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McMeen Elementary
McMeen Elementary Newsletter - March 10, 2023
03/10/23, 4:01 PM
Weekly Happenings
Monday, March 13
Vision and Hearing Screenings
6:00pm - Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) meeting on Zoom: PTO Meeting
Tuesday, March 14
Wednesday, March 15
8:30am - Arabic Family Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting in the cafeteria
3:30pm - New to DPS Meeting for families who speak Spanish in Room 101
Thursday, March 16
10:00am - 2nd Grade Freedom Concert in the auditorium
11:25am - 3rd Grade Freedom Concert in the auditorium
3:45pm - Choir Freedom Concert in the auditorium
4:30-6:30pm - Family Art Social in the cafeteria
Friday, March 17
No School - Teacher Planning Day
Upcoming Events
MARCH
Women’s History Month
March 27-31 - Spring Break
Ways to Get Involved
Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)
See the info below!
Announcements
Attendance
McMeen is working with the district to address attendance concerns. We realize that some absences are unavoidable due to illness or other circumstances, but we want to partner with families to mitigate as many of the challenges as we can. Please let us know of any supports you may need to help increase student attendance. When students miss too much school— regardless of the reason – it can cause them to fall behind other students. This can mean just missing two days a month. Research shows:
- Children with frequent absences are more likely to be behind their peers in reading at grade level.
- By 6th grade, frequent absences are a proven early warning sign for students feeling lost and dropping out of school.
- By 9th grade, good attendance predicts a student’s ability to graduate even better than test scores.
- Being frequently late to school/class is not only disruptive to your child’s ability to learn but also to the teacher and the other children in the classroom
As part of this, we are going to start sharing weekly attendance data by grade-level. Our overall goal as a school is to get to a 95% attendance average. Below is a breakdown of this week's attendance by grade-level compared to last week's attendance. As you can see, we have some work to do.
The Parking Lot
Please respect the cones in the parking lot. We are having several instances where they are being run over. We're having to go find them and some of them are getting destroyed.
Arts Night - March 16th
We invite families to come celebrate our arts programs with us on Wednesday, March 16th. The night will open with our Choir's Freedom Concert performance at 3:45pm. Then we will have a Family Art Social from 4:30-6:00pm where you and your family can come and make art together in our cafeteria.
CMAS Testing
Below is our schedule for CMAS testing for 3rd-5th Grade. Please ensure your child is in attendance each day for testing and let us know if you have any questions.
Multilingual Education District Advisory Committee
There are several Garden Plots available in our McMeen Community Garden. If you're interested, please email mcmeengarden@gmail.com
Road Construction Updates
Below are some updates on the construction happening in the areas around McMeen during the month of March:
- Installation of new box culvert under Cherry Creek N. Drive has been completed and Cherry Creek N. Drive has been re-opened to both Eastbound and Westbound traffic. Work is still being performed to build structures on both the North and South sides of Cherry Creek N. Drive. Please be aware of a temporary lane shift between S Kearney St and S Holly St. and please pay attention to work zone signage/flaggers.
- Kearney St. will remain closed between Mississippi and Cherry Creek N. Drive.
- Work has begun in Garland Park East of Lollipop Lake. This is an active construction site so we ask pedestrians and bicyclists to remain on the trail and observe trail closure and detour signs. Currently the Garland Greenbelt Trail is being detoured in the vicinity of the Lolli Pop Lake expansion onto the West side of Southbound S Kearney St. In the next month that detour will become inaccessible as workers trench into S Kearney St. with the new box culvert infrastructure. At that time the Garland Greenbelt Trail will be detoured around the West side of Lolli Pop Lake. This is reflected in the graphic attached (we are currently employing detour route 3 and will be converting to detour route 4 in mid-March).
- Access to the ball fields at Garland Park will remain open but will only be accessible from S. Kearney St. via Cherry Creek North Drive. There will be no access to the ball field parking lots from Mississippi Ave.
REMINDER Summer Connections Registration is Open (DPS' Summer School)
Registration is now open for Summer Connections, a fun five weeks where students will be exposed to content from their upcoming grade. All rising first through fifth-grade DPS students are encouraged to apply!
- No cost to families.
- Full-day programming from June 12-July 14. No school on June 19 and July 4.
- Literacy, math, science, and hands-on learning.
- Registration is now open! Visit Parent Portal to sign up.
We encourage families to commit to the full five-week program. If you have any questions, please contact EAL@dpsk12.net.
Looking for 5 – 10 families that are interested in caring for a raised container bed for the season. We will learn about and recreate indigenous gardening techniques; like the Three Sisters. We will design and build salsa, salad and soup gardens and then make delicious creations to share. We will listen to and share stories, music, maybe even a little salsa dancing!?! If you're interested, email mcmeengarden@gmail.com
REMINDER Super Citizen Photographer Needed
We would love to have a parent volunteer assist in taking photos (just a simple snapshot on a camera phone) of students who recieve the super citizen award along with any family members that attend the assembly. This would be a time commitment from 8:45-10:45 on March 10th, April 14th, and May 12th. If you are only able to come on one of the days or for part of the time that is completely fine - we are happy to work with your schedule. Please contact Lauren Heaton - lauren_heaton@dpsk12.net with any questions or if you are interested in helping!
Student Shout Outs
Mighty Mustangs - Isa (2nd Grade) for being Mindful, Melody (2nd Grade) for being Self-Aware, Paula (Kinder) for showing all the MUSTANG traits, Ian (Kinder) for showing all the MUSTANG traits, Amiyah (Kinder) for being Mindful, Josephine (1st Grade) for being Self-Aware and Tenacious, Leo (5th Grade) for showing all the MUSTANG traits, Zuhuur (3rd Grade) for being Tenacious, Nicole (Kinder) for being Mindful, Self-Aware, Nurturing and having a Growth Mindset, Retaj (2nd Grade) for being Mindful and Tenacious, and David (5th Grade) for showing all the MUSTANG traits.
Mustang Class of the Week - Ms. Caldwell's 3rd Grade Class
1st Grade, Jack Brewer - Jack showed empathy and was mindful when another fellow student fell on the playground. He ran towards him to make sure he was fine. - Mr. Leon
2nd Grade, Olivia Holland - Olivia is such a great classmate! She is willing to work with anyone and willing to help anyone in need. Her classmates know they can go to her if they forget or need help. She shares her positive energy with those that are around her. She is such a joy to have in class and I love seeing her smile every morning she's at school! - Ms. Homberg
ECE, Ali Jawhar - Ali has grown so much in ECE and loves helping his friends solve problems. Great job Ali and keep up the good work! - Mr. Hughes
Kindergarten, Kehlani Morales - Kehlani is so helpful and always making us smile! - Ms. Kendall
2nd Grade, Phaelan Birdsall-Jewell - He came in FIRST PLACE in our second grade marathon! Way to go buddy! - Ms. Johns
2nd Grade, Ilan Frutcher - Ilan has been doing such a great job at completing his work on time! He has also been a great friend by helping them when they need it. He always has a smile on his face, and looks forward to lunch and recess time to be with his friends! - Ms. Homberg
2nd Grade Parents - Thank you all so much for your donations and support showing up to make our 2nd grade marathon memorable for our kiddos! They had a great time, loved you cheering or running with them, and all the great snacks provided! - Ms. Homberg
5th Grade, Benjamin Clinton - Ben is always such a kind and caring student. He shows great empathy to other students and is just such a sweet person! - Nurse Miriam
Kindergarten, Gregory - he made his very first rhythm composition today 3/9/23 and earned a mustang ticket. - Ms. Q
ECE, Cameron Endres - This week when Cameron came to school with his father in the morning, Cameron was very happy and proud to show me something he did at home. He opened his backpack and gave gave to me a piece of paper with the picture of a squirrel with two rhyming words written in Spanish that that he identified at home. When I asked him about the words, he told me in Spanish "ardilla rima con semilla". He also told me that his parents help him to print the picture of the squirrel. When I saw this wonderful connection and example of his learning, I also felt happy and proud of him. ¡Bien hecho Cameron! ¡Sigue así! Also, thank you parents for supporting Cameron at home with his learning in Spanish. - Mrs. Rivera
3rd Grade, Connor Fernandes - Congratulations on being our Super Citizen! - Ms. Toney
Classroom Updates
In ECE we are finishing our fun Animal unit this week. Our students learned about some of the characteristics of different animals, what they eat, what they do as well as where they live. We are excited about our next unit of study which is plants and seasons. In literacy we have been working on rhyming and alliteration and in math we have been working on shapes and understanding spatial relationships.
Kindergarten students have enjoyed growing as readers and writers over the past few months. In math, we have begun learning about number bonds and decomposing numbers!
2nd Grade - The “marathon” was aptly named after an Athenian hero. On Tuesday all of second grade along with MANY families ran a marathon around our campus. We’ve second grade class dressed in a different color to represent their classes, and it was an incredible experience for our kids and their families!
Resources from DPS
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, March 13th @ 6pm
* PTO meetings will be held the 2nd Monday of every month via Zoom.
Stay tuned for more details....
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
