Cottonwood Creek Cougar Chronicle
May 2019 - Last one of the school year
A Letter from the Principal
Dear Cottonwood Creek Families,
It is hard to believe that summer is almost here. Our school year has gone by quickly; your children have learned so much, and they are ready for a well-deserved break from school. Thank you to our students, staff, and parents who have worked together to make this such a successful year.
As we continue to plan for the next school year, we’d like to share with you a list of classroom teachers for the 2019-2020 school year. This list is included in this newsletter. We are excited to welcome some grade level and staff changes; and we will also be welcoming new staff members over the summer. A more comprehensive list of our staff will be shared when we return in August.
Additionally, this is a reminder that parent forms will continue to be online for the 2019-2020 school year. All families need to update forms online. Thank you for taking the time to do this prior to the start of the school year.
Again, thank you for your continued partnership this year. Here’s to a summer filled with play and time with family and friends!
Respectfully,
Katie Johnson
Principal
Our Cougars sure know how to ROAR!
- Congratulations to Mason Song, 2nd grader, who was the 2019 Embracing All Student Art Winner for this year through the Office of Culturally Linguistically Diverse Education at the Colorado Department of Education . He was honored at the annual CLDE Academy and his art piece will be featured on CDE website all year long. http://www.cde.state.co.us/cde_english
- Outside of school some Cottonwood Creek students have been writing letters to rural children of similar age groups in India. The language of communication is English and the medium is only pen and paper. The pen pal program hopes to catalyse empathy, foster communication skills, acceptace, curisity and patience (letters take time to reach India!) in our kids here and similarly give an opportunity for kids in India to build companionship with our kids here. This program hopes to be entirely technology free and encourages kids to look beyond their day to day activities, step away from technology, construct a letter and connect with children from the other side of the world. We'd like to give a shout out to the following students for participating in this wonderful opportunity: Nirvaan, Namrata, Preesha, Hair, Gauri, Yash, Kapil, Sunand, Vivaan, Nivedita and Niharika. If you would like more information, feel free to contact Niyati Desai-Kadakia at niyati.desai@gmail.com
2019-2020 Staff
Our Cottonwood Creek family is having to say good bye/see you later to several staff members at the end of this year. Please join me in wishing the following Cougars farewell.
Elane McCall - Kindergarten Enrichment
Rebecca Clawson - Kindergarten Enrichment
Lori Matsumoto - Kindergarten Enrichment
Stacey Shwayder - Kindergarten Enrichment
Marie Tool - Occupational Therapist
Nicole Hargreaves - 1st Grade
Becky Arnett - 1st Grade - HAPPY RETIREMENT BECKY!
Kayla Wells - Kindergarten, (one year only)
Katie Stacy - 3rd Grade
Morley Wittenberg - LD Teacher
Nick Graham - ParaEducator
Holly McGahey - ParaEducator
Chris Koerber - SpEd ParaEducator
Megan Dries - ParaEducator
All are invited!
Full-day kindergarten is coming!
The Colorado Legislature has approved full-day kindergarten, beginning in the 2019-2020 school year. This means that Cherry Creek Schools will now offer full-day kindergarten, rather than half-day kindergarten and kindergarten enrichment, and there will be no cost to our families. Click here for more information.
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
FIELD DAY CHECK IN
VOLUNTEERS: We plan to have your RAPTOR badges printed and ready. Report to the VOLUNTEER table outside to collect. Please make sure you have your RAPTOR badge visible.
VISITORS: You will be required to sign in at the VISITOR table outside. If at any time you need to enter the building, you must go through the main office and sign into our RAPTOR system. Please have your ID ready.
Thank you - it looks like it's going to be a great day.
The PE Post It
Happy May COT!
It has been a wonderful first year at Cottonwood! Thank you to all parents and students for a great year. Our Field Day will be our last event of the school year. Field Day is Friday, May 17th! If you have any interest in helping at the event, we still are in need of volunteers for our morning session from 8:00-11:30am. Please email me! Thank you again and see you at Field Day 2019!
Have a great summer break!
Ms. Jehn
Hello, from the Art room!
From the Music Room
As the school year comes to a close, the music room has been a whirlwind of activity! In the last month the Cottonwood stage has seen informances by Second and Third grades, the Second and Third grade choir concert, and the First grade musical storybook presentation. With these performance opportunities, students have shared the musical concepts and social emotional skills they have been working on in music class, a variety of children’s choral music, and how to take a story and enhance it with instrument playing and song. For those that were able to make it to these and other informances and concerts this year, I hope you enjoyed your children’s creativity, joy, and artistry. I’m looking forward to another school year of making music with your children in 2019-2020. See you next fall!
Summer Reminders
- Please be sure to complete the parent forms online (my.cherrycreekschools.org).
- If you are moving and your children will not be returning to Cottonwood Creek next year, please complete the student withdrawal form below.