Lake Hills Lions Parent Newsletter

It's been a great, 🚌and kinda wacky🚌, start to the 2025-2026 school year! We appreciate everyone's patience with the bus challenge the second week of school.

Our students are getting into the nitty gritty of their academic year. This year we are using IXL to determine where students need help. IXL also creates a personalized learning plan for your child!

Want to keep up with school events and things happening in classrooms?

👍👍👍Make sure you "like" Lake Hills Facebook Page. 👍👍👍

What's new from the district? Check out Peachjar for flyers and community information!

Pre-K is off to a great start. Adjusting to our new classrooms. Learning transitions, interacting with peers, and creating memories.

Our kindergarteners are off to a great start learning routines and school rules. We are learning all about each other and our names and how to be play experts and make playing fun. For science we began incubating eggs and learning about life cycles. Miss Bruhler’s class has duck eggs and Mrs. Wagner’s class has chicken eggs. We are also learning how to use our devices and they are being sent home each day in case of an emergency and we do not have school, but are to be returned each school day. It is going to be an amazing year and can not wait to see how much we grow and learn.

First grade is off to an amazing start to the school year. We are diving right into the classroom and school procedures. We are learning new phonics rules to improve our reading and writing. We are working on enhancing our addition and subtraction skills in math. In modules, we are answering the question “Why do we need tools?”

Students in second grade are busy with many things! We are improving our addition and subtraction skills using blocks and tally marks. We are learning about schools around the world. We are getting ready to dive into learning about inventors. We are very excited because this week we will start working with the instructional assistants and paraprofessionals to do small group work in phonics and language learning. It’s going to be a great year!

Third grade is off to an exciting start! We are getting to know one another and learning about each other’s unique personalities, which makes our classroom community even more special.

In math, we are reviewing addition and subtraction concepts and diving into regrouping. Please keep practicing those math facts at home with your students—it makes such a big difference!

In reading, we are focusing on the theme of overcoming learning challenges. We’re exploring books that highlight the struggles some children face in obtaining books and how they persevere.

Each day, we’re also building skills through programs like IXL and Xtra Math.

We're so excited about all the learning and growth ahead this year, and look forward to sharing the journey with your students!

We are off to a great start in 4th grade! We are learning more about each other and the amount of maturing that happened over the summer is exciting and encouraging. As a unified classroom, we are learning to teach each other with respect while we embrace our uniqueness, differences and those things we have in common. We are doing some pretesting and getting ready to start our 4th grade curriculum. Math facts are essential in this grade since most of our math uses some form of multiplication.

In fifth grade, students made “All About Me” bags and brought in three items that represented who they are. They presented the items to the class. It was so cool learning about all about the students! Also, students are in the process of “Stepping into the Arena” on IXL for diagnostic testing, so we can meet them where they are at. Reading Module 1 starts our journey with Esperanza and how her life changes in an instant. In math, we are working on volume. Practice those math facts at home!

Our sixth graders are beginning the year with enthusiasm and curiosity. We’re taking time to get to know one another, review grade-level expectations and procedures, and dive into some of the exciting topics we’ll be exploring this year. With such a strong start, we have high hopes that this will be an amazing year for everyone!

The art room is half way through our first unit: Line and Pattern in art. Nearly everyone is finished with the first piece, making a watercolor background. First and second grades are using oil pastels to create a wax resist. Third through sixth grades are using sharpies and templates to create lines and patterns on their watercolor background papers.

We thank Miss River for helping in music!

The gym has been alive with movement as we launch into the year. We’ve spent a lot of time learning how to play safely in the gym and with others, and we’ve also spent a lot of time doing balance and running activities. In the coming weeks, we look forward to switching it up and playing new games and sports.

Please refer to the MCAS Student/Parent handbook pages 5-7 for detailed information pertaining to our attendance policy.

The Indiana Department of Education considers any student not in school for 95% of the year to be excessively absent.

To stay within the state guidelines a student must be present for 170 out of 180 school days. Students missing more than 10 days in an academic year are considered to have excessive absences.

• State Expectation is 95% or Higher

• Attendance letters are sent after 3 absences followed by additional letters, home visits, parent meeting, and referrals to the attendance officers by the 10th absence.

PLEASE MAKE SURE STUDENTS ARE PRESENT AND ON TIME DAILY!

What is Simple Discipline?

Simple Discipline is a Behavior Management Systems allow school administrators to track student behavior over time, and complete necessary forms and communicate with parents in a timely manner.

See pages 22-27 in the MCAS Student/Parent Handbook for Code of Conduct information.

Positive referral - staff can enter a positive referral to share the kind and great things students are doing with families and administrators.

Minor Infraction - Items in violation of school code of conduct and/or classroom expectations that are often handled by the classroom teacher.

Discipline Incident - Items in violation of the school code of conduct that is forwarded to an administrator for review.

Please make sure your email is up to date in Powerschool so you can receive behavioral correspondance!

21 students were recognized for positive behavior!!!

Emails were automatically sent to families highlighting why students received the positive referral.

🦁Students name gets added to the Wall of PAWSitivity!🦁

Tryouts were held and the team has been announced! Good luck, Lions!!

All games are in the Class Dojo School calendar. You can also find the schedule here.

Dates are subject to change.

Parent Group meets the third Tuesday of each month from 4-5pm.

Second Steps, our SEL program, is off to a great start! Lessons have begun weekly in classrooms discussing emotions and how to navigate them. Go College Week is September 22-26th, we will be talking about College and Careers. We are excited Ms.Maher, our Success Coach, is here half the week this year! She is an amazing resource for our families and students, please feel free to reach out to her!

Breakfast is served until 8:45 am.

Find the lunch menu here!

Please let the school know if your child has any allergies.

Sharing of any outside food is not allowed.

It is a part of our School Boards Wellness policy.

Only single serve bag of chips and candy are allowed.

Please contact Mrs. Reid if you have any questions or concerns.

Welcome to the 2025-2026 school year! Just a few things for your school nurse. Please make sure your child or children are all caught up on their required immunizations. The exclusions date will be October 1st, and notes will be heading home soon.

Also, with the weather changing, please encourage the children to dress properly, wash hands frequently and eat well balanced meals.

If your child has allergy issues, now is the time to start the allergy meds (if used), as this will help nip it before full blown fall hits. I hope everyone has a safe and healthy school year!

• School starts at 8:45.
• Dismissal at 3:00. All early dismissal requests must be made before 2:30 to ensure we have enough time to notify staff.
• Elementary School Dress Code - No slides or sandals are allowed for safety reasons.

Lake Hills Elementary School

Principal: Mrs. Tara Stachowiak

Main Office: Mrs. Aldora Rowley

Website: https://lakehills.educatemc.net/
Location: 201 Ferguson Rd. Michigcan City, IN 46360
Phone: (219) 873-2105
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeHillsElementary