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McMeen Elementary
McMeen Elementary Newsletter - December 2, 2022
12/02/22, 4:01 PM
Weekly Happenings
Book Fair This Week!
Monday, December 5
Tuesday, December 6
Wednesday, December 7
5:00-7:00 - Literacy Night - Reading Under the Stars theme, see below for more details!
Thursday, December 8
Winter Enrichment Registration Closes
Friday, December 9
Junior Achievement Day
Upcoming Events
DECEMBER
December 14 - Arabic and Spanish speaking family PAC Meetings
December 14 - Winter Concert
December 16 - Family Breakfast in the Classroom
JANUARY
January 2 - No School (Holiday)
January 3 - Teacher Planning Day (No School)
January 4 - Students Return to School
January 9 - PTO Meeting
January 24-25 - 5th Grade Balarat Trip
January 24-27 - Vision and Hearing Screening
January 27 - Family Breakfast
Ways to Get Involved
Children's Pants Needed
We are in need of extra pants for children who have bathroom accidents. If you have anything you can donate, please drop them off at the main office.
Food Box
We are working on making a food box for families to donate and take food when needed. To get it started, we are looking for a 2-drawer file cabinet we can paint (preferably metal since it will be outside). Please let Natalie Jacobs know if you are able to donate one at natalie_jacobs@dpsk12.net.
Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)
See the info below!
Recess Volunteers
We are always looking for recess volunteers. Our recess runs from 11:30-1:10 everyday. We are happy to help you find the time your child is at recess if that is something you are interested in. The general idea is to provide a time for families to come and volunteer at recess and provide extra supervision. The sincere hope is that this is a fun way to support the school. We have put together a Guide for Playground Volunteers in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Farsi that goes over some basics of how to get started. Please email Stacy West if you are interested at stacy1west@gmail.com.
Announcements
Holiday Community Support
We have numerous McMeen families who could use a little extra support during the upcoming holiday season. We are hoping that we can come together as a community to help, and are inviting all staff and parents who have the means to consider donating to one or both of the following. We will be collecting donations at Literacy Night on December 7th 5-7pm.
- Clothing Drive - Please bring gently used winter items for our McMeen Community. Clothing items in need include: kids and adult winter coats, boots, hats, gloves, and other winter items.
- Gift Card Drive - We are asking for gift cards in $10 increments. Feel free to donate as many or as few as you wish! Ideas include: Safeway, King Soopers, Walmart, Target, or gas gift cards. A donation box will be available at Literacy Night on Wednesday, December 7th from 5-7:00pm. You can also choose to donate via Venmo and gift cards will be purchased on your behalf for distribution. You can use the below Venmo account, which is Assistant Principal Lauren Bartsch's account and she will buy them for you. Please include your name and email so she can let you know what she purchased!
Literacy Night - Wednesday, December 7th from 5-7pm
We are so excited to host our first annual Literacy Night this year. The goal of the night will be to promote literacy with students and families, as well as for students to share some of their literacy learning with families. You can expect the following:
- Classroom Literacy Activities - visit your child(ren)'s classroom to get some great ideas for literacy activities you can do at home. **Note, classrooms will only be open 5-6pm so teachers can join the other fun throughout the building.
- Book Fair in the Library
- Custom Trail Mix building in the cafeteria
- Reading Under the Stars in the gym (bring your favorite books to share!)
Winter Concert
It's that time of year where we will have our Winter Concert showcasing the following grade levels on Wednesday, December 14, 2022:
ECE: 2:45-3:10 PM
Kinder:2-2:20 PM
1st Grade: 1-1:25 PM
If you are interested in helping decorate the stage or even donating lights, your time, etc, please email me: Kahlea_Qualls@dpsk12.net We will decorate the stage on Tuesday, 12/6 starting at 4:15PM. So come out and support the musicians by making it a Winter Wonderland for them. :)Our Winter Enrichment Session is just around the corner and we are happy to share the 2023 Winter Brochure with all of you! Registration will be from November 21st at 6am until December 8th at 10pm. Please ensure you are updating your student’s profile with all important information, phone numbers and grade level. We will be declining any registrations that do not include a parent email and phone number. Additionally, you may not “hold” as spots, we will be rejecting those as well. If you have any questions, please email enrichment_extendedlearning@dpsk12.org. When you email, please provide your school, student’s name, and all relevant information.
Thank you all,
With the cooling off of the weather, especially with the warm afternoons right now, we always see a big increase in our lost and found items. We have organized these items inside door 5 (labeled above the door), between the gym and auditorium. For the most part, coats and jackets with hoods are hanging on the wall hooks and all other sweaters/shirts are on the rolling cart on hangers. Water bottles, lunch boxes and backpacks are lined up to the left of the rack. There is a laundry basket under the rack with miscellaneous items (gloves, pants, etc.). Please take some time to look through the Lost and Found for any items your child(ren) may have lost.
We have had a huge increase in students being picked up late and them being picked up much later than usual. Starting November 15, we will charge $1 for every minute a parent is late picking up their child. As a reminder, we get out of school at 3:20.
Our annual Vision and Hearing Screenings have been scheduled for January 24th-27th. Please reach out to Nurse Miriam if you have any questions at miriam_cavender@dpsk12.net.
Student Shout Outs
Mighty Mustangs - Ola for showing Agency, Olive for being Mindful, Wildan for being Tenacious, Thea for showing Agency, Sofía for being Mindful, Zak for being Self-Aware, Athena for being Tenacious, Mohammed for being Mindful and Self-Aware, Novianna for being Self-Aware, and Sam for being Self-Aware.
Mustang Class of the Week - PE!
ECE, Avery Acosta - Avery is doing a fantastic job in ECE. She loves listening to and answering questions about stories and she always excitedly adds stories of her own when they relate to something we are learning. She is a good friend to all of the students in our classroom! Great job Avery, keep up the good work! - Mr. Hughes
4th Grade, Roland Phillips - Roland has been working on goals around focus all year. This week has been a raging success for him and he was able to earn the ability to share a project he had been working on with the class! - Mrs. Caitlin
Kindergarten, Tiaylah Combs - She is such a great listener and a kind friend to other students! - Ms. Kendall
Kindergarten, Aubree Reynolds - Aubree brings so much joy to our classroom! She is funny, sweet, and a great friend. - Mrs. McReynolds
5th Grade, Zannya Schlotthauer - She has worked very hard this week and has been doing such a great job! - Ms. Jaramillo
Kindergarten, Aziza Cornelius - Aziza is incredibly bright and thoughtful. She always tries her hardest and has great ideas! - Mrs. McReynolds
1st Grade, Ava Keeney - Ava has been an example of adaptability and hard work. Working with a new teacher, she shows that it is really important to follow new rituals and routines in order to get better day by day. - Mr. León
4th Grade, Nyielah Fluckes - Nyielah joined our class this week, and she has been such a great addition to our learning community! She jumped right in, making many friends and sharing her ideas during lessons. We are so happy to have her as part of our class! - Ms. Fitzgerald
1st Grade, Ava - Ava has been such a compassionate and helpful friend to one of her classmates who recently broke their arm. Ava looks out for her friend and makes sure she's ok throughout the school day. We appreciate you and are so proud of you Ava.
Kindergarten, Maria Paula, Malakai, Gregory - They did an amazing job at identifying, drawing and counting rectangles with me! I am so proud of you guys!
Hicieron un trabajo increíble a identificar, dibujar y contar rectángulos conmigo. ¡Estoy tan orgullosa de ustedes! - Ms. Lluvia
Kindergarten, Isabella, Malcolm, Melanie and Zeus - They have been doing an amazing job at identifying the vowels and identifying the beginning sounds of words. I am so proud of you! Han estado haciendo un gran trabajo identificando las vocales y los sonidos iniciales de las palabras. ¡Estoy tan orgullosa de ustedes! - Ms. Lluvia
ECE, Daniil Klimovich - Daniil has been showing more motivation and participation in class and his progress in learning and speaking Spanish has been extraordinary! We are very proud and happy when Daniil expresses himself in Spanish! ¡Bravo Daniil! - Mrs. Rivera
2nd Grade, Ruby Facello - After practicing breaking apart a multisyllabic word to read it by chunks, Ruby immediately was a rockstar and implemented the strategy to improve her own reading. She also helped her classmates when she saw they could use the strategy as well! - Mrs. Heaton
Classroom Updates
2nd Grade - We are Bugging Out in 2nd Grade! We will be presenting our Insect Reports on Thursday, December 15th from 8:45 AM - 9:30 AM! Feel free to pop by the classroom's between these times for students to present their projects! This is a great opportunity to see their learning coming to life!
ECE - In ECE we have been working on our family unit. We have been learning about differences in families and how not all families are the same. We have talked about different traditions that some families take part in and celebrate such as Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Eid, Christmas and others. Because we have such diverse classrooms, learning about these traditions have allowed students to make real life connections and show pride in their culture. For Math, we have counting our family members and comparing the quantities with classmates families. And in literacy, we have been working on re-telling the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".
4th Graders visited Mrs. McReynolds’ Kindergarten class to share poems the students had written with advice for young students.
Resources from DPS
REMINDER Focus Group Opportunity for Parents: Assessments in DPS
DPS is seeking feedback from parents. Invite families to join us at any of the four upcoming virtual opportunities to discuss assessments at DPS. All focus groups will be held at 5 p.m. on Dec. 6, Dec. 15, Jan. 10 and Jan. 12. Parents can scan the QR Code or click here to share feedback and sign up for a focus group.
REMINDER FACE University
https://go.pardot.com/e/742223/ty-engagement-face-university-/3fql55/625172956?h=HhGNDDjvy4chsCtOhrrvn2BIvQLOI-hftiiwNAH5T78
This website offers resources that DPS community and families can use to access tips, tools, webinars and trainings that help them to support, advocate and engage with their student and their education. All trainings are recorded and closed captioned in Spanish, Arabic, Amharic, French, Mandarin, Nepali, Somali, and Vietnamese.
News from McMeen Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)
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Next PTO Meeting
Monday, December 12th @ 6pm
* PTO meetings will be held the 2nd Monday of every month via Zoom.
Torchy's Taco's - Lowry
63 N Quebec St., Denver, CO 80230
December 2nd (4pm - 8pm)
Ester's - Virginia Village
950 S Holly St, Denver, CO 80222
January 9th (4pm - 8pm)
Winter Festival Committee
PTO is looking for volunteers for the Winter Festival Committee. If interested, please contact mcmeenpto@gmail.com
Event Committee Volunteers Needed!
- Social Events
- Literacy Events
- Appreciation Events
- Amazon List Manager
Sign-up through the Sign-Up Genius link below.
Don’t have the bandwidth to volunteer but want to help? There are other ways! PTO is always looking for donations to help fund school projects, events, and scholarships. Click on the McMeen Square site to donate. McMeen Square
LINK YOUR CARD!
One of the ways in which we do this is through our King Soopers Community Rewards program. This program makes fundraising easy by donating to local organizations based on the shopping you do every day. Once you link your Card to an organization, all you have to do is shop at King Soopers and swipe your Shopper’s Card.
LINK YOUR ACCOUNT!
Generate Donations
Shop at smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to McMeen Elementary—no fees, no extra cost.
SUPPORT OUR TEACHERS!
Support the teachers with classroom supplies through the Amazon Wishlist. Use the links below to find your child’s classroom teacher, the library book Wishlist and/or the art supplies Wishlist.
McMeen Elementary PTO Sponsorship Program
Businesses can support McMeen through the new sponsorship program that is rolling out this year. 100% of the money raised by the PTO sponsorship program for the 2022-2023 school year will fund technology upgrades for each classroom. This money will be matched 1:1 by a technology grant. Your money will go twice as far for McMeen.
**Business Sponsorship Opportunities Inquiries can be directed to: Andrea Lazar andrea.lavine@gmail.com
Thank you to the Platinum and Gold Member Sponsors! Your generous donations are helping to provide new technology for McMeen Elementary School. We are grateful to have your support!
PTO Expense Reimbursement Form
McMeen Elementary School
1000 S Holly St Denver, CO 80246 720-424-5520` FAX 720-423-5547
