Friday, December 19th Issue: 1 In This Issue Character and Leadership Community Strength and Service Important Dates and Deadlines Winter Break Dec. 22nd-Jan. 2nd No School! Normal hours will resume on Monday, January 5th. Monday Morning Coffee Connection Monday, January 5th 8:30-9:30 am in the Bear's Cafe "No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is it makes them kind themselves." - Amelia Earhart Please join your Aspen community on the first Monday of each month from8:30-9:30 in the Bears Cafe for some coffee and connection. Our 8th grade students, with PCO mentor support, will provide the caffeine kick and some small bites to get our week started on the right track. Enjoy engaging with new and established families, administrators, and teachers as we celebrate the community we created! Character & Leadership AMP'd Friday, January 9th 8:30-9:00 am Leadership Class/Concept Skills Worth and Potential Student Spotlight! Act #1/Act #2 JK/4th Aspen students Maggie and Kate P. were featured on Reading Partners' website earlier this month! The article, called "The Next Generation of Philanthropists" shares their story of celebrating their birthdays by giving back instead of asking for gifts. This year these two were able to raise $685 in gift cards from Barnes and Noble and $120 for Reading Partners' reading program!Click here to read their incredible story. Gavaliers K/5th/1st/6th Dress Down Dollar Day Friday, January 16th Students donate a dollar to an organization of our Student Civic Organization's choosing to dress down (no uniforms) during the school day! End of First Semester Friday, January 16th PUMP'd: Family Health and Wellness Alumni Parent, Mark Hull's New Book! Aspen Alum, Ben Hull, graduated from Aspen Academy in 2009. He's father, Mark Hull, has come out with a new book, called "Gathering Raindrops." In this book, a Grandmother's love letters are discovered and lead others down new paths of love and life. Click here to check it out! Community Strength & Service Spirit of Service Week Friday, January 16th 8:30-9:30 am Fe Fit is a health and fitness company that is partnering with Aspen Academy in 2015 to help improve the health and fitness culture of the school, staff, and kids. The idea is simple, we can't expect our kids to make health and fitness a priority if it's not a priority to us. For this week's PUMP'd (Parent University Morning Program), we will be learning about healthy family options, nutrition, activities and fun to start the year off right! Monday, January 19th Martin Luther King Jr. Marade 8:45-2:00 pm Participants will march together with the greater Denver community to support MLK's belief that we all have the opportunity and responsibility to serve each other. Thank you to everyone who participated in our Annual Spirit of Service Week! Here's a recap of all that we did! Girls Basketball Home Game Thursday, January 22nd 4:00-6:00 pm On Pajama Day, we were able to donate over 170 pajama sets to Families First. Families First provides a place to live for children who do not have a safe home environment. On Sports Day, we donated over 400 new and used sports items for the Boys and Girls Club of Denver, an organization that provides children with food and a safe place for after school activities. On Wacky Wednesday, we donated 544 pairs of new socks to the Sock It To 'Em Campaign, which works to provide the homeless with warm socks for the Winter. On Super Hero Thursday, numerous costumes were donated to the Champa House, which provides a safe place for single moms and their children to live. Kindergarten Carols! Last but least, for our final day of Spirit of Service Week, Aspen families donated money to the organization Defending the Blue Line. Defending the Blue Line helps children of military families afford the hockey equipment they need in order to play hockey. Our total donations for this week were 1,501! Thank you all for a wonderful week of spirit and service! America's Fittest Staff Challenge America's Fittest Staff Challenge 2015, Aspen Academy Aspen Academy's teachers and staff have accepted the challenge to become America's Fittest Staff and they need your help! The competition begins January 6th. Parents are invited to participate as well! Click here for more information and contact Aspen Parent, Melonie DeRose at melonie@fefit.com if you'd like to participate! Cheer on our Girls Basketball Team as they play against North Star Academy! Portfolio Expo Friday, January 23rd 9:30-11:00 am Mandatory Parent Attendance. Parents are invited to go to their child's classroom and view their portfolios and work samples from first semester. Report Cards Distributed Friday, January 23rd Semester report cards will be emailed to families on designated days by the lower and upper school directors. State of School Address Friday, January 23rd 8:30-9:30 am in the Auditorium The State of the School will be presented by Head of School Kristina Scala, who will reflect on our accomplishments this year, what is coming up next, as well as the most recent survey results. This must-attend event also serves as the kickoff for reenrollment for the 2014-2015 school year. Re-enrollment runs fromJanuary 23-February 2nd. Parents, please attend. Meet in the auditorium! Priority Re-Enrollment & Sibling Re-Enrollment Jan. 23-Feb. 2nd Health & Safety Parent Teacher Conferences Wednesday, January 28th No School Please remember, your child cannot return to school until they have been fever free without medicine for 24 hours. It is very important you follow this rule to ensure we minimize the spread of illness in the building. Check Out Our Latest Blog Post! With flu season in full swing, Aspen parent, Dr. Mark R. Carney, has written a blog post for our blog called 4 Simple Tricks to Flu Prevention. Click here to read all about it! Semester conferences are held for parents and students in grades 4th-8th to attend and discuss progress made in the first semester and areas to focus on for the coming semester. A link to schedule a conference time will be sent to families two weeks prior to the conference date. Girls Basketball Away Game Thursday, January 29th 4:00-6:00 pm Cheer on our Girl's Basketball Team at Platte River Academy! Go Bears! Mentor Mentee Movie Night Geography Bee (Grades 5-8) Tuesday, January 30th 12:00-1:00 pm Dear Aspen Academy Community, We wanted to take a few minutes to congratulate our Student Civic Organization (SCO) students, and their fearless leader Carly Partridge, on Mentor Mentee Movie Night. We felt privileged to witness these young leaders brainstorm, plan, problem solve and execute a fun night for 120 plus Aspen students and adults. Their efforts in shredding carrots for "Olaf Noses" during their recess, calling their local pizza stores for the best deal, decorating and un-decorating their school, preparing and serving hot cocoa and pizza, greeting and leading volunteer parents and students, and cleaning up their school until it was perfect are to be commended. This event would be challenging for all of us adults to complete and you did it with teamwork, grit and a smile. As Parent Civic Organization (PCO) adults, serving as mentors, please know that a lot was learned as we observed your efforts. Aspen Academy truly is creating great leaders-we are proud to share Final Rounds of the Geography Bee are hosted during the Study Hall/Recess Period in the cafeteria. The competition will include the top four students from each grade level competition in grades 5-8. Study questions can be found at: www.nationalgeographic.com /geobee community with you. Kindly~ Your PCO Mentees A Love Note From Shawna Riggio "'Dancers in 'Leader of the Pack' and 'Land of 1000 Dances' performed brilliantly yesterday at the winter showcase! I was SO proud of their performances and my heart beamed with joy watching them werk!! I love each and every dancer so much! Thank you for making my job the best in the world!" A Special Spanish Club Breakfast Our Spanish Club had a very special breakfast for their last meeting of the semester! All of the students along with their instructors ate at the Pancake House to celebrate all that they learned in Spanish Club! Aspen Students Share Gratitude! Thank You from the Jackson Family! Thank you all so much for your contributions toward Alex (AJ) and Alessa Jackson's cousin, Nathan Panzer, treatment and fundraiser. Thanks to you and other generous people who have donated we have reached our goal of $25,000!!! If you wish to contribute even more or stay updated on Nathan's status please go to this site: http://www.donationto.com/Help-Nathan-Fight-HeartCancer. Thanks again for all your help! Aspen Academy 5859 S. University Blvd. Greenwood Village, CO 80121 www.aspenacademy.org blog.aspenacademy.org 303-346-3500