Greetings,

Yes, it is now officially fall, so hopefully the Indian Summer that we tend to have will not last long! For those of you who took advantage of the Parent Ed in September covering our Math and Reading curriculum I hope you enjoyed your time with the teachers and learned more about our curriculum. If you still have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher.

Just a couple of reminders about lunch visitors here at school… Relatives of students are welcome for lunch when accompanied by the parent/guardian or with written parent permission. To help and make it easier for you to have a relative have lunch with your child we sent a form for you to fill out. For clarification, this form is for relatives not for friends. Parents and/or relatives should sit with their student in the designated area. Other students will not be permitted to eat in the designated area without their own parents. Parents can only bring food for their student. We appreciate your help with this safety measure.

Parent /Teacher conferences for the school will start in October. To improve our communication we are making some changes to our parent teacher conferences. Conference will now be between 25 and 30 minutes long. If your child has more than one teacher (grades 2-5) you will meet with all of their teachers. The only exception to this will be in 5 th grade. It will be very difficult for Mrs. Horiates and Mrs. Newell to have 126 conferences. The fifth grade will communicate to their parents how their conferences will proceed. Please be on the look-out for this information. This is a wonderful time to learn about the progress your student is making.

September has been jammed packed and October is looking that way too. I had a wonderful Coffee with 5 th grade parents. The discussion was positive and we collaborated on some issues with results being implemented to help students and parents alike. I am looking forward to the rest of my grade level coffees.

Odds and ends:

• Please remember that students must be in their classrooms at the 7:45 bell. With the fall chillier weather, more students will be driven to school. Please take this into consideration and leave a few minutes earlier.
• Please, please, please, use the crosswalks and remember that you can’t make a left hand turn into the drop off lane in the front of the building or make a left hand turn when leaving. These are safety issues. I would really appreciate your help with this. Thanks in advance.
• When signing your child out early for anything other than a doctor’s appointment (with a note from the doctor), it is considered an afternoon tardy and is unexcused. This means that your child can’t retake a test that he/she missed and will receive a zero for that test, quiz, or work that was given while they were not here.
• If you need to take your student out of school for a day (up to 5) please fill out a preplanned absence form BEFORE you take them out of school so that their absence can be excused.
• Due to the hectic schedule at the end of the day, I am asking that parents pick their children up no later than 2:30 if he/she must leave early. You will have to wait for the regular dismissal if it is after that time.
• Last minute changes to transportation after 2:30 are very difficult for the office. If you know that your child needs to go home a different way, please try your best to call the office before 2:30. This allows the office plenty of time to make sure the message is communicated to the teacher.
• Car hang tags – If you do not have one please contact your child’s teacher. We have plenty of them. Make sure your child’s name and grade are on the tags and keep them up until your child is in your car. Thank you.

Please remember that students are off on Monday, October 8th and have early
release on Friday, October 12th .

Regards,
Mrs. Donna J. Taylor, M.Ed
Principal

We did it Castle Hills Families!!! We met our budget goal of $27,000! Thank you to everyone who donated, your contributions will allow us to fulfill our 2018-2019 school year commitments! Special shout out to the 2nd grade for the highest participation of any grade and kindergarten for the highest dollar amount raised by a grade.

Big congratulations to Anika Agrawal as top contributor overall and winning naming rights for CHE front drive for the year!

The top contributors from each grade that get the honors and opportunity to SLIME Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Johnson are:

• Kinder - Aadhya Balaji, Bruce Chen, Georgia Clark, Saira Shiralkar, AJ Maksimovich, Bennett Whitlow, Mercer Martin, Aleeza Assanie, Allison Wheelis, Ellie Kim
• 1st - Kenzie Tran, Quinn Heisz-O'Neil, Chase Martin
• 2nd - Luke Harwood
• 3rd - Zeenah Kassem
• 4th - Chase Rasmuson, Kylie Martin, Emma Heisz-O'Neil
• 5th - Anika Agrawal

Even though the One and Done campaign is over, it’s never to late to submit a donation! We will continue to accept both online and check donations all year long to see if we can met our stretch goals that will help us provide playground/gaga pit improvements as well as additional equipment.

https://tinyurl.com/CHEPTADonation1819

Don’t wait in long lines at the door at theCandy Lane Carnival!

Pre-pay for your wristband online before THIS Friday, Oct 12th. We will distribute the wristbands to the teachers to be put in your child’s take home folder on Tuesday, October 16th. No one will be admitted without a wristband including parents. (Children under 2 are free)

Red Ribbon Week: October 22rd – 26th

Red Ribbon Week is a uniform way for communities nationwide to take a stand against drugs and bullying. Our theme is “Life is Your Journey; Travel Drug Free”, and students will have the opportunity to participate in various activities throughout the week to reinforce this important message. Just a few of the events will include a dynamic assembly, a Red Ribbon Week pledge, and a team approach toward bullying prevention. To support parents with what can be challenging discussions, suggested conversations starters and talking points will be shared. We hope that with a partnered approach from parents and teachers, we can serve our children well and encourage them to key into living a life free from harmful substances and bullying.  https://castlehillspta.membershiptoolkit.com/red_ribbonweek 

The PTA Volunteer Program is one of the best ways that parents can support the students and staff at our school. 

Please be aware that Board Policy requires that each volunteer undergoes a background check before working with students.  You will need to complete the background check during your VOLY account creation process. Go to VOLY now to get started: 

Here are sign-up opportunities to support our school, teachers, and students:

YEAR-ROUND

   Thanks for volunteering!

This month we would like to honor Carolyn Hitt, Jill O’Neill, and Ruth Detwiler (and their kids) for helping Carly Dunson and Nina Samuel with cleaning the Castle Garden.  They took time out of their weekend and in the rain to come out and make the Castle Garden look beautiful! These gardens were made for our students to learn from and enjoy. They all came together to make that happen! Thank you so much ladies for all your hard work and time! 

My name is Gavin Pee, and I am in Ms. Pittman's class in the 3rd grade. My favorite thing about 3rd grade is Art, and my favorite thing about Ms. Pittman is she's kind and nice.

Destination Imagination is a thing where you build, design, play, and perform with your friends. You write a script, make costumes, and do a play at a tournament at the end of the season. You use a lot of imagination and get to use tools and design shirts and draw and create.

I've been doing DI for 4 years now ever since Kindergarten. My favorite things about DI is you get to spend time with your friends building stuff. I think everyone should do DI because if you don't get to spend enough time with your friends or maybe you don't go to school with them or get enough playdates, DI will help. You can build and talk to each other and have fun. And at the end, you get to play.

PTA's mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.

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