January 2026

One Purpose. Your Pathway. Our Promise.

Dear Lewiston-Porter Primary Education Center Families,

Come Read With Us!

Happy New Year PEC! As we turn the page to 2026, I believe it is important to reflect on lessons learned and to set new goals. Our school community can be strengthened when we work together toward a common goal. One important goal we are focusing on this year is implementing our new Literacy Program, myView. This is our second year of implementation with this new curriculum. Our school mission is for our students to develop their identity as a reader and writer. In order for children to develop a reading and writing identity, they must have ample opportunity to read rich books at their reading level. Students need the time and the space to gather around books they love and talk about the books with their teacher and peers. In order to provide time and space for children in this way, our classrooms currently engage in this new Literacy program grounded in the Science of Reading. Our mission for all of our students is that they develop into skillful readers and writers who can live together as caring, thoughtful human beings that find lasting joy in reading and writing.

Mark Your Calendars!

The 10th year of our reading adventure continues with One District One Book! This year we will continue our One District, One Book (ODOB) initiative to ignite passion and excitement for a shared reading experience across our school community. Our elementary school community will decide on our ODOB children’s novel by voting at our local libraries from January 23rd to January 30th. EACH family member gets a vote. The winning book will be revealed at our Community Reveal on February 12th, which will be hosted by the PEC this year.

Then, every child in Kindergarten through 5th grade will receive a copy of the book. Every family in our elementary school community will read the same book at the same time. The shared reading experience will be maximized by enriching activities at school and in the community to enable children to share and experience the characters and world of the book through the months of February and March. We will have all the same great program events…community business specials, dinner specials, scavenger hunts, trivia, parent resource packet and reading events. Our reading adventure ends in a culminating Family Reading Celebration Night on March 20th, hosted by the IEC.

Let our year 10 reading adventure begin!

When schools model the habit of regularly reading together as a family, a strong foundation for literacy is created in each child’s life. Reading aloud makes better readers. A volume of research explains that children who are read to hear more words and can instinctively recognize a grammatically correct sentence. As a result, comprehension and vocabulary will develop more fully.

One District One Book is not just a literacy program, it is a community building program. Our goal is to create a culture of literacy in every home.

I personally invite your family to READ WITH US at the Lewiston Porter Primary Education Center.

Respectfully yours,

Mrs. Tamara Larson

Principal, Primary Education Center

Each year, the students in Katie Ries and Carrie Zoda's kindergarten classes make gingerbread Christmas trees. Each student makes two. They take one home to enjoy and the other is donated to Complete Senior Care in Niagara Falls where they spread a little Holiday cheer. This tradition is one that is so special to our kindergarten community.

Nothing but smiles as Miss Mosier’s students use motions to match the words of ‘Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel’—the spinning moves are the best part!

All of the students in the PEC got to travel to the high school and sing as a community with our high school music students! The students heard the beautiful music from our high school orchestra, band, and chorus students and engaged in a holiday sing along.

The PEC students talked about their experience in music class. They said that it felt so magical to sing together like that.

Mrs. Allen-Thomas’ class celebrated the holidays with their annual Holiday Show and Polar Express. At the show, we sang holiday songs for our parents and showed off all our fabulous crafts and props. Another Kindergarten tradition is our Polar Express party. On the Polar Express we had hot chocolate and cookies while reading the Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg and sang Christmas carols. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Service Learning is part of our Primary curriculum. In the month of December, the P.E.C. collected hundreds of mittens, hats, scarves, gloves, and socks for families in need for the winter months. After reading The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen to kick off this project, the children earned the items they wished to donate by helping out at home. Folding laundry, drying the dishes or setting the table were some of the chores that the children wrote on their paper mittens. The trees were a beautiful display of everyone’s kindness at the holidays. Below are the pictures of of our fabulous mitten trees and the generous donations given to the United Way of Niagara to distribute to various organizations to help families in need.

Thank you PEC children and families for making the world a better place.

Our morning announcements are uploaded by 9:30am every day and are organized by monthly folders. Each week, a different class leads our school pledge. We celebrate birthdays, leadership, and special events on our student-led Morning Announcements. Click the below link to view. Please remember to never post our videos to social media in order to protect the privacy of other students. For any questions, please contact Mrs. Lindahl, our Morning News Producer, by email hlindahl@lew-port.com.

The PEC has been practicing all things Leader in Me! From learning what each Habit is all about, to creating classroom mission statements and leadership roles, to building leadership portfolios that will showcase our growth as students and leaders - students here at the PEC have been living and thriving as leaders!

You can incorporate leadership work at home. Here are some ideas that will help with roles your student can have at home to support your family unit. Have a dinner table conversation about them and see if you, as a family unit, can pinpoint other areas that could use some support. I bet you will be surprised what your student comes up with!

• This page is dedicated to helping parents get started with Parent Portal. Having access to Parent Portal and using the app can be an extremely helpful way to receive important information regarding your child's grades, missing assignments, and other important updates. It can also be used to verify your contact information in our PowerSchool System.

  Helpful Resources:

  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). Written instructions are also available here.

  3. Presentation that walks you through the steps of updating your contact information.

  4. Presentation showing you how to update New York State mandated Digital Equity information.

  What do I need to get started?

  *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.

  Here's how to add a student to an existing PowerSchool Parent Portal account:

  1. 1. Sign in to the Parent Portal
  2. 2. Select Account Preferences from the left menu bar
  3. 3. Click the Students tab
  4. 4. Click Add
  5. 5. Enter the student's name, Access ID, and Access Password
  6. 6. Select the student's relationship
  7. 7. Click Submit

     District Code: CSXQ

  8. 
     

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.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSft9K1RiDe21tZ6OZP--y8uaIGuTKJG-a9MuZaHxlUjJR3r5Q/viewform