Whew! What an incredible adventure! We are so proud of our Brickies for their wonderful accomplishments and milestones this school year culminating with a pioneer experience in elearning! You rock! While the last quarter of the school year sure packed in a lot of support and learning from home that will be unforgettable, we don't want it to overshadow the terrific academic growth and development of students in our classrooms this school year. Learning to adapt to the social setting, adjust to new routines and faces, and embrace and thrive in the elearning environment of school is what the ELC is all about for our students! All of our students developed as students at their own pace and had the opportunity to prosper as students and develop a foundation to thrive in school that will support them throughout their academic journey. They learned that they love books, they love songs, they love learning new things and sharing their experience with others. They learned everyone isn't just like them and how interesting that is. Just when they had mastered their routine and embraced their learning environment, they had to abruptly adapt to a new one at home. This year of students will forever have a special aptitude for adaptation and it will serve them greatly throughout their lives. Along with their academic gains from this school year, their social development has begun and we are so proud of the journey they have begun!

We are so proud of our super readers this school year! Reading provides the foundation for academic achievement and is paramount to our curriculum in kindergarten. Throughout the year, students learned strategies to help them master the skills to enable them to recognize and sound our words and be on their way to independent reading. As students achieved their Kindergarten Sight Word Goal, they were awarded with a special tshirt that tells the world they mastered this goal! We were so grateful to our team of SROs for their deliveries of the tshirts to those students who kept their learning progressing throughout the quarantine! Also, we want to thank our wonderful PTO for providing funding for the purchase of the tshirts! Students who did not achieve this goal will receive a beach ball with a list of the words for parents to write on the ball. This will make practicing those words fun and fresh throughout the summer.

Our students finished this school year with a strong maker movement! Many projects were STEM based and students were using materials at home to create things like a little pig house that would stand up to the Big Bad Wolf and a homemade paint brush! We were thrilled to see our kids making kitchen creations and following recipes! We even had some cooking shows! We had some of our students even participate in the Virtual Maker Fair! The quarantine has created a wonderful opportunity for our students to engineer projects by using what they have on hand fostering a new spark in creativity!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We appreciate our hardworking teachers and all that they do. Share a thoughtful memory, funny story, or why your favorite teacher(s) is the best!

You can share a quick photo of video on your class Facebook or Dojo or click this link:https://forms.gle/qm8HYiitH6qSppDv9 to fill out a form explaining a memory, funny story, or why your favorite teacher(s) is the best! You can submit more than one form!

Students who complete and turn in their summer packet will receive a prize from their principal when we return to school in the fall! The summer packet is a great guide to keep students learning skills sharp throughout the summer months. It is especially important this year since we have an extra month (May) out of the classroom. Make time to keep learning as a lifestyle in your home and remember to read each day to and with your child. The Lake County Public Library has a wonderful online resource for digital kids books, Tumble Books. You can sign up for a new card on their sight and even get PIN assistance! They are there to help you keep reading this summer even in the event their doors are not open.

Registration for Kindergarten will be online and open beginning Monday, May 3rd. We appreciate your cooperation and patience. We have a page on our our website that gives you the information you need to become familiar with kindergarten at the ELC. It will introduce you to our staff and give you an overview of what to expect in kindergarten and things you can be doing to make sure your child is prepared. Make sure to sign up for an online conference for us to meet with you about your child. Sign up instructions can be found on our website on the Kindergarten Information page. The link to this page is below. We look forward to partnering with our new families for a new school year this fall!

Email: sgutierrez@hoabrt.k12.in.us
Website: https://www.hobart.k12.in.us/elc
Location: 400 North Wilson Street, Hobart, IN, USA
Phone: 219-942-7263
Facebook: facebook.com/elc