CFL Family Newsletter

The Weather is Getting Colder!

Each year, as the weather begins to change, we want to remind parents to make sure that children are dressed appropriately before heading to school each day.

Our Colorado weather can change on a moment’s notice, and students need to be prepared for the changes. At CFL , our policy states that students will be sent outside for recess each day unless:

1. The outside temperature and/or wind chill is below 0

2. It is pouring rain.

3. An emergency is called by the Weather Service.

Recesses throughout the day last between 20-25. If students bring hats and gloves in their backpacks, they can be ready for any weather changes.

Through our Family Resource Center, we have hats, mittens and coats available for students and families in need. Please come in and visit with us if your child is in need of warm winter clothing.

Please help your child remember to bring the necessary items so they can be comfortable and enjoy their time outside at recess during the cold weather. If you would like to donate any new or lightly used winter clothing, please contact the Family Resource Center.

Our hope is that every student at CFL will be prepared for the cold winter ahead, and we thank you for doing your part at home to make sure that happens.

Mrs. Frees

Principal

Just a quick reminder that we are a four day school week!

Tuesday thru Friday

We open our doors at 7:25 a.m.

We begin our day at 7:35 a.m.

We end our day at 3:15 p.m.

We would like to remind our CFL families to keep an extra set of clothes in your students backpack incase of a potty accident, food spill or for a health reason. Our supply is extremely low in the office.

Please remember to call before 2:00 PM with any end of day changes so that we can make sure proper communication happens.

Tuesday Oct. 8th City Lights-

PK: Wear green

Kinder: Wear blue

1st: Wear purple

Wednesday Oct. 9th-Broadway

Dress up as your favorite character

Thursday Oct. 10th- New Year's Eve

Dress fancy

Friday Oct. 11th-Cardinal Pride

Wear Red, White, black or Cardinal Gear!

REMINDER...

Early dismissal on Friday 11th to allow students and families to attend the Homecoming Parade!

"Coffee with the Principals" is a time for families to connect with us and learn about what's happening at school. We use this space to share updates on various school initiatives, discuss multiple platforms that support student success, and invite guest speakers from within our district. Our ultimate goal is to build strong partnerships with our families and share all the great work CFL is doing to ensure our students thrive!

24/25 Coffee with the Principal Dates:

Friday, October 11th

Friday, November 15th

Friday, January 17th

Dear Preschool Families,

Happy October! Our preschoolers have been busy learning and growing, and we’re excited to share some of the wonderful things happening in our classrooms.

This month, our teachers have been focusing on social and emotional development. The children are practicing important skills like sharing, resolving conflicts, and managing their big emotions. We’ve introduced helpful tools such as our breathing ball and the soothing sound of a chime to guide the children in calming their bodies and refocusing their minds. It’s been amazing to see how quickly they’re learning to use these strategies!

In addition to social-emotional learning, we’re working on key academic skills, including cutting with scissors, writing names, and counting up to 20. These concepts are woven into our busy, fun-filled days, helping children develop their fine motor skills and early math and literacy abilities.

As a reminder, our first Teaching Strategies GOLD checkpoint is due on October 18. You’ll receive a report detailing your child’s progress at the end of the month. If you have any questions or concerns about how your child is doing, our teachers will be happy to follow up with you during parent-teacher conferences, which will be coming up in November.

We are excited to share that this October, our preschool program will be participating in the Colorado Shines Rating evaluation! Colorado Shines assesses early learning programs across the state to ensure we are providing the highest quality care and education for your children. We are currently a Rating 4 and would like to maintain and move to a level 5 (highest rating). If you want to learn more about the CO Shines Rating-please see the link-https://decl.my.salesforce-sites.com/programs?p=Reach-levels-3-5

We will be rated on four key areas:

1. Supporting children’s health and safety

2. Ensuring staff are well-trained and effective

3. Providing a supportive learning environment that fosters new skills in children

4. Encouraging parents to be partners in their child’s learning

We Need Your Help!

As part of this process, we are asking all parents to take a brief survey about your child’s preschool experience. Your feedback is incredibly valuable in helping us receive the best possible rating and ensuring we continue to improve and grow as a program. A set time and day will be communicated as soon as we know more information.

Thank you for your continued partnership in helping us shine! Your input plays a vital role in ensuring we achieve a high rating and continue providing exceptional care for your children.

Warmly,

Ms. Hills

Assistant Principal, CFL Preschool

Picture Retakes will be on October 4th!

Reading Interventionist News

Hello families. I hope all of you are doing well. I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about sight words. Sight words are words that children (and adults) must read by sight. In other words they can’t be sounded out like we do with many words. A good example is the word they. If we tried to sound it out using all of our sounds we would not be able to decode it and get the correct pronunciation of the word.

Sight words are very important when learning to read. Little kids need to have a good base of these special words memorized. By the end of first grade your child should know about 100 words by sight. If you don’t already have a list of these words at home, please ask your child’s teacher. He or she will be glad to give you one. Once you have a list you can start helping your child memorize them. There are many ways to do this. Probably the easiest way is to write them on cards, and just practice 3 or 4 each night like you would flash cards until your child knows them all. Once they have mastered 3-4 you can add a few more until they learn all 100.

There are also some fun ways to learn these words. For example, you can have your child look for these words in books, or cards, or newspapers. You can also have them practice writing them in crayon or markers. One trick I love is having kids use bath tub crayons to write them in the tub.

To sum it up, there is no wrong or right way to learn sight words, but it is essential that your child learns as many as possible so that he or she can become a rock star reader.

Happy Reading,

Melissa Bradley

Reading Interventionist

ELL News

We have to smile about all these precious moments we have with our students. Yes we are so busy, but working with these children is so rewarding. The new curriculum is so on their level and they love reading the poems, books and singing the songs. Their voices are all heard. They can read some of them now without us saying anything. We even had one boy recite one of the poems from memory, not even looking at it. One group pointed out to us that one poem had the word “we” four times and the word "and” two times. They are able to tell us what the vocabulary words are and what they mean, sometimes they act it out with gestures and actions and use it in a short phrase or sentence. Thank you so much for honoring us with your beautiful children. They make us smile and laugh every day. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email.

mkerrigan@garfield16.org

Melanie Kerrigan and Jessica Cornejo

CFL - ELL Team

Counselor News:

Hi CFL Families!

You might’ve seen a paper come home with the colors red, yellow, green and blue. That is because we have been working on the Zones of Regulation in our Character Ed classes. We want students to be able to identify what zone they are in as well as tools of how to cope with that zone/emotion.

Here’s a little more information about each of the Zones-

Red Zone - feeling: anger, frustration, out of control

You need to: stop, breathe

Yellow Zone - feeling: silly, confused

You need to: slow down

Blue Zone - feeling: sad, tired, sick

You need to: rest, ask for a hug or a talk

Green Zone - feeling: calm, happy, in control of self

You’re ready to learn! :)

Hopefully this will help them communicate with you about what they’re feeling as well!

Thanks for all that you do,

Ms, Landry