LCES Panther Cub Communication #36
Week of May 5-May 8, 2025
  | LCES Panther Cub Communication #36Para traducir al español, desplácese hasta el final y haga clic en la bandera  . |
| LCES Families, The days of school are dwindling and we are getting excited for all of the upcoming events and activities. Next week, May 5-8 we are looking forward to DIBELS testing. This is our end of the year benchmark assessment for literacy. These tests help show us how well kids are learning, gives us a snapshot on the effectiveness of our teaching and interventions, and allows the opportunity to help advance students forward. This assessment is important because it is influential in making big decisions for our district regarding student performance. Please take a couple of minutes this weekend to talk to your student about doing their very best on their DIBELS test. Ensure that your child goes to bed on time and eats breakfast at school or home. We want all students to succeed and show their growth. Doing their very best is the most important part! This upcoming week we will be celebrating Teacher & Staff Appreciation week to show gratitude for the endless hours and dedication our staff give to students. Feel free to join me in thanking our teachers next week! Enjoy your weekend, Brandi Lovely, Principal blovely@lakecountyschools.net  May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a national event to bring attention to the importance of mental health, provide support, and end the stigma around mental health. At Lake County Elementary School we also want to teach our youngest learners the importance of mental health, how to care for our mental health, and to give them an age-appropriate understanding of what Mental Health means. Throughout the entire month of May, we will be learning about Mental Health. K-2 students will get a lesson on mental health and other fun events to celebrate and learn about the importance of taking care of our brain.Every Monday will be “Mental Health Monday.” All Preschool through 2nd grade kids and staff will be encouraged to show support by wearing green. There will be fun and simple little acknowledgments for participating by wearing green! All students will be receiving a green Mental Health ribbon sticker on Monday May 12th to wear for that Monday!Look for more information to come in next week’s parent communication as well as information being sent home with your student at the end of next week. Please reach out to Mrs. Christy Trujillo with any questions. | |
| K-2 Specifics | |
| May HOWL (Habit of Work & Learning) Focus: Creativity For the month of May, we are celebrating the HOWL of creativity. Creativity means, “I can think of new and interesting ways to tackle projects and challenges.” The Student of the Month for each crew will be announced at our next community meeting on May 29th. If your student is chosen by their teacher, we will reach out at the beginning of that week to let you know! Semester 2 Attendance Challenge:  This week marks the end of our Semester 2 attendance challenge! K-2 students who had 1 or fewer absences from Jan 6th-May 1st will have the opportunity to attend a Rockies baseball game in Denver at Coors Field on May 22nd! We will check attendance to see who qualified and families will be notified if your student has earned this opportunity the week of May 5th. The game is at 1:10 pm so students will come to school as usual, board the buses at 10:00 am, enjoy the game, and return back to school between approximately 5:30-6 pm. The tickets are offered to only students and staff at a reduced rate so we are unable to welcome parent volunteers for this event. Students may opt out of attending if parents so choose (Opt out deadline: May 7th). LCIS is also doing an attendance reward at this Rockies game as well so please look for specific information from LCIS in their parent communication as the criteria is slightly different between schools. Thanks for making sure your student has been and continues to be present at school every day as long as they are healthy! We are so excited for this special event! April Attendance Breakdown Attendance Goal: 94%This month’s average daily attendance: 88.84% (134 school days & 186 students) K 85.13% 1st92.55% 2nd89.19% HOWLs Challenge: It is the last quarter of the school year which means it is time for our Quarter 4 HOWLS challenge! Your student will try to earn as many HOWL Dollars as they can by June 9th for the chance to have cotton candy and extra recess with the principals on June 16th! The top six HOWL dollar earners in each class will win. If your student wins, we will send home paper communication as well as a message from the front office. Students can earn HOWL Dollars by showing any of our HOWLs to any staff member in the school. The HOWL that we are focusing on for May is creativity.  We need volunteers!Sign up to volunteer at: https://signup.com/go/iGRLKLV Questions? Speak with Mrs. Northcraft, the art teacher at LCES: jnorthcraft@lakecountyschools.net Necesitamos voluntarios!Regístrate para ser voluntario @:https://signup.com/go/iGRLKLV Preguntas? Hable con Mrs. Northcraft, profesora de arte en LCES: jnorthcraft@lakecountyschools.net | |
| K-2 Project Dream Information | |
| Hello Project Dream Families,Elementary School Information & PoliciesIf you have any questions about Project Dream, please reach out to Raquel.Raquel Contreras | LCES Site Supervisor | 719-293-5363 | rcontreras@lakecountyschools.net | |
| Preschool Specifics | |
| Hello Center Families, Happy May! May 6 will be our final preschool enrollment round up event. This will be held from 4-7 in the LCES library. If you have not yet completed your application for next year, this will be a good opportunity to get everything completed at once. You will be able to complete and submit your application for next year, enroll in Colorado Universal Preschool if appropriate, and complete a short enrollment interview with Rhonda and myself. 1 and done! Come join us and share the word to anyone interested in enrolling in our program. Teachers are working to schedule home visits for next Friday with our Head Start families. Visits can be conducted at the school or in your home, whatever you prefer and is most convenient. We look forward to another great week, in the meantime, enjoy the weekend! Tanya Lenhard –PreK Director Office phone: 719-486-6928Cell: 719-293-1055 tdlenhard@lakecountyschools.net Classroom and Curriculum Updates: This week our classrooms introduced the letter Pp and letter character Pee-Wee Penguin. Remember to keep practicing the /P/ sound at home.We are continuing to learn about habitats at school. Your child is learning all about the animals and plants that live in the ocean and desert. Please come visit our classroom and see our ocean and desert murals! Here are some more ideas to extend the learning at home. Read books that have ocean animals such as fish, whales, and crabs. You can also read books about farm animals.Here is a link to the “Slippery Fish Song” that you can sing together at homeTalk with your child about the habitats where his/her stuffed animals might live if they were real. Make separate piles of animals that live in the forest, pond, ocean, desert or farmOn May 8th or May 12th your child will participate in a visit from Ash Werner and the team at C-4 here at school. They will have a hands-on opportunity to participate in more learning about the local Leadville habitat. Here is the link to the letter and sound video that was discussed at conferences. Watch to learn the animal name, letter sound and gesture and practice daily with your child. English letter/sound video Spanish letter/sound video Kelly Horning Assistant Director Office Phone: 719-486-6927 khorning@lakecountyschools.net Family Engagement Corner  What exciting times here at The Center as we look ahead to the 2025-2026 School Year! If your child will be returning to The Center, please complete and submit your 2025-2026 Application along with any required documentation as soon as possible. Early Literacy: Building the Foundation for Reading Continuing with our topic “Helping my child learn to love books and reading,” this week we will look at another predictive variable proven to aid in building a strong foundation for reading: Oral Language.Oral Language is the ability to understand and use spoken language, including vocabulary. Oral language determines the way in which we navigate, mediate, and make sense of the world. In preschool, all learning rests on a foundation of oral language development. Young children need to develop oral language to describe what they see, explain what they are doing, learn and use new vocabulary, tell and retell stories, name their feelings and wants, mediate conflict, ask and answer questions, and navigate the routines of the classroom. Teach Prepositional and Temporal ConceptsPrepositional and temporal words–e.g., first/next/last, beginning/middle/end, next to/behind/in front of–form the prerequisite language of phonological awareness. Before young children can tell us what sound they hear first or in the beginning of the word, they need to understand what first and beginning means. To teach these important concepts, turn an Elkonin sound box (an evidence-based tool typically used to facilitate segmenting and blending of sounds during phonological awareness tasks) into a more all-purpose sequencing and segmenting tool by adding colors to the boxes. Make the first box green (the color of “go”), the second yellow (the color of “slow”), and the third red (the color of “stop”). Give students a toy car and have them drive into the “first” or “beginning” box, the “second” or “middle” box, and the “final” or “last” box. You can then have them sequence animal sounds using pictures (“Listen. Moo, baa, neigh. What animal came first?”), which helps set them up for identifying and sequencing letter sounds. Original article: Early Literacy: Building the Foundation for Reading – EdwardsOG Rhonda H. DeVoe  Preschool Family and Community Engagement Manager Office Phone: (719) 486-6925/Cell Phone: (719) 293-1403 rdevoe@lakecountyschools.net | |
| PK-2 Important Dates | |
| May 5-8 Teacher Appreciation Week, K-2 End of Year DIBELS Literacy Assessment May 6 PK & Kindergarten Registration, LCES Library 4:00 to 7:00pm May 15 LCSD Art Show, LCES Gym May 22 K-2 Attendance Reward Rockies Game May 26 Memorial Day, NO SCHOOL May 27 2nd grade Fieldwork at Hayden Meadows (leave 8:30, return 12:15 )May 29 Community Meeting, curiosity led by specials, LCES Gym 8:00 | |
| Fliers | |
  Digital copies of May Menus are available in our front entrances or in the office! Please feel free to stop by and grab one.    The Art Room has a lot of great supplies, but we are always looking for extra interesting items to use for creativity!If you would like to donate any of these items, please drop them off in the Art Room at Parent/Teacher conferences this week. Or, send them with your student to drop off in the office or art room. Thanks so much for supporting our creative students!Mrs. NorthcraftLake County Elementary Art Teacherjnorthcraft@lakecountyschools.net          | |
