Updates from the Leopold PFO for the week of September 15

Hello Leopold Families! I hope your routine is well underway and everyone is enjoying the new school year. We have a busy fall and we are excited to bring some new events to school. As always, we very much want to engage parents, families and staff in our events so please volunteer when and where you can to support our school!

Communication
This weekly email is prepared in English and will be posted in both English and Spanish on our blog each week (http://www.leopoldpfo.org/leopold-pfo-blog).
Este correo electrónico semanal se prepara en Inglés y será publicada en Inglés y Español en nuestro blog cada semana (http://www.leopoldpfo.org/leopold-pfo-blog).


You can follow Leopold PFO on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LeopoldPFO or by searching LeopoldPFO on Facebook.

We also have an informative website found at www.leopoldpfo.org.

Get To Know You Nights
After the success of last year's inaugural Get To Know You Nights, the PFO will again be holding a night for each grade to come together to meet new families, and catch up with those you know. For each of these evenings, the PFO provides pizza, veggies and a drink. Families can come for a casual dinner conversation. The only thing we ask is that families fill out the RSVP form to let us know how many from your family are coming so we can be sure to have enough food. Forms were sent home last week, but if you didn't get one or prefer to RSVP by email, please send a note to Sara at [email protected]. Be sure to include the grade and number attending. The dates for each grade are:

September 16 - 1st grade
September 23 - 2nd grade
September 30 - 3rd grade
October 14 - 4th grade
October 21 - 5th grade
Dairy Queen Night!
Wednesday, September 17, is Leopold night at Dairy Queen! Dairy Queen will donate 20% of proceeds from the evening to the PFO. The fundraiser starts at 4 pm and goes until 9 pm at the DQ located at 3030 Fish Hatchery Road.

Open Schoolhouse Kicks Off
Summer may be winding down, but Open School House at Leopold is just getting set to kick off on September 16th, from 6pm-7:30! Partnering with various nonprofits in the area, Open School House will now offer at least four separate opportunities for students and families to participate in. These classes will run for three week sessions, focusing on either Physical Activity, Education, Life Skills, and Leopold Family Sessions, an opportunity to interact with principals, teachers, and help guide the direction of our school. At the end of every set of sessions, we will host a large Party Night for all the families, before starting a new set of sessions. The first set of programming is listed below.

September 16th- September 30th 
Ready, Set, Play! The YMCA of Dane County will be running programming to help students learn new games to keep themselves active, as well as creative exercises to keep them healthy. It will be great for all ages, and the activities you learn today will benefit you for a lifetime!
Families that Read Together Grow Together: Madison Public Library will be bringing in their librarians to run family based reading programs. They’ll be working with parents and students as our students gain new tools for literacy, as well as find the joy in reading.
Songwriting Workshop: Do you like music? Duke Otherwise, a local children’s musician, is coming to Leopold to host a four week songwriting workshop. Their main objective will be to come up with a new school song for Leopold! If you or your children have any interest in music, this is the place for you!
Leopold Family Sessions- "Eyes on the Prize: Focusing on Continual Improvement" School Improvement Plan and Behavior Education Plan. The SIP and the BEP are two major tools Leopold will be using to guide our school forward. This will be a great opportunity for families to learn, interact with, and give input into plan for success.

October 7th: Leopold Open House

October 14th: Fall Pumpkin Painting and Movie Party Night!

Library Shelving Volunteers Needed
If you're a parent or grandparent looking for a fun and flexible way to volunteer at Leopold, our new librarian, Mr. Mueller, is in need of some assistance shelving books. You can come when it works for your schedule, but you'll need to set up an initial time for him to show you what to do. Please contact Mr. Mueller at [email protected].

Leopold is going to Be More Awesome!
This year Leopold staff and students are working to Be More Awesome! Everyone at school has seen this great Kid President video (http://youtu.be/l-gQLqv9f4o) and are working toward making Leopold even more awesome. In support of this, the PFO has purchased t-shirts for every student at Leopold. Over the next couple of weeks, a t-shirt will be sent home with your student that they can keep and wear any time!

Walking School Bus
The Leopold Walking School Bus program, which helps get children to school safely, actively and on time is available to students. You should have received a flyer with information on times and routes, but if not, please contact your child's teacher or the school social worker at 204-4249. Volunteers are also needed for the walking school bus. You can do this on a regular basis, as a substitute or on occasion. Please contact the school social worker at 204-4249 to sign up as a volunteer.



Fall Bake Sale
The Leopold PFO Fall Bake Sale will be held on Tuesday, October 7, from 5:30-7:30 am at our all-school Open House. We encourage all families to participate by both bringing and item to donate and purchasing some fun, new treats! We know you can bake because our families have provided amazing treats for our cake walk in past years.

We are looking forward to raising funds for Leopold to continue our support of programs throughout the year. We also need a few volunteers to help staff the bake sale tables during the event. This is our only major fundraiser this fall, so if you’ve volunteered in the past at FunFest or Harvest Fest, this is your opportunity to get involved in our fall event.

A flyers will be coming home soon with a form for baked goods and volunteer opportunities.

Twenty-five percent of the proceeds from our Bake Sale will go to the Ashlee Steele Memorial Fund for the benefit of former Leopold students, Jack and Rachael Steele.

Tito's Readathlon Literacy Event
The PFO will lead an all-school literacy event, encouraging kids to read, write, and much more! The kickoff, or Starting Line event will be held December 2, in the evening and the Finish Line event will be held on January 13, in the evening. Students will get to hear from guest authors and readers, participate in a book swap, and much more. Please watch for more information in the coming weeks.

*We are encouraging families to save any books your children are done with to bring in for the all-school book swap at our Starting Line event.

Flu Shot Fundraiser
Flu shots are the most effective way to prevent influenza and its complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 6 months of age or older be vaccinated annually against influenza.

The Leopold PFO is partnering with the HyVee Pharmacy in Fitchburg to offer flu shots to our community, with $4 from each shot coming back to our PFO. In order for Leopld to receive credit, please take a Flu Shot PFO Fundraiser in with you so Leopold gets credit. The coupons can be found on our blog (http://www.leopoldpfo.org/leopold-pfo-blog) or you can pick one up on the school office.

Shots are covered by most insurances; cash price is $29.99. The fundraiser runs through December 31, 2014.

Leopold Support
Please visit our website for a refresher on all the easy ways you can support and earn money for Leopold by doing the things you're already doing such as clipping BoxTops, using your Target RedCard and more! BoxTops contest info coming soon!
http://www.leopoldpfo.org/activities-and-fundraisers.html

Thank you and have a great week!
Kris