Miss Elynne’s Class
Ms. Jan’s Class
Kathy’s Class
Kim’s Class
Mr. Beckstrom’s Class
Ms. Winstead's Class


Miss Elynne's Class
Fostering self-confidence, relating positively to peers, gaining an awareness of self in relation to community, keeping curiosity alive and promoting joy and excitement in learning are key components to this classroom which has many five- and six-year olds.

Each day begins with a student drumming to announce the start of Morning Meeting. This is a time for greeting each class member, reading the Morning Message, checking the weather and singing the appropriate weather song, bringing the calendar up to date and noting the jobs for the day.  Students sing the "Days of the Week" and the "Months of the Year." The classroom offers a variety of Interest Centers to encourage creative exploration. These include a puppet theatre, building area, kitchen and dress-up area, math center, a science discovery center, a fresh water aquarium, art, writing and listening centers and a reading center filled with great books and cuddly animals.

Each morning children break into ability appropriate math groups and those in Miss Elynne’s math class become engaged in a problem solving approach to math development through games and manipulatives. The children also use pictorial and symbolic representations in their mathematical communications. Math goals are based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards.

Social studies begin with self, home and community, moving toward a global awareness. For example, the theme of water ties into health and well being of self, our use of water in our daily lives reflects upon the home environment and moves to the town as the class explores where our waste water goes and how to keep our clean water clean. As watersheds are studied the local awareness grows to include geographic features of the state and the role they play in providing clean water.

Literacy is rich with guided, choral and individual reading. We use the Reading A-Z book program developed by Pinnell along with trade books.  Big Books provide excitement with predictable stories that lend themselves to original rewriting by the children. A class word wall develops sight vocabulary and aids in spelling and writing. Phonemic awareness is expanded as we enjoy words and phrases from other languages as well as our own. Journaling is encouraged during Interest Centers and is a part of Little Bear’s weekend visits with each child. The children listen to various tales of Little Bear by Mindark and our very own Little Bear accompanies a child home on Friday with his toothbrush and journal and returns with some highlights of his visit recorded by his host family.

Twice a week, the children leave their regular classroom to enjoy science, art, wellness/health, world languages and music with Focus Teachers.  Field trips offer the children a chance to expand their knowledge of the world beyond the classroom. They include scientific and cultural trips, seasonal experiences and community service projects. The day bustles with eager learners exploring their world in creative ways through communication and connection with materials, ideas and people.


Jan's Class   
Knowing that the experience of school can have great impact on the future social and emotional, physical and intellectual development of our gifted children, each classroom must be designed with this in mind. Their environment must include places where children may create, sing, organize, laugh, discover, play, make learning meaningful and explore.  Each child must feel safe, respected, and welcomed. Ms. Jan's class provides these important experiences and expectations for children. Each day, the children are greeted and our morning begins with a song or two, Chester, a beloved raccoon puppet, and announcements about the day.  The children are told of any change to the schedule so they might predict the day's events.

Math time is always comes first in our daily schedule at our school.  Each day, some of my homeroom children go to other classes, and other children from other homerooms come to me.  It is a wonderful opportunity for children to get to know other RMS children, a time for math ideas and exploration to take place.

After math, the children are off to enjoy a focus class, either wellness or science.

Reading and writing are scheduled mostly every day. During this time, the children are placed into guided reading groups.  Reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are elements of the reading process. The children will dig deeper into the meaning of the text by offering their schema, predictions, connections and reflections.  Discussion is an important aspect of our small groups.

During the morning, the children will socialize, eat snack, and enjoy outdoor play. 

After lunch, the children will either go to music or art, enjoy silent reading, and later will come social studies. Learning about communities, our world, each other and ourselves are all part of our studies.  Rich literature, maps, art and other means of expression are all encouraged and utilized. Learning how to research is also an important part of investigation, exploration and curiosity for children.

Field trips and guest speakers are an important part of extending our learning as well.  During the day, there are many teaching opportunities which are organic, experiential and authentic.  These moments help us to understand how to relate to others, ourselves and our environment.

In addition to spontaneous opportunities, the purposeful planning of open ended activities whether they be art or academically oriented, allow for creative expression, skill development, independent problem solving and meaningful discovery.  Documentation of these experiences is important to realize growth over time in each child.

Math is ability-grouped and several students leave the classroom while others arrive for math class. Kathy teaches second grade math following the Investigations curriculum and supplementing it with lots of hands-on activities, computer programs and an assortment of materials requested by students and geared toward their math needs.

Language arts includes Scholastic News, Junior Great Books, independent and individualized reading and comprehension activities, grammar, creative writing, cursive writing, individualized spelling, journal writing, typing practice and paired reading.

Twice a week students attend classes in science, wellness/health, music, world languages and art.

Kathy loves to include field trips, videos, guest speakers and craft projects that support what the class is learning. This year’s curriculum follows the Big Bang theory of our solar system up to approximately 492 AD. We will explore dinosaurs, cavemen, ancient Egypt, ancient China and ancient Greece. Field trips may include the public library, Denver Art Museum, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.


Kim's Class  
Kim teaches a class of energetic and enthusiastic six-year-olds. The day begins with a quick “check in” to see how everyone is feeling and a personal greeting from the teacher and their peers. This helps to establish the proper attitude needed to dive into the formal school day.

The students then go to math groups with other students from throughout the school who are similar in ability. This allows opportunity for interaction with students from other classes and in some cases, other teachers. The students in Kim’s math group concentrate on a 1st-2nd grade level. They work on computation skills to use while completing problem-solving activities, multi-step word problems, logic skills and discovering uses of math in everyday life.

Language arts instruction incorporates Daily Oral Language practice involving finding punctuation, capitalization and grammatical and spelling errors as a group.  The students use these skills to write sentences in a daily journal and to begin learning the process of creative writing. Examples of writing assignments includes writing “showing” sentences, describing their senses, various forms of poetry and working into short stories. Throughout the week students complete reading packets, SRA reading kits and grammar activities at individual levels. Often the students have the option of working alone or with a partner at the same level. The students also complete weekly spelling activities and vocabulary words as an introduction to developing consistent homework routines. They complete written book reports at home at their own pace with incentives.  We use the first grade Junior Great Books series for literature and discussion.

Videos, field trips, arts/crafts projects and guest speakers are used to enhance the current timeline. Timeline studies (Prehistory to 492 AD) are further expanded through specialized instruction in art, music and wellness. We use the second grade edition of the Scholastic News to keep up with current events. Like other students, Kim’s class participates in music, art, science, wellness/health and world language classes twice a week.

Along with class projects, each student presents two book projects and has the option of an Independent Project on a topic of their choice. Affective development is addressed with group discussions, consistent reinforcement, literature and weekly "warm fuzzies.”


Mr. Beckstromm's Class
This year, Mr. Bee’s class is comprised of students who are seven, eight, and nine years old. The curriculum is designed as an integral piece of The Autonomous Learner Model, a learning plan for gifted students designed by Dr. George Betts of the University of Northern Colorado. The year begins with the following activities: self-understanding, understanding giftedness, group building and developing awareness for opportunities and responsibilities. Next, students build interpersonal skills in cooperative team learning activities as they practice new learning skills. Activity lists are prepared for students to choose individual activities, which meet both group and individual objectives. Having a choice increases student motivation, and allows them to use their strongest skills to practice other weaker ones. Making choices allows children to practice making decisions. The use of a Study Zone time, during the last 45 minutes of each day, provides the opportunity for students to choose activities and learn to plan their own time to meet required deadlines. 

Mr. Bee’s students enjoy active learning experiences that include simulations.  These group activities are designed to simulate real life, thus making the lessons more realistic, relevant and exciting.  Simulations are group-building lessons that often introduce important new skills while integrating skills from many subject areas.  Planned simulations for this year include units in language arts, social studies and even math.  New learning skills are introduced and practiced as students move toward the goal of becoming autonomous learners. Skills in language arts include Greek and Latin roots, descriptive writing, writing mechanics, proper grammar, public speaking, reading books from different genres, reading comprehension and critical thinking which includes answering interpretive questions. Reading materials include chapter books chosen by the students for Reading Contracts and text materials for social studies.  Our social studies timeline includes events from the Big Bang's creation of the universe, to pre-historic man, to ancient civilizations, and finally to the fall of the Roman Empire.  One early simulation this year includes students building a precise model of Stonehenge using bricks of stone in the middle of the classroom floor.

Students in Mr. Bee's class begin to explore subjects that are unfamiliar to them.  An exploration may only last one or two days, and will often result in acquiring new knowledge to be shared with the rest of the class. Learning to conduct an investigation is the next step; research skills are taught, and then an in-depth study may take several weeks. Investigations culminate in either group or individual projects, which are shared with the class, as students teach each other what has been learned. Students learn to question their classmates’ sources of information presented in a report.
Mr. Bee's students have world language, art, music and wellness/health twice a week, science three times, and a social skills class once each week. In addition, they have math four times each week, and language arts and social studies everyday in their homeroom class. As Mr. Beckstrom states, “Our students come to us with a vast array of knowledge and talents. Our job is to try to perpetuate our students’ natural curiosity and encourage a love for learning, and especially support their emotional and social development.”


Ms. Winstead's Class
Amy’s class is composed of engaged, inquisitive learners ranging in age from eight to eleven years old. An enthusiasm for learning is embraced by all who enter this room. Amy strives to provide a learning environment that fuels this desire to learn by encouraging students to explore, create, question and evaluate. To meet the wide range of learning styles and needs of the students many different teaching techniques are employed. Students work on independent projects, in small groups and in cooperative learning situations. The classroom fosters respect, responsibility and safety for all students. These affective needs are met through frequent class meetings and Operation Respect led by school counselor Annette Sheely.  

Each day is jam packed with excitement and many opportunities for enrichment and creativity. It all begins with a Morning Meeting. The responsibility of leading this meeting rotates between the students in the class. The student leader reads the morning message to the class and facilitates a discussion of the scheduled events and activities for the day. The leader is also in charge of bringing in at least two current events throughout the week. Other students participate in the morning meeting by reflecting on quotes or sharing their passions, talents, stories and other areas of interest. Students have been known to play the violin, recite poetry or share cartoon creations during this time we call, “Tell Us More!”

After the Morning Meeting, students attend math groups. Math classes are ability grouped giving students the opportunity to explore topics thoroughly and engage with students from other classrooms. Amy’s math class uses hands-on activities and inquiry based techniques to guide students through a rigorous curriculum.

Language Arts activities are integrated into all aspects of the curriculum. However, students are directly involved in literature circle discussions, independent reading projects and whole class book discussions. A wide variety of literature is used including novels, short stories, poetry, essays, and speeches. Students keep response journals and are encouraged to think critically and analyze ideas, vocabulary and structure. Students also participate in daily writing activities. These range from journal responses to larger compositions and on-demand tasks. The Six Traits of Writing and the Writing Process are used to guide instruction. Students have opportunities to experience many different genres of writing including: persuasive, expository, narrative and descriptive.

In Social Studies students are exploring prehistory through the fall of the Roman Empire. A wide variety of process skills including reading, writing, observing, debating, role-playing and critical thinking are used while studying the history, geography, government and economic systems of this time period.

Annette Sheeley is also bringing An Evening of Eminence to Amy’s class this year. This long-term research project allows students to explore giftedness and eminent people throughout history. The research culminates in a role-play performance at the end of the school year.

“The thing I like most about RMS is… the hard stuff.”
- An 8 year-old girl