Whittier Weekly – August 20, 2019

AMAZONSMILE Donations

Shop on Amazon? Donate to the Whittier Elementary School PTA while you shop. Simply visit smile.amazon.com, and select charitable organization “Whittier Elementary school” charitable organization to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation.

Chess Scholars

Chess Scholars will be on Thursdays, 3:00-4:00 PM this year. The Fall Session will consist of 9 classes, running October 10th – December 19th, no classes on 10/31, 11/28. Find out more at: https://www.chessscholars.com. Enrollment information will be out next week!

Fun Lunch

Who loves Fun Lunch? We do! Beginning on Tuesday, August 20, 2019, TODAY, you will have the opportunity to order lunch for your kiddos for the first semester of the year. We have included a new vendor (welcome, ChiShack), different choices, and of course, lots of tasty lunch options for the children. 

Fun Lunch orders are taken via Boonli.com.  Please login to the website or create a new account using the Whittier access code WES338

A parent must then add/update your child(ren)’s homeroom teacher(s).  Then choose items for each of the 9 scheduled Fun Lunches for each child.  

This session of lunches runs roughly every other Friday from Sept  13, 2019 through Jan. 10, 2020 (excluding holiday weeks).

Be sure to checkout completely by paying for your shopping cart items.  Your order cannot be processed unless it is finalized. 

Once the ordering window closes on Thursday, September 5, 2019, we will not be able to accept or change orders.

For questions regarding Whittier’s PTA Fun Lunch program please contact Karrie Donat (karrie313@gmail.com) or Stacy Klepper (stacyklepper17@gmail.com).

Whittier Fun Run

As you may have seen from Mr. Krugman’s message earlier this week, we are mixing up our annual run (a/k/a the Jaguar Jog) and turning it into a COLOR RUN!  Our inaugural “Color Me Whitter” color run will be held on October 4th, 2019 at Whittier Elementary School.  You will be receiving a set of family instructions to register for in your student’s backpack on August 23rd. If you are interested in getting a jump start, you can register your students by visiting secure.getactivefundraising.com/event/2019-color-me-whittier-run.

Family Fun Night @ City BBQ

Come catch up with friends and let City BBQ do the cooking as we begin our first full week of school. Please show the attached barcode and 25% of your spend will go to the Whittier PTA to help fund many great events! All day on Monday, August 26, City BBQ, 1034 Ogden Avenue, Downers Grove

Whittier Walking Club

Calling for Parent (or Grandparent) volunteers! Every Tuesday (from 11:30-12:30) during the fall and spring, students are challenged to walk or run laps around the school building during recess. With every lap completed, students earn “Cat Cash” to spend at the Walking Club.

Parent volunteers help keep track of the students, hand out “Cat Cash”, and manage the Walking Club Store. It is a great way to see your kids in action! We are in need of five volunteers per week – starting Tuesday, September 17th.  Visit the PTA’s Walking Club page for more information and to sign up to volunteer: https://whittierschoolpta.org/volun…/walking-club-volunteers/ . E-mail Tess Spector with questions at terisaspector@gmail.com

After School Theater Program

Registration is now open for Whittier’s new program. This musical theater program is open to all students (K-6) and is offered through the BAM Theater Company. The program will run this fall (starting on Sept. 20) for 12 weeks on Fridays from 3-4:30 in the Whittier Gym. Students will learn and perform Seussical the Musical in December! Click here to register: https://ticketpeak.com/res/bam/classes, or for more info visit: https://www.bamtheatre.com/whittier-school. Contact Katy Anderman with questions at katy.anderman@gmail.com

PTA Membership and Communication

• Register for the PTA Website: This site is only available to current Whittier families and faculty as it does include personal information and financials for our organization. The email address used here is also where the Whittier Weekly (weekly newsletter) will be sent. Do this once and don’t need to register every year.  https://whittierschoolpta.org/register-ww/
• Join the PTA 2019-2020*: This is where you can sign up to purchase a paper copy of the directory, advertise in the directory (paper and/or the Directory Spot mobile app), make an Angel Donation, and/or sign up to get more involved. If you’d like a paper form or if you have ANY questions, please reach out. The site is https://whittierschoolpta.org/join/. *Teachers/Staff, please register here (https://whittierschoolpta.org/teachers-join/).
• Whittier DirectorySpot: If you were already in the directory, it has been updated with the student grades for 2019-2020. Once class lists are available, the teacher assignments will be updated. If you have no additional updates, you don’t need to do anything, although it couldn’t hurt to check over your information as we moved to a new format last year. If your contact info has changed, please update it here. To gain access to the online directory, you must first join the PTA (see above). With your paid membership you will be set up with a DirectorySpot account. You will receive an email from DirectorySpot, but if you miss it you can go directly to https://www.directoryspot.net and create an account. Just be sure to use the same email that you used to register for the PTA. We are still offering the option to purchase a printed directory, available when you register for the PTA. You will need to do this annually. The directory is used for Whittier families only, and can be used to contact classmates and parents. https://www.directoryspot.net
• For questions on the Whittier PTA Website, PTA Membership, or DirectorySpot, please contact Ann Russell at AnnKHerrick@yahoo.com