News From Fort Zeller Elementary

Hello to our Fort Zeller Families,

I can't believe we are already starting October. This school year is off to an amazing start. Everyone at Fort Zeller strives to create a safe, welcoming and accepting learning environment for all of our students. We want Fort Zeller to be a place where students love to learn and staff love to work! Our students are definitely doing their part to make Fort Zeller so special by always being respectful, responsible and ready to learn.

We look forward to collaborating with our families to create an amazing Fort Zeller experience. Together, as a team, we will make it a great year!

All the Best,

Jodi Houck

1. Conferences - This year we will be using a system called PTCfast to schedule parent teacher conferences. This is an online system that allows parents to set up their own conference time from a given list of times. This also eases the ability to schedule across buildings in the district as needed. The link for signing up will be sent in the November Smore and it will also be sent in a mass email to parents as we get closer to conferences.

2. Race for Education - Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Race for Education event! We truly appreciate your generosity. If you would like to see your child participate in the event, the schedule for the day is listed below. You can come on Friday and cheer your child on while they race/run/walk. Please be sure to sign-in with the PTO outside when you come to watch.

3. Schoology - If you have not done so already, please join your child's Schoology Course so you can be in communication with his/her teacher. Please don't hesitate to call the teacher if you need help.

4. Trip Forms - If you are planning on going on a trip, please make sure to fill out a trip request form and turn it into the office. Planned trips require the principal's approval in order to be excused. For all other absences, you can complete the excuse on Power School, or turn in an excuse to the office through email (fzattendance@elcosd.org) or paper copy.

Our Race for Education event will be taking place on Friday, October 11. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated. The links to our Race for Education Hype video and to donate are below. The money raised helps to provide our students with fun assemblies, educational field trips, classroom supplies, and much more.

Hype Video - Click Here

To Donate - Click Here

If you would like to come to the event and see your child race, the schedule is provided below.

Oct. 1 (Day 5)

• SPARK Lessons
• Homecoming Dress - Wear Your Favorite Destination Shirt

Oct. 2 (Day 1)

• PTO Meeting @ 6:30 pm
• Homecoming Dress - Wear Animal Print
• School Custodian Appreciation Day

Oct. 3 (Day 2)

• Homecoming Dress - Wear Camouflage
• Raider Readers

Oct. 4 (Day 3)

• Homecoming Dress - Wear Blue and Gold

Oct. 7 (Day 4)

• Hearing Screenings

Oct. 8 (Day 5)

• SPARC Lessons

Oct. 9 (Day 1)

• School Board Meeting @ 6:00 pm

Oct. 10 (Day 2)

• Family Groups

Oct. 11 (Day 3)

• Race for Education Day!!

Oct. 14 (No School)

• Columbus Day

Oct. 15 (Day 4)

• Two Hour Late Start for Students

Oct. 16 (Day 5)

• Fire Prevention Day
• Rising Raider's (2025-2026 Incoming Kindergarteners) @ 5:00 pm - Information Below

Oct. 18 (Day 2)

• Exterior Threat Drill
• Race for Education Rain Date

Oct. 21 (Day 3)

• School Board Meeting @ 6:00 pm

Oct. 22 (Day 4)

• SPARC Lessons

Oct. 24 (Day 1)

• First Grade Field Trip - Corn Cob Acres

Oct. 25 (Day 2)

• PBIS Assembly

Oct. 29 (Day 4)

• Title I Night @ 5:00 pm (Intermediate School)

Oct. 30 (Day 5)

• End of First Marking Period

Oct. 31 (Day 4)

• Happy Halloween 🎃

For the third year, Fort Zeller Elementary and Jackson Elementary are teaming up to provide family workshops for next year's incoming kindergarten families. Flyers were given out to local childcare/preschool facilities. Deadline for registration is October 7. Please help spread the word to any families who have children entering kindergarten next year. Thank you!

GREAT NEWS: Pennsylvania is continuing to provide free breakfast for all students enrolled during the 2024-2025 school year.

All students that are interested in receiving breakfast must go through the cafeteria line or breakfast cart and provide their student pin number in order to account for the meal participation.

Lunch service will remain the same as set by your eligibility status (Free or Reduced) and/or Paid meal pricing from the beginning of the school year.

We encourage everyone to apply for Free or Reduced Lunch pricing at SchoolCafe.com, COMPASS website www.compass.state.pa.us or a paper application is available at all school building offices.

The Food Service Department is excited to offer the opportunity for all students to receive free breakfast again this year!

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 David Ludwig, Director of Food and Nutrition, at 717-306-3270 for a confidential appointment to the pantry.

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

Kindergarten - Malachi D. (Zurick) & Sadie P. (Kolovani)

First Grade - Castiel B. (Lebo), Tessa Z.(Booth) & Jayden M. (Breiner)

Second Grade - Reid T. (Withrow) & Taylor K. (Kane)

Class of the Month - Mrs. Jackson's Class (2ndGrade)

During the month of September, we were focused on respect. Throughout the month of October, we are focusing on self control. Self control means having control over one's actions, words, and emotions.

Please help me to welcome our new staff into the Fort Zeller Family!!

Reading Specialist - Kristi Hummer

Kindergarten Teacher - Carrie Fitzkee

First Grade Teacher- Alanna Lebo

Kindergarten Paraprofessional - Jolene Keller

Collaborative Teaching Paraprofessional - Kayla Hurd

Specialized Paraprofessional - Anna Martin

Hello Families!

It feels so good to be back into the swing of things! As always, our students are hitting it out of the park with their bee cards! As of September 17th, our students have filled 426 Bee Cards! That’s 8,520 total bee stamps! Amazing!

This month, we spent our classroom REACH time catching up on how summer went, how school is going so far, and reviewing what a school counselor does. Kindergarten helped me put my Mrs. Potato Head back together and learned all about what I do here at school. First graders read The Rabbit Listened and learned how what I do at school is similar to what the rabbit does in the story. And second graders had a friendly game of review tic-tac-toe where they had to answer questions about me and my job. It was a fun way to remind them of how they can see me, what I can help them with, etc.

A few small groups have started already and many more will be starting during October. Groups will continue for most of the year so if you requested a group for your student and they don’t mention it in the fall, they will be starting group in the winter!

As always, please feel free to reach out to me anytime with questions, concerns, or if I can help your student here at school!

Students started off the year in Library by learning about digital citizenship through use of our iPads and electronic crayons. We talked about book care and enjoyed self-selecting library books. We reinforced the PBIS character trait of respect in our learning.

Students are practicing rhythm syllables. Students are discovering and creating sound by hitting, shaking, and scraping different musical instruments.

In kindergarten, we learned a new song called Apple tree and danced to action songs.

First grade and second grade students are reviewing previously learned notes and note names.

This month in Mrs. Panza’s art classroom, ELCO artists were focused on learning our classroom routines and have started creating artwork. Second grade artists created artwork focused on using watercolor techniques like wax resist and their creative skills to create a monster drawing. These drawings are a collaboration project with 7th grade artists at ELCO Middle School. First grade artists focused on the art element of texture. With a texture plate, they experimented with color and texture as well as overlapping. We practiced using these tools several times and used different types of crayons (triangular and egg shaped). Artists also created some collaborative artwork for our Open House Night. Kindergarten artists started to explore what art is, materials artists use, how artists think and use our imaginations. Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson are stories that we listened to and fit nicely with developing these skills.

Physical Education classes kicked off the year with a unit on Locomotor Movements. Students became experts at running, galloping, hopping, skipping, jumping and sliding. They also learned about the role of levels, pathways and tempos during physical activities. Everyone loved being active during creative tag games and movement activities that featured all of the different locomotor skills. Students were also introduced to the concept of healthy physical activity and learned how exercise makes one’s heart “happy”!

Kindergarten has been working hard on the Three Bee Rules and have been filling up their bee cards. We have been previewing letters and numbers. We have been talking about position words and sorting and started our unit on numbers. We have started Spring Math activities. We have been getting to know each other and working together. We enjoyed our first family groups.

Kindergarten had a ton of fun celebrating Johnny Appleseed Day! They spent day doing all kinds of activities with apples

September: This month, first graders formed words using short vowel a, short vowel i and short vowel o word families. During math time, students used counters to model addition stories, added two parts to make a whole and practiced printing addition number sentences. We practiced being respectful since it was the school wide September character trait, and the kids all worked very hard learning the 3 bee first grade rules.

We spent time the first weeks practicing the procedures in the classroom, playground, and hallways. The second graders are doing an amazing job applying the bee rules daily! The students have enjoyed reading both realistic fiction stories and informational texts. In their writing, they have been challenged to change fragments into complete sentences. Also, the second graders are learning about two of the basic sentence types, statements and questions. In math, the students reviewed related addition facts, as well as strategies to help them add and subtract. Last, the second graders are learning about the three states of matter. Ask your second grader to tell you the states and their properties.J

Second grade has been learning about the three stages of matter; solid, liquid, and gas. Mr. Wright worked with students on an experiment that focused on solids and liquids. This experiment involved having students collaborate on designing a cooler that would keep an ice cube cold enough to stay a solid. The students loved designing coolers! Will the ice cubes last a full school day? What a "cool" STEM activity!

On September 12th, students, who completed one of the summer reading challenges, participated in a celebration that recognized this accomplishment. Students had ice cream and chose yummy toppings to complete the delicious treat. They also got to choose a free book to keep. The event was truly memorable and fun!

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.

We are grateful to our first and second grade students and their families for their attendance on our Meet the Teacher Night on September 11. It was so great to meet so many new friends and we are looking forward to an amazing year!

Hello! I’m Miss Bergman, our building’s School Nurse! It’s so great to see everyone’s happy smiles return to Fort Zeller! Also, to meet our new friends starting a new year with us. I am excited to see your child grow over the year and support their health needs.

Regarding our health department, I wanted to send a friendly reminder out to please complete the ANNUAL Over the Counter Medication Permission Form on Power School, if you haven’t done so already. This will allow me to treat your child if they were to come to me with a request, such as Tylenol, a cough drop, etc. I will not be able to dispense these items without your permission. We ask that you fill this out every year.

Also, if your child requires a medication in school, I kindly ask that you print out the Medication Administration Consent Form, found on our district website, have your family doctor complete/sign this, and personally bring your child’s medication and form to me, in the office. We ask that you do not send this to school with your child to avoid any accidents.

I hope everyone has a great year! Please reach out to me with any questions or concerns, nbergman@elcosd.org, or (610) 589-2575.

October

1 - Nate Kleymush, Anderson Portillo-Borjas & Gabriel Vincent

3 - Ana Bisher

4 - Hannah Kissinger

5 - Mark Hartman

6 - Wyatt Boyer

8 - Reece Bollinger

9 - Blake Neiswender & Harper Lutz

11 - Olivia Derolf

12 - Amelia Smith & Bogdan Miseruk

17 - Anastasiia Tsymbal

18 - Everly Schlaybach

20 - Delanie Fittery & Daphne Walmer

21 - Westin Rickert

22 - Carter Lafaver

23 - Maria Byelichenko & Zoey Moyer

26 - Emily Clements

27 - Tessa Zartman

28 - Piper Sics

1. On October 2nd, 2024, at 6:30, our PTO will host its second meeting in our library at Fort Zeller. Most meetings will be held on the first Tuesday 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.

2. Volunteering: If you have an interest in being a volunteer in your child's classroom or in our school, please use this link, https://www.elcosd.org/site/Default.aspx?PageID=918, to complete the necessary paperwork on clearances. Don't hesitate to call our office at (610) 589-2575 if you need additional assistance.

🏃🏃‍♀️ 🏃🏃‍♀️ The Race for Education 🏃🏃‍♀️ 🏃🏃‍♀️Friday, October 11

We have less than 2 weeks until the Race for Education!!

🔷 Reminder - Race for Education donations and forms are due to your child’s teacher on or before Monday, October 7th!

*online donations will be accepted until Friday, October 11th.

🔷 Visit for online donations -

https://app.99pledges.com/fund/raceforedu14

Announcement of class winners will be Monday, October 21.

Thank you for your support of the Fort Zeller PTO!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Current Standings -

Kindergarten -

🍦$520 - Team Yocum

$300 - Team Fitzkee

$235 - Team Zurick

First Grade -

⭐️🍦$570 - Team Hartman

$441 - Team Lebo

$285 - Team McDonnell

Second Grade -

🍦$490 - Team Lucky

$455 - Team Jackson

$280 - Team Frederick

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The goal this year for Race for Education is $10,000.

We have rewards for the students at the following levels -

$2500 - Raiders bracelets - Already met!

$5000 - Extra Recess - SUPER close to achieving this goal!

$7500 - Freeze Pops

$10,000 - Movie and a snack

⭐️⭐️⭐️

🏃🏃‍♀️ We have volunteer opportunities visit our sign up genius for Race for Education!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805094EAAA623ABFD0-51038547-race?fbclid=IwY2xjawFG1KNleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHYrB0ADnipoUJg4jbPAcOLqDBzLLyEpL9mjksbzID7pBG6iFWr3YB077Lw_aem_e7aFHZv2Sx-x-wKC6tpr_w#/

Join us this coming Wednesday for our October Meeting

💛💙 October PTO Meeting - Wednesday, October 2 - 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.

🔴 September Box Top Offers!

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

Fort Zeller was honored to have Ms. Holly Serio join once again on Friday, September 27. Ms. Serio was previously a music teacher here at ELCO and she has decided to focus on her music and spend her time sharing her musical talents with schools across the area. Her shows are built on three things: engagement, entertainment, and education. Our students had so much fun and loved how interactive her performance was. Thank you so much to our PTO for bringing Ms. Serio back year after year.

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