Nederland Elementary Mountain Memo
December 20, 2024
December 20, 2024
Dear Nederland Community,
It was incredible to see so many of you at the Winter Holiday Sing Along last night. It certainly put me in the holiday mood and the kids did an amazing job. A special shout out to Mr. Kirk for his energy and creativity to plan the event and get students ready for the performance. I will always remember the kindergarten students dancing with those scarves. Awesome! Enjoy the pictures below (thanks David Banas!).
Looking ahead, parents can now submit neighborhood registrations for any new or returning students expecting to start in the 25/26 school year. You can go to your SchoolMint accounts and toggle to the 25/26 school year to get started. Additionally there is lots of good information for families on our new neighborhood school enrollment webpage, like what documentation they'll need to enroll and the means to review school information on our School Finder site.
Enrollment is critical for us in order to get the teacher staffing to support our students. If you know of any families that are considering enrolling at Nederland Elementary for the first time please encourage them to reach out to me directly so that I can answer any questions and arrange for a tour.
Speaking of registration and next school year, Kindergarten information night is scheduled for January 16th at 5:30 PM. See below for more information. And again, help us spread the word, thank you.
Finally I want to send a fond farewell (for now) and thank you to Ms. Jill. Ms. Jill came out of retirement to teach 1st grade for the first half of the school year while Jamie Curry was on maternity leave. It is always a pleasure to have Ms. Jill in the building and watch her work her magic with children. We look forward to having her around as a substitute teacher. Thank you Ms. Jill!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Winter Break. I look forward to seeing everyone again in the New Year!
Best,
Caleb
Social Emotional Learning at NES
We are wrapping up the Unit about Empathy. Here are some fun activities to do with your children over winter break that reinforce all the skills needed to walk in other's shoes and understand how they are feeling :
Kinders and First Grade: Have your child practice some ways at home that show care & compassion to others.
Second Grade: Play an If-Then game to think about how to respond when your child accidentally hurts someone.
Third Grade: Help your child make new friends by telling them something you like to do. Then, see how many questions or comments they can make about that activity to keep the conversation going for 1 minute.
Fourth Grade: See how many acts of compassion your child can come up with over the winter break using this exercise.
Fifth Grade: Play Feelings Charades as they guess which emotion you are acting out with your facial expressions and body language.
The next Mountain Strong Families session will be on Tuesday, January 7th. "Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children". Practice strategies for helping your children connect their emotions to their needs. Help your child know how to regulate big emotions in healthy ways. Register HERE, or contact Betsy Epp: betsy@teensinc.org
Betsy Epp
Social Emotional Learning CoordinatorTEENS, Inc.
Office: (720) 561-4861
Cell: (970) 402-4542
WINTER READING BINGO
It's time for Winter Reading BINGO! Keep an eye out for physical BINGO sheets in Friday Folders, and find a digital copy below.
We’re excited to encourage students to snuggle up with a good book over winter break and there’s a chance to win fun prizes! Please contact andrea.chen@bvsd.org with any questions.
We are excited to announce that Nederland Elementary School will be participating in the 2025 Scripps Spelling Bee! Participation is optional. If your child is interested in participating, please encourage them to review the word list that will be coming home in their Friday folders. For additional practice, you can also download the official Scripps app, Word Club.
Class-level spelling bees will take place after winter break. Students in 1st and 2nd grade will be invited to participate in their class-level bee. Students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade will compete in the class-level bee and the top performers will be invited to participate in the Nederland Elementary Spelling Bee. The winner of this bee will advance to the Regional Bee on March 15, 2025! If you have any questions, please contact andrea.chen@bvsd.org (Teacher Librarian) or jessica.howes@bvsd.org (GT Advisor).
