November/December

This Week

Monday

Welcome back!

Tuesday

* Feedback on goals - Libby

Wednesday

* SD: Finalize EPRs & Words Their Way update

Thursday

* 4th Grade Planning

Friday

Reminders

* We will provide sub time for classroom teachers to complete DRA/F & P winter testing after break.  Sign ups will be in the lounge Tuesday morning.

* Teacher grades 3-5, please collaborate with your SPED/RtI teachers and compile a list of students who will need accommodations for CMAS. Students must be on a formal plan to receive extra time. Text-to-speech is available for anyone who needs it for Math & Science. Documenting accommodations must begin on December 1st. Please email Libby your list of students who need accommodations by November 29th.

* Progress checks must be entered into Alpine for READ plan students. This needs to be done every 6-8 weeks, so now would be a great time! Click here for directions on how to do this or see Libby if you need help. Please remember to progress monitor these students monthy.

* Our GRE Holiday Party will be held on Friday, December 15 after school at Stacie Martino's home.  More details will follow, but be sure to put this date on your calendar!!  You won't want to miss it.

Happy Birthday
Kim Layton - November 20th
Kristi Barta - November 25th
Anita Rudman - November 27th

2nd Grade Technology CoTeaching
Before break 2nd graders navigated between four different apps, Skitch, Pattern Shapes, Adobe Spark Video, and Seesaw to communicate their mathematical thinking. Within Skitch they labeled the geometrical terms faces, edges, and vertices. In Pattern Shapes students created arrays to show the solutions to their rectangular riddles and modeled fractions like 1/2, 1/3, & 1/4 with different geometrical shapes. For example, one trapezoid is half of one hexagon. After creating visual representations in Skitch and Pattern Shapes, 2nd graders used Adobe Spark Video to add their own verbal explanations of each math concept. Completed presentations were then shared on Seesaw. Please check out one student's sample below.


Primary Share Shop Celebrations
Intermediate Share Shop Celebrations

*Conferring with Readers and Writers

 *Strategies That Work

* The Next Steps in Guided Reading

Go For the Gold
• Thank you teachers for all of the time and effort you put into the Celebration of Learning. Parents and grandparents loved seeing their student's work!
• Thank you Christy Dismang and Anita Rudman for doing an amazing job marketing our school!
• Thank you Anita Rudman for mailing the goodies to the troops!
• Thank you Gail Golish for a great book fair!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Broecker
Lounge Duty: Dazzio/Warner

One of our student's dad made it to Mt. Everest Base Camp and gave Gold Rush a shout out!

November 

This Week
Monday
* Veteran's Day celebrations. Please see schedule below. 

Tuesday
* 2:00 - Fire & Shelter in Place Drills

Wednesday
* Digger's Family Feast

Thursday
* 5th Grade Planning Day

Friday

Reminders
* Last call if you would like to have extra help from an EDGE student on Friday. Please let Libby know if you could use an extra set of hands.

* We will have a fire drill, immediately followed by a shelter in place drill on Tuesday at 2:00.

* On Wednesday, from 10:45-2:00, please use the fourth and second grade hallways to go to specials or extra recess so that we can keep the front vestible open for the Thanksgiving feast.

* Please update your classroom blog and enter your CITE 6 goals into InspriED before Thanksgiving break if you haven't done so already.

* We used the new SeeSaw activities button during our PLC day. If you want more information about how to use this feature please see Becca McMillan.

* If you would like to nominate someone for the Apple Awards, please click here.

* Progress checks must be entered into Alpine for READ plan students. This needs to be done every 6-8 weeks, so now would be a great time! Click here for directions on how to do this or see Libby if you need help. Please remember to progress monitor these students monthy.

* Teacher grades 3-5, please collaborate with your SPED/RtI teachers and compile a list of students who will need accommodations for CMAS. Students must be on a formal plan to receive extra time. Text-to-speech is available for anyone who needs it for Math & Science. Documenting accommodations must begin on December 1st. Please email Libby your list of students who need accommodations by November 29th.

* Jenny and Libby would like to meet with teachers after break to talk further about your goals.  Please sign up for a time with Anita prior to break.

* We will provide sub time for classroom teachers to complete DRA/F & P winter testing after break.  Sign ups will be in the lounge Tuesday morning.

Schedule for Monday's Veteran's Day Celebration
5th Grade - 9:40-10:20
1st Grade - 11:00-11:40
2nd Grade - 11:55-12:35
3rd Grade - 1:00-1:40
4th Grade - 1:50-2:30
SPED, Specials, and K TBD

Please bring your class to the Gold Mine room. If your time backs up to lunch, we will pick your students up from recess.  We are also collecting the following items to send to troops currently overseas.  Feel free to contribute as well.  There is a collection box in the front vestibule (next to the food drive) for all donations.

Sunflower Seeds * Chapstick * Gum * Dental Floss * Q-Tips * Crossword Puzzles * Playing Cards * Sour Patch Kids * Toothpaste * Magazines

Book Fair
Monday:  7:30 - 4:30
Tuesday: 7:30 - 6:30
Wednesday  7:30 - 4:30
Thursday: 7:30 - 6:30
Friday: 7:30 - 2:00
There will be no Library classes or open library times during this week.

Thanksgiving Feast
Our Celebration of Learning and Feast is this Wednesday. The schedule is as follows:

*Conferring with Readers and Writers

 *Strategies That Work

* The Next Steps in Guided Reading

1st Grade Technology CoTeaching
First grade readers used SonicPics to capture their thinking as they read nonfiction texts. After recording their questions, connections, and new learnings they posted their work on Seesaw's blog. By doing so they were able to access a greater audience and share their thinking/teach ALL first graders about their nonfiction topic.

As first graders listened to peer SonicPics projects they left comments for the reader using sentence stems like:
* I am also wondering...
* This fact reminds me of...
* I learned from you that...
* I think I know the answer to one of your questions...

See below for a 1st grade sample project and sample comments in response to his presentation.



Student Comment Sample #1
Student Comment Sample #2
Student Comment Sample #3

Birthdays
Gretchen Imman - November 18

Go For the Gold
* Thank you for an amazing PLC day! We have the best staff, meow and forever more!
* Thank you Jessalyn Russell, Ashley Dalcerri, Jenn Poli, and Michelle Anderson for sharing your wonderful work!
* Thank you Jen Dale for covering extra lunch/recesses!
* Thank you Naomi and Jessalyn for volunteering to serve on the GT identification team!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Lautenbach
Lounge Duty: Shepperd/Fleet

November

This Week
Monday
* 8:30-3:30 3rd grade Gemologist in Gold Mine room

Tuesday
* PLC Day

Wednesday
* 7:45 Preliminary spelling test in the Gold Mine room
* No Staff Development

Thursday
* Kindie Plan Day

Friday 

Reminders
* Please make sure you complete setting all of your targets for your students for CITE 6 in InspirED.

* Click here for the agenda for our PLC day. Please bring the following:
     • Math Journals
     • Student examples of open ended and/or parallel tasks
     • Computers

* The spelling bee preliminary test will be given November 8th at 7:45 in the Gold Mine room. Any 4th or 5th grader who is interested in being in this year's spelling bee needs to take the preliminary test. Please see Lauren Rayens if you have any questions.

* Please remember to update your blogs for November. Please make sure your daily schedule is included. 

* We moved our 'Feedback on Goals' to November 30th, December 1st & 4th. We will provide a sub for you. More info to follow.

Opportunities
• Douglas County is looking fro tutors to support struggling students in all content areas. The compensation is $45 an hour. Please let Libby know if you are interested.

• Students in the EDGE program at Legend High School are looking to do community service hours on November 17th. If you would like a high school volunteer on this day, please let Libby know.

• Kristi is still in need of volunteers to be on the Gifted and Talented Identification team. Please let her know if you would be willing to be on this team. 

Debbie Blair, the incredible Technology Specialist at Prairie Crossing, is hosting a Seesaw Social on November 29th at the Rio Grande in Lone Tree. This is open to anyone who uses Seesaw in the Denver metro area (not just for DCSD staff). 

If you attend you can expect to:

* Meet passionate teachers

* Share tips & tricks through casual conversation

* Make face to face connections

* Collaborate with other teachers who use Seesaw to promote a student driven classroom.

For all of the details and to join in, click on the below link. Please make sure you RSVP if you are planning to attend.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seesaw-social-lone-tree-colorado-tickets-39415120687

Welcome

* Please help us welcome Mariela to our staff. She will be working with SSN on Mondays and Tuesdays, and taking over for Christy Schwalick Wed. - Fri.

Thanksgiving Feast
Our annual Thanksgiving Feast and Celebration of Learning will be on Wednesday, November 15th. The schedule is as follows:

4th Grade Technology CoTeaching
Last week in 4th grade, students explored digital literacy. They built schema about different groups of people in Colorado through digital resources and a digital version of Stephanie Harvey's Fact, Question, and Responses. Students annotated video clips in Discovery Education, articles, maps, and interactive websites.

Please take a few minutes to watch the incredible synopsis of our work by two 4th graders. The video is too large to imbed in Blogger, so you may have to download it in order to view it.

Video Synopsis Click Here



3rd Grade Technology CoTeaching
This week in 3rd grade we connected their study of data collection to the creation and analysis of Google Forms. Third grade teams crafted different question types to gather lots of information about their topic. Once they looked at their results, groups had to revise the way their question was asked in order to get the specific type of data they were hoping for. In addition, when looking at their results, students analyzed how the data could be represented in different graph types and how to interpret/draw conclusions about the data once it is collected.
The sample below is a video recording, so you can press the play button to hear the audio and press the arrows to navigate through the pictures she is describing.


Intermediate Share Shop Resources

Primary Share Shop Resources (work in progress)

*Conferring with Readers and Writers

 *Strategies That Work

* The Next Steps in Guided Reading

Happy Birthday
Kelly Broecker - November 3rd (Happy Belated!)
Cindy Bell - November 7th
Kylee Lauterbach - November 11th

Go For the Gold
• Thank you everyone for participating in our Halloween festivities!
• Thank you Bev Holtzer and all who participated in Walktober!
• Thank you Kristi Barta and Bev Holtzer for covering classes last week!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Rayens
Lounge Duty: Meredith/Russell

November

This Week

Monday

Tuesday

* 8:40 - Halloween Parties

* 9:30 - Parade

Wednesday

* SD: Enter CITE 6 data and set targets

Thursday

* 2nd Grade Planning Day

* Jenny admin meeting

Friday

Reminders
* For staff development this week, we will be entering CITE 6 data and setting targets. Classroom teachers: please bring scored writing assessments for unit 1.  Specials teachers - please bring scored assessments.

* Click here for a draft agenda for the November PLC day. Please bring the following:
     • Math journals
     • Student examples of open ended and/or parallel tasks

* Teachers in grades 3-5, please start thinking about who needs accommodations for CMAS (They are not calling it PARCC anymore in Colorado). They asked us to be strict on who gets extra time as data shows very few actually use it. Students must be on a formal plan to receive this accommodation. Students can have text-to-speech without being on a formal plan, but they need to utilize this regularly.

Opportunities
• Kristi is putting together our GRE Gifted and Talented Identification Team.  If you are interested in looking at data and being a part of this team, let her know.  It will involve a couple mornings or afternoons outside of school coming up in November.  She offers treats at the meetings for incentive!!

• Douglas County is looking for tutors to support struggling students in all content areas. The compensations is $45 an hour. Please let Libby know if you are interested.

• Students in the EDGE program at Legend High School are looking to do community service hours on November 17th. If you would like a high school volunteer on this day, please let Libby know. 

Halloween

As a school we celebrate Halloween with breakfast parties from 8:30-9:20 AM. Our all school parade will follow. Please remind parent helpers of the timeframe for our parties. Please also remind all families that students are to change out of their costumes at the end of the parade and that masks, weapons, and face paint are not permitted. If you have students who do not wish to participate they can come to school at 10:00, or they can go to the library.

Happy Birthday
Jenny Huntsinger - October 31st

*Conferring with Readers and Writers

* Strategies That Work

* The Next Steps in Guided Reading


Go For the Gold
• Thank you for an awesome first book club!
• Thank you to the Fat Friday team for providing the delicious chili!
• Thank you to everyone who served dinner at the Chicken Shack! The students loved it!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Dalcerri
Lounge Duty: Steinher/McMillan

This Week

Monday

Tuesday

* 7:45 Tech committee meeting

Wednesday

* 7:30 - Book Study

     

Thursday

* 1st Grade Plan Day

Friday

* Fat Friday! Spooky Chili Cook-off!

Reminders

* We are excited for our first book club! Please come having read your materials. We will meet in the following locations:

     Strategies That Work - Office conference room

     Conferring with Readers and Writers - Lower conference room

     Next Steps in Guided Reading - Gold Mine room

* New Library Open Hours

     • 8:45-9:15 - M, W, F 

     • 2:00-2:40 - T, Th

Please adhere to these times.

* Thank you for complying with our Library Norms. Click here for the complete list.

* Allison and Jenny are hosting two, one-hour math workshops for parents. Click here for the flyer that went home. 

Opportunity

The Cherry Creek Valley Rotary Club of Parker is excited to announce its 2017/2018 school year teacher micro-grant program. This program provides a $50 micro-grant to teachers who are with a DCSD public school in the 80134 and 80138 zip codes. Click here for the online application.

Our new office staff!

Health Assistants/Office clerks: Elizabeth Meuli (M, T) and Christy Schwalick (W, Th, F)

Registrar: Christi Dismang

Administrative Assistant: Anita Rudman

Christy Schwalick will continue her EA position on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Halloween

As a school we celebrate Halloween with breakfast parties from 8:30-9:20 AM. Our all school parade follows (the route will be in your box). Please remind parent helpers of the timeframe for our parties. Please also remind all families that students are to change out of their costumes at the end of the parade and that masks, weapons, and face paint are not permitted. If you have students who do not wish to participate they can come to school at 10:00, or they can go to the library.

5th Grade Technology CoTeaching
Students created an infographic using piktochart to synthesize their work around "What do you do with a question?" this week. Digitally students recorded questions, categorized questions, researched questions using keywords using Discovery Education, PebbleGo, Children's Britannica, and www.kidrex.org. HERE is a google document template that has the resources hyperlinked that you can use in your classroom.  I've also modified the document to include QR codes directing them to the sites listed above for easier access. QR version click HERE.

Elaina's Sample
Riley's Sample

Happy Birthday

Sarah Sommers - October 24th

Heather Terry - October 25th

Lauren Meier - October 29th

Go For the Gold

* Thank you Allison Hawk for sending students to help clean up the art room!

* As always, thank you Leadership Team for your participation and input!

* Thank you everyone for an awesome lockdown drill! The security team was so impressed and could sense how much you all care for our kids. We received an A++ score!

* Thank you Jeannette Shepherd and Kerry Dazzio for beautifying our grounds with all of the painted rocks in our garden! 

* Thank you Robin Carmack and Diane Brown for helping with interviews!

Golden Nuggets

Morning Announcements: Hawk

Lounge Duty: Meier/Woolums

Betsy's gender reveal....Its a BOY!!!

October

This Week
Monday
Welcome Back!

Tuesday
* 7:30 - Leadership team meeting in the Gold Mine room

Wednesday
* No staff development

Thursday
* Jenny admin meeting

Friday
* 7:30 - SRP training in the Gold Mine room
* 1:00 - Lockdown drill (see below)

Reminders:

* Parent Blog - Please update your parent blog for October.  It should include curriculum you are going to cover in October and ways parents can help their kids at home.
* Legend is hosting a Relay for Life on October 21 on the Legend track from 7:30am-12:30pm. 
Click here for more information.

* Please have all field trips approved by Jenny.
* If you have not done so already, please let Libby know if you have students who need to be put on a READ Plan. 

* Lockdown Training at 7:30 Friday, October 20 & Practice @ 1:00 PM
  Please remind your class of the following:  
- If you are in the hallway go to the closest room.
- If you are in the bathroom lock the stall and raise your feet.
- If you were at recess you would run into the neighborhood.

* Book Study - Wednesday, October 25 @ 7:30
We are excited to start our book studies after break.  Please click on the book link below to see the reading for your first meeting and location.

Conferring with Readers and Writers

Reading Strategies That Work

The Next Step in Guided Reading

Go For the Gold
* Thank you for a great, last night of conferences!
* Thank you everyone for weathering crazy hair day the day before fall break!

Kindie CoTeaching: Planning Documents

Kindergartners used the app ChatterPix to teach others what it means to be a good citizen at Gold Rush. 

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Broecker
Lounge Duty: Anderson/Graham

This Week
Monday
Tuesday
* 7:45 Tech office hours
Wednesday
* No staff development
Thursday
* 5th grade planning day
* Jenny admin meeting
* Parent/Teacher conferences
Friday
* 2:45 Digger Dash winner celebration on the front blacktop

1st Grade CoTeaching
Everyone knows one of the hardest parts of the writing process is revising. First graders this week tackled this hard work of writing using Seesaw. After individual students recorded their story onto Seesaw, peer revisors went to work! Students learned how to comment on Seesaw by leaving meaningful feedback for their fellow writers. First graders left questions for the author so the author knew what kind of information they should go back and add to their story. Then each student listened was able to take the feedback they received, revise their writing, and publish their newly revised work on to Seesaw.

Peer Revisor Comment & Self Analysis: Which comments did you use to revise your writing?
*Tech Tip: Although Seesaw allows you to post multiple pictures now, you can't swipe and record on individual pages and when you download the project you have to download the audio and the pictures separately. Sonic Pics may still be the best choice if you want to record on multiple pictures.

Reminders
* If you have any students on 504s, please make sure you have reviewed them and know the accommodations.
* Our SRP training will be Friday, October 20th at 7:30.
* Please let Libby know if you have students who are not already on a READ plan and did not meet the cut-score on Istation. We will need to write a READ plan for them.


Happy Birthday
Jilla Emadipour - October 3rd
Kim Gopsill - October 3rd
Christy Dismang - October 4th
Jen Dale - October 6th
Amanda Widdeson - October 11th
Megan Wallace - October 13th

Go For the Gold
• Thank you Tobey for fixing the printer!
• Thank you teachers for a great, first night of conferences!
• Thank you Karen Warner, Mel Berry, and Justing Brakefield for setting up/cleaning up Digger Dash!
• Thank you Fat Friday team for the delicious soup and potato bar!
• Thank you Jamie Marchese for helping with car loop!

Golden Nuggets
Morning announcements: Lautenbach
Lounge duty: Roon/Wilson