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Prairie Hills Parent News
April-May, 2015
Principal’s Corner
For the Principal’s Corner, I would like to share the Superintendent’s Blog.
Assessments reflect rigor of new state standards, measure students' annual academic progress
Monitoring student learning through a variety of assessments is essential to ensuring your student’s success. Throughout
the course of the school year, our teachers closely monitor what our students are learning and where they need additional
support or enrichment opportunities. This is done through observation, asking questions and classroom assessments. Teachers make meaningful adjustments to instruction based on the knowledge that comes from these in-classroom, formative
assessments.
Similarly, we rely on results from state assessments to make sure our students are making yearly progress to be college and
career ready upon graduation. This annual data comes to us through the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS).
This information allows each of us – students, parents and teachers – to see the progress kids are making over time. It also
allows our schools to see how they are doing in meeting the needs of our students, especially as compared to other schools.
Finally, these assessment results help us monitor our district’s ability to raise the bar for all students and close the
achievement gap for groups of students who have historically underperformed their peers.
While we acknowledge the benefits of the CMAS results above, we also want to acknowledge the concerns among our community and our board of education in relation to the amount of time spent on CMAS. In the interest of advocating for local
flexibility with assessments, less time taking assessments and more timely results from those assessments, our board of
education recently adopted a resolution which communicates these interests and concerns to the state legislature.
The board’s resolution commends staff and students throughout the district for their hard work in preparing for CMAS.
We are committed to providing a successful CMAS experience for your child. Please refer to the calendar for the assessment window at your particular school. CMAS is aligned to the new Colorado Academic Standards that reflect the rigor necessary for students to be college and career ready upon graduation. Throughout the course of the year, our teachers have
used the standards as the goal posts. Through effective instruction, our teachers have been moving students down the field
toward mastery of these standards.
As we enter the CMAS window, we want to support student success and create an environment where students can demonstrate their knowledge, skills and abilities. We all play a role in supporting that success.
Thank you for your continued support of our schools. Our students experience success because of the meaningful partnership that exists between students, parents, staff and the community
Please note: CMAS is the umbrella which all of our state testing falls under. The meaning for the
acronym PAARC is Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.
Kathryn V. Hastings
Principal
News from the gym:
Prairie Hills will be holding Field Day 2015
on Friday, May 22. More specific times to
follow. Come join in on the fun!
Art News
The Adams 12 district art show is THIS
month at Front Range Community College.
This year the art show will be in two parts.
Elementary will be displaying their artwork
from April 2-April 14 and the middle school
and high school show will be after that.
There will be an awards ceremony on April
30 . Hope you can all come out and support
our district artists!
Music Notes
It’s hard to believe that we are so close to the
end of the 2014/2015 school year. Students in
all grade levels are becoming more advanced in
their music lessons so that they will be ready to
move on to the next grade level. Kindergarteners and 1st grade students are becoming more
familiar with our percussion instruments from
around the world. 2nd and 3rd graders are creating their own original patterns to sing and
play together while accompanying themselves on
our tone bar instruments. 4th and 5th graders
are playing recorders, while reading music from
musical notation. They will also work on creating their own original songs. All grade levels
just finished being American Idols. There are a
lot of good singers at PHE!
The 4th & 5th Grade Meadow Lark Choir is rehearsing this year’s spring musical, Compose
Yourself. They are learning about some of the
great European composers, even finding out how
they used to dress “in the olden days.” Some of
them look pretty cute in their powdered wigs!
The Meadow Lark Choir will be performing this
musical on Thursday, April 30th, at 1:30 p.m. &
6:30 p.m. Have a happy spring!
Sincerely,
Lisa Canfield
What’s Up PTO?
HEY WATCHDOGS! Thank you so much to the 53 WATCHDOGS who volunteered at our
school this year! With a special THANK YOU to Todd Baker and Curtis Gemaehlich who volunteered 4 times between October and February! They each will receive one of the special
WatchD.O.G.S. winter hats for their incredible dedication. There is still a need to finish out
the year strong.
We still need D.O.G.S. to help in K-2 classrooms through May. You will still spend time with
your student in the morning and join them for lunch (for all grades). The kids absolutely love
having you in their class! Sign up for your slot now!
Prairie Hills Spring Technology Fundraiser is coming soon. Over the years, your funds have
allowed our school to be one of the most technologically advanced in the district. We have
used these funds in the past to buy hardware like Chromebooks and laptops. We have also
used these funds for incredible software programs like Study Island and Type to Learn. Your
donations help Prairie Hills keep our technology relevant and our children up to date with the
latest advancements.
Please help us to continue this progress. The Meadowlark Miles Fundraiser begins April 3rd.
We are asking our students to collect monetary donations from their friends and families.
Every student that raises at least $20 in donations will receive an AWESOME Meadowlark
Miles t-shirt. The more funds we raise the more impact we can have on the technological advancement of our school. Our goal is that every child raises at least $20. Once your child has
reached his $20 mark, extra t-shirts can be purchased for the WHOLE family at $10 per shirt.
PRIZES will be awarded to the top student fundraisers and to the classroom with the most
student participation.
Every student will run in the Meadowlark Miles Fun Run to kick-off Field Day in May. Families
and siblings are welcome to join the students as they run around Cherrywood Park. Look for
the donation packet in your student's Friday Folder on April 3rd!
Tuesday, April 14 is
Prairie Hills Spirit Day with
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for Parent Night on May 14.
From The Nurse’s Desk
Do you know a student who will be going to high school next year? Did you know there are new rules
for required vaccinations needed to attend high school in 2015-16? Next year all 9th-12th grade students will be required to have 2 doses of the Varicella vaccine. Varicella vaccine protects against the
disease Chickenpox. Many students will need a booster dose to meet the new requirements. Please
bring shot records of updated vaccines immediately to the school health office. Proof of vaccines will
be required prior to the start of the 2015-16 school year. Vaccines are available through your health
care provider, local health departments and many local drug stores. If you need help finding resources
for vaccines, contact your school health office. Please share this information with any families that
have a student attending high school next year.
***Attention 5th grade parents:
Is your child
ready for middle school? All 6th graders will require a Tdap
vaccine to start middle school. Tdap protects against the disease Pertussis, also known as Whooping Cough.
Vaccines are available through your health care provider, local
health departments and many local drug store pharmacies.
Please bring updated vaccine documentation to your school
health office immediately after receiving any vaccines. Contact your school health office if you need assistance in finding
resources for vaccines.
Parents often have concerns or questions about childhood vaccines and vaccine safety. A great resource for parent questions is the website: www.ImmunizeForGood.com.
Lost and Found:
Please check the Lost and Found for any lost items. It
is located in the cafeteria near the 2nd grade flex area doors. Thank you!
Prairie Hills Elementary
School Address:
Phone Numbers:
Administration:
Prairie Hills Elementary
Office: 720-972-8780
Kathryn V. Hastings, Principal
13801 Garfield Place
Fax: 720-972-8800
Tammy Guttropf, Office Manager
Thornton, CO 80602
Clinic: 720-972-8785
Betty Velasquez, School Secretary
BASE: 720-972-8791
Stefanie Salli, Clinic Health Aide
Attendance: 720-972-8833
(Your child’s absence must be called in to this number.)
April 2015-May 2015
Apr. 10:
May 1:
May 8:
May 25:
May 27:
No School-Teacher Comp Day
No School-Assessment Day-by appointment only
No School-Teacher Work Day
No School – Memorial Day
Last Day of School
Upcoming Testing Dates
Mar. 9-Apr. 3: PARCC tests (literacy and math-midyear)
Apr. 13-May 1: CMAS tests (science and social studies)
Apr. 27-May22: PARCC tests (literacy and math-end of year)
School Closure Due to Inclement Weather… If you want to know if schools
Primary Business Address
Your Address Line 2
Your Address Line 3
Your Address Line 4
are closed, you may call 720-972-4000 and press 7. You will receive a voice
message which will indicate whether the schools are open or closed. You may also
go to the District website at www.adams12.org. Please do not call the Prairie
Hills office, as this ties up our phone lines. When the school is closed due to
inclement weather, all activities and programs, whether before, during or
after the school day, are canceled. This includes our BASE (Before, After and
Summer Enrichment) programs.
When Middle School has a “No School Day for Students”...Due to school
capacity and supervision, we do not allow middle school students to visit Prairie
Hills Elementary on days that they do not have school. This includes lunch times!
The middle schools also state this in their parent newsletters. Thank you for
your understanding and support of this policy.
Parent Feedback
What should Prairie Hills start doing?
What should Prairie Hills stop doing?
What should Prairie Hills continue doing?