Hi Leopold Families. Sorry fro the delay in my weekly email. Here's an update on things going on at Leopold:
Get to Know
Our Get to Know Each Other Nights continue next week with Grade 3. We have had a great turnout for these events and we look forward to meeting even more of you in the upcoming weeks. If you have not already RSVPd through the handout or email, please let me know if your family will be attending any of the following:
October 1 - Third Grade
October 8 - no Get to Know night - come to all-school open house and stop by the cafeteria for ice cream from the PFO!
October 15 - Fourth Grade
October 22 - Fifth Grade

An Apple Affair
Flyers have been sent home with all students this week for an exciting upcoming event. The Leopold PFO will hold An Apple Affair - an event to raise money to purchase iPads for Leopold, at Lilliana's restaurant on Monday October 7, from 6-8 pm. This is adults-only event for Leopold families and anyone in our community who would like to enjoy socializing, great food and drink, and exciting raffle prizes. You do need to purchase tickets for An Apple Affair. You can visit the PFO webpage for the event here:
http://www.leopoldpfo.org/an-apple-affair.html

Harvest Fest
Excitement for our first-even Harvest Fest is growing. We are looking forward to many interactive experiences for our families. Classes will participate in pumpkin decorating ahead of the event and Harvest Fest activities will include a pumpkin launch, hay rides, cake walk, face painting, prize drawings, dunk tank, live music, food booths and more. Flyers with more details will be coming home soon, including information on how to purchase wrist bands and donate for the cake walk and grade-level prize baskets.

Picture Day
School picture day is next Thursday, October 3. Order forms are going home now if you would like to purchase pictures of your child. We need some parent volunteers to help get kids in line and ready for their pictures. This is a fun and easy way to volunteer at Leopold. The online sign up for volunteering can be found here:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409084AACAE2CA13-picture1/1062747

Upper Grade Academic Events and Celebrations
Dates for this year’s important academic events and celebrations have been set.  Our Geography Bee is scheduled forDecember 20, at 1:15PM in our cafeteria and will include the top four finishers of each fifth grade classroom competition. Our Spelling Bee will be held on January 16, at 1PM also in our school cafeteria and will include the top four students from each classroom spelling bee competitions in grade five.  Fourth and fifth grade student teams for the annual Book Bowl will begin forming just prior to winter break.  Students will be responsible for indicating interest in participating on a team.  The school Book Bowl events are schedule to take place in mid-March.  Our fifth grade Science Fair is scheduled for May 23 at 1:00PM and our fifth grade culmination ceremony will be on June 10 at 1:00PM in our cafeteria.
Pick Up, Drop Off, and Parking at Leopold
I've had some questions regarding parking and pick up at Leopold. Here is a brochure from the school that explains things. The brochure is posted on our website.
http://www.leopoldpfo.org/uploads/1/2/5/5/12555908/leopoldtrafficsafetyplanbrochure20112012.pdf
 

Ongoing Fundraising Efforts
Remember all the easy and helpful ways to raise money for Leopold:
Target RedCard
BoxTops for Education
Campbell's Labels for Education
Mabel's Labels
My Coke Rewards
Amazon.com

You can find details on these programs here:
http://www.leopoldpfo.org/activities-and-fundraisers.html

Hello Leopold Families. I can hardly believe it's the final week of school. I know that those of us with 5th graders feel like just yesterday was the first day of kindergarten for our kids.

Last Day of School
If you did not already mark your calendars, please note that the last day of school, Thursday, June 13, is a FULL DAY. Originally scheduled as an early release, this is make up time for winter snow days and kids will not get out until 2:32.

PBS Recognition
I am please to share with our families that the Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction has again selected Leopold as a Wisconsin PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) School of Distinction. Leopold was one of 87 schools statewide to be recognized as a School of Distinction for the 2012‐13 school year. Congratulations to our staff for their hard work on this initiative.

Summer Garden Help
Jennifer Compton, Leopold VISTA, is looking for families to adopt the garden this summer!  Ten volunteers are needed to adopt the garden for a week at a time.  It can be as little work as watering it a few times during your week and as much fun as taking your family out every day for picnics, weeding, watering, etc. The dates are: 6/17-6/23, 6/24-6/30, 7/1-7/7, 7/8-7/14, 7/15-7/21, 7/22-7/28, 7/29-8/4, 8/5-8/11, 8/12-8/18, 8/19-8/25, 8/26-9/1, 9/1-9/8 (or every week Mon-Sun. starting June 17 and ending Sept. 8.)  Jennifer will send a reminder e-mail to families the day before their week starts with a full set of instructions/information.

Please contact Jennifer at (608) 204-4334 (o) or jcompton@madison.k12.wi.us to sign up!

Bake Sale
Leopold's UNITY Group will be holding a bake sale on Tuesday, June 11 from 7:20-8:30 am and 12:15-2:45 pm in the Leopold lobby. If you would like to make a donation or volunteer for the bake sale, please contact Billie Johnson at 658-4196 or Myra McNair at 204-4336.

Mallards Game
If you want to join Leopold families at the Pepsi Tailgate party at the Madison Mallards game on August 10, you can still order tickets. Please fill out the order form and return to school this week or mail with payment to:
Leopold PFO
Attn: Kris Aman / Madison Mallards
2602 Post Road
Madison, WI 53713

If you need a form, please email me and I will send you one.

Fundraising
Please continue to support our school over the summer months! Remember:

• Collect box tops all year long. We will send home sheets again in the fall when school starts and it's nice to have a big stash ready for your child's class. You can also shop online and collect eBoxTops.
  
• Use your Target debit or credit card. Make sure you've selected Leopold as your school of choice to receive 1% back from every purchase. You also get 5% off of everything you purchase at Target. Remember to ask grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles to select Leopold too!
  
• Shop at Amazon. By going to the PFO website and clicking on the amazon ad to enter amazon.com, Leopold will automatically get a percentage of everything you purchase.
  
• My Coke Rewards points. Collect these points off of coke products, then enter them online and donate your points to Leopold!
  
• Labels for Education. Continue to cut out these labels and turn them in. We use the points to purchase products needed at school.

You can find more details on all of these programs here.

Summer Communication
I do not have plans to send regular communications over the summer. I'm sure you're all ready for a break from me! I will drop those families from our mail list that have only a 5th grader at Leopold, but if you no longer have a student at Leopold and continue to receive my emails, please email me to let me know and I'll remove your address from my list. If you know of any incoming kindergarten families, please send them my way, I'd love to get names added as we can and welcome those new families to Leopold.

PFO Board
The PFO would like to welcome Sara Dawkins to the Board! Sara will work with Jill in transitioning into the Vice President role. We are so excited to have Sara join us. We are working on transitioning our treasurer position as well, and we will let you know when that is finalized. Our PFO Board has worked very hard this year to do great things for our school. We hope that both families and staff find our efforts beneficial. Just last week we added some new furniture to the school lobby to give it a warmer and more welcoming feel. We welcome any feedback you have and we look forward to another fun year ahead.

Thank you!

Kris

Hello Leopold Families!  Lots of news to bring you this Thursday night!

Important Dates
The 4K registration for MMSD residents is February 04, 2013 from 1:00-6:00 PM at all MMSD elementary schools except Lincoln, Randall and Marquette. Although Leopold is not a 4K site for next fall, students in our attendance area can register at our school for the program. I will post the full announcement for this on the PFO blog.

If you have an incoming kindergarten student (like me!), kindergarten registration is March 4, 2013 from 1:00-6:00 PM. Please share this information with friends and neighbors. If you know someone who would like more information about Leopold, or to take a tour of our school, please have them call the school office at 204-4240. 

On March 12, 2013 Leopold will hold a meeting for all incoming kindergarten parents at 6 p.m. This will be an informational meeting to learn more about our school and the kindergarten options available (dual immersion, traditional classrooms, etc.).

If you have a 5th grader headed to middle school next year, please join us on February 12 at 7 p.m. in the library, for a middle school informational night. Principals from Cherokee and Wright middle schools, as well as our COPS officer, teachers and a parent panel will all present.

There is no school next Monday, January 21 in honor of MLK day.

Report cards are scheduled to come out on February 1.

Book Fair
Leopold’s annual book fair will be open from Monday, January 28 - Thursday, January 31. We are looking for parent volunteers to help at the book fair. Volunteers help students identify books they like, and when open to families, help shoppers find books and check out. This is a fun and easy way to get involved at our school and there are shifts available at all times of the day. Please follow the link to sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409084AACAE2CA13-2013

Leopold Night at Qdoba
Qdoba Mexican Grill, located at 5401 Caddis Bend Road in Fitchburg, will host a fundraising night for the Leoopld PFO this Tuesday, January 22, from 5-9 p.m. For this fundraiser, you MUST bring a small flyer in to show you are from Leopold (saying you're from Leopold isn’t enough!). The brightly colored flyer will go home with students next Monday or Tuesday, and is also attached to this email and will be posted on the website. If you don't get one home from school, or want to give one to friends and neighbors, feel free to print on out yourself. We will try to have extras available wherever we can but we are prohibited from handing them out at the door.

Box Tops and Fundraising
Our wonderful BoxTop cutting extraordinaire, Jessica, submitted 11,554 box tops last time around (this is UP from previous reports!). Another collection is underway, with BoxTops due March 8. Congratulations to Mr. Langer's 5th grade class on their extraordinary collection last time around with 1,356 BoxTops collected!

As a reminder, you can also visit the BoxTops marketplace (http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/marketplace/Default.aspx) to earn eBoxtops when you shop online.

Another way to collect BoxTops is to visit http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/clip/Projects.aspx for ideas on how to make a collection container to put in your office break room, church lobby, grandma’s senior center, or other place where others can stick their box tops for us!

Please remember to apply for a Target RedCard, either credit or debit, to support our school; shop through the amazon.comlink on our PFO website; collect My Coke Rewards points and donate them to our school; and keep turning in Campbell’s labels and pop tabs. All of these are easy ways to use what we do anyway to easily earn money for our school!

Timberwolf Trample
Planning is underway for the 8th Annual Timberwolf Trample, which will be held on May 11, this year. We are still in need of many volunteers. As the time gets closer, you will be contacted for specific tasks, but if you are interested in helping with the planning or the fundraising, we very much could still use the assistance. Our PFO meeting this week generated some great new ideas, so the more fresh ideas we an bring to this event, the better it will be! We have some fun changes in store for this year’s Trample to both increase involvement and simplify the day.

New this year - we will be holding a student design contest for our Trample t-shirt. All students are welcome to participate! We are finalizing details now, and we will get everyone involved in the fun of designing this year’s tee. Watch for more details to come.

Thanks everyone.
Kris

Hello families. Did you miss an email from me last week? A rare occasion - I had nothing to say! Don't worry, I'm going to make up for it.

Timberwolf Trample
I know I've mentioned this before, but Leopld's biggest fundraiser for the year, our Timberwolf Trample fun run, is scheduled for Saturday, May 11. We are still in desperate need of organizers for this event. If you're the type that loves big projects, you can take it on in it's entirety, but if you like to help on a smaller scale, we can also organize by committee. We did this for FunFest and it worked quite well.  This fundraiser brings in approximately $10,000 for our school so it is very important that we keep it going! You don't have to be a runner, you don't have to be a fundraiser, we can work with you to find the right role if you are willing to help. Please contact me, or anyone on the PFO, if you might be willing to at least consider this really fun, exciting and beneficial opportunity to support your students and staff!

Easy Fundraising
I'm going to keep hammering home these easy ways to make money for our school because I much prefer these options to having to send our kids out to sell wrapping paper or cookie dough! Many of these are especially helpful during the holidays:

1) BoxTops - keep 'em coming. The deadline for the first class contest is Dec. 4 (Tuesday) but we can take them any time. Send them with your child for their teacher to collect, or bring them to the office. We are on pace for a record-setting year!

2) Target RedCard - A debit or credit card option. No cost to you. You get 5% off all of your purchases, free shipping for online orders, and 1% of your total comes back to Leopold. Last we checked, there were maybe less than 20 families with the card, but we still make $1,500! Imagine the potential!!

3) amazon.com - if you need to order anything on amazon.com - from lotion to toys to books - first go towww.leopoldpfo.org and click on the amazon link right on the home page. Then, just shop as normal throughamazon.com. By entering through our ad, we automatically get a percentage from each purchase. Tell your parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, neighbors, anyone!

4) eBoxtops marketplace - start here for your (non amazon.com) shopping and leopold will get eBoxtops for your purchases. You can start here, go to target.com, get eBoxtops, 5% off, free shipping and 1% back for Leopold. Wow! So easy.

5) Continue to bring in your campbell's labels, pop tabs, and enter points from all coke products atwww.mycokerewards.com, as we use all of those programs as well.

On the fundraising note, our election day bake sale was very successful, raising over $400. Thanks to Lisa Shebesta for organizing the sale, and to all of those who baked, volunteered, or bought treats! 

Our Little Cesars night was less successful than in the past, raising $100. We will work to improve communication so that our spring Little Cesar's night can be more successful. Little Cesars is a great community partner and we thank them for working with us!

Giving Tree
'Tis the Season! To show our appreciation to the dedicated Leopold Elementary staff, the PFO is sponsoring a "Giving Tree." We have asked all staff members to share a wish list for their classroom/department. A “giving tree” will soon be put up on the wall opposite the main entrance, or check out www.leopoldpfo.org, to see which wishes you would like to grant. The PFO will be collecting the gifts and presenting them to the staff members on Friday, December 21st.  Smaller items can be dropped off at the main office between now and December 20th. Please contact Erin to make arrangements for larger items.  Do not wrap your gifts, but be sure to securely attach the recipient's name on the gift. Unless you would like to remain anonymous, include your name as well. Some wishes are time sensitive such as volunteering, custom-made gifts, or back-ordered items.  If you are interested in fulfilling a request that will not be available by the 21st, please contact Erin and she will write your contact information in a card to be given to the recipient.

Some of the wishes on the list have a hyperlink to show a specific item. These links are not intended to endorse a particular business. Online access to the wish list allows parents, family, and friends an opportunity to participate in the “Giving Tree”. To minimize duplication, once you have decided on an item to give, please contact Erin by e-mail or phone, and she will remove the item from the website and/or Giving Tree.

Please direct any questions to:
Erin Farrell Adamany
Chair, PFO Giving Tree
erin@edgeofyourseat.com
(608) 513-9744

Thank you for your generosity!

Note: District policy states that teachers cannot accept gifts of commercial value from pupils or parents. However, as a 501(3)(c) organization, the Leopold PFO can accept donations and, in turn, give those gifts to the classroom where they are requested. Gifts become the property of Leopold Elementary, and are marked as such. A receipt is available below for tax purposes, where applicable.

Info from Leopold / MMSD
Some new information from the district has been posted on the PFO website for easy access:
Please visit here to read updated information on the district's policy on severe weather days.
Please visit here to read about MSCR Winter 2013 Programs.
Please visit here to read about changes to MMSD Summer Enrichment for 2013.

That's all for this week. Thank you for your dedication to our school!