Cottonwood Creek Cougar Chronicle
October 2019
Our Cougars REALLY know how to ROAR!
- The 2019 National Kidney Foundation Denver Kidney Walk was held last month and a group of 9 students and 1 middle schooler joined hands to raise money for the cause and participate in the walk. They raised $606.38 over 3 weeks through a completely self driven bake sale, family donations, individual donations by some of the kids specifically "to save the kidneys" and company contributions. I am proud of our Cougars!
- Congratulations to our Cottonwood Creek Rich Marrow Team: Alice, Caleb, Jerry, Sunand, Tucker, Austin, Joshua, Eli, and Agastya. Way to go Cougars.
- Next time you visit our school, be sure to check out the My principal is proud of me wall. Throughout the school year, teachers refer students to the principal's office for positive behaviors. They are then recognized for their ROARING behavior and their picture is added to our wall of frame. I am so honored to be the principal of Cottonwood Creek.
A Message from your Principal, Katie Johnson
At our general PTO meeting in September, I was able to provide insight to the safety measures in place at Cottonwood Creek and in our school district. Robert Bratsch, our Security Resource Officer, and Steve Wallisch, our Security Coordinator, were also in attendance. I'd like to take this opportunity to outline some of the highlights we shared:
- As a result of funds received from the Emergency Response and Crisis Management (ERCM) grant from the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, all leadership and school safety/crisis teams in the Cherry Creek Schools have been implementing this comprehensive school safety model. We have continued to develop updated effective emergency response plans and procedures that align with state and federal Homeland Security Emergency Management and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Cherry Creek Schools has established responsive partnerships with our community agencies, trained key staff to provide for the emotional impact of a crisis on students and staff, and developed sustainable training materials and crisis response kits for our school safety teams. In 2011, the ERCM process was renamed Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) to reflect our continuous proactive approach to school safety. We are committed to continuing this thoughtful and integrated effort with REMS training.
- Throughout the school year, we conduct various safety drills: Fire Drills, Shelter-in-Place Drills, Lockdown Drills, Secure Perimeter Drills, and Evacuation/Relocation Drills. We have already conducted several of these drills this school year. For each of these drills, there are specific precautionary steps we teach our students and then we practice these steps. In each classroom, you can locate the Emergency Quick Reference Guide, which outlines the precautionary steps.
- Per the Child Abuse or Neglect law in Colorado, when we, as a public school employee, have reasonable suspicion regarding the possible NEGLECT or ABUSE of any student we are required to report immediately to the Department of Human Services - 303- 636-1750 or Law Enforcement. The individual who suspects possible abuse, is legally responsible for ensuring that their suspicions are reported to the designated agencies immediately. This legal responsibility is not satisfied by merely reporting suspicion to other school personnel. Both a verbal and a written report are required.
- Safe2Tell Colorado wants every student to know - telling isn't "snitching.” Telling is when you need to keep yourself or someone you know safe from threats, harmful behaviors or dangerous situations. Not sure if you should use Safe2Tell? If you don't, who will? We need your help to improve your school and community. By calling, you can help stop a friend from committing suicide, get another student off drugs, or stop a bully from making other people miserable. If you have information about the following topics, please call.
These are just some of the highlights we discussed. I've included a copy of the PowerPoint from our meeting; if you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to contact me directly.
Respectfully,
Katie Johnson
Principal
Upcoming Opportunities for 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade Students
Spelling Bee Info
Cherry Creek School District participates in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. At Cottonwood, a preliminary test will be given to ALL students in grades 3-5 the week of October 21st. The top 25 highest scoring students at Cottonwood Creek will participate in the school Spelling Bee. The winners of our school Spelling Bee will advance to the District Spelling Bee. More information about the Scripps National Spelling Bee can be found on their website https://spellingbee.com/.
Important Spelling Bee Dates
Oct. 23rd: 4th grade preliminary spelling test
Oct. 24th: 3rd grade preliminary spelling test
Oct. 25th: 5th grade preliminary spelling test
Dec. 12th: Cottonwood Creek Elementary Spelling Bee
Jan. 24: Cherry Creek School District Written Spelling Bee
Jan. 25th Cherry Creek School District Oral Spelling Bee
Math Olympiad
Cottonwood Creek will have a Math Olympiad Team this year! This competitive team will be for ALL students in 3rd-5th grade who love math and problem solving. Practices will be held on Thursdays from 2:50 p.m.-3:40 p.m. at Cottonwood. The sign-up for Math Olympiad will be sent on Oct. 23rd. The first 25 people to respond will be on the team. For more information about Math Olympiad, please contact Kameron Riley (kriley@cherrycreekschools.org) and visit the Math Olympiad website https://www.moems.org/.
Kameron Riley
Gifted Learning Teacher
Digital Media Update
Hello Cottonwood families - we have once again been busy in digital media. Students in 3rd-5th grade have been creating movies with WeVideo. Their first project was an all about me movie. How exciting to see the amazing creations they produced! 2nd grade students used Adobe Spark to create ABC books that we will share with kindergarteners, and students in 1st grade and in kindergarten practiced logging into computers and navigating websites. Everyone has been working hard!
In other news, the book fair is returning to Cottonwood Creek Elementary school from November 4th through November 7th. You can check out our fair’s homepage here. Students will be previewing the fair on November 4th and 5th, and the fair will be open the following times:
Monday, November 4th 2:45pm - 5:00pm
Tuesday, November 5th 7:45am - 5:00pm
Wednesday, November 6th 7:45am - 5:00pm
Thursday, November 7th. 7:45am - 7:00pm
We hope to see you there!
Sarah Hammershaimb
Music Update
Hello Cottonwood! We’ve been doing plenty of community building in the music room as classes each have done some sort of partner song that involves singing and doing hand clapping patterns with many partners as they make their way through the activity. We sang songs in languages from all over the world from Swahili to Shona to Portuguese! In second through third grades, each time students came to a new partner, they shared their favorite food. Each class’ list of favorites became a springboard to make music of our own. Older grades took this one step further and have just started group work projects. Learning how to take turns, compromise, and negotiate ideas to create something musical, interesting, and unique can present a challenge when working with teammates that might not always agree. Taking the time to teach and practice these important Social-Emotional skills is not only an important part of what we do in the music room, but provides students with skills they can use in multiple contexts across their lifetime.
We have also been preparing for a couple important events! The whole school will be singing for our Veterans Day assembly on November 11 and Third Grade will have their grade level program on November 14. Students in Third Grade have been choreographing movements, learning songs, and arranging mallet instrument accompaniments in preparation for our production of, “Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.” In addition, our volunteers have been planning sets, and designing and crafting costumes for the show. If you’re interested in helping out, we could always use more folks. Let me know if you’re interested.
Stay Warm!
-Matthew Pedregon
From the Art Room
STEM Updates
Happy October!
BALLOON LAUNCH
Due to today's forecast, we have decided to postpone our near space balloon launch until after Fall Break. Please join us on Monday, October 21st at 8:30am on the field. The Balloon will carry a payload of cameras and instruments to measure altitude, temperature, speed and air quality along with student experiments. Below is the link to track the balloon real time the day of the launch. We will launch at 8:30 from the ball field so plan to assemble your class out there after attendance around 8:15. If all goes according to plan the balloon will be up and out of site in 5-10 minutes. We'd love to see you join us!
https://tracking.stratostar.net/#!/missions/5d92527c70ed3a001336dead
THE CARDBOARD CHALLENGE
The Cardboard Challenge is a celebration of creativity and the role communities can play in fostering it inspired by the short film, “Caine’s Arcade” , http://cainesarcade.com/. Kids are challenged to create and build using cardboard, recycled materials and their imagination. This provides our students a unique opportunity outside of the classroom to innovate, create and shine! The event is open to ALL CCSD students, free of charge. Details can be found on the attached flyer.
To register visit https://ccsdfoundation.org/news-events/special-events/cardboard-challenge.html.
7th Annual Cardboard Challenge
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Smoky Hill High School
4-7 p.m.
Questions, please contact the Foundation office, ygrosso@cherrycreekschools.org or 720-554-4429.
PE Post It
August-September: We started the year with team building and Speed Stacks! Also, grades 3-5 completed Fitness Testing and activity stations.
October: Moving onto the game of Spike Ball!
Students have continued to enjoy Speed Stacks and 4 square. Both activities work on fast hands and cross motor development, which will help in a game like Spike Ball!
Visit spikeball.com for more info. and fun videos.
Let the games begin!
Ms. Jehn
Cottonwood Creek Elementary School
Email: kjohnson177@cherrycreekschools.org
Website: https://www.cherrycreekschools.org/site/Default.aspx?PageID=31
Location: 11200 East Orchard Road, Englewood, CO, USA
Phone: 720-554-3200