As we head into colder temperatures, please send students to school in a jacket and appropriate outerwear for outdoor recess.

You may also want to start to gather appropriate outerwear for the winter, such as a warm coat, hat, gloves, scarf, winter boots, and snow pants.

In general, if it “feels” like 15 degrees or above, and it is not raining/snowing, we will go outside. Please see the Child Care Weather Watch chart that we use to guide our decisions.

This week we are working on “body is calm” at school. When our bodies are calm, we keep our hands and feet to ourselves, our body is still, and our voice is quiet. When our bodies are calm, we are in the green zone and ready to learn!

At home, discuss what times it is expected to have a calm body; maybe at the dinner table, reading a book before bedtime, while coloring a picture, or at the grocery store, library, or restaurant. Practice having a calm body during one of those activities. It’s okay to start small for 1–2 minutes and then try for longer amounts of time.

Put on your own calming music to help your child practice having a calm body!

Breakfast is served daily before school. Breakfast is optional. Students should let a staff member know if they would like to enter the school early to eat breakfast. A purchased school breakfast consists of a fruit (or vegetable), whole grain-rich foods and/or meats/meat alternates, and milk.

Lunch Accounts/MealTime

Each student uses their Lunch ID card to charge lunch and/or snacks. It is the family’s responsibility to replenish funds into the student’s account. Money may be added to a student’s account online or by bringing money or a check to the cafeteria. If students run a negative balance, they will not be allowed to charge items in the snack line. Please note: A student will never be denied lunch based on a negative balance. Families can access account information, including lunch account balance, on MyMealtimeOnline or by requesting a statement. Any money left in a student’s lunch account will be rolled over into the next school year. For questions regarding the cafeteria or your child’s account, please contact the Business Office at 847-676-8301.

Healthy Classroom Snacks

All classes at Middleton have a snack time during the day. Please use this list from the Student/Family Handbook as a guide for healthy classroom snacks:

• Vegetables: Carrot or celery sticks, cucumber slices, pea pods, edamame
• Fruit: Single-serve fresh fruits; apple, banana, tangerines, sliced fruit; cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, pineapple, 100% fruit or vegetable juice, dried fruits – raisins, cranberries, apples, apricots, single serving applesauce
• Grains: Pretzels, graham crackers, baked chips, mini bagels
• Protein/Dairy: Hard-boiled egg, low-fat flavored yogurt, string cheese or reduced fat cheese slices
• Examples of prepared products: Dole Mixed Fruit Cup, Frito-Lay Baked Lays and Doritos, General Mills Chex Mix, Kellogg’s NutriGrain Bars, Kraft Teddy Grahams, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, Quaker Oatmeal Breakfast Squares
• Classroom snacks must be peanut and tree nut free

Does your 4th or 5th grade student love to sing, dance, act and have fun with friends?

There is still time for 4th and 5th grade students to join our "Frozen Jr." cast if you were unable to attend the informational meeting last week. All sign-up links were sent to those who attended the meeting, so please reach out directly to Ms. Sylvester at [email protected] or Mrs. Anderson at [email protected] for important musical information and sign-up forms.

The first session of Enrichment ends on Thursday, December 11, 2025. The second session begins in January 2026. Look for second session Enrichment packets after Winter Break!

We are excited to announce that McCracken received a summative designation of EXEMPLARY for the 2025 school year by the Illinois State Board of Education. To earn the "Exemplary" designation, a school must achieve a score that places it in the TOP 10% STATEWIDE and also ensure that all its student demographic groups meet the performance standards. A school’s annual summative designation describes how well an individual school is meeting the needs of all its students. The designations recognize schools with strong overall performance across a range of academic and student success indicators. You can find more information about those success indicators on the 2025 Illinois Report Card Multiple Indicators of Student Success document. This designation can also be viewed on the Illinois State Report Card, including data visualizations showing school and student group performance data overall and at the indicator score level. We are proud of the collective effort of our students, staff, and school community and look forward to continuing to support all students in reaching their highest potential both academically and socially and emotionally at McCracken.

November is National Picture Book Month! Our librarian, Ms. Gammeri, gathered the many titles of staff members’ favorite picture books they cherished as a student or have continued to cherish as an educator and/or parent. She developed an interactive bulletin board with images of the picture books near the library where students can make educated guesses matching the books with McCracken staff members. The student who has the most correct guesses will win a fantastic literacy-based prize! Thank you for helping to promote the love of reading with your students.

Here at McCracken, we are proud to offer a variety of student athletic and enrichment programs. These programs allow students to exercise their strengths, tackle areas of growth, and socialize with peers. Be sure to sign your student up for one of our great extracurricular clubs or activities here at McCracken! Please access the McCracken Extracurricular Brochure HERE.