The da Vinci Flyer An Academic, Integrated Arts School

Important

Dates:

October 1 October Count begins

October 6 4th Grade Field Trip Pikes Peak Summit 9:00-3:00 5th Grade Mr. Hinkle’s Class Olympic Training Center 9:45-3:30

October 8 Smart Time Ends

October 9 Teacher Work Day NO SCHOOL End of 1st Quarter

October 10 Professional Develop-ment NO SCHOOL

October 13 Columbus Day School in session

October 14 Pine Creek High School Play 2:30-3:30

October 15 Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:00-8:00pm Regular Day of School

October 16 Parent/Teacher Conferences 8:00am-7:00pm NO SCHOOL

October 17 NO SCHOOL

Cindy Fesgen, Principal 719-234-5400 Laura McNally, Assistant Principal

1335 Bridle Oaks Lane, Colorado Springs, CO 80921 http://academy.asd20.org/tdva

From the Principal and Assistant Principal

Dear Caring TdVA Families,

Fall is in the air and students are learning and growing! We had a wonderful turn out at Back to School Night and we appreciate our partnership with you. Together we can sup-port our students in their education. If you have concerns, questions or compliments, we encourage you to go directly to your child’s teacher. We are also here to help if needed. Good communication is one of the most important things we can all model for our children.

Thanks to those of you who attend our Mural Dedication Ceremony. The tile of our mural is “We are da Vinci: Un Decennio di Arte E Scienza (a decade of art and science). Aliana Lorash (4

th grader) and Mr. Hinkle (5

th grade teacher) contributed their ideas to

form the final title. Mr. Tony Ortega, the artist in residence, Dr. Hatchell and two of our Board members were also in attendance. Please stop by the community area to see the beautiful mural our students painted last May.

Teachers have been working hard to get to know your students’ strengths and areas for growth over the last eight weeks. Conferences are around the corner and this is a wonderful time for parents and teachers to share information about students. The goal of conferences is to share where students are currently performing and to discuss goals for the year. You should have received an email asking you to sign up for a conference time. Please contact your child’s teacher if you need help signing up for a time.

For those of you who are new to District 20, we want to share that we use a Standards Based Report Card (SBRC). This report card is aligned to the Colorado Academic Standards (CAS)/Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and provides clearly and concisely defined expectations for students and teachers. There is a K-5 SBRC Parents’ Guide and SBRC brochure available for your review on our website on the “Learn” button on the dial pad.

Teachers will be participating in a book study focused on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics). This aligns well with our school philosophy and mission. They are excited about incorporating STEAM activities into their classroom instruction. If you have expertise in any of those areas and would like to share your knowledge with students/staff, please let us know.

Harvest Parties will be on October 31st. Full day kindergarten through 5

th grade students

may wear their costumes during the party, the last hour of the day. Half-day kindergarteners may wear their costumes to school that day. Preschoolers will wear their costumes on October 30

th when they do their celebration. Students need to be

able to put their costumes on and off without assistance. We encourage students to wear a costume that is a character in a favorite book or movie to support our Red Rib-bon Week theme. Students may wear costumes that are not excessively scary or gory. No weapons will be allowed. Please plan parties with healthy choices such as fruit, veggies, cheese, etc. and limit sweets. No snacks with peanut products should be brought into school as well as homemade items due to the severe allergies in our building. Also, latex products, such as balloons and gloves, should not be brought into the school. We know this will be a fun time for everyone!

Enjoy the beautiful colors, sights and sounds of fall!

Respectfully,

Cindy Fesgen, Principal Laura McNally, Assistant Principal

KINDERGARTEN NEWS

Welcome Fall! Our Kindergarteners have been as busy as the squirrels collecting acorns. We are well into our daily routines and having fun learning together. October is a month full of special learning actives related to fall. We will be looking for the signs of fall around us with a few activates centered on the changing leaves, pumpkins, spiders and fall harvest. We hope to visit a local Pumpkin Patch sometime during the month of October to experience a one of a kind pumpkin harvest firsthand! Kindergarteners write daily. We are learning that a sentence is made up of a naming part and an action part. We are learning that a sentence needs spaces between words, capital letters at the beginning of the sentence and an ending mark ( ! . ? ). Students use phonetic spelling for unfamiliar words and are ex-pected to correctly spell our sight words when using them in our writing. Good writers are great readers!! In reading, we have been working hard on learning the letter names and sounds. We are always asking comprehension questions. The who, what, where, when and why questions are great ways to get students talking about their reading. We also talk about genre (fiction vs. nonfiction, reality vs. fantasy). Our math routine consists of daily calendar math activities, hands on learning with manipulatives and lessons from our Every Day Math program. Students are quickly learning about numbers, patterns, and shapes and counting. Students have had the opportunity to use technology in the classroom and in the computer lab. We have learned two programs in computer which give us practice in reading and math. We love TECHNOLOGY!! Happy Harvest to all our Kindergarten Families!

FIRST GRADE NEWS Dear Parents, Happy Fall to everyone. Our first graders are excited about the changing leaves and more unpredic-table weather. Please start paying attention to weather reports so that your child will have appropri-ate clothes/jackets for the day. We still go outside to recess unless it’s below 22*, raining, or snow-ing. We are careful about lightening too.

We will continue our studies in reading and social studies about families. Our discussions include how sometimes animals are part of our families too. It’s important that they start understanding the difference between wild and tame and how animals actually help humans in many different ways and how we need to help animals around the world. We are still working on short vowel sounds in words, and extending this to include words with blends and diagraphs in the coming weeks. Those kids that are working on the challenge spelling words are getting lessons in their reading group that address their phonics needs as well as comprehension strategies.

Math is practiced every day in the classroom; counting and grouping in a variety of ways and learning different strategies for addition and subtraction problems within ten. Most kids are practicing sums to 20. Please keep practicing math facts in a variety of ways so those answers and the more than/less than understanding comes naturally to them (and quickly). Fluency with math facts is a huge component to higher level math concepts. We are starting to focus some energy on telling time and recognizing and counting coins. Have some fun with real money at home so it’s not so confusing. Now with all the different pictures on the backs of quarters and nickels, it’s even more challenging for them.

Writing is a very hard subject for many kids. Not only is the act of writing neatly and correctly tiring for some, it’s really difficult if they don’t practice at home. At this point in the year , first graders should be remembering to start a sentence with a capital and end with a period. We’re working on adding details to descriptive writing, which makes the writing more complete and more interesting. Encourage your child to play around with writing at home, lists, stories, answers to questions about a book you’re reading, start a personal journal (diary) or write letters to family members to mail. It takes a lot of teamwork to build up your child’s writing skills.

All teachers have posted their conference schedule on Sign Up Genius, so if you haven’t done so, please make sure you sign up for Parent/Teacher Conferences on Wednesday, October 15th or Thursday, October 16th. The kids will NOT have school on Thursday or Friday. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely, The First Grade Team

SECOND GRADE NEWS

Hello second grade families! We are rapidly coming to the end of the first quarter, can you believe it!?! The students have been working very hard so far this year. We are currently working on phonics skills and story elements in reading. In math, we are tackling addition and subtraction fact families. In social studies, we are looking at different kinds of com-munities and in science, the students are learning about clouds. Last-ly, we are focusing on improving our writing skills by writing personal descriptions. Thanks for signing up for a conference time. We look forward to see-ing you and talking about how your children are doing!

THIRD GRADE NEWS

The dust from the whirlwind has started to settle, and your students are truly becoming third graders. Remember, it’s a big jump into the intermediate grades! The team approach (you, your child, and school working together) is the best approach!

Believe it or not, the first quarter is nearing an end! On October 9th and 10th, students will remain at home so that staff development and report card preparations can take place.

Conferences are October 15th in the evening and the 16th all day. Friday, the 17th, is off for all in honor of two twelve hour days of working. Watch for your opportunity to pick a conference time on Sign-up Genius. We would like this conference to be just parent/teacher, but the con-ference in March will be student led. (Mini-conferences in between are always welcomed as needs arise!)

Although your child will receive letter grades, more importantly, marks indicating progress to-ward third grade standards or skills will be the major part of the report card. As you may recall, this is the fifth year that we are using this new approach to reporting progress. This a district-wide approach that is in line with national trends. Our emphasis has always been on individual growth, and this new system makes it easier to see both your child’s specific strengths and challenges. It will also take some getting used to, so please keep an open mind! The biggest benefit we can see is that grades will not be averaged. If a student is below a standard at the beginning of the quarter or the year, but meets the standard by that period’s end, he will get an M for meets, not an average grade for the time period.

October curriculum includes a study in our Reading series on people and nature emphasizing plants to coincide with that study this quarter in Science. A mystery book report is due at the end of October. We’ll continue to become third grade paragraph writers, studying nouns, ad-jectives, verbs, adverbs, synonyms and antonyms. In Math, continue at home to practice addi-tion/subtraction facts for automatic recall, and in class we will learn about regrouping in addi-tion and subtraction along with estimating and rounding, multiplication, problem solving and checking for the reasonableness of answers is always an emphasis. For Social Studies, students will learn more about communities, map skills, and Colorado Springs. In Science, students will finish up the unit on Earth Movements and start Plant Development.

Our biggest adventure in arts integration will tie up our learning in October. Ideas in the Read-ing unit on money will be combined with Social Studies, Math, behavior and Writing. Students will design a silver coin that demonstrates an important SOAR idea. Students’ writing will in-clude the explanation of the significance of their coin. Paragraphs will describe what we would do if we made a million dollars, and maps will highlight the journey of a young boy as he bar-tered for knowledge.

FOURTH GRADE NEWS

It is hard to believe that the first quarter is almost complete. It has been great to

meet most of you and learn more about your student on a daily basis. We have

been keeping busy and have accomplished much this quarter.

In Reading, we have been learning about different regions in the United States

including Yosemite National Park and the Southwest. We have been focusing on

many different skills on a weekly basis that can be found in the weekly reading

newsletter that goes home. Don’t forget this month’s book report will be a

mystery. Remember that your student will need to pick a different type of

project than he/she did last month.

In Math, we are finishing geometry and will soon be on our way into

multiplication and division. Please remember to practice math facts.

In Science, students have been learning about variables though the use of pendu-

lums and boats and Social Studies has been fun while learning about Colorado’s

Geography. Part of this includes the trip up the cog to the top of Pikes Peak.

Please make sure your child brings warm clothes including hats and gloves. It is

normally at least 30 degrees cooler at the top and windy. Please look for an

email going home with more information on this prior to the trip.

It has been a great first quarter and we are looking forward to speaking to all of

you at conferences. We would prefer your student to come as well if possible.

Important Dates:

October:

6th—Pikes Peak Field Trip

9th—Elementary Teacher Workday- No Students

10th—Professional Development Day- No Students

15th—Parent/Teacher Conferences

16th—Parent/Teacher Conferences– No Students

17th—No School

31st—Fall Party at 2:30, Mystery Book Reports Due

FIFTH GRADE NEWS

Within Social Studies, fifth grade students will soon begin studying Native Americans and working on identifying and describing significant individuals and groups of Native Americans in History; as well as the interactions between Europeans and Native Ameri-cans in the 17th and 18th centuries. Within Writing, students continue to dive into narrative writing as well as developing their skills in expository writing. We enjoy seeing their creativity shine through! Please help at home by identifying figurative language in music, on TV, or in books. Within Reading, fifth graders are continuing to work on a variety of comprehension skills and fluency. We are working with them to identify specific goals in order to devel-op their skills as proficient readers. Within Math, Front Row is a new online program that many students are excited about. We encourage you to remind them they can work on this program at home as well. Finally, the fifth grade Gallery is around the corner! Students have been working on the Human Body Unit, in Science, and are excited to be able to share their fully integrated gallery in October!

LIBRARY NEWS

Save the Date! Our Barnes and Noble Book Fair is scheduled for Friday, December 12, 2014!!!

Flyers will be coming out in November with more information, but if you know you plan to shop for presents, please consider some purchases at your local Barnes and Noble. They have books, games, toys and electronics. Proceeds will go toward the da Vinci Library! This month we will be celebrating International DOT DAY in the library (technically a September date, but we are encouraged to celebrate it any time). We will read The Dot by Peter Reynolds and create something special to “Make Our Mark” on the world! Click here for more info about DOT DAY…http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/.

Library to Classroom Connections

It is my goal to provide support and reinforcement for teacher’s classroom goals and standards. Here are some of the ways that will happen in October… Primary classes: We will use The Dot by Peter Reynolds as a jumping off point for exploring creativity and looking at how WE can make a difference in our world. Intermediate classes: I will be collaborating with some 4th and 5th graders on Digital BookTalks 2nd and 3rd quarter. I will also be working to support 3rd grade projects and text connections.

SPANISH & MUSIC

The K-1 Spanish classes will finish up the 1st quarter by making a shapes book. We will begin learning about the seasons in Spanish and will focus on fall (el otoño) this month and the changes that are occurring in nature – weather, leaves, pumpkins, etc.

2nd and 3rd grade Spanish classes have begun to build sentences using adjectives. They are also learning the correct use of masculine and feminine words such as el/la, un/una and este/esta. We will continue to build more complex sentences using plurals. In October, we will focus on learning the days of the week and labeling items in the classroom.

Kindergarten vocal music – This first quarter we have been learning the difference between a steady beat and a rhythm pattern. We are learning to move to the beat at different tempos and to start and stop by listening to the music. This next quarter we will begin to read the rhythm patterns using icons and create our own rhythm patterns. We will also listen to music and describe how it makes us feel.

1st grade vocal music – In October, we will explore loud/soft

and high/low sounds. We will also identify pitched and

non-pitched instruments and create a sound story using

different types of instruments.

ART NEWS

The art room is super busy this time of year! We are trying to get art completed for the

SilverGraphics fundraiser, local business art displays, 5th grade Human Body Circus, and 4th grade

Colorado History galleries. We also continue to learn what it looks like to SOAR and be safe in the

art room.

SilverGraphics

I need help from a couple volunteers to put art into ABC order. Please email if you are interested.

We do SilverGraphics art fundraiser every year in the fall. Families are able to order personalized

products with their child’s art. Some products include mugs, water bottles, ornaments, tiles,

magnets, and etc. Orders are collected in November and products will be distributed the week

before winter break. This is a great way to support the art program at da Vinci as well as

celebrate your child’s creativity. These treasures make for unique gifts for the holidays.

Information about fundraiser happenings will go home in Wednesday folders. Stay on the lookout!

Art Showings

TdVA has for the past few years partnered with Rocky Mountain Pediatric Dentistry, Baily

Orthodontics, Simply Kids Dentistry, and Star Bank. We also participate in our district annual art

show in April. Artwork will be on display and rotated throughout the school year at these locations.

Please check Wednesday’s folders for more information if your child has been selected.

Class Activities and Terms

5th-We are just finishing up human body gestures in Art, Graffiti Artist, Keith Haring and starting

digital self-portraits and fall trees.

4th-We are working on plateau charcoal landscapes, foreground, middle ground, background and

dream catchers.

3rd-We are discussing the difference between abstract, nonobjective, realistic. We did marble

painting and jazz collages. (Pollock and Bearden).

2nd-We are discussing how shapes become forms by designing barns. We are also discussing rural

art (Grant Wood).

1st-We are working with colors and patterns. Finishing up autumn landscapes and beginning

Mattisse collages.

K-We are working with shapes, colors, and textures. We went outside and did leaf rubbings and

stamped found objects. Discussions on patterns and textures continues.

Please email me for any art information or volunteering.

sonya.smith@asd20.org

Thank You!

2nd—5th GRADE MUSIC NEWS

The school year is off to a whirlwind of a start, and your students are doing

a great job in music so far!

2nd grade will continue to practice eighth notes, quarter notes, and quarter

rests and will learn about half notes and tied notes. We will learn how to

identify and sing the solfege notes “so” “mi” and “la” while also learning

how to draw them on the musical staff. We will also be learning several

new songs about fall and the change of the season.

3rd grade will be reviewing tempo terms and dynamic terms through

various fun songs and games. We will also begin to learn about rondo

form.

4th grade has been working hard learning how count rhythms numerically

and learning about time signatures. We will be reviewing 16th notes and ¾

time signature, and we will also continue to work on singing rounds.

4th grade is beginning preparations for their upcoming gallery on

November 19, so we will be learning multiple songs out of the Colorado

History Songbook.

The 5th Grade Gallery, “The Human Body Circus”, is coming up quickly on

October 22, and the students have been working hard to rewrite a song

about nutrition while also learning a song about the muscles of the human

body. We will be working on singing major scales and rounds.

Beginning Band and Advanced Band are going well, but please encourage

your student to take their instrument home to practice! Please be sure

your student brings their instrument to school for band, along with the

necessary supplies (reeds, books, valve oil).

SCIENCE NEWS

Dear Parents,

First quarter is coming to a close in a hurry! I will give the 3rd-5th graders and end of unit test. I will send a Human Body quiz review home with the 5th graders tomorrow in the Wednes-day folders. The fourth graders are taking their variables test. They need to be able to identify the variables of an experiment, so I will send an experiment home with you, and students need to write down all of the variables (independent, dependent, and controlled). We have been studying this in class all semester long. Third grade has been doing a unit on Earth Movements. They have taken some of the assessments already here in class. The last assessment will be about volcanoes with our culminating volcano activity. Primary students continue to work on their science units, and are as-sessed in class as we move through the units. During Parent/Teacher Conferences, I will be running our annual rock sale. I need parent volunteers to help run the sale. Please respond if you are up for the challenge. :) Things are going well! We are busy, working hard, learning lots, and having fun. Please contact me with any questions, or concerns you may have. Thank you! Laura Brown Science Teacher

MOVEMENT NEWS

October is safe school month. We will be having Red Ribbon Week to remind students of safety, self-advocacy, injury prevention, healthy habits, cyber safety and bully prevention.

In addition, the Health Jam will be held at the end of the month. If any parents have jobs that include healthy exercise, nutrition or any other health or safety awareness program, please let me or Mrs. Hulverson know. We have scheduled a number of people to help us spread the word but are in need of a few more. We are also searching for a DDR to borrow for one of the sessions during the Health Jam.

K-1: Students have been working on fine-tuning locomotor movements such as jumping and landing, skipping, leaping, and galloping so any time you are walking please encourage the variety of skills. We will move onto non-locomotor skills and then make movement phrases into a story. Kindergarten will be telling the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story through movement. 2-3: Students will be working on non-locomotor skills and putting movement phrases together to tell a story as a group. In October and November, they will also be working on dribbling, punting, throwing and catching skills. Students will learn basic offense and defense skills and strategies in various lead-up games. Stretching and core strength are included in the lessons. 4-5: Fourth grade has been learning various square dance moves and will choreograph their own square dance for the gallery. Fifth grade will continue getting ready for the Human Body Circus Gallery. They have completed the work on the Respiratory system and are working on the Nervous system as well as opening and closing tricks.