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

MARCH
3 - PTA Meeting
17-21 - Spring Break

April
7 - PTA Meeting
18 - No School
21 - No School Staff Development

We will have hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math activities and demonstrations. A few more volunteers are needed. If you're available, please sign up here.

Let’s take a look at the next part of the STEAM design process and look at the idea of Planning.  This month your student(s) can earn their PLAN Badge by designing the ultimate fort. Watch the video and share a story with Mrs. Hewitt and get ready to design your dream fort, all while using the STEAM design process!  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 PLAN 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.

Click here to order a 2024/2025 Pinecrest Yearbook!

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

2025-2026 Class Placement

If you wish to provide specific input in regards to your student's 2025-2026 classroom assignment, you may pick up a Class Placement Form in the Main Office. Please have these forms returned by Friday, April 11th.

Keep Sick Kids Home

We have seen an increase in the number of people sick lately with diseases like Influenza, RSV, Strep, and Covid-19.  

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.

Report Cards

Semester 1 Report Cards were available on Infinite Campus Parent Portal beginning January 28th under Documents. If you do not have access to your Parent Portal, please email pzais@isd200.org for your Activation Key.

Visit our Pinecrest Elementary Community Facebook Page for more information!

Music Notes

The Music Room has been a busy place as we have had Natalie Robuck from St. Olaf join us here.  An introductory letter is at the end of this update.

Grade 4 is practicing their rhythms ti-tika and tika-ti as well as their new melody house “Fa”.  We will soon begin our unit on the absolute note names as we prepare for recorders, which we will begin after spring break.

Grade 3 is reading, writing and singing their new house, Low La.  A new syncopated rhythm called ti-tah-ti just joined our vocabulary of rhythms and we have been creating rhythm patterns with ti-tah-ti. 

Grade 2 is practicing reading, writing, performing and creating with their melodic houses “Do, Mi, Sol and La”.  In addition, we have been practicing our new melodic house, re.

Grade 1 students are working on the difference between beat and rhythm and recognizing the time signature, bar lines and double bar lines.  We are practicing the reading of tah, ti-ti, and rest, (that is quarter note, eighth notes and quarter rest).  Next up in our scope and sequence is melody, or how music goes up and down.

Kindergarten students have had a lot of fun discovering how music can be loud and soft as well as fast and slow. Our new concept, inner hearing, will be our focus for the next couple of weeks.

 Our Pinecrest Choir will continue our Tuesday morning rehearsals.  We will be combining with the Kennedy and McAullife choirs for an evening concert on Monday, May 5th  at 6:30pm in the Hastings Middle School Auditorium.

A letter from Ms. Robuck:

Dear Families,

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Natalie Robuck, and I will be student teaching in your child’s classroom. I am studying music education at St. Olaf College and student teaching with Ms. Lisa Poncelet. I am excited to begin this professional semester, which is the final requirement for me to become a licensed teacher. I will be in the classroom every day now through Spring Break.

As a student teacher, I will begin by observing in Ms. Poncelet’s classroom so that I can implement consistent rituals and routines with the students. I will be planning lessons with Ms. Poncelet that follow the school curriculum, as I gradually take on the responsibilities of the classroom teacher.

In my time at St. Olaf I have had many experiences that have prepared me for this. I was a Teacher’s Assistant for two and a half years in different music courses at St. Olaf, and I have been very involved in the music program. I directed a choir as a part of my Advanced Conducting class last fall, and I have directed a handbell choir for 2 years. For the past three summers I was a counselor at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan, and absolutely loved it. This January I was a practicum student teacher at Richfield Middle School and Richfield High School.

I appreciate this opportunity to work with your child. I look forward to working with them, and to meeting you!

Sincerely,

Natalie Robuck

Art Corner

As the weather is getting warmer our projects in the art room are getting even more COLORFUL!! We have been learning about each element of art and have learned about line and shape so far! We have now been focusing on COLOR in art! 

Fourth grade artists refreshed their brains on different color schemes we can create from colors on the color wheel. We looked at primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors before learning a new color scheme, analogous colors! An analogous color scheme is created by pairing any 3 colors that are in a row on the color wheel together! We used this color scheme to color in our lava lamps we drew! This project is turning out awesome, and it is so fun to see everyones’ unique color combinations!

In third grade we have been mixing a whole bunch of elements together for our last couple of projects! We learned all about the African-American artist Lous Mailou Jones and drew masks inspired by her art. We then learned about the Japanese inspired art of origami and created cats and dogs! We also did a collaborative art project with all of the third graders to create positive affirmation posters to hang in the hallway! We learned that monochromatic art means painting only using one color, and then we used this knowledge to create our monochromatic posters! 

Second grade artists learned about the difference between warm and cool colors. We took a look at the color wheel and made connections to images like sunsets and fires with warm colors and connections to images like icebergs, water, and the night sky for cool colors. We then used this new knowledge to create a pond inspired by the impressionist artwork of Claude Monet. We used cool colors to paint the pond and used warm colors to create our koi fish! 

In first grade we also spent some time looking at the color wheel to learn about warm and cool colors. Just like the second graders, we took a look at some images to help us remember the difference between the warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) and our cool colors (blue, purple, and green). We used oil pastels, colored pencils, and tempera paint cakes to create our sun and moon art project! 

Kindergarten artists have been busy at work continuing to experiment with different art materials and ways to create art! We have lately been working with tempera paints which are definitely way different than the watercolor paint cakes that we are used to working with! We have taken time to learn about paint brush care, not wasting paint, staying clean, and how to clean up our paint and brushes at the end of class! They have done a fantastic job working with new art materials! While getting used to using this new type of paint we created colorful flowers and ice cream snowman cones! Both projects turned out absolutely adorable! 

The students here at Pinecrest Elementary continue to truly impress me with their creative minds and talents in art!! We take a lot of time to create art we are proud of- please keep an eye out for the projects your kiddo brings home so that you can see what we have been working hard to create each week! 

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 checking out your student 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. Please mark your calendars for the Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC) 2024-2025 meeting dates!

• April 2025 - All Dakota County SEAC - Date, time, and location TBD

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