Cougar Connections

222 Grand Ave.

Silt, CO. 81652

Main Line: 970-665-7850

Attendance Line: 970-665-7874

Our vision is to develop happy - high achieving students and staff

Dear Cactus Valley Families,

Hello February!

"Strength and growth only come through continuous effort and struggle." — Napoleon Hill.

Cactus Valley is a school where the staff truly loves what they do, our students love being with us at school, and we love that our parents continue to be our partners to ensure the best education for all children. We certainly couldn’t do this job without you!

Did you know….

• CVE teachers participate in continuous learning opportunities including professional development on our Strategic Planning Days, data review professional development, and many pursue college classes to improve their talents. We are so proud of our staff!

• CVE has a student council consisting of 5th grade leaders. They are working on recognizing positive student behavior as well as pursuing opportunities to lead other students in our school.

• CVE is reviewing student data on a regular basis to support our learners individually. Students have individual goals they are working towards as well. Ask your child about his/her goal!

• CVE has a vision to develop happy, high achieving students and staff.

• CVE has an attendance incentive for our learners! For each word spelled, the class earns a special
  “Treat”...not necessarily food!

• CVE is GROWing to Green as we work on student growth and achievement!

There are a couple dates we would like our families to be aware of throughout the month of February and into early March:

• Monday, February 5th GROW to Green Day! Students and Staff wear Green to school!

• Wednesday, February 7th Global Play Day!

• Wednesday, February 8th 6:00 Latinos in Re2 Meet at CVE

• Monday, February 12th @ 4:15 PTA Meeting at CVE

• Wednesday, February 14th - Classroom Valentine Parties (teachers will send information)

• Wednesday, February 14th 4:45 Board Meeting at CVE

• February 20th - 21st Spring Conferences (Teachers will be reaching out to you as needed. If you’d like to meet, please reach out to your child’s teacher if you’ve not heard from him/her.)

• Monday, February 19th, President’s Day - WE DO HAVE SCHOOL TODAY!

• Tuesday, February 20th, 5:30 District Accountability Meeting at CVE

• Tuesday, February 27th 100th Day of School

• Thursday, February 29th Spring Picture Day

• Thursday, February 29th Spring Literacy Event at CVE

Before School Drop off & After School Dismissal and Parent Pick-up SAFETY Reminders:

• The bus loop is open for morning drop off after 7:35. We have supervision and students go directly into the gym on our Inside Recess Days. This will help the large amount of traffic dropping off in the front.

• Please DO NOT DROP OFF in the lower parking lot in the morning! This is very UNSAFE!

• Please be sure to cross to pick up your child where we have a crossing person available.

• Remind your child to wait for you and NOT run when they see you.

• Due to the large amount of traffic leaving the parking lot and on the street, please try to help your child into the vehicle as quickly as possible.

As always, thank you for supporting the teaching and learning that is taking place here at Cactus Valley Elementary School!

Sincerely,

Kelly Detlefsen, Principal

Stacy VanHercke, Assistant Principal

Happy Winter. It has been a warm one. Hopefully, we will get some much needed snow for our rivers and reservoirs. Even with the warmer temperatures, please send your student to school with hats, gloves and coats and don’t forget to label those items!

In Character Education in Kindergarten, we will work on managing big feelings with calming down strategies. First grade will work on learning not to Tattle Tail. We will read “Tattle Tongue” by Julia Cook and then practice with some role playing.

2nd grade we will focus on how to handle mistakes and work on strategies to calm down. 3rd grade will focus on taking responsibility for our actions and feelings. We will read, “It’s not my Fault” by Julia Cook.

4th grade will work on Gossip and Rumors since they missed their lessons last month due to our ski trip to Sunlight.

In 5th grade we will work on the urge to “get back at” someone. We’ll discuss prosocial alternatives to seeking revenge, such as ignoring the behaviors or focusing on forgiveness.

Totes for Hope, a program run through the River Center, gives families 6-7 non perishable food items weekly and is distributed on Wednesdays. If you are a family that could use the supplemental food, please contact me and I can get you signed up.

If you need hats, gloves, or winter boots, please reach out and I can help get these items for your student.

If your family needs emotional support or other types of assistance, contact me, Amy Chabin, at 970-665-7764 or achabin@garfieldre2.net.

I am so proud of all of our CVE Scientists! From our Kinders to our big 5th graders, each of them has learned our classroom expectations, found their passion for curiosity, discovered a love for science, and has made teaching science to them an absolute joy!

These are the units we will be working on in February:

Kinder - Sunlight and Weather

1st Grade - Spinning Earth

2nd Grade - Properties of Materials

3rd Grade - Weather & Climate

4th Grade - Earth's Features

5th Grade - Modeling Matter

I can't wait to share all the fun science experiments and knowledge with all our scientists!!

Toni-Marie Yorty

K-5 Science Teacher

Cactus Valley Elementary School

(970) 665-7875 Classroom Phone

(970) 665-7874 CVE Attendance

(970) 665-7850 CVE Main Office

tyorty@garfieldre2.net

This month in Social Studies Kinder & 2nd grade focused on what being a good citizen looks like. We read books, watched videos, and created booklets to help us to remember to be kind, safe, and responsible. 1st grade listened to stories and worked on a U.S. Symbols booklet. They learned about the White House, the bald eagle, the American Flag, and other important symbols. 3rd grade continues to work through Silt/Garfield County history. They learned about the introduction of the railroad in Silt as well as how I-70 was built through Glenwood Canyon. 4th graders continue to make their way through Colorado history, learning about the gold rush, homesteading, and how difficult travel and living was in the 1800s. 5th grade is working their way through colonial times. We have watched BrainPop videos, read excerpts from a variety of texts, and have introduced $2 summaries - a way to help students write more precise summaries of the texts they are reading.

Darcie Borawski

K-5 Social Studies Educator

Cactus Valley Elementary

Hello families,

As we begin this new year our 2nd graders have begun working on their musical for March 14th at 6:00pm. Please feel free to reach out if you are willing to be a rockstar volunteer. We will start meeting the 2nd week of February. We have a lot of fish, sharks, ocean characters to create. The older classes are picking up our Ukuleles and will be learning new songs and techniques. Stay tuned as we will post our in-class performances on DOJO.

The first graders have been learning about the four instrument families! Mark your calendars for May 9th musical performance.

Kinder is starting a new unit about farm animals as we start learning about performance art. We will have a kinder performance during school towards the end of the year. I’ll make sure to update everyone as we get closer.

Thanks again for helping bring music to life. Stay warm and healthy!

Musically yours,

Jennetta Howell

970-665-6831

jhowell@garfieldre2.net

Students are learning that thinking about a happy experience and practicing gratitude can help boost their mood. Also, that gratitude helps keep their focus (thoughts and feelings) in a positive way. Students will be learning about how their actions affect others. They will perform acts of kindness and reflect on their experience.