ENSC Family Notes
August 29, 2016
Bonds are Sold!
2017-2018 School Calendar
We will be developing the 2017-2018 school calendar. Feel free to provide your input on the calendar.
Standards Based Grading Information Meeting
A Few Dates...
- Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences - Week of September 26. Check with your child's school to determine the exact date.
- This year's fall break is Friday, September 30 - Friday, October 7.
- Flex day - October 28. This is a professional development day for teachers and eLearning for students.
- Thanksgiving Break - Wednesday, November 23 - Friday, November 25.
- Winter Break - Monday, December 19 - Friday, December 30. Students return Monday, January 2.
Unsung Hero
Avilla’s Hero of the week is Brenda Ulch! Brenda is entering her 7th year at Avilla and 15th year overall with East Noble. Brenda works with all of OUR students, but her primary group to support is fifth graders. Not only does Brenda work hard to meet their needs on a daily basis, she also helps to create a positive place to be for both students and staff. She recently created the Friendship of the Traveling Vase. Each week two staff members receive a bouquet of flowers to make their week special. At the beginning of the next week new flowers are put in the vase and passed along to another staff member to brighten their week! Thanks to Brenda for all she does to make OUR Avilla School a great place to be!
BUILDING NOTES
Avilla Elementary
It is hard to believe that we are finishing up OUR third full week of school! Students have been very busy learning procedures and expectations in and out of the classroom. Fall activities have begun for many of OUR families with football, soccer, and volleyball in full swing. Many of OUR boys had the opportunity to play on the turf at East Noble this past Wednesday night. The ENYFL stormed the field with quite a few football games involving OUR kids. A great crowd was on hand and it was evident that OUR boys were representing Avilla well. We, the Avilla staff, would like to thank OUR families for allowing OUR students to be involved in these extra-curricular activities. We know it is a huge sacrifice and we appreciate all the effort you put into it for OUR kids.
Speaking of competitions, OUR students have the opportunity to practice math skills at school and at home on the Sumdog website or app. The students earn coins for correct answers and they can buy things for their avatar in the “store” on the site. Please encourage your child to spend some time on Sumdog while on their device at home!
Mrs. Hudson’s 5th grade Manchester Spartans were the University of the Week.
This upcoming week will be very busy week as usual. This Thursday, September 1 is Picture Day for all students. This is the picture that will be used in OUR yearbook. This Friday, Ronald McDonald will be here at Avilla. Ronald will be explaining the importance of “Giving Back” to OUR students.
North Side Elementary
It has been another busy week at North Side! Did you know that manipulating math tools could be fun and educational? Our first grade students experienced this first hand! They dove into making objects with tangram shapes.
Sixth grade continues to understand Digital Citizenship and the proper use of technology while working on activities in library and technology classes. Third grade enjoys reading block. They worked on asking questions before, during and after their reading. Do you want to know why we ask questions when we read? These bright, young students will tell you it is to further our understanding of the story. A great book to get you started is, Small Steps, by Peg Kehret. This book engaged the students and they were BOOMING with questions.
Fourth grade wrote from an interesting perspective this week! They wrote a story as if they were a pumpkin being carved, fitting when you are adding voice to your writing! They enjoyed this activity and were eager to share with each other!
Look at how engaged the audience was too!!
Our five and six-year old’s are finding their singing voices in music class! They are working on keeping a steady beat and learning about musical concepts such as “high or low”, “loud or soft” and “fast or slow.” First grade is taking this singing to the next level and singing by themselves. Wow, they are so BRAVE!
Another fun-filled educational week here at North Side!
Rome City Elementary
Rome City students had a busy week of learning! We would like to welcome Mrs. Speicher to our school. She is the English Language Learner teacher and has been getting to know the students and of of course is helping them to learn English.
Fourth grade Romans made salt maps to show the landforms found in Indiana’s three regions. The students first watched a video about glaciers and then read about the impact the glaciers had on Indiana. They were able to use this information to create the salt maps showing the different landforms.
This week in Gym class students in grades 4-6 are taking the Pacer test. The students run 20 meters to varying speeds to test their cardiovascular endurance. The students then set individual fitness goals as to where they would personally like end up at the end of the year. All the students have done a wonderful job
South Side Elementary
South Side Elementary School's sixth grade Trailblazers have had three whole weeks of learning what it means to be school leaders! They worked collaboratively during the first week of school to create expectations for themselves and their classmates to follow based on the Character Counts Pillars. They are practicing these expectations in ALL areas of South Side. In addition, our sixth grade Trailblazers are learning to be leaders as they get ready for JA BizTown! They are learning practical math skills through banking activities, learning about economics, and gaining a better understanding of career options. They are looking forward to experiencing a day of "work" when we take our trip on September 13!
Sixth grade students are establishing good reading habits and discovering amazing reads through daily book talks with partners, writing their own book blogs, creating and tracking individual reading goals, and posting titles of amazing books that they love on our classroom Book Talk poster. Our sixth graders are readers!
Our sixth grade Trailblazers are also building on math skills learned in fifth grade to achieve sixth grade standards. They are tracking their own data to show growth in their math skills or to discover areas that need additional work.
Wayne Center Elementary
This week Ronald McDonald visited our building. He talked about bullies and gave our students a saying to remember, “When a parent or teacher is near, a bully will disappear.” The students not only came away with a great message, but with smiles on their faces.
Our students also attended a Super U program. The students learned helpful information and strategies that they can use in the future. We want all of our students to feel safe and comfortable at Wayne Center and in the community.
Our second grade students had a lesson with Mrs. Jarrett, our technology coach, on how to use the SeeSaw app on their iPads. They had an introductory lesson on the basics of the program. They learned how to write a note, draw a picture, and how to post a picture they had taken. We will dive into the program as the year progresses. One of the nice features of the program is that the students can share their work with their parents.
Our students are working together for the mutual goal of having a school wide celebration. Many student are earning the Wayne Center paw coins. The students earn the coins for demonstrating ROAR (Respect, Openly Honest and Caring, and Responsible) procedures. Once the school jar is filled up the students will earn their first celebration. The students will also have the opportunity to spend their coins once a week at the school store.
Alternative Learning Center
Last night the ALC held their first Parent Night. Several families attended and learned about Apex while enjoying pizza and interacting with staff. Parents were able to work through lessons online with their child and sign up to get email notifications about coursework progression. It was a nice time of building relationships with families, while keeping the focus on academic performance and graduation progress.
Just a reminder the Knight’s Kloset is a clothing bank located in the ALC building. The ALC students spend countless hours volunteering in the Knight’s Kloset to earn credits in Community Service. This is a great resource for our district and any EN family member can use this service. As the weather changes, we know the need for clothes increase and we are stocked with coats and hoodies. Please call ahead of time to setup an appointment to come in and look around. Most appointments can be scheduled the same day or the following day after the call.
The clothing bank is also always in need of more items to help families. Below is a list of items needed:
Women’s Undergarments
Women’s Shirts: Size XL, XXL, 2X, 3x
Women’s Shorts: all sizes
Women’s Pants: sweatpants, leggings of all sizes
Men’s Shirts: L, XL, 2XL
Men’s Shorts: all sizes
East Noble High School
We are working our school goals on a daily basis, forging an environment that fosters Positive Influence, High Levels of Achievement, and an Outstanding School Culture.
With those goals in mind, I would like to speak also about other intangibles that make ENHS such a great place to be a part of. ENHS boasts a tremendous tradition, which is often misunderstood. Tradition isn’t the school colors, school song, or awards and titles won in our extracurricular activities. These successes are ultimately just a byproduct of what truly makes up our tradition.
The tradition of this place begins with commitment; if I had to choose just one lesson a student would learn from being a Knight, it would be learning how to make a commitment. When you agree to be a Knight, you enter into a relationship with everyone involved in our organization. With that comes enormous responsibility. Essentially it means that I am going to expect the best from you, and you can expect the best from me. To truly live our school goals and mission, we need to infuse commitment into everything we stand for and everything we do.
Success to us at East Noble is understanding that where preparation meets opportunity greatness can be achieved. We are in the unique position of being tasked with providing both of those elements. Our staff members work tirelessly to prepare our students for those opportunities, and work equally hard to provide those opportunities. They prepare out students well so that when those opportunities arise our students welcome and not fear them.
Our goals also call for a commitment to accountability. This is not an assumption; it is a promise that we will be there for you, and I can count on you being there from me. From the way you greet a student in the hallway to the way a student comes to you to report another student who is struggling, in the end the ability to be able to claim “We were there for each other” is the not only one of the most difficult claims to carry out, but one of the most rewarding when it comes to assessing the quality of our organization, not to mention that of our humanity.
Tradition, success, accountability. Far from just words on a page, these qualities placed into action help all of us work towards our school goals, and in doing so also propel us to maximize our own potential every single day.
East Noble Middle School
Students are really adjusting well to being back at school – particularly the 7th graders to being in middle school. Students are excited about the first dance this Friday. It is being hosted by NJHS and is a Hawaiian Luau theme! Progress reports will be issued in a few short weeks, and students are working hard to make sure assignments are being turned in on time.
Seventh grade Visual Art classes are currently working with identifying three types of Pattern Design and making a Name Fish using Pattern. Eighth grade Visual Art classes are working on Self Portraits and exploring the works of Chuck Close.
In Science, seventh and eighth grades are focusing on understanding the scientific method. We have learned the steps of the scientific method through labs such as the bouncy ball lab, the water bottle flip lab, and in seventh grade the drop lab. We have also been learning how to make good observations during our labs using multiple senses and both quantitative and qualitative descriptions. We are currently finishing up our first unit by identifying the independent and the dependent variables of our hypotheses. Next we will be focused on efficiently using the metric system and learning to graph our lab data.
Seventh grade Social Studies have been studying latitude and longitude and how to use them to find the absolute location of given cities on a map or globe. This week we are discussing climate zones and what effects the Earth’s climates. Eighth grade Social Studies have been studying Native American cultures in North American prior to European exploration. We had a project where students had to pick a tribe and create an aide to help with studying the different cultures, such as a song, build a diorama, or life-size structure. We have moved on to start talking about different European explorers and reasons as to why European countries wanted to explore in the first place.
In addition to NWEA testing, Language Arts classes have been setting goals for the year. They will be working on tracking their own data, and planning growth goals. In reading, short stories are featured, with a focus being on plot and foreshadowing. The students are looking forward to starting novel studies in the next few weeks. In writing, we are building writing ideas and looking at how ideas can come from the “heart.” Writing notebooks and journaling will be used frequently this year, as we hope to foster a love of writing daily.
In seventh grade Math, students are working with integers and all of the operations associated with them. There are several rules to remember and students are catching on quick! In eighth grade, we have expanded from integers to all real numbers, including fractions and decimals. Both grades are wrapping up their first units and will be assessed over the material soon.
East Noble School Corporation
Email: alinson@eastnoble.net
Website: eastnoble.net
Location: 126 West Rush Street, Kendallville, IN, United States
Phone: 260-347-2502
Facebook: facebook.com/eastnoble
Twitter: @ENobleSchCorp