November 2019 Newsletter

Read on to learn more about the GHS Engagement Night, iSTEM showcase, enrichment rotations, field day, visits to the pumpkin patch, Coyote Classic, a chili cook-off, and much more!

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Golden Area Schools Family Engagement Night on Nov 6. Who: All families in the Golden area What: An introduction to restorative practices in schools, breakout sessions catered to families' areas of interest (restorative responses to vaping, restorative language to use in the home, experiencing circles, etc.), followed by a screening of Healing Justice - a film that explores the causes and consequences of current punitive justice and educational systems and its effect on marginalized communities. Baby sitters will be available for families. When: Wednesday, November 6th, 5:00pm-8:30pm    5:00pm - Food and Drop off Kids to Babysitters    5:30pm - 6:00pm Welcome & Breakout Sessions    7:00pm - Screening of Healing Justice Where: Golden High School (Auditorium) Why: Learn more about the relation-based practices your schools are integrating this year. RSVP for the event here - bit.ly/GHSRP  Sources of Strength visits classrooms and give high fives!  Last week representatives from Sources went into social studies classes and talked with students about generosity and ways that they can incorporate giving back to their community into their daily lives. They also gave high fives to students on their way into the building.

BELL MIDDLE SCHOOL Bell has had a fun-filled October with both "Spirit Week" and "My Future's So Bright Week."   During "Spirit Week," students enjoyed dressing in 80's fashion, Disney themes, Colorado wear and Golden Demons colors (for Golden High School's parade and homecoming). On "My Future's So Bright Week," students were encouraged one day to wear yellow and sunglasses, another day to wear college wear and the other to dress reflecting their future career.  Teachers participated too as shown in the photo below of teachers in their 80's attire!

iSTEM Showcase!iSTEM students continue to be highly engaged, work collaboratively and test scientific principles they learn in class. In the photo below, seventh graders conduct an experiment as part of an engineering lab. Seventh and eighth grade iSTEM showcases at which students present the culmination of their work so far this school year are the first week of November.

Fall Orchestra Concert.The 2019 fall orchestra concert was held at Bell Middle School on Oct 23rd. Not only did academy, string, and chamber play a variety of pieces with a western theme and modern flair, but the Chamber Orchestra was honored to have Golden High School musicians join them for one song: the dramatic Ludwig's Tango. Ms. Barbara Casanova and Ms. Katherine Parker conducted beautifully, always amazing the audience with students' progress and talent.

KYFFIN ELEMENTARY Enrichment Rotations! In October Kyffin students participated in their first Enrichment Rotations of the school year. Students have the opportunity to engage in Maker-space and Technology lessons as well as Social Emotional learning for just over two hours. This learning aligns with the Jeffco Generations vision and provides unique, creative, and critical thinking opportunities. During this same time, grade level teams work alongside our Instructional Coach and other support staff to analyze data and collaboratively plan instruction and future assessment. Teachers also develop instructional groupings, and monitor student growth. Further, teachers utilize goal setting in addition to determining extensions for students who quickly meet expectations as well as interventions for students who need additional support. Kyffin is excited to launch this structure as we have seen positive results for students in the past. It also provides a wonderful opportunity to build and expand our community!   New technology!  Safety continues to be a top priority at Kyffin.  Thanks to a generous donation from PTA, Kyffin has officially implemented the Raptor Management System which is a new check-in system for keeping track of who is in our building.  Kyffin´s fifth graders are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their 1:1 devices which should arrive any day now!   Mindful Moments and more fun! Fall Follies was a resounding success! We had a great time this year reliving some of our favorite books through games and activities!  In addition to exploring Social Emotional Learning through Brainwise, Second Step, and Restorative Practices, during PE students have been practicing Mindful Moments.  A few minutes during each class period is spent learning about ways to increase general mindfulness. Students have been applying this practice to their PE learning, and making connections to how they can use these skills outside the gym.  The focus for the last month has been having students work towards quieting their mind and focusing on just their breath. Kyffin is looking forward to celebrating our community through Family Heritage Night and enjoying the performance of Tangled this November. Our next PTA meeting is Nov. 5th and our next SAC meeting will be Nov. 11th.   MITCHELL ELEMENTARY Fantastic Field Day and ROCKTOBER Field Day at Mitchell was a great time for all. Our wonderful PE Teacher, Lars Lundgren outdid himself again with a variety of fantastic activities, games and competitions.  Field Day was moved from May to October a few years ago to coincide with Mitchell's ROCKTOBER - a month of events and fun opportunities for students to burn off extra energy in a month some find challenging. A huge thank you and congratulations PE Teacher, Lars Lundgren for sponsoring ROCKTOBER and Field Day.

PTA's Reflections Reflections Program was another huge success this year with 76 total entries! Reflections is a National PTA sponsored program promoting students expression of art through six categories: Literature, Music, Dance, Photography, Visual Arts and Film. Several students' works were selected to the Jefferson County level competition. See our list on Mitchell's PTA website for complete details: https://www.mitchellpta.org/programs-events/reflections/

76 Reflections Entries.

Students pictured here with Mitchell's Music Teacher, Ms. Hudson and Art Teacher,  Mr. Kramer.

Veteran's Day Breakfast & Flag Ceremony Mitchell will recognize our family, friends, and community members who either served or are currently serving in the armed forces with our annual Veteran's Day Breakfast and Flag Ceremony on November 11th from 7:45AM to 9:00AM. Also this year, we'd like to display any photographs and/or artifacts from service members in our armed forces. Please see your child's Friday Folder for an interview sheet students can complete for this special day and return it to the Office or Mrs. Swenson in the Library.  RALSTON ELEMENTARY

Kindergarten Trip to the Pumpkin Patch Kindergarten students celebrated fall and expanded their science learning by visiting the Chatfield Botanic Gardens Pumpkin Patch to describe properties and attributes at the farm.  Students rotated through 12 stations such as learning about the pumpkin life cycle, completing a nature scavenger hunt, going through the corn maze, and picking out their own pumpkin to take home. The students had great fun learning! Scholastic Book Fair was a Success! The fall Scholastic Book Fair at Ralston was a huge success raising a bit more than $6,500. All funds from the book fair go to support Ralston's library, allowing us to purchase new books and library resources. Thank you to the entire community for making the book fair a success!

Fire Safety Program Ralston's kindergarteners and first graders participated in a fire safety program on October 11th. Visiting fire fighters helped students learn about fire safety and also provided hands-on experiences with safety vehicles, equipment, and uniforms. Students learned how to stay safe as well as appropriate responses if they are ever in a real emergency. Thank you fire fighters and first responders!

Fall Festival and Silent Auction Ralston families enjoyed the 3rd Annual Fall Festival on October 18th. There were tons of fun activities for the whole family, including Trunk or Treat, face painting, bouncy houses, crafts, a DJ, fire trucks, State Troopers, fun food and much more! Kids and adults in costumes enjoyed socializing as they participated in a variety of activities. The silent auction items were fabulous and helped raise money to fund paraprofessionals, technology, STEM programming, the Kindness Crew, field trips, and learning resources. A big thank you to the entire Ralston community (it takes a village) to make this event such a success! Ralston Singers First Concert Students and parents were treated to the first Ralston Singers concert of the 2019-2020 school year. The Ralston Singers are a group of 4th and 5th grade students who practice weekly before school to prepare for performances held throughout the year. Students performed a variety of seasonal selections, some with complicated rounds and acapella portions, during afternoon and evening performances. Congratulations to the singers and our amazing music teacher, Shealyn Crocombe! SHELTON ELEMENTARY The Coyote Chase was a huge Success!  Thanks to over 250 students who participated in the Shelton Elementary "Coyote Chase" pledge drive this year, the school raised over $27,500, WOW! Prizes were awarded to individuals and a new traveling class trophy is being made for the top earning class. All their hard work has paid off and the whole school has been awarded an extra 45 minute recess. Way to go Coyotes!

MATH & SCIENCE NIGHT Each year Shelton hosts a Math & Science night, bringing the community together with local volunteers from the Colorado School of Mines, Golden High School and other Jeffco Organizations so the students can learn and experiment at several different stations throughout the school. This year did not disappoint and all students walked away with fun new ideas and inspirations.

Coyote 5K Classic The 10th annual Coyote Classic was held on Sunday, Oct. 20th and was once again a huge success. It was quite cold and windy this year, but everyone still came out and it's so inspiring to see the amount of school, community, and local business support for this event each year! We want to extend a big thank you to Kari Obernesser, Sarah Polli, Kristen Mitten and Liz Pena-Fletcher, and all of the volunteers whose efforts contributed to this awesome event! Congratulations to all the runners as well - check out https://runsignup.com or http://www.coyote5kclassic.com/ for this year's race results. PROPOSITION CC AND BALLOT ISSUE 1A Shelton's PTSA members voted unanimously to endorse Proposition CC and Ballot Issue 1A. Both of these measures have the same intent: to allow the State and Jefferson County to keep collected tax revenues over the existing cap. At the state level, Prop CC mandates that collected revenues are to be spent on public schools, higher education and transportation. At the county level, Ballot Issue 1A mandates that collected revenues be spent on public safety, facility and road maintenance, transportation and wildfire mitigation projects. Thank you to everyone for taking a stand in support of our schools and community! WELCHESTER ELEMENTARY PTA Meeting November 6th 5:30PM Generally the 1st Wednesday of the month we have our PTA meetings at 5:30PM in the school library. We wanted to make sure everyone had a fighting shot at making it from work. We've also been fortunate to have awesome food businesses provide a little something for everyone to munch (although not guaranteed, we try to have food at our meetings). Chili Cook-Off & Silent Auction The Chili Cook-Off is just around the corner along with the Silent Auction on November 8th 5-7:30pm! This is your chance to try out some great culinary creations or enter your own! Bring the whole family along to enjoy an inexpensive dinner and evening out. You might also get your company or business involved in donating an item to the Silent Auction. Thank you to everyone who already has! Then take the silent auction by storm and bid on the items that you fancy. It'll be a great time to mix and mingle. Thanks again to everyone who has already signed up to help setup, make chili, clean up and manage the auction and so on! You are all such awesome people and you make Welchester amazing! Free Gift Wrapping At our Barnes & Noble Holiday Night on November 15th 3-8pm, there will be crafts, live music, Mrs. Robinson reading holiday stories, Christmas karaoke (What? Isn't that a thing?) and free gift wrapping provided by our volunteers and Barnes & Noble. Bring the family, purchase gifts, get them wrapped for free, enjoy stories, laugh at yourself and sing some holiday songs and enjoy being a part of this neat community!

ConnectED, the monthly enewsletter of the Golden Schools Foundation, includes the latest news on what's happening with the Golden articulation area schools, special achievements, grants, events, community partnerships and how you can get involved. 

If you're interested in getting involved with the Golden Schools Foundation please contact Kimberly Brock, Board Chair. A list of all board members can be found here. Click here to learn about the mission and vision of the Golden Schools Foundation.