Dear FSE Families,
August has been an exciting month for our staff and students! Check out all the awesome things that have happened at FSE since school started!
Welcome Back FSE Families
Our theme this year is One School, One Purpose, One Family: #oneflagstone (see logo above). You will see our staff wearing this logo on the back of their staff shirts this year!
Balanced Beginnings
Our newest FSE Mustangs started school a little different this year. We did a rolling start called Balanced Beginnings. The kindergarten students attended school for a few hours for the first 2 days of school so they could get used to the structure before starting their regular schedule on Monday the 12th. We felt this was a great success! (Lots fewer tears by students and parents!) This also gave our staff valuable information on programming for our newest little mustangs.
Sunshine Cart
We love our staff and Faith Lutheran Church does too! They donated a Sunshine Cart for a late Friday afternoon pick me up for our teachers! It was filled with drinks and yummy treats for our hard-working staff! Thank you to our partners at Faith Lutheran Church!
Sixth Grade Outdoor Education
Our sixth graders just arrived back from Outdoor Education this past Friday afternoon. They attended Stone Canyon Outdoor Education Center (a DCSD run education center) for three days last week. This is a camp that focuses on science standards in the outdoor environment along with valuable life skills like team building, an overnight experience away from home, and outdoor activities such as archery. Our kids came back excited and energized after this amazing experience.
Lucy Calkins Kickoff Event
As many of you know our staff adopted a new writing program last year. We launched our first professional development day this year with a one-day training to help classroom teachers understand the content and the workshop model. We are very excited to begin this implementation! 4-6 teachers will begin the first unit in Septemeber and K-3 teachers will begin in October. We will end the first semester before winter break with a Writing Winter Wonderland for families to come and see the writing that students will produce in this program. More to come on Lucy!
Bond Money Technology
Last November our community voted yes to the Bond initiative for our district. We have been very fortunate to see that money directly in our schools! We have been able to purchase staff computers (something we have not done in 4 years!) so that all our staff has computers that are 4 years old or newer. We will be able to do that again this spring so all staff computers will be 1 year old or newer! This allows our staff to have the very best technology to meet the needs of all their students. We were also able to ensure that we have Chromebooks for ALL 2-6 students (one to one) and ipads for K-1 students to share. We are so grateful to our community that we were able to have this money!
Fun Food Friday in Mrs. Ripp's Class
Mrs. Ripp's class is at it again!! Fun Food Friday. This week we got to partake in neon-grilled cheese sandwiches--DELICIOUS!
Social-Emotional Learning Supports this Year!
Over the last year, our staff has spent a considerable amount of time researching ways to support the changing social-emotional needs of our students. Our students spend a considerable amount of time outside school engaging on phones, social media, and video games. This time on screens has changed the way we support students in their development. At school, we have found our students need more time engaging in face to face discussions, explicit instruction on how to regulate their emotions when stressed or upset and support solving normal conflict that arises during the creation of friendship, all while providing structured choice in their learning environment. As a result of this learning we have spent considerable time implementing the following program supports:
- Zones Curriculum: This curriculum is taught in every grade K-6 to support students in understanding strategies to regulate their emotions. We teach them to identify different feelings or emotions through colors. Ex. The green zone means that your body is calm and is ready for learning. The yellow zone means that your body is excited or anxious and needs some strategies to get back to the green zone. The red zone means that your body is angry or upset to the point that you cannot be reasoned with. In the event of this feeling, students are given strategies to remove themselves from the learning environment so they are able to get themselves back in the green zone. To support this teaching we have opened a regulation room staffed by Ms. Stephanie and Ms. Mary, two highly trained staff in behavior management, that work with kids working to learn how to stay in the green learning zone.
- Second Step: Our school counselor Patti Roberts is supporting our staff in the implementation of a school-wide social-emotional curriculum. This curriculum teaches specific lessons to teach students how to interact in various situations that they will come in contact with during their lives. Examples include: how to navigate a disagreement with a peer, how to take someone else's perspective or how to handle peer pressure.
- School Counselor: Our counselor, Patti Roberts is here full time this year. She works on school-wide mindfulness, Second Step, and sees one on one and small groups of students to support their learning environment.
- Calming Corners: Every classroom has been given tools to keep in their classrooms to assist students when they need a minute to regroup and get back to the learning zones. Right now our teachers are teaching the students how to use these tools effectively.
Classroom Happenings!
Students have been busy working and learning this month too! Check out #oneflagstone on Twitter to see more!
Upcoming Events
Fun Run Kickoff
We had the Mad Scientists of Colorado come out and demonstrate some science experiments for our students on Tuesday to kick off our fundraising event. We are hoping to raise money to help bring out more science demonstrations and offer more science-related field trips in addition to supporting some STEM carts for our teachers to use with their students. Please log on to FunRun.com and register to get your pledges going!
DCHS Homecoming Parade
The parade is Thursday, September 12th. Please come out to see our students march in the parade, the theme is Under DC (a sea and Hawaiian theme).
FSE Spirit Assembly
Our spirit assembly is at 3pm this Friday! Please come and see our student council host this first assembly!
Some Things to Remember
- Homework: At FSE we believe that students get more out of spending time with family and engaging in after school activities than spending hours on homework each night. We do agree that practicing math facts and reading is a must to ensure long term success. Our school board policy is that each grade level should have 10 min x the grade of homework a night. Ex. 1st grade 10 min, 2nd grade 20 min. and so on outside of reading and math practice. Please talk with your classroom teacher if you have questions about their homework policy or your child is spending too much time on homework.
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