It's not looking much like March begins this week! Good luck with the never-ending shoveling!! Here are some Leopold updates for your fireside reading pleasure:
Snow Day Make-Up I have been asked to let families know that we will have a full day of school on the last day, June13. This will allow us to make up the 277 minutes we are short due to snow days. T-shirt design contest Our first-ever Timber Wolf Trample t-shirt design contest is in full swing! Entires are due next Tuesday, March 5. For an entry form and more information, please visit the Timber Wolf Trample page here on our website. Please plan on attending the PFO meeting with your students on Tuesday, March 12, to participate in judging the contest entries and helping to pick the official Trample t-shirt design!! Yearbooks Yearbook order forms have been sent home with all students. Please remember to return your orders in the next few weeks so your student can have their yearbook for the end of the school year. Yearbooks from past years are available in limited quantity. Please visit the PFO website yearbook page here to see if you are missing any past yearbooks that you would like to add to your collection, and find instructions on how to order. You can also find information on submitting your photos from field trips, activities and other school functions to the yearbook on this page. Parents of 5th graders: If you would like to include a congrats / good luck / tribute ad for your 5th grader in the yearbook, information and a form will be sent home soon on how to do that. The deadline for those ads will be March 18th. Fresh Fruits and Veggies program The Fresh Fruits and Veggies calendar for March will be posted on the blog this week. Help your student find and their favorite goodies on the calendar! PFO Movie Night Due to low attendance at this year's PFO movie nights, the PFO has decided not to renew the license we purchased last year that allowed us to show the movies. The final movie night will be April 16 at Open Schoolhouse. Many thanks to Kristina and Tyler Kosiorek for all the work they've done over the past two years to organize movie night. Little Cesars Night Leopold had increased attendance at our February 19, Little Cesars fundraising night. While only 15 Leopold families came out to Little Cesars in November, 34 families stopped in for pizza this month. As a result, we made $125 for our effort. Thanks to Little Cesars for their continued support of Leopold. Plastic bags for the Trample The PFO uses plastic shopping bags (like the ones you get from Target... while shopping with your RedCard... thus giving back to Leopold...) for sorting registration materials for our Timber Wolf trample entrants. If you have plastic bags at home that you would like to get rid of, please send them to school with a note marked PFO and we will put them to good use. A Note from Mr. Burkholder regarding WKCE Score Reports New WKCE Cut Points: Early in March, parents will be mailed their children's WKCE score reports. As many of you already know, the WKCE is an annual state assessment required of virtually all public school students in grades 3-10. As you review your child's score report, please keep in mind that the WKCE is now using the much more rigorous cut scores of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. As such, it is now much more difficult to obtain scores of Proficient and Advanced on the WKCE assessment. In general, the majority of Wisconsin students who scored Advanced on the WKCE last year will now score at the Proficient level absent any increase in their scores. In addition, without a significant increase in their test scores, students who last year scored at the proficient level will now likely score at the basic level. These new norms are not unique to Leopold, but are new to all students throughout the State of Wisconsin. Please know that the percentages of students scoring Proficient and Advanced on the WKCE at schools throughout the state has dropped significantly this year as compared to prior years. Finally, the WKCE is a single measure of a student's academic performance. To understand a student's true achievement and his or her instructional needs, teachers use a variety of assessments. Because the WKCE is no longer well aligned to the needs of students and schools, the State is phasing it out, with next year being the last year it will be used prior to it being replaced. Thanks everyone! Kris
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Hello Leopold Families. I hope you're hungry for pizza because this Tuesday, February 19, is Leopold Night at Little Cesars! Stop in any time between 11am and 10pm, and be sure to bring the small yellow flyer that came home in backpacks last week! If you didn't get a flyer or can't find yours, I will post them on the blog for your to print. 25% of the sales at the Fish Hatchery Road Little Cesars during this timeframe will be donated to Leopold.
Box Top Collection Deadline! Remember, Box Tops for this round of collection are due Feb. 21!! this is a change from what the collection sheet says, so be sure to get your kids cutting this week! New Collection Boxes In an effort to clean up our school lobby, the PFO has put up metal mailboxes for the collection of Box Tops, Labels for Education and pop tabs. The mailboxes are mounted low enough for students to reach, are clearly marked for each item, and have a slot on top to slip in the items. The mailboxes are mounted on the wall across from the Post Road doors. Timber Wolf Trample t-shirt Design Contest Backpack flyers were sent home last week for our first-ever Trample t-shirt design contest. So get your budding artist working! Entries are due March 5. Entry forms will also be posted on the Timber Wolf Trample page of the PFO website as soon as it's ready. Trample Volunteers We are still in need of a couple key volunteers for the Timber Wolf Trample. We are thankful to those who have already stepped up to handle important aspects of this fun day for our school. If you would please consider helping with food, race logistics (ribbons, bibs, etc.), or organizing grade-level grants for teachers who help out, our school would benefit greatly from your time. School Announcements
Hello families. A mid-week update for you because I want to invite all of you to our school BOOK FAIR! This week, all students have visited the book fair with their class and identified books they like. If you would like to have your child purchase a book, you can either send money with them to purchase books at school themselves, or visit the book fair with your child. The book fair will be open tomorrow, Wednesday, January 30, from 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. If you can't make it to school tomorrow, you can also visit the book fair online through February 12, here.
Children must be accompanied by an adult if attending the book fair after school. Cash, checks made payable to Leopold School, as well as credit cards are accepted at the book fair. The bookfair is a fundraiser for the Leopold library to purchase special items and additional books. Classroom teachers also have "wish lists" at the book fair, so considering buying a book for a teacher's library. Thanks to the parents who have volunteered to work at the bookfair. It's always fun to go and see so many familiar faces! Since I'm emailing anyway, here are some other things... Timber Wolf Trample T-Shirt Design Contest The 8th Annual Timber Wolf Trample, a one-mile fun run, will be held May 11. Planning is in full swing for this awesome event! New this year, the PFO will be holding a Trample t-shirt design contest. A backpack flyer will be coming home in the next couple weeks with details on this contest. We can't wait to involve our students in the t-shirt design and parents and students in judging! So, get your markers and crayons ready!! The Trample t-shirt will be available to students who raise $15 or more for our school. A side note for your artists: Google is holding it's annual Doodle 4 Google contest where kids can enter a Google Doodle around the theme, "My Best Day Ever....". The overall winner receives a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 technology grant for their school. Details can be found here. Adopt-a-School Partners I had the privilege today of attending a meeting of Leopold's Adopt-A-School partners. If you are not familiar, the Adopt-a-School program is led by the Foundation for Madison's Public Schools, and pairs public schools in our district with local businesses to form partnerships that enriches everyone involved. Leopold is fortunate to have a very successful program, with partners that include the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR), Group Health Cooperative (GHC), The Bridge Madison, and Zimbrick. Representatives from these organizations meet throughout the school year to see how they can help support our school. Support comes in many forms: financial, volunteers, tutors, lunch buddies, clothing drives, BoxTop collection, pen pals, support of our Giving Tree wish list, and more. It's important that we, as parents, understand the support we have in our community from these wonderful companies and individuals. So, if you hear your 5th grader talk about their pen pal, or your kindergartener mention their lunch buddy, be sure to have them tell you more! If you, as a parent or guardian of a Leopold student, are interested in further volunteer opportunities at our school outside of the "regular" PFO opportunities, here are some: Current and Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities at Leopold
Now let's all hope the weather is manageable tomorrow so we don't have to stay in school through June! Have a great night. 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 Welcome back, Leopold families, from an extended winter break. After 18 days away from school, it's definitely time to get back to routine!
Timberwolf Trample Key Roles In the next week or so, you will see a flyer come home with your student asking all parents to consider volunteering for one of two key positions for our Timberwolf Trample fundraiser. We are very much in need of an overall event chair and a fundraising chair. These two important roles are needed so that we can begin work on this wonderful annual event. The event normally generates around $10,000 for our school, so without it, we will definitely feel the pinch! Grade Level Grants Speaking of fundraising, if you've ever wondered how the PFO spends some of our money, a key expenditure in our budget is our annual Grade Level Grants to teachers. This year, each grade was given $1,000 to purchase items of their choice. Sometimes items are purchased for an entire grade, and sometimes teachers choose to divide up the money for individual classroom needs. We are currently in the process of purchasing the items from teacher lists, and working with the school to purchase some of the requests for classroom supplies that came through on our list. This year, the PFO went through the many books teachers requested, compared prices from various online stores, and saved about $150 ordering many of the books through amazon.com (plus we get back a percentage of the sales through our online ad!). We want you to know we spend the PFO's money wisely and do what we can to get great resources in each classroom! School Directory Our school directory is now complete, and for the first time it is posted online, on a password-protected page. You can visit www.leopoldpfo.org and click on "Leopold Elementary School Directory" and then enter the password: 2602PostRoad (note the caps and no spaces). This will allow you to access the directory from wherever you are, and will saves the PFO significant printing costs. Middle School Transition Meeting If you are the parent of a current 5th grader, mark your calendar for Tuesday, February 12, at 7 p.m. We will be hosting Cherokee principal, Dave Watkins and James C. Wright principal Angie Crawford, who will each give an overview of their schools. COPS officer Tom Gross from the Madison Police Department, as well as a parent panel, will be available for questions you have as we prepare for this important transition. Thanks everyone. Have a great week back! 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! |
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