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The Last Week of School

3rd Grade Overnight

We had an incredible trip with our Suns to the YMCA Camp at Estes Park. As we played and explored for hours in nature we were reminded about the importance of staying connected to our forests and other natural surroundings. Kids built fairy houses and forts, ducked under buzzing hummingbirds, and listened to rushing sounds of rivers flowing past us. It was truly a magical couple of days. Ask your child about: hiking Bible Point, wildlife, playing in nature, the un-talent show, the cabin, the night-hike, our final circle, their favorite part, and any challenges they overcame.

Teddy Bear Sleepover

This is a tradition for when the kindergarteners come to visit us and the 3rd graders visit the IA. So, on Monday, May 20- students may each bring a stuffed animal to school. The stuffed animal stays at school overnight- so be sure it is a stuffy that can be missing for the night. Also, in Monday we will invite our next year's first graders in to enjoy an hour with us and the 3rd graders will go and visit an IA Community Circle. Then, we will tuck in our stuffies at the end of the day and see what mischief they get into this year. (This is not a pajama day)

Portfolio Sharing and Singing

Come and join us on Wednesday, May 23 @ 10:00 in our classroom. Our classroom will be turned into a performance space with risers and an audience to share our favorite classroom songs with you. Then there will be time to share our updated portfolios with you. See how much your student has grown over the year and years in the stroll down memory lane.

Then when we are done sharing, head out to the All School Picnic as a family.

(If you are unable to make the portfolio sharing, your child will share with a staff member)

All School Picnic

End of the Year Picnic

On Wednesday, May 22nd we are going to have our all school end of the year picnic to celebrate the year and all that we have accomplished together. The picnic will begin at 11:00 with picnic games, bubbles, stilts, unicycles and more. At 11:30 we will start serving lunch, which includes hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, watermelon, chips and a drink for everyone to enjoy. Parents, grandparents and siblings are welcome to join us in this end of the year celebration, but please leave your dogs at home! The following activities will be set up for people to enjoy once their bellies are full: volleyball, soccer, badminton, 4 square, Frisbee, paddleball, bubbles, jump roping, unicycles, stilts and more.

At around 12:30 p.m., people will have a chance to play with the parachutes, participate in giant ball soccer and/or partake in the other activities that have been set up for the picnic. Then People will have a chance to cool off on the slip and slides and in the water fight from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Be sure to bring your swimsuit, a towel and/or a change of clothes. Sunscreen is another important item to bring and/or wear to the picnic. If people don’t want to get wet, they can play soccer, volleyball, badminton, 4 square, Frisbee, paddleball or hangout in the grass. There will be a big clean up of the field at around 2:30 p.m. and the day will wrap up with snow cones for everyone.

If you have any questions, please call and leave a message at #303-982-7056. We look forward to a fun day of eating and playing together. Cross your fingers for good weather!

Rosie, Jolayne, Jeremy, Jacob and Benjamin

Volunteer Needed...

From Kelly:

"This past school year, we started 2 Destination Imagination teams at JCOS. Destination Imagination is a STEAM competition which involves team problem solving, inventing, and theatrical performances. I coached both the ELC and IA teams this year and am looking for an interested parent who might want to join me in coaching for next year! DI runs as part of the after school enrichment programs. If you are interested, I'd be happy to share more information and answer any questions. You can reach me at kellyward@gmail.com. Thanks!"

So much happening in the next 2 weeks....

3rd graders- a packing list went home in Friday Folders. Please be sure to pack with your student not for them so that they know where all their gear is. If you have questions about the list please be sure to ask. Check the weather in Estes Park to help inform some of your choices. We sleep indoors but spend most of the waking hours outside.

Teddy Bear Sleepover

Portfolio Sharing and Singing

Then when we are done sharing, head out to the All School Picnic as a family.

(If you are unable to make the portfolio sharing, your child will share with a staff member)

All School Picnic

End of the Year Picnic

If you have any questions, please call and leave a message at #303-982-7056. We look forward to a fun day of eating and playing together. Cross your fingers for good weather!

Rosie, Jolayne, Jeremy, Jacob and Benjamin

Volunteer Needed...

From Kelly:

"This past school year, we started 2 Destination Imagination teams at JCOS. Destination Imagination is a STEAM competition which involves team problem solving, inventing, and theatrical performances. I coached both the ELC and IA teams this year and am looking for an interested parent who might want to join me in coaching for next year! DI runs as part of the after school enrichment programs. If you are interested, I'd be happy to share more information and answer any questions. You can reach me at kellyward@gmail.com. Thanks!"

Week Ending 5/3

Ask your child about :

Field Day
Poetry Writing
New Space Learning: The moon, Exoplanets, and Pluto

Mt. Falcon Field Trip - Friday

Mt. Falcon is the last field trip we will have this year. It is a great bonding trip. Please have your child ready with good walking shoes, a packed lunch (Packed lunches will be available at school as well), water, and the appropriate clothes for the weather. We will leave school around 9:00 and return around 1:30. Please let us know if there are any more parents who would like to join the trip.

3rd grade Portfolio Sharing

This Thursday is portfolio sharing day for 3rd graders. In the morning they find out who their IA adviser is and present their portfolio. It is a day filled with nerves and excitement!

What an amazing "museum night"

Thank you for supporting your own student and our whole elementary student community. Every year we are impressed with kids' creativity for their home artifact and the knowledge that they share with kids and adults. All the kids were able to articulate what they knew and what a difference a few weeks make. Kids became experts in their topics and also learned from each other.

We had a great day visiting other classroom exhibits and learning from other classes. Be sure to ask you student about what they saw today.

Thank you to Gayle for helping us with our astronaut display in the hallway.

Spring has Sprung

We always appreciate your support this time of year of reminding your student about your expectations of them at school and finishing the school year strong. Many friendship problems tend to spike this time of year with spring energy and transitions into summer and transitions to new classrooms or places. Support your student through these squabbles and if you think we need to know about an issue, please let us know.

Events Galore....

Field Day Note

The school year is coming to an end and it’s time once again for field day. Field day will be held on Friday, May 3rd and will follow this schedule:

Field Day Schedule

8:45 to 10:00 – IA & Bridges

10:00 to 11:15 – Preschool, Kindergarten and ELC

11:30 to 1:00 – Clean up from the morning and set up for the afternoon

1:00 to 2:30 – Foundations, Leap and Walkabout

(Capture the flag, volleyball, soccer, Frisbee,

tug-a-war & more)

Please make sure your child wears clothes they can easily move around in, tennis shoes, sunscreen and a jacket in case it’s cold. If you have any questions, please call and leave a message on my voice mail #303-982-7056. You are also more than welcome to come join us and participate in field day. We are looking forward to a super fun day. Cross your finger for good weather.

Thanks!

Rosie and David

Check our "Important Dates" for other dates too! We will give more information before each event.

3rd grade Family Information

Trip packets were due today, Friday. Of course we can still accept the paperwork. Please work to get the packet in ASAP (it helps our planning).

Also, many families forgot to make photocopies of your child's health insurance card. We need these in case of emergency. The office can help you make copies if you do not have a printer at home.

Copies of the health insurance card is mandatory, your child must have this turned in in order to go on the trip.

PORTFOLIOS:

this week a new portfolio assignment was sent home, it is due on Friday, May 3
Students who have a complete portfolio will be invited to share their portfolio with an IA advisor on May 9. This is an important step to transitioning to the IA and attending the 3rd grade overnight.

Week Ending 4/12/19

3rd Grade Testing

3rd grade testing is done! WooHoo! Next Friday the 19th, 3rd graders will celebrate in Mary and Ana's room with a pizza party. Please bring $3 for the pizza and a side dish or a drink. If your child has allergies please talk to Molly to arrange accommodations. If you child does not want to eat pizza they can bring their own lunch and still celebrate with the other suns (3rd graders).

Community Circle - 4/19/19

Mary and Ana will host a community circle Friday the 19th. Parents are welcome to join in the monthly celebration of the ELC.

3rd grade parents - mandatory trip meeting

5:30 is the mandatory trip meeting for all 3rd graders families

Scholastic Book orders due 4/19

Please remember to sign in to the account under Moll'y name to get to our class account.

Stars and Moons (1st and 2nd grade)

Ask your child about: comets, meteors, asteroids, and what is new about black holes.

Week Ending 3/15/19

Moons Math (2nd grade)

Please have your time inquiry project ready for conference time. We will present when we return from break.

Suns (3rd grade)

Suns will be getting their first portfolio project this coming Wednesday. Please look for it and help them take it very seriously. These projects will go into their portfolio and will be presented to their IA adviser in the Spring.

Moon Journals (all grades)

We understand that these journals may have been difficult for a few reasons - weather, moon not being up at night, etc :) The moon is now, however, rising at a reasonable time for observation. so, now would be the time for an actual moon sighting.

Reading Over Break

Please make a good routine to read with your child over the break. Conferences is a great time of year to acknowledge the hard work your child has put in to all their growth. Use the time over break to share some good books and keep the love of reading and reading skills blossomi

Week ending 3/1/19

Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser

Wow! What an amazing event! It is so great to come together as a class and eat, play games, and sing songs. A huge thank you to Kelly and Gayle for putting so much work into setting this up, to all the people who generously donated food and time for set-up and clean-up, to everyone who was able to come out and enjoy the party, and to all of the donations...we raised over...

$750 THANK YOU!

The money goes directly to our classroom!

Advising

This week we have start digging deep into the idea of Thoughtlessly Dipping into other people's buckets. We brainstormed all sorts of ways that we are seeing in our classroom during clean-up times, what it would look like to be thoughtful during clean-up times, and ways to remind ourselves and others of how to turn our ideas into actions. *Have a discussion with your child about bing thoughtful at different times of the day at home and at school.

From Melody - for the Pinecones (Jim's Group)

NEXT week we will be videotaping our song Let the Rain Come Down. Please bring an umbrella to music class on, or before Thursday March 7th!

Thanks so much,

Melody

Hiking Club

Hiking Club: Do you like to be in the mountains exploring nature? If you do this club is for you! Mary Korte and Rachelle Macur will be sponsoring a hiking club this spring. We will head up to the mountain parks in Jefferson County after school on Wednesdays starting on April 3rd (and lasting for 6 weeks) to some of our favorite hiking spots include Lair O' the Bear, Chief Hosa, Mathews Winters, and Mount Falcon. We plan to arrive back at school at 5:30 for pick-up. You can register at https://form.jotform.com/83558736274166

Week ending 2/22/19

Launch into Space

Our field trip to the Museum of Nature and Science was our official launch into our new theme of Space (pun intended). We started the week seeing what schema kids already had about space. It seems that many kids know some "fun facts" about space, and overall we will be able to fill in many areas about space that kids don't know yet.

We will cover:

Why does Earth make a good home for life
Compare the other planets and why are they not good homes for life
history of space exploration and current space exploration
International Space Station
answering questions that our students are curious about

MOON TRACKING

Tomorrow we will be sending home a Moon Tracking Journal for each student. From now until March 20, students will observe and record the moon each night. Full instructions are in the inside cover of the journal. Please be sure to take a few minutes each night to be observers together and support this learning.

Celebrating authors

The Snow Foxes shared their fiction stories with Jana's kindergarteners last week and vice versa. We will continue to share our hard work and imaginations with other advising groups in the school. Also, the Pine Cones are about ready to share their fiction publishing too! Our writers are growing all the time with new genres and lots of practice. We look forward to sharing our writing with you at conferences.

Also, the Snow Foxes are working hard at different aspects of persuasive and opinion writing. When your little student is trying to persuade you for anything (extra screen time, an activity, dessert, etc.), you can have them practice these skills by asking them why and for evidence (reasons and examples). They need to PROVE why. We have been writing about our opinion about books, but use examples from real life.

The Snow Foxes started filming our book commercials and are excited to share these with you next week. We got about half of our reviewers filmed.

Advising

We have continued our conversations around accidental and thoughtless dipping. We are talking about examples of these we see at school and strategies to make it better. It would be easy for you to support this learning by using the vocabulary at home. Below is just a snip-it of the conversations, but enough to help you to start a conversation. Please start by asking your student to tell you about these.

Accidental dipping happens all the time: we break someone's toy, step on someone's foot, spill someone's food
- Ways to solve it: apologize from the heart, think about how to fix the situation, calm down before we try to solve anything
Thoughtless dipping happens when we are only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about others: interrupting, taking all the cookies, cutting in line
- Ways to solve it: apologize, try to be more thoughtful, make a plan to change a bad habit

Homework

Remember to work in reading each night, time for your child to read and time for you to read to your child.

Have you checked out the public library recently? I always find new books and series each time we go.

All students have math homework this week.

Also, Snow Foxes have articles about the Iditarod (which is starting next week) to read and to answer questions. The Suns have one written response question as well.

Week Ending 2/15/2019

Performance

The tradition of our ELC performance is such a time of celebration and joy. Everyone bravely stepped onto the stage and performed wonderfully. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was a moment of pride to be apart of this hard working group.

Advising

This week our advising focused on ways we may be dipping into other peoples' buckets without even knowing and what we can do about it. Have a conversation with your child about these ideas and see what else you can think of to add to our class strategies.

Accidental dipping happens all the time: we break someone's toy, step on someone's foot, spill someone's food
- Ways to solve it: apologize, think about how to fix the situation, calm down before we try to solve anything
Thoughtless dipping happens when we are only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about others: interrupting, taking all the cookies, cutting in line
- Ways to solve it: apologize, try to be more thoughtful, make a plan to change a bad habit
Selective dipping happens when you are nice to certain people and not nice to others
- Ways to solve it: Treat others how you want to be treated, be respectful and kind to everyone - even if you are not friends

Museum Field Trip - Wednesday Feb. 20th (Volunteers still needed)

If you are able to, we still would like to have a few more volunteers for our field trip to the Museum of Nature and Science - and Planetarium. More volunteers make for small groups, which are much more manageable in the museum. Please e-mail us if you are able to come.

Week ending 2/8/2019

What a week! Molly and I are coming back fresh from the CCIRA literacy conference with lots of great ideas for our readers and writers.

Peace Night

Snow kept us from our Peace Night performance, so we will try again this week Wednesday. All the information about Peace Night from last week applies to this week Wednesday.

Thursday is Valentine's Day.

We celebrate by making valentines for classmates and delivering in the morning,

We make a Valentine's Bag (our mailbox) at school. If students would like to make a special box or bag at home they may.

We have 44 students is our class.

Your student can make homemade valentines or store bought valentines. We ask that students just sign their name to the card and do not address valentines to specific people.

We line up all 44 bags in circle and to find individual bags is extremely challenging- that is why we just sign our valentines and drop one per bag.

We deliver our valentines first thing in the morning and students can choose to go through their cards at choice time.

Friday is early release - 1:00 pm pickup

We just celebrated 100 days at school!

We had a fun time celebrating the 100th day of School with 100 exercises, books about the 100th day, 100 day crowns, 100 word challenges, and 100 math projects.

We also practiced our performance on stage for the first time. The kids are doing great in rehearsal and are almost ready to share songs and our play with you.

Ask your child what animal they are for our play. We are providing special headbands for our animal parts and one human role. If students would like to wear a color that would match their animal that would be great!

Narrators can dress up in some nicer clothes.

Peace Night begins at 5:00.

We are asking that our students meet us in our classroom at 5:15. Parents should take their student's coats with you to the theater (this way you do not need to come back to the classroom afterwards and won't end up with jackets locked inside the classroom overnight)

The performance will start at 5:30pm in the theater.

We will dismiss students from the stage.

Then feel free to visit other classrooms and displays throughout the school.

-There is no math homework for 1st and 2nd grade math classes this week.

The Snow Foxes do not have a reading response this week. I want to be sure to leave room for our Suns (3rd graders) to have time to practice their lines and scripts for Wednesday night.

Please be sure to still read each night, though.

Look for a new display in our hallway to inspire kids and adults to read more and try new books.

-Rosie is still accepting funds raised for Hoops for Heart. She puts on such a great event for such a great cause, inspired by a past student.

Jim and I will be at a reading and writing conference, CCIRA, on Thursday and Friday. Subs who know the kids will be here for us. You can still get in touch with us through email.

-Valentine's Day is coming up.

We celebrate by making valentines for classmates and delivering in the morning,

We make a Valentine's Bag (our mailbox) at school. If students would like to make a special box or bag at home they may.

We have 44 students is our class.

Your student can make homemade valentines or store bought valentines. We ask that students just sign their name to the card and do not address valentines to specific people.

We line up all 44 bags in circle and to find individual bags is extremely challenging- that is why we just sign our valentines and drop one per bag.

-We deliver our valentines first thing in the morning and students can choose to go through their cards at choice time.

Week ending January 25

In the classroom:

This past week we have celebrated the life and courageous acts of Martin Luther King Jr. His inspirational life is captured incredibly in the children's books "Martin's Big Words" and "I am Martin Luther King Jr." We read both in class this week, and they are certainly worth a re-read at home if you get the chance.

Peace Night - ELC Performance

The ELC Performance date is set for the same night as Peace Night - Feb 6th. Please mark your calendars. We do hope for 100% of our class to come and perform. Student please show up at 5:15 at the theatre to get ready for the performance

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we ask that students bring in 44 signed Valentine's cards (DO NOT PUT THE NAMES OF OTHER STUDENTS ON THE CARDS - JUST YOUR CHILD'S NAME) Please do not include any food items with Valentine's. Anyone that wants to can create a Valentine's decorated shoe box at home and bring it in the day of. Everyone else will decorate a bag at school.

Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart

Friday, Feb. 1st is our Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart event. Please bring in any donations that you collected and turn them in to Rosie and David.

100th Day

We will celebrate the 100th day of school on Feb. 4th! Students may bring a bag of 100 items that fit into a gallon ziplock bag to share.

Week ending in January 18

In the classroom:

This past week, as a class, we focused on how people can have different perspectives in situations. Having an understanding of this can help us solve problems and understand each other better. We will continue this social/emotional learning with different strategies to solve problems, including using "your lid for your bucket".

The Pinecones have added the discovery of bones to their discovery time and the Snow Foxes have jumped into the Arctic to study Arctic Foxes.

Snow Foxes-

We are getting close to finishing publishing our fiction narrative stories. Ask your student how drafting, revising, and editing went and if they plan on including illustrations to their final drafts.

Also, in preparation for an opinion/persuasive writing unit we are continuing to talk about favorite books. This week for homework is another favorite book assignment instead of a journal entry. This week's book cover assignment will become part of a new display in the hallway to to persuade others to read our favorite books. This assignment has a large audience, please support your student to do their best work.

Next Year Registration: Recently there was an email about registration for Jeffco Students. Please follow this link between the set dates to confirm that you are coming back next year!

All families with students who plan to attend a Jeffco Public School during the 2019-20 school year will need to go to www.EnrollJeffco.org between Jan. 22 and Feb. 8 to indicate your enrollment intentions for the school year 2019-2020.

After School Enrichment Programs: Registration for afterschool enrichment programs is open. Sign up soon! https://sites.google.com/site/jeffcoopenptso/enrichment

ELC Performance

Friday January 11th

Welcome Back!

We had a fantastic week reconnecting with everyone after break.

Kindness

Our whole ELC has been revisiting and exploring ideas about kindness, inclusion, and noticing others. Melyssa visited on Thursday and read a fantastic and heartbreaking book called "Each Kindness." Ask you child what they remember about the book and the important messages that they took away. Strictly No Elephants and The Bad Seed are a couple more books we are using to deepening our understanding of kindness and inclusion.

Hallway

Thank you to all students who have been so lovely in the hallway this week and to parents who are supporting this. Our mornings have begun so wonderfully because everyone is coming in with the right mindset. Let's keep it up ;)

ELC Performance

Last week before winter break

The past couple of weeks we have continued our social studies unit with studying Sacagawea and the journey of Lewis and Clark. We will continue this week with Lewis and Clark.

We continue to be entertained by the book "Billy Miller" by Kevin Henkes. This realistic fiction novel is one that the kids can make connections to in their own lives and keeps us laughing.

Ask your student about what they are writing about in writer's workshop, Mary Poppins, how they have helped to make the Wish of the Day come true.

Hibernation Day

This Friday is Hibernation Day. This means that students may come to school in pajamas and bring a stuffed friend (who can fit in their backpack or cubby. We will start the day with hosting Community Circle for the ELC. After specials our "family group" will help us build caves and shelters (forts) to hibernate in. This annual tradition is looked forward to by little and big kids alike.

Our afternoon follows our regular schedule.

We do need a volunteer to do Friday Folders this Friday. Please let us know if you can be available at 2:30pm to help with this task.

11/30/18

People of the Plateau

This week we started learning about the native people of the Plateau. This is exciting because it is the 3rd group that we have studied that related to Colorado (Plains, Desert, Plateau). Ask your child about the differences and reasons for the differences regarding the tools, shelter, food, and daily life of the different groups and regions

Family Trunk Sharing

I huge THANK YOU to all the families that came to the Family Trunk sharing. Everyone put so much effort into their family trunks and it was great to share with so many people. We hope you enjoyed learning about your family and traditions as much as we did.

Corduroy Field Trip December 5th

We will be going to see Corduroy at the Denver Center for Performing Arts December 5th. It is $10 per child for the ticket. Pumpkin Dash funds will pay for the bus. Please pay online before Wednesday. We do not need any parent volunteers for this field trip.

Before School

We have been having issues with students who are not being Appropriate, Safe, and Kind before school in the hallway. If you are dropping your child off early please consider staying with them to get them settled in the hallway or staying until the doors open to ensure everyone is starting the day off right. Specific concerns lately are climbing on the stairs, shouting, and running and playing outside games (tag, races, etc...) inside.

Action Center for Holidays

The Action Center offers services to families in need over the holidays, including a Holiday Gift Shop. To use their services or to donate please follow this link. (https://theactioncenterco.org/ )

11/2/18

Skate Day - Haunted House

A huge THANK YOU to all the parents who helped decorate our rooms and ran games during the Halloween Party. You are amazing! And it was amazing! Everyone's costumes were amazing! Yeah!

The kiddos were certainly tired after the huge day on Wednesday. Be sure to rest over the weekend and enjoy some down time.

From Jim

Thank you to all the everyone for the "Get Well" cards and to those who have helped out this week and last while I learn how to move around with a sprained ankle. The kiddos have been incredibly helpful. Thank you.

Community Circle

We wrapped up our week with an early release day and a Community Circle hosted by Mary and Ana's advising.

Ask your child about

Skate Day, the Haunted House, the Halloween Party
Northeastern Woodland Native Americans - Similarities and differences between how they lived and the Plains Indians
Community Circle
(Pine Cones) Yo! Yes?

Snow Foxes

On Friday I shared with the group how we know when we wrote a great reading journal entry. Some kids have read my notes I've written to them each week to help their work grow, and. other kids have just kept doing the same thing over and over and not accpeting feedback. So, I reflected on this and created a rubric appropriate for this age level that shows what quality work would be. Also, each student received a list of possible topics. Each student has the list tucked into their journal (I didn't have time to glue them in). This week have your child explain the rubric to you and how our goal is for "outstanding" work. We also talked about how rereading your work will help you revise and edit for "outstanding". A new entry is due by Friday.

Also, I would like to share with you how sweet your children are! Sarah (who also happens to be daughter) transfered into our advising group from Mary and Ana's group. Your children have been so welcoming. When I told them that she was officially moving into our advising they cheered (not prompted from me). I started tearing up. They moved me. Also, they have been including her and showing her the ropes.

Halloween is coming

Halloween is almost here!

ELC Halloween Party and Halloween Day Schedule

Due to new policy that we were informed of late last week and the number of food allergies in the elementary program we will not be having shared community snacks for the Halloween Party this year. If you signed up to bring a snack we want to thank you but PLEASE DO NOT BRING IN ANY SHARED SNACKS FOR THE PARTY! (Please see new policy per the Jeffco School District below). Instead please pack your child a special individual snack which s/he can eat during the Halloween party. This snack can be kept in your child’s backpack or cubby and should be clearly labeled in an individual container with your child’s name. Since students will not be sharing snacks and will be eating only their own food you may choose what you would like to pack for your child’s individual snack.

New Policy: Provide 48 hour notice to all families via email about foods being provided at school outside of the meal program, informing the families of what foods will be brought. If elementary students will be going to different classrooms and sharing in the snacks available, the elementary needs to communicate with all of the families about what will be served in all of the classrooms; this will include recipes for pre-made foods. If life threatening allergy is present, the food may not be served at celebrations or parties. Allergies in the elementary include: Milk, Eggs, ALL Nuts, Pumpkin, Soy

9:00 – 1:00 - Roller Skating (See the note from Rosie below)

1:15 – PARADE - After returning to school we will parade around the school in our costumes

1:30 – 2:30 – Halloween Party – We have a combined Halloween Party with the whole ELC (Mary, Ana, Molly, Jim) Please sign up to help out with the Halloween Party. The sign-up sheet is right outside our classroom door. We need parents to decorate the classroom while we are skating, provide crafts and/or sponsor games.

2:30 – CLEAN UP

2:45 – Halloween Stories

We know this is a BIG day for our students and many will still want to go out trick-or-treating that evening so… if you want to bring your child home early from school just make sure you sign them out in the main office and be sure to let us know.

Halloween Skate Day

Wednesday, October 31^st

Halloween is quickly creeping up on us at which time all of the JCOS creatures of the night will gather at Roller City West for our wicked all school skate day. On Wednesday, October 31st, dressed in our most outrageous costumes, we will climb aboard the buses and be transported to the Roller City West (6803 W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood 80226) for a monstrous time.

This year, the cost of skating and the buses will be covered by money raised at last year’s Pumpkin and Zombie Dash. We’ll be picked up from school at 9:00 and dropped back off at 1:30. Don’t forget to pack all the gooey and slimy things that you want to eat for lunch and bring your roller blades if you want to use them. Parents, grandparents and siblings are welcome to join us if they dare. Please call Rosie at #303-982-7056 if you have any questions.

Everyone is strongly encouraged to wear your costumes, as long as it won’t get in the way of skating (no masks or costumes that hang down by your feet). Come dressed in your best and be ready to have a bone chilling good time.

Haunted House – Do you like to be scared? If so, come on down to the gym and get ready to scream. We will open the doors to the haunted house around 1:45 and will keep them open until 3:30 or until everyone is too scared to go through any more.

October 11th

Community Circle

Our Suns (3rd graders) did a fantastic job hosting community circle for the ELC on Thursday. We have great pride seeing all of them take on this leadership role, being brave, and talking in front of all of their peers. Parents, you are more than welcome to come and watch these wonderful gatherings.

Drop-offs

If you are dropping your child off early for the school day and you are not able to be with them in the hallway, please have a conversation about being quiet, calm, and respectful in front of the classroom before the doors open. Kids are getting very wound up and loud and that is not a great way to start the day.

Conferences

Please show up 15 early for your conference time to go through the student-led portion of the conference with your child in the big room. There will be a pile of their work that they will guide you through. Use this time to learn about our class, your child's interests, and the work we have done so far this year. Helpful feedback to your child can include, noticing and naming their learning and progress, asking questions, asking what they will be doing to get better at certain areas. If we are running a few minutes late, we are sorry. Every conference is incredibly important and some conversations take a little longer. We appreciate your patience. We look forward to this special time with you all.

Book Fair

The book fair begins next week up in the library. We will be going as a class Monday at choice time to preview the books and write wish lists. Feel free to visit the book fair after school each day next week to purchase books for your child.

Weather

Weather is changing all the time - its Colorado, where winter and summer are 8 hours apart! Please check the weather to make sure your child is prepared for the day with the appropriate clothing.

Ask you child about:

our school Pen pals
Drawing Thursday
our Native American study

October is Here

This week was filled to the brim. Highlights were our field trip to the Plains Conservation Center, the Pumpkin Dash, and a dance workshop. The Plains Conservation Center was a great supplement to our Native Americans unit. Students got to see their learning first-hand and add to their schema. If you haven't asked already- as our the different stations of the trip; the wagon ride into the prairie, the scavenger hunt, the hawks and eagles, the pronghorn, the tipi, building a tipi and games.

Friday was filled with the Pumpkin Dash and then a dance workshop (for kids who wanted to participate- most did). Thank you for all the families who came out to cheer the kids on, parents who volunteered, and the families who have fundraised. Envelopes are due on October 10, if your student hasn't turned one it yet.

We are also busy working in all other parts of the day. Ask your student about:

Snow Foxes- the end of the "Journey" trilogy and publishing their expert book
Pinecones- personal narratives and their discovery reading
cursive and/or handwriting

Community Circle

Our Suns are hosting the first Community Circle of the year on Thursday, October 11 at 8:45am in our "big room". All are welcome to come and watch. During the week the Suns will plan and all Suns will have a "job" for Community Circle. This is one our traditions that we do love and love to watch the kids be excited for the rite of passage to be able to host this monthly event.

Conferences and Book Fair

Conferences are coming up soon! Please be sure that you have signed up for a time slot. You and your child will have 30 minutes with your child's advisor and please plan on spending 20-30 minutes with your child looking and reading through student work (before or after conference). Also, the Scholastic Book Fair will be open in the library. What a great way to celebrate your child's learning, with a new book. Sales help put new books into classrooms and the library.

Weather

As the weather is changing and next week is bringing colder weather, please be sure that your child is coming to school with layers appropriate for recess. Unless it is raining and temperatures are below 30, students go outside for both recesses. Kids need to be prepared for all kinds of weather. Thank you.

Visitors

If you plan to stay longer than just drop-off or pick-up for your student, please be sure that you sign-in at the office and receive a visitors badge. Thank you for your understanding.

Digging Into the Bond - Ballot Question 5B: A Message from Superintendent Dr. Glass

Digging Into the Bond - Ballot Question 5B: A Message from Superintendent Dr. Glass

Posted on 10/05/2018

In the next couple of Chalk Talk articles, I’ll dig into some details on Jeffco Public Schools two ballot questions, 5A (a $33 million mill levy override) and 5B (a $569 million bond). Because most people have questions about the bond, let’s look at 5B first. A quick disclaimer – as a public employee, I’m not allowed to ask people to vote for or against items on the ballot. However, I do feel it is important that I make sure our community is informed about their choices on the ballot in a fair and balanced way.

Question 5B would allow Jeffco Public Schools to go to the bond market and sell bonds to generate $567 million for construction and other capital improvements (such as furniture or technology). The $567 million would be repaid over a period of 20 years through a property tax increase.

That property tax increase comes to about $1.81 per month, per hundred thousand dollars of residential value. For non-residential property, it’s about $7.28 per month, per hundred thousand dollars of value. The bond’s total repayment (over the 20 years) will be less than $997 million based on language in the ballot question.

5B has specific uses written into the ballot question. These include:

Adding and expanding career/technical education facilities;
Upgrading safety and security in buildings;
Ensuring all schools are more safe, efficient, and accessible; and
Constructing, furnishing, and equipping schools with classrooms of all types in the district.

5B also has some restrictions written into the ballot language. These include:

Funds cannot be used for senior district administration;
The spending is overseen by a citizen advisory committee; and
The funds are subject to an annual external audit.

There are arguments for and against ballot question 5B. I encourage you to visit the Jeffco Public Schools Future Funding website to learn more about those. You can also expect to see 500-word arguments for and against 5B in your blue book voter guide, which voters can expect to receive in the mail in a few days.

The entire scope of Jeffco Public Schools capital improvement plan is built on 5B funds, as well as funds we normally use for routine upkeep and repair for six years. Combining these resources (if 5B is successful) will actually allow us to complete $705 million in projects, instead of $567, at no additional cost to taxpayers.

What will we do with these funds? You can read about your specific school and district articulation area by visiting our online facilities flipbook, which provides detailed information about the scope of projects at each school, as well as expected costs. The flipbook also includes information on charter and option schools, as well as three planned new schools, three "scrape-and-rebuilds" of existing schools, and additions to buildings all over the district. One of these new schools will be a Warren Tech center in the southern part of the district to expand the capacity for career and technical programs offered through Warren Tech.

Ultimately, we look to the voters to have the final say on how we fund schools in Jeffco, including this proposed work on improving our buildings. We’ll catch up next time about ballot question 5A, the mill levy override.

Jeffco students, parents, families, staff, and community members may engage with Dr. Glass via Facebook, Twitter @COJasonGlass, and through his blog, advancejeffco.blog.

Week ending september 28

THIS UPCOMING WEEK

Monday

Conference folders will be out in front of the office Monday morning. Pinecones sign up in Jim's (not Jimi's) folder and Snow Foxes sign up in Molly's. If it is impossible for you sign up before conferences, please call the office and ask for Katie to assist you in signing up. Please only do this if you absolutely cannot come in.

Hearing and Vision screening will happen on Monday.

2nd grade will begin COGAT testing. Other testing days will be Tuesday and Friday.

Wednesday - Volunteers needed

We are heading to Pains Conservation Center this Wednesday from 9-2 to continue our research about Native Americans and plains ecology. We still need volunteers for this trip. Please have your child wear weather appropriate clothes, have a packed lunch, full water bottle, and good close-toed walking shoes. We will leave promptly at 9 so please be on time so your child be settled and ready for the trip. This trip costs $10. Please have the fee paid online before the day of the trip.

Thursday - All school Harvest Festival

Come to school Thursday night from 5-7 for the all-school Harvest Festival. Bring a dish to share and tableware for your family. The meal is a family-style feeding that celebrates our school across all the ages.

Friday - Pumpkin Dash

Friday is our school fundraiser - the Pumpkin Dash. Students will be running laps to raise money that goes directly to making our field trips either free or a reduced rate. Come and cheer our class on from 9:05-9:45. If the weather is good we will be on the back field. Otherwise we will be in the gym. Students that raise $25 or more will receive a Pumpkin Dash t-shirt. The class that raises the most money per child gets a pizza party! Please have money collected and brought in by October 10th.

Next Thursday

We will be hosting the first Community Circle of the year in our classroom from 8:40-9:05. Community Circle is a 3rd grade led ceremony that the whole ELC comes together to share our learning, celebrate our community, and certain students receive accolades for various accomplishments. Parents are welcome to join.

Last Week:

Thank you to all the parent volunteers at the Art Museum Field Trip. Ask your child about their favorite part.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the Pajama Literacy night on Tuesday. We loved seeing everyone reading with their kiddos.

Art Museum

Pajama Literacy Night

Week ending September 21

THIS UPCOMING WEEK

We will be even busier this week with events. Tuesday night is the ELC tradition, Pajama Night, from 5:30pm-6:30pm. Kids can come back to school wearing their pajamas and ready for some bedtime stories. From 5:30-6:00 enjoy some stories with your student in the classroom- they can share their favorites from the classroom and enjoy some time together. Then from 6:00-6:30 students will stay in the classroom for an activity and parents will join Mary and Molly in the Commons for information on how you can support your student in literacy. Come for an evening of literacy and leave with some goodies.

Wednesday is an all ELC field trip the Denver Art Museum. We will have a class with the museum and then time to visit the galleries. It is important to be on time on Wednesday, so that we can make it downtown for our class. The cost is of the trip is FREE, covered by the Pumpkin Dash Funds.

Speaking of the Pumpkin Dash- fundraising envelopes came home in Friday Folders. The event is in 2 weeks.

Around the Classroom

We have jumped into our theme of Native Americans by looking at primary documents, artwork, artifacts from the History Colorado Museum, watching videos and reading. We used all these sources to start to put our old and new schema together. We are learning about the People of the Plains first. We learned that the buffalo was important to their survival. Ask your student about the buffalo and how all the buffalo was used for different purposes. Also, look for a display to grow in our hallway.

This week we will continue to grow our knowledge around the people that lived here in Colorado before us. Plus, the art museum will bring more information to us around art of the native americans.

We are continuing to spend a lot of time on how to make good choices at school around being Appropriate, Safe, and Kind. Please continue to have conversations with your student on your expectations for your child at school, during all times of the day. Thanks for your support.

Homework- please remember that all students should be reading 20 minutes a day and filling out their reading log or reading journal weekly. Logs and journals are due on Fridays. Snow Fox students who forget their notebook or do not complete an entry by Friday will miss their specials time on Friday to complete an entry at school- so please help your student good habits around a routine for completing this work and for getting it to school.

Also, all students have a weekly math assignment.

Thanks for your support.

PTSO Fall Ball Classroom Project Help- This is a fundraising event that raises money to support clubs and other opportunities at JCOS. The auction portion of the event includes projects put together by parents on behalf of their child's classroom community. We need a parent who is willing to create and lead a project with our students to be auctioned off at the Fall Ball. If you would like to do a project with our students please let us know and email the fall Ball committee to let them know what you will be doing at fallballjcos@gmail.com . Please think about coming out to support the Fall Ball on November 3, 6:00-10:00pm . https://auctia.com/auction/fallball2018

This Week 9_21

9/14

Matthews/Winters Park

"It smells like the freedom of nature." Betty (3rd grader)

We are a class of observers! What an amazing day at Matthew Winters Park. Thank you to all the parent volunteers that the day easy, fun, educational and safe. We listened to cicadas, found lady bugs and praying mantis, held snakes, discussed prickly pear, and talked about ancient native uses for yucca. Our adventures outdoors are important seeds planted in the minds of every child that help them naturally become stewards of the world.

Literacy Night September 25th 5:30-6:30

Please join us for an evening of literacy. Wear your pajamas and snuggle up with your children to read stories in the classroom from 5:30-6:00. At 6:00 parents will gather in the commons to learn more about how to support children at home with reading while the children stay in the classroom for more fun with reading.

Art Museum Field trip volunteers September 26th

We are still in need of a few more volunteers for the Art Museum field trip on Sept. 26. Please let us know if you can make it.

Theme Launch

This week we launched our 1st theme of the year - Native Americans. We had a soft start by seeing what students knew and wondered already, and looked at primary documents (historic pictures) and artifacts from the museum. If students are excited to research at home, they are welcome to bring in things that they learn to share.

Reading bags and logs

All students should now have a reading bag and log. Pine cones can read books at home, log the books that were read, and bring books back to swap out any day of the week. Logs will be checked on Fridays. Please bring the log in every Friday. Snow foxes need to fill out 1 log entry per week. Moons (2nd graders) are expected to fill out 1/2 a page or more each week. Suns (3rd graders) are expected to write 1 page or more.

Being at school

We are still working at and having lots of conversations about classroom and school norms. Being A.S.K. - Appropriate, Safe, and Kind are regular expectations and good language to use at home as well. It puts the importance of noticing a situation and evaluating into their hands. Please ask your child what this means during work time, lunch, recess, and other points of the day.

Hello September

We are working really hard on setting up a positive, kind, safe, and learning community. It seems that we need to be spending an extra amount of time on this, this year. Perhaps a conversation at home about your expectations for your student, could help support their behavior and learning at school. We will keep doing this work with students, but we appreciate your support of your little learner.

Also, please remember that your student being on time and joining us for our Morning Meeting is extremely important to their start of their day. It allows kids to see and hear the schedule, have an opportunity to ask questions, and feel settled and ready for the rest of the day. We also have advising each morning with our "Wish of the Day", this sets up positive social interactions and personal growth for the day. Our classroom door opens at 8:30 each morning and meeting starts at 8:35am.

Reading Stamina

We empower our students with the urgency of growing as a reader through Read to Self. This time is so important to grow as a reader that we need to take advantage of this time and be focused on our reading of "good fit" books. At the start of the school year we start at 3 minutes. Each session our goal is to gain 1 minute. We slowly build our stamina, much like a runner would do. Once we have these positive reading behaviors and we can trust our students to do so, we can begin our reading conferences with students.

The Snow Foxes have met their goal of 20 minutes a session (we have 2 sessions a day) and the Pinecones are close behind at 15 minutes. Your student can grow their reading stamina in a similar way at home. Yes, they may be more tired at the end of the day, but they can do it! If they are hesitant, you can start back at 3 minutes and work up. We even use a graph so that they can see the growth each day.

Remember that reading at home each day is valuable! Your student should be reading on their own and cuddling up to read with a grown-up is still amazing at any age! As our lives are so full, please be sure to schedule this time in each day.

Parents of Snow Foxes:

many students did not bring in their first assignment of decorating their homework reading journal. If they did not bring it in last week, they decorated a cover at school- but I could not work on the first assignment with the group bc so many reading journals were missing. Please be sure that it returns tomorrow so that we can work on the first assignment together.

We will work on the first assignment together in class and the journals will be sent home on Friday for the next assignment to be done at home.

Field Trips

Jeffco Open Space would not allow the whole ELC at Lair O the Bear or any of the Open Space Parks, but they did allow us to split into our classes and go to different parks. Our class will head to Matthew Winters Park on Friday, April 14. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS! Mary and Ana's class will head to Mt. Falcon.

Also, the ELC is heading to the Art Museum on Wednesday, September 26. We have a class and then will be able to tour the museum. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS so that we can have small groups to monitor around the musuem.

Math Homework

All grades have math homework this week, due no later than Friday.

Book Orders

We will have due dates for book orders, but know that you can always place an order! We have "Red Apple Status" that gives us free shipping an any paid order. I will receive an email that you have placed an order. The benefit of the due dates, is that we can earn more Bonus Points to earn Free books. We earned over 10,000 points last order! Average of 150-200 points per book- so WoW this is so many books for our classroom. It also allows us to get more expensive books guilt free!

So if you missed last order, no worries and don't feel you need to wait. Head over to Scholastic Book Clubs!

Week 3

Empathy

This week our advising has focused around the idea of empathy. We read the book "Stand In My Shoes" to build our schema around this important ability. Now we are listing student ideas for how, when, and where we can show empathy - such as standing up for someone, noticing when someone is carrying something heavy, and encouraging someone who may be nervous about taking a test. We will continue building ideas around empathy next week and it will be common language for our class all year. Talk with your child about empathy and what it could look like at home as well as school.

Reading bags and logs

After assessment day we are in full steam with reading at school. We are gradually building stamina at reading-to-self during our literacy block. Practicing at home is a great way to support literacy development and also to help the stamina grow at school. We are sending home reading bag and reading logs in backpacks this weekend. Please have your child read for at least 20 minutes each night. For those early readers, that can also mean time that you are reading to them.

Students can switch out the books they are taking home every day or read the books for a few days and switch out when they are done. Please make reading these books a part of your nightly routine. Snow foxes will be decorating their reading log covers for their homework this week.

Math Homework

All grades have math homework this week. Math homework will always be due the next Friday. As we said at the ice cream social, some students may want to do every page in one day, while others will need to spread their work out over a few days. Please help your child plan according to their needs.

Book Order

Scholastic Book orders are due the is Tuesday. Please submit all orders online with the appropriate class code under Molly's class. It is a great way to encourage reading at home and to earn the class free books.

Choice Time

If you have a special choice time choice that you would like to offer our class please let us know. It is super special to our class and community to share your talents and interests.

Week 2!

We would like to start by thanking families for making Assessment Day a quick success. This day helps to give us information on who kids are as readers, from readers who are new to us, to seeing how the readers we knew grew, carried on, or even slipped over the summer. We can use the information quickly to help support your young reader, rather than collecting the information over weeks.

If you would like to know more about our literacy instruction we have 2 nights where you can get more information; Ice Cream Social/Back to School and Pajama Night.

Ice Cream Social/Back to School

On Tuesday, August 28 starting at 3:45pm we will be serving ice cream sandwiches and popsicles on the patio behind the classroom. Students may received their ice cream when an adult is with them. Please be sure to still pick up your child at 3:25. For the first 30 minutes have some ice cream, chit chat, and meet families. At 4:15, students may play on the playground while supervised by staff members and the adults can join us in the classroom for information about our learning each day, thematic learning, how to support your student at home, and questions. We will finish at 4:45.

We hope to see you there.

Around the classroom

We have gotten into our daily routines in the past week. Our Suns have started to lead our morning and afternoon meetings; including songs and Wish of the Day. Wish of the Day gives up an opportunity to have advising everyday. In the beginning of the year we spend extra time building our community with extra advising topics. We enjoy using the "bucket filling" metaphor for how we should treat others and ourselves. You can check out http://www.bucketfillers101.com/ for more information. Be sure to ask your child how they have "filled a bucket" today.

Look in our hallway within the next week of work that the kids have done to teach others "how to fill a bucket".

Every other Monday students have a Library Time during choice time. Students may check out 2 books at a time. Books can be returned before or after school and during their library time.

Suns (3rd graders) have also started their weekly Technology class. They will learn the proper way to keyboard (type) and other skills. Their class is on Tuesdays at 2:35 with Dianne in the library.

Drawing Thursday is a whole class activity that we do at the start of Choice Time. We mostly use Artforkidshub.com to guide us through.

In Writing Workshop all students have selected an "expert topic" to teach others about. It is a great way to get to know each other through a topic they know well. Ask your student about their expert topic.

All students are also building their reading stamina during Read to Self.

We have celebrated our first birthday of the year. Thank you Alex for the new picture book.

Friday Folders

If your child has not yet brought in a folder for weekly information, please do so this week. It can be a special folder with a picture or a plain color...up to you. The folder is helpful for our parent volunteer who stuffs our folders.

Speaking of which, this week we had help, but do need a long term volunteer. It would be on Fridays at 2:35. It is an easy job, but so incredibly HELPFUL to Jim and I. If you are available at this time, please let either one of us know.

Thank you!

Scholastic Book Orders

The first one of the year is open! Check Friday Folders for information.

August 17, 2018

You have made it to the first newsletter of the year! Yeah! website will be where you find all the important information about the happenings of our class.

Check Backpacks

Please check your child's backpacks and read over the Family Reminders from the ELC. There is loads of great need-to-know information about the year in there.

The First Week

We had a fantastic first week together. We have been flaming old friendships, sparking new ones, welcoming brand new faces, and learning bits about each other. The class was captivated by a few books that highlight some of our most important messages: The Kissing Hand, where we remember to be brave and that our family's love lives inside of us, A Bad Case of Stripes, where we learn the unforgettable importance of being true to ourselves, and How Rocket Learned to Read, where we all get super inspired to read!

Rock Ceremony

We had a beautiful Rock Ceremony on Friday where every student got to put their hopes and wishes into our community rocks. Students spoke of friendships, kindness, and learning lots of new and interesting things. We will compile the complete list soon.

Reading

We have begun our reading workshops in class. We will build stamina to independently read for 15-20 minutes. Starting next week we will also be sending home reading bags and books to be read at home. Reading at home can be done independently, to a family member, or a pet. Reading at home and at school support each other tremendously. Enjoy this special time!

Ice Cream Social

If you would like to learn more about our class, how everything works, and our core philosophies, and you like free ice cream and popsicles, please join us for Ice Cream Social Tuesday, August 28th from 3:45-4:45.

5/19/18

3rd-Grade Overnight

We had such an incredible time with our 3rd-graders in Estes. We are so proud of the people they have become and are becoming. We were glad to spend those two days hiking, night hiking, star gazing, exploring in nature, cooking, eating, and laughing. Be sure your 3rd-grader tells you all about it! They truly amazed us with their strength, kindness, and willingness to bravely try new things!

ELC Community Circle

Our final community circle is in Mary and Ana's - Tuesday at 8:50am - Families are welcome.

Book Bags and Library books

Home reading book bags and school library books were due last week...but it is not too late to turn things in. Bring everything in on Monday. If items are missing please bring in the replacement fee for each item on Monday.

Singing performance and Portfolio Sharing

To celebrate all our hard work this year, we are inviting you and family to our classroom on Wednesday, May 23 @10:30am for a celebration. We will start by singing our classroom favorites (there are quite a few) in our transformed classroom @ 10:30. Then around 11:00 your student will share their portfolio with you. It is a walk down memory lane as you see your student's work change over time.

Then, when we are all done, you can head to the End of the Year Picnic......

(Suns may take their portfolios home, but 1st and 2nd graders leave their portfolios to continue to grow)

Garden care

The planting has begun! Thank you to Lily and the students who have gotten our garden plot started. We are having a taco garden (tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, etc) along with some wild flowers for the pollinators. Over the summer we need volunteers to weed 1/week and harvest and eat anything that is ready. (Watering is taken care of by our drip system) There is a sign-up sheet for caring for our garden plot over the summer outside our classroom. Thank you for any day you can give to our garden plot.

All-School Picnic

Please see the previous week's update for all info about the all school picnic.

Last Day - Thursday May 24th (early release at 1:00)

5/12/18

Field trip

Our final trip to Crown Hill park was amazing. Thank you to the parent volunteers. You made the trip so much easier. We saw many signs of spring - turtles sunning on logs, carp spawning on the shore, a hawk scouting some prey, water birds swimming around, buds and blooms on most of the trees, old cattails that had shed their seeds, and lots and lots of bugs! Yeah for field trips!

Then our stuffies had a good ol' time at night "sleeping" in the classroom. They had so much fun from playing cards to swinging from the chimes.

Kinder/4th grade visitation

Ask your child about the kinder/4th grade visitation. We were so pleased that our incoming 1st graders were welcomed by our lovely class, who immediately made the new arrivals feel safe and comfortable in our space with kindness, helpfulness, and letters and words about our favorite parts of class. Suns were beaming and ecstatic as they found which friend they would be sticking with and which advisor they will have for the next two year.

The Suns will share their portfolios with their new advisor on Monday morning. They will share a few items and have time to chat with their new advisor.

Bookbags and Library Books:

All books from school, whether from our classroom (in book bags) or library need to be returned next week. Anyone with unreturned class book bags will have to pay $15 to replace the bag and the book.

Suns! All of our third graders need to get ready for their overnight trip next week. Please have your child carefully read the packing list (together with you!) and start putting everything together s/he will need to bring. We will have two more advising times with our young travelers before we take off on Wednesday.

Singing performance and Portfolio Sharing

To celebrate all our hard work this year, we are inviting you and family to our classroom on Wednesday, May 23 @10:30am for a celebration. We will start by singing our classroom favorites (there are quite a few) in our transformed classroom @ 10:30. Then around 11:00 your student will share their portfolio with you. It is a walk down memory lane as you see your student's work change over time.

Then when we are all done, you can head to the End of the Year Picnic......

(Suns may take their portfolios home, but 1st and 2nd graders leave their portfolios to continue to grow)

End of the Year Picnic

On Wednesday, May 23rd we are going to have our all school end of the year picnic to celebrate the year and all that we have accomplished together. The picnic will begin at 11:00 with an open mic outside in the courtyard by Melody’s and Jana’s rooms. If you are interested in performing, please head out to the courtyard around 10:55 and sign up for a time slot. At 11:30 we will start serving lunch, which includes hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, watermelon, chips and a drink for everyone to enjoy. Parents, grandparents and siblings are welcome to join us in this end of the year celebration, but please leave your dogs at home! The following activities will be set up for people to enjoy once their bellies are full: volleyball, soccer, badminton, 4 square, Frisbee, paddleball, bubbles, jump roping, unicycles, stilts, jump ropes and more.

If you have any questions, please call and leave a message at #303-982-7056. We look forward to a fun day of eating and playing together. Cross your fingers for good weather!

Rosie, Melody, Jacob and Benjamin

Suns

Please be sure to start packing for the trip ahead of time.

We sent home an extra packing list in the Friday Folder.

We will send an email on Tuesday night with last minute information.

How exciting!

Happy Mother's Day!

teddy bear sleepover 18

Untitled presentation

5/4/18

Field day was an incredible celebration of our school's creativity and multi-age community support coupled with student joy! Hooray for field day!

3rd grade - overnight paperwork is due May 7th.

Crown Hill Field Trip Thursday

We are going to Crown Hill Park Thursday, May 10th, for our Spring observation. If a parent would like to join us to support our nature observation, please let Molly or Jim know.

Teddy Bear Sleepover: All children may bring a stuffed animal school on Thursday, May 10^th (we will also be taking a hiking field trip to Crown Hill Park that day). The stuffed animals should be no bigger than the size of a cubby since we will be leaving our animals at school while we go hiking. The stuffed animals (not the children) will “sleep over” at school on Thursday night. Who knows what those stuffed animals will get up to in the classroom on the night of their “sleep over!”

Final book order of the year

Scholastic book orders are due this weekend. Our class code is GPY76 and is under Molly Rubin.

4/28/18

Museum Night and sharing at school the next day was A HUGE SUCCESS. We are so proud of the students for all the incredible time, energy, and thoughtfulness that was put into the projects. Thank you to everyone for supporting such incredible learning.

At the spaghetti fundraiser we raised enough money to buy 2 new class IPads, new arts and craft supplies, and more amazing choice time activities. Thank you so much for the tremendous donations and support.

Field Day Note

The school year is coming to an end and it’s time once again for field day. Field day will be held on Friday, May 4th and will follow this schedule:

Field Day Schedule

8:45 to 10:00 – IA

10:00 to 11:15 – Preschool, Kindergarten and ELC

11:30 to 1:00 – Clean up from the morning and set up for the afternoon

1:00 to 2:30 – Foundations, Leap and Walkabout

(Capture the flag, volleyball, soccer, Frisbee,

tug-a-war & more)

Teddy Bear Sleepover: Children may bring a stuffed animal school on Thursday, May 10^th (we will also be taking a hiking field trip to Lair O’ the Bear that day). The stuffed animals should be no bigger than the size of a cubby since we will be leaving our animals at school while we go hiking. The stuffed animals (not the children) will “sleep over” at school on Thursday night. Who knows what those stuffed animals will get up to in the classroom on the night of their “sleep over!”

Final book order of the year

We have sent home the last book order from scholastic. This is a great opportunity to beef up your home library in prep for summer reading. Please submit orders to class code by May 5th to ensure we get orders before the end of school. Our class code is GPY76 and is under Molly Rubin.

3rd grade corner

A major portfolio assignment has come home in students' Friday folder. All of the instructions for their autobiography are on the paper. Please make sure they are taking time to do this as there are interviews, rough drafts, and final drafts involved...and students will be sharing them with their new advisor...and ENJOY! It is amazing to be reflective on their amazing lives!

There are no reading journals due for Suns because of the autobiography project. Moons...keep rocking and rolling those journal pages!

4/20/18

Our classrooms are transforming in preparation for Museum Night ~ Interesting Weather in Molly's room and a Busy Bee Hive in Jim's. Due to school closing on this coming Thursday, please have your child bring their completed home artifact on Wednesday April 25th. We are very glad to still be hosting Museum Night on the 26th from 5:30-7.

Film Fest Entries are due to Melody this Friday to be included in the Festival.

This coming Friday, 4/27, is an early release. Please arrange for your child to be picked up at 1:00.

3rd grade testing is over! Hooray! We will be having a pizza party to celebrate on Tuesday at lunch time. Please bring in $2 and either a dessert or drink to share.

4/13/18

While the weather for our Zoo field trip was not amazing, our class was! A big THANK YOU to our parent volunteers for making it possible. One highlight of the trip was that some of us got to visit the brand new baby orangutan who had its public appearance today. Ask your child what their favorite part about the zoo was.

We are not sending any math homework for the next two weeks to allow students time to plan and create their museum artifact. Please spend some time working on this over the next few weeks.

Please also keep the nightly reading up. Students should be reading at least 20 minutes a day after or before school.

Spaghetti Dinner! WOW! Our class raised over $800. Thank you to Jeff at Osaka's, Dino's and Angelo's, for donating food, Kelly Ward for organizing and all the volunteers cooking and cleaning, the few large donations that put us up around double what this fundraiser normally collects, and everyone donating and making this classroom the amazing community that it is. We have already planned on getting some great new games and building sets to spruce up choice time and a book suggestion box to beef up our library with some student selected titles. Ask your child to think of a book or two they would love to see in our classroom

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3rd grade corner

Monday night (4/16) is a mandatory parent meeting regarding the 3rd grade overnight trip. The meeting is at 5:30 in Mary's room.

Tuesday-Thursday 3rd graders will have their final days of testing. Tests will be in the afternoon.

Friday (4/20) is a 3rd grade pizza party to celebrate testing being complete. Students may bring a dessert or a drink to share if they want (not necessary). There will be a small fee to cover the pizza, which we will e-mail later.

4/6/18

Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser The dinner is a free meal, and any donations given at the event go straight to the classroom to purchase supplies such as technology, books, math, science, and art materials, etc. We are looking forward to seeing everyone! If you have not, please RSVP to Kelly Ward at Kellyward@gmail.com if you are coming and if you would like to volunteer. :)

Museum Night Artifact *Home Project* In the Friday folders, we have sent instructions for the home project of our Museum Night. Please start planning and working on the projects soon so the work can be thoughtful and not rushed towards the due date. Let us know if you have any questions about the project.

Bunnicula We finished our chapter book Bunnicula, this week. It is an amazing mystery book about a vampire type of bunny sucking the juice out of vegetables. Ask you child about all the clues that made Chester think that Bunnicula was a Vampire Bunny and...how it all worked out in the end.

3rd graders Next week testing is on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in the morning. Please help students be ready by having a good breakfast, a good night sleep, and showing up on time.

Fluffy Clouds...this week have been studying legends and myths and have written the rough draft of the legend for their museum project. We capped off the week by reading a great fiction story "The Legend of Rock, Paper, and Scissors." If students want to do extra research at home to support their museum project...go for it!

Diamonds - Ask your child about how bees make honey. It is amazing and gross! We have been working hard researching and writing for our museum project. Some students still have some questions to answer to be ready to complete their book. Please see what questions they still have, take a few minutes with google, and build your schema together.

3/16/18

3rd grade portfolio assignment

3rd grade families, check your Friday folder for the 1st portfolio home assignment. These are due either at conferences or at the latest the Monday following Spring Break. Parents, please support your child with this project over these days as they know to take it very seriously.

Iditarod

We had a great few weeks studying and following the great sled-dog race, the Iditarod. We celebrated with the first finisher and were deeply touched that all racers that finish are considered winners. It is a remarkable feat for both racer and dogs.

Leprechauns

The traps are set and we are all ready to see if this will finally be the year where we catch the leprechauns!

Friday we had a community circle, hosted by Mary and Ana's class celebrating our community, their recent explorations in learning, and the great community members who got recognized with accolades. Community Circles are such a beautiful tradition for the whole ELC to come together.

Conference Prep

Next week we will be in full preparation mode for conferences. Students will be reflecting on their academic, personal, and social selves and preparing to share their work and growth from the year so far. It is a great time of celebration and an opportunity to look towards growth in the future.

Conferences

Please be on time and plan an extra 15-20 minutes to spend with your child on the self-directed portion sharing portion of the conference.

3/10/18

We had an action packed week!

On Thursday, Tom Watson, author of Stick Dog and Stick Cat, has us rolling in our seats. He hilariously led is through drawing the characters from his books. We also put in some work helping him decide on what the themes of his next two books will be. Tom was a blast!

Friday morning we had our second field study trip to Crown Hill Park. It was a fantastically warm winter day, but we still got to notice many difference from our autumn trip. The leaves had all dropped, the cicada sounds were gone, only a few bird types were left, and there were barely any bugs to be seen at all.

Friday afternoon we got to have an all-class writing sharing. The Diamond writers have finished their realistic fiction and the Fluffy Cloud writers shared their finished Fractured Fairy Tales. In addition to sharing with each other, we also were read with our Principals and other advisors, making the process even more meaningful. They have all worked so hard and were proud of what they had accomplished.

Iditarod – We are fully immersed in the Alaskan great race, the Iditarod. This week we learned about the different positions of the dogs, how to pack a sled, and the importance of sleep during the race! Go to http://iditarod.com/ to keep up with the racers over the weekend. Students have learned

Leprechaun traps – If your child is interested, they may make a leprechaun trap at home and bring it in on Friday. At the end of the day we will set the traps and see if this is the year that we finally catch those naughty leprechauns J

Reminders

~ Friday is an early release. Pick-up time is 1:00

~ Please make sure your child arrives on time. Late arrivals are disruptive to the class and are a hard transition for the child.

~ Sign up for conferences outside the office if you have not already

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Conferences: Our conference folders will be out in front of the main office on the morning of Monday, March 5^th. Conferences are an essential way for us to celebrate your child’s progress and set learning goals together. When signing up for a conference time please keep in mind that your child will need at least 20 minutes before or after your scheduled conference time to share his/her work with you.

Author Visit – Thursday, March 8^th: Tom Watson, author of Stick Dog, will be visiting and doing a program here at the Open School. As this is a very popular series with our students, we are looking forward to having him share the writing process with us.

Diane, our librarian will be selling copies of his books that you may purchase and your student can meet and get their book signed by the author after his talk on Tuesday.

On Friday we have our Winter field trip to Crown Hill Park. There is no fee for the bus, as we will cover it through the Pumpkin Dash funds. We will return to certain parts of the park to observe was has changed in the habitat in the winter. Students will sketch and make observations. So, students must be prepared for the weather on Friday morning, have good walking shoes, and water. We will back at school for lunch. We will stay together as a group to do our observations, if you would like to come along and support this learning, please let us know.

This past week we started to explore "The Last Great Race on Earth", the Iditarod. We are learning about this winter tradition in Alaska. We will answer questions that the kids have generated and follow mushers that they have selected. The official part of the race takes off in less than two hours from now. We will follow the race through www.iditarod.comwww.iditarod.com and mushers' own websites as well.

Thanks!

Busy Busy Busy

Some weeks are packed full of special occasions..in our short week we had special visits to the MESO Mobile Space and Science Lab, some IA students performed a Reader's Theater for us, a mini flute concert from a high school senior and music teacher Kara, our Sun's hosted a Community Circle, and we went to the Denver Puppet Theater.

We also started a new chapter book, Bunnicula! It is a mystery and will be full of adventure. James Howe has kids laughing and solving a mystery through the eyes of family pets if the new pet rabbit is a vampire. It's a "classic" that you may even remember from you childhood. We will practicing the thinking and comprehension strategy of "inferring" and how to "synthesize" information.

Conferences will be here before we know it. The sign-up folders will be in the front lobby starting on Monday, March 5. Please remember that each slot with an advisor is 30 minutes but please leave 20-30 minutes before (of after if necessary) to have your student share his/her work with you. This is also an important part of the conference so please be sure to leave time. Thank you.

Crown Hill Park will be visited by us 3 times this year to notice the changes in the landscape/habitat throughout the seasons. We have rescheduled our winter visit to Friday, March 9th. We will go in the morning and be back by lunch. Students need to be prepared for the weather and to walk. It is all outside so please help your student be ready for whatever the weather may be that day.

The cost of the bus is being funded by the Pumpkin Dash Fund, so there is no fee for this trip.

Looking into the rest of February and celebrating our first 100 days

We hope you enjoyed the kids' performance on the 7th. We felt such pride watching them be brave on stage and all the Suns taking on speaking roles and leadership roles. It is nice to see our ELC community come together. Look at the new slideshow for some "behind the scenes" pics from rehearsal and before we headed to the stage.

We have also celebrated the 100th day of school, Jump Rope/Hoops for Heart, and Valentine's Day. (see slideshow for all those great events) . Besides special events, we have also continued our learning of the seasons, by revisiting insects by answering the question, "What do insects do in the winter?" Ask your little scientist what they have discovered about insects from migration, hibernation, to protective foam for eggs.

As all our little authors are writing stories we have been enjoying the first book in the "Little Legends" series. We laughed and felt empathy with different characters and heard characters learn lessons and grow. It was bitter sweet to say goodbye to these characters on Friday when we finished the book. See a link below to the series website. These would be great books to enjoy with your student and/or help them find the next books to read on their own (if they are ready)

Next we are going to dip into the mystery genre. We will focus on the thinking strategy of "inferring".

Field Trip to the Denver Puppet Theater: Friday, February 23, we will take off to the puppet theater to see the “Mexican Cinderella”. This connects to our writing units of writing stories, and fairy tales. The Fluffy Clouds have heard many versions of Cinderella and we all delved into the world of fairy tales with "Little Legends".

We are able to keep the cost for this trip low ($5), once again thanks to the Pumpkin Dash. Since this is an indoor event, we will not need extra chaperones. If you would like to come along just for the fun, please plan to pay for your own ticket at the door ($7). We will leave at 9:30am and return to school by lunch. We will be eating lunch at school.

Save the date!

For the past 2 years, the parents have hosted a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for Molly and Jim's classroom. The dinner is a free meal, and any donations given at the event go straight to the classroom to purchase supplies such as technology, books, math and science materials, etc.

This year's dinner will be held on Monday, April 9th at 5:15. It will take place in the Commons. If you are interested in helping with planning for the event, please contact Kelly Ward (Lincoln and Bennett's mom) at kellyward@gmail.com or 303-564-8924. We'll also have a sign up sheet for day of the event help (food prep, set up, clean up, etc.). We get as much food as we can donated, but will also have a few sign ups for side dishes or desserts as needed, closer to the event. Thank you!!

Books

This week we were in the swing of prepping for our play, learning more about the tiny crystals that form to make a snowflake, continuing to be authors of stories, and or course more of our everyday learning.

We started the week with lots of energy from the supermoon and ended the week with Jump Rope/Hoops for Heart and celebrating the 100^thday of school. We also had a chance to do our first rehearsal for the play on stage with the whole ELC.

The Performance

The all ELC Performance is on Wednesday, February 7. We are asking that students come to the classroom at 5:45pm At this point, you will take your student’s coat and head to the theater to find some seats. We will start the show at 6:00pm. Students will not come back to the classroom after the performance. We will dismiss students from the theater and the classroom will be locked.

We are providing each student with a t-shirt and a headpiece for the show. Students can wear any color pants/skirt- or can try to match their animal. The t-shirts will be at school-so that you don’t have to worry about remembering it on the night of the performance.

We are excited to share our learning from music and our class with you.

Narrators and “lead animals” (all third graders) should practice their lines at home to help them feel confident and ready.

Field Trip to Crown Hill on February 16^th needs to be moved. The district will not provide us with a bus on an Early Release Day. We will provide the new date when we have confirmed a bus. Thanks.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is coming up on Wednesday the 14th. Students are invited to bring in Valentine's cards for each classmate. Please have your child sign ONLY his/her own name on each card- do not address cards to individual students (it makes it very difficult to deliver). We have 43 students in our class.

We will decorated Valentine's bags at school, that our valentines are delivered into. If students would like to make a special bag or box at home- they are invited to do so.

We will deliver valentines first thing in the morning. Then, it is a typical day until choice time . At choice time students can choose to open their bags.

Kids Yoga

One of our Walkabout students, Sierra- who has volunteered in our classroom for years, is starting to teach a Kids Yoga class on Saturdays at Kula Yoga,, starting on February 10.

There will be an adult class available in the other studio for parents at the same time. Please send your kids with snacks, stretchy clothes, and ready for some exercise and fun.

Kula Yoga Studio- 9112 6^th Ave, Lakewood, teacher Sierra Ventiliglia, Saturdays @10:30-11:45am $14 per kid

Kids have adored Sierra whenever she worked with us, so I am guessing she would make a great teacher for kids.

Garden Committee Needs YOU

The Garden Committee needs your help! We are very short on parent volunteers to help with our beautiful school garden. We cannot sustain this incredible school resource without more help to keep it going. All are welcome! You do not need to have gardening experience to contribute. Our next meeting is February 8th in Chris Frederick's classroom at 3:45 PM.

Summer Opportunities

CU Boulder holds Summer Camps based on science topics and many age levels.

Check them out at

http://sciencediscovery.colorado.edu/class

Also, Dinosaur Ridge has expanded their summer camp offerings

http://www.dinoridge.org/summer-camps.html

Busy Busy

This week was full of trees and stories.

As a class we learned about what is happening inside trees during the winter. We learned vocabulary--that trees go dormant, as well what the tree is doing with the last bits of sugar left in the tree.

Then we jumped into more fairy tales, folk tales, talking about characters and building knowledge about how stories work in order to be authors of our own fiction stories.

Plus, all the kids were patient with my laryngitis.

Now that the snow as arrived we will jump into some snow and ice science.

Students will be going outside this week, even before snow melts, so please be sure that your child is prepared to be playing outside during both recesses.

Also, we have noticed that "heelys" have started to show up on more and more of our student's feet. Just an FYI- kids cannot be rolling around the hallways, classroom, or even outside. They are not a great choice for school, as of course they want to roll around and it is hard for them to walk around with the wheels in. If possible they can wear them with the wheels out.

Reminder that toys are not allowed at school- for a variety of reasons.

The Suns are going to start working on assignments in Google Classroom to help prepare them to respond to reading by typing a response for the PARCC testing that will happen this spring. They have been learning keyboarding since the fall in a once a week technology class. Diane uses www.typing.com as a place to practice. Your child can log onto their account at home and practice, practice, practice. As you know, using the "home row" is much quicker than pecking at the keys. The only way is to practice. If you have a laptop or other keyboard at home for them to practice, even for a few minutes a day--it would help.

Diamonds- remember to be filling out the Reading Log each week. Students may shop for books weekly or more often if necessary to read at home. These are "good fit" books.

Fluffy Clouds- Students may borrow books at school, as well. Besides reading about 20 minutes a night, students need to write a weekly reading entry. More and more students are taking responsibility and doing this work, but there is a handful of students that are using their choice time or specials time on Friday to complete an entry. Please help and support your student with a day of the week that would work with their schedule to get their work done. The writing practice is important, as well as an opportunity to practice self direction and accountability (2 attributes that are important at JCOS). Problem solving is important too, so if the notebook is missing or at the student's other home-there are always ways to solve these problems that don't include excuses.

Scholastic Book Order Pamphlets went home with Friday Folders. Remember that there are always more options online, but the pamphlets help to let you know what your child is interested in. Please place an order by next Friday. If we have a combined order of $100 or more, each student will receive a free book plus books for our classroom.

Thank you for your support.

January is Here

It was nice seeing everyone after the long break. We jumped right back into the swing of things and ended the week with a whole class Publishing Celebration of our animal migration nonfiction books. The kids were proud of their work and we were proud of all the hard work they have put into these books.

This week we also started a journey into fairy tales and folklore. We have been reading some classic tales to give us a basis. The whole class will be enjoying the first book of the "Little Legends" series that puts characters from classic tales as friends. We will explore the idea of characteristics of characters, how characters change, and author's message.

The Fluffy Clouds will also be using their schema of characters and stories from classic tales to write "fractured fairy tales". The Diamonds will use these stories and characters as a way to explore stories to write their own series of fiction.

As a class we also continued to look at hibernation through the lens of black bears and grizzly bears. Ask your student something they learned or thought interesting around bear hibernation.

We will start to explore some other winter themes through snow and ice science. This will give us a chance to reenter our Science Notebooks and gain some scientific schema around snow and ice.

Coming Up....

On February 7 we will have our annual ELC Performance Night. This year's theme is around the seasons. The students are busy preparing in music class and we will use our work on animal migration for our class skit.

We are asking if we have any parent volunteers to help us with costumes. Our students will be 4 different groups of animals. We will need help transforming t-shirts into animal bodies and making animal headbands. This could be something you could do with students at choice time or in the quiet of your own home, etc.

We will provide materials. Please let Jim or I know if you could help.

Hoops for Heart and 100th Day of School

These two fun days hit on the same day this year. Please see Friday Folders for information in fundraising for the event. All kids will participate during our gym time on that day.

We will also celebrate the 100th day of school with special activities throughout the day.

The Stars (first grade) Math Class- will need to make a collection of 100 objects for math homework-due on the 100th day of school (this week they had paper practice homework). This upcoming week we will be working counting and organizing large number of objects to help support this work.

Book Orders

Scholastic Book Club is offering a free book to all students if we get an order of $100 or more.

There are some great deals. This week you can get one of my all time favorites, the original picture book "Ferdinand" for only $1. There are always great deals and always quite a few choices for $1 and many more for under $3. So, if you can treat your kiddo to a book, we can treat everyone!

Log onto https://clubs.scholastic.com

Celebrating our community members

Check it out! Jana and Jim started a new blog that chronicles their discovery learning routine in the classroom! Read it, subscribe to it, feel free to add comments, and share! It has personal stories, pictures, their beliefs and teacher tips!

Eloquentexchanges.edublogs.org

In the Community...

The National Park system is a great way to get your kids out and about and to appreciate our natural world. There are a few free entrance days this year:

April 21- the first day of National Park Week
September 22- National Public Lands Day
November 11- Veteran's Day Weekend

Also, through SCFD funding there are free days throughout the year at the following:

Denver Zoo

2300 Steele St., 720-337-1400

Jan. 11, 19 and 20, Feb. 4-5, Nov. 9 and 12.

Denver Art Museum

100 W. 14th Ave Parkway, 720-865-5000

Feb. 3, March 4, April 7, April 29, May 5, June 2, July 7, Aug. 4, Sept. 1, Sept. 8, Oct. 6, Nov. 3, Dec. 1.

Note: General museum admission is free for kids 18 and younger every day.

Denver Botanic Gardens

1007 York St., 720-865-3501

York Street: Jan. 15, Feb. 19, March 22, April 8, June 5, July 19, Aug. 29, Nov. 3.

Chatfield Farms: Feb. 6, March 6, April 3, June 5, July 3, Aug. 7, Nov. 6, Dec. 14.

Plains Conservation Center: Feb. 18, March 19, June 13, July 14, Aug. 7, Nov. 8.

Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus

2121 Children’s Museum Dr., 303-433-7444

Free nights 4-8 p.m. include March 6, April 3, May 1, June 5, July 3, Aug. 7, Sept. 4, Oct. 2, Nov. 6, Dec. 4.

Denver Museum of Nature & Science

2001 Colorado Blvd., 303-370-6000

Jan. 28, Feb. 12, April 9, April 29, June 3, July 5, Aug. 13, Sept. 12, Sept. 30, Oct. 14, Dec. 9.

Museo de las Americas

861 Santa Fe Dr., 303-571-4401

First Fridays free from 5-9 p.m. on Feb. 2, March 2, May 4, May 6 (general free day), June 1, July 4 (general), July 6, Aug. 3, Sept. 7, Sept. 15 (teen day), Oct. 5, Nov. 2, Nov. 10 (general), Dec. 7.

Molly Brown House Museum

1340 Pennsylvania St., 303-832-4092

Jan. 27, May 1, Aug. 1, Nov. 9.

Colorado Railroad Museum

17155 W. 44th Ave. in Golden, 303-279-4591

March 8, April 12, Oct. 11.

Denver Center for the Performing Arts

1101 13th St., 303-893-4100

Discounts: $10 tickets to all locally produced Theatre Company productions on select dates, plus occasional discounts to Broadway and Cabaret shows. Visit denvercenter.org/dcpaccess for details.

Peace Night is coming

Come and join us Thursday night for Peace Night. The festivities begin at 6:00pm in the Commons with an Opening Ceremony. Directly after at 6:15- students from our class will present their persuasive speeches on an act of kindness that can change the world. It is optional for the kids to present, but all have been working on their speeches in writing workshop.

The next day, we will be going to the DCPA for the play based on the book The Snowy Day and other stories. The bus will leave at 8:45am. Please get your student to school on time.

The fee is $10 for the ticket and bus costs will be covered. You may pay online at Jeffco Connect or bring in funds.

We will back at school for lunch.

Please check the Weekly Wire for all school news

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jFEB5KEEGt5xn5CAj4HO-b_3uaSNuEd5/view

It's almost Halloween...

Have you heard your little student talking about worms? We learned so much new schema about worms. While digging into ants a few weeks ago has given me a new appreciation for ants, as for worms, I'm pretty much grossed out and surprised at the same time. All things slimy are perfect for this Halloween season (I mean a worm larger than a car!)

With this worm schema we have also started the thinking/reading strategy of Monitor for Meaning as well as Fact vs. Fiction.

We are all also working on persuasive/opinion writing that will connect to Peace Night.

Charlottes Web is also starting to provide us with some great spider schema. Next week we will start to research for more arachnid knowledge.

Skate Day and Halloween Party:

We will celebrate Halloween on Tuesday, October 31^st. We will load buses and head out to Skate City at 9:00 and will return to school at 1:30. The fee for Skate Day is $8, you can check on Jeffco Connect to see if you have already paid- many of you did with Registration

9:00 – 1:30 – Skate City – Students need to bring a Sack Lunch

1:45 – Halloween Parade

2:00 – 3:00 – Halloween Party

3:10– Read Aloud

3:25 – Dismissal

Students may wear costumes to school. Students may not bring any fake weapons as part of their costumes.

If you are bringing a snack for the party PLEASE think about sending in a HEALTHY SNACK. Our children will have plenty of opportunities to eat sugary snacks later that evening so let’s make an effort to feed them healthy snacks here at school.

If you signed up to help decorate for the party you can join parents to do so while we are out skating so that everything is decorated and ready for the party upon our return.

From Melody...

The Original Works gallery for Jeffco Open is now up and ready for you to make your orders. Hopefully you have received your family letter last week. On that letter you will find all of the information you need to order an original piece of work for your child. On that form you will find your student number and the school code. Our school code is JEFO. Once you are in our school gallery you can narrow the search by choosing the advisor's name or the grade of your student. From there you can choose your child's art and purchase it just like you purchase anything on the web. The items will arrive at school by Nov. 30th. We will bag them and send them home. If you have items that you wish to be kept a secret from your child please let Melody know and we can make it more secure.

Please order by November 10.

Thanks in advance for supporting the JCOS arts program!

Melody

Jeffco Connect

Jeffco Connect has made it super easy to pay for Field Trips. Many of our trips have been free so far this year due to Pumpkin Dash fundraising. With entrance fees and bus fees we will need to charge at times.

Skate Day is one field trip that does have a fee. Many families paid at Registration but you can check to see if you still need to pay for your little goblin.

On November 17- we are going to the Denver Performing Arts Center for the play, based on the book by Ezra Jack Keats. The tickets are $10 each. We will cover the transportation with Dash funds and are asking families to pay the $10. You can may on Jeffco Connect- easy peasy. It would be easier if you can pay by November 10. Thanks!

Week ending with October 12

This week was packed full of events and adventure. Thank you to the families that participated in Math "Night" and the Harvest Fest.

This week our learning together focused on leaves. We concluded our leaf vein experiment by seeing what happened after the weekend. Once we had an understanding on how the leaf veins supply water throughout the leaf we started to study how and why the leaves change color in the fall.

When we were at Crown Hill it was great to hear them use their new schema to talk about what they wee seeing around them.

A few nuts and bolts:

Pumpkin Dash envelopes can be turned in on Monday morning to still get a Pumpkin Dash t-shirt
We will send Conference Reminder notes home next week that include the date and time you signed up- if you haven't signed up yet please do so or get in touch with Jim or I
Look for flyers for "Original Works" to also come home next week
No Math homework for 1st grade math this week
2nd grade and 3rd grade math classes both have homework
"Fluffy Clouds" if Reading Journals were turned in by Friday last week, they do not need to do a new entry this week. For those students that did not turn in their reading journal will need to turn in an entry by conferences

First Week of October

With the season changing before our eyes, it has been impossible to not notice our changing trees. This week's investigation has been into leaves. We started by learning the basics of photosynthesis and then the students started wondering and asking questions about the veins of leaves. So, we have delved into the parts of leaves and how the veins work. We started our first experiment this year around this concept. We will continue to observe our leaves into next week to see the process in action. You will get to see their scientific thinking and observations in their science notebooks at conferences.

Charlotte's Web has continued to delight us as we have been introduced to the animals in the farmyard. We have practiced our empathy for Wilbur and are looking forward to Wilbur finding a friend in Charlotte.

The Fluffy Clouds are wrapping up their first official "publishing" of the year. For some students their first delve into revising, editing, and making final drafts has been hard but fulfilling. For students who went through this process this year, they are moving through the steps with more confidence and smiles of pride are filling their faces too. Look for those "published" narratives at conferences.

Speaking of conferences, both groups have only about half of our students signed up. Please sign-up for a time as soon as possible. You will find the folders on a small table right outside the main office.

From Melody

Our school has teamed up with Original Works to offer a very special program. Your child has created his or her artwork in school. You will have the opportunity to order a variety of great items you can use, all professionally made and featuring your child’s very own artwork.

We earn a profit on all sales and all students in our school benefit!

This year we are striving for 100% participation.

Did you know that if every student ordered just one MAGNET our school would earn: $400.00.

Imagine: if every student ordered two magnets, that amount would double!

In addition to magnets, there are many other items to choose from. The more you order, the more profit we earn.

These products are wonderful keepsakes! They make great Holiday Gifts, Mother’s Day gifts, Father’s Day gifts, and Birthday gifts! Who wouldn’t love a gift with your child’s very own artwork reproduced on it!

We hope you will be able to participate and show your support of the art program.

Your ordering information will be sent home by the end of the month!

For more information, please contact: Melody Epperson mepperso@jeffco.k12.co.us

Garden and Glacier

Ok, so it isn't a glacier anymore, but our week ended with a beautiful hike on the St. Mary's Glacier Trail. With the autumn season officially upon us, we have been starting to look for signs of the seasons and pollinators still busy working. We learned more about bees and other pollinators and how our garden is a host to many arthropods. Our science notebooks continue to be filled by entries related to our learning.

The field trip was a success with the clouds breaking to blue skies and the autumn crispness in the air. It was beautiful and thank you to all the parents that joined us and helped us.

As a class we started the classic novel, Charlotte's Web. While many kids have heard of the story, not many of enjoyed it yet. We be exploring the theme of friendship through the novel and practicing different thinking and reading strategies.

Math "Night"-

First of all please note that the date needed to be changed to October 10. The event is designed around parents learning more about our math program. The first 30 minutes will be you playing math games with your child and the second 30 minutes parents will come to a math meeting in the Commons area to learn more about how to support your student with math, while the students will remain in the classroom for an activity.

In our classroom we have many ways for families and kids to participate in giving back to communities. We have a donation box for garden supplies for the Fall Ball, a basket hosted by our class, a donation box for school supplies and books for hurricane relief, another donation box for the secondary students collecting items for hurricane relief, and a change jar that is also for hurricane relief.

Pumpkin Dash is this Friday, October 6. The Pumpkin Dash is our largest fundraiser that the funds directly contribute to our classroom community. The funds go to give us FREE or discounted field trips throughout the year. It is a great fundraiser to help your child with. All kids will participate whether they collect donations or not.

Conferences are soon!

On Monday morning, conference sign-up sheets will be out by 8:30am. There is no school on Thursday, October 19- Friday the 20th to leave time for conferences. You and your child will come to school at the time you sign-up. Please leave 20 minutes before or after the conference to look at student work.

But....I, Molly, have had a trip book to New York for an event for over 6 months, so conference times with me will be different. I will be available for the morning of Thursday, October 19th. Then, I will restart conferences on Monday, after school into the evening. Then, I will have a sub in the classroom with students on Tuesday while I meet with families. Students will leave class at their appointed time for their classroom and then return to class afterwards. I will also have times after school on Tuesday. Thanks families of the Fluffy Clouds for understanding.

Jim's conferences are at the "normal" times.

Crown Hill Park Field Trip

In relation to our thematic learning this year around the seasons, we will be visiting Crown Hill Park in 3 seasons (fall, winter, spring) so see how the habitat and animal life differs in the seasons. We will staying together as a group and doing work for our Science Notebooks. Parents are welcome to join if they would like to support the academic work we will be doing.

Week ending with Family Group Day

Our schema has been growing around the insect family. We put this knowledge to paper in our Science Notebooks. These notebooks will hold our learning this year around our thematic work. Our first entries show what we have started to learn so far. Each day this past week we added to our notebook and logged each entry in the Table of Contents. Besides classifying insects, comparing moths and butterflies, creating diagrams we also "adopted a tree". This will be a tree that we will use our scientific eyes on all year long, throughout the seasons, to observe and notice the changes. Some kids even named their tree. See some photos in the new slide show.

We ended the week with our secondary family groups around empathy for schools and families effected by Hurricane Harvey. We acknowledged so many natural disasters that are occurring this season, but since members of our high school community are preparing for a service trip to Houston, we will be sending love to them. After watching short videos that showed the flood waters, we visualized what our classrooms would look like and what would be damaged. Their hearts filled with kindness to spread cheer to kids and teachers we do not know. We talked about how we didn't need to remind them of what they lost, but instead send well wishes, cheer, and love. Oh my! Some cards brought me to tears.

As secondary students are preparing to bring donations to Texas, you will find that list in the Friday Folder and Weekly Wire, we will have a donation box in the classroom.

Or and also, we will be collecting school supplies, new or gently used children's books and collecting pennies to purchase new items to send to an elementary school in the Houston area.

We realize that there is so much going on right now- asking for donations for hurricane relief, Fall Ball tickets and donations, and Pumpkin Dash fundraising. It all hit at once, so please do what you can....even if your kiddo brings in some pennies that is great start to teaching service to others.

FIELD TRIP THIS FRIDAY TO ST. MARY'S GLACIER

This is a hiking field trip that will celebrate the start to autumn and will launch our studies into the fall season- from what is happening in the solar system to cause the equinox to how to leaves change colors. The fall colors will be alive up at this elevation. This hike is appropriate for this age children, but does gain elevation on rocky terrain, so your child must have good walking shoes, plenty of water, sack lunch, a backpack to carry all their gear including an extra layer.

We do invite plenty of parents on this hike- more the merrier when hiking with kiddos. Please let us know if you are planning to come. Also, if you are coming DO NOT carry your child's things. This trip is an opportunity to learn personal responsibility. If other kids can do it, so can your child. Thanks for supporting this learning experience.

This trip is FREE due to the Pumpkin Dash.

Pumpkin Dash- in the Friday Folder was a letter around supporting your child in safely raising money for this great fundraiser- even a little helps many families.

The PTSO is hosting the first ever silent auction (Fall Ball) to raise funds for JCOS enrichment programs on October 27th. We are helping to coordinate a themed basket for Molly and Jim's class to donate to the auction and need your help! themed basket will be "Garden" and we are looking for families who would be willing to donate either an item for the basket (think gardening gloves, flower bulbs, watering cans, seeds, trowels, shovels, gift cards to garden centers, garden decorations, etc.), or a cash donation towards purchasing items to go in the basket. There will be a box in the classroom where you can drop off donations, or if you have a cash donation, please leave it with Molly and Jim and they can get it to us. We would like to have all donations in by October 12th.

Please contact Kelly (Lincoln and Bennett's mom) or Sarah (Asher's mom) with any questions or donations! Thank you!

kellyward@gmail.com

splous1974@gmail.com

Week ending with the Butterfly Pavilion

This week was filled with learning new schema and revising what we knew around butterflies and moths in preparation for our field trip to the Butterfly Pavilion. Your students are becoming experts in observation to tell the difference between the species as well as understanding these interesting insects.

This upcoming week we will start to explore more insects and see what arthropods are living in our garden habitat through observation and recording in our Science Notebooks.

We also finished our first chapter book together, My Father's Dragon. It has quickly become a favorite. You can even find it Scholastic Book Orders for only $3. https://clubs.scholastic.com/my-fatherand%23146%3Bs-dragon/9780590136952-rco-us.html

There are two more books in the series to enjoy as a family as well. Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland.

Friday is Family-Group Day

This Friday morning at 8:45am we will start with our annual All School Photo and then meet with our Family Groups, Megan's, Dave's, and Marc's advising, from our secondary program. Our day will focus around service to a partner school/s in the Corpus Christi/Houston area who were effected by Hurricane Harvey. We will be writing letters and cards, packing care packages and more. We are turning our advising learning around empathy for our classmates to empathy for our greater community. Students from our Family Groups will taking a service trip to Texas to help hands on. We will send some care and love beforehand and some will travel with them. Friday will actually be a launch into an ongoing service project. We feel that this is a great way to spend the day- connecting with older students and sending our love and empathy to other kids in our country.

Please remember that it is also an Early Release Day.

Portfolios!

New kids to our class this year need to bring in a 2" binder with clear sleeves on cover and back cover, ASAP. We use these as our ELC portfolios. We are going to work on our portfolios monthly and need your child's portfolio binder sooner than later. Thank you.

St Mary's Glacier Hike

Our next field trip is next Friday the 22nd. We will be headed up into the mountains to see the changes in seasons. This hike requires good walking shoes, backpack, lunch, lots of water, and clothes for the weather. We could use as many parent volunteers as possible. There is no limit on chaperones this trip, but please let us know if you are planning to come so that we can plan small groups. We will leave at 9:00am and be back by 1:30pm.

Hello JCOS Community,

Planning for the JCOS Halloween Party & Silent Auction is well underway! This is a social event for parents, staff, and alumni on October 27^th, 2017 at Clements Community Center in Lakewood, CO 80214.

While we have an excellent start on planning, we still need lots of help!

· Decorating chair & committee members needed

· Purchase a ticket for yourself and/or a staff member

· Volunteer to put together an art project for your child’s classroom

· Collect donations from local businesses

· Business owner? Contact FallBallJCOS@gmail.com to donate service or product

Purchase tickets for yourself and a staff member through our online ticketing system (We are so fancy!):http://tinyurl.com/JCOSFallBall at $15/ticket until October 13, 2117. After Friday the 13^th tickets will be $25.

If multiple tickets are bought for 1 staff member we will give 1 extra ticket to the staff member, and they may bring whomever they choose. All additional ticket monies will be used to purchase tickets for paras, admin and enrichment teachers. Names of all staff without a ticket by October 13^th will be drawn out of a hat to determine which staff member will receive a ticket.

Stay tuned for event details and other volunteer opportunities. If you are interested in donating, soliciting local businesses, or need to drop off items contact Janna Burnam @FallBallJCOS@gmail.com.

First week of September

Those 4 days weeks are sure jammed pack. We are in the swing of our routines around here. We continue to talk about friendship, empathy, being a class of learners, and have also dove into our first theme topic of the year....hello arthropods (to you maybe bugs, insects, and creepy crawly things). We have shared schema we already had with each other and started by learning about the Arthropod Family Tree (our own version will be headed to our hallway soon). Once we could classify the different types, we started learning more about beetles. Ask your student what they have been amazed by and what they are now wondering about. As beetles are a type of insect we will investigate other insects and move on to the other types of arthropods. We did start a bug habitat, so yes, your kiddo can bring in an arthropod they found to share and put in the habitat.

To go along with our theme, we will be headed to the Butterfly Pavilion on the 15th. We do need parent chaperones- look for a sign-up in the hallway outside the classroom.

Check out our class' Hopes, Dreams and Wishes on the front home page--they will warm your heart.

Portfolios

We will be working on our portfolios a bit by bit this year. If you are new to our area, your student will need a portfolio. It will be used through the ELC and then come home as a beautiful artifact.

The portfolios should be a 2 inch binder with plastic sleeves on the outside to slide in artwork.

We will begin adding new school work in the next weeks.

Volunteers

We are looking for a parent volunteer to help kids harvest from the garden at choice times on Fridays. You can contact us or Kelly Ward (Lincoln and Bennett's mom).

Please check last week's newsletter (scroll down) to see volunteer opportunities and donations needed. Thank you.

Homework/Reading

You will see that this week all students have math homework. Stars and Moons will have paper practice homework in their Friday Folders. Suns need practice their "times table", multiplication facts at home.

All students are expected to be reading Good Fit books 15-20 minutes a night. All students are coming home with a Book Bag. Students in the Diamonds group have a cloth book bag with a reading log inside. See the note that comes with it.

Students in the Fluffy Clouds group also have book bags with a new reading journal inside. Please read the letter that accompanies the journal. This week their homework is do decorate their new journal (see letter)

All homework and reading logs/journals are due on Fridays.

Empathy

Part of learning empathy is helping kids navigate friend and peer problems through the lens of someone else's perspective, but to also take it out to others that we may not know. With the recent hurricane and flooding in Houston and oncoming hurricane in Florida, we feel that there are opportunities for our kids to connect with other children and people that have lost homes, items, etc. With our "family groups" we will find a school to partner with and fill their needs through donations and fundraising. One of our family groups is already starting a drive and will drive trucks of items down to Houston. Please look for information in the Friday Folder of ways your family can help.

Resource for Families

Jefferson Community Center Open on Thursdays | Edgewater Collective

The Jefferson Community Center will be open from 2-4 pm on Thursdays during the month of September starting this Thursday, September 7. Our computer lab for parents is now up and running too. Representatives from Jeffco Public Schools Title I Department and resource navigators from Jefferson Center for Mental Health will be available to meet with families.

The Jefferson Community Center is located inside Jefferson Junior Senior High School (2305 Pierce Street, Edgewater). Enter through the main doors on the east side of the school and check in with school security. The Jefferson Community Center is located in the northeast corner of Jefferson just past the cafeteria.

This service is open to families in the 80214 area and those who have children who attend the following schools:

Edgewater Elementary
Jeffco Open School
Jefferson Junior/Senior High School
Lumberg Elementary
Molholm Elementary

Parents for the Arts

After school Ukulele club!

Open for students in the ELC,IA and 6th, PW..

Thursdays 3:30-4:15

No Ukulele required

Offered by Melody and Steve

Beginning September 28th

See classroom for a permission slip...by September 14

Hello September

Thank you to all the families that joined us for the Ice Cream Social and Back to School Night. If you couldn't make it, your kiddo should have brought home a packet from the night with some important information. If you didn't get it, please let us know.

If you have any questions from the evening, please let us know.

Volunteer Opportunities

Vision and Hearing

The Health Team would like volunteers to help with Vision and Hearing Screening on Wednesday, September 6 (next week). They need volunteers for the morning and/or afternoon. Please get in touch with Chelsea Cosby, in the Health Room or office if you can help.

Melody and the elementary arts program need parents to help with a few things.

· Warp looms

· Make card looms and warp them

· Cut and iron fabric squares for sewing projects

· Wedge clay

Later in the fall Melody will also need a few parents to help with the Original Works fundraiser.

If you are able to help with one of these jobs please see Melody or call her voicemail.

Choice Time

We have Choice Time each afternoon. We would love for adults to come in and host a choice. If you can host a choice but don't know what you can do, we are happy to give you ideas. Please let us know when you can come, so we can plan accordingly.

Donations

We could always use some things that we don't like to use our supply budget funds for. If you could help provide any of these items, please bring them on in.

tissues
clorox (or other brand) wipes
paper towels or rags
sponges
craft supplies

Portfolios

The portfolios should be a 2 inch binder with plastic sleeves on the outside to slide in artwork.

We will begin adding new school work in a couple weeks.

This Week

Our first full week of school was packed full of all sorts of learning. As a whole group, we are used to our routine of the day and know what to expect. We have started our handwriting books and Suns are excited to be learning cursive- they already know a handful of letters. Cursive is amazing for the brain and your student will be able to read primary documents and for some students cursive is easier than print.

We spent the week as a whole group understanding empathy through picture books and examples through the day. Please support this emotional learning, by talking about empathy as a family and where empathy occurs outside of school.

We have also have started our first chapter book, "My Father's Dragon". So far it is a hit and we love following Elmer on his adventure to save a baby dragon. It is part of a series. As a family you can enjoy the other books together.

In Literacy Block, both the Diamonds and the Fluffy Clouds have been building their Read to Self stamina. The groups reached 14 and 15 minutes today and will continue to grow our reading stamina next week.

The Fluffly Clouds have started to study ant through different non-fiction texts. I encourage students to find information outside of school as well and bring in the information.

Next week we will start to study the bugs, insects, arthropods, and arachnids that live in our school playground habitat.

In writing workshop students are writing personal narratives and building their own writing stamina.

We are busy having fun and growing as a community of learners.

Check out our slideshow on the homepage of the website for photos from the past two weeks!

Here are some of our advising books so far this year

welcome to a new school year

As much as we love summer vacation, once we are in the school building, a fresh new school year is always exciting and full of possibilities to watch your little ones grow and learn.

Solar Eclipse

The year starts with a momentous occasion, the solar eclipse. We take your student's safety seriously, therefore the district is asking that students have permission forms filled out by Monday morning at 8:30 am.

We will be studying about the solar eclipse on Monday. In order to ensure the safety of your children we plan to view the solar eclipse in very small groups using the required ISO12312-2:2015 glasses which conform to and meet the transmission requirements and filters for direct observation of the sun. Your children will be inside in the morning when the eclipse begins. We will eat lunch inside and children will return to the classroom where we will take children out in small groups to view the eclipse. The maximum eclipse will occur at 11:47. Students whose parents have signed the eclipse permission slip will have an opportunity to view the eclipse around that time. The eclipse will be over at 1:14 pm in time for children to go outside for afternoon recess. These permission slips were emailed to you. If you need help, please see the office.

Friday Folders

Each week we will send home information, work, etc. in a Friday Folder. Your student may bring in a special folder or we will provide one. Please bring in a folder by Thursday, August 24th if your child wants a specific folder.

The first few weeks we will provide a paper newsletter, but will transfer to using the website as the main source of information.

Please be sure your emails are current in Campus- as an email list for reminders will be made from Campus.

Just a few things to tide you over until Ice Cream Social/Back to School Meeting

Start of day and dismissal

Our doors open at 8:30am. You are welcome to walk in with your student to say goodbye. We will greet the students and start our Morning Meeting quickly. Please be sure your student is on time and ready to start their day.

At 3:25 students are dismissed. We ask that "Stars" (first graders) be picked up inside the classroom for at least the first few months of school. When you feel that they can be responsible to meet you at a specific location you can let us know that your family is making a change, so that we can keep your child safe.

Moons and Suns (2nd and 3rd graders) are welcome to stay in the classroom to get picked up or may have a specific meeting spot designated. Please be sure you child knows where they will meet you.

The playground is not a meeting spot for families. Once the buses have left- which is fairly quick on some days, all students who remain will be brought to the office.

Toys/Tech

The ELC asks that no toys be brought in to school . They are a distraction and could potentially be lost, damaged, etc.

No personal devices- phones, ipads, tablets, etc. may be used for personal use (games, music, etc_ from the hours of 8:00-3:30. This is an all elementary norm. While we see technology as a tool, we want kids interacting with each other during their "free" times at school- before school and recesses- not staring at a screen.

Birthday Celebrations

Concerns of children's allergies has shifted our birthday celebrations. If your child would like to celebrate with the class beyond our silly "knighting" ritual we ask that your family donate a gift for the class; such as a book, board game, craft, activity- rather than a treat or small items for individual students. Your birthday child can present the gift to the whole class and will last longer than a cupcake or little trinket.

Lunch and Snacks

We eat lunch at 11:30 and have an opportunity for an afternoon snack at 1:15pm. There is no morning snack- so be sure breakfast is healthy and filling (breakfast opens at school at 8:00am)

Afternoon snack needs to be provided from home, we do not provide snacks to students. We do suggest that kids have a snack to help fuel the rest of their day.

ELC Norms

See below the document that was sent home around ELC Norms. Click on the upper right hand corner to see the whole document.

Family Reminders from the ELC (Early Learning Center)

Newsletter

The Last Week of School

So much happening in the next 2 weeks....

Week Ending 5/3

Ask your child about :

Mt. Falcon Field Trip - Friday

3rd grade Portfolio Sharing

What an amazing "museum night"

Spring has Sprung

Events Galore....

3rd grade Family Information

Week Ending 4/12/19

3rd Grade Testing

Community Circle - 4/19/19

3rd grade parents - mandatory trip meeting

Scholastic Book orders due 4/19

Stars and Moons (1st and 2nd grade)

Week Ending 3/15/19

Moons Math (2nd grade)

Suns (3rd grade)

Moon Journals (all grades)

Reading Over Break

Week ending 3/1/19

Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser

$750 THANK YOU!

Advising

From Melody - for the Pinecones (Jim's Group)

Hiking Club

Week ending 2/22/19

Launch into Space

MOON TRACKING

Celebrating authors

Advising

Homework

Week Ending 2/15/2019

Performance

Advising

Museum Field Trip - Wednesday Feb. 20th (Volunteers still needed)

Week ending 2/8/2019

Peace Night

Thursday is Valentine's Day.

Friday is early release - 1:00 pm pickup

We just celebrated 100 days at school!

Week ending January 25

Peace Night - ELC Performance

Week ending in January 18

ELC Performance

Friday January 11th

Kindness

Hallway

ELC Performance

Last week before winter break

Hibernation Day

11/30/18

People of the Plateau

Family Trunk Sharing

Corduroy Field Trip December 5th

Before School

Action Center for Holidays

11/2/18

Skate Day - Haunted House

From Jim

Community Circle

Ask your child about

Snow Foxes

Halloween is coming

October 11th

Community Circle

Drop-offs

Conferences

Book Fair

Weather

Ask you child about:

October is Here

Digging Into the Bond - Ballot Question 5B: A Message from Superintendent Dr. Glass

Week ending september 28

THIS UPCOMING WEEK

Monday

Wednesday - Volunteers needed

Thursday - All school Harvest Festival