The Lion's Share Newsletter

Grant Families,

Welcome to the first newsletter of the year! It has been so great to see our students back in the building! Your students really are quickly falling right back into school routines seamlessly!

Each month, I will send out this newsletter to let you know what is happening at Grant! I sincerely hope that you will find this newsletter packed with all the happenings each month! As always, you can find my contact information at the bottom of the newsletter and I would encourage you to reach out if you ever have any questions or concerns!

As we start the new year, we are focusing on setting strong routines with attendance. We hope that your Lion will arrive to school each and every day around 7:35. Having your student arrive on time will ensure a strong start to the day and will allow your student to have breakfast in the classroom with their friends and teacher! It also makes a very smooth start to the day for the entire class. Any student arriving after the 7:50 a.m. bell will need to be signed into school by an adult in the front office, and will be marked tardy. I really do appreciate your efforts on having students arrive on time!

I know September will shape up to be a great one for your student! As always, I appreciate all you do at home to support your child's education. It really takes a partnership between home and school for our students to be successful!

Thank you for reading and make it a great one,

Ryan Miller

Principal, Grant Elementary

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." -William James

Welcome to our first CKH Focus of the year! Each month, we will highlight an area of focus that our Lions are working on! For the month of September, our Lions will learn about Empathy and how to try and understand others with compassion. It's easy to focus on ourselves, however, imagine the positive outcomes when we try to focus on others! We also hope that you, our wonderful Grant families, will be able to see your Lions working on these characteristics outside of school and throughout the community!

What is Empathy?

• Empathy is the ability to be aware of, understand, and be sensitive to another person’s feelings. Instead of focusing on how these feelings impact ourselves, empathy motivates us to focus on others and respond with care and compassion.

Why focus on Empathy?

• Empathy builds positive classroom culture. Empathy empowers students to learn to understand each other to build trust and safety in the classroom.
• Empathy strengthens communities. Empathy helps students strengthen their relationships with classmates, other students, and adults at school, and at home.
• Empathy prepares your students to be leaders in their community. The best leaders understand the people they lead and are able to show they care.

Empathy in Action:

• Take a different perspective. When you take a different perspective, you put aside your own feelings and reactions to see the situation through another’s eyes.
• Put aside judgment. Take a pause, and rather than express conclusions about a situation based on what you see, step back and consider other things you may still need to know or understand.
• Communicate that you understand. Instead of giving advice, respond with reflective phrases like, “It sounds like you...” or “I hear that you...” to express that you understand and care.

Check out our sneak-peek from our photographer! She spent two days getting some great shots of our students! She really is the best around and we know you will love your student's picture! Be sure to visit the link below to order your pictures, if you haven't already! Please know that any orders after Sunday, September 8th will be assessed a $15 late fee.

https://www.personalityportraits.net

We hope you can join us for our September PTA meeting! The meeting will take place Tuesday, September 3 at 6:00 p.m. in Grant's library! We hope you can join us!

Each month, one lucky student will be featured in our monthly newsletter! For the month of September, we are excited to introduce to you one of our 4th graders, Josiah! Josiah has been a Grant Lion since kindergarten! You can always find Josiah making great choice, showing his best ROAR behavior, and he is always doing those with a smile on his face! We are proud of Josiah! Enjoy!

What do you love most about Grant? "What I love most about Grant Elementary school are all of the things that we learn. I also like the teachers and my friends."

What do you love about being a 4th grader this year? "That's hard! Being a 4th grader makes me feel happy!"

What do you think about Capturing Kids’ Hearts: "I like it! I like the social contract because it's like making a promise that I will do the good things listed on it."

What do you want to be when you grow up? "I want to be a firefighter because I want to help people."

What’s your favorite subject: "I like P.E. because we can exercise and we do fun things in P.E. I really like our new P.E. teacher, Mr. Stokes!"

What does it mean to you to be a Grant Lion? "Being a Grant Lion makes me feel happy. I like it because of all the fun things and the learning that we do."

Monday, Sep 2: NO SCHOOL for Labor Day

Tuesday, Sep 3: Cross Country Meet @ Carver ES 3:30, PTA Meeting 6:00

Wednesday, Sep 4: Cross Country Practice 2:50-3:30

Thursday, Sep 5: NEHS 2:50-4:00, MTSS Meetings 3:05

Monday, Sep 9: Safety Town for Kindergarten 8:00-11:00, Cross Country Practice 2:50-3:30

Tuesday, Sep 10: Safety Town for 1st Grade 8:00-11:00, Cross Country Meet @ Mitchell HS 3:30

Wednesday, Sep 11: Chipotle Night 4:00-8:00

Thursday, Sep 12: MTSS Meetings 3:05

Monday, Sep 16: NO SCHOOL for D11 Professional Learning Day

Tuesday, Sep 17: Cross Country Meet @ Doherty HS 3:30

Wednesday, Sep 18: Cross Country Practice 2:50-3:30

Thursday, Sep 19: NEHS 2:50-4:00, MTSS Meetings 3:05

Monday, Sep 23: Cross Country Practice 2:50-3:30

Tuesday, Sep 24: Cross Country Meet @ Garry Barry Stadium 3:30

Wednesday, Sep 25: Mobile Smiles at Grant 8:00-2:00

Thursday, Sep 26: School Accountability Meeting (SAC) 8:30-9:15, Mobile Smiles at Grant 8:00-2:00, MTSS Meetings 3:05

You can now join us on Facebook and Instagram! If you haven't already done so, be sure to find us on both platforms for weekly pictures, updates, newsletters, and fun!

Find us on Instagram at @grantlions_d11 and on Facebook at Grant Elementary School D11!

Email: ryan.miller@d11.org
Website: https://grant.d11.org/
Location: 3215 Westwood Boulevard, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
Phone: 719.328.5700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grantelementarylions