Elementary School Newsletter 1.8.2024

Jan 8

Written By PCS

Hi Elementary Families,

We hope you all had a fantastic winter break, filled with relaxation and quality time with family and friends. We were so ready to welcome the students back, and we’re sure you were just as eager to send them back, especially after those surprising extra two days off!

As we dive into the new year, we express our thanks for your ongoing support. Your involvement in our school community means a lot to us! We hope these newsletters continue to help you feel connected and informed about all the great things happening at PCS.

Cheers to a fantastic year ahead!

Graduate Aims & PBL Update:

In our last newsletter before winter break, we highlighted one of our graduate aims: being emotionally intelligent. As mentioned earlier, we will continue to showcase one aim each week and discuss why it's significant to us at PCS. As we step into the new year, filled with unknowns and endless possibilities, it seems fitting to spotlight curiosity.

At our school, we believe in the power of curiosity to ignite a lifelong love of learning. Embracing curiosity opens doors to exploration and creativity, encouraging students to ask questions, seek answers, and think critically. We nurture curiosity in various ways, with one being our project-based learning approach. Our projects are intentionally designed to engage students actively in their education and cultivate a sense of wonder and an inquisitive mindset. Here's a brief update on some of the most recent projects in our elementary school:

2nd grade is currently completing a force and motion project where they are designing and presenting their ideal playground. They will be showcasing their work on January 18th after school.
3rd grade is finalizing a project that highlights our graduate aims through photography and narrative writing. We are excited to display their work at the main entrance of our building soon!
4th grade recently completed a project connecting social and emotional learning with force & motion standards. They created a tool for younger students that teaches and supports regulation.
5th grade completed their podcast project about space and have begun their 3rd project related to economics where they will create and pitch a small business that can help make money to pay for 5th grade camp.

Drop Off Reminder:

As a reminder, our morning duty staff are not outside to supervise drop off until 8:00 am. In the interest of student safety, please do not leave your child(ren) unsupervised before 8:00am. Additionally, please do not allow your child to kick or throw balls in the morning where families are waiting. We appreciate your support in this matter as we work to keep all of our students safe.

Soccer:

This SPRING, PCS will be organizing PK-5th Grade soccer again (like we did in the fall). Once again, this is all sponsored and organized through the YMCA. PCS will be collecting the forms and organizing the teams. This time we will be collecting forms using Google Forms. All forms will be required to be filled out using the Google Form (linked below). Payments can be made on your Parent Portal or in person at the middle school front office during summer break (attn: Katie Lydon, YMCA Soccer, with your child's name included).

https://forms.gle/mtK4yirKoiG7B7217

Upcoming dates: