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McMeen Elementary

McMeen Elementary Newsletter - May 12, 2023

05/12/23, 4:02 PM

Weekly Happenings

Monday, May 15

Tuesday, May 16

4th Grade Mining Activity at McMeen

Wednesday, May 17

4:00pm - Choir Performance in the auditorium

Thursday, May 18

4th Grade Panning for Gold Activity at McMeen

Friday, May 19

2nd Grade Field Trip to the Botanic Gardens

Upcoming Events

McMeen School Year Calendar

MAY

May 25 and 26 - Field Day (see below)

May 29 - Memorial Day (No School)

May 31 - 5th Grade Continuation

May 31 - Kindergarten Picnic

JUNE

June 1 - Collaborative School Committee (CSC) Meeting

June 2 - Last Day of School (half day)

Ways to Get Involved

Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)

See the info below!

Announcements

Attendance

McMeen is working with the district to address attendance concerns. 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. 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.

Cherry Creek Youth Sports Registration

Cherry Creek Youth Sports has opened registration for the following fall sports: football and girls softball. Both are open for kids in grades K-8. You can register and get more information at www.creeksports.com, or contact Dennis Bronstein at dbronstein88@gmail.com. Please also see the attached flyer for more information.

Modern Market Kids Eat Free Program

Did you know kids can eat free (with the purchase of an adult entree) on Sunday and Monday nights at Modern Market?

University Hills Farmers Market this Summer

REMINDER Summer Academies for Rising 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Boys

See the attached fliers in English and Spanish for a great opportunity for boys entering 4th-8th Grade.

REMINDER Opt-in for Transportation 2023-2024

The opt-in program for the 2023-24 school year went live on Monday, May 1. Please log into the Parent Portal and opt your student in if they need transportation. General education students are opted out by default.

If you don't opt-in by Friday, June 16, DPS Transportation will plan bus routes without their student. This doesn’t change their eligibility, but it could cause a delay in service next year.

Please see this flier with more information. If you have any questions, please email transportation@dpsk12.org.

REMINDER 2023-2024 McMeen Calendar

Here is the draft of our McMeen Calendar for the 2023-2024 School Year. All the planning days are finalized and we are working on finalizing dates for other McMeen events.

Student Shout Outs

Mighty Mustangs - Jadence (2nd Grade) for being an Upstander, Sahal (3rd Grade) for having a Growth Mindset, Hala (Kindergarten) for showing all the MUSTANG traits, Emmy (4th Grade) for being Mindful, Luis (2nd Grade) for being Tenacious, Leanne (3rd Grade) for showing all the MUSTANG traits, Jacquelyn (1st Grade) for being Mindful, Amiyah (Kindergarten) for being Tenacious and having a Growth Mindset, Melody (2nd Grade) for being Mindful, and Bettye (2nd Grade) for showing all the MUSTANG traits.

Mustang Class of the Week - Ms. Blair's Kindergarten class

3rd Grade, Yaqeen Khalifa - she has been working so hard all year! She is so proud of her growth! - Ms. Rabin

3rd Grade, Abel Mohatt - Abel demonstrated amazing leadership skills in the Art Studio this week. - Ms. Claypool

1st Grade, Jacquelyn Foster - Jacquelyn has gone above and beyond as a writer. Thanks for all your hard work, dedication, and amazing leadership! - Ms. Barfoot

ECE, Elias Fernandez-Carrillo - Elias has shown a lot of growth this year in ECE. He has learned a lot and has made some good friends. Good job Elias! - Mr. Hughes

4th Grade, Noriah Duran - Noriah has grown so much this year and her commitment to her own learning is very inspiring. Way to go Noriah! - Ms. Good

4th Grade, Nyielah Fluckes - This week I had the pleasure of working with Nyielah a lot as her teacher was out. She regularly showed leadership in her class and worked to support students around her during different circumstances. - Ms. Caitlin

3rd Grade, Cecil Keys - Cecil has made tremendous growth in math. It's a joy to watch him use various math strategies to find solutions in math. - Ms. Toney

Classroom Updates

2nd Grade started our unit on the Human Body this week! One student is observing a bacteria sample using the microscope that the Anschutz Medical Campus let us borrow. Another group of students traced their body and are filling it in with the major bones in our skeletal system. So much fun seeing everyone get to be mini scientists!! One of our students' mom is a pediatric anesthesiologist and she came in and showed us a pretend procedure! We got to smell the different flavors of anesthesia for the kids procedure, see pictures of real x-rays, have our blood pressure taken, and so much more!

3rd Grade Ms. Toney's Class got to make rainbows this week

This week in the Art Studio, students raised money in collaboration with the organization, Students Rebuild. Students used their creativity to create postcards that welcome refugees, people displaced by war and other crises that cause families to flee their homes. These postcards will be sent to young refugees around the world. For each postcard created, $10 was donated to organizations such as Unicef, or Choose Love. Our students are altruistic, compassionate human beings and I couldn't be more proud.

The ELD classes spent the last couple of weeks hatching chicks! We had so much fun learning all about embryo development, the chicken life cycle, breed identification and of course spending some time with our fuzzy new friends!

Resources from DPS

Medicaid Outreach and Enrollment

Denver Public Schools' Medicaid Department helps families apply for free or low-cost health insurance, including Health First Colorado (Medicaid) and CHP+ and SNAP food assistance. We offer one-on-one appointments at any DPS school site. Additionally, we assist families with re-enrollment and utilizing their benefits. If any of your students or anyone you know needs assistance, please contact our Outreach and Enrollment Specialists by calling 720-423-3661 or emailing outreach@dpsk12.org.

REMINDER Parent Resource Tool

FACE University has been re-launched as a parent resource tool. There are trainings and workshops across multiple topics, a resource hub, and more to come. You can subscribe for updates on the main page for when new content will be released. All content and videos have closed captioning available in 12 languages. Some of the resources they have are:

FAMILY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE will feature sessions hosted in-person to dive deeper into advocacy and the school-parent partnership. There is a link to register on this site for sessions beginning summer of 2023.
CARING FOR STUDENTS IN THE AFTERMATH OF TRAGEDY Access this virtual seminar to learn practical tools to take care of our students (and ourselves!) in positive, effective ways.

News from McMeen Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)

PTO will sponsor a PIZZA PARTY to the classroom that gets the most King Soopers Community Rewards sign-ups!

Sign-up your family and friends!

Submit sign-ups by sending a screenshot to McMeen PTO along with your child's name and teacher's name.

Here’s how it works:

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.

Create a digital account

A digital account is needed to participate in King Soopers Community Rewards. If you already have a digital account, simply link your Shopper’s Card to your account so that all transactions apply toward the organization you choose.

Link your card to an organization

Selecting the organization that you wish to support is as simple as updating the King Soopers Community Rewards selection on your digital account.

1. Sign into your digital account.

2. Search for your organization here.

3. Enter the name or NPO number of the organization you wish to support.

Organization Name: McMeen Elementary PTO

Organization Number: RQ231

4. Select the appropriate organization from the list and click “Save”.

Your selected organization will also display in the King Soopers Community Rewards section of your account. If you need to review or revisit your organization, you can always do so under your Account details.

Your organization earns!

Any transactions moving forward using the Shopper’s Card number associated with your digital account will be applied to the program, at no added cost to you. King Soopers donates annually to participating organizations based on your percentage of spending as it relates to the total spending associated with all participating King Soopers Community Rewards organizations.

Note: If you are a customer, make sure you have a preferred store selected to view participating organizations. If you are applying on behalf of an organization, please select a store in the same area as your organization.

Scan this QR code to sign-up!

Next PTO Meeting

TBD

PTO Meeting

* PTO meetings will be held the 2nd Monday of every month via Zoom.

The Kona Ice truck will be at McMeen on LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

Join us from 11:30am - 1:30pm for Shaved Ice and some music.

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.

Sign-Up Genius

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.

King Soopers Reward

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.

Teachers Amazon Wishlist

Library Wishlist

Art 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!