Dear Johnson Families:

Thank you for all you do to make Johnson Elementary one of the best elementary schools in Fort Collins. We so appreciate all you do for our community and our school!

November in Review: We do hope you had a restful fall break, and we want to thank you for your incredible support of all we do.  I want to express a special thank you to Dohn Construction, Bike Fort Collins, and Your Group Ride for providing a new bike to all 2^nd grade students who needed and wanted one.  It was a great day to be in second grade! Thank you to all who donated a turkey for our Turkey Round-Up.  We donated 55 turkeys to our community, and we supplied many families with food for the fall break.  Thank you to all who attended our 5^th grade performance.  Thank you to all the families that attended our ECO week fundraiser at Rollerland.  Students reported they had a lot of fun, and our staff reported that it was fun to see so many of our families! We celebrated many students at our December PRIDE assembly where our Rocky Mountain Cheer team came to lead us in school spirit. This month will bring more fun events, so please review this newsletter carefully.

School of Choice: We are in the middle of school of choice season. If you know of a family looking for a school that focuses on teaching the whole child, suggest they consider Johnson Elementary. Our first round for school of choice consideration closes on December 16, 2024, at noon.  Our kindergarten open house is December 5th from 5:30-6:30 pm.  If a family misses this evening, we do schedule school tours and are available to answer questions that families may have.

Executive Function Focus: For the month of December, we are focusing on the executive functioning skill of task initiation of “GET UP and GO.” This is the ability to begin a task in a timely fashion.  Last year, I shared a few strategies you may want to use at home.  I thought I would share these again:

• Read or say directions together and have the child repeat what they are to do.
• Use a picture or visual with a verbal prompt for the child to begin the task.
• Set a timer for a reasonable amount of time for the child to begin the task.
• Praise when the child begins the task.
• Chunk larger tasks into smaller tasks.

I hope you find this useful at home with daily tasks and your child helping at home.

New Community Partnership: We now have a partnership with TREE MACHINE through the company USAGAIN (Use it Again).  We have conveniently located a place for you to donate your gently used clothing, household textiles (sheets, towels, table linens), and shoes for recycling.  In this way, we are giving back to the earth.  For each filled bin, TREE MACHINE will plant a tree.  Currently, they are planting trees in Africa.  We are excited for this partnership as each pound of recycled good, the school receives a donation.  Please spread the word about this convenient way to get rid of clutter and unused items from your home and give back to your school as well as our environment. 

Finally, thank you to our many volunteers, our JPTO, and our community partners.  We are thankful for all you do to make Johnson Elementary a great Fort Collins Elementary school and a great place to be! 

Mrs. Dawson, Principal