You are cordially invited to our annual Parent Night on Thursday, September 21, 2023 for grades K-2. Please enter and exit through the PEC Main Entrance. Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Krecisz will also be available throughout the evening if you have any questions. We may also be reached at tlarson@lew-port.com or akrecisz@lew-port.com or 716-286-7222. The PTSA will be selling spirit-wear in our main foyer.

What will be discussed at the Parent Night?

This program will be a general informational meeting and is a wonderful opportunity for you to build positive school and family connections. Each teacher will describe their teaching and learning environment. They will also talk about what a typical day is like for your child in school, including schedules, on-line resources, special field trips and projects. Teachers will explain how you as a parent can become more involved in your child’s education.

You will have an opportunity to meet with support and intervention teachers (reading, math, speech, occupational therapy, social worker and the school psychologist); special education teachers, as well as the special-area teachers (Physical Education, Library Media, STEAM, Vocal Music, Art & Mandarin Chinese Enrichment). These teachers play an integral part in your child’s development and it would be beneficial to meet with them to learn about your child’s program. Please refer to the schedule sent home via Seesaw, take home folder and email. It is also copied into this newsletter for your convenience.

*Please note that

Private parent/teacher conferences will be held on December 8th, at which time it is appropriate to ask any questions you wish concerning your child’s educational needs and progress in a confidential setting. You may also request a meeting at any time to discuss your child’s educational goals and progress.

We look forward to partnering with you for a successful school year!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Larson, Principal & Aliscia Krecisz

Lewiston-Porter Primary Education Center Elementary Program Coordinator

There are many new exciting faces and lots of fun changes on the LP campus. Many teachers are transitioning into new roles this coming school year.

Kindergarten would like to welcome Miss Sarah Kasbaum and Miss Katie Peters to our team.

1st grade is excited to welcome Miss Kristin Dallavia and Mrs. Jennifer Stewart to the PEC.

2nd grade has expanded and would like to welcome Miss Selina Iozzo, Nina Sweet and Mrs. VanEgmond was lucky enough to loop with her class to the 2nd grade!

Mr. Anthony Morreale has joined Mr. Hays as our new PE teacher. We were sad to let Mrs. Sanoian leave, but she is all smiles in the high school gym.

We have so many more new faces to introduce and we will share the exciting news in our next newsletter, more to come...

We wish all of our staff success in their new positions as they grow in new directions.

Our year has started out with a celebration of the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. “Just make a make a mark and see where it takes you” is the message of the story! Dots were the theme of our work! First graders focused on the A and M in STEAM by creating some great Dot Pixel Art and second graders focused on the M by estimating and comparing in the Dot Drop Experiment.

Fun, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math go hand in hand in the STEAM room!

Welcome back to school everyone! I am the PEC Math Specialist and work with students in need of support, focusing on 1st and 2nd graders. As the new year begins I look forward to working with both students and teachers to support the learning and love of math. However, you, the family at home, play a vital role in helping your child grow as a learner too. So, periodically I will offer some thoughts, tips, or insights that I hope you will find helpful or at least informative. So let’s get started.

As adults we can reflect back on our own math experiences in school and consider how that impacted us. Did it pique our interests? Did it build our confidence? Did it cause us stress or insecurity? At some point we may have experienced all of those emotions or feelings. We may even have wondered why we needed to learn math. Connecting math to the world around us may not have been done or perhaps just not done well enough. So let’s set a goal for this year to help our PEC students see that math is all around us and that can start with you at home! To begin I would like to offer a few suggestions that can help to build interest in and lead to a love of math:

• Discuss shapes you notice in and around your home.

• Ask your child to look for and identify patterns.

• Share some ways you use math as part of your job.

• Talk about the math you use while out shopping, cooking at home, etc.

• Play board games, card games, dice games and have FUN!

Noticing the math connections around us and discussing them in a positive way can go a long way to building a greater interest in and love of mathematics! Below is a link for some additional reading for those who may be interested.

https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/instill-a-love-of-math

If you have suggestions for math topics that will help support you and your child at home, please reach out to me at rorsi@lew-port.com. Until then, remember MATH ROCKS!

• Technology Forms, Policies, and Agreements
• Parent Portal
• Updating Demographic Information
• Technology at Home
• Requesting a Mobile Hotspot

If you are a parent/guardian that has not yet had an opportunity to set up your parent portal, please take some time to do so as soon as possible. Having access to parent portal and using the app can be a helpful way to receive important information regarding your child's grades, missing assignments, and other important updates. This is especially true for parents of students in grades 3-12. It can also be used to verify your contact information, as you'll see in the next section. Parent Portal also gives you access to Porfolio + which is a data warehouse that we use to distribute report cards, Aimsweb reports and NYS testing data. To access the parent portal, visit our website and click on the icon that looks like the image you see pictured here on the right.

If you are trying to reset your username or password, there is a link on the sign-in page. Follow the prompts and check your email. Sometimes it may find its way into your spam box. Once you get the email you should be able to reset your account.

If you are new to Parent Portal, you should have received a letter that would give you access codes to get connected. If you did not get that letter, or if you experience difficulty getting signed up, you may call your child's school for assistance.

Click this link to visit the Parent Portal Resource Page on our website. Here you will find everything you need. I have also included some resources for you here:

1. Links to the apps:

PowerSchool App (Google Play Store)

PowerSchool App (Apple Store)

2. Video on how to get set up with PowerSchool (see below).

3. Written instructions are also available here.

*Parents will need a working email address, and a PowerSchool Access Code. This is provided by the school at the start of the year. If you need that information, please contact the main office of your child's school. For the app, you will also need the district code CSXQ.

• NYSED is requiring that districts collect information from families regarding their technology access at home. This data will assist school districts in making sure that all families have equitable access to educational resources.

• Earlier this year many families completed a survey that helped to jumpstart this process. As a result we were able to assist families that were in need of internet access.

• Now we have the ability to store this information securely and confidentially in PowerSchool so that we have a thorough understanding of our student population.

• Students in grades 6-12 will be given time to log into their student portal and complete the short survey. As parents, you will have the opportunity to review and edit those responses if needed.

• We ask that parents of students in grades K-5 log into their parent portal and respond to questions on behalf of their children.

• This presentation will walk you through this very simple process.

• Thank you in advance for your help with this. If you are unable to to complete the survey electronically, please call your child's school and we can record the information for you.

Lewiston-Porter is a 1:1 school district. That means every student has a device assigned to them to facilitate learning. In grades 3-12 all students are assigned a Chromebook. In grades K-2, all students are assigned an iPad.

From the start of the school year, students in grades 4-12 bring their Chromebooks home on a nightly basis. Students in these grade levels benefit from having the device for study, review, homework, projects, and communication with teachers. After a couple of weeks of getting used to the Chromebooks, our 3rd grades will also start bringing their devices home on a regular basis.

Students in grades K-2 keep their devices in school for about the first 6 weeks. The requirement for work at home is significantly less and we don't want to burden the students or parents with the responsibility of caring for an expensive device if it is not completely necessary. During the month of October we will provide more information about sending devices home in an effort to prepare for possible emergency weather/closing days.

Over the past few years we have provided parents of students in grades K-2 the option to accept or decline devices for this purpose. Some parents felt that if we were closed for a day or two they could use the technology they have at home for remote instruction (computer, laptop, tablets, phones). Others accepted the device so they could ensure their child had something to work with in case school closed. Please keep an eye out for this information and choose the option that works best for you. Along with that, we will be sharing emergency closing schedules and procedures.

Dear Families:

At Lewiston-Porter we have made a strong effort to ensure that all students have equitable access to digital materials while they're at school and while they're at home. To that end, we have partnered with T-Mobile to offer free mobile hotspots to families that are in need.

If you would like to request a hotspot please complete the form below.

Click here to complete a request form.