CRE Weekly Newsletter August 28

Dear Coyote Ridge Community,

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Tuesday evening for our Back to School Night! 

Hopefully you were able to learn a little more about what learning and engagement will look like for your child this school year. I also hope that you were able to visit with our representatives from the Mwebaza foundation who facilitate our partnership with our sister school in Uganda. Global awareness is a core value for us at Coyote Ridge. We are so grateful for this partnership and love having their representation at our community events. Thank you to our PTO, Colorado Scouts (congrats Henry Boothroyd on earning your recruitment patch) and Broomfield Public Health for also being here to support our new school year.

 

4th/5th Grade Band Update

We are excited to continue with our many steps in getting our band program going for our 4th and 5th grade students at Coyote Ridge! As the first elementary school in Adams 12 to provide this opportunity, there are many steps involved in building a high-quality program from the ground up. We are currently awaiting district approval to post the instructor position, which is an important next step in making this vision a reality. As you can understand, essential hires happen first and then hires like this position come after essential positions in schools have been filled. We have already connected with local high schools, colleges, and universities, and there has been a great deal of interest from individuals who would love to support our students through music. To help us getting ready for our next step, please complete the interest form if you have a current 4th or 5th grade student who may want to participate in band beginning mid semester one: Band Interest Form

While we are in the process of building the program, if you are a parent with musical experience and are willing to lend a hand after school until we are fully staffed, we would be incredibly grateful for your support. Building opportunities like this truly takes a community, and we are so appreciative of the enthusiasm, FUNDING and encouragement our families continue to provide.

IXL

We are so grateful to our amazing PTO for funding IXL for our students this school year! IXL gives students an engaging and productive way to use technology to practice and strengthen important skills at their own level. As we continue to be intentional about reducing overall screen time for kids, both at home and at school, we want to make sure that the technology time students do have is meaningful and supports their learning. Please check in with your child’s teacher for information about how to log in and get started with IXL. We are excited to have this resource available to our students and so thankful to our PTO for making it possible! Kindergartners will not start on IXL just yet, stay tuned.

Math at Coyote Ridge

This school year, we are excited to implement a new math curriculum, Illustrative Mathematics (IM). It has been amazing to watch our teachers and students embrace the new problem-based routines, structures, and instructional practices that IM brings to our classrooms. Even more exciting is how naturally IM aligns with our Building Thinking Classrooms model. Both approaches prioritize students as active mathematicians: collaborating, making sense of challenging problems, explaining their thinking, and learning from one another. We are already seeing students engage in deeper, higher-level mathematical thinking together, and we are so excited to see how this work continues to grow throughout the year! 

Vision and Hearing Screening Volunteers

Thank YOU so much to PTO for organizing volunteers for our vision and hearing screenings this week. We appreciate you!

First All School Assembly of the year!

We had so much fun together at our first all-school assembly of the year today! We took some time to revisit our PACK traits and talk about what it looks, sounds, and feels like to be part of the Coyote Ridge PACK. And, of course, no assembly would be complete without a little fun! Our teachers were good sports and joined in on some silly games that had the whole school laughing and cheering. These moments are such an important part of building our school community and reminding us that learning, connection, and having fun together all belong at Coyote Ridge.

 

Mental Health Minute: After School 

Does your child come home from a great day at school, only to have a sudden meltdown, become tearful, or completely shut down?

This is common and often called the After-School Pressure Release.  One reason this can happen is because kids spend all day holding it together and managing new expectations. When they step through the door, all those built up feelings finally let go.

Here are 3 ways to help them decompress:

1. Provide a Low-Demand Arrival: Skip questions like "How was your day?" or immediate requests for homework right away. Let their brain rest and chat about their day a little later. 

2. Fuel Their Body & Mind: Offer a snack paired with quiet movement, sensory play (like playdough or coloring), or simply sitting together.

3. Hold Off on Screens: Resist turning on TV or tablets right away. While screens quiet kids down temporarily, they delay the emotional release and often cause bigger meltdowns when turned off.

 For more info, read the article and  listen to the full discussion at the Institute of Child Psychology.

For our GT families:

As part of our ongoing commitment to continuous improvement, our school district is currently participating in the Colorado Department of Education’s (CDE) Gifted Education Monitoring (GEM) process. This state review occurs every five years to evaluate the quality and implementation of our Gifted and Talented (GT) programming under the Exceptional Children’s Educational Act (ECEA). We Need Your Feedback! Your perspective as a parent or guardian is incredibly valuable. We want to know what is working well for your child and where we can continue to grow. Please take 5–10 minutes to complete this survey by September 30: Parent Survey 

We hope to see you next Tuesday evening, September 1st, at the Rockies game to celebrate our Coyote Ridge choir singing the National Anthem!

In partnership,

Carolyn Webb, Coyote Ridge Principal

 

From the Clinic

As you are changing over from your child’s summer clothes to fall or winter clothes, please consider donating gently used shorts to our clinic.  Thanks!