High Interest Day Thank You!

Many thanks to the countless parents, local businesses, and Madison faculty who volunteered their time and talents to help make High Interest Day 2026 a terrific success!

A HUGE shout-out to our High Interest Day Chairs who devoted countless hours to plan this special event: Leah Brinkmeyer, Emilee Caleel, Lindsay Foster, Courtney Headly, Winnie Kuo, Kristie Pauley, and Jacqui Polaneczky!

Thank you to our volunteers: 
Arabic Ink Mark-Marking Workshop - Linda Abdullah
Be An Emergency Room Doctor - Dr. Brian Fort
Bricks 4 Kidz Lego Engineering - Bricks 4 Kids
Camp Madison - Ben Burrows & Corey Simpson 
Escape Room - Winnie Kuo
Fencing - Marek Stepien & Pat Bieszke 
Firefighter for a Day - Hinsdale Fire Department 
Game Design & Coding in Scratch - Code Ninjas Westmont
Glow Up! A Day at the Spa - Shelly Perkowski 
Green Thumb Club - Jen Makelarski, McKenna Milkie & Caroline Wolff
Hair Braiding - ZaZu Salons 
Harry Potter Potions! - Bright Child Learning Company (via The Community House)
Hinsdale Humane Society - Hinsdale Humane Society 
Jury Duty Calls - Jessica Halkias 
Imagine, Design, Create! - Aisling Gray 
Little Italian Chef's Cooking Class - Rae Mugnolo
Make Your Own Soap - Angela Bailey, Diane Giannini & Fauzia McGuire 
Martial Arts - Strive Martial Arts
Messy Chemistry - Bright Child Learning Company (via The Community House)
Mighty But Micro-Organisms - Marie Runyan & Patti Parrillo
On Brand - Emily Gerow & Kathryn Crist 
Pediatric Anesthesiologist - Sahani Panjwani
Pickleball - Bill Voigt
Stitch Squad - Kim Bird, Allison Peters & Shannon Maxwell 
Stranger Things: Become a Mind Flayer - Neelofer Shafi
Strong with Skokna - Skonka Strength
Zen Zone - Ashley Logan

Yearbook Distribution

Yearbooks will be distributed by classroom teachers on Thursday, May 28th during school. Remember to bring your own sharpie for yearbook signing. 

Thank you to Emily Bower, Diane Giannini, Aisling Gray, and Sarah Kozmic for their many hours of work to assemble the 2025-2026 yearbook!

Shout out to our incredible student artists for our yearbook cover artwork, Alex Crist (front cover) and Alina Pacyga (back cover)!

If you did not purchase a yearbook:

The PTO has ordered a limited number of extra copies. They are available to order HERE and must be picked up in person on Wednesday morning at the front doors during drop-off. To double check your order, login into treering.com and view your previous orders. Please reach out to yearbook@madisonpto.org with any questions. 

Reminder: Field Day 2026

Field Day will be held Tuesday, May 26th! Parents are welcome to volunteer, please use the link HERE to sign up. 

Morning Session (K, 1st, 2nd) will be 8:45-11:15am
Afternoon Session (3rd, 4th, 5th) will be 12:30-3:00pm

Please have your student wear their class color: 
Kindergarten: Royal Blue Centennial T-Shirts
1st Grade: Yellow
2nd Grade: Red Centennial T-Shirts
3rd Grade: Gray
4th Grade: Light Blue Centennial T-Shirts
5th Grade: Red 5th Grade T-Shirts 

It is suggested to wear sunscreen and comfortable clothing. Please have your child bring a disposable water bottle with their name on it. Gym shoes are mandatory for safety (crocs and sandals will not be permitted). 

End of Year Madison Staff GiftCrowd

Last chance - Gift Crowds will be distributed to Madison staff on Friday, May 29th by 9:00am!

Can you believe the school year is almost over? Madison had an incredibly busy and engaging year! Please join to thank our classroom teachers, specials teachers, and the many wonderful staff members who support our students each day. This year, we’ll once again be using GiftCrowd to make gifting simple and seamless.

GiftCrowd, a simple and convenient platform, allows families to contribute online toward gift cards for any Madison teacher or staff member. Each recipient will then be able to choose gift cards from their preferred retailers - easy, flexible, and festive! A few things to think about, if you choose to use GiftCrowd:
~ You may choose to “gift” to whomever and however you wish. We kindly encourage families to prioritize classroom teachers, who work with our students everyday. Physical Education, Art and Music may have contributions from many families K-5, therefore gifting a smaller amount to a non-classroom teacher is perfectly appropriate.
~ As this is a collective, school-wide gifting effort, we have provided a comprehensive staff list to help streamline your gift-giving experience.
~While teachers/staff will see which families contribute to the collective gift, the amount you contribute will be private.

As always, these group gifts are completely optional and the monetary contribution is up to each family. Should you wish to contribute, please do so by Friday, May 29th by 9:00am. Gifts will be sent out electronically.

To access Madison’s GiftCrowd page, please click HERE.

Need help with GiftCrowd? Follow the detailed instructions below to help you get started. You can even click here for a step-by-step video!
1.GiftCrowd will present you with a list of all Madison Elementary ’s Teachers & Staff. Click on “Join” next to the Teacher or Staff member you wish to gift.
2. Enter your name as you'd like it to be displayed to the teacher and your email address. You are welcome to include a personal greeting as well as upload a photo or a video! Now you can leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on GiftCrowd to create personalized greetings for your gifts. GiftCrowd will suggest unique and thoughtful greetings that are tailored to the recipient.
3. Enter your contribution amount of choice ($2 and up) and click “Add to Cart”
4. Repeat this process for all the teachers and staff members you wish to gift. Then, enter your payment information and click on “Place your Order” to complete your transaction.

Finally, every gift recipient will receive an email indicating the total gift amount they received with personal greetings from all the contributors! They will be able to use their gift amount to select cards from hundreds of brands!