Boone Meadow Friday Flyer

I hope this message finds you and your family safe and warm! It was an exciting week here at Boone Meadow, and with two E-Days and one snow day, I am proud of our students and teachers for their hard work! Please remember that for attendance purposes, your child will need to complete the assignments for the E-Days within one week of the assigned date in order to be marked present. If you or your child have any questions regarding assignments, please contact your child's classroom teacher. We hope everyone will be ready for school to resume on Monday, February 7.

Global School Play Day - (2/18) Never fear! Global Play Day is rescheduled! Boone Meadow will participate in Global School Play Day on Friday, February 18th. Since the date to participate simultaneously with others from around the world has already occurred, we encourage children and families to consider bringing games with a global perspective. Although not required, we thought it might be a nice "play on words" to think of games children play elsewhere.

National School Counselor's Week: (Feb 7-11) We are grateful for Mrs. Kristi Sloan and all the time, attention, and care she provides for our school families and students. Join Team Meadow as we say thank you to our wonderful school counselor and all the wonderful things she does each and every day.

Best Buddies Fun Night - Buddy UP Fun Night is a fun-filled evening of activities designed for students in grades 1-4. This annual event is held at Zionsville Community High School on Saturday, March 12th. See information below and/or register HERE.

Yearbooks Are Now On Sale thru February 28th - It's time to order your child's 2021-22 Yearbook! Follow the link below to place your order online. Your child will also be bringing home a paper form for cash/check payments by the end of the month.

• Yearbook: $15
• Boone Meadow Yearbooks - ORDER HERE
• ORDER DEADLINE: February 28 (late orders cannot be guaranteed a yearbook).

Dine for Dollars & "Why Cook" Wednesdays -

• Fundae's "Dine for Dollars" is rescheduled for 2-9-22 - Ice Cream is good any time of year, so why not swing by Fundae's on Wednesday from 4-8PM. Enter a coupon for a chance to win a free scoop. (information below)
• Papa John's Pizza on February 16. Up to 25% of the orders will be donated back to BME PTO. (*Must use promo code ISB005)

Have a wonderful weekend, and stay warm!

Together,

Tom Hundley

On Friday, February 18, 2022, Boone Meadow will once again participate in Global School Play Day. This day will provide us the opportunity to:

• observe and interact with students as they engage in authentic social exchanges,
• use this time to witness how your children navigate peer relationships,
• expand our understanding of your child as a person that has academic, social, and emotional aspects of their well-being,
• witness how they interact, show empathy, assist one another, problem-solve, and create
• glean more insight and information in order to provide more feedback to you (parents/guardians) that we are often unable to provide from our typical school day programming.

Simply put, Global School Play Day started in 2015 with the intent to set aside one day (or portion of the day) for students to engage in unstructured play. It is an opportunity to introduce and inspire us to consider the necessary benefits of play.

Play has significant psychological and cognitive impact on children.

Positively, play...

• develops physical fitness,
• refines physical (gross motor and fine motor) skills,
• provides practice for social and emotion development (requires cooperation, problem-solving, work in close proximity, requires emotional regulation, etc...)
• at times requires high levels of strategic thinking,
• and assists in developing skills to navigate risk and fear.

In other words, play can be considered the "work" of children.

The CogAT is a multiple-choice assessment administered to students in kindergarten and second grade. This is a computer based assessment that measures reasoning skills with different types of verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal questions. The CogAT uses two types of norms when tests are scored: age norms, and grade norms. Age norms compare how a student performed relative to other children of the same age, and grade norms compare how a student performed relative to the other children in the same grade. After scoring has been completed each parent will receive a parent report. For more information, please contact your child’s school counselor.

All Kindy and 2nd grade students will be tested sometime between January 31st and February 11th. Specific dates for your child's classroom assessment dates will be communicated by your child's teacher.

Yours in Education,

Kristi Sloan

ksloan@zcs.k12.in.us

We want your child to be as successful as possible at school. Success in school is not just about reading and math. It is also about knowing how to learn and how to get along with others. We use the Second Step program in your child’s classroom to teach these critical skills throughout the year.

The year-long Second Step program teaches skills in the following four areas:

1. Skills for Learning: Students gain skills to help themselves learn, including how to focus their attention, listen carefully, and be assertive when asking for help with schoolwork.
2. Empathy: Students learn to identify and understand their own and others’ feelings. Students also learn how to take another’s perspective and how to show compassion.
3. Emotion Management: Students learn specific skills for calming down when experiencing strong feelings, such as anxiety or anger.
4. Problem Solving: Students learn a process for solving problems with others in a positive way.

During the third nine-weeks of this year, students are learning emotion management. They to notice their own feelings by paying attention to clues in their bodies, and we’ll be reminding them to use their Second Step skills to calm down:

• Stop—Use your signal
• Name your feeling
• Calm down: Breathe, count, use positive self-talk

These skills help students calm down strong emotions when faced with learning and social challenges, which helps them succeed academically and get along well with others.

Second Step lessons specifically teach about calming down strong emotions such as anger, disappointment, frustration, and anxiety. Please refer to this LINK for more information and home links about the Second Step lessons for Grades K-4. Feel free to contact our school counselor, Kristi Sloan at ksloan@zcs.k12.in.us, with any questions regarding our Second Step lessons.

January 27, 2022

Greetings from the ZCS Cafes!

Here’s hoping all students are having a great start to the second semester and are enjoying the menu items provided in each café. For the remainder of this school year, because of the USDA waiver, one free lunch per day for all ZCS students continues to be available. In addition, one free breakfast per day is also available for ZCS students in schools providing a breakfast option, currently this includes: ZCHS, ZMS, Z’West, PVE and Eagle.

A few notes and reminders:

The distributors used by the ZCS Cafes are amazing yet there continues to be difficulty obtaining various menu items. For this reason, the original February menus were altered; you can find the current menus via this link.

Beginning the week of February 7th, Protein Packs and Bagel & Yogurt options will only be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays district wide. This change is for the simple reason that the availability of cheese portions and yogurt remains questionable from week to week.

As noted on January menus, School Pay is currently unable to display transaction details for your child’s account.

• School Pay deposits made will upload to the appropriate café accounts during the day at three different times: 10:30 am, 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm. If a deposit isn’t reflected immediately, it WILL be!
• Due to the inability of real-time data, the Auto-Pay feature is currently suspended. Efforts are being made to resolve these issues as the benefits are recognized!
• Food Service Managers in each school can provide clarification for any concerns.

To supplement meals, specifically at the secondary schools, various “extra” items are available for purchase. These have a way of impacting student balances so watch for notification from the manager in each café to assist you with staying informed.

If your child has a need for a specific menu item due to dietary concerns, please reach out to the Food Service Manager in your child’s school.

Contact names, pricing information, menus, nutritional data, job postings and much more information is available at the ZCS Food Service Department’s webpage.

Thank you for your continued support of and participation in the ZCS Food Service Department operations. If you have any interest in joining this team and “feeding the future”, please call 317-733-4804.

Jan Swander

ZCS Food Service Director

Dear Families –

Please report ANY POSITIVE CASES by way of the ZCS CoVID Reporting Form, linked below, instead of emailing school personnel (teachers, nurses or office team) each day. The district will ensure that the school receives this vital information in a timely manner.

Our administrative and nursing teams are still here to answer any of your questions and to provide support as needed. However, please use the form for all reporting of positive cases from here moving forward. We sincerely thank you for your assistance!

Click here to access the REPORTING FORM or click the image: ZCS CoVID Reporting Form

In addition, ZCS CoVID protocols can also be found at www.zcs.k12.in.us

During the November 8 board meeting, ZCS school board members approved an updated 1:1 technology plan. Beginning in the fall next year (2022-2023 school year), Zionsville Middle School (ZMS) and Zionsville West Middle School (ZWMS) will be using a staggered approach to transition into a 1:1 rental program that will eliminate the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). *These changes will only affect the current 4th grade class (class of 2030), students who are incoming 5th graders next year at ZMS and ZWMS.*

How it works.

Current 4th grade students (Class of 2030) will be required to rent a Lenovo 11e from ZCS for the start of their 5th grade year in 2022. Students in grades 6-8 will maintain their BYOD status for the 2022 school year so as not to interfere with already purchased devices. All current middle school students who started with BYOD will have the option to maintain BYOD status throughout their middle school years. The chart below shows the staggered approach over the next four years as we transition out of BYOD and into this new rental program.

For more details about this change, including financing, please visit the following

link: https://www.zcs.k12.in.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=458767&type=d&pREC_ID=2267749.

If you have questions, reach out to Dan Layton at dlayton@zcs.k12.in.us.

February 9 - Fundae's Ice Cream (dine for dollars/PTO)

February 14 - Valentine's Day

February 16 - Papa Johns Dine for Dollars

February 18 - Our "Global" School Play Day

February 21-25 - Presidents' Day & February Break (no school)

March 7-18 - IREAD3 testing window

March 13 - Daylight Savings Time starts

March 14- March 31 - NWEA testing window

March 15 - End of Quarter 3

March 24 - Student Progress Reports posted in PowerSchool

April 1-8 - Spring Break (no school)

May 25 - Last day of school

May 26- June 3 - Make up days (if needed)

May 30 - Memorial Day (no school)

We attempt to get outside to breathe fresh air as much as possible. Please see the paragraph below taken from page 19 of our ZCS Elementary Handbook:

“Each child is expected to be suitably dressed for play outdoors. As the weather turns colder, each child needs a winter coat, hat, and gloves. Snow pants, waterproof boots, warm gloves/mittens are required to be able to play in the snow. All children play outside except on rainy, icy, or very cold days (wind chill below the 10-20 degree range). Inside recess will be held on those exceptional days. A child who is well enough to come to school is well enough to go outside and play. Exceptions will be made if parent/guardians send in a note from the doctor stating that the child needs to stay inside."

Our Student directory is now updated! Many thanks to the PTO for organizing this helpful resource! If you have never used our student directory, just follow these easy steps:

• Go to www.directoryspot.net or download the “Directory Spot” app on a smart phone. Click “Login”.
• Enter your email address as your Username, and click on “Reset Password”. An email will be sent to you with a link to set your password.
• Click on the link in the email to set your password and to log in.

If you have trouble logging in, please contact PTO volunteer Eileen Adam at eileenadam@hotmail.com.

Also note that if your information has changed, you can update it by logging in on a computer (not available through the app).

At this time, due to CoVID 19 restraints, we are "pausing" on volunteers and visitors. When volunteers are needed and approved, appropriate staff members will reach out to you in effort to welcome your support and assistance.

If you plan to volunteer of visit in the future, please note the following information.

CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR VOLUNTEERS

We value partnerships with our families and welcome parents and guardians to serve as volunteers in our schools. Each ZCS building typically offers a wide variety of volunteer opportunities.

Examples include:

• Field Trip Chaperones
• Out of Town/Overnight Chaperones
• Tutors
• Volunteer Coaches
• Classroom Helpers (PTO parties/room parents)
• Library Helpers
• After Prom Workers
• Field Day/Jog-A-Thon Volunteers
• Book Fair Sales/Athletic Ticket Sales

During the school day, all volunteers are expected to sign in at the front office. Prior to the volunteer opportunity, all volunteers must sign a Non-disclosure Acknowledgement Form and have successfully completed a Full Criminal History Background Check. Necessary background check paperwork is available on the ZCS website at the Volunteers/BRAVO link and should be submitted at least 10 days prior to the intended volunteer date. Volunteers must also view the state mandated confidentiality/bullying video, provided on the Volunteer/BRAVO website. The volunteer will pay the fee* for the full background check which will expire after 5 years. The link to apply for the full background check can be accessed on the Volunteers/BRAVO link on the ZCS main webpage. For more information, contact the Volunteer/BRAVO Coordinator.

CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR VISITORS

During the school day, all visitors must enter via the front door and sign-in at the front office. Visitors need to be prepared to present a government issued photo ID which will be scanned against the National Sex Offender Registry. All visitors will be issued a visitor badge/tag to be worn inside the building at all times.

Examples Include:

• Lunch Guests
• Classroom Guest Speakers
• Classroom Special Events (Grandparent Day/Famous Hoosiers/etc.)
• Parent/Teacher Conferences

We ask that all visitors schedule an appointment to meet with teachers, counselors, administrators and all other staff members so that we may best serve everyone. Visitors other than parents/guardians must be prearranged and organized through the main office.

*ZCS thanks all volunteers for generous support of our youth and schools. Thank you, too, for supporting assurance of student and staff safety by completing and paying for a volunteer background check.

Email: thundley@zcs.k12.in.us
Website: http://www.zcs.k12.in.us/bme/
Location: 5555 S Main St, Whitestown, IN, United States
Phone: 3178732226
Twitter: @ZCSBoone_Meadow