Bitty Brickie Beat

Our Kindergartners are becoming amazing authors! Their writing has grown so much this school year! We began with simple drawings and are now aiming for complete sentences! Throughout the year we develop our students into writers by beginning with telling a story by drawing pictures with appropriate details and colors and then go into labeling the pictures with beginning sounds and then labels written as they sound. We then practice a simple sentences to go along with the story under the pictures. Right now we are focused on Non-Fiction/Informative writing. We are writing facts about things students know about. (animals, objects, etc.) and creating "How To " informative pieces. In March, students recorded their observations of their classroom chicks as they changed and wrote about how to take care of the eggs and chicks. We are also working on conventions…..starting with uppercase and using lowercase for the rest, spaces and punctuation. Your child can practice putting these skills together by writing postcards to family and friends or a story of their own! Provide them with lots of opportunity and even some fun pencils and pens to make writing exciting!

We are in our 4th year of One School, One Book at the ELC. Each year we select a book that reaches all ages of ELC students and plan a special day full of activities including the read aloud for the book. This year our selection is Eric Carle's "The Very Busy Spider." All students will receive their own new copy of the book on Thursday, April 8th. We will have special activities in each classroom that promises a fun filled day exploring and sharing this book. Look for your child's copy and be sure to ask about their favorite part of the book!

Kindergarten students spent two weeks in March studying the life cycle of an egg. Classrooms were equipped with incubators and each received a dozen or so eggs. Students carefully studied the eggs each day. They learned that they need to gently turn the eggs each day in order for the chicks to develop, use quiet voices in the classroom and the critical temperature the eggs must be kept at in order for the chicks to have the best chance to develop. They were thrilled to witness the hatching process and be joined in their class by joyful peeping of their newly hatched friends! we also learned in library some critical things one would need to have in order to establish a healthy home for chickens and the essentials needed to take good care of chickens.

Raffle tickets to support SCOH's Building Brickies will be coming home with students in April. There are prizes for selling tickets! Check your child's red folder for tickets and more information!

We are at such an exciting tome in the school year as all of the hard work of our students, staff and parents is paying off as we see more and more readers blooming!!! We love celebrating our readers at the ELC! We are rolling out our prize tiers for our students and know the excitement of prizes will make their achievement even more fun and rewarding! Take minute to familiarize yourself with our tiers. We hope you will find it exciting to practice words with your child to help them achieve their personal best! Reading every night with your child is one of the easiest ways to work on words. You can make it fun to hunt for words they know in text and even share some of the reading with them! We have some helpful resources included below to give you options to change up your practice. Sidewalk chalk is one of our favorites at this time of the year. We cannot wait to celebrate your child as a reader!

Students have been transformed into reading machines during library during Sight Word Factory! Periodically, we will dedicate a library session to a hands on word making fun filled factory! This is a great way for our students to practice their reading skills as they hunt for or create the letters needed for the projected words using their materials in their "supply bin." Try creating your own sight word factory at home using sticks from your yard, sidewalk chalk, magnetic letters or anything else you have! This is a great activity to make reading fun and support your child's progress!

We are so proud of our PBIS winners! Each week one Extraordinary ELearner and one Incredible In-Person Learner are chosen through a raffle process as our PBIS Weekly Winners. Students are nominated by ELC staff for their outstanding commitment to excellence at our school. These students always show leadership skills and model good behavior during the school day. They follow hallway and classroom procedures, help others, use proper Zoom etiquette and work hard on their academics.

Developing your Child's Oral Expression and Increasing Vocabulary.

Verbally interacting with your child simply means taking every opportunity to talk with your child. With our busy lives, interactions between adults and children are often directive ("do this," "do that,") or negative ("stop hitting," "don't run.") At our April Kindergarten and Coffee we will offer some suggestions and brainstorm more ideas on how to break this pattern so both you and your child will have verbal interactions that develop their oral expression skills and increase their vocabulary.

Digital Citizenship and Kindergarten Internet Safety

Digital media is a part of our everyday life. Finding the right balance of digital media is important. At K and Coffee this month, we will discuss internet dangers, how to minimize the risks, and tips on developing a healthy media diet.

Students can cash in their tickets for the SRO For The Day experience at ELC! They will make the safety rounds with our own SRO Joe and see that our school is safe! Congratulations to this month's SROs for their leadership in our school!

Email: sgutierrez@hobart.k12.in.us
Website: www.hobart.k12.in.us/elc
Location: 400 North Wilson Street, Hobart, IN, USA
Phone: 2199427263
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hobart.k12.in.us