WEEKLY HAWK

Hello Homestead!

The amazing teachers at Homestead provided some incredible experiences this week! A few highlights include a sheep eye ball dissection in 4th grade, a fire truck visit in 1st grade, and a research project honoring National Hispanic Heritage month by 2nd grade! Check out the pictures below!

Our week ended with a teacher pie-in-the-face prize assembly to celebrate Dash! Kids had a chance to smash a pie in the face of me, Mrs. Yarian, Mrs. Paterson, Mrs. Haar, Mr. Hoopes, Mrs. Mahoney, and our awesome emcee character Randy Runs! The generosity from the community gathered $67,790.75 in donations. Homestead community - you are extraordinary! A huge thank you to the volunteers who coordinated all things Dash! For more information about how PTCO funds are spent, please visit the Homestead PTCO website, or join us this Thursday at 6pm for our first PTCO meeting.

On a different note, beginning of the year Star reports are now available in the parent portal of my.cherrycreekschools.org through the document library of PowerSchool. Please remember that this is one data point that helps teachers plan effective instruction to target your student's unique learning needs. Information on Star and how to read and understand the report can be found here, as well as translated instructions.

While students were home on Friday, classroom teachers spent time learning together and then were able to plan and prep for the upcoming weeks. Our special education department also had the opportunity to engage in a training specific to executive functioning. We know that teacher work days can require flexibility in your work schedules, but please know that we really cherish and value those occasional days as a staff to continue to learn and grow our professional practice.

A quick reminder here and below - picture day is this Friday!

I hope you all have a great week and I hope to see you at Fall Fest on Friday!

Take care,

Katie

This week's Hawks Highlights were:

Max: Picking up trash without being asked

Asher: Gave a sticker to another student who had none

Jehoward: I mathed hard today

Ethan: Worked hard 2 days in a row

Micah: 3rd grade built a stick thing and we built it back up

Student Picture Day is Friday, September 26th.

Pre-orders can be placed online now, and all purchases will be mailed directly to students' homes. Visit myelementaryschoolpictures.com and select Homestead Elementary School to view the packages available and place an order.

If your student is unable to make Picture Day, a retake/make-up day is scheduled for October 29th.

For any questions about school photos, parents or guardians can contact our photographer directly at customercare@cidmphoto.com.

Join us Friday, September 26th from 4:30–6:30 PM for dinner, games, hayrides, live music, teacher raffles, and more. Be sure to grab your meal tickets early so you don’t miss out—We'll have pizza meals and new this year: Chick-fil-A!

Purchase tickets here!

✨ Please also consider volunteering to help make the night amazing! Sign up here

Our dedicated PreK paraeducator, Ms. Kelly will be greatly missed at Homestead. However, she will still be part of our community as a parent. Thank you for all of your love and dedication to Homestead, Ms. Kelly!

Ms. Abby joined the PreK team this week and is fitting right in at Homestead. Welcome, Ms. Abby!

3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are invited to join Mrs. Cackowski and Ms. Pedrett after school for Brain Boost.

Please RSVP by using the QR code or click on this link.

Did you know that Homestead gets our state funding based on the number of students that are present on this day?

The student October count is the single most important state required data submission that we participate in each school year!

While every day at school is important, please make every effort to send your children to school on October 1 to be counted! To make it even more fun to be here, we have decided on a Fall Themed Spirit Day. See the Flyer below and wear all your fall gear on October 1, 2025!

Our school has started using Talking Points, a secure app that makes it easy to communicate with teachers and the front office via text. It's a great way to stay connected! If you need help or have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to the front office at 720-554-3700.
Download Talking Points and get more information here!

Welcome Back Homestead! Please see attached picture for the IA schedule for the year.

Parents of students in Kindergarten through 5th grade, please remember to have your child wear appropriate athletic footwear, such as tennis shoes, on PE days. For safety reasons, children should not wear Crocs, sandals, cowboy boots, Ugg boots, Teva's, heels, or similar footwear during PE activities. Kindly refer to the PE schedule above to determine your child's designated PE day.

We have several after school clubs and summer activities offered at Homestead through outside organizations such as Chess Club, Coding Club and Tennis and Pickleball Club. Stop by the front lobby of our school to see what is offered and pick up a flyer for more information. Or, click on this link to access the flyers electronically.

We are excited to express our gratitude for staff this year with monthly snacks in the lounge and we need your help! Once a month, on a Wednesday, we set up some fun treats in the lounge for them to munch on throughout their day. Each month has a different theme and we need volunteers to provide food that goes with that theme. Items can be taken to the teacher's lounge when you drop off in the morning. We will provide the decor and set it all up! Since we are planning for the whole school year, be sure and add it to your calendar! Thanks in advance for your help!

Sign Up Below:

Monthly Staff Snacks

Get involved in your school community by volunteering for shifts in the community garden! Sign up for shifts to help water, weed and help with general maintenance. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Sign up Below:

Community Garden Volunteer

Colorado legislation has prompted greater need to screen and document volunteers in our schools. As of January 2022, we began asking every volunteer to complete a brief application to support activities in CCSD schools.

If you are currently volunteering or plan to volunteer in the future, please complete the CCSD online volunteer form. To access the form, click on the following link: https://apps.raptortech.com/Apply/NzU0OmVuLVVT or scan the QR code. It should only take a few minutes to complete and you will only need to complete this form once a year to meet the requirements to volunteer in all CCSD buildings.

Please note: if you completed this application more than one year ago, it is time to do it again!

The safety and security of our students and staff remains our top priority. Every person entering our buildings must have a badge printed from our Raptor system or a District ID.

We want to thank you in advance for your support of our schools and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Homestead main office at 720.554.3700.

Please click on this link to access the flyers in different languages.

Sungate Kids, in partnership with Cherry Creek Schools, presents an ‘Opportunity to Prepare for Safe Family Experiences for the Holidays’

For more information and if you would like to attend this training, please click the link below.

Sungate Kids Participation Form

All meals (breakfast and lunch) remain free for all students due to the Free Meals For All legislation that passed in November of 2022. We encourage families to complete a meal application to take advantage of other benefits offered to them and to support Title I funding in CCSD.

Meal Application: www.myschoolapps.com

Online Payments for Meal Accounts: www.MySchoolBucks.com (there is no fee for this service).

For questions or assistance with making payments please call 1-855-832-5226.

To view Menus: www.MealViewer.com

Download Today! Search in your app store for Homestead Elementary. Or use these links:

iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1115937231

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sia.homestead

What's on the app?

Attendance form

Contact info for staff

Parent calendar

School Supply Lists

Weekly Hawk Newsletters

Other resources

English:

Please contact (name of liaison) at (email) for support with this resource in your language.

Amharic:

እነዝህን መረጃዎችን በተመለከተ በቋንቋዎ ዕገዛን ለማግኘት ከፈለጉ እባክዎን ተሊሌን በዝህ እሜይል ያግኙዋት thirpa@cherrycreekschools.org

Arabic:

يرجى الاتصال ب )جميعة صباحي أو جاودة العلمي( على ) jsebbahi@cherrycreekschools.org أو

jdajanialami@cherrycreekschools.org للحصول على الدعم مع هذا المورد باللغة العربية .

Chinese:

如有需要，请经由ctaylor9@cherrycreekschools.org 与凯瑟琳•泰勒联系，以您的语言获得此资源的支持。

Dari:

لطفا برای کمک در مورد اين منابع به زبان خودتان با قزافی مهرزاد با اييمل qmehrzad@cherrycreekschools.org تماس بگيريد .

Hindi:

अपनी भाषा में इस संसाधन के समर्थन के लिए कृपया जेम्स रसाइथिी को jrasaily@cherrycreekschools.org पर संपकथ करें।

Korean:

귀하의 언어로 이 자원에 대한 지원을 원하시면 (리아 리) 에게 (llee6@cherrycreekschools.org) 로 문의하십시오.

Nepali:

कृपया जेम्स रसाइथिीिाइथ jrasaily@cherrycreekschools.org मा तपाइथको भाषामा यो संसाधनको सहयोगको िागी सम्पकथ गननथहोिा।

Russian:

Пожалуйста, обращайтесь к Ларисе Бака по адресу: lbaca3@cherrycreekschools.org для получения поддержки с помощью этого ресурса на своём языке.

Somali:

Fadlan la xiriir Omar Nur cinwaanka emaylka onur2@cherrycreekschools.org si aad u hesho macluumaad ku qoran luqadaada.

Spanish:

Si necesita ayuda con este recurso en su idioma, póngase en contacto con Ilse Chavez Maldonado en ichavezmaldonado@cherrycreekschools.org, Rosa Han en rhan4@cherrycreekschools.org, Carmen Vargas-Ball en cvargasball@cherrycreekschools.org o Monica Pantoja en mpantoja@cherrycreekschools.org.

Ukrainian:

Будь ласка, зв'яжіться з Зоряною Герман по електронній пошті zherman@cherrycreekschools.org, щоб отримати підтримку з цього ресурсу на українській мові.

Vietnamese:

Vui lòng liên hệ với Thuý Ngọc tại Lchung2@cherrycreekschools.org để được hỗ trợ về tài nguyên này bằng tiếng Việt.

You can keep up to date with the Homestead PTCO by visiting www.homesteadptco.org and our Facebook page.

Location: 7451 South Homestead Parkway, Centennial, CO, USA
Phone: (720) 554-3700