6th grade boys play a part in the Jr. High Boys Basketball Team having a 10-1 regular season, going 4-0 in playoffs and winning the NCIL Basketball Championship!  Way to go Jai Ramchander, Ryan Weaver-Bidwell and Brandt Bachelet!  Congratulations to Coach Matt Siemens, and Coach Brandon Bidwell.  

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Pi Contest Winners

Mr. Huey's Accelerated Math class has been studying circles for the past two weeks.  To calculate the perimeter and area of a circle, you must know pi, approximately 3.14, but the decimal point in pi actually has no end. Pi is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet and is used to represent a circle's circumference divided by its diameter.       

For extra credit, the accelerated math class was challenged to memorize as many digits of pi within a week as they could.  This year produced two winners who broke the all-time record for 6th grade.  Leo VonBargen memorized 282 digits for first place, and Robert Packham memorized 253 digits for second place, both beating the all-time record from last year of 192.  Their award?  A pie. Congratulations Leo and Robert!

 

 

 

 

Thank you to the Madrigal Singers from Ridgeview Classical School for sharing the holiday spirit with LCS 6th graders.                                    Happy Holidays!

Two Liberty Lego Robotics teams won awards at the State Championships this past Saturday. This is a significant accomplishment given that 68 teams competed in the State Championship, comprising the top 25 percent of Lego Robotics teams in Colorado.

 

Liberty team MindQuakes was awarded second place in Project Research. The team focused on the natural disaster of earthquakes and created a shield to protect pedestrians from falling debris.  Congratulations to Mind Quakes!  You make us very proud.   

Team MindQuakes: Kellen Hansen (5th grade),Charlie Wang (5th grade),Liam O'Malley (5th grade) Ian Smith (5th grade), and Coach CJ Smith.  Not pictured: Ryan Saldana (5th grade), and David Gao (5th grader at Trout)

Liberty team 5th Gear won the overall Championship award and also the Robot Performance award, and will advance to the World Festival.

5th GearTeam members: Joshua Rohrbaugh,(7th grade) Michael Hofinger, (7th grade) Taylor Reinke, (7th grade) David Rohrbaugh,(9th grade)and Mikey Werst (7th grade). The team is coached by John Rohrbaugh and assisted by Janelle Rohrbaugh.

All students who arrive after 8:00 a.m. must be signed in at the Front Office.  It is important that a reason be written as this determines if the tardy is excused or not.  

Please note that you may go to your student's classroom and wait for them to be dismissed only after 2:50 p.m.

Last Minute Holiday Shopping at Liberty 
If you haven't already bought a Liberty Common t-shirt, now is the time.  We have sizes from XS Youth-Adult Large.  All sizes are $5.00 and can be purchased in the office.    

History of Liberty Common School
Part 3 of 3

Grandparents Day 2013 - Immeasurable Success by
Erin Mihulka, Grandparents Day Chairperson

The 2013 Grandparents Day event has wrapped up and we are heading towards Christmas vacation for relaxing, special, cozy times with family and friends. I would like to put out a sincere thank you to our entire Liberty Common community, from kindergarten to seniors in high school, from parent volunteers to teachers and school administration and support staff, without their enormous effort, thoughtfulness, generosity, and enthusiasm it couldn't have been such an amazing success and rewarding experience for all.

In the next few days, I will post hundreds of wonderful photographs taken by professional photographer and Liberty parent, Amy Feist, as well some amateur shots that I took myself.  I will post these to the Liberty Common Facebook group page for everyone to enjoy. 

At the elementary, two Liberty parents and local business owners, the Beck family of

Paninos and the Mayes family of Sri Thai prepared and served approximately 500 grandparents a hot, delicious breakfast.  The grandparents enjoyed a beautiful performance from our band and choir.  The representative Cub Scouts from Liberty gave a wonderful flag ceremony and Mr. Churchill read a heartfelt and wonderful essay about his own grandparents that he wrote when he was a young student.  The grandparents engaged in a question and answer session in which they received prizes for their answers; our student council emceed the entire presentation.  After the presentation, the grandparents went to their grandchildren's classrooms and did activities and enjoyed time with them. 

At the high school, parents stepped up to the plate in an amazing display of generosity, donating so many delicious treats for the grandparents to enjoy throughout their afternoon.  The afternoon began with a presentation emceed by Laura Bradley, captain of House Domus Gratitudinis, which organized and planned the entire secondary school event along with the Grandparents Day Planning Committee; they did such a fantastic job.  The presentations included talks about the house and order systems, character education capstones, the amazing rank and scores (#1 ACT scores in the state - two years running!), as well as a very neat video with many of the teachers talking about why they love Liberty Common.  The orchestra, band, and choir performances were incredibly beautiful demonstrations of the talent and dedication of Liberty students.  There was also a demonstration of a new class, Social Dance, in-which students learn classic dances like The Charleston, Lindy Bop, Jitterbug, swing dancing, etc; what a fun, great time that was for all!

I would like to thank each parent individually who donated their time, energy, resources, and goodies to this event.  Unfortunately, I do not have every name of so many good, generous people.  Please take this as a sincere thanks to all of you.  You showed up the night before the event and helped set up beautifully decorated tables and seating for 500 guests, you showed up the morning of the event and helped with finishing touches like candle-lighting, filling balloons, and helped grandparents find seating.  You helped with food service, clean up, and break down of all those tables, chairs, and decor like lightening to make the gym ready for the kids to come eat lunch.  I was truly astounded at the volume of help.  Thank you so much, Liberty parents!

I would also like to extend a very special thank you to the high school students who came to the elementary and were such wonderful helpers.  You showed such a kind and professional attitude towards the whole event and took the initiative throughout, looking for anything you could do to help.  At the high school, the entire event was set up and orchestrated mostly by the students.  Below are all the students from the high school who took ownership of their event and generously helped at the elementary:

Elementary School in the morning:

High School in the afternoon:

- Thank you to Dawn Karr and Laura Bradley for recruiting all of the help.  You ladies

did a wonderful job.

- Thank you to our amazing support staff, Jill Ronen, Julie Russell, Bev Hanawalt,

and Richard Rencher for all you did behind the scenes to make it a successful day and for being patient with all our requests and changes.  

- Thank you to the music teachers, student council, and Cub Scout Leaders, Erin

and Dennis Ross for preparing the highlights of the entertainment for the grandparents.

- Thank you to The Grandparents Club RELLICS for contributing so much to our school and this event.  Your involvement in your grand children's education and lives makes such a positive difference to them and our entire school.

- Thank you to all the teachers for opening your classrooms and showing the grandparents what makes Liberty such a fantastic school. 

Thanks to the Grandparents Day Planning Committee:

For your dedication, time, hard work, and fantastic attitudes and enthusiasm. I hope I didn't miss a single thank you.

Most importantly, let's look forward to another great event in 2014.  To all families, teachers, staff, and administrators, have warm, cozy, relaxing holidays with your friends and loved ones.

Erin Mihulka

Chairperson - Grandparents Day Planning Committee

We want to thank you all,  teachers, parents, grandparents for all your support of the students both at the elementary school and high school of Liberty Common.  What wonderful schools for our grandchildren to receive their educations. Our charter school is making an impact . Your grandchildren are getting the best education. Interestingly,  charter schools are the fastest growing schools in the nation. Enrollment in charter schools increased by approximately 225,000 students in 2012-2013 school year.

Parents, there are still LC Relic Shirts, Proud Grandparents Polo shirts, and mugs to buy for gifts. All the shirts are at LC High School. This would be a welcome surprise and a brag on their grandchildren.  We thank you for all that was purchased on Grandparents Day.  We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

We want to encourage any grandparent to come to our next grandparents meeting on Monday, January 6th, at 9 a.m. in the teachers' lounge at Liberty Common Elementary.   We will be discussing future events and would love to see new faces and hear your input, for you are valued.  We have lots of fun and so enjoy doing the work that helps our wonderful grandchildren. Come see what we are about. 

Grandparents Club is having a social event on Thursday, January 30th at The Olive Garden in Fort Collins.  Friendly interaction will begin at 5:30 pm.  Dinner is at 6:30pm.  We would love to have many of you come and enjoy a simple night out relaxing and enjoying stories about (of course) our grandchildren.  For reservations, please call Walter and JoAnn at 970-226-4473, or let them know by e-mail.  gpc@libertycommon.org  May your Christmas break be joyful, happy, and safe.

Soak Up Some Solar Radiation.  It's safe to say our first two Liberty Lectures were outstanding events.  The third one will be, too.  LCHS's Dr. John Allen is a distinguished atmospheric chemist whose career research involved the effects of solar ultraviolet radiation exposure on humans.   Find out if your brand of sunscreen really works, and what happens if it doesn't - directly from a foremost expert on the topic.  Mark your calendar now for Tuesday, January 21st 6:30 - 7:30 PM in the LCHS Great Hall.

Liberty's Board and Administration subscribes to this view: It is the right and responsibility of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children. To help you accomplish this goal, we encourage you to learn the foundational principles contained within Liberty's charter. In upcoming Monday Notes, you'll find a new quiz question pulled right from our charter. Test yourself. The correct answer can be found in the notes as well.  The charter can be found on our website. 

How Well Do You Know Liberty's Charter?

Discipline and classroom disruptions will be handled

a)        According to the Poudre School District Code of Conduct

b)        Using corporal punishment when possible

c)         Within the classroom when possible

d)        Only if the teacher has included it in that day's lesson plan

 

Other Fundraising Opportunities.

"Cartridges for Kids" gives us cash for your old printer cartridges, cell phones, ipods, video games and consoles, laptops, GPS devices, PDAs, digital cameras and DVDs.  "Box Tops for Education," Campbell's soup labels and Morning Fresh Dairy bottle caps also provide our school with additional funding.  Drop-off point is in the front office.