7:40 - 7:55: All students should arrive and enter through the main doors. Breakfast is served. Students may not enter the building until the bell rings at 7:40.

8:00 am: School begins

2:35 pm: Dismissal for all walkers

2:40 pm: Dismissal for bussers

April
7 - PTA Meeting
18 - No School - Spring Holiday
21 - No School - Staff Development
28 - PTA Meeting

May
1 - Fun Run
12 - PTA Meeting
26 - No School - Memorial Day

June
2 - PTA Meeting
5 - Carnival
5 - Last Day of School

Student Wellness Survey

During the week of April 7th, our 3rd and 4th grade students will be taking the annual Student Wellness Survey. It helps us to understand each student's current health and well-being. Please use the link below to preview the survey and to access the opt-out form. If you choose to complete the opt-out form, please return the form to the main office.

Link to Survey Documents

This month we are creating using the STEAM design process. Join Mrs. Hewitt by clicking HERE and see what kind of fun Molly Lou Melon has when she creates her own toys and uses her imagination finding toys in the clouds.  Then work alongside Mrs. Hewitt.  First she’ll use some more advanced supplies to make a cloud in her kitchen.  Then you’ll get a chance to make one using supplies you have in your house.  If you complete the activity found in the video, make sure to let Mrs. Hewitt know by clicking here so your student(s) can earn their CREATE Badge.

New to STEAM Badges: What does this mean? Each month from now until the end of the school year watch our newsletter for our STEAM Badge Update.  Each month your student(s) will have the chance to work with Mrs. Hewitt on a STEAM project at home. Through her video she will read a story and talk about a STEAM project to try at home.  When students finish their project, use this link to earn this month’s badge. Each month’s entry earns them another badge. At the end of the year students will receive a certificate with all their badges.

Miss a previous month?
Check out January by clicking here!
Bounce back to February by clicking here.
Revisit March’s badge by clicking here.

2025-26 Kindergarten Enrollment

Kindergarten enrollment is open. Please enroll your incoming Kindergartner as soon as possible. Click HERE to get started.

If your student has not completed Early Childhood Screening, call 651-480-7381 or click HERE to get this scheduled.

A New Way to Report Absences

Introverts rejoice! You no longer have to call anyone on the phone to report your child's absence! If it is a full-day absence, you are now able to report it via your parent portal. Please see the instructions below and head here for more information.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING AN ABSENCE REQUEST

1. Log into your Campus Parent Portal Account (via a computer or using the mobile app)

2. Select MORE and then ABSENCE REQUEST (or look under "Shortcuts" for the Absence Request link)

3. Fill in the required information including:

   • Mark the student(s) who will be absent

   • Select the reason the student will be absent from the Excuse dropdown list

   • Select "Full Day Absence" as the Absence type.

   • Select the date(s) the student will be absent.

   • Use the comments field to provide additional details on the absence

4. Click on the Submit button to save and submit your request

Immunizations

In order to attend school, students must show that they're in compliance with Minnesota School Immunization Requirements (see the Minnesota Department of Health Link below for more Information). Hastings School's immunization policy states that students who are not up to date on their immunizations will not be allowed to start school until they provide the school with documentation that they have received the required immunizations.

Parents/guardians may check their student's immunization status by logging on to the parent portal in Infinite Campus. To see the immunization records, click on the HEALTH tab. If your student's immunization status says "current for grade" in ALL immunizations required by law, then the student is up to date and ready for the start of school. If your student is not current, they will need to get the required immunizations to attend the first day of school. Yearly physicals with their healthcare provider are strongly encouraged for students to have optimal health.

Parents/guardians may choose to decline immunizations for their students by filing a legal exemption with the school. Student Immunization Form

If you have further questions, please reach out to our building nurse: Carly Grems, cgrems@isd200.org

Keep Sick Kids Home

If your child is ill, please keep them home from school and school-based activities. People who are ill spread the disease to others! The Center for Disease Control recommends that people who are sick stay home for at least 24 hours after the fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. The fever should be gone WITHOUT the use of fever-reducing medicine.

A student should not come to school (and may be sent home from school) if they have or have had:

• a fever of 100 degrees F or more in the past 24 hours

• vomiting or diarrhea in the past 24 hours

• an undiagnosed skin rash

If you have further questions, please reach out to Carly in our health office at 651-480-7286.

Visit our Pinecrest Elementary Community Facebook Page for more information!

Music Notes

As we approach the end of the year, Fourth Graders will be working on the staff and absolute pitch names.  This unit will prepare them for their music classes at the Middle School.   We are super excited to transfer this learning to recorders now in April.

Third Graders have learned a new rhythm, ti-tah-ti, otherwise known as syncopation. We have been reading it and writing it in our music classes.  In addition, we are reading a couple of new pitches that are lower on music street.  Low la and Low Sol have moved in our new cul-de-sac below Grandma Do.  We are reading and performing this two new pitches.

Second Graders have been practicing reading and writing our new house “Re”.  In addition, we have discovered a new form of harmony called “partner songs”. Be sure to ask your student about this new vocabulary word. 

First Graders have been doing an amazing job of writing their own music using tah, ti-ti and rest, as well as the time signature, bar lines and measures.  Big Brother Sol and his little brother Mi just found their houses on Music Street.  We are excited to share all of this with you during our music informances on Thursday and Friday, April 10 and April 11.

Kindergarten students have been busy exploring the unique timbres of our various percussion instruments.  As the students recognize these sounds, this helps them with phonemic awareness and their reading skills as well.  In addition we have been working on identifying high sounds and low sounds.  April will be a busy month as we accomplish learning all of these.

Finally, our Pinecrest Choir continues to meet on Tuesday mornings at 7:15am in the Pinecrest music room, in preparation for their Spring Finale Concert on Monday, May 5 at 6:30pm in the Middle School Auditorium.  We hope you all can join us for this spectacular event as the Elementary Choirs from McAuliffe and Kennedy will be participating as well.

Art Corner

April is finally here and the weather is getting warmer!! Artists here in the Pinecrest elementary school art room are hard at work creating many awesome artworks. Over the past few months we have been focusing on different elements of art in each project. We started with LINE then SHAPE and then COLOR. Lately we have been wrapping up COLOR projects as well as learning all about VALUE!! 

Fourth grade artists have been continuing to learn about different COLOR schemes. In the last project they learned about how a set of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors create an analogous color scheme. In their current project they learned about how 2 colors across from each other on the color wheel creates a complementary color scheme! We created an optical illusion artwork by creating and showing value with colored pencils. Their ability to create light and dark colors with colored pencils really make their artwork look like it is 3D on the paper!!

In third grade we have been working hard on our Tom Schulten Inspired Cityscapes! We took time to observe the artwork and style of the artist Tom Schulten. We also learned about value– learning about vocab terms such as hue, tint, and shade. Third grade artists have been doing an awesome job creating different tints with paint as we paint in our grid-style cityscapes. This project is still in progress and is so close to being finished!

In second grade we have been learning about the cultural meaning of koi fish and where they have been seen in different artworks! We learned about warm and cool color schemes, the impressionist art style of the artist Claude Monet, as well as following a guided drawing to learn how to use lines and shapes to draw 2 koi fish. We finished up this project and are moving onto learning about value and how to create it with paint as we start our “Value Cow” project. 

First grade artists have been working super hard learning ALL about the color wheel! We have been learning about different vocabulary words such as primary colors and secondary colors. In their “Color Wheel Lion” art project they learned how they can use the 3 primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) to mix and create the 3 secondary colors (orange, purple, and green). We have been practicing color mixing and painting with good craftsmanship, and they have been doing an awesome job!!

Kindergarten artists helped decorate the hallway outside of the art room by creating a colorful flower display! Each kindergartener painted a spring inspired flower before they were cut out and hung out in the hallway for everyone to enjoy!! We have currently been working on our POP ART projects. We looked at some comic book style artworks that were created by an artist named Roy Lichenstein. We also learned about the 3 primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), and how Lichtenstein used those 3 colors to create his famous pop art artworks!

We also have some exciting news! There will be an art display up in the Pleasant Hill Public Library that will be filled with artworks from super artists here at Pinecrest Elementary School! Students will be notified if their artwork is chosen for this display! This is an awesome opportunity for our students to get their artwork seen by the public!!

Early Pickup and End of Day Transportation Changes

When there is a change to your child’s normal dismissal plan, please contact the main office at 651-480-7280 by 1:35 pm if possible so we are able to get a message to your child and their teacher before the end of the day.

Bring Your ID

Please bring your valid driver's license with you and check in at the front office when you are picking up your student early or visiting our school.

Parents of students with special needs are invited to join Hastings' Special Education Staff in discussing how to support one another and providing input on district programming.

For more information about SEAC or if you are interested in becoming a member, please contact Jill Petersen at 651-480-7008 or jpetersen@isd200.org

Order your Spirit Wear! Can be customized to our school!

Hastings Public Schools

The Hastings School District consists of approximately 4,300 students. Please click on the links below to email the building principal or site leader. We've also included the phone numbers to the main offices of each of our district's sites:

• Tilden Community Center 651-480-7670

• Kennedy Elementary (K-4) 651-480-7221

• McAuliffe Elementary (K-4) 651-480-7390

• Pinecrest Elementary (K-4) 651-480-7280

• Hastings Middle School(5-8) 651-480-7060

• Hastings High School (9-12) 651-480-7470

• Hastings Alternative Learning Center 651-480-7690

*If you need any assistance in translating this newsletter, contact us at kgorr@isd200.org.

Website: www.hastings.k12.mn.us
Location: 1000 11th Street West, Hastings, MN, USA
Phone: 651-480-7000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hastingspublicschools