Scottsdale Unified School District is pleased to announce the receipt of the ‘First Things First’ grant through the Arizona Department of Education.  The grant provides preschool scholarships effective now until the end of the school year for eligible children. Pre-school Scholarships available

The Safe Schools Assessment and Resource Bank (SSARB) is a 40 item survey, from February 8 until March 19, that measures six dimensions of school climate. SUSD staff, students and parents are being asked to take this survey which takes approximately 5-7 minutes to complete. more information and links

Congratulations to Reilly Yeager for qualifying to represent Copper Ridge and participate at the state level of the National Geographic Bee.  The state Bee will be held on Friday, April 9, 2010 at the Tucson Convention Center. One winner from the state will advance to the national competition, which is held at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. on May 25th. Again congratulations to Reilly. All of us here at Copper Ridge wish her success in the state Bee.

Copper Ridge School's pre-school classes were proud to host the wedding of the letters Q and U.  On Friday, February 26, 2010 the formal event took place on a beautiful afternoon in the courtyard at Copper Ridge School.  Students wore formal attire and the wedding was well attended by parents and students alike.  After the bride and groom high fived, there was general agreement that these two will make quite a few beautiful words together.  Following the ceremony, the students and parents quickly proceeded to the classrooms for a reception.  Copper Ridge would like to thank our outstanding Pre-K teachers, aides and staff for planning this ceremony.  Congratulations Q and U!

Copper Ridge School is proud to announce that we are working in partnership with Chances for Children on a second relief benefit for Haitian Earthquake Relief.  Chances for Children supports two orphanages and a school in Haiti.  These facilities were critically affected by the earthquake.  Copper Ridge students and PTO worked with Chances for Children to design a relief project that collects needed supplies and funds the cost of shipping those supplies.  An important part of this project is the idea of “Kids Helping Kids.”   

Beginning February 8, 2010, our school will begin collecting coin/cash contributions toward the shipping costs of a second container of relief aid specifically for Chances for Children.  Because we are emphasizing “Kids Helping Kids” your child may ask (or be asked) to do chores to earn money to contribute to this cause.  Our goal is to reach $9,000.00 which is approximately the cost of shipping a container to Haiti.  We realize that with the “Kids Helping Kids” emphasis this may be a challenge.  We appreciate parent support in helping students to participate in achieving our goal. By collecting money and supplies our students have the chance to experience the importance of charitable giving and see their contributions make a lasting impact.  Parents are also welcome to donate.  Homeroom teachers may have established a classroom collection box, or there is a large collection box in the main office.  We were excited to learn that the Lynn and Foster Freiss foundation has agreed to match our Copper Ridge collection dollar for dollar!   Later in February we will share a list of needed items to fill the container.  This list will be different than the first drive because the needs are longer term.     
     
During our first drive in January the Copper Ridge Community quickly collected an impressive amount of supplies that we were able to include in a shipment that arrived at an established orphanage in Haiti just six days later.  This week on morning announcements we were able to see pictures of our donations traveling from port to port, arriving in Haiti on January 28.  This endeavor is a powerful experience for “Kids Helping Kids” and it is a remarkable statement about the caring of our community.   Our school looks forward to a long-term exchange with the Chances for Children school and orphanages. We thank you for your previous generosity and your continued support of our students as they reach out to children in need.

The library is humming with students finding and reading exciting and stimulating books.

What’s new this year is that we are keeping track of words read and tested with our Accelerated Reader program. Can you believe we already have 2 students that have read 2 million words each (Kyler N and Emilia C) , and they are 5^th graders? That’s the kind of motivation our AR program can provide. We keep cumulative totals for classes too. We have a 2^nd grade class (Mrs. Corsi’s) that has passed tests from books totaling 100,000 words.

What is AR? It is a computer program that checks student comprehension of the books they read. They find their reading level, finish the book, and take a quick quiz on any computer on campus. If they pass with 80% or better, they can enroll in one of two contests. The computer program keeps track of the words read.

Copper Ridge elementary students can win prizes like a special bookmark, or a grand prize of a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble.  A chance to win Harkins movie passes or Jamba Juice are what motivates our middle schoolers to finish their books and take a quiz.

The first quarter our students took 349 quizzes, and passed 305. The second quarter we grew to 1858 quizzes taken and 1487 passed. Wow! Third quarter results will be coming in March. Keep up that great reading!!!

Congratulations to Reilly Yeager, a 7^th grade student who won the Copper Ridge School level competition of the National Geographic Bee on January 7^th, 2010. Several students from grades 4-8 competed to answer oral questions on geography in what is the first round of the 22^nd annual National Geographic Bee.  Reilly will now take a written test, and up to 100 of the top scorers in each state will be eligible to compete in the state Bee on April 9, 2010.  Copper Ridge School is proud of all students who competed and we wish Reilly the best as she moves on with the bee.

This fall, the Copper Ridge K-5 PE Department organized an American Diabetes Association fundraiser.  Our students learned about diet, health and Diabetes in the PE classroom.  They also took part in a school walk/run, totaling 1,738 miles - the distance from Scottsdale, Arizona to Chicago, Illinois!  In connection with the fund raiser, PE teachers made a deal that was very motivating for their students -  if students could raise $10,000 for the ADA, then Mr. Philipp would dress-up like a pot belly pig - the first source of insulin.  Not only did they reach their goal, they beat it, raising $13,125!!!  Mr. Philipp had a very pink day on Friday!  Thank you to everyone that participated in this year's ADA fundraiser and helped make it a success.

Click here to view all of the Community Connection e-newsletters. This parent/community e-newsletter is published and distributed weekly by the Communications & Marketing department. Community Connection e-newsletter features District, student and school news.

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PreK Students
Community Schools
(480) 484-1400 X2211

K-5 Students
(480) 484-1400
Option 1 (Elementary)
Option 4 (Attendance)

6-8 Students
(480) 484-1500
Option 2 (Middle)
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