The Pioneer Post

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Happy New Year! We hope you had a safe and healthy Christmas Break, and that your holidays were filled with warm, happy and memorable moments with your children. Thank you for all of your holiday wishes and generous support before the break. Your kindness is truly appreciated by our staff.

I want to take a moment to highlight how important our school community is to me. We have dedicated parents, teachers, and staff, who show up each day in support of our students. As we embark on this new year, I am excited about the opportunities and growth that await us. Our collective efforts and commitment to nurturing a positive and inclusive environment make our school a special place. Let's continue to foster an atmosphere where our students feel valued, supported, and inspired to reach their full potential.

I eagerly anticipate our continued partnership in 2025, aiming to make it a year brimming with learning, joy, and accomplishments. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have!

Warm regards,

~ Mrs. Horstman

• Morning breakfast ends at 8:00 am. It is challenging for students to eat their full meal when they arrive at 7:55 am. Please help ensure your child is arriving to school with adequate time to eat, so they can start their learning when the school day begins at 8 am.
• If your child has alternate pick up plans after school, please contact the office so the message can be relayed to the classroom teacher. It is also helpful when you send an additional message through SeeSaw to the student's teacher.
• Information regarding closing of schools and cancellation/postponement of activities will be announced over the following Local TV Channels (KETV 7, WOWT 6, KMTV 3, KPTM Fox 42) and radio stations (KFAB 1110). The automated phone alert system will be activated to call families.

• The new personal electronic devices policy will be in effect when students return to school for the remainder of the school year. Here is the policy as listed in the Elementary School Student/Parent Handbook: Cell phones are not to be used at school at any time other than before school hours, after school hours, in cases of emergencies (which will be determined by the office), or as authorized by the principal or teacher to enhance the learning environment.The students will not be able to access their cell phones during normal school hours, which includes recess. Cell phones are to be “OFF” and out of sight during school hours. By bringing a cell phone to school, the student and parents consent to the search of that device when school officials have a reasonable suspicion that such a search will reveal a violation of school rules.

With the temperatures dropping outside, a reminder that per the elementary handbook, students will be going outside if the temperature is 15 degrees or higher. If the temperature is under 15 degrees (ex. 14 degrees) the students will have indoor recess. Please ensure that your student is coming to school with the appropriate cold weather gear to ensure they are warm during outdoor recess. If you need assistance with finding cold weather gear for your student, please contact Mrs. Horstman.

• January 6th - No School - Last Day of Winter Break
• January 7th - 1st Day of the 3rd Quarter
• January 20th - No School
• February 6th - The Countywide Spelling Bee - 9 am @ the High School
• February 15th - Father/Daughter Dance
• February 19th & 20th - Parent Teacher Conferences
• March 7th - Donuts with Mom

The PBIS team would like to share student's goal for school wide expectation for the 3rd quarter. While we continue to plan for our next INCREDIBLE event, we are keep the details a secret. Here is the criteria students are working towards:

• Students (preschool - 1st grade) with 3 or less PowerSchool logs (which includes bus write ups) will get to attend the PBIS student recognition event.
• Students (2nd - 6th grade) with 8 or less demerits (which includes bus write ups) will get to attend the PBIS student recognition event.

1st & 2nd Quarter PBIS Student Celebration Data:

• In the 1st quarter, we had 90% of our students earn the quarterly celebration.
• In the 2nd quarter, we had 95% of our students earn the quarterly celebration.

Preschool:

• Preschoolers will be talking about rhyming, problem and solution and identifying onset and rime.
• Preschoolers will write letters, G, S, and J.
• Preschoolers will be creating patterns, practicing numbers 6 and 7 and pointing and counting objects.
• Preschoolers will be doing ice cube experiments.

From the Kindergarten Team:

• Reading: Concepts of Print, Onset and Rhyme, Blending, Segmenting, Phoneme Isolation Comprehension: Topic and Detail, Character, Setting, Events, Sequencing Grammar: Subjective Pronouns Text Features: Lists, Diagrams
• Writing: Handwriting and Letter Formation: Curve Letters and Push Up Letters
• Math: Addition and Subtraction Strategies, Numbers 11 to 15, Numbers 16 to 19
• Social Studies: Work Now and Long Ago
• Science: Matter

From the 1st Grade Team:

• Reading: Long vowels O and U and words with the spelling pattern -ook and -ood. Syllables with CVCe words and inflectional endings -ed and -ing. Synonyms and Root Words. Time order and comparing and contrasting.
• Writing: How to build a snowman writing using words first, next, then, and last.
• Math: Meanings of Subtraction
• Science: Living Things

From the 2nd Grade Team:

• Reading: Similes, Comparing & Contrasting Texts, Cause & Effect, Spelling Patterns
• Writing: Verb tenses, & the writing process with personal narratives
• Math: Telling Time, Counting money (coins and bills),
• Social Studies: Our Government, The Constitution, Laws & Rules
• Science: Earth's Process, House Flooding Project

From the 3rd Grade Team:

• Reading: Character Development, Character Perspective, Summarizing, Compare and Contrast
• Writing: Linking Verbs, Main and Helping Verbs, Prefixes, Expository Text Writing
• Math: Comparing Fractions, Using Multiplication to Divide, Use Properties and Strategies to Multiply and Divide
• Social Studies: Map Skills
• Science: Forces and Motion

From the 4th Grade Team:

• Reading: In reading, we will be reading narrative nonfiction, while discussing cause and effect relationships. We will continue to work on finding central idea and relevant details.
• Writing: In writing, our 4th graders will continue to build writing stamina with prompt writing, as well as, beginning an opinion writing piece.
• Math: In math, we are going to start working with fractions! Through these next couple units we will be finding equivalence, adding/subtracting and multiplying by a whole number.
• Social Studies: Our 4th grade historians will be researching how Nebraska came to be the 37th state of the United States. We will learn about what life was like for the first Nebraskans in the 1800s.
• Science: Our scientists will continue to investigate as a geologist and determine what an environment was like in the past based on its rock layers.

From the 5th Grade Team:

• Reading: Reading and understanding fictional genres: fables, fairy tales, folk tales, legends, myths; Identify and describe the author's use of figurative language/literary devices; Use text evidence to compare and contrast different genres of text
• Writing: Persuasive writing
• Math: Adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers
• Social Studies: Revolutionary War & Writing the Constitution
• Science: Patterns in outer space; Earth's Solar System

From the 6th Grade Team:

• Reading: We will identifying the characteristics of realistic fiction, identifying the theme of a text, and using context clues to identify unknown vocabulary words.
• Writing: We will use action verbs, identify the direct and indirect object of verbs, and review helping and linking verbs.
• Math: Numerical and Algebraic Expressions
• Social Studies: We will be jumping into the World of Ancient China learning about dynasties, the geography, and culture of the area.
• Science: We will be transitioning into our HMH pilot with our area of focus being Earth Systems and sub-systems. Our goal is to show the connection that just like the human body has systems that work together to keep the organism functioning the earth has a similar concept keeping it as a “healthy organism” as well!