A Publication of Chipeta Elementary School 

                                              2340 Ramsgate Terrace

                                                                  Colorado Springs, CO 80919

                                                                  719-328-5500      FAX 719-260-8825               

                                            www.cssd11.k12.co.us

                                                                  December 2007

Dear Chipeta Families,

What a wonderful time of the year as we enter the holiday season!  As you prepare in your homes for a time of caring and sharing, the children at Chipeta have also shared in the excitement by giving to the community through the Care and Share Program, the Coat Drive, and by bringing toys for children that are less fortunate. Thank you for your involvement with these donations and for giving our children the gift of giving back to our community. 

December is the month when the state school report cards are released.  A letter regarding this report along with our report card will be included in this newsletter.  As many of you already know, Chipeta received an Excellent rating again this year (6^th year in a row).  This rating is based on the CSAP tests that our 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade students took in the spring of 2007.  Chipeta is ranked 13^th out of 836 schools in the state of Colorado (last year we were ranked 24^th).  Holmes Middle School also received an “Excellent” rating again this year.  Our staff is extremely proud of all of our students for their hard work and for all of our families for their involvement and support for our school. 

This year marks the 20^th anniversary for Chipeta.  Some of our PTA members, staff, and community representatives are meeting to organize a celebration on May 2^nd.  If you happen to have any ideas, information or pictures about our school in the last 20 years that you’d like to share, please bring them to the office or call 328-5500.

Once again the winter weather is here.  Children do go outside for recess if the temperature is below 15 degrees.  If your child is missing winter weather gear we may have it in our lost and found as we have tons of clothing that has accumulated this year.  Also, keep in mind that during challenging weather, the bus service is really the safest way for your child to travel to and from school.  Our parking lot is pretty congested with many vehicles and not enough room.  Thanks for your help.

On behalf of the Chipeta staff, we would like to wish you a safe Holiday Season filled with joy and happiness.  Thank you for all that you do to help our students and our school to be the “Best”.  You are terrific!

Sincerely,

Lori Butler, Principal

Weather Delays

                Parents, please be aware of the procedures to follow when there are weather delays.  District 11 will make the decision to delay school by two hours if the weather or road conditions throughout the district warrant such a delay.  Decisions are not made for individual schools, but for the district as a whole.  Therefore, if District 11 is delayed, Chipeta will be as well.  In the event of a delay, everything runs two hours later than usual.  Busses will run two hours later and all classes will begin two hours later.  Please do not drop your child off early – we may not have anyone available to supervise him or her.  We will have a recording on the Chipeta main number (328-5500) to update you on the status.  All major television and radio stations will be notified and Channel 16 (the district station) will also scroll delay and/or closure information.  The office will open as early as possible.

Winter Safety!

Oh Where or Where has my Little Coat gone – oh where or where could it be?

                ….perhaps it is in our Lost and Found.  Lost and Found is overflowing with items including coats, jackets, mittens, gloves, hats, lunchboxes, shirts and even a sock or two.  These items will be donated to local charities over Winter Break, so please come to check  for what you are missing.  Thank you to the Chipeta Girl Scouts.  They move Lost and Found up to the stage once a month so that students can pass by the pile at lunchtime and pick out items they may be missing.  Otherwise, Lost and Found is located in the cabinet and on the table next to elevator in the front lobby of the school. 

Dear Parents~

‘Tis the Season where stress can become overwhelming.  The strain of cooking holiday meals, hosting family and friends, shopping, and attending social gatherings can take a toll.  Feelings of exhaustion can also increase your stress.  Please remember to take care of yourselves and your families by following these steps:

1) Get plenty of sleep

2) Eat well

3) Be realistic

4) Set differences aside

5) Stick to a budget

6) Plan ahead

7) Learn to say no

8) Take a breather

9) Forget about perfection

10) Rethink resolutions.

I wish each and every one of you a very happy holiday season!  See you in the New Year!

Sincerely~

Dr. Schulte

Greetings Chipeta Families and Friends,

     I am Corry Morgan, your new assistant principal.  I was transferred from another District 11 school to Chipeta on October 22^nd as a result of an increase in Chipeta’s enrollment.  My Chipeta days are Monday and Tuesday and alternating Fridays.  The other days I am the assistant principal at Keller Elementary.  It is both a pleasure and privilege to be at Chipeta with its many awards and designations of excellence and its personable and professional staff.  One of the really fun parts of my job is trying to learn all of your children’s names while doing lunch duty.  They make it fun for me and often accompany their introductions with extremely interesting anecdotal information about themselves or their friends.  I am enjoying getting to know and say hi to the parents, as well, especially on the kiss and go sidewalk before and after school.  Please know I am here for you to assist and support you and your family in any way I can with your concerns, your thoughts, and your requests.  I have four children myself and fresh in my mind are the teachers and school personnel who attended to both their academic growth and their character development, and nurtured their spirit with true goodness, kindness, forgiveness, and the belief that all good things could come to them.  It is an honor to join the Chipeta staff in giving your children this very foundation.

Sincerely,

Corry Morgan

Student Council Update

Student Council was certainly busy during November and December.  They collected and organized all of the food items that were generously donated by all our families.  ­­The Gazette reported there was a “world of holiday hurt as charities that give food to needy people for holiday dinners were reporting severe shortages just six days before Thanksgiving”.  It feels good to know our Chipeta Community cares and makes a difference for some of the 130,000 people in Southern Colorado who struggle with hunger.  Thank you for donating to the Care and Share Food Bank.        

Additionally, our toy drive in conjunction with the Colorado Springs Police Department and Christmas Unlimited was a huge success.  Many children in our community will have a much nicer Christmas because of your generosity.   Student Council hopes that drives like these foster a lifetime of giving in our children. 

MEDICATION REMINDER

                Parents, please remember that the office cannot hold or dispense any medications for your child (including over the counter cough medications, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and allergy pills) without a District 11 medication form signed by both a physician and parent accompanying a prescription for the medication.  This rule is for the safety of your children and we cannot allow exceptions to it.  Please do not send your child to school with any kind of medication.

Lunch Accounts

            Please don’t forget to update your child’s lunch account after the holiday break.  We always seem to have a number of children, right after the break, who do not bring lunch money to school.  You can always call our main number at 328-5500 and we will be happy to put you in touch with the lunchroom so that you can check your child’s lunch account balance.  The lunchroom is staffed from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Music Notes

Congratulations to all the Third, Fourth and Fifth graders for great performances!  Hurrah and a big THANK YOU to all the parents and family members who helped in all ways from props and costumes, to being at the performance to show your support.  You make the difference and are sincerely appreciated!

The Chipeta Choir carried forth on December 18^th to several community care centers and performed concert songs, as well as carols and familiar tunes of December!  If any 4^th or 5^th grader is interested in joining, registration forms will be sent home in January for the second semester.  The choir is planning on competing in a solo/ensemble festival as well as participating in a west side choir event.  Details will be sent home to Choir members.

We have select boys in 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Grade who will be performing in the All City Boys Choir Festival sponsored by the Colorado Springs Children’s Chorale.  They will rehearse in the evenings the last week of January with a concert on February 1^st, 2008.  Look for information to be sent home in January with more detailed concert information! 

Future events: 

-The Second Grade performance is coming up in February.  They will be performing “A Blast from the Past”, a look back at the last 20 years in honor of Chipeta’s 20^th Anniversary.  It’s amazing what has happened since, for example “The Golden Girls” and “LA Law” were the top TV shows in 1987.  More amazing facts will be shared at the performance!  WANTED: empty paper rolls (paper towel rolls, wrapping paper rolls, etc.), please save them and send them in to Music to be made into instruments! 

- First Graders will have a music program the first week in March.  Information will be sent home in February.

- A Community Talent Show will take place at Chipeta on May 2^nd.  Information will be sent home in January and February with auditions in late March and early April.  The show will be open to all current students at Chipeta, their parents, Chipeta staff, and family or friends who perform with current students at Chipeta.  Start thinking about what you could do!  We’d love to see you on stage or in the audience. 

You are always welcome to come and join us in a music class!  Be prepared to move and groove so wear comfortable shoes.

 Sing-cerely, Shannon Glenn, Music Teacher

News from Room 49

Division, division, division!  Both the fourth and fifth grade math classes have been dividing like crazy!  They know how to change remainders into fractions, and how to divide so that the quotient is rounded to the hundredth place.  Additionally, fifth graders have been spending lots of time working on percentages.

Fourth and fifth grade literature students working with Mrs. Douglass and Mrs. Wolf have been reading stories and poems, finding symbolism, inferences, and identifying elements of an author’s craft.  Some of them have been practicing persuasive writing as well.  All students have been working on using higher level thinking skills to analyze their reading.

The Future Problem Solvers at Chipeta have finished their first practice problem and received helpful notes from the evaluators.  Right before Winter Break, the teams completed the second practice problem dealing with simulation technologies.   The qualifying round in is March; the topic is neurotechnology. 

The District Gifted and Talented Department has been working on identification of 3^rd graders.  Parents of students under consideration for gifted identification will receive letters concerning their child’s status.  All parents of third graders at Chipeta who took the Cognitive Abilities Test will receive their child’s test results.  The results are also posted on Parent Connect under “Testing.”

As always, if you have any questions about the District 11 Gifted and Talented Program, or about things going on at Chipeta, feel free to call or email us.

Anne Wolf – Gifted Resource Teacher

328-5570

Sally Douglass – Gifted Resource Teacher

328-5564

G.Y.M. News,

                Here it is almost time for Winter break.  We have just finished our soccer units and the second pacer test of the year.  At conference time, I had prepared a Fitness Gram report card for all students in the third, fourth, and fifth grade.  This report shows where your child scored and what their fitness level is.  Your child will have an opportunity to write down their goals.  The goals they write down are for the next set of fitness test we will take near the end of the year.  Please ask your children about their physical fitness goals.

I would also encourage you to exercise with your children.  Unfortunately, I only see them in class every third day.  It would benefit not only them, but you too.  As we all know, parents are the most important role models that children have.  If you show them the importance of exercise, exercise will become important to them.  Some exercises that I would recommend would be something cardiovascular, push-ups and crunches. 

 When we come back from Winter break, basketball will be the next unit as well as our next after-school sport.

As a reminder, I would like to ask that parents send a note if their child is not able to participate in class or have certain limitations.  That helps me provide better instruction for your child.  Also, students should wear tennis shoes to class.  This is a district safety recommendation.  Tennis shoes provide the best protection for feet and ankles.  I appreciate your support.

As always, keep exercising and Get Yourself Moving.

Mr. Louis   

FROM THE ART ROOM

                Please have your children wear older short sleeve shirts on art days.  This should save on your clothing budget and help me be a little less nervous about our students ruining their new clothes in art class.  We will continue to wear paint shirts when messy; however, the paint shirts are not perfect. An easy way to remember what specials class your child will attend is to remember P-A-M.  This is the P.E., art, music class rotation.  So, if your student had P.E. yesterday, he will have art today.  If it is cold outside, please have them wear a T-shirt under a sweatshirt or sweater.  They can put their jackets and sweaters aside during class and I try to make sure that they get back on at the end of class.

                The Hispanic Art Show was last November.  Art teachers from D-11 taught lessons showcasing Hispanic artists and traditional crafts and the students created art inspired by those artists.  Brooke Willis and Geetika Maddirala, both 4^th graders, studied the work of Frida Kahlo and created surrealistic paintings for the show.  The 3^rd grades studied the work of Tony Ortega, Denver pastel artist, and Hannah Levy’s and Spencer Furgerson’s pastels were in the show.   Dylan Chamberlin and Elise Beard, both 2^nd  graders, painted suns inspired by clay suns from Mexico.  These kids did a great job representing Chipeta at the Hispanic art show.

                Keep an eye out for art room supplies.  The art room water cups have seen better days.  If you have cottage cheese or margarine cups, or similar low wide containers, please save them and send them to the art room.  If you have any calendars from 2007 that have great photos for the kids to draw, please donate to the art room.  Mrs. Johnson donated an old unusable cello for us to draw in still life.  Thank you so much, Mrs. Johnson.  If you have any visually interesting objects that you might want to donate, please give me a call.

                Arrrg! Mark your calendars!  Get ready to sail into the Caribbean this spring to see “The Chipeta Art Show”, Thursday, March 3rd from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.  Be there or we’ll make ya walk the plank!

Thanks,

Tom Burkle

Art Teacher

Lisa Sarter, Library Technology Educator
Chipeta website:     http://www.d11.org/chipeta/

Fifth graders are ready to go on the “air”!
Chipeta TV will be having a number of 5^th graders joining the broadcast starting in January.  They will be learning the set up of the studio for broadcast, storyboarding a show, running and use of equipment as well as different jobs such as emcee, director, camera person and much more! After two weeks working off camera, their experience will culminate with an appearance as a co-host!

  We can no longer accept used cartridges for recycling
Our recycling company will no longer be collecting cartridges and at this point I have not been successful in finding another one. Thank you for all the wonderful donations. I am continuing to try and track down a replacement and will let you know as soon as I have someone lined up.

 

"…When children have access to varied sources of print materials and are allowed to choose what they read, they read more for pleasure and for information. Children who do a substantial amount of voluntary reading are positive about reading and are good readers."       

The International Reading Association
http://www.reading.org

Literacy News

Jan Schneider, LRT

Chipeta is one of seventeen elementary schools throughout District 11 that has implemented a new standards-based writing program this year.  The program, Writers Advantage, brings a “Writers Workshop” focus to Chipeta’s writing instruction.  During Writers Workshop, you will see direct daily instruction in ten minute “mini-lessons” followed by independent writing (45 minutes) and a 10-minute Author’s Chair, which is a closing forum to share writing. During independent writing time teachers conference with students individually or in groups and they help students to set goals for accountability.  This program emphasizes student thinking and decision-making about writing.  Students have more choice than in years past – choices about format, genre, subject matter, and audience.  By using this Writers Workshop format, Chipeta is finding that students are perceiving writing as an engaging, satisfying activity instead of work.  Our goal is for our students to see themselves as writers so they enjoy writing daily and move to higher levels of performance.

Gift-giving ideas that stimulate a love of writing include: journals, diaries, pens, pencils, markers, blank books, and stationery.  If your child is not a writer by nature, capitalize upon an area that they love and try to tie it into a writing experience.  Artists can illustrate stories.  Write thank-you letters for fabulous gifts, and look for great description.  “Thanks for the Wii” can lead to a detailed accounting of the tennis game where a six-year-old wins the “family Wimbledon”against Dad or Mom!  Have your children written letters to Santa?  That could be opportunity for persuading with schmooze, rather than list-making.  Let your creativity be your guide as you help your children see themselves as authors.

News from the Resource Team

The Chipeta Resource Team hopes all Chipeta families enjoy a wonderful Winter Break.  In addition to being a great time for fun with your children, Winter Break also provides terrific opportunities for reinforcing reading, writing, and math skills.  Holiday activities readily lend themselves to fun learning experiences, such as practicing counting or fractions while baking, having students read schedules for movies or other outings, reading new books together, and letting students write personal journals of holiday memories. 

Happy Holidays from the Resource Team!!

Becky Wesley, Joyce Martinez, Linda Maestas, Kathy Logan,

Barb Jones, Allison Foster, and Patte Forget

Tardies

We all know what it is like to be running late.  There are always those mornings when, for one reason or another, we just don’t get moving on schedule.  However, just as it is important to employers that employees are punctual to work, it is important to teachers that students get to school on time.  Arriving late disrupts classroom flow and interrupts instruction.  We have been seeing more and more late arrivals at Chipeta and we want to make sure that parents are aware that this is a problem.  Habits that children establish early on can last a lifetime and we all want to teach children that school is important enough to be on time and ready to learn each and every day. 

                Children hear a lot about New Year’s resolutions this time of year.  How about suggesting to him or her that the resolution for 2008 could be to reduce tardies? 

Yearbook updates

The Chipeta PTA is publishing a yearbook again this year. We need pictures for the yearbook, especially candid pictures.  Please send any photos you may have taken in your child's classroom or at a school function.  Please mark them for the yearbook and send them to the Chipeta office. 

Field Trips

                Occasionally we get questions about our field trips.  “How do you want me to pay for them?”, “What is the transportation cost?”, etc. 

                Unless a teacher specifically tells you otherwise, the preferred method of payment is by check made payable to Chipeta Elementary.  Sometimes a field trip will be such that it necessitates the use of cash, but this is not the norm.  Transportation is by School District 11 bus and the school is billed based on an hourly rate and mileage rate.  We calculate the cost of each field trip based on admission price at the destination and the estimated cost of the bus transportation.

Security Update

The new security system has been in place for about three months now and response has been largely positive.  There is a monitor in the office tied to a live feed camera in the entry so we can see who we are buzzing in.  One problem we are having is that people press the buzzer and then move immediately to the door.  At that point, because of the camera angle, we can no longer identify the person, so we often have to ask people to take a step back so we can see them.  The best thing to do is to press the buzzer, then take one step back away from the screen.  This gives us the best view.  Once you hear the click at the door, feel free to come on in.  Please note that visitors and volunteers still need to sign in at the office once you are through the security door.  Visitor name tags are available at the front desk.

VOLUNTEERS

Chipeta Volunteers are the best and we want to make sure that we record all the time you spend on behalf of the school.  This information helps us to show the district one of the major reasons why Chipeta is such an excellent school.  Please remember to sign in and out when you come to the school to volunteer and mark the box indicating that you are volunteering that day. 

 It is also important that you register as a volunteer.  There is a simple form to fill out to register.  We recorded over 800 volunteer hours in the first quarter with 200 hours coming from unregistered volunteers.  If you were one of those who are not registered, you will likely be sent a form and asked to fill it out.  Completed forms can be returned to the office.  Volunteer hours are actually part of the School Improvement Plan (SIP) and our goal is to have a 10% increase in volunteer time next quarter.

December 2007

HEALTHY
LIFESTYLE WEB SITES

Check Out These Web Sites

Face the Fats

Anything and everything that you need to know about fats (good & bad) can be found on this website.  By visiting this site, you will learn about: the different types of fats, high fat foods to avoid, foods that contain healthy fats and how many calories and how much fat you should eat every day.  The American Heart Association created this website in order to break down complex information about fat so that consumers can “face the fats” their own way.  Find out more at:

www.americanheart.org/facethefats

Pay Online for school meals with your credit card!  You may use Visa or MasterCard by following the link at:   http://www.d11.org/fns/payonline.htm.You will need your child’s student ID number, which may be found by calling the office at 328-5500.

SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT

Dear Parents and Community Members,      

We are pleased to send you the 2007 School Accountability Report which accompanies this newsletter.  This report contains the following rating:

·         Overall Academic Performance On State Assessments - based on the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) scores from the 2006-2007 school year

The report also contains several pieces of information from the state about staff, school safety, budget, and school performance history.

If you would like additional information to assist you with understanding and interpreting the information you can ask your school for a copy of: 

·         A Guide to School Accountability Report, produced by School District 11 that includes a Questions and Answers document from CDE.

This can also be accessed through the district web page with http://www.d11.org/aero/SAR/SAR.htm and select the title, “Guide to SAR 2007.”

We are very excited to see our Overall Academic Performance rating of Excellent.   Chipeta has been recognized as a John Irwin School of Excellence since 2002.   We attribute this increase to the hard work of our students, staff , and volunteers.  We increased our scores again this year, and we are rated 13 out of 836 schools in the state of Colorado.  

Across the nation, Colorado is rated as a state that has set high academic standards.  At Chipeta, our goal is to meet the social, emotional, and creative areas of development in addition to higher level thinking to prepare our students for the future.  We are proud of the high expectations for our students and will continue to work hard at assisting each of our students in reaching that level.

Regards,

Lori Butler, Principal at Chipeta