At Open Schoolhouse tonight:

Hello families! Sorry for the late email this week. I've had a sick one at home with me in need of some extra attention.

Remember, there is no school on Thursday and Friday this week because of Thanksgiving so be thankful for your wonderful kiddos and the extra time together with family. There will also be no open schoolhouse tonight.

Attendance Breakfast
A Family Breakfast to celebrate getting to school on time, and recognizing how important this is to learning will be held on Tuesday, November 27, at 7 a.m. Come eat breakfast with your child(ren) and join them for the first few minutes in their classroom to see how important it is to be at school on time.

Approved Classroom Snack List
MMSD has updated their list of Approved Classroom and Program Snacks for 2012-2013. You can see the new listhere.

Salad Bars in Schools
MMSD has applied for a grant with Lets Move Salad Bars to Schools. The founding partners for this group are National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, Food Family Farming.org, United Fresh Produce Association and Whole Foods. MMSD has applied for 39 salad bar units.  If you are interested in donating to this effort, community members can donate to the school of their choice at www.saladbars2schools.org.  Community donations can help us to move up on the list of requesting districts.  The cost of the 39 units for MMSD is $102,375.

PFO Meeting
Thank you to everyone who joined us at our last PFO meeting. We had a fun and productive brainstorming session about ideas for our school in an effort to develop a three-year plan and then bring community partners together to make some of these things happen. As the plan is further developed, we will share it with everyone and look for assistance in accomplishing some of our exciting goals!

Piano Keyboarding program coming to Leopold
Leopold Elementary School will be adding opportunities for electronic piano keyboarding in the 2013-2014 school year thanks to a grant from VH1, additional support from the Foundation for Madison Public Schools, and MMSD. We look forward to adding this opportunity to our educational offerings at Leopold! Please see the following link for additional details.
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=38270


Shop amazon.com for Leopold
If you're doing holiday shopping online, don't forget to enter amazon.com through the banner on leopoldpfo.org (on the main page and the fundraising page). All you have to do is enter the site by clicking on the banner, then shop as your normally would, and Leopold gets a portion of each purchase. We're off to a great start!

Thanks go everyone who came out to support Leopold at Little Cesar's Night. They are a great community partner and we are fortunate to partner with them for fundraising opportunities. 

Have a great Thanksgiving.
Kris

Eat pizza for a good cause - your school!

Good evening families! Welcome to a short, but action-packed week!

Little Cesar's Night is Tuesday, November 13, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Yes, you can in fact, eat Little Cesars for lunch, dinner and late-night snack! You can also purchase gift cards for future pizzas or gifts (think stocking stuffers). 25% of all sales during this time will be donated to Leopold.

The second PFO meeting of the year is also Tuesday, November 13, from 7-8 p.m. in the school library. The PFO is developing a three-year plan of things we'd like to see at school. We are forming partnerships with groups within the school and the community to help us get there. Join us to brainstorm some ideas, share your thoughts and learn about ideas under development!

Thursday, November 15, is school conferences so there is no school on Thursday. If you do not have a conference set up, be sure to contact your child's teacher ASAP.

A date has been set for the Timberwolf Trample fun run! Previously we listed April 20, on the calendar, but this conflicted with the Crazy Legs run that many of our volunteers, and some students, participate in. So the date for the Trample has been moved to May 11, 2013. This is Mother's Day weekend so we'll be planning something special for moms who run or cheer!

On that note, we are in need of a Chairperson for the Timberwolf Trample. The chair will provide overall organization and leadership for this exciting event, and will work with a fabulous and experienced team of volunteers. If you are interested, or even just want to know more information, please email me. Don't assume someone else will do it. We'd much rather have multiple parents interested and find a way to divide up duties than to have no one step up. 

Speaking of leadership, two PFO Board positions will be open for next year: Vice President and Treasurer. If you are interested in learning more about what is involved with a PFO Board position, please contact me.

For families with 5th graders, or anyone interested in learning more about middle school, please mark your calendars for a meeting on Tuesday, February 12 at 7 p.m. Middle school principals from Cherokee and Wright will be sharing information about their schools, and a parent panel will also be available to answer questions. Watch for more details as that meeting gets closer.

Box Top submission deadline for the class contest is December 4. Although we sent sheets home last month, you do not have to attach your box tops to the sheets. Sometimes this is a fun project for kids and sometimes it's just more work! You can send them just cut and in a baggie if you prefer.

Have you noticed the new QR codes posted on all of the doors at school? These are square black and white bar-code looking icons. If you scan the code, you will be taken right to the latest Leopold School and PFO news on our blog. It's updated frequently so keep checking! If you find this useful, please let us know.  If you don't have a scan app on your phone, you can download one called SCAN for iPhone, Android or Windows Phone.

Lastly, the November / December newsletter is now up on the PFO website. There's some interesting and fun stuff so be sure to check it out in English and Spanish here!

Click on Newsletters on the menu to find the November / December school newsletter.

Haga clic en Boletines en el menú para encontrar el boletín de la escuela de noviembre / diciembre.

Tuesday, November 13, is Leopold night at Little Cesars! Grab a pizza or two for dinner before you head to the PFO meeting at 7.

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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