Principal's Update

January 5, 2024

Happy Friday Wolves!

This month, our district will be "Celebrating Ridges." Over the next four weeks we will be highlighting all of the amazing things happening in our school. For this week's newsletter we will be celebrating our entire school and the amazing programs that fill our days. We hope you enjoy learning more about some of the things we offer for our students here at Ridges.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Miranda

STEM

Each week our students participate in a 50-minute STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) class. Students work on a variety of units, some of which include robotics, coding, energy/forces experiments, stop motion movie making, or basic chemistry. Many of these units build upon each other in complexity from Kinder to Fifth Grade. Along with content skills, students also gain extensive experiences to develop critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, and perseverance skills. Be sure to watch for STEM unit updates in your teacher emails throughout the year!

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Music Concerts and Choir

We are lucky to have two amazing music teachers at Ridges this year! We offer an after school choir program for students in grades 4 and 5, and they perform several times throughout the year. In addition, our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classes all participate in grade level concerts each spring. Students learn and rehearse several songs, and they also learn to play several instruments like the xylophone, drums, Boom Wackers, recorders and more!

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English Language (EL) Nights

Our EL teachers work very hard to provide their students with multiple enrichment activities throughout the year. From OMSI science nights to multi-cultural events, our students and their families have opportunities to learn more about the world around them through these engaging evenings. Additionally, our EL teachers provide a different unit of learning each trimester, focused on a variety of topics some of which include outer space, dinosaurs, or the Iditarod Trail.

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Wolf Zone

At Ridges we have an amazing social emotional learning space called the Wolf Zone! This space is designed to help students learn social emotional skills such as friendship making, self regulation, or coping with the loss of a loved one. On Wednesdays we also have "Visitor Wednesday" where any student can visit and enjoy the fun!

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Field Trips

Thanks to our amazing PAC, each of our grade levels has the ability to attend a few field trips each year! This fall all of our classes attended the local Voices of the Performing Arts performance of Find Nemo. Our kindergarten classes also visited the pumpkin patch! Other planned field trips for this year include trips to the zoo, Franz Bakery, Biz-Town, the Aurora Colony, and more!

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Wolf Challenge

Every spring our fifth grade students participate in a physical education "Wolf Challenge." Students are grouped into teams with students from other classes to compete in a series of non-traditional games. While winning the games is always fun, the true champions of the event are selected based on their sportsmanship, participation, and positive attitudes. Fifth grade parents, stay tuned for more information about this year's Wolf Challenge in the next few months!

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Assemblies

Thanks to funds raised through our Fun Run, we are able to offer many amazing assembly experiences through the year. Last year's assemblies included an anti-bullying show, Taiko drumming, and a chance for Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Smith to kiss some farm animals! As you read before the break, this year Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Smith were turned into human ice-cream sundaes and we are excited to schedule some other fun assembly events for the spring as well!

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Drop Off Reminders

Over the break, Wolfie and his friends made a fun video with some great reminders for our drop off procedures here at Ridges! Please be sure to check out the video linked here! Thanks Wolfie for all your help with this!

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Ridges PAC Newsletter

Linked here is our Ridges PAC January Newsletter. Please check it out for updates regarding our PAC and their upcoming events.

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Feedback Survey

As we enter into 2024, I would love some feedback on how I can better support each of you during the remainder of our school year. The survey below is anonymous and I hope that you will feel comfortable sharing your honest thoughts with me. While I may not be able to change everything shared in your responses, I do work hard to make sure that my professional goals match the needs of our staff and students, and as a part of that I would like to include input from our Ridges families this year as well. I would love if all families could please take a couple of minutes to provide your feedback on the survey linked here. The survey will be open through Monday, January 8th. Thanks so much. ~Miranda

Upcoming Multicultural Night

Our Sherwood district multicultural club is hosting a Multicultural Night on March 13th. They are currently looking to find performers for the event! If you are interested, please use the QR code below to sign up by January 30th.

Ridges PAC

Our parent volunteer group is a very important part of our school. Get connected with the Ridges PAC today! Visit the link here to see upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and other ways to get involved and be connected.

All volunteers will need to complete and have an approved background check on file prior to volunteering (this must be renewed each school year). The background check process can take 7-10 business days, so please allow sufficient processing time if you are planning to volunteer for a specific event.

The Ridges PAC meets on the first Tuesday of each month from 7-8:30 pm in the Ridges Community Room. They would love to have any and all parents attend!

Voices for the Performing Arts - Auditions for Grades 4-8 Being Held On Jan 9

Is your student interested have a passion for being on stage? Voices for the Performing Arts will be holding auditions on January 9 for students in grades 4-8 to participate in an upcoming play.

To audition:

Complete this registration form by Monday, January 8.
Prepare a monologue that is approximately one-minute long. It’s okay if it’s a little shorter. But do your best to find one that is around one-minute. If you are not sure how to get a monologue, you can find monologues for kids here and here.
Your monologue should be memorized if possible. During your audition, we will be looking for Stage Presence (comfortable and confident onstage), Voice (volume, diction, tone, pitch), and Character (telling the story).
Please sign up for an audition time slot here.

Schedule of Participation:

Auditions will be held January 9, 3:45-5:45pm at the Sherwood Middle School Auditorium.
Callbacks will be held January 11, 3:45-5:45pm at the Sherwood Middle School Auditorium.
Rehearsals and Production Week - January 16-March 2 - Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays 3:45-5:45pm

At the January 11 callbacks students will be given small sections of the script to read together. Students will be notified if they need to attend the callbacks -- please note that while not all students will be called back, everyone who auditions gets a role! Monologues and callbacks will be used to determine who is the best fit for each character.

For more information about the Voices for the Performing Arts Foundation and their performances, please visit https://vpafoundation.org