Cottonwood Creek Cougar Chronicle
March 2019
Our Cougars sure know how to ROAR!
We raised $27,557 for the American Heart Association; Way to go Cottonwood!
Congratulations to the Cottonwood Battle of the Books team, Sanjit Doshi, Noah Parker, Kasey Perlman, Becky Gao, and Ron Sanyal, who have advanced to the finals on March 11th. Way to go, and good luck! Thank you Ann Litschewski and Heidi Burris for your support of our Battle of the Books Team.
Our Destination Imagination Teams had a weekend of success at the Regional Tournament this past weekend. We are so proud of their hard work and commitment to DI. Thank you Scott Rogers and Amy Bainbridge for your support of DI at Cottonwood Elementary School. Our 2nd/3rd grade Destination Imagination team, Charlie Bellamy, Everett Cecil, Tucker McCrohan, Josie Stein, Drew Berkley and Dylan Talaga, took FIRST PLACE in the engineering challenge, and they will represent Cottonwood at the State Tournament. Our 4th graders, Zach Goldenberg, Caden Lauber, Delaney Hall, Katie Johnson, Kate Shineman and Regan Talaga, took 5th place in the technology challenge. Our 5th graders, Shruti Arum, Sanjit Doshi, Pranati Lakhani, Katie Larsen, Seetha Perianan, Kasey Perlman and Dylan Pollak, placed 3rd in the technical challenge and will proceed to the State tournament as well! In addition, they earned the prestigious DaVinci award for their drop mechanism. I'm also proud of our 1st grade Light Bulb Rock Stars: Sofie Preece, Aven Yates, Khadijah Ali, and Naia Brennen. They participated in the non-competitive Rising Stars group. Way to go!
Get ready for Cherry Creek Reads
Grab a new book or an old favorite and get ready to read! The Cherry Creek School District will celebrate the joy of reading during the first-ever Cherry Creek Reads Week, coming up March 11-15.
Across the district, students, parents, teachers, staff, friends and family members will try to read for 66 minutes or more during Cherry Creek Reads Week. That represents one minute for every Cherry Creek school. The goal is simple: to create a community of readers and foster a lifelong love of reading.
The theme for the week is “Read Together, Wonder Together,” and is based on the book Out of Wonder, Poems about Poets by Kwame Alexander, a Newberry Award-winning author. He and fellow poets Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth share original poems that pay tribute to twenty famous poets, including Emily Dickinson, Billy Collins and Terrance Hayes.
Parents are also encouraged to read with their children after school and have fun dinner table-discussions about the books each family member is reading.
Happy Reading!
CMAS Testing Window Reminder
Parents of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders,
Beginning April 2nd , all students in 3rd-5th grades will be given the CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Success) assessment. This test is used by the school, the district and the state to determine if students are making their intended growth in their grade level. The purpose of the assessments is to indicate the degree to which students have mastered the Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) in Mathematics, English Language Arts/ Literacy, Science (5th grade), and Social Studies (4th Grade) at the end of the tested grade level or content area.
Please mark the dates below on your calendar and try to not schedule appointments or vacations for the days of the tests. We understand that sometimes it can’t be avoided, and we do have a plan in place for these instances. We would also like to ask that you help to make sure your child gets enough sleep during the testing time as well as eats a nutritional breakfast and lunch.
Please feel free to contact your child’s teacher or myself with any questions you might have.
Thank you,
Ashley Gray
Please see the Kids Club calendar below for non-contact days and Spring Break.
Dear Parents,
The clinic is in need of used pants, shorts, socks and underwear (sizes 4-12) for both boys and girls. If you are cleaning out closets and have items to donate, I would love to have them! I attempt to keep a collection of clothing on hand for those moments when a child falls in the mud, spills their lunch, etc., but I go through them quickly! Thank you! Your donations are appreciated!
Nurse Carrie
Save the Dates
Below are a few dates to mark on your calendars for the 2019-20 School Year.
- Tuesday, August 6: Class Assignments will be emailed home at the end of the day
- Thursday, August 8: PTO Check in, gym 11:00am-4:00pm
- Thursday, August 8: COT Meet and Greet, In classrooms, 1:00-3:00pm
- Thursday, August 8: COT Back to School Night
Kindergarten, 2nd and 4th Grade: 5:30-6:15
1st, 3rd, and 5th Grade: 6:30-7:15
Don't forget to complete the CCSD Start Time Survey by March 8th!
Greetings from STEM
SAVE THE DATE: COT Balloon Launch - April 11 - More information to come.
Hello, from the Art room!
The PE Post It
PE Post It
Thank you for all the families that donated to the Kids Heart Challenge! It was a great month of jump rope fun in class and learning about heart health. Thank you gifts will be ordered and arrive sometime after Spring Break!
March will lead us into the dance unit in PE. We will be preparing dances for the Sock Hop event on March 29th! During the month, PE and Music classes will combine to practice the student-led dances for the event! Hope to see all COT families at this wonderful event!
Ms. Jehn
From the Music Room
Hello Cottonwood Families,
With Spring around the corner, it’s amazing to think that the year is about two thirds over! In the music room, many classes have been transferring their creative abilities to the classroom xylophones also known as the mallet instruments! For most everyone, this is a pretty new experience and students have been excited to see what music we can make on these instruments. We’ll be showing a bit of this at the upcoming Third Grade Informance next week on Thursday, March 14 and the Second Grade Informance on Thursday April 18. We’re excited to share what we’ve been up to! You may also know that March 29th is our annual Sock Hop and so students who have Music or PE the next couple weeks will combine to learn some dances to prepare for this fun tradition. Hope to see you there!!!
Stay Warm!
-Mr. Pedregon