From our SEL, Social-Emotional Learning teacher, Ms Bushmann: 

I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know Leawood kids! What a great community to be a part of. Once again, my name is Melissa Bushmann, and I am Leawood’s Social Emotional Learning Specialist. I teach as well as collaborate with classroom teachers and Leawood’s full-time Social Worker, Jennifer Magri, to implement Second Step, our school’s social-emotional curriculum that builds skills for learning, empathy, emotion management, and problem solving.

Here are the skills we’ve most recently been working on in each grade:

Preschool: Identifying Feelings, Caring and Helping

Kindergarten: Identifying Feelings, Caring and Helping

First: Skills for Listening

Second: Being Respectful

Third: Showing Compassion, Making Friends

Fourth: Conversations and Compliments, Showing Compassion

Fifth: Being Assertive, Predicting Other’s Feelings

A great way to learn more about what your child is learning in Second Step is to ask them questions about what skills they are learning, why they might be important, and create some open space for both of you to share your thoughts with each other. You might ask, “Why or when might this skill be important at school? at home?” Or you could ask, “How could this skill help you learn and/or make friends?” If you have any questions about your child’s social-emotional learning, please feel free to reach out to your child’s classroom teacher or myself.

Last but not least, Jennifer Magri (Leawood Social Worker) and I created a website for Leawood student, family, and community supports. Please check it out: https://sites.google.com/jeffcoschools.us/studentfamilyandcommunitysuppo/home

Thanks for all you do to support your child’s social-emotional wellness!

Melissa Bushmann (Ms. Melissa)

Social Emotional Learning Specialist

melissa.bushmann@jeffco.k12.co.us

Mrs. Wheeler’s Art News December 2019

THANK YOU ALL 3RD AND 5TH GRADERS who made it to the Pirate Contemporary Art Gallery on November 1st! It was a great night filled with art and culture (and food!)

THANK YOU ALL 2ND GRADERS for all your hard work on your art and music showcase!  All artwork will be returned to kids December 19th or 20th! 

JANUARY ART CLUB: In January, we will be working with felt! K-2 kids will be making their own felt using roving and soap!  3-5 kids will be using felting tools to make a felt composition! If your student is interested in this art club, please fill out the Google Interest Form by December 15th so that I can order the correct amount of supplies. 

K-2 Felting Interest Form    3rd-5th Felting Interest Form

Curriculum Updates

5th: TAB - I can create a composition using the Elements of Art.  We are finishing up demos in watercolor and acrylic painting passport (formative assessment), then kids can create their own artwork, due at the end of each month, using one of the skills mastered in their drawing or painting center passports. Subject matter is up to them, materials are up to them (drawing: oil pastel, chalk pastel, pencil, colored pencil, marker, or crayon; painting: watercolor, acrylic) or collage or modeling clay.  They must include the Elements of Art and be able to explain, talk about it. Please visit my art teacher page on the Leawood site for more information about TAB! 

4th: Landscapes - I can create a landscape. Kids are making a drawing (oil pastel, chalk pastel, pencil, colored pencil, marker, or crayon) or collage creative landscapes.  This is a soft start into TAB. They have a choice in some materials, and what type of landscape, but I told them it had to be a landscape with a foreground, middle ground, background, focal point and horizon line! 

3rd: Architecture - I can create a structure.  Kids are building a 3D house in SketchUp. They are learning about using shapes to create forms, lines to create details, and how art/architecture can be used outside the art classroom.  

2nd: Portraits - I can create a portrait.  This is so fun. Kids are working on creating a realistic portrait, then an abstract portrait.  We will look at Picasso (piccasohead.com) for inspiration. 

1st: Patterns - I can create patterns in my art. Kids are working on various projects using patterns, including snowflakes, pinch pots, printmaking/collage. 

Kinder: Color and Shapes - I know my colors and shapes.  Kids are learning about primary colors, secondary colors and how to make secondary colors by mixing primary colors.  Then adding color to their shapes! We work on fine motor skills like coloring in the lines, cutting, gluing, etc.

Thank you!

Mrs. Wheeler, kate.wheeler@jeffco.k12.co.us

From the Library

Dear Families,

As we design our new library space, we would love help from community members with a background in interior design and/or painting.  If you can help, please fill out this short Library Design Survey.  

Fifth Grade Parents:

Each month, we learn a new Digital Citizenship skill.  November’s focus was News and Media Literacy. Please visit our 1:1 Chromebook Website to see these lessons and get family ideas for home discussion. 

Mrs. Pepper, lisa.pepper@jeffco.k12.co.us

From Music

Choir

December means winter concert time! Join us on December 18th at 6:30 P.M. at the Leawood Elementary stage and gym. Choir singers will be singing songs to get you or keep you in the winter spirit. We hope you can join us for the first choir concert of the year!

Kinder

In Kindergarten music, we are learning that music has a steady beat that can be slow or fast. But whether it is slow or fast, we can move, play, and sing to it. 

First

First grade is learning that there are names for high and low pitches in music. We are also learning to make beat-based musical compositions!

Second

Second grade was hard at work on their November program, now they are ready to jump into music composition. 

Third

Third grade is learning that beats can have many different sounds in them...sometimes one, two, three, four, and more!

Fourth 

Fourth grade is learning that there are sounds lower than do...Many sounds!

Fifth

Fifth grade is exploring musical composition with notes above and below do!

Thank you!

Mrs Turner, Avrial.Turner@jeffco.k12.co.us

Preschool:

Friday, December 6th is another assessment day. Preschool parents, please click the links below to sign up for a time:

Dragonfly: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4aa9ae29aaf94-mrshetterscheidt

Ladybugs: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4aa9ae29aaf94-mrs104

Here are our Winter Party Sign up Links 

Full Day Ladybugs, 2:45-3:30

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4aa9ae29aaf94-mrscoffeys

Dragonfly:  AM Class,11:00-11:45

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4aa9ae29aaf94-mrshetterscheidts

Dragonfly: PM Class, 2:45-3:30

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4aa9ae29aaf94-mrshetterscheidts1

We are learning about family traditions, and exploring: past, present and future. The preschool is learning about change and sequence over time.

The preschool is in need of the following items: 

• • hand soap

  • small bottles of tempera paint

  • watercolor paints

  • Elmer's white liquid glue

3rd grade 

Part of keeping a healthy garden is knowing what to do with it in the off months. The Third Grade classes took a beautiful Friday afternoon to “winterize” their garden bed from last year. This includes digging up the old plants, mixing the soil, burying the plants, and covering the soil with bags of leaves. While this was going on, third graders also made a giant flag for Veterans Day with paint and hand prints. You may have noticed it on the stage during the Veterans Day behind the risers on the stage!  

4th Grade:

Fourth grade has been learning about energy resources and natural resources. Students understand that while energy is constantly moving around and through us, it appears in many different forms. Students have been exploring different forms of energy and how energy transfers and transforms in a system. We have gather information from a variety of sources to understand the origin, utilization, and concerns associated with renewable and nonrenewable resources. Please see 3D models that students have created to represent their energy source!

5th grade:  

A part of our social studies unit of exploring the colonial period, we invited a guest who brought in colonial games, and taught us about a day in the life of a child in the year 1669.  We learned how to play jacks and marbles, we signed our names with a quill pen, we combed out wool and spun it into yarn, and we made leather buttons.

A Message from Band and Orchestra!

Hello Band and Orchestra Parents and Guardians, 

Thank you so much for a successful first concert of the school year. Your students did an amazing job demonstrating their learning for the community, and I’m very excited to continue growing as a musical ensemble throughout the rest of the school year. 

We have two more evening concerts for our 2019-20 school year. Please make sure these dates are in your family’s calendar. The area music festival is always a great event because you will have a chance to hear our Columbine Area 5th grade, Ken Caryl Middle, and Columbine High School music groups perform. 

January 22, 2020 – Area Music Festival

May 11, 2020 – Spring Columbine Area Elementary Concert

In addition to our outside of school concerts, we are also planning a spring performance tour. This is a day of traveling around to all five school in our articulation area to give our students a chance to perform for their peers and get the younger students excited about joining instrumental music next year. Our date for the 2020 music tour is Wednesday May 6th during the school day. In order to have a successful event I am in need of parent volunteers to travel with us and help me chaperone the students. Please contact me if you might be available, and let me know if you have any further questions. 

Sincerely,

Eric R. Whaylen 

Instrumental Music

Columbine Articulation Area

eric.whaylen@jeffco.k12.co.us

From Our Principal

From the School & Office

From Our Teachers

From PTSA/Accountability  

From the District/Community

Student, Family, & Community Supports