The Pioneer Post

Dear Families,

This month has been a full of learning and growth within our elementary school. As I visit classrooms, I can witnessed the enthusiasm of our learners as they interact with new material and reinforce the skills they have already acquired.

Our recent parent-teacher conferences were a testament to the power of collaboration. Your engagement and insightful conversations have truly strengthened the bridge between home and school, fostering an enriching environment for our young learners. A heartfelt thank you goes to all the families who participated. Additionally, your generosity in supporting the Giving Tree has been awe-inspiring. We are immensely grateful for your continued support and dedication. We sincerely appreciate you for being a vital part of your child’s journey at Fort Calhoun Elementary School.

~ Mrs. Horstman

• 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.
• Our transportation team would like your help with the corner of 12th and Adams. Please leave plenty of space to ensure the buses can safely make the turn onto Adams St.

This is to verify that we, parent/guardian, and student, have received and read the 2024-25 student handbook, which includes the policies and other rules and regulations of the Fort Calhoun Elementary School. Click on the gray box with arrow in it to fill out the Google Form or click here.

Click below to access the student handbook. If you would like a hard copy of the handbook, please email rweaver@ftcpioneers.org

• Reading Concepts: Weekly Concepts: Sounds Around Us, The Places We Go, Time for Work, Meet Your Neighbors, Pitch In Essential Questions: What are the different sounds we hear? What places do you go to during the week? What do people use to do their jobs? Who are your neighbors? How can people help to make your community better? Vocabulary: listen, volume, routine, neighborhood, equipment, uniform, cultures, appreciate, community, improve High Frequency Words: and, go, you, do Category words: sound words, jobs, kinds of food, position words Comprehension: key details, sequence words, character setting, events, key details in sequence
• Writing Concepts: Bunny Jump Letters & Curve Letters
• Math Concepts:Sort, Classify, & Count Objects, 2-D Shapes, Understand Addition, & Understand Subtraction
• Social Studies Concepts: Learning & Working Together, & National & State Symbols
• Science Concepts: Pushes & Pulls

• Reading Concepts: In reading, the first graders will work on consonant digraphs: th, sh, -ng, ch, -tch, wh, ph. They will also practice words with closed syllables. Students will add inflectional ending -es to naming words to make them plural. They will identify the characters, setting, and events as they read.
• Writing Concepts: Students will practice the writing process as they write about their senses. They will describe what they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.
• Math Concepts: The first graders will practice subtraction strategies such as counting back, number lines, making ten, and fact families. They will also describe 2 and 3-dimensional shapes by their defining attributes.
• Socials Studies Concepts: The students will learn about moon phases and how the Earth spins on its axis. They will also discover the meaning of Daylight savings time, how it changes, and the seasons.

• Reading Concepts: Narrative Nonfiction, Ask and Answer Questions, and Photographs and Captions
• Writing Concepts: Capital Letters, Punctuation, and forming a complete sentence
• Math Concepts: Subtracting 1 and 2-digit numbers, Regrouping, Counting on and Counting back
• Social Studies Concepts: Comparing the Past and Present, Learning to use Maps, and Location
• Science Concepts: Choosing appropriate materials for building. We will show our learning by building bridges.

• Reading Concepts: Main Idea and Key Details, Visualizing, Identifying the Theme, Point of View
• Writing Concepts: Opinion Writing, Organizing Ideas, Forming a Strong Conclusive Sentence
• Math Concepts: Connecting Area and Multiplication
• Social Studies Concepts: Map skills
• Science Concepts: Electricity and Magnetism

• Reading Concepts: 4th graders will read and understand lyric poetry, haiku, realistic fiction and biographies. They will be able to identify problem and solution, character perspective, narrator's point of view and author's purpose in a text. We will be exploring similes, metaphors and homophones.
• Writing Concepts: We will be moving on to expository writing, including an introduction, 3 body paragraphs with supporting details/text evidence and a summarizing conclusion.
• Math Concepts: Our mathematicians will continue to work on multiplication of 2 digit by 2 digit numbers and then, move on to division of multi-digit numbers.
• Social Studies Concepts: 4th grade historians will research and describe the first explorers in our great state of Nebraska. They will also study what drove settlers to move West.
• Science Concepts:These scientist will explore different ways in which we use different types of waves to communicate and describe how we are able to understand what we see and hear.

• Reading Concepts: I can read and understand elements of poetry; I can read and understand realistic fiction; I can use text evidence to respond to realistic fiction.
• Writing Concepts: I can read and understand elements of poetry; I can read and understand realistic fiction; I can use text evidence to respond to realistic fiction.
• Math Concepts: I can multiply decimals by decimals. I can divide whole numbers by whole numbers and decimals.
• Social Studies Concepts: We are learning about settling North America's first colonies.
• Science Concepts: I can identify and describe the stages in earth's water cycle (hydrosphere). I can identify and describe human impacts on Earth's systems.

• Reading Concepts: We will be comparing and contrasting, reading, expository text, and identifying text features.
• Writing Concepts: We will be using the writing process to create descriptive stories.
• Math Concepts: We will be working with integers, rational numbers, and coordinate planes.
• Social Studies Concepts: We will be learning about the Ancient Egyptians and their geography, rise and "fall" of the civilization, government style, achievements, and culture of these people
• Science Concepts: We will be diving into the world of cell systems: the structure and functions, exchange of materials, and cellular diseases. We will cap off our topic with an Project-Based Learning opportunity for the students to showcase what they learned from the topic.

Seven of our elementary teachers will be working with new science materials throughout November, December and January to help our building select a new science materials for the 2024-2025 school year. Your child will still be learning the same content, however the structure of the lessons and materials will be different during this time. We are excited to have this opportunity to ensure we are making the best decision for our student's learning.

• November 1st - No School for Students
• November 5th - Picture Retake Day
• November 11th - Veterans Day Program (3rd - 6th Grade Students)
• November 18th - November PFE Meeting
• November 19th - Thanksgiving Feast
• November 27th - Early Dismissal
• November 28th & 29th - No School for Students

Additional Note - The Veterans Program, on November 11th at 10 am will be live streamed on Hudl. Click here to watch.

The next student recognition date has been set for Monday, December 16th. While we continue to plan for our next INCREDIBLE event, we are keep the details a secret. However, students are already aware of the expectations they need to meet in order to go. The criteria is:

• Students (preschool - 1st grade) with 3 or less PowerSchool logs (which includes bus write ups) will get the attend the PBIS student recognition event.
• Students (2nd - 6th grade) with 9 or less demerits (which includes bus write ups) will get to attend the PBIS student recognition event.

The student council is hosting a food drive from November 4th – 25nd. All items donated will benefit residents of the Fort Calhoun Community.

Acceptable food items: Earn 5 POINTS

· Canned tuna or chicken, packed in water

· Canned stews and pasta with meat

· Peanut butter

· Canned fruits in light syrup, natural applesauce

· Juice

· Tomatoes and tomato sauce

· Soups with meat and/or beans

· Meals-in-a-can

· Cereals and cereal bars

· Pasta, spaghetti, macaroni, noodles

· Packages of dry beans

Toiletries (New & Any size): Earn 10 POINTS

· Shampoo

· Conditioner

· Skin Lotion

· Hairbrushes

· Toothbrushes

· Toothpaste

· Razors

· Soap

· Laundry Detergent

· Dish Soap

Please note: The food pantry has an overabundance of canned vegetables – If at all possible, please refrain from donating these items.

IF YOU CARE THE MOST AND BRING IN THE MOST…
YOU CAN BOAST…

BECAUSE STUDENTS WILL EARN AN EXTRA RECESS AND HELP PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY!!

Each student can invite up to two guests.

Here is the schedule of lunch times:

• Kindergarten & 1st Grade - 10:50 to 11:30
• 2nd & 3rd Grade - 11:35 to 12:15
• 4th, 5th & 6th Grade - 12:20 to 1:00

Once your dining time is done, please exit the school building to make room for the next group. The cost of a Thanksgiving meal is $9.00. You can pay for your meals by sending in cash, check or click here to pay using eFunds.

Scan the QR Code to RSVP your student’s guest.