Dear Parents of Mr

Dear Mr. MacDonald’s 1st Grade class:

[snip] .

As per our email, we met with Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Kittleson to find out how all of us, as parents, can help them. Our goal is to be the liaison between parents and Mr. MacDonald and coordinate activities behind the scenes so that Mr. MacDonald can work his magic teaching our fantastic kids! We would like to thank you in advance for all that you do.

Please note that much of this information has already been relayed in other formats, but we wanted you to have a concise summary for future reference.

Correspondence: The majority of communication about the classroom will be done by email. Please take a minute to read the e-mails so that you don’t miss some important news.

Lunch: (11:20-12:05) Students eat first and then go out to play on the playground. Parents are more than welcome to eat lunch with their child—you may bring a lunch or buy hot lunch for $2.50. If your child eats hot lunch, you can pay through mylunchmoney.com. Student lunches are $1.40. Note: you need to know your child’s student ID # to add money to their account online. If you don’t know your child’s ID #, you can get this information from one of the secretaries in the main office.

Specials: (2:00-2:45) except when noted

Monday – Art ( Danny Mey)

Tuesday – Gym (Hunter Brown) **Please make sure your child wears appropriate shoes for Gym**

Wednesday – Music (Corrilee Kilmeyer)

Thursday – Library (Gail Axt)

Friday – Art Studio (Danny Mey) at 10:30 – 11:15 and Electives 1:05 – 3:10

Adult Social/Potluck: Kevin and Ann Reidy (Diana’s parents) have graciously offered to host a 1st grade social/potluck. This will be an adult only evening in late September or early October. More information is forthcoming.

Classroom Volunteers: Parents will have the opportunity to sign up for a specific time/day slot at Back to School Night. Additionally, please remember that if your schedule doesn’t allow you to sign up for a regular helping time, Mr. MacDonald more than welcomes sporadic help as well!

Non-Classroom Volunteers: Many of you would rather not help in the classroom, work full time, or have younger siblings that prohibit you from coming in to help in the classroom. The list below of non-classroom volunteer positions allows you to help out at home or at school without being in the classroom.

Thursday Folder Stuffer – parent comes in around the end of the school day on Thursdays and stuffs Thursday Folders – SHAE PATNOE
Class Web Parent – parent will be in charge of constructing and updating the class’s web page – DOUG PFLUGH

1st Grade Field Trip Coordinator – one parent to coordinate field trips for the 1st grade. The person will need to make phone calls during the day to schedule trips, collect money for excursions and find information for field trips. – LISA RUSCIOLELLI

1st Grade Special Snack Coordinator – this person will work with both teachers as well as both snack parents for the week to coordinate a special snack for Thursday afternoons from 2:45 -3:30. During this “fresh eats for 1st grade” students will either make their own snack, try new items, encourage healthy eating, etc. Note: this person will need to be available to help in the classrooms on Thursday afternoons from 2:30-3:30. – HOPE
Scholastic Book Order Coordinator- one parent will oversee a monthly book order – JESSICA ROGERS

Class Captain (formerly known as the SOS Asker) - one parent is responsible for working with the Polaris Annual Fund to help solicit donations from class families – STILL NEEDED

Home Projects – parents are needed to do various blank books made for our writers, books mended, cutting, labeling, sorting math homework pages, etc. – JULIE BERK, KIRSTEN ALIX, HEIKE WINDOFF
Library Helpers – need 2-4 parents to help Ms. Axt in the library on Thursdays from 2:00-2:45. – STEPHANIE NUSSBAUMER, MARY SEAWELL, MARISSA HUDSON-ARNEY, KATIE WEBER

Snack: You should have received an email from us with a link to sign up for at least one week of snacks. We will publish the snack calendar on our class website. Please bring snacks for 4 out of your 5 days. Friday snacks will be the leftovers from the week. Items that need to be refrigerated can be placed in the Library refrigerator (please label them “Mr. MacDonald’s.”) Please make sure your snacks are nut free as we have several students in the 1st grade with nut allergies. If your son/daughter has any additional allergies we would ask that you provide a separate snack stockpile to Mr. MacDonald for your child. If items are not individually packaged, please make sure you that you provide small cups so that snacks can be divided up easily. It is helpful for items to be ready to eat, no preparation necessary (i.e. cutting, heating, etc.) Some suggestions:

cheese sticks, yogurt, apples, grapes, bananas, oranges, dried fruit, carrots, snap peas, graham crackers, pretzels, etc.

Staff Appreciation Lunch: Each grade level will host one Staff Appreciation Lunch throughout the year. This lunch is a great way for each grade level to personally thank our wonderful staff and show them how much we adore them. The 1st Grade Staff Appreciation Lunch is Wednesday, April 18th.

1st Grade Sponsored Community Event: In order to continue to build our community through school functions and boost volunteerism, the PTO has asked each grade level to help host one community event for Polaris. While the entire community will be able to help with any event they would like, the majority of the staffing for the event will fall to the grade level that it is assigned to. The goal of this system is two fold, one to build our community by parents of children who are in classes together working side by side to host a specific event and second to boost overall volunteerism by asking each grade level to take responsibility for staffing one event. The 1st grade sponsored community event will be the Grandparents’ Open House on Friday, November 18th. Please note that we are NOT responsible for coordinating the event, just staffing.

Holidays/Field Trips: More information regarding each holiday activity and field trip will be forthcoming as each event approaches. Parental help with activities and/or help with special snacks/food will be needed. Below is a tentative list of holiday celebrations and field trips. Please note that additionally celebrations (such as poetry readings) will be added and all dates are tentative. Additionally, around the holidays, you are more than welcome to come in and share a tradition with the class.

Tentative Dates for Holiday Celebrations:

Halloween – Thursday, Oct. 27th
Winter Solstice Celebration – Friday, Dec. 16th
Valentine’s Day – Tuesday, Feb. 14th
Australian Bar-B-Que – Friday, March 23rd
End of the Year Luau – Friday, May 25th

Tentative 1st Grade Field Trips:

SPREE – Tuesday, Sept. 6th
Dinosaur Ridge and Morrison Natural History Museum – Date TBD
Museum of Nature and Science (Dinosaur Exhibit) – Date TBD
Zoo (Amazing Australia Class) – Date TBD
Arvada Center (How I Became a Pirate) – Wednesday, Feb. 22nd

Birthday celebrations: You are welcome to come in and celebrate your child’s birthday. Mr. MacDonald likes to celebrate birthdays at the end of the day around 2:45-3:00. If you would like to bring in special treats to share, please either drop off the special treat in the morning or plan to bring it in around 2:45. Please note that on elective Fridays this can be challenging, so please talk with Mr. MacDonald about arranging a time. If you did not sign up for snack on your child’s birthday week, please contact the person who signed up for that week so not to duplicate snack that day.

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Conferences will be held the week of October 24th. On-line sign-up is forthcoming.

Class gifts: We will be happy to organize holiday and end of the year gifts for Mr. MacDonald and Ms. Darrah if you are interested in donating for the purchase of the gifts.

The best way to communicate with Mr. MacDonald is email. His address is . In the event of an emergency or urgent message, please call the office and ask that they deliver the message to Mr. MacDonald. The school number is 720-424-7860.

We look forward to a fantastic year together! Please don’t hesitate to email or call us.

Sherry Beardshear Hope

H: 303-293-2780 H: 303-321-8118

C: 720-273-2345C: 303-638-2718