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

• Read Your Heart Out/ African American Parent Involvement Day
  2/8 at 7:45 AM
  Myra McNair 204-4336/ [email protected]

• Black History Month Celebration
  2/21 from 6-7:30 PM
  Theresa Sanders 204-4279/ [email protected]
  Sue Robinson 204-4261/ [email protected]

• Science Night
  3/5 from 6-8 PM
  Kelsey Kosterman 204-4296/ [email protected]

• Lunch Buddies
  Once per week during one of the following lunch/recess periods (K and 3rd 11-11:35 AM, 2nd and 4th 11:40-12:15, 1st and 5th 12:20-12:55 PM)
  Adam Emmart 204-4334/ [email protected]

• Individual Student Tutoring
  Varying times and days are available, dependent on class schedules and tutor’s schedules.
  Adam Emmart 204-4334/ [email protected]

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.

Come out to support our school!

5401 Caddis Bend Rd., Fitchburg, 608.442.9400

Fundraising Event Tuesday, January 22, from 5-9pm

You must bring your flyer to get credit for Leopold!
Flyers are being sent home with students and are also available at here

Dine in or Carry Out Orders

10% of our sales will benefit the Leopold Elementary PFO

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

Four Year-Old Kindergarten (4K) Registration
All children who are four years old on or before September 1, 2013 and live in the Madison Metropolitan School District are eligible to participate in the 4K program. The half-day 4-year old kindergarten program will be held at several MMSD elementary schools and participating early care and education centers throughout the Madison community. The program is offered free of charge for families who live in the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Registration begins February 04, 2013 from 1:00-6:00 PM at all MMSD elementary schools except Lincoln, Randall and Marquette. Students can register at their K-2 or K-5 resident-area elementary schools. 

When parents or guardians register their child for 4K, they will be required to show proof of age (birth certificate, baptismal record or medical assistance card) and proof of residency (utility bill, lease or mortgage). To save time you can pre-register online and print off a verification form. 

Mark your calendar for August- you will still need to attend the enrollment session this August at your child’s school to present your verification form, proof of residency and proof of age documents. Children are welcome to accompany parents, but they are not required to attend registration. Check online or contact your school to find out when your enrollment date will be in August.

For more information, visit mmsd.org/4k 

or call (608) 442-2933.


Inscripción para el Programa de kínder para niños de 4 años (4K) 
Todos los niños que tengan cuatro años cumplidos antes o el 1o de septiembre del 2013 y vivan en el Distrito Escolar Metropolitano de Madison son elegibles para participar en el programa 4K.  El programa de kínder para niños de 4 años que es solamente medio día tendrá sede en varias de las escuelas primarias del MMSD y en los centros de cuidado y educación preescolar participantes dentro de la comunidad de Madison.  El programa se ofrece gratuitamente para las familias que viven en el  Distrito Escolar Metropolitano de Madison.

La inscripción comienza el 4 de febrero del 2013 entre la 1:00 y las 6:00 p.m. en todas las escuelas primarias del MMSD, menos Lincoln, Randall, y Marquette.  Pueden inscribir a los estudiantes en cualquiera de las escuelas primarias en su residencia de kínder a 2º o kínder a 5º.

A los padres o tutores legales se les requiere mostrar verificación de la edad (certificado o acta de nacimiento o de bautismo o la tarjeta de asistencia médica) y verificación de domicilio (factura del gas/electricidad, hipoteca o contrato de renta).  Para ahorrar tiempo puede inscribirse temprano en línea e imprimir el formulario de verificación.  

Marque su calendario para agosto – Todavía tiene que asistir al día de la matriculación en agosto en la escuela de su hijo para presentar su formulario de verificación y algún comprobante de domicilio y de edad de su hijo.  Los niños están bienvenidos a acompañar a sus padres, pero no es obligatorio que asistan ese día.  Vea en línea o comuníquese con su escuela para saber cuándo será el día de la matriculación en agosto.

Para más información, visite mmsd.org/4k o llame al (608) 442-2933.

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!