A few important dates and announcements for your planning:

9.28 - Team Lincoln Night from 5:30-6:30 PM (more information below)

9.30 - 4th Grade Orchestra Beginner Bootcamp at Cedar Falls High School

10.1 - Hy Vee receipts due to the Lincoln Office

Team Lincoln Night! (https://tinyurl.com/mr83nxub)  We would like to invite our families to join us at school on Thursday, September 28th from 5:30-6:30 PM for Team Lincoln Night! We will have an open house format to allow families to visit the classrooms for each of their students to learn about reading services available at Lincoln as well as our classroom work in reading, writing and math! Here is a quick look at the sessions being offered at each grade level:

Kindergarten: Make and take writing activity support and Nursery Rhyme booklets

1st: CKLA Word Sorts and Math games
2nd: Student led Goose Chase highlighting curricular areas and the classroom

3rd: All About Spelling Practice 

4th: Multiplication Math Game, Comprehension Bookmarks, 7 Habits Bingo Board  

5th: Highlighting Student Personal Narratives

6th: Learning about CKLA lessons and tools including the vocabulary app, Library and Myth Quest, sharing about SSR and student Reading goals

Media Center: Make and take stations including leaf gliders, joke catchers, bookmarks and bookmark coloring

Art Room: Haiku writing (designed for older students) and a painting station (designed for younger siblings)

We will see you there!

Illustrative Math - We are excited to continue to deliver Illustrative Math to our students this year! This is a problem-based curriculum where students spend most of their time in class working on problems. Teachers help students understand the problems, ask questions to push their thinking and facilitate discussions to help students. Our goal is to help students build understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures as well as to apply this knowledge to new situations. During Math, students will collaborate with their classmates to talk about math, listen to each other’s ideas, justify their thinking and discuss their thinking. They gain experience communicating their ideas both verbally and in writing. This kind of instruction may look different from what you experienced in your own math education. Current research says that students need to be able to think flexibly in order to use mathematical skills in their lives and also on the types of tests they will encounter. Flexible thinking relies on understanding concepts and making connections between them. We plan to share family support materials for each unit as we appreciate your support at home!

Kindergarten Unit 1 (https://tinyurl.com/5n7cay6m) 

1st Grade Unit 2 (https://tinyurl.com/4bjpdy25) 

2nd Grade Unit 1 (https://tinyurl.com/vn3zr8sr) 

3rd Grade Unit 1 (https://tinyurl.com/2hz4p56s) 

4th Grade Unit 2 (https://tinyurl.com/45wcwfnj) 

5th Grade Unit 2 (https://tinyurl.com/2p8c48jn) 

6th Grade Unit 2 (https://tinyurl.com/3hyyc6dh) 

Backpack Program (https://tinyurl.com/4yfrncmb) - Lincoln Elementary is again partnering with the Northeast Iowa Food Bank to offer the Backpack Program to students during the 2023-2024 school year. This is a free program that provides kid-friendly non-perishable food for students to eat over weekends and breaks when school meals are not available. Lincoln will begin sending food bags home in October, and will continue on most Fridays for the rest of the school year. If your family would like to participate, please complete the attached registration form, or call Mrs. Jacobsen at 553-2977 to register.

Safety Drills (https://tinyurl.com/mup38xzm)  - attached is a letter describing our planned safety drills for the school year. Due to building activities, please note the changes in dates. Please reach out to Mr. Bryant if you have any questions or concerns.

Would you be willing to take a short survey to help Lincoln PALS (Parents and Lincoln School) plan for the school year? (https://tinyurl.com/2mty9vv4) Our team would like your feedback to plan activities to support our school community. Thank you for your time!

Did you know saving Hy Vee Receipts is a simple way to raise funds to support our school? (https://tinyurl.com/3bayjtb9) You may save and send them to the Lincoln Office, Lincoln PALS will count at the beginning of each month and submit periodically to Hy Vee for funds to support our students, staff and school. 

We also collect Box Tops! (https://tinyurl.com/s98ea7w8) Box Tops is a program allowing schools to raise money. This process is now digital through the Box Tops app. Simply purchase Box Tops products, scan your receipt within 14 days and that’s it! If you purchase groceries digitally, receipts can be emailed to receipts@boxtops4education.com from an email address connected to your account. These funds support our students, staff and school.

We are excited to share that we have a new curricular resource to help us teach English and Language Arts! The resource we are using in our district is called CKLA (Core Knowledge Language Arts) from grades Kindergarten through 5th and Amplify for 6th grade. We will send home paper copies of the “Caregiver Letter” each time we begin a new unit and want to share these with our families each week. We encourage you to use the conversation starters!

Kindergarten Unit 1 (https://tinyurl.com/2ne8rth8) 

1st Grade Unit 2 (https://tinyurl.com/4xzhs7zy)

2nd Grade Unit 2 (https://tinyurl.com/2p7rvute)  

3rd Grade Unit 1 (https://tinyurl.com/3a7vv5pb) 

4th Grade Unit 1 (https://tinyurl.com/bdcvrv3z) 

5th Grade Unit 1 (https://tinyurl.com/4mpvexae)

6th Grade Unit 1 (https://tinyurl.com/3t6nbxb2)

Cedar Falls High School Cheer Clinic - there is a cheer clinic being offered at Cedar Falls High School on Saturday, September 30th. Please click on the link to register!

Arrival And Dismissal - we are working to help our students safely enter and leave the building. In the morning, we will ask students to arrive between 8:30 and 8:45. They will report to their classrooms or to the cafeteria for breakfast if needed. At the end of the day, we will dismiss students beginning with Kindergarten and moving through 6th grade. Our staff will walk students to the door. Our Kindergarten and 1st grade students will dismiss at their outside classroom doors, second grade will dismiss onto the east playground, third grade will also dismiss onto the east playground, fourth grade will dismiss using our main entrance doors on 8th street and 5th and 6th grade will dismiss using our 7th street doors. We appreciate families making and following consistent after school plans. We will not have supervision for students prior to 8:30 AM each morning. Thank you for helping us support safe morning arrivals and afternoon dismissals!

Main Street Construction - due to construction on Main Street, students will be able to cross at 7th and Main Street. They will mark the area with cones to help! We will communicate any changes!

Wednesday Early Dismissal - we dismiss every Wednesday at 1:50 PM. Please be sure to set a reminder to pick up students promptly. Our staff use this time to collaborate to support learning for our students.

Snacks and Birthday Treats - We are proud to be a Blue Zones school and encourage healthy choices when students bring food for their daily snack. In addition, to support safety this school year when celebrating birthdays, we will ask for families to bring prepackaged items to minimize handling. Thank you!

Thank you for your support! We are looking forward to seeing you next week!

Respectfully,

Ralph Bryant

Lincoln Elementary Principal

Follow Lincoln On Social Media

Art: https://www.facebook.com/LincolnArtRoom/ 

Music: https://www.facebook.com/LincolnMusicCF/ 

Media Center: https://www.instagram.com/lincolnlibrarycf 

Physical Education: https://www.facebook.com/Lincolnphysicaleducation/ 

Lincoln Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CFLincolnElementary/ 

Lincoln Instagram: cflincoln

Lincoln Twitter: @CF_Lincoln