Thanksgiving is only days away and we wanted to take a moment to thank our Fulton community for your support and partnership. We have so much to be thankful for. Our Fulton families are the best and we are so happy we get to share the school experience with all of you. Please take time this holiday to appreciate all the little things in your life that make each day so special.

Please remember to have students bring in something representing your family's culture or traditions on Wednesday. Students will "show and tell" in their classrooms and then gather for a group picture in the gym at the end of the morning.

The PTO Spirit Wear is ongoing and goes through Tuesday, December 2nd. Order now by using the link below. The PTO is also looking for several volunteers to help run the Holiday Shop. Please sign up below!

A reminder that Wednesday is an early dismissal (11:45) and we have no school on Thursday or Friday this week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Save the Date--

• November 25th--Report Cards Emailed 
• November 26th--1/2 Day--11:45 Dismissal/Cultural Show and Tell
• November 27th-28th--Thanksgiving Break-No School
• December 1st-18th--1st-5th MAP Testing Window
• December 2nd--Last Day for New Spirit Wear Orders
• December 3rd--Parent-Principal Chat 5:00 by Zoom
• December 8th--PTO Meeting 4:30--Media Center
• December 8th-10th--Holiday Shop
• December 18th--Family Winter Sing
• December 19th--All School Winter Sing/Winter Parties/Early Dismissal 11:45
• December 22nd-January 2nd--Winter Break

Mrs. Mitera

Share a little bit of your family's culture and traditions!

On Wednesday, November 26th, please bring a family artifact to share with your class and school community.

Some examples are:

● Dressing up to celebrate your culture*

● Bringing an important family heirloom

● Showing military medals of your grandparents

● Displaying a unique blanket knitted by your grandmother

● Sharing your favorite family recipe (no actual food allowed

please).

If your artifact is bigger than what would fit in a shoe box, please bring in a picture of it instead!

*Culture refers to race, ethnicity, interests, and family traditions.

On Tuesday, all families will receive their child's first trimester report card via email.

You'll notice we utilize a 4, 3, 2, 1 scale, with a 3 being the grade level target. Please view the following resources explaining the essential skills for each grade level and the grade level targets. Please contact your child's teacher or the principal with questions you may have about the updated report cards.

As we are coming up to the end of trimester one, one thing to check on report cards is your students' attendance. It is important to keep up with the number of absences, both excused and unexcused, as they can add up quickly.

The following information is in the handbook on the district website.

Illinois School Code defines a chronic or habitual truant as a child who is absent for 10% of accumulated school days, which includes both excused and unexcused absences.

Please contact me if there are circumstances preventing regular attendance.

A reminder that the Attendance Line is available 24 hours/7 days a week. Please notify the office of any absence or anticipated late arrival by calling 708-614-4525. Additionally, if your child will have a change in dismissal plans (leaving early, not taking the bus, etc.), please let the office know before 2:00. Informing the office in a timely way makes dismissal run more smoothly for all!

Fulton Families,

We are looking for volunteers to help make this year's holiday shop a success! Please sign-up for a time slot below, if you are interested in setting up the shop, helping students shop and wrap their gifts, or packing up the shop after it's over. All volunteers will receive one raffle ticket per shift worked for a chance to win your choice of a new Fulton Spirit Wear item as a thank you for your time. *Remember you must have a current background check on file.*

Thank you for volunteering your time to make this a special experience for our students!

An opportunity to chat all things Fulton! Questions? I'll try to answer. Suggestions? Will take into account for future events/practices.

Please join me online on Wednesday 12/3!

Megan Mitera is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Parent-Principal Chat

Time: Dec 3, 2025 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88383627153?pwd=lwxMfoH1MAoPfZOVSCfnEY7ffBqiba.1

Meeting ID: 883 8362 7153

Passcode: 472825

Thank you for participating in the American Education Week activities. It warmed our hearts to receive thank you cards, seeing faculty "twins", hearing about students' favorite parts of school, and more!

A few years ago we shared Flat Flame, a play on the story Flat Stanley, with our families to take along here and there, sharing some of their family adventures with our school community. Well, Flat Flame is back, and we want to get ALL of our Flames involved. Each season we ask families to take pictures with Flat Flame doing their favorite activities and traditions and share them with us. We will include some photos in the Fulton Family Update and all of the pictures we receive will be uploaded to our hallway TVs for everyone to see! Please send us your #FlameGame photos to FultonFlatFlames@district146.org 

Our first theme will be “Fall”, which will go through Thanksgiving. 

Please take a picture (or pictures) with Flat Flame and your family and share it with us anytime throughout the fall season. (For you tech savvy folks, you can also photo shop Flat Flame into your photos🙂).

Order your copy of the Fulton yearbook by May 7th!

The Fulton Student Council organizes activities that give back to our local community. We'll be collecting pop tabs all year for the Ronald McDonald House. Can we beat last year's total?

Every Friday, the student Fulton Morning News crew shares their broadcast for all classes to view. We'll share the videos with you here, too! Enjoy!

We’re so proud of all of our students who are recognized for displaying the characteristics of a model Flame! Keep up the great work!

We are excited to share with you our dozens of before/after school activity offerings for K-5 students! From the arts to meditation; from sports to coding; from Student Council to games, and so much more in between, there is something for everyone to enjoy! Please review all of the activity descriptions and dates and expect permission slips home in the future. Remember, it's important to be on time for arrival and dismissal of the activities.

Students who find lost articles of clothing or other items should immediately give them to a teacher or the main office to be placed in the lost and found bin. Students who lose personal items should check the lost and found for their items. Identifiable items will immediately be returned to the student. Valuable personal property or sizable amounts of money should not be brought to school. Unclaimed items are given to not-for-profit organizations throughout the year.

Students will be going outside for recess as often as possible. The following are our school/district guidelines.

🔆Hot Weather Conditions: We will switch to indoor recess if the temperature is 100 degrees with heat index or if the grounds are too wet.

⛄Cold Weather Conditions: We will switch to indoor recess if the temperature is below 20 degrees with wind chill, or if our grounds are too icy or wet.

We value the opportunity for students to engage in movement and independent play/socialization. Please watch the weather and be sure to send whatever your child needs to be comfortable playing outside each day.

To ensure the safety of all students and to remain in compliance with state law, parents are required to notify the school office if their child will not be in attendance. This notification must take place within the first hour of school. When reporting an absence, please call the school office, use the voicemail system, or enter the absence into Powerschool anytime, day or night. You may inform the office of attendance 24 hours day/7 days a week. 

Please notify the office of any absence or anticipated late arrival by calling 708-614-4525. Additionally, if your child will have a change in dismissal plans (leaving early, not taking the bus, etc.), please let the office know by 2:00. Informing the office in a timely way makes dismissal run more smoothly for all!

A few reminders for the front of the school at dismissal:

• Please do not park against a yellow marked curb. Parking nearest the exit over the yellow lines obstructs everyone's view and clearance.
• Please park behind the yellow sign closest to the school. The spaces directly in front are reserved for special transportation needs.
  
• Please adhere to the sign and turn RIGHT out of the driveway during arrival and dismissal. This reduces the chance of crossing oncoming traffic and the potential for an accident.
• Pedestrians crossing the drive to get to their cars should use the crosswalk at the east end of the drive for the safest path.
• Please avoid turning around in our neighbors' driveways and blocking entrances/exits.
• No cell phone use in school zones.

Bus transportation is also available for most students attending Fulton school. Please contact the office if you would like to add your child(ren) to a bus route.

Anyone who would like to volunteer in classrooms or at school events must have a background check on file. Please be sure to submit an application here: https://apps.raptortech.com/Apply/ODQzMzplbi1VUw== If you are unsure whether you have submitted a background check in the past, please contact the office. 

As you may have seen, we have a new food service vendor, Whitsons Culinary Group. Breakfast and lunch will be available for all K-5 students for a fee (breakfast $1.50, lunch $3.75). Lunch money may be set up through Pushcoin. Students will receive a debit card to purchase meals through the breakfast/lunch lines. If needed, applications for free and/or reduced fees should be completed. These forms are available in the school office and on the district website. When available, monthly menus will be posted to the district website, https://www.fdmealplanner.com/, and the FD MealPlanner app. 

We have completed our bus evacuation and earthquake drills. We are down to our evacuation walk on Friday and all drills will be complete. Thank you for support!

Within a couple of weeks, American School Bus will use Bus Bulletin to alert District 146 parents of bus delays and schedule changes.
Bus Bulletin sends parents instant notifications via text message, email, and/or phone call. There is no cost for parents to sign up and receive notifications.
For more information or to sign up for notifications, please visit the Bus Bulletin website.

We want to hear from YOU! Please let us know about your experiences at Fulton School so we can work together to improve or keep the good things going!

Our 25-26 PTO Board can't wait to partner with YOU for events like Book Fairs, appreciation days, etc.!

President: Megan Combs

Vice President: Melissa Sands

Treasurer: Jamie Bellik

Secretary: Melissa Santangelo

Committee Members: Jennifer Matise and Kristin Wooten

The PTO is selling in-stock spirit wear (from 24-25) using this link.

Order today!

Email: mmitera@district146.org
Website: http://fulton.district146.org/
Location: 6601 West 171st Street, Tinley Park, IL, USA
Phone: 708-614-4525
Facebook: facebook.com/FultonFlames