Embedded Files
CHOIR
CHOIR
Leawood Choir is a tradition in our school. All 4th and 5th grade students are invited to join choir! We will meet on Wednesdays after school until 3:30 p.m. In the music room to sing, play instruments, and make music. The choir will be featured at Night of the Arts, Columbine HS Choral Festival, and will participate in singing the national anthem at a Rockies game – and more! Cost is $25 which includes a choir tshirt and our music selections. Choir starts September 4th.
A Message From The Social Emotional Learning Specialist
A Message From The Social Emotional Learning Specialist
Dear Leawood Family,
The Leawood community works together to ensure high levels of learning for all. This includes not only being attentive to academic growth, but also recognizing that the social and emotional growth of students is critically important. Current research indicates a direct connection between students’ emotional well-being and their academic performance. We are dedicated to creating academic and social-emotional support linked directly to the assessed needs of our students. We now have the opportunity to systematically screen the social and emotional skills of all our students. We will be using the Social Skills Improvement System™ Social-Emotional Learning Edition Screening/Progress Monitoring Scales (SSIS SEL) to screen students' social-emotional competencies. Click here for more information.
SSIS SEL Information: The SSIS SEL Edition Screening/Progress Monitoring Scales is a strength-based tool for screening and progress monitoring social and emotional competence. Teachers will be asked to score each student in their class in the eight following areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.
How will the data be used? The screener and scoring information for individual students will remain at CHE and all information will be kept confidential. The information acquired through the screener will guide our development of school-wide, small group, and/or individual social-emotional interventions. You will be notified if your child is invited to join a small group or individual intervention.
Need more information? If you would like to review the content of the screener, please click here. If you have questions or concerns, you are welcome to contact:
Jeni Wells (Social Emotional Learning Specialist) at jenifer.wells@jeffco.k12.co.us
Prefer your child not be screened? Please respond by filling out the information below and return this form to your student’s teacher by Wednesday, September 27th. You do not need to fill out and return this form if you are ok with your child being screened. If you opt your child out, this will not affect the relationship between the school and you and your child in any way.
________I will opt out of the SSIS SEL screening for my child
Student Name (print first and last)_________________________________________________________
Parent/Guardian Name __________________________________________________________________
Phone Number or Email: ________________________________________________________________
NOTE: You do not need to fill out and return this form if you are ok with your child being screened
Sincerely,
Jeni Wells
Social Emotional Learning Specialist
Columbine Hills and Leawood Elementary Schools
(303)982-8088
**Hello Leawood Lions! My name is Leslie Rains and I am the new DTL (Digital Teacher Librarian) at Leawood Elementary. I have already felt so welcomed into the Leawood Pride! I am paired between two schools and my other school is Governor's Ranch Elementary. I am at Leawood on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and some Fridays. This is my 21st year in education and my 8th year as an elementary teacher librarian.
Our digital citizenship focus in August was student expectations and device care. I visited 1st grade classrooms to talk with students about proper care of their Chromebooks, and other grade levels should have reviewed this with their classroom teachers. Some of the topics we discussed were carrying the device with two hands, protecting the delicate screen, keeping water bottles and food away, charging safely, and keeping passwords safe. Please read the following Chromebook Information Letter to learn more about the Chromebook and charger provided to your students through Jeffco's Tech for Ed program.
Check your child's Friday folder to find a printed copy of Leawood's Technology Contract. Thank you for for reading through it with your student and returning it to the classroom teacher. I look forward to getting to know you and your students this year!
Leawood's Makerspace offers opportunities for students to engage in a variety of cooperative and creative work. Students visit the Makerspace on a weekly or monthly basis. There are three areas in the room for them to explore:
Under Construction (Legos, Magnatiles, Keva Blocks, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Clixo's, etc.)
Bot Play: Dash Robots, Cubelets
Creative Corner: Variety of crafting materials for students to be creative with
We are always accepting donations of disposable crafting items to help offset the costs of the Creative Corner space. Below is a list of items we are always accepting:
Pipe cleaners
Paper bags
Cloth scraps
Muffin cups
White Coffee filters
Colored paper
Straws
Popsicle sticks
Beads
Googly Eyes
Dried Beans
Tissue Paper
Clothes Pins
Cardboard scraps
Ribbons/Yarn
White Elmer's Glue
Any small, clean, household items (bubble wrap scraps, packaging materials, buttons, rubber bands, etc.)
Donations can be dropped off at the office. Thank you for your support!
Illustrative Math
Illustrative Math
As we continue our implementation with IM, I thought I'd take a moment to review how Illustrative Math is different than our previous math curriculum.
What is a problem-based curriculum?
In a problem-based curriculum, students spend most of their time in class working on carefully crafted and sequenced problems. Teachers help students understand the problems, ask questions to push their thinking, and orchestrate discussions to be sure that the mathematical takeaways are clear. Learners gain a rich and lasting understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures and experience applying this knowledge to new situations. Students frequently collaborate with their classmates—they talk about math, listen to each other’s ideas, justify their thinking, and critique the reasoning of others. They gain experience communicating their ideas both verbally and in writing, developing skills that will serve them well throughout their lives.
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 throughout their schooling). Flexible thinking relies on understanding concepts and making connections between them. Over time, students gain the skills and the confidence to independently solve problems that they've never seen before.
What supports are in the materials to help my student succeed?
Warm-ups: Each lesson begins with a warm-up routine that is an invitation to the mathematics of the lesson. The same routines are used throughout the entire curriculum, and students become very familiar with the structure of the routines. During warm-up routines, all students are encouraged to share their developing ideas, ask questions, and respond to the reasoning of others.
Activity and Lesson Syntheses: Each activity and lesson includes a synthesis that provides an opportunity for students to discuss key mathematical ideas of the activity/lesson and incorporate their new insights into their big-picture understanding.
Section Summaries: Each section is followed by a section summary that describes the key mathematical ideas discussed in the section. The summaries include visuals and worked examples of problems when relevant. Students can use the section summaries to review the topics covered in the section.
Representations: There are a limited number of representations thoughtfully introduced in the curriculum and students are encouraged to use the representations that make sense to them. These representations help students develop an understanding of the content as well as solve problems.
If you have questions about Illustrative Math feel free to reach out to your child's teacher or our instructional coach Jamie Kelley - jamie.kelley@jeffco.k12.co.us
Gifted & Talented Learning @ Leawood
Gifted & Talented Learning @ Leawood
We are excited to share with families some of the updates around Gifted and Talented learning at Leawood this year.
Students identified with a Math ALP goals (grades 2-5) will have the opportunity to use Beast Academy this fall. Beast Academy (BA) is the elementary math program created by Art of Problem Solving, a global leader in advanced K–12 math education. Beast Academy shows positive results for gifted math student outcomes; including improved math test scores, self-efficacy, motivation, persistence, and confidence.
Additional pull out math enrichment activities will be occurring throughout the year providing students opportunities to participate in activities to deepen learning and problem solving.
We are also implementing Unit of Study in grades one through five from the William and Mary GT Curriculum. The units are thematic and combine reading, writing, thinking, and discussion. Grades 1 and 2 are exploring the theme: Beyond Words. Grades 3 and 4 theme is explore, discover, reveal. Grade 5's theme is Mind Your Time. Look for letters coming home from teachers with more information, if your student is participating.
We will also be launching a new Leawood GT website in the near future.
If you have questions about GT at Leawood feel free to reach out to your child's teacher or our instructional coach Jamie Kelley - jamie.kelley@jeffco.k12.co.us
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