many families have turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, bread, and pumpkin pie for dessert. This yummy treat was made with Oreos, candy corn and malted milk balls. Football is popular also. Today the Green Bay Packers played against the Detroit Lions. The Packers won! Way to go Packers!

Celebrations

Windsor is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The school was built in 1957. There will be an all-school assembly on Friday. We are collecting canned goods for the food pantry. Each class is hoping to donate 50 cans. We are also participating in the Rebound Ball program. Children donate used balls, which are then deflated, packed and shipped to children that have no toys. They have a piece of paper for their entertainment. Next week we have parent/teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday.

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. It is a national holiday. Sarah Hale petioned Abraham Lincoln in 1868 to have it become a national holiday, previously it was up to each state. Most families celebrate by having turkey, stuffing, cranberries, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pie. Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird for the United States. The Bald Eagle was chosen since it is only found in North America. The Bald Eagle was endangered. This summer on June 28th, it was taken off the endangered list and moved to protected status. There had been 400 nesting pairs in the entire US and now there are over 1,200 pairs.

Year Two Soiree

On Wednesday 24th October we presented a musical play called "The Goblin Man" for our parents and friends. We all loved dressing up in our costumes and performing in our newly renovated auditorium. The story had an important message - that if we want to have good friends, we need to be kind and helpful to others. Above are some pictures of our performance:

Knox Year Two Buddy Day

Hello Windsor School - We're really sorry it's taken us a while to respond to all your wonderful postings. In the last eight days we've had Buddy Day, Oktoberfest, Year Two Soiree and school Presentation Night!! Above are a few photos from Buddy Day - Year 7 students spent the morning with us. They watched our dress rehearsal for our Soiree, then we interviewed them. Afterwards we had a "Sausage Sizzle" lunch. It was great fun.

We'll add another post with photos of our other special events really soon. Hope our friends are enjoying being Third Graders!

PS Thanks for looking after Mr Whittle so well when he visited you - he's been showing us all his vacation photos in Assembly.

A few more pictures from Windsor

Some chocolate macadamia nuts all the way from Australia.

Some images from my visit to Windsor Elementary School.

Windsor students watching the DVD from The Knox School.

Lots of questions after watching the DVD.

"Why do you have an accent?" asks one of the students.

My visit to the USA

I had a great time when I visited the USA and I especially enjoyed my time at Winsdor Elementary School. It was wonderful to meet Mrs Komarek, the LMC teacher at Windsor - we have communicating for a while over the web so it was good to be able to meet in personThe day I came to visit Windsor I was up very early to catch the train from downtown Chicago. Mrs Komarek met me at the station at Arlington Heights and drove me to school where I ate breakfast with my daughter Claire and Brandon, Mrs Komarek's son. I reallyenjoyed meeting the teachers and students during my time at Windsor. It was fun being welcomed by Mr Kaye, the Windsor Principal, and having this shown to all the classrooms on the internal video system. I loved receiving my gifts from Mr Kaye and I have shown the students at my school what I was given. I hope you are able to read or look at some of the books I gave when I visited.

My visit to the Year 2 and 3 Assembly was a lot of fun and I thought all the students were very well behaved. They sat very well whilst they watched the DVD I had brought from our Year 2 students in Australia. There were many questions about Australia and my school and we could have stayed there for hours, but I knew that the teachers and students were so keen to get back to class and finish their work. Thank you to everyone at Windsor Elementary School for making my visit so fanbtastic - I would love to come and visit again!! In fact when my wife arrived a few days later,we did comeand visit again and I even read a book to a class in the Library.

My school has been back for two weeks after a three-week vacation and all the students are working hard as we have only seven weeks left of our school year.

Have a wonderful rest of this year Windsor!

Beef-A-Rama in Minocqua, Wisconsin

Beef-a-Rama is an event that brings tourists to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Minocqua has a year-round population of 3,200 people and this event draws over 12,000 people. In the morning there is a 5K Rump Roast Run. The merchants and private citizens roast a rump roast on the main street in the parking stalls. The roasts are judged for Best Chef, Best Appearance, Best Taste, and Spirit Award. Mr. Whittle's daughter worked at Camp Agawak. Camp Agawak has entered in the competition for the last three years. The chef, Ducky, won Best Chef, Best Taste and won Best Appearance this year. People dress up in costumes and they close the main street, Highway 51, for the parade. The parade goes to Torpy Park, where over 3,000 sandwiches are served. The awards are given out in the park. Notice Mr. Whittle on the sidewalk wearing a cow hat. Mr. Whittle's daughter and two other Australian counselors were dressed as Ducky's chicks. Congratulations to Ducky and Camp Agawak!

Dinner ..... Finally

We went to dinner at a nice restaurant, Wildfire, in Glenview, another suburb about 8 miles from Arlington Heights. We ordered a family style dinner. Our waiter loved the Australian accent and kept coming by to see if we needed anything. After dinner, it was back to Arlington Heights for the Metra train to Chicago. The train arrived a few minutes late, which gave us a little extra time to visit.

LMCs of the Future Meeting

Mr. Whittle participated in a meeting with the LMC Directors, Principals, and the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction, and the Director of Assessment and Technology. The focus was on LMCs of the Future and 21st Century Skills. We asked Mr. Whittle to share how the LMC, library, and computer labs are set up at Knox School. We learned about your green room and multimedia presentations. How exciting!

On to Patton Elementary School

Mrs. Costa invited Mr. Whittle to share facts about Australia with her 2nd grade class. They study Australia in the Spring. Mr. Whittle gave them the book Wombat Stew and a Wombat in a travel carrying case. He even gave the Principal a box of Australian Milk Chocolate covered macadamia nuts. She loved that! YUM!

Global Perspective

After lunch, Mr. Whittle and Mrs. Komarek went to South Middle School to meet with the Global Perspective class. Mr. Whittle created a PowerPoint presentation about Australia. He shared interesting facts about the climate, drought, and history of the continent. We learned about money and the government.

Assembly for 2nd and 3rd Grade Classes

Mr. Whittle met with our 2nd and 3rd grade students and staff members in our Commons. It is also our lunch room and stage for presentations. He talked to us about similarities and differences in our schools. Knox School students wear uniforms. Windsor students are in casual clothes every day. Knox School teachers dress professionally every day, while Windsor teachers have casual Fridays. We discussed the length of our school day. Knox School starts at 8:50 AM and Windsor starts at 9:05 AM. The students had a lot of questions for Mr. Whittle. One question was about the Yakalt Factory in Australia.

Mr. Whittle's Visit To Arlington Heights, IL

Mr. Whittle was busy from morning to night! He had to be on the 7:15 AM Metra train from Chicago to Arlington Heights. He arrived in Arlington Heights at 8:05 AM. Mrs. Komarek brought him to Windsor School, where he had a quick bite to eat before participating as our guest on the morning video announcements. Mr. Kaye, Windsor's Principal, and Mr. Whittle exchanged gifts for each school. Mr. Whittle brought his Opportunity Knox bag filled with pens, pencils, keychains, and erasers for classes. He presented us with an Aboriginal piece of pottery and some wonderful book about Australia. Mr. Kaye presented Mr. Whittle with an engraved plaque with the date and message "Global Partners in Education." Mr. Whittle presented us with a plaque from Knox School.

Windsor Welcome to Mr. Whittle

Welcome back to Windsor for our new school year! The students had their first day on September 4th. Your second grade friends are now 3rd graders. We received your postcards in June after school had ended. What a great idea!!!

Mr. Whittle is going to spend a day at Windsor with the students on September 20th. We are excited to show him around the school and to have the opportunity to share a day of activities with him.





This is a picture of a black bear that I saw in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this summer. He was about 10 feet away from me in the forest. The bear was looking for berries to eat.

HOLIDAYS FOR WINDSOR

We wish you all a very happy holiday time over your Summer vacation. For us, it is Winter in Australia currently. In Melbourne we are experiencing some cold weather - certainly nowhere near as cold as it can get in Chicago, but cold for us. We have three more weeks of school and then we have a two week vacation for the end of Semester One. All students will receive a written report at the end of this semester. I am sure that Grizzly will have some wonderful experiences during this time, travelling to new and exciting places.

Brad Whittle

Last Day of School June 6

Today we went to school for a half-day of school. We cleaned out our desks and received our yearbooks. Tomorrow is a short day, only 45 minutes. We will get our report cards and say farewell to our teachers and friends. Some of our friends will be attending different schools next year. Windsor's attendance number was higher than the other schools and the attendance area has been redistricted. We will miss our friends and wish them the best of luck at their new school.

Thanks for sharing with us and we look forward to continuing learning about Australia in the Fall.

Mrs. Komarek will continue monitoring the blog and answering any questions you have during our summer.

More of Grizzly in Sydney

Grizzly tries to get a better view of the sights around Sydney, from the Skytower.
It's lucky Grizzly doesn't mind heights!
Time for some sunbaking at one of Sydney's famous beaches.

Grizzly spent the weekend in Sydney with Adrian. Here is Grizzly outside Sydney Hospital
We're sure you can recognise where Grizzly is in this shot - that's the Sydney Opera House behind him.
Grizzly with the famous Sydney Harbour bridge in the background.
More shots to follow soon.

Australian Friends

Thank you for the wonderful assortment of Australian books, souvenirs, and stuffed animals. We have read the stories and enjoyed the language difference with vocabulary words. Thank you for giving us the definitions. Fluffy and Gumleaf are having a good time in America.

Great photos Windsor School!

We loved looking at Gumleaf and Fluffy exploring your school. It seems quite different to our school - Mr Whittle will be able to tell us even more about it when he goes to visit you later this year. You'll be pleased to hear that Grizzly has just set off to spend the weekend in Sydney, with Adrian, one of our classmates. If he takes some photos we'll try to get them on the Blog for you. We need to stop now, as it's time to pack up our bags. We'll add more news for you soon.
Best wishes
Year 2 & Mrs Mattison

GREAT TO SEE OUR GUMLEAF AND FLUFFY VISITING YOUR SCHOOL

It is so good to see diffrent parts of your school - very exciting indeed. I am really looking forward to coming over and visiting in September. Over the next few days I will take some more images around our school and publish them on this blog.

Brad Whittle

Visiting with the Mascot

Chicago Bears and Windsor Wildcats!

Bilingual Classroom

Windsor is the only school in our district with a Bilingual program. Mrs. Swedo teaches the children in Spanish and in English.

Support Staff and Mobile Classrooms

Windsor School loves Mr. Frank! He keeps everything running smoothly and always does it with a smile.



We needed to take a nap after touring the school, so we stopped into the Nurse's office for a rest.



There are two mobile classrooms. One is used as our conference room and the other is used by the PTA.

Playground and Lunch

Look at all the equipment! The children have extended P.E. for a half-hour after lunch.

Speaking of lunch, take a look at the waste-free lunchbox.


What is lunch without a cold glass of milk? Got Milk?


This sculpture of Windsor students hangs in our Commons where we eat lunch in three shifts.

Let's Visit the Fine Arts Programs

ABC/25 Foundation donated the climbing wall. What a fun activity! Mr. Gember, the Physical Education teacher, is off camera spotting us in case we fall.



Mrs. Ziemann is a fantastic music teacher! Every grade level produces and presents a musical performance for the school and gives an evening performance for their families.



The Art program is wonderful here! The walls are covered with Grant Wood's American Gothic works.



Mrs. Olson, the Art teacher, is so creative. She teaches the children to express themselves and love art. The children make their own projects with clay. The kiln gets very hot!

Stories and computers in the LMC

We stopped in the LMC for a story. The Parent Teacher Association bought the new benches and the rug for the children.



A parent painted and decorated it, then donated this bookshelf to the ABC/25 Foundation Gala and Raffle. This bookcase was purchased and then donated to the LMC by Windsor family.



There are 30 computers in the lab. New eMacs are coming over the summer!



It is a beautiful day, so we went outside to the courtyard for a little sunshine.



This statue was donated in memory of a Windsor student, Ema. It represents the joy of childhood and the friendship she shared with her siblings.