News From Fort Zeller Elementary

As we close the door on 2024 and excitedly begin 2025, it is important to recognize the opportunities ahead of us, while acknowledging the great accomplishments behind us. As a school community, we have worked hard during the first half of the school year; focusing on our three PBIS goals to support our students in reaching their fullest academic and social-emotional potential.

• Be Responsible
• Be Respectful
• Be Ready to Learn

Evidence of our building goals were seen throughout our classrooms. This focus was also evident during conversations with staff working collaboratively to support our students academically and social-emotionally.

The first half of the school year established our solid foundation, preparing our students for the rigor, perseverance, and application necessary to push their academic and social-emotional learning to new heights. Similarly, our winter break provided time for reflection and rejuvenation, resulting in new strength and new thoughts to end our year strong. I look forward to watching student strengths and thoughts come alive in the classroom during the second half of the year. This looks different within each classroom and for individual learners, but can be observed in class discussions focused on students making connections to the instructional activities, posing high level questions, and exploring their thinking and the thinking of others. Let the 2025 learning adventure begin...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Take care,

Jodi Houck

1. Drop Off - With the weather getting cooler and for student safety, please remember that parents SHOULD NOT drop students off prior to 8:30 unless you see a staff member outside greeting students and the doors are opened. Students dropped off prior to staff being available are out in cold weather and unsupervised which is not safe.

2. Winter Testing - January is the time we complete our winter testing with students. They will be completing the Linkit! testing for ELA and math, Acadience, and Spring Math in early February. These assessments give us the information we need to help our students grow academically. Please make sure your children come to school rested and ready to do their best.

3. February Parent/Teacher Conferences - These conferences are not for all students and by teacher invitation only. If you do not receive an invitation for a conference, but would like to talk to your child's teacher, please feel free to reach out to them at any time.

4. Kindergarten Registration - Please help spread the word that kindergarten registration is open for the 2025-2026 school year. Information in the flyer below.

All classroom teachers have sent home their FID packets on November 1. These will be used in the event that we have used our two weather emergency days and are now using flexible instruction days. It is important that you keep these packets in a safe place so that they are readily available for your child to complete if we are off.

* The first two inclement weather days will just be regular snow days and will be made up over the Easter Break in April. After those two days are used, the following days will be Flexible Instruction Days.

If a flexible instruction day is called, a mass email will be sent to all families with instructions and a link for families to "sign" their child in for the day. This must happen by 12:00 pm or your child will be marked as absent for the day.

Click here for more information about flexible instruction days. If you have any questions, please reach out to your child's teacher or Mrs. Houck.

Jan. 6: (SNOW DAY)

• Welcome Back to School! Happy New Year!
• Linkit! Testing Window (1/6-1/23)

Jan. 8: (Day 4)

• Acadience Testing
• PTO Meeting @ 6:30 pm

Jan. 9: (Day 5)

• Acadience Testing

Jan. 11 (Saturday)

• Fort Zeller Roller Skating Party - Mt. Gretna Roller Rink (information in PTO notes)

Jan. 16: (Day 5)

• Raider Readers

Jan. 17: (Day 1)

• End of the 2nd Marking Period

Jan. 20: (MLK Day)

• No School

Jan. 21: (Day 2)

• Two Hour Delay
• School Board Meeting @ 6:00 pm

Jan. 24: (Day 5)

• Second Marking Period Report Cards Go Home

Jan. 31: (Day 2)

• PBIS Assembly

Congratulations to our December students of the month and class of the month!

Kindergarten - Bryson S. (Miss. Kolovani) & Willow E. (Mrs. Yocum)

First Grade - Chase W. (Mrs. McDonnell) & Finley M. (Mrs. Hartman/Mrs. Krause)

Second Grade - Ja'cory B. (Mrs. Kane), Ellen W. (Mrs. Jackson) & Dawson S. (Mrs. Wenzel)

Class of the Month - Mrs Booth's First Grade Class

During the month of December, we were focused on cooperation. Throughout the month of January, we are focusing on tolerance & courage. Tolerance is understanding that others can be different, but we appreciate those differences. Courage means being able to do things that make you nervous, unsure or afraid.

Fort Zeller Elementary is extremely grateful for our ELCO Education Foundation. This year alone, the Foundation has invested nearly $29,000 directly into the hands of our students. One way the Foundation has supported Fort Zeller is with their financial support in creating a LEGO wall for our library/STEM classes. Our students love to build and create with LEGOS. We also owe a huge THANK YOU to Mrs. Amy Davis for writing the grant for this project!

We all had a blast singing holiday songs together. What a great way to start our nice, long break. Thank you to Mr. Whitman and Ms. Frederick for organizing this for us.

During the month of December, our first and second students had a blast with our SPARC lessons. We will be having two more lessons in the second half of the year. We can't wait to see what cool, hands-on science lessons we will get to do next!

First Grade - Micropipette Art

In this activity our students learned how to use a very simple micropipette called a "lilpet". They used it to make a pixel art project in the 96 well plate.

Second Grade - Fingerprinting Activity

In this activity students fingerprinted themselves, dust and pull their fingerprints that were left on a plate, and were given a "guess who" that involved comparing fingerprints pulled from a "crime scene" to those of "suspects".

This is Fort Zeller's second year with Family Groups. Once a month, our students get together with their family group and do some type of fun activity. The groups are mixed with students from grades k-2 and they stay with their same adult leader for their entire time at Fort Zeller. It is a ton of fun and both our students and staff really enjoy this time together!

The students and staff in Mrs. Wentzel's classroom had some fun before the holiday break. They may have looked like grinches, but they had a ton of fun!

The ELCO Raider Food Pantry is Open!

The ELCO Raider Food Pantry is now open and available for the ELCO families. With the support of our ELCO staff, local businesses and churches, we are able to provide our ELCO families with an additional resource.

If you are in need of immediate assistance or you'd like to donate to the ELCO Raider Pantry, please reach out to Kelly Smith, ELCO Social Worker, at 717-306-3242 or Kim Wilson, ELCO Food and Nutrition, at 717-306-3270 for a confidential appointment to the pantry.

Happy Holidays, Families!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, and fun break!

Here is what we’ve been up to with Mrs. Brosius:

R.E.A.C.H. Lessons

This month during our classroom lesson times, 1st and 2nd grade students focused on Kindness and Compassion. 1st grade students made “sweaters” for special people in their lives and 2nd graders created postcards to deliver to adults here at school! Kindergarten students learned all about a Little Spot of Anger. We talked about ways to shrink and calm our angry spot before it gets too big!

PBIS

Fort Zeller students are ROCK STARS! In December, they filled 535 Bee Cards! That brings our total for this year to 2,893 Bee Cards!

Small Groups

Small groups are in full swing. There are some groups that will be starting in January; so if your student has not started yet, they will be soon!

We celebrated Dino-vember at the library this month!

Kindergarten explored fictional dinosaur characters and laughed at How Dinosaurs Eat Their Food by Jane Yolen.

First Grade learned about what it means to be extinct and loved meeting Mo Williams character Edwina in Edwina: The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She was Extinct. First grade also worked on dinosaur activities in Keynote on their ipads.

Second Grade began learning about research, fact and opinion and strategies for finding information. Second grade enjoyed finding facts, collecting data in a Would You Rather survey, and sorting facts vs. opinions about dinosaurs.

Kindergarten is using body percussion to make rhythms, form choreography and creating demonstrating their own patterns as solos.

First grade is demonstrating how accompaniment rhythms in songs can be different from the rhythm of the melody. They are singing, 6 Little Ducks, while playing a different rhythm, ostinato, with an instrument.

Second grade is continuing to work with Orff instruments focusing on playing in small groups. Also, they are discovering the history of the Ukulele.

This month in Mrs. Panza’s Art Class all grade levels focused on the elements of art, as a review and to use these elements in new ways and/or with new tools. Kindergarten artists learned about walruses and created a drawing of the animal using colored construction paper (“chilly” color choices) and construction paper crayons to create some neat effects. Artists filled the space around their walrus after brainstorming some ideas as a class. Artists mounted the work and signed their name. First grade artists used the elements of art and collage methods to create their winter artwork. We used tools to create repetitive markings on the paper and used these to create a birch tree forest. Next we will look to Charley Harper’s minimalist Cardinal artwork to add a cardinal to our own collages. Cardinals will be the focal point (principle of emphasis) of the artwork that also featured a winter background and cutting of complex shapes. In second grade, artists worked with a new drawing tool, oil pastels to create a snowscape. Our colors were limited to white, black and gray. Line, shape, space, color, form and value were the elements that we focused on while creating this artwork. Students were introduced to using value to create form in a 2D piece of artwork (drawing) to create shadows on the side of the moon and snowperson. As always, artists mounted their work and created a reflection that includes a title or artist statement for this artwork. Thanks for a great 2024 in art class…looking ahead to more great things in 2025!

In December, our Physical Education students learned the motor skill of rolling. Students learned to step with their opposite foot and roll a ball at a target. This skill was used in fun and active games where students raced to knock down targets. Rolling was also used as our gym was converted to a real bowling alley! Our Physical Education friends now know how to hold a bowling ball, set pins and bowl with groups of friends. These skills will be used later in the year during a Glow Bowling Event!

Kindergarten was very busy with holiday activities this past month of December. Students enjoyed gingerbread shopping, reindeer day and some other holiday fun. We enjoyed making sleds in our STEM lesson with Mr. Wright. As a class, students read many holiday books. And as always, students continued learning about letters, sounds, making words, and adding more high frequency words to their list. In math, students worked on recognizing and comparing numbers to twenty and showing representations of those numbers using tens and ones. We are making nice progress in Spring Math. We just started a new unit on Shapes.

During the month of December first graders have been working on the “h brother” digraphs, th, and ch. The students also explored different strategies to help solve subtraction problems to 20. We also began Spring Math this month, a daily math intervention. First graders also learned about holiday traditions in other countries around the world. Plus they were able to shop at the PTO’s Gingerbread Shop, Thank you PTO!

This time of year has been filled with exciting lessons and opportunities for growth in our second-grade classroom. As we move through the holiday season, the second graders have been learning how to clearly state their opinions and support them with thoughtful reasons with a variety of fun seasonal prompts. In reading, we’ve worked on identifying the main idea of a text and supporting it with details. Students also explored landforms, as they read about geographical features like volcanoes, caves, and glaciers. In math, our focus has been on place value, specifically how numbers are constructed up to 1000. Students have been practicing understanding the value of each digit based on its place. In the spirit of the season, we celebrated a special Stocking Stuffer Exchange. This festive activity allowed students to experience the joy of giving.

After the winter break, we will be starting the program “Books 4 Raiders”. Once a month, each student will have an opportunity to select two books to keep at home. The purpose of this program is to create a love for reading. The level excitement, which our students have shown thus far, for getting “new” books has been gratifying to experience. We hope your child enjoys reading or listening to their “new” books being read aloud! Happy reading!!

ELCO School District is growing our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels. Click on the icons and follow along!

Facebook - @ELCOSD

Twitter - @elcosd

Instagram - @elcosd

Why:

1. Celebrate our students.

2. Keep parents, students, alumni, and the community in the loop of what is happening in our district.

3. Promote the great things happening such as athletics, activities, and other events.

4. Build an ongoing conversation about the positive impact our district is making in the lives of our students!

What do I need to do?

• If you are on these social media channels – follow us!

• Help promote these accounts to your family and friends.

• If you aren’t on these platforms – that’s OK. The district will continue to provide communication through traditional channels.

Hello families! Hope everyone is staying healthy this holiday season. Just a quick reminder regarding flu and cold season. If your child is experiencing any symptoms, such as a temperature of 100 degrees or higher, vomiting, or diarrhea, please keep your child home. They must be free of fever (without fever reducing medication) vomiting, and diarrhea for 24 hours before they may return. We have this policy in place to keep our staff and students healthy and reduce the spread of any contagious illness. If your child requires a medication, please have their doctor fill out the attached paperwork for the nurse to be able to administer it to them. The medication must be brought in its original container received from the pharmacy. Please do not send any medication in without this information, it will not be administered to your child.

ELCO Medication Form

The nurse’s office is looking for donations! Boys and girls pants sizes 6/7 and 8/10. If your child has borrowed school clothing, please remember to wash and return, we are running low due to clothing not being returned. A huge THANK YOU to the families who donated items already, we greatly appreciate you!

Have a wonderful holiday season!!

Thank You! ☺️

On Wednesday, January 8, 2024, at 6:30, our PTO will host its next meeting at the K-Ville. Most meetings will be held on the first Wednesday of every month. We hope that you will consider joining our meetings and provide your valuable input to support our students and staff at Fort Zeller.

Hello Fort Zeller Families!

Thank you to everyone for an amazing school year so far. Without all of you, we couldn’t do the fun events, like the gingerbread shop, book fair, race for ed, etc that we do for the kids at Fort Zeller.

We are so grateful for all our volunteers and families that contribute to the PTO!

Here are some current items going on -

🛼 Mark your calendars! 🛼

The annual Roller Skating Party is scheduled for Saturday, January 11th.

10AM - 1PM

Join us for the annual Fort Zeller Elementary PTO Roller Skating Party. This event is open to Fort Zeller students and their families. There is no admission charge and the snack bar will be open for the purchase of snacks.
Roller Skate Rental - $5

Upcoming Meetings -

💛💙 January PTO Meeting - Wednesday, January 8 - 630PM - This meeting will be at K-Ville Restaurant. Please RSVP if you plan on attending.

💛💙 February PTO Meeting - Wednesday, February 5 - 630PM

💛💙 March PTO Meeting - Tuesday, March 4 - 630PM

💛💙 April PTO Meeting - Wednesday, April 2 - 630PM

💛💙 May PTO Meeting - Wednesday, May 14 - 630PM

🔴 Scan your grocery receipts - Box-Top Rewards

Earn money for our school through Box Tops for Education!

Download the Box Top mobile app onto your cell phone

(https://www.boxtops4education.com/s/get-the-app),

create an account with “FORT ZELLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL” as your participating school, and scan your receipts within 14 days of your purchase.

🔴 December Box Top Offers!

https://www.boxtops4education.com/s/how-to-earn#app-offers

Thank you to our PTO for organizing another AMAZING Gingerbread Shop for our students and staff. There were so many wonderful gifts to shop for and our students had the best time picking out those specials gifts for the loved ones in their lives. Thank you to all the volunteers who came in to help our students shop, wrap, and have fun!!

January

1 - Elijah Les

2 - Kayson Miller

3 - Levi Frable

4 - Ezekiel Baer

5 - Oliver Mohn

7 - Malachi Denlinger

9 - Aayla Lehman

11 - David Hollinger, Axle Wolf & Ellen Walmer

14 - Aleah Young

17 - Corbin Sclesky

18 - Dixie Boltz & Bryson Stauffer

25 - Josephina Polukhin

26 - Serenity Patches

27 - Le'Lani Cherry & Parker Martin

28 - Hayden Marchetti

29 - Eliza Frederick

31 - Jeanne Gregro & Eleanora Brosey

Fort Zeller Elementary School

243 North Sheridan Road

Richland, PA 17087

Phone: (610) 589-2575

Fax: 610-589-5815

Twitter: @ElcoFort

Email: jhouck@elcosd.org
Website: https://www.elcosd.org/Domain/211
Location: 243 North Sheridan Road Richland, PA 17087
Phone: (610) 589-2575
Twitter: @ElcoFort