Hello Leopold Families! Fall is in the air and we are excited to kick off some fun fall events for Leopold!
An Apple Affair
Tomorrow night (Monday, October 7), the PFO will host An Apple Affair - an event to raise money for iPads and technology at Leopold, at Lilliana's restaurant (2951 Triverton Park Drive in Fitchburg) from 6-8 pm. This adults-only event will feature apple-themed appetizers that Chef Dave has prepared especially for this evening, as well as several exciting raffle baskets including UW Football tickets, Nutcracker tickets, a golf package, spa packages, hand-made pottery and art, fitness packages and much more!

Tickets are $30 per person and can still be purchased online here: http://www.leopoldpfo.org/an-apple-affair.html, or by sending a check to school tomorrow marked "PFO An Apple Affair".  You can also reply to this email to let me know if you are planning on coming and pay at the door.

We have had a great response to this event! If you are unable to attend, we would encourage you to consider a donation. All donations made for this event will go directly toward the purchase of technology at our school. Donations can be made here:
http://www.leopoldpfo.org/an-apple-affair.html. Leopold is a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible.

Open House
Tuesday, October 8, from 6-7 pm is the annual Leopold all-school open house. Families of students in all grades, including 4K, are encouraged to attend. Open House is a chance for students to show parents and family members where and how they work and learn each day. The PFO will serve ice cream in the cafeteria at Open House!

Get to Know Each Other Nights will continue next week with 4th Grade on October 15 and 5th grade on October 22.

Harvest Fest
We are very excited for our first-ever Harvest Fest! Harvest Fest will be held on October 19, from 1-4 pm. Come to Leopold for this fun fall event featuring face painting, cake walk, live music, hay wagon rides, pumpkin launch, gunny sack races, dunk tank, prize drawings, demonstrations in salsa dancing, rainbow loom, The Cups Song, and much, much more!

A wrist band will be required for everyone over 2 years old to come to Harvest Fest! Order forms should come home Monday for wrist bands, as well as information about donations for the cake walk and grade level prize baskets.

We need many volunteers to make this a successful event. Please visit our online volunteer signup here and sign up for one or more activities. Middle and high schoolers are welcome to sign up for volunteer shifts. We encourage every Leopold family to take at least one shift for this big event.
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409084AACAE2CA13-harvest

Additional PFO Volunteer Opportunities
Lori Zink, our school nurse, needs volunteers to help with vision screening on October 17 and October 29. This is an easy and fun way to help out at school. Just a few volunteers are needed for each shift. An online sign is available here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409084AACAE2CA13-vision

And last but not least, there is one more volunteer spot to fill for picture retake day, which will be held on November 8. That sign up can be found here:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409084AACAE2CA13-picture2.  Thanks to those of you who came out to volunteer for picture day last week!


Box Top Collection
Remember our ongoing Box Top collection contest! The deadline for our first contest is November 15. The class that collects the most Box Tops (prorated for class size) will receive a pizza party! The class that collects the most BoxTops throughout the year will receive a class party at Pump It Up. So, get cutting and turn those Box Tops in to your students teacher by November 15.

Box Top collection forms were sent home this year at registration so you could get an early start on collection! If you did not get a Box Top collection sheet, please visit our blog here http://www.leopoldpfo.org/leopold-pfo-blog.html where one is posted. Leopold gets 10cents for every Box Top collected, so be sure to ask friends and family to save them too! You can also shop through the eBox Tops marketplace to earn additional Box Tops for our school.  https://www.boxtops4education.com/marketplace

Lunch Buddies
If you are interested in really making a different in the life of a Leopold student, we have a number of students who are in need of lunch buddies. The lunch buddies program, run by Social Worker, Sandra Rivera and Vista volunteer, Adam Emmert, helps pair kids who might benefit from some one-on-one adult interaction and positive conversation. Volunteers would spend lunch and the lunch recess with a student, both eating and then doing an activity of mutual agreement such as an indoor or outdoor game, etc. Lunch and recess times vary for different grades, but placements can be made from 11-1. Volunteers can choose to spend 30 minutes (with one student) to an hour (with two students back to back) one or more days a week. If anyone is interested or knows someone who might be interested, please let Adam Emmart know. There is an application and disclosure to fill out to be a lunch buddy. Please contact Adam at aemmart@madison.k12.wi.us if you are interested in helping a student in this way!

Early Childhood Resource Fair
The Madison Early Childhood Council will host an Early Childhood Resource Fair on Tuesday, October 29 from 6-8 pm at Leopold. There will be activities including screening and resources as well as face painting, pizza and prizes.


Thanks everyone! Hope to see you tomorrow night at Lilliana's! Have a great week.

Hello families. It was a beautiful day today for our Leopold grounds cleanup! Many, many thanks to the families who came out to rake, trim, pull weeds, and more. If you drive by school tomorrow, you'll not only see an improved school grounds, but also about 80 bags of leaves we raked and stuffed! Thanks to Todd Hanson for his efforts in organizing the cleanup.

Bake Sale
If yard work wasn't your thing, perhaps you can help us out by providing baked goods or money for our election day bake sale. We will be hosting a bake sale in the Leopold lobby as our school is a polling place. If you can make something for the sale, please email Lisa Shebesta at shebesta@charter.net so that she has an idea of how much to expect. Items can be dropped off Monday or Tuesday morning at the office. If you can prepare the items in serving size portions, that would be best. If baking is not your thing, you can also make a monetary donation. Put the amount you would like to donate in an envelope marked "PFO bake sale" and turn it in to your child's teacher. We will use that money to purchase additional baked goods for the sale. We could also use a few more volunteers for the bake sale. If you can help sell these wonderful baked goods for a bit, please sign up here.

Box Top Update
Our boxtop coordinator, Jessica Kopish, has cut, counted and submitted BoxTops for the first deadline this fall. Jessica submitted 10,044 boxtops for Leopold! This is an outstanding number, and it doesn't even include the BoxTops we're currently collecting for the classroom contest. Please keep collecting, cutting and submitting BoxTops as it makes a big difference for our school!

Remember, eBoxTops count too. Visit the fundraising page of the PFO website to find a link the the eBoxTops marketplace, as well as a shopping link to raise money for sales through Amazon.

Also, I just wanted to give a little shout out the UPS Store on Fish Hatchery Road. Over the years, the manager has been very supportive of our school, an he donated the shipping to send in our Box Tops. If possible, please support the businesses that support our school!

Vision Screening Assistance
Leopold school nurse, Lori Zinck, is looking for two volunteers to help with vision screening on Nov 8th from 8-10:30 in KG and 3rd grade classrooms. Lori will give some brief instruction to volunteers from 8-8:15 before the screening starts. Please email Lori at lzinck@madison.k12.wi.us or call her at 608-204-4246 if you'd like to help.

PFO Meeting
The next PFO meeting is Tuesday, November 12, at 7 p.m., in the school library. We hope to share some exciting new ideas we are working on for the school!

Newsletter
I have the November/December newsletter all ready to go except for one final piece I'm waiting on. I will post it on the PFO website this week and send out the link next week in my email.

School Messenger Call
You will likely be receiving a call and/or email through the School Messenger system tomorrow to confirm that you are receiving these PFO/school emails. If you receive this email (which obviously you did if you're reading this), you do not need to take any further action. The School Messenger message will be to make sure we have collected all of the Leopold family emails that we can at this point in the school year.

Thanks everyone. Happy Election Day!

Kris