Page 45 - Nov Proof

CastlePinesConnection.com
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Together in the great outdoors By Julie Matuszewski; photos courtesy of DCS Montessori
Low ropes challenges were just one of the challenges the sixth grade students of DCS Montessori enjoyed during the annual outdoor education program.
For more than a decade, the DCS Montessori upper elementary staff have partnered with YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park for a week of outdoor education and adventure. Team building, ropes courses, challenges, hiking and games like capture the flag were designed with the intent to bring the upper elementary sixth grade classrooms together in preparation for middle school.
The week of outdoor education provided students with hands-on learning opportunities, adventure and creative expression. It was a time for the kids to enjoy not only a week away from the classroom, but to grow outside of their comfort zones. Cool mornings and evenings mixed with warm sunny fall days were the perfect back drop for the full week of unity and friendship.
Right: This year’s outdoor education students enjoyed exploration in elk ecology, montane forest ecology and animal tracking.
RHMS Parents serve lunch
By Celeste McNeil
Parents at Rocky Heights Middle School (RHMS) are volunteering in new ways
this year – they are helping in the cafeteria with the lunch service. Typically, middle schools require less parent involvement and volunteer opportunities than elementary schools. Teachers don’t ask for parents
to come help with classroom chores like filing, or helping individual or small group students with reading, math, or spelling like many elementary school teachers.
A trifecta of circumstances led to this new volunteer opportunity for middle school parents. With the return to full capacity
this year, but still needing to be careful and physically distance, when possible, lunch
is more crowded than it was last year. The extension of the free lunch program also has less students bringing lunch from home. This creates longer lunch lines, and more time an individual student is waiting for their food. The national labor shortage also contributes to the need for additional help with the Nighthawk lunch service.
“The cafeteria staff has been able to keep our cafeteria functioning at a very high level, but we’ve noticed a significant increase in the number of meals being served to kids. That increased volume in a school of our size has an immediate impact, and we wanted to get creative to help move the flow of traffic through the student lunch lines as quickly as possible,” said RHMS principal Chris Cooke.
Foreseeing this opportunity, administration, kitchen staff and the parent volunteer coordinator collaborated with the district nutrition services to solve the problem before the school year began. Lunchroom help was added to the volunteer opportunities available to parents when they registered their children in late summer. Parent volunteers are screened by the district prior to helping. Once cleared, they are welcome to help in any capacity the school needs.
Parent volunteers are not trained or qualified to work with hot foods or food prep, but they have been instrumental in
helping with the prewrapped cold offerings. Parents help keep the grab and go food cases stocked and keep kids moving through the cashier lines.
Thinking creatively helped solve the problem but the immediate and positive response from parents was critical. When the word got out about this volunteer opportunity, “our community immediately answered the call. The extra line our volunteers are able to open has already made a huge difference in the time it takes to get our kids through the lunch line. We are blessed to be part of such a supportive community,” said Cooke.
November 2021