Social and Emotional Wellness
Diet & Nutrition: The 2nd Parent Academy of the 2018-2019 school year took place on 2/7 at RES for parents and community members of D49. 4 breakout sessions were offered on Mindful Eating, Dieting Myths, Food Allergies and Picky Eaters. Vendors included Care & Share's Snap Program and Cooking Matters, the YMCA, Dream Dinners, and Profile by Sanford. The Zone provided Jersey Mike's for dinner for the event and SCHS Student Council and FBLA students hosted kids in the gym for free childcare.
The Sand Creek Zone will offer 1 more parent academy on April 4th based off of topics that Zone Parents suggested in a survey from the fall.
SWAT Students Keynote at El Paso County Tobacco-Free Alliance Meeting
Paul Beyer - Zone Pillar Recognition
Congratulations to Paul Beyer, senior at SCHS, for displaying the Zone pillar of Service!
Paul went out of his way to ensure that community members had what they needed when visiting the building, being kind to those in need, and going above and beyond his duties as a student. Community member, Margaret Waldie, wrote a letter to our administration sharing "Paul was so kind to keep checking during the day to make sure everything worked and to ask if we needed anything. What a wonderful young man!".
HMS Local Foster Family Carnival
As a member of the HMS Junior Optimist International club, Camryn Penny, HMS 8th grader, helped organize the annual JOI Christmas party to support the Fostering Hope Foundation, a Colorado Springs non-profit for foster families. On Dec. 8, the JOI Club transformed the HMS gym into a Christmas wonderland for their group of special guests. As the HMS orchestra played Christmas music, the HMS JOI Club of 6th, 7th and 8th graders, some dressed in festive pajamas, supervised a carnival of games and activities. Around the gym, a team of volunteers showed guests where to create their own ornaments, visit Santa Claus, or get a bite to eat.
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HMS Horizon's National Junior Honors Society ran this year's Harvest of Love food and turkey drive. Students and teachers brought in non-perishable items as well as turkeys to donate to the cause. HMS hosted a spirit week to raise awareness and the overall winner for each grade earned an ice cream party. | SCHS The National Honors Society at SCHS hosted events before, during and after school to collect food items and donations the week before Thanksgiving. NHS was able to raise over $2,200, which equates to 18,000 meals for families in need. | SRES 4th and 5th grade GT students from SRES organized the fun filled week with spirit days and collection prizes. All grades participated and several classes won a pizza party! SRES was able to collect cash donations and over 4000 cans, one of the highest can collection totals in the Springs. |
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STEM Night at SRES
Misty O'Connor - Zone Pillar Recognition
Misty has joined the Visible Learning Team this year. She has conduct an impact cycle around helping students understand various levels of performance. She presented to the staff about her impact cycle so that we could broaden the scope of conducting impact cycles around writing. In addition, she does an out standing job in the area of teacher clarity as she presents lessons to kids. She is a teacher leader at Springs Ranch!
Renaissance Qualifiers at HMS
Cooking Club Meets at RES
On Monday, December 17th, Remington Elementary hosted their Cooking Club meeting. The group included K-2 students as well as their parents. "We had so much fun making snowman popcorn cups and holiday hot cocoa" said Jessica Fawcett, coordinator of the Cooking Club and Reading Specialist at Remington. "They're REAL chefs now!" Cooking club meets every Monday and is usually just students but at this event, parents were invited so that their little chefs could demonstrate what they do! Students use visual recipes for each cooking club and the kids were able to take home their own visual cook books at the December meeting. Recipes included Pumpkin Patch Dirt cups, Pumpkin Cheese and Crackers, Thanksgiving Morning Pumpkin Waffles, Harvest Trail Mix, Caramel Apple Nachos, Snowman Pizzas, Snowman Popcorn cups, Santa Shakes, Santa's Favorite Peppermint Playdoh and Holiday Hot Chocolate.
EIES Students Selected as Principled Pals
In December, a student was selected by each teacher to be a “Principled Pal!” These students have done a great job showing that they are principled and showing Wildcat Pride! They were invited to a hot cocoa party with Principal Michelle Slyter!
League Champs for HMS Boys Basketball
Jaidyn Hobdy and Colin Hawkins returned for their third year on Horizon A team to lead the charge during an undefeated 15-0 season and second consecutive league championship. The team got key contributions from Joseph Garnett and Sumo Alexandre as well as first season players Aiden Dailey and 6th grader Robert Davis. Donovan Hill, Brandon Hills, Auston Nash, and Robert Gagau rounded out the deep and competitive roster.
Coach Todd Maher said, "We had a great group of players that worked their tails off in the offseason to improve their skills and it was fun to see them get rewarded with the title" Joseph Garnett credits their success to "working really hard, practicing a lot and iimproving on our skills each day."
Horizon won the final Tri-County League title last year and the Inaugural South Metro league Championship this year.
League Champs for HMS Girls Basketball
Congratulations to our Girls Basketball team for winning the South Metro League Championship.
This is the first year participating in the South Metro League against schools from: Fountain Fort Carson, Widefield, Harrison, Cheyenne Mountain, and our other two District 49 middle schools.
Our girls finished the season undefeated at 15-0, winning the league championship with a victory over Skyview on Friday, 2/15.
Alyssa Nicholson - Zone Pillar Recognition
Congratulations to Aly Nicholson, Social Studies teacher and Teacher Leader, for embodying the Zone identity of Growth Mindset!
Aly presented at the Schoology NOW! Conference last week to dozens of D49 employees. Her session on Blended Learning was packed. In the exit survey, when asked "What did you learn tonight that you can use tomorrow?" Aly's session was mentioned over fourteen times. Some of the responses included:
"Student-centered blended learning strategies and tools"
"I learned I can use observational grading."
"Using hyperdocs in Schoology"
"A PearDeck integration for checks for understanding"
“While doing all of the above, she was also coaching the cheer squad to get them ready for state. On top of it all, I never saw her without a smile on her face. How lucky you are to have her on staff!” - Melissa Riggs, Education Technology Specialist for D49
Davey Muise Speaks to HMS About Acts of Kindness
On Nov. 27th, HMS students had the rare opportunity to listen to punk rock musician, motivational speaker and kindness promoter, Davey Muise.
Muise’s powerful message about finding yourself, opening up to your friends and family, and overcoming hardships resonated with the young audience. He demonstrated with small stories how small acts of kindness and care can change your life or another’s life. “Really inspiring, everyone goes through these things,” said Reagan Tooley, eighth-grader. “He relates to the kids.”
Muise was brought to HMS after leaders saw him present at the annual Renaissance conference last summer. “Knowing that our Renaissance theme this year centered around kindness, the entire team at the conference wanted to bring Davey here to speak with students,” said Dustin Horras, principal. “Through his message and story, Davey was able to share how one phone call, one act of kindness to someone can change a person's trajectory or path for the better.”
Upcoming Zone Events
2/28: SRES 2nd Grade Musical and RES 1st Grade Program
3/4: NHS Induction
3/8: No Students; PD Day
3/11-3/12: VL Coaching Day
3/18-3/29: Spring Break
4/3: Academic Lettering at SCHS
4/4: Parent Academy: Drug Panel
4/18: Health & Wellness Expo and Art & Design Expo
