Stonegate Elementary Newsletter

We had a fun week including Valentine's Day parties and a PTO Spirit Day! Thank you to the many volunteers who made the Valentine's Day parties possible. Next week is a short week because Monday is a holiday. We wish your family a warm and safe long weekend!

Kindergarten registration is open! If you or someone you know has a child(ren) entering kindergarten next year, please share the registration link with them! We are excited to welcome our newest eagles!

Looking ahead to the upcoming week:

• NO SCHOOL 2/19- In honor of President's Day there will be no school on Monday, February 19th.
• Family Literacy Night- On Thursday, February 22nd we welcome everyone to attend our Family Literacy Night! Please see previous communication about details!

We hope you enjoy your long weekend!

Mrs. Connie Largent, Principal

Mrs. Kathy Drake, Assistant Principal

The theme for Black History Month 2024 is “African Americans and the Arts,” which seeks to raise awareness of the influence that African Americans have had in visual and performing arts, literature, fashion, folklore, language, film, music, architecture, culinary and other forms of cultural expression.

Every grade level has been assigned one of the themes above. Each classroom will choose someone to research specific to their theme and decorate their classroom door. It's a way for every class to participate and for our students to learn about a variety of influential African-American artists. Over the next four weeks, we'll also be choosing an artist to highlight!

Misty Copeland danced her way into the spotlight in 1997, when she won the Los Angeles Music Centre Spotlight Award. What makes Misty extra special is her quick rise to the top. Most professional dancers have been practicing since soon after they could walk, but Misty discovered her talents much later. After only dancing for two years, she was known as the best dancer in LA at 15.

February

19 - No School - Presidents Day

22 - Family Literacy Night

29 - Leap Day

29 - PTO Dine for Dollars at Papa John's

March

1 - 1st Grade to the Children's Museum

2 - Read Across America Day

13-14 - PTO Spring Raffle

22 - PTO: VIP and Me Boys Event

26 - 3rd grade Specialty Fair

28 - PTO Spirit Day: Favorite Vacation Shirt

28 - PTO Dine for Dollars at Papa John's

29 - Spring Break Begins

April

9th - School Resumes

10th-13th - PTO Book Fair

12th - 2nd Grade Market Day

12th - PTO: VIP and Me Girls Event

25th - PTO Dine for Dollars at Papa John's

26th - PTO Spirit Day: Crazy Socks

In Kindergarten, we recently celebrated the 100th day of school along with Valentine’s Day! On Valentine’s Day, the students learned the traditions of this US holiday by spreading love and kindness to all. Students practiced writing and giving valentines to their classmates during their Valentine’s Day Parties.

Reading:

We are exploring a variety of texts and identifying the authors purpose along with text features and story elements. We continue to build on their phonemic awareness skills by identify rhyming words, syllables, and letter sounds. We are also working on blending sounds together to make simple words

Writing:

We are learning to be writers and illustrators. Our first step is to create a picture to tell our story as many still are learning letter-sound correlation and formation. We are learning to add detail and labels to our pictures and adding simple sentences. We learned many authors write about things they know or like. We are continuing to work on correct sentence formation and our writing conventions as well.

Math:

-place value: showing a number using tens & ones

-measurement with length, weight, and temperature

-adding and subtracting numbers within 10

-grouping numbers 1-10 in a variety of ways

Social Studies/Science

-these subjects are integrated into our theme units of reading and math

-Winter Animals

-100th Day of School

-Valentine’s Day

-Planning simple investigations

Congratulations to the Tech Slayer Team! This team competed this last Saturday at the elementary tournament which took place at Trailside Elementary. There were 36 teams that competed from the surrounding area; 16 of those teams were Zionsville teams. They ended up the day in first place with another team alliance from another school. They are qualified for state competition which will be on Saturday, March 23rd. Congratulations, Jeremy and Graham for representing SGE so well!

Kindergarten (Pre) Registration is Now Open (required in order to attend Round Up)!

Kindergarten pre-registration for the 24-25 school year is open. To access kindergarten registration information, please follow this link: https://www.zcs.k12.in.us/apps/pages/kdg_and_new_families

All ZCS elementary schools will host Kindergarten Round Up in the afternoon/evening of March 26th for registered families. More information and details to come soon.

It's time to order your child's 2023-24 Yearbook! Follow the link below to place your order online. If you need to pay by cash or check, please contact the office for an order form to be sent home with your student.

New this year! Cripe Photography GIFT A YEARBOOK. You have the opportunity to donate a yearbook to your child's peers. Your school decides who will receive this awesome gift thanks to your generosity! Stonegate Yearbooks - ORDER HERE

ORDER DEADLINE: March 1 (late orders cannot be guaranteed a yearbook).

Questions? Please contact Cripe Photography HERE.

Our office team has created an Amazon Wish List. We would love your support in two important ways.

First, our staff works so hard every day. To show our appreciation, help us “stock the lounge” with their favorite snacks all year long! Next, we have also added in items that would be helpful to our team and used in a variety of ways. As always, we thank you for your partnership!

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 Ms. Wetzel, jwetzel@zcs.k12.in.us.

Kindergarten students will be taking the assessment during the week of February 5th-9th.

2nd grade students will be taking the assessment during the week of February 12th-16th. You may reach out to your child's teacher for the specific days.

For more information about the CogAT assessment, please visit our website at this link.

Students are putting their Skills for Learning (focusing attention, listening carefully, using self-talk to stay on task and being assertive when asking for help) in action! Students are now learning how to identify and understand their own and others’ feelings and learning how to show compassion. Compassion involves saying kind words or doing something helpful to show you care how another person feels. When students can identify, understand, and respond in a caring way to how someone else is feeling, it helps create a positive and accepting school climate. Below are the Home Links for the grade levels so you can learn more about what your child is learning, why it is important, and activities you can do at home with your child!

Kindergarten

1st grade

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

When basic needs are met, students are better able to focus on education and learning. Therefore, there is assistance available for our students and their families to help with various needs that may arise throughout the school year. If you are currently in need of assistance, please fill out this Family Assistance form. This information will be kept in strictest confidence.

Warmly,

Jessica Wetzel

School Counselor

The next PTO Dining for Dollars event will take place at Papa John’s Pizza on Thursday, February 29th. Please enter the school promo code: ISS006. Important: This promo code must be entered online or given over the phone for Stonegate Elementary to receive credit. Please see the attached flyer for additional details. Thank you for supporting Stonegate PTO through our Dining for Dollars events!

We are in need of guest teachers! Guest teachers can pick which school(s) to be assigned to, as well as what days/dates work best. If you are available and interested, information can be found on our ZCS website (Guest Teacher Application - District Departments - Zionsville Community Schools (zcs.k12.in.us). Thank you!

SGE is now ready to welcome our K-4 Lunch Guests! Here's how it works:

• Due to limited space, we are happy to welcome one special visitor with each student for a total of four different guests per grade level.
• Sign-up to reserve your spot by clicking here.

• We have "Visitor Tables" in the front foyer that you will sit at with your child during their lunch time.

During the school day, all volunteers are expected to check 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.

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. Visitors other than parents/guardians must be prearranged and organized through the main office.

Please click the link below for information about many community actitivities going on in our area.

https://www.zcs.k12.in.us/apps/pages/community_flyers