Brave School Dance Videos

Hello, REMS Community!

As a school, we have spent the entire year creating and learning a dance to the song “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. At each Beat, a group of around 8 students created the next 10 seconds of the dance and then taught it to the entire school. Let me emphasize that point - this dance was 100% created by over 100 of our kids at Renaissance! How awesome is that?!

One of the biggest reasons for the dance this year was to build unity across the entire school. It was something all crews had in common and could all work together on. Having a common goal as a school to finish this dance by the end of the year really helped build a sense of community around this project. For some, dancing was definitely not in their comfort zone - so to have that safe space where everyone around you was in the same boat not only helped build confidence, but also created bonds between students, teachers, and crews. There was also a big dose of perseverance with this project - the final dance is over three and a half minutes long! Keeping the end goal in mind helped us to stay motivated and persevere. Finally, this song comes with a strong message that we wanted students to really embrace - "Be Brave".

****SCHOOL VIDEO****: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N2BrZcp8Vg

**CREW VIDEOS**:

Ms. Lisa's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWTrJf2cKPk

Mr. Karen's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRSVaWU9i7M

Ms. Kenny's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKAF6JXNOj8

Ms. Billie's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMx5SFYX2Xc

Ms. Kim's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATlTyW6EZN8

Ms. Laura's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh1MfVjgD_c

Ms. Jenny's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itUJUxDp6Nw

Mr. Tyler's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkkqIyPQ13E

Ms. Sahvanna's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok6BjAK3g5w

Ms. SamAntha's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwABQcq43Ho

Ms. Teresa's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN8hexnE6yI

Ms. Dana's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZWK2sJqOlI

Ms. Gina's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4OTWWpKPu8

Mr. G's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc121PlvNhE

Ms. Jill's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJBDKPV6nXU

Ms. Jen's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eNQLobns70

Ms. Kathy's Crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzAi2Arj2HQ

I feel lucky and grateful every day to be at Renaissance! What a memorable year it has been. Looking forward to next year! Have a wonderful summer break, everyone!

Be Brave!

Sincerely,

Josh Rigo

Performing Arts

Renaissance K-6, Castle Rock

First Grade Memories

If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the crew blog to view the video below.

First Grade Memories 2018

Then and Now 2018

If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to view the video or you can click on the link below. It is worth it!

Then and Now 2018

Look how we've grown (and how many teeth we have lost).  :)

Summer Learning

Some of you have asked for ideas of things to do over the summer to continue the learning and my top request for summer learning would be to read, to visit lots of great places and spend lots of time enjoying nature. If you still have time for more learning, then here are a few more ideas for summer learning that are in line with our school philosophy:

Reading

Graphic by Melissa Taylor of Imagination Soup

Need Some Good Book Suggestions? Check out these lists:

Scholastic Branches Series - big hits with our crew

A Magical Summer of Reading Ages 0 - Young Adult 

Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Award Winners 2018

Past Geisel Award Winners

Summer Reading Lists for Kids Ages 6-14

Picture Book Reading List

1st Grade Summer Reading List

2nd Grade Summer Reading List

Read, Kiddo, Read  

Some of Our Favorite Authors:  

Mo Willems

Jan Thomas

Jim LaMarche - 2 must reads by him are The Raft and Pond

Josh Funk - lots of new books coming out
Cale Atkinson
Ryan T. Higgins
Peter Reynolds
Oliver Jeffers

Salina Yoon

Cynthia Rylant

Blogs I Read to Learn About Great Books for Kids:
Mrs. Knott's Book Nook
Watch. Connect. Read.
Celebrate Science
Kid Lit Frenzy
There's a Book for That
Read These Please

Math 

For fun math practice I would recommend Bedtime Math. The idea behind this site is that just like you might read a bedtime story to your child each night, you can also do a math problem together at bedtime each night. There is a short story about a new topic each night and then three problems at various levels (Wee Ones, Little Kids, Big Kids) that go along with it. Story topics from the past have included geckos, constellations, firefighters, clothing made out of reused items, ice cubes, trampolines and much more. Click on the picture below to visit the site.

Expedition - Science and Social Studies

The Wonderopolis website posts a "wonder" a day with a huge variety of topics and then gives the answer to the question. Answers usually include text to read along with either photographs or a short video clip to help explain the topic more in-depth. Past wonders include:
Why are pandas rare?
Who was Annie Oakley?
Does hand sanitizer really work?
Why are people different colors?
How do you get allergies?
How many bees can a flower pollinate?
Why do we need trees?
Do fish sleep with their eyes open?

To visit Wonderopolis, click on the picture below.

The Kid Should See This website has a huge selection of fascinating videos on a wide variety of topics - similar to Wonderopolis but with different topics. These are perfect for curious kids to watch when it is just too hot to play outside.

National Geographic Kids has tons of videos, articles, photos, facts and links that are all very fascinating.

Writing and Spelling
One-Sentence Journals
Spelling

The Resources for Students Page (on Our Crew Blog)
On this page you will find links to i-Ready along with many other math and reading websites that we use at school. Your child will know how to use these sites once you get them to that page. i-Ready will be available to use for math and reading lessons all summer long. 

It's All Important - Play, Reading, Writing, and Math

Gifts From Our Buddies

Besides getting to visit the second grade classrooms and meet the second grade teachers on Friday, we also had our last visit with our 6th grade buddies from RSS. This time they brought us the picture books that they had been writing for us. We were so excited to be given a book written especially for us by our buddies. They interviewed us about our interests so that they could include things that were important to us in the books along with sharing what they have been learning in their last Expedition. The crew could not believe that the books were theirs to keep! They were very excited! Thanks, Ms. Hanni and crew!

Meeting the Second Grade Teachers

Today was another big day for our crew. One of the best things was that we got to meet the second grade teachers. We had a long talk during morning meeting about our feelings about the end of the year and the beginning of next year. We learned a new word - bittersweet. We learned that you can feel two feelings at once. We noticed that we all had lots of feelings inside of us - sadness, excitement, happiness, worry and more. Then we go to go and meet Ms. Dana and Ms. Gina and Ms. Teresa. The crew was so very excited after that. I am sure that while they still will have some sadness and worry a little bit of both of those melted away after our chats with the second grade teachers. Ms. Dana and Ms. Gina are the second grade teachers at the end of our hallway and Ms. Teresa is the Discovery 2/3 teacher at the end of the other hallway. Below are a few photos of our meetings with them.