Monday, April 25, 2022

Dear Parents,

The kids have been so excited today to come in and see the new desks and chairs which were delivered to the Younger Kids classroom last Friday!  It was your generosity and goodwill for our Fun Run back in the fall that made this a reality.  Thanks again for all of your support!

This is the final week of April and that means Sharing!  This Friday students can bring in an item that fits our theme, Something you would take with you on a trip. Please help your child to remember that the item needs to fit inside their cubby.  Any assistance you can give to your child in coming up with, and practicing saying, three things about their item is much appreciated.

The biggest event happening Friday, however, is not sharing, it is our Journey to Asia day!  We are so excited for this amazing opportunity for our students to finalize their learning on this topic with an exciting, school-wide activity.  The last couple of years have made events like these few and far between and we can’t wait to see the joy on the kids’ faces!

Next week we will begin our final theme of the year as we spend our remaining weeks learning about mammals.  Our students love animals and we are confident that they will love learning about interesting mammals from all over the world.

In your child’s Friday Folder last week you should have received a permission slip for our upcoming field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  If you haven’t already, please fill out both sides of the permission slip and return it to school.

One last important item to consider is our Rivendell School yearbook. Today is the final day for ordering them! Visit www.treering.com/validate and use code 1013336780932659 to order a Rivendell yearbook!  They will be delivered by the last week of school.

If you need a link to the Rivendell Sunday newsletter, or if you would like to check out any from our archive, you may find it by clicking here.

Have a terrific week!

Seth, Annie and Dylan

Happy Monday Younger Kid Families!

We are nearly at the end of April, and we’re packing it full of fun! This week is the Scholastic Book Fair. We encourage students to shop before or after school with their grown-ups. There are plenty of exciting books that the kids are excited to read. 

Also this week, we are celebrating Earth Day! On Wednesday we will have a speaker coming in from the Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed. They will be talking about what the Poudre River Watershed is and why we need to keep it healthy. We will also be celebrating Earth Day on Friday with a special story and craft. 

Next Friday, April 29th, is our Journey to Asia Day where students will travel around to 8 different Asian countries. As you may know, Rivendell will be providing free lunches for all of the students on that day.  Students will choose between teriyaki chicken and teriyaki tofu served with rice, vegetables, and milk, this Thursday 4/21. If you do not want your student to participate in the free lunch that day, please let us know as soon as possible. 

One last exciting thing for now. On May 20th, the Younger Kids will be visiting the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This will be an all day field trip with the buses leaving at 8:45 and returning at 3:00. Students will need to bring a sack lunch (all disposable) and wear good walking shoes. Each class will be needing 4 parent volunteers to chaperone this trip. We know that there are many more than that that would like to help out, but due to space constraints the first 4 responses to this email will be able to accompany us. If you would like to volunteer, please make sure you are free the whole day, and because you will be responsible for 3 to 4 students, we ask that there are no additional children like siblings.

If you have any additional questions please let us know, and have a great week! 

Dylan, Seth, and Annie

Happy Monday Younger Kid Families! 

It is the last week of March and we are ready for some springtime weather! We encourage students to be prepared for chilly mornings and hot afternoons. If your kiddo loves sandals when it starts to get hot, make sure to leave a pair of sneakers at school for PE. 

Last week we started our new Topic Unit – Asia! This week we are going to start our tour of Asia with some Southern Asian countries: Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Our students are excited to start learning about unique cultures and places, and continue to broaden their perspectives of our world! 

Next week is the Younger Kids’ Musical! These kids have been practicing hard for weeks and it is going to be a fabulous performance, the first time for many of them. If you have not signed up for a slot for either Wednesday 4/6 or Friday 4/7, please follow the link to sign-up below:

Younger Kids’ Musical Ticket Sign-up

This Friday is the first in April so that means that it is Sharing this week! Our theme for sharing is to bring something that makes you laugh. Help your student come up with three things they can share with their classmates! 

If you want to check the newsletters to see what’s going on around the school, you can follow this link: Newsletter Archive.

As always please let us know if you have any questions, or concerns! 

Thanks,

Dylan, Annie, and Seth

YK News

Dear parents,

It is certainly a busy week here in Younger Kids!  We have more countries to visit on our travels through Asia, more excellent progress to make on our academics and more fun to have in the springtime with our friends.  However, the biggest event of the week is our musical!  We are so proud of the work the kids have done to prepare themselves for these performances.  We are confident that you will enjoy the show.

Every year some parents choose to take their children with them once the performance is over and you are welcome to do so.  If you make this choice, please let us know via email or in person that you will take your child after the show.  Of course on both days we will have some time for additional activities, particularly on Friday, and we will be happy to continue our day with any students who will be staying with us on these days. We appreciate your help with this.

We wanted to draw attention to one of the items from the Rivendell Newsletter that went out yesterday.  A Love and Logic course is being offered at a discounted rate.  We use this approach in our classrooms and we thought that it could be helpful for those of you who are interested in learning more about it.  When used correctly it can be a really helpful tool for caregivers to establish boundaries, set realistic consequences and foster supportive relationships with children.  You can find more info by checking out the newsletter.  If you need a link to the newsletter, or if you would like to check out any from our archive, you may find it by clicking here.

We look forward to seeing you at one of our performances!  Have a super week…

Seth, Dylan and Annie

Dear parents,

It is hard to believe that after finishing up this week we will enter the final quarter of the school year.  Time certainly flies!  We hope that whatever you may be up to over spring break that your time is safe and enjoyable for your family.

This week we will be finishing up our studies on Indigenous Peoples of North America.  The final region on which we are focusing is the desert southwest.  We will be talking a lot about Mesa Verde and the amazing people who built their lives there. We have a fun clay project that we are looking forward to doing with our students that will allow us to recreate a cliff dwelling in our own classrooms.  It should be a great last week on this topic.  

The big news around school this week is the science fair!  Middle Kid and Older Kid students have been working on their science fair projects and have prepared their demonstration boards for you to view.  We will be taking our classes out to get a good look at the projects later this week.  If you are interested in judging the science fair please stop by the office and see if there remains a need.

Other news about the happenings in and around Rivendell can be found in the Sunday e-newsletter.  To look back at old newsletters check out the link here: Newsletter Archive

Have a super week and a wonderful spring break!

Seth, Annie and Dylan

YK News ~ 2/22/22

Hello YK Parents,

We hope that you enjoyed the three day weekend! 

This week, we will continue our Native American studies with learning about the Indigenous Peoples of the Plains. We will discuss how they lived and how their life revolved around the movement of the bison. We’ll do a fun buffalo activity and build model tepees!

For the remainder of the year, we will no longer have an Author of the Month. Instead, in order to expose our students to a wider variety of authors, we will have Books of the Month. At the end of each month, kids will write about their favorite book. 

Since this is the last Friday of the month, we will have SHARING. The theme for this week will be to share something that is either a CIRCLE, a SQUARE or a TRIANGLE. As always, please help your child to choose an item that will fit in their cubby. It is also helpful if you can have your child practice saying three things about the item they chose to share.

If you have not viewed this week’s Rivendell newsletter, you may read it here.

Happy Tuesday, have a nice week and stay warm!

Annie, Seth & Dylan

Monday, February 14, 2022

Dear parents,

Happy Valentine’s Day!  It was wonderful to be here with your kiddos today to celebrate this special day.  We hope that they came home with loads of fun stories to share about our activities.

Throughout the next several weeks we will be teaching our students about Indigenous Peoples from various locations around the United States.  This week we are focusing on the tribes of the Pacific Northwest.  We have a fun totem pole project planned that we think the kids will really enjoy.

As you are probably all aware of by now, this week is Rivendell Has Heart week!  The three Younger Kids classes are collecting diapers and wipes.  Gently used clothing can also be donated up near the front of the school. Thanks for your help with this!

Our theme days for the remainder of the week are;

• Tuesday – Travel Day! Wear clothing from a place you have traveled.
• Wednesday – Pattern Day 
• Thursday – Book Character Day
• Friday – School Pride Day

This info was also in the Rivendell Newsletter which went out yesterday.  If you want to check up with past Rivendell newsletters you can follow the link here:  Newsletter Archives – Rivendell School  

We hope your Valentine’s Day is filled with Love!  Have a great rest of the week,

Seth, Dylan and Annie

Younger Kids News

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a nice weekend and were able to take advantage of the sunny weather.  We are looking forward to meeting with you all over the next two Fridays for our conferences.  We have lots to share with you, but more importantly please let us know if there is anything in particular that you would like for us to focus on in our conference.  If you still need to sign up for a slot you can access our sign up sheet iNSERT YOUR LINK.

Over the next two short weeks we will be learning about Geology!  We’ve got some fun activities planned for your kids.  After these couple of weeks we will be wrapping up our unit and moving on to a new topic of study.  

As we navigate the last full week of January we have begun to look ahead to the fun activities that await in February.  We have two different parties during the month about which we wish to make you aware.  Our first celebration will be on our 100th day of school.  This falls on Tuesday, February 8.  We will have some great activities planned that should make this a super fun day at school for our students while reinforcing their learning of several math concepts. 

The special days don’t stop there as we will celebrate Valentine’s day the following week on Monday.  Our students are welcome to bring in valentines to pass out to their friends.  We ask that if you choose to make valentines with your child that you please make sure they make one for every student in the class.  A class roster will be sent out to you closer to the date of the event.  We also need your help to make some mailboxes to hold the valentines that are brought in.  If you could please bring in a cereal box or something similar that we can get prepared and that your child can decorate it would be appreciated.  You may begin bringing these in now and we will be decorating them soon.  Thanks for your help with this!

If you want to check up with past Rivendell newsletters you can follow the link here:
Newsletter Archives – Rivendell School

Have an enjoyable week, 

Seth, Dylan and Annie

Monday, November 29, 2021

Dear Parents,

We hope that you all had a safe and happy break last week!  The kids seem excited to be back among their friends and we are diving right back into our schedule of activities this Monday.

This week we will be continuing our journey through the Americas as we learn about the northwest region of South America.  We will be completing a fun weaving project involving the colors of various flags of countries in this area.  We also will be spending some time finishing up our map projects with our students.  Along with our topic projects, we also will begin to work on some special winter projects this week as well.  

As a reminder, next Friday, December 10, we will be having our annual Art Show here at Rivendell.  It is essential to sign up for a time slot and the sign up form can be found in the Sunday e-newsletter that was sent out yesterday.  If you need to look at this again you can follow this link to view the newsletter archives.

We also wanted to pass along a message to you about another opportunity for those who may have missed picture retake day.

“We have scheduled a makeup day in December to give those who might have missed a chance to have a school portrait package taken at your school and for schools where there is no makeup day scheduled. All packages carry a money back guarantee and will be back in 2 weeks or less in time for the holidays. All packages will be delivered to studio and picked up here or mailed.” 

SKILLMAN PHOTOGRAPHY’S STUDIO SCHOOL PORTRAIT MAKE-UP DAY

DATE & TIME:                                                      LOCATION:

FRIDAY, DEC. 3, 2021 – 2:00 to 5:00 pm             Skillman Photography Studio

SATURDAY, DEC. 4, 2021—9:00 to 12:00 pm   818 E. Elizabeth, Ft. Collins, CO 80524

This is for those who missed the picture days for new packages or retakes. We get the images to school with yearbooks.

Email staff@skillmanphotography.com  for more information. We will email you the information you will need. Phone 484-3403.

Since it is the first Friday of the month this week, we will have another fun round of Sharing!  Our theme for this week is, something that represents a special holiday you celebrate with your family.  As always, please help your child to choose one item that fits this theme and assist them in coming up with at least three things to say about their item.  Thanks for your help with this!

Have a super rest of your week,

Seth, Annie and Dylan

Younger Kids News

Dear Parents,

It is nice to be back with your kids this week as we finish up our study of the Maya, Inca and Aztec cultures by examining the similarities and differences between these cultures.  Next week we will begin our new unit; Central and South America.

We hope that you were able to get some enjoyable extra time with your child(ren) yesterday as we spent the day together as a staff engaging in several professional development activities.  One of the major areas of focus for us yesterday was gender inclusion.  Supporting each and every individual student at Rivendell is paramount to what we do.  Since science tells us that gender exists across a spectrum rather than in the binary boy/girl paradigm in which most of us were raised, it is vital for all of us to spend time challenging these outdated notions about gender.  If you are interested in learning more about the subject we encourage you to spend some time examining the organization we partnered with yesterday at the following website; genderspectrum.org.

This Thursday afternoon we will get to experience a special event here at Rivendell.  Brenda, our amazing Spanish teacher, has been working with the Older Kids to prepare for our Latin American Marketplace.  The Older Kids will be ‘selling’ craft items that they created in a marketplace setting here at school.  Students in our YK classes will practice using several phrases that are common in this sort of setting and will have a chance to apply their learning in this interactive experience.  Our students will use pesos that we provide for them and will get to keep the items that they purchase.  We are sure that our students will have a lot to share about this fun experience when they arrive home on Thursday after school!

The office has asked that we include a link to the Rivendell Sunday E-Newsletter in our notes home to you.  If you need to access this newsletter you can do so using the following link; https://www.rivendell-school.org/about-us/newsletter-archives/

We hope you have a terrific week!

Seth, Dylan and Annie