Ethel R. Jones Elementary School

Nov. 7:

• E-Learning Day (no in-person school)

Nov. 8:

• 11:15-1:45 3rd Grade to L3 @ PHS

Nov. 10:

• 9:55-10:30 Veterans Day Program

Nov. 15:

• Picture Retakes
• Major Saver Card Kickoff

Nov. 21:

• 8:30-9:30 Gr. K-2 Grandparents Day
• 8:45-9:45 Gr. 3-5 Grandparents Day

Nov. 22-24:

• NO SCHOOL - THANKSGIVING BREAK

Nov. 28:

• 2:15 PTO Meeting in Library

Nov. 29:

• 11:15-1:45 1st Grade to L3 @ PHS

We had a great time at our second annual Trunk or Treat event on October 26th! Unfortunately, we had to move it inside, due to the weather, but that didn't dampen our Halloween fun. We would like to thank our PTO for helping collect candy, scheduling the Tocayos Taco Truck, and for helping with this fun event! Our families donated 533 lb. of candy during our Candy Wars, which made our event possible- thank you to all who donated! Mrs. Leuthart's class earned free recess with the principal for collecting the most candy by weight.

Officer Wright came and presented information about trick-or-treating safety to our K-5th graders. During the presentation with our 3-5th grade students, McGruff the Crime Dog came along for the fun, and with our K-2nd grade students, Captain Monks joined him with Tilly! His presentation was informative and fun- there were many laughs! Thank you to our Portage Police Department for putting on a useful and wonderful presentation!

Pre-K students in Mrs. Bogue's class found a fun and "spooky" way to practice identifying letters in their names! They found their names on ghost pictures and the matched letters in their names with manipulatives. This was a fun way to practice letter identification!

Portage Township Schools is a NO PLACE FOR HATE school district that teaches, models, and upholds the Critical Values of Responsibility, Fairness, Honesty, Respect, and Compassion. Every student and staff member in PTS signed cards pledging their commitment to uphold and model the five Critical Values throughout the community as part of our district's mission to support schools that are NO PLACE FOR HATE.

By pledging our commitment to these values, we aim to create a more respectful, empathetic, and responsible school community. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of our students and foster a positive learning environment.

Our students enjoyed their classroom Halloween parties on October 31st! Our PTO supplied students with a tasty ice cream treat and students enjoyed fun activities in their classes. A fun time was had by all!

Students in Mrs. Jones' second grade class had a great time with pumpkin-themed activities. They participated in pumpkin math activities,

Jones Elementary will be hosting a Veterans Day Program to honor our Military Veterans on Friday, November 10, 2023 at 9:55 a.m. Space is limited, so ONLY Veterans will be able to attend the event. All other guests will be prohibited. Thank you for your attention to this detail, as space is very limited.

A sheet went home to students October 23rd for people to RSVP. For security reasons, we are requiring veterans who are attending this event to be run through our Securely Visitor Software by bringing their driver's license or state-issued ID.

We are excited to honor our veterans for their service to our country!

Bouncing Back- How to Build Resiliency?

What does it mean to be resilient? Merriam-Webster's definition of resilience is an ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change. Most people think about it in terms of bouncing back from a setback. Now think about our kids, the ability to just get over something, bounce back and cope with struggles is lacking or at the very least could use some work. Good news is resilient children are made, not born. But how?

Resiliency is created everyday in small ways and with simple changes.

• Creating small challenging but do-able tasks for kids shows them they can.

• Increasing a student’s belief in themselves by showing them you believe in them.

• Building relationships with students by getting to know things about them outside of school- Hobbies, interests etc.

• Modeling growth mindset, the power of positive self-talk and power of yet.

• Praising attempts that fail and allowing them to talk through what went wrong and how they can do it differently next time.

• Allowing kids to make situationally appropriate choices.

• Help students set achievable goals both for academic success and emotional/social success.

Resources:

• Helping-your-child-develop-resilience-using-the-7cs-model

• Strategies-to-build-student-resilience

• https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience/guide-parents-teachers

• https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-ways-build-resilience-students/

• Behavior Interventions: Strategies for Educators, Counselors and Parents by Amie Dean (copies of this book are available at each school)

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We will be celebrating Grandparents Day this year on Tuesday, November 21st! Information will be going home about this event the week of November 6th.

Educate, empower, and inspire excellence!

Email: jenna.klein@portage.k12.in.us
Website: https://jo.portage.k12.in.us/
Location: 2374 McCool Road, Portage, IN, USA
Phone: (219)763-8025