3500 Woodgate Road

Montrose, CO 81401

(970) 249-2539

Sandy Steele

Principal

CES website: ces.mcsd.org

Calendar of Events March, 2017

Wednesday March 1 PAC Meeting in the music room 6:30-7:30pm

Tuesday March 7 School Store 7:30-7:55am

Wednesday March 8 Parent/Teacher Conferences & Book Fair 2:20-8:00pm

Thursday March 9 Parent/Teacher Conferences & Book Fair 12:20-7:00pm

Thursday March 9 Students Dismiss at 12:05

Thursday March 9 3rd Quarter Ends

Friday March 10 No School/Vacation Day

Sunday March 12 Daylight Saving Time begins—spring forward!

Monday March 13 Rehearsal for 4th Grade showcase 12:30-2:30

Thursday March 16 4th Grade Showcase at the High School 7:30pm

Friday March 17 Family Movie Night (gym)

Friday March 17 Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Tuesday March 21 School Store 7:30-7:55am

PARCC & CMAS Testing 3rd—5th grade : look for Testing schedule inside

February is almost a thing of the past! It’s hard to believe that we will soon be in the 4th quarter of the 2016-17 school year. Coming up in March we will be testing our students in grades 4th and 5th in English language arts and mathematics. Fifth graders will also be assessed in science, but not until April. Third graders will be assessed in April for English language arts and

math. Please look for the assessment schedule in this newsletter. This is a valu-able assessment that helps us guide our instruction for your child for next year. Ad-ditionally, your child will be taking some form of assessment as they continue in school, whether it’s college entrance exams, military tests, driver’s license tests or others as they go through life and it’s imperative that they are comfortable with the process and can “Show what they know”. We would love for you to provide them with a protein-filled breakfast each morning, and send a note in their lunch to thank them for trying. We have amazing students here and we are excited that they will be able to share that with the state and the other schools in our district. We got results back early this year and it was very helpful in forming our instructional practices. All indications show that results will come out again early next year. If you have scheduled an appointment during this time, please reschedule if possible so your child can test with their regular classroom peers. On the 13th of this month we had rotating substitute teachers come in to allow our teachers a chance to observe their colleagues in other grade levels, and their own grade levels. Just as we ask our students to constantly learn and grow, our teachers also want to continuously improve and grow. The students did a fantastic job with so many adult visitors in their classroom. We will be using Sign Up Genius for parent/teacher conferences in March. Please look for information from your teacher so you can pick a time to come in for your conference that works for you. We will have conferences on March 8th and 9th. Our duct tape fundraiser was a blast, and Mrs. Brooks did a great job being taped to the wall. We were able to raise over $1,400 for our PAC. We appreciate all the sup-port from all of you.

Have a fabulously fun rest of February, and enjoy the additional minutes of daylight each day! Respectfully, Sandy Steele Principal

It’s that time of year for the annual 4th Grade Showcase. This is our 35th year and we are look-

ing forward to showing off our skills in 4th grade. It is very important that all students attend.

Cottonwood will be participating on Thursday, March 16th at 7:30 p.m. at the Montrose High

School Lloyd McMillan Gym. There will be plenty of room and we would love to see you there.

Time: Program starts at 7:30pm — Students will need to be at the Montrose High School Gym

by 7:15pm

Dress: Students should wear a white shirt, blue jeans or dark colored sweat pants and

tennis shoes

Admission: Free to the public

Purpose: To share with the public a few elements of the Physical Education Program. To

provide an opportunity for students to perform before the public.

Rehearsal will be March 13th, from 12:30–2:30 Students will be bussed to the Montrose High

School

Parents/Guardians/Families/Students

You are invited to the

Cottonwood Elementary School

Pottery Show

Grades K-5

March 8 and 9th, 2017

During Parent Teacher Conferences Art Room/Cafeteria

Please stop by the art show before or after your conference to see the pottery project your

child made in art. The pottery can be taken home at this time. Pottery is being offered to

the parents and/or family of the student for a donation. Donations are optional.

Donations will be used to purchase more clay, glazes, and needed art supplies. Thank you

and see you at the art show!

Mr. Michael Medina, Art Teacher

Second grade has many fun and exciting

things happening! We have started our inven-

tions unit. We will be reading and learning

about different inventors and then we will be-

come inventors ourselves. In math we will be

exploring place value up to the thousands

place. For writing we will be using what we

have learned about fairy tales and create our own.

The 3rd graders have been very busy working

hard in Mr. Goodwin’s class. In reading and

writing the kids have been learning about

how scientists are helping wolf and lynx

populations to increase. The kids have been

identifying the main idea and supporting de-

tails of these nonfiction texts in order to write summaries on each of

them and compare them. This learning tied in nicely when we had a

guest speaker from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife teach kids about

life science and how many of our local animal friends live and adapt

to the changing seasons here in our area. In math, the kids have

been learning about measurement with customary and metric units.

We’ll be moving into fractions in the days to come….

Dedicated to protecting and improving the health and environment of the people of Colorado

MUMPS ALERT

Important Notice to Parents and Guardians

February 10,, 2017

The school administration would like to inform you about an increase in mumps cases in Colorado. As of Feb-

ruary 8, there have been 27 cases of mumps in Colorado, and this number is expected to grow. In order to

minimize the spread of mumps in schools, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has

asked us to provide the following information.

Mumps is a viral infection that causes painful swelling of one or more salivary glands, a low-grade fever, and

headache. Typically, persons with mumps have swelling of the parotid gland located in the cheek area near the

ear and at the back angle of the jaw. Some people with mumps infection will have no symptoms at all. Severe

complications from mumps are rare, but can include swelling of the brain, inflammation of the ovaries or testi-

cles, or deafness.

Mumps is spread by coughing and sneezing or direct contact with the saliva of an infected person, such as by

sharing cups or eating utensils. Symptoms of mumps usually develop 16 to 18 days after being around some-

one with mumps. People infected with mumps can spread the virus from 2 days before through 5 days after

gland swelling develops.

Please contact your child’s healthcare provider if your child develops any swelling of the glands around

the ears or neck. If the health care provider thinks your child has mumps, he/she can be tested for

mumps and must stay home for 5 days after gland swelling begins.

All students (kindergarten through 12th grade) are required to have two valid doses of Measles, Mumps, Ru-

bella (MMR) vaccine for school entry, unless a vaccine exemption has been filed. MMR vaccine is usually

given at 12-15 months of age with another dose given at school entry (4-6 years of age). Persons born prior to

1957 probably had mumps disease and are likely immune to mumps.

Please review your child’s immunization record to make sure your child has the right number of valid MMR

vaccinations (1 vaccine if in pre-school and 2 vaccines if in kindergarten through college). If you need assis-

tance locating your child’s immunization record, contact your healthcare provider or call the Colorado Immu-

nization Information System at 303-692-2437 or 1-888-611-9918. Contact your child’s health care provider

or local health department if your child needs an MMR vaccination.

People who have received two doses of the MMR vaccine are about nine times less likely to get mumps than

unvaccinated people when exposed to mumps. However, some people who receive two doses of MMR can

still get mumps, especially if they have prolonged, close contact with someone who has the disease. If a vacci-

nated person does get mumps, they usually have less severe illness than an unvaccinated person.

If mumps affects your school and your child is not appropriately vaccinated, he/she

could be excluded from school for 25 or more days depending on how many people

have mumps at the school.

PARCC ELA & MATH : 4th & 5th

March 2017

13th

14th

15th 16th

17th

20th

ELA Session #1 5th: 8:10-9:40 4th: 9:50--11:20 Math Session #1 4th: 12:20- 1:20 5th: 1:30-2:30

21st

ELA Session #2 5th: 8:10-9:40 4th: : 9:50--11:20 Math Session #2 4th: 12:20- 1:20 5th: 1:30-2:30

22nd

NO Testing

23rd

ELA Session #3 5th: 8:10-9:40 4th: : 9:50--11:20 Math Session #3 4th: 12:20- 1:20 5th: 1:30-2:30

24th

Math Session #4 5th: 8:10-9:10 4th: 9:30-10:30

27th

ELA & Math Makeups

4th & 5th

28th

29th

30th

31st

PARCC ELA & MATH: 3rd

CMAS Science 5th

April 2017

10th

3rd switch Specials

with 2nd

11th

3rd ELA Session

#1 8:15-9:45

12th

3rd ELA

Session #2 8:15-9:30

13th

3rd ELA Session #3 8:15-9:45

14th

17th

3rd switch Specials

with 2nd

3rd Math Ses-

sion #1 8:15-9:15 5th Science Ses-

sion #1 8:15-9:35 5th Science Ses-

sion #2 12:45-2:05

18th

3rd Math

Session #2 8:15-9:15

5th Science Ses-

sion #3 8:15-9:35

19th

3rd Math Session

#3 8:15-9:15

20th

3rd Math Session #4 8:15-9:15

21st

24th

25th

27th

28th

No School