March 3

Dear Fireside Families,
     It's been a week of celebrating literacy at Fireside! We are so glad parents could join us by attending the Literacy Week Parent Forum , visiting classrooms to see literacy in action, or participating alongside their child in a literacy rich learning activity. We are grateful for our classroom guest readers, whether that meant being a Spanish language reader in a class or listening to a community member read to our students. Each reader inspired a joy of reading for our children, while imparting the essential theme of "empathy" through this year's theme- Read a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes. Friday's Colorado Shakespeare Festival Performance of "The Comedy of Errors" exposed students to Shakespeare as well as lessons about tolerance. Thanks to the generosity of our local sponsors, $1,875 was raised to go towards the purchase of leveled books for our Fireside bookroom! 
     This week wouldn't have been possible without the support of our Literacy Committee (especially our chairs-Chrissie Burg and Rachel Setzke), the countless volunteers who read to students, and our dedicated staff. We were all reminded that reading is knowledge, knowledge provides a voice, and collectively, we paused to embrace the essential values of empathy and tolerance through rich texts. As a family, take a moment to consider a family read aloud, or how you incorporate reading, writing and listening into your family life!
Important bits: 

• Here is our SAC agenda for Thursday, March 9 from 5:30-7pm. Parents are welcome to join us.

Shout outs:
A special shout out to our volunteer photographers: Becky Slusarchyk, Lynda Hayley and Misty Wright for capturing Fireside moments for our school communications.

A shout out to Katie Doyle Myers and the Puentes Committee for all the great work they're doing to support our Latino families!

Feb. 17

Dear Families,
     Another exciting week here at Fireside Elementary. Thanks to our parents for attending the first round of conferences, they will continue into next week on February 21st and 23rd. Teachers sure appreciated the conference meals provided by our parents. 
     Be sure to check out: Fireside Elementary ranked #4 among top 25 schools in the Denver Metro area This is a tribute to our amazing staff, strong PTO board, and cohesive community. We truly provide an exceptional learning experience for all!
     Don't forget to join us on Monday, February 27th at 8:10am in the Amphitheater to kick-off our Literacy Week with a parent presentation co-presented by myself, our district literacy coach and in collaboration with Fireside teachers.  Learn about our Fireside reading beliefs, practices, and resources we're using to support readers and find out ways you can support your readers at home. We're excited about this year's Literacy Week theme emphasizing Empathy:  Read a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes. Please RSVP by signing up here
     Interested in learning more about tech in BVSD? Take a peak at: District Technology Advisory Committee Update (Feb 2017) Educational technology resources and the opportunities afforded through these tools are forever expanding and changing. As a district we have seen an increase in digital devices and resources to enhance teaching and learning. 


As always, thank you for your partnership in learning.

February 10

Dear Fireside Families,

Fireside has spirit!

We're excited to see you at conferences Feb. 15, 21 and 23!

Here are a few words from Ms. Pazour:

If your child hasn't already shared with you the exciting technological devices, applications, programs, and projects that they've worked with this year, please ask them to tell you all about them. Different grades have differing levels of time with technology, increasing with the students' progress through the grade levels. We will be sending home a student-password card for you to explore some of the cloud-based programs that your child is able to access. Also, please visit the Fireside Elementary Library website for school-wide programs and application subscriptions, such as Typing Pal, WeVideo and Wixie. During conference evenings, the computer lab will be available for student-led technology tours of programs, projects, and websites. Feel free to drop by and explore.

Homework Survey: 

Thanks to our 111 respondents who took time to respond to our homework survey. For a summary of the data please view our SAC notes from the January 12th meeting here. We reviewed the data as a staff and will continue to engage in discussions to consider revisions to our policy for next school year.

As always, my door is always open. Thank you for your partnership in our exceptional school!

February 3

Dear Fireside Families,

      It's been a spirited week at Fireside! Thanks to our Student Council for selecting a different theme each day for spirit week as we celebrated each student's individuality. Other news...Ms. Fitzgerald hosted the annual Spelling Bee. I applaud all of our risk-takers who participated in the event and congratulations to Trey Chance as he was this year's finalist and will represent Fireside at the regional competition.
     We hosted our C.A.P. staff and parent workshops this week in preparation for the student workshops which will begin next week. The motto for C.A.P. is keeping kids safe, strong and free, which aligns well with our school motto- safe communities = safe schools. I continue to value everyone's part in supporting the safety of our school and students.


What's the status of educational funding in Colorado?
Please take a moment to view the links below to help stay informed about the status of funding in Colorado.

Trey Chance, Spelling Bee finalist

The Colorado Did You Know? video is available here.  The first video from 2015-16 described K-12 school funding in Colorado: history of where we have been / where we are now, the impact of the negative factor on Colorado's school districts, and how money matters to districts and students.The Colorado School Finance Project (CSFP) created a second video in our Colorado Did You Know? series describing the school finance situation in Colorado in 2017.  

Colorado: Did You Know 2017? provides additional details on the impact of Colorado’s K-12 funding on our students, districts and ultimately our state.
                         
     Please join us on Monday, February 27th at 8am in the Amphitheater to kick-off our Literacy Week with a parent presentation co-presented by myself, our district literacy coach and in collaboration with Fireside teachers.  Learn about our Fireside reading beliefs, practices, and resources we're using to support readers and find out ways you can support your readers at home. We're excited about this year's Literacy Week theme emphasizing Empathy:  Read a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes. Please RSVP by signing up here

As always, thank you for your partnership in learning!

January 20

Dear Fireside Families,
     Just a reminder, in February, Fireside will be hosting C.A.P. (Child Assault Prevention), a program to equip students with skills to prevent assault, abuse and bullying behaviors. This is a highly reputable program. To find out more, visit the CAP website. Please be sure to view the attached letter that also went out in today's Friday Folder.  Parents are encouraged to attend the C.A.P meeting that will be held in the library on February 2nd from 6-8pm to learn more about the program and what will be presented during the student workshops. Childcare will be made available. Please RSVP here by January 31st if you plan to attend. 
     SAC Minutes- Jan. 12, 2017 A special thank you to the approximately 100 parents who participated in the homework survey designed by our SAC committee. The results have been shared with staff and will also be shared with the community once we have time for further discussion regarding next steps. We truly value your partnership.
Looking ahead...

• Coming in February expect to see a District Parent Survey that the district distributes to gather important information about schools. 
• Thanks to Ms. Fitzgerald, our Fireside Falcons have several enrichment offerings to look forward to- from Chess Club to our school-wide Science Fair. Please visit here to learn more about dates and opportunities. 
• Testing Schedule  Grades 3-5 PARCC-CMAS Schedule

This week's assembly highlighted Integrity and Movement. Wow- we were moving and grooving as a whole school! Ms. Rosquist and our special guest reminded us all about how important it is to get up and move- especially when it comes to supporting the brain, learning and wellness. We've also started a movement minute as part of our morning announcements to help get our brains active and ready for the day. Be sure to ask your child about it.  

As always, thank you for your partnership in learning!

January 6

Dear Fireside Families,

I hope you all enjoyed the unexpected snow day on Thursday!  The beauty of Colorado is in our ever-changing weather, soon followed by blue skies. 

I'm not sure if everyone had a chance to view our latest Fireside Falcon News video or read the Fireside Gazette (hard copies were sent home the Friday before break) with close to 40 different contributing articles, but they're well worth your time. I am so proud of our writers, reporters and broadcasters! What meaningful, authentic ways for students to report out about Fireside and what makes it such an exceptional school.

As a staff, one of our continued areas of focus has involved becoming more unified with our beliefs, practices and resources for teaching reading and developing young readers. Here is a document we created to guide our work. As part of our efforts to support developing readers we are embarking on a big task (parent volunteers to support these efforts would be greatly appreciated). We are taking inventory of our school book sets. If you’re able to assist, please contact Paula Haskins at paula.haskins@bvsd.org by January 13th.  The project will get underway beginning the morning of January 17. Our goal is to level and refresh our leveled booksets. 

Our January SAC meeting will be taking place in the library next week from 5:30-7pm. Please view the January 12 SAC Agenda if interested.

In February, Fireside will be hosting C.A.P., a program to equip students with skills to prevent assault, abuse and bullying behaviors. To find out more, visit the CAP website. Please be sure to view the attached letter. Parents are encouraged to attend the CAP meeting that will be held on February 2nd from 6-8pm. Please RSVP here by January 31st if you're planning to attend. 

I look forward to partnering with families in the year ahead- Happy New Year!

December 9, 2016

Dear Fireside Families,

Another exciting week at Fireside! A shout out to Stacey Forsyth, her team from the CU Science Discovery Center, Jenn Hart, Mr. Millard, Ms. Pischke and all of those who made this week's Hour of Code such a success. Critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and math are just a few of the skills honed through the various programming opportunities K-5 this week. Please take a moment to view "Fireside moments" from the Hour of Code week. Your child can continue to practice coding using the following free resources: Code.org, Cs-first.com and Scratch.mit.edu 

Our star-studded 4th and 5th grade Fire Choir delivered quite a performance during this week's Fire Choir concert. So heart-warming to see students returning year after year for the culminating Fire Choir song. 

Congratulations to all of our geography participants this week- including those who engaged in the daily geography questions via morning announcements as well as our participants in Wednesday's school Geography Bee. Let's give a shout out to 5th grader, Finn Myers, for winning this year's Fireside Geography Bee! 

Just a reminder, when temperatures dip below 20 degrees (factoring in windchill), students are brought indoors before the start of the school day and will be indoors for recess until temperatures rise. I'm glad to see the temperatures are warming up a bit!

A shout out to Trey Chance, Olivia Alessandrini, Kaya Eriksson and Luke Robinson for their student leadership during our two open enrollment tours. Thanks for being the voice of our exemplary school!

During our last School Accountability meeting, we discussed our current Fireside homework policy as well as some of the research regarding homework. The School Accountability Committee would like to hear from our community regarding our policy and gather input via a survey. Please take a moment to review the Homework Policy and complete our Homework survey

Our district's State Assessment schedule for this year is available at THIS LINK. For grades 3-5, we kindly request parents schedule any vacations outside of this window

As always, thank you for your partnership in learning!