Dear Bulldog Families,

As we just finished the sixth full week of school, you should see and hear that our children are digging deeper into learning and application of their learning. Be sure to ask your child questions like:

• What did you do today as a reader, writer, mathematician, scientist...learner?
• How did you use growth mindset to help you with your learning? Taking small steps in learning bigger or more difficult processes are so important! We can do hard things!
• How were you kind or helpful to others or the environment?
• Tell me about art, music, physical education, global studies, or STEAM.

There are many ways that your families can support student learning at home: read with and/or to your child, play games (board, card, dice, etc.), review and discuss the Second Step Home Link that will be emailed weekly (see bottom of this newsletter for link). Subatizing is mentioned in a caption below. This is the ability to instantly recognize the number of objects without actually counting them. This skill builds number sense and can be reinforced at home through game playing and everyday conversation. Strong number sense is critical to our learning as we start more complex math work.

We believe that learning is a partnership between school and home. Please communicate with your student's teacher if you have any questions about your student's academic or social-emotional growth. Our parent-teacher conferences will be held within the 10/25-11/19 timeframe. Your student's teacher will send out sign-up information on September 27th.

As a reminder our first eLearning Day is this Friday, September 24. We have 4 eLearning days this school year: 9/24, 11/12, 2/18, and 4/29. On these days, students will learn remotely, through our Canvas Learning Management System. Teachers have reviewed the access and flow of this learning tool with our students. Teachers will not directly instruct students via Zoom as they will be involved in professional learning. The modules, with learning assignments, will be posted by 7:30a.m. Students should also access learning for the Related Arts class they would have in-person on Friday.

Thank you for partnering with us in learning - we are stronger together!

Sincerely,

Lori Mankin

Dear NBE Families,

We want your child to be successful in school and that means supporting and encouraging their whole development. While excelling in academic classes is important, children also need skills to take on learning challenges, make good decisions, manage strong emotions, and get along with others.

Beginning this week, we began the Second Step Elementary digital program, a researched-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve children’s social-emotional skills. Second Step skills and concepts are designed to help children both in and out of school. Four units will cover the following:

Growth Mindset & Goal Setting: Children learn how to pay attention and manage distractions, develop a growth mindset, and apply goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives.

Emotion Management: Children learn how to identify and label emotions and use emotion-management strategies-including stress management for older students, to calm feelings down.

Empathy and Kindness: Children learn how to recognize kindness and act kindly, have empathy for others and take others’ perspectives, and recognize kind acts and empathy as important elements of building and maintaining relationships.

Problem-Solving: Children learn how to identify and state a problem, recognize if a problem is an accident, and use the STEP problem-solving process:

S: Say the problem

T: Think of Solutions

E: Explore the outcomes

P: Pick a solution

We are also implementing Mind Up Curriculum, brain science for emotional regulation, mindfulness for tasks and emotional support and CommonSense Media curriculum to support Digital Citizenship to support safe and secure use of online technology. Click here for the scope and sequence of our SEL lessons.

You will receive weekly communication from us to help reinforce Second Step, Mind Up and CommonSense Media language, skills, and goals at home. If you have any questions about our social emotional learning curriculum, please contact any of the staff mentioned below. Thank you for your support as we work to build a safe and supportive school community.

Sincerely,

Sherri Leiner, NBE School Counselor

Lori Mankin, NBE Principal

Katy Lee, NBE Assistant Principal

Good Samaritan Network (GSN) is a collaborative/network of nonprofits in Hamilton County. GSN utilizes two serving approaches, Direct and InDirect services, and in part is designed to ensure efficiency and communication among the different agencies, social services, nonprofits, local government, pantries, and businesses - as together we serve the needs of Hamilton County residents who are at-risk or underserved.

If you are in need or would like to help those in need, this website can assist you. The link below provides support for holiday assistance, rental assistance, energy assistance, and ways to provide support.

Please take a moment to explore this website - click here.

NBE is pleased to announce the return of the Snack Attack program for those students in need. This program, supported by the Fishers Youth Assistance Program, is designed to provide students a little extra nourishment for the weekend until they can receive a hot meal at school on Monday.

Here's how the program works. Your student will pick up a small sack of food to be taken home over the weekend. The sack is filled with individually wrapped snacks such as granola bars, fruit cups, pop tarts, peanut butter/crackers, Goldfish crackers, etc. The type of snacks will vary each week. Please let us know if your child has a peanut allergy as he/she will receive a special bag of peanut-free snacks.

There is no cost to you or the school. If you are interested in having your student participate in FYAP's Snack Attack or have questions, please contact Sherri Leiner, NBE School Counselor at sleiner@hse.k12.in.us