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Non fiction writer and scientist, Nancy Castaldo stopped by for a visit today. We learned a lot about her process of “baking a book” and all the amazing places she has visited in order to research her topics.

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The older kid hike to Lory State Park was so much fun. Our kids had a great time working together to figure out problems in our team building games, and the hike was beautiful. We have a great group of kids and we’re excited to spend next Friday night with them here at school.

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Friday is the older kids sleepover. Kids should arrive back at school at 6:30pm. The doors will not be open before then, as we will need some time to prepare our mega scavenger hunt! We are asking that students go home for a little between school and the sleepover, otherwise it is just such a long day for them. We will provide pizza for dinner. We will have the kids sleep in groups of 2-4 in tents in the Commons. Please let us know if you have a tent that we can use, and how many people can fit in it.  Everyone should bring pajamas, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a sleeping bag and pillow. A pad would be great as the floor is pretty hard. A stuffed animal, flashlight and boo kare also encouraged. We will eat dinner, play games, and watch a movie. If your child will not be coming, or needs to come late, please let us know. We will provide breakfast the next day and ask that you pick up your child by 8am. It should be a lot of fun!

This week we are starting vocabulary.  We will work on this during class time, but if students do not finish in the assigned time they will need to finish it for homework.  Students should study the words throughout the week ready for a quiz on Friday. We will also be adding math for homework on Tuesday this week.  We would like kids to work in their math workbooks for 20-25 minutes. If Tuesday is a hard day for your child to do math homework, please let us know and we can plan a different day for you.

Homework

Monday

Mad Minute practice

Spanish

Read

Tuesday

Math workbook 20-25 minutes

Read

Wednesday

Mad Minute practice

Study vocab words

Read

Thursday

Complete vocab if not finished in class

Study vocab words

Read

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, Sept. 11th –  Map Testing-Math

Friday, Sept. 13th – Older Kids Sleep-in 

Friday, September 27th – Fun Run 

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend. Four years ago, we started two Older Kid traditions. One is the Older Kids Sleep-in: a chance for the kids to sleep over at the school. We have a treasure hunt, eat pizza, watch a movie and sleep in tents in the Commons. Our Older Kids Sleep-in will be Friday, Sept. 13. Another tradition we started was the beginning of the year hike. We like to start the year in nature and end in nature, with our week at Sky Ranch. This Friday, Sept. 6 we will hike Wells Gulch, at Lory State Park. It is a 1.8 mile loop that has educational stops along the way. If you have not turned in your permission slip and $5, please do so.

Thursday night is our Back to School Night from 6:00-6:30. This is a great way to learn about what Older Kids looks like,and what our expectations for the students are. We encourage all parents to attend.

This week we will be easing into homework with Mad Minutes on Tuesday and Wednesday night. These are a way to practice fast facts which will help them in their everyday math. Next week we will start our regular homework schedule. Each child has a homework planner where we record homework assignments.  Your child will bring home the planner Monday-Thursday. Please check your child has completed homework and sign underneath 

We have gone back in time during our topic work and we are exploring Ancient Egypt in Nomes, similar to city states. At present, students are learning about their nome, creating a group standard (banner) and making a class map of Egypt. Take a look at the photos showing the students working together. Our study will culminate in a museum that we will share with the rest of the school. 

Upcoming Events: 

Thurs., Sept. 5, 6-6:30 Back to School Night

Fri., Sept. 6  Hike to Lory State Park

Mon., Sept. 9 Map Testing-Reading

Weds., Sept. 11 Map Testing-Math

Fri., Sept. 13 Older Kids Sleep-in 

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Welcome back to Rivendell! We are thrilled that you have chosen Rivendell as a partner in educating your child. It is such an honor to be with your kids every day. We had a wonderful first few days of class.  Everyone seems excited to be back and ready for a new year. We have spent some time getting to know each other and introduced some important procedures and expectations. In Older Kids we work on personal responsibility, organization, and the development of good work habits in order to prepare these kids for middle school. We believe that knowledge and understanding are acquired through active exploration. Children in our classrooms do not just sit and listen to the teacher but are actively engaged in discussion, investigation, and questioning. We encourage our students to find their voice. We want them to be able to share their ideas in a whole class setting and to respectfully ask questions of their teachers and peers.  We want our students to be able to advocate for themselves in order to get help when needed and to ask for clarification when the lesson is not clear. These skills prepare Rivendell older kids to excel in middle school. 

This week we will be working on an almost regular schedule.  We are starting reading workshop by choosing appropriate books, learning how to record our reading, and how to write reading responses.  We will be working on reading assessments throughout the week to learn more about students’ reading skills. We will be getting back into the rhythm of math work sessions.  We are excited to be able to give each student even more individualized attention in our small classes. We will start our first writing project and learn how the process of writer’s workshop looks in older kids. We will also begin our study of Egypt.  Our classes will work together in small groups to complete tasks and projects as they learn about this ancient civilization and try to become the next pharaoh of Egypt! We will not be sending homework home this week, but we do encourage each child to read independently or with an adult every night for at least 20 minutes. Every morning at 8:30 sharp we are jump starting our kids with warm ups, such as free writing, keyboarding, or a math challenge, so please have your kids in school by 8:30. We will talk in more detail about our schedule and curriculum at Back-to-School Night on September 5th.  We hope to see you there.

A sense of community is fundamental to Rivendell and good communication is crucial.  Every Monday we will email a link to our Monday News. Here you will find information about what is going on in the classroom, homework for the week, recitation information, and upcoming events.  We also try to include photographs as much as possible. If you have any concerns or questions please contact us via email. 

Upcoming Events

Thursday, September 5th – Back-to-school Night

Friday, September 6th – Field trip to Lory State Park

Monday, Sept. 9th -Map testing

Wednesday, Sept. 11-Map testing

Friday, September 13th – Older Kids Sleep in

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Here we are at the end of another school year!  We have had an amazing year with this group of older kids.  They have grown in so many ways. We have seen these students overcome struggles, persevere when the work is hard, embrace new challenges and find success in so many ways.  They have become more confident; speaking up for themselves in class and when solving problems with peers. We have enjoyed taking this journey with them this year and watching them grow.  Our time at Sky Ranch was a wonderful way to complete our year. We have included a few photos of our week at the bottom of this page.

This week we will focus on presenting our personal projects.  We started these today and will continue until everyone has had a chance to present.  Your child should be prepared and ready to go any day this week. We will also be bringing our other subjects to an end.  Students will need to return any library books as soon as possible. In writing, we are having a poetry slam with the middle kids.  Students will share their original poems with their peers in a fun and dramatic way.

Our Spring Program is tonight at 5:30pm at  the University Center for Arts (the old Fort Collins High School). Students will need to arrive at 5:15 p.m. and the program will begin promptly at 5:30 p.m.  Due to the Spring Program, we will NOT have aftercare today.  This is a special way for us to end the year and to acknowledge our 5th graders who are moving on.  They have been working hard on their speech for tonight’s event.

On Tuesday, we have our portfolio share.  We encourage you to come into the classroom between 8am and 9am to look at your child’s portfolio of this year’s work.  It is fun to see their progress throughout the year. Also on Tuesday, we will be heading to EPIC. If you have not yet returned the permission slip and $5, please do so tomorrow.  Students need to bring long pants, jackets and long socks for skating, and a swimsuit and towel for the pool. They will also need to bring lunch as we will be eating at EPIC.

On Wednesday, we have Field Day.  5th graders get to be in the dunk tank on this day, so if they are planning on doing this, they need to bring a swimsuit and towel. On Thursday, we will be emailing report cards so please keep a lookout for these.  

Over the summer, we are offering a once a week math work session for students who have not yet reached their math benchmarks or for those who are on track, but need to keep their skills fresh.  This is not for advanced math students. We will be sending a separate email about this.

We hope you have a wonderful summer.  It has been our pleasure teaching your children this year.  For those who are continuing at Rivendell, we look forward to seeing you next year and hearing about your summer adventures.  For those of you who are moving on, we wish you luck at your new school and know you will do well. Come back and visit us sometime.

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Today is the day that all of your Sky Ranch information needs to be turned in to Elisa. There are a lot of people who still need to turn in those documents. It takes a lot of work to get all of the paperwork together so please get that in to Elisa! The kids, and teachers, are getting very excited!

This is the last week that the kids will have to work on their Personal Project. They will be exhausted after Sky Ranch and should not push it off until the weekend after Sky Ranch. We have been checking in with the kids and many of the kids are creating wonderful presentations. Some kids have very little completed. They will have very little time to work in class on this project this week. They should be working on it at home.

Thursday we will be going to Centenial Village in Greeley for their Spring History Festival. The weather may not be ideal so please make sure your child is prepared for the weather along with a lunch.

We will be continuing with Math until the end of the school year. It is amazing to see the progress that these kids are making with increasingly complex math concepts. Every Fall we see kids come back that need to play catch up because they have not used the skills that they were just starting to master in the Spring. We will be offering a one day a week math work session for kids who are either behind in their math progression or are on target, but could use the continuity. Suzanne or Sarah will be teaching these works sessions. More infromation will be availible soon as to the dates and how to sign up.

We know many of our 5th graders are visiting their new middle school  for 6th grade orientation on Friday. We would love to see your child return to school after this event. Friday afternoon will be their last chance at school to work on the personal project, and it will be a time for us to talk about being prepared for Sky Ranch on Monday.

Upcoming Events

May 7th- Boy’s Talk (5th grade boys only) 6:00pm

May 9th – Field trip to Centennial Village

May 13th-17th – Sky Ranch (5th graders go up Monday, 4th graders go up Tuesday)

May 20- Spring Program

May 21- Parent  Portfolio share 8:00-9:00

May 21- Epic Field Trip

May 22- Field Day

May 24- Last Day of School ends at 11:30

Homework

Monday

Read

Personal Project

Tuesday

Math 25 minutes

Read

Personal Project

Wednesday

Read

Personal Project

Thursday

Read

Personal Project