Elm Road Express October 2020

It has been so nice having both in-person as well as virtual students reporting each day. I see our students working so hard this year, learning new information, and using their technology skills. I am proud of our in-person learners wearing their masks and following our safety guidelines, while at school. It has helped transition to school, to be as safe as possible.

Moving forward. elementary teachers across the district will be responsible for either teaching virtually OR in-person, but not both. Please be reassured that all students will continue to be taught by a highly qualified PHM teacher.

Soon, we will provide communication to ALL families of current virtual learners, as well as any in-person learners who will be impacted by a change in their teacher. If any family requests a change in virtual or in-person learning, please call the office as soon as possible. Once a decision is made, we will not have any changes from October 12th through the end of the semester, in January.

All students will participate in an eLearning day on Friday, October 9th. There will be NO live instructional sessions and NO students present in the building. Kids Club will not be available on this day as well.

October 9 - E Learning Day

October 12-23 - Virtual Read-A-Thon (PTO fundraiser)

October 19- Virtual PTO Meeting @ 3pm

October 23-26 - Fall Recess

November 1- Daylight Savings Time Ends

November 2-6- Virtual Scholastic Book Fair

November 3- No School

TBA - Parent Teacher Conferences (Virtual)

Car Riders

Please follow the car rider procedures so everyone stays SAFE. Enter the parking lot from the south only and do not go around any buses paused in the road (at any time they will be turning into the lot). Stay in the line that is going around the lot to the sidewalk area. Your children should enter and exit only on curbside!! No exceptions. They need to know their car rider number and what their car looks like. Remind your children that it is important to walk to and from their cars. They also need to be able to get in and out of their car on their own. Parents need to stay in the car. If you need to help buckle, pull around to the lot and park or the curb in the front (after all buses are gone). Please exit the parking lot to the right only to help keep the traffic flowing and everyone safe.

School Pictures

School pictures for face to face learning students will be taken on Friday, November 6th. Virtual student's pictures will be taken on picture retake day. That date has not been set yet. More information will follow.

Please visit inter-state.com/order to view Elm Road's most up-to-date Picture Day information. Order your pictures online at INTER-STATE.COM/ORDER, use order code 50830EB

School Fees

Starting this school year, your school fees are now posted in Skyward.

You can make Easy Online Payments two ways:

at phm.revtrak.net or Skyward Family Access.

Please note RevTrak will charge a 3.49% service fee per transaction (no minimum purchase required).

Congratulations to the following

“Eagles” for their wonderful

“SOAR” behavior

Barnes: Jackson Smith & Lorelai Sholty

Portolese: Sydney Kuminecz & Jonah Yoder

Renz: Grace Knowlton & Zaiden Lambert

Bush: Hunter Leahy and Jordyn Hernandez

Hinton: Glen DeRoeck & Anna Sykes

Taylor: Mary Domonkos & Andrew Ritter

Clark: Molly Cummins & Owen Sterzik

Richard: Jakob Erbeck & Nora Slavinskas

Tornquist: Rupak Kaur & Clay Lewis

Anderson: Gavin Najera-Cote & Eli Neuenschwander

Miller: Jaxon Signorino & Evelyn Szymarek

Myers: Deya Fey & Caedmon Bayer

Pillow: Alma Najera & Alex Vanvynckt

Cook: Emerson Sheppard & Brielle Moore

Freeman: Jenna Fair & Kentiv Neighbour

Keough: Esmeralda Santos Barrera & Greyson VanSandt

Newcomer: Ava Rice & Chase Montague

Kertai: Brody Scott & Emily Stephenson

Mellor: Ethan Cummins & Harman Kaur

Shreiner: Charlie Christianson & Lali Juarez

Welcome back to school for those who have returned to the building in person. Our Library visits are unusual this year. We are not checking out books because I started a huge project of reorganizing the library. I am putting all our fiction books in genre categories. This will be a great change and even though it takes a lot of time – students will find it much easier to find the books they enjoy reading. It puts our library in the same format as the middle school. All students are spending time in the STEM Lab during our Library rotations of CAMPE once a week. To our Virtual School Students, I am reading aloud to you the same books that I read to the students in the building. Please access our JLG ebook Library by following the directions on Mrs. Knapp’s Virtual Library slides. We usually have a Book Fair in October but this year we will host a virtual Book Fair in early November. Look for details soon. Happy Autumn and remember – Reading gives you somewhere to go when you have to stay where you are.

"I have been having a great time getting to know all of the Elm Road Eagles over the last several weeks! In music class we are getting back into our routine of making music, of course! One new thing that we are starting is a series of movement exploration warmups. These are warmups that are designed to bring out the movement impulses in our students, as well as explore musical styles such as fast or slow, heavy or light, loud or soft, etc. Through engaging movement, students should build a large movement vocabulary and develop a stronger awareness of their own fine and gross motor skills."

Mr. Marks

Fall is here!

Christ Child referral forms are available. Christ Child is a wonderful organization that will help eligible families with new clothes and winter coats for children 12 and under. In order to see if your family qualifies, please give Mrs. Shell a call to set up an appointment. All information is confidential.

Thanksgiving is not far off. If you are in need of food for the holiday, please contact Mrs. Shell for opportunities of assistance.

Hope everyone had a wonderful transition back into school. If there are any questions please contact Mrs. Shell at 259-3743. Thank you!

You may make an appointment for free covid testing for students at:

US Armory

1-888-634-1116

Lhi.care/covidtesting

Please call or go online to schedule an appointment.

Happy Autumn!

During the first few weeks of face to face learning, we have covered procedures and safety in physical education class. Miss Hope taught all first thru fifth grade students a dance called “The Social Distance Shuffle” to remind students to wash hands, keep hands off of their face and stay 6 feet appart. All students learned how to move into open space and keep their “eyes up” while teacher’s learned students’ names through our “Name Noodle Tag” game. Students in 1st-5th grades have also been working on the skill of striking with control through some recess games such as “Four Square” and “Ga Ga Ball”. Next, we will all begin a soccer unit. Students will develop and enhance dribbling, passing, trapping and striking with their feet through drills and lead up games. Students in first through fifth grade will also be working on developing cardio endurance and proper running form.

Please be sure to send your child with tennis shoes, water bottles and sweatshirt/jacket on his/her gym day!

Kindergarten Tuesday and Friday

1st Monday and Wednesday

2nd Tuesday and Thursday

3rd Wednesday and Friday

4th Monday and

Wednesday= Newcomer+Cook

Thursday = Keough+Cook

Friday =Freeman+ Cook

5th Thursday and

Monday= Shreiner

Tuesday= Mellor and Kertai

Sincerely,

Mrs. Parisi dparisi@phm.k12.in.us

Mrs. Sime ssime@phm.k12.in.us

Miss Hope hvanproyen@phm.k12.in.us

1. In order to share information about stress and stress management in a new way that is easily accessible to P-H-M's parents/guardians, Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation SEL & Mental Health has united with community partners from Notre Dame, Reflections Counseling, Oaklawn Psychiatric Center, and Youth Service Bureau via a virtual panel format to create a video. The video includes a brief overview of the neurobiology of stress and what may be happening in our bodies due to COVID, tips for healthy stress management, the importance of modeling stress management for our students, helping to create a sense of psychological safety, information about supports offered at the elementary and middle schools through Youth Services Bureau, and how to access supports via P-H-M's counseling offices at the middle and high school. Please find the link to the video here: https://youtu.be/ZiD2yxReqpg

A very special thank you to our own incredible experts, including our amazing counselors. Mrs. Autumn Stout from Discovery, Mrs. Nancy Block from Grissom, Mrs. Stacy Eck from Schmucker, and Mr. John Westra from Penn High who were an integral part of this panel. Thank you also to our awesome community partners, Dr. Nancy Michael from Notre Dame, Dr. Heather Holleman and Dr. Jennie Knapp both from Reflections Counseling, Ms. Kim Neff from Oaklawn Psychiatric Center, and Ms. Laurie Ellis from Youth Service Bureau.

2 The SEL Lessons for October will focus on the SEL Competencies of insight, regulation, collaboration, and connection. Specifically, we will teach students about concepts that fall under the umbrella of Emotional Intelligence; understand how their emotions can impact their body and touch on the concept of neuroplasticity of our brains; what empathy is and how to show it to others; and how to demonstrate care and concern for others in appropriate ways.

Jennifer Sears, Ph.D.

Director of Social-Emotional Learning & Mental Health
Psychologist

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation

Happy Fall Everyone!

Since we are a Title I School, we receive additional resources to help struggling learners. Here is a quick snapshot of our current literacy services:

Based on the needs of our students, interventions are taking place both in the classroom (face to face and virtually) and in small group settings. As a school, we use many programs for our intervention services. A few of these resources include: Heggerty (Phonemic Awareness), Fundations (Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency), SRA Corrective Reading (Comprehension), Learning A-Z (Raz-Plus), HearBuilder, and Mindplay.

Title I literacy support is underway for students in grades K-5! These groups consist of two to three students from one classroom working for fifteen minutes on targeted literacy skills.

Many groups utilize Heggerty, Fundations, and SRA Corrective Reading based on the identified needs of each child. During this intervention time, students work through specific programming with our Title I staff, which provides research-based supports.

New to Elm Road this year is the Title I Resource Website. It is a work in progress, but at this time you can find out more information about our Title I programming, available resources, and parent forms. We will continue to add additional information and resources throughout the year.

Please take the time to review our Title I Parent Information Night slide deck and complete the attached Google form to confirm your virtual attendance.

Have a wonderful October!

Miss Peluso

Title I Reading Specialist

fpeluso@phm.k12.in.us

574-259-3743

Website: https://elmroad.phmschools.org/
Location: 59400 Elm Road, Mishawaka, IN, USA
Phone: (574)259-3743
Twitter: @ElmroadES