Crocker Highlands Elementary School

The 19th Annual Crocker Walkathon is coming on October 22nd. There will be many opportunities to volunteer on the day of the event, and we also need a couple more key volunteer positions filled soon.

• Volunteer Coordinator to fill posts and support the volunteers throughout the day
• Hard Walk Cafe Coordinator to organize and oversee the food booth on Walkathon day
• Tracker Coordinator 3rd grade: Tracks the laps students complete for that grade

The Walkathon has been a part of the Crocker Highlands tradition for many years and it operates like a well-oiled machine with lots of documentation and guidance from years past at your fingertips, so you will not be ‘re-inventing the wheel’. If you feel at all moved to help out with this great event – Please, Please, Please don’t hesitate to lend us helping hand.

Gratefully, Elizabeth Borowiec and Helene Gryfakis, co-chairs walkathon@crockerschool.org

Crocker Highlands, along with several other OUSD elementary schools, adopted the Caring Schools Community (CSC) Curriculum. This curriculum is a research-based program developed to help schools build classroom, as well as, school-wide community, and improve academic achievement. This program is tied to our “Crocker Cougar Community Celebrates” Program.  The Crocker Cougar Community celebrates 8 community words.  For 2011-2012, the words are the same as last year:  Respect, Cooperation, Acceptance, Self Discipline, Compassion, Responsibility, Perseverance and Friendship.  In each classroom, a community meeting will be centered around the word of the month, engaging students in what it means to show respect, or be cooperative, etc.   Part of the CSC program are cross-grade buddies.  Each month, buddy classes will have an activity to do and will have their pictures taken.  Pictures of the students will be posted on the bulletin board next to the office to “celebrate” the word .There will also be an assembly to celebrate the word and to introduce the next month’s word.  The Crocker Cougar will likely make appearances at each of these assemblies.  By the end of the year, every child should have his or her picture up on the bulletin board and a “paw print” award.

The Crocker Cougar Word of the Month for August and September is “Respect.” Please take the time to talk about this word with this child and what it means.  Ask your child, “How did you show respect—to yourself, to others at school, to the community, to the environment?”  Examples are posted in each classroom, including the golden rule:   “I treated other people the way I want to be treated.”    Here are some things you can do to reinforce this important word of the month.

•      Talk with your child about the importance of treating other people with respect, including the use of manners.  Make sure he/she knows that it is important to you, and that it will lead to stronger friendships.

•      Watch a television program together, and talk about the various ways in which the characters acted respectfully or disrespectfully towards one another. Watch for put-downs, insults, and subtle forms of bullying.

•      Help your child become sensitive to his or her own behaviors or language that may be of a disrespectful nature, as he or she deals with siblings or friends.

•      This can include eating right and exercising (respect for their body) and making sure  they are happy with who they are.

•      Show your respect for the earth—recycle, reuse and reduce!

•      Remember that you are a powerful role model for your child. If you treat yourself, others and the earth respectfully, that is what your child will learn from you.

If you have any questions, please contact Liz O’Brien at lizobrien@pacbell.net.

Hello Crocker families and friends!

We are having a school clean-up day on Sunday, 8/21, to help get the school ready for the new school year! We will be cleaning up the outside of the school, doing some maintenance in the Edible Garden and doing a few projects inside as well (e.g. assembling carts, painting shelves in the computer lab, possibly setting up a room or two). Here are the details:

The clean up day is happening on Sunday August 21st from 9-1. Come for as long as you can.
If you want to work outside, bring brooms, leaf rakes and dust pans.
If you want to help inside, bring some basic tools.
Kids are welcome.
Bagels and coffee to be provided. Bring water.

Check out our Facebook Page for the event.

Please RSVP by signing up for how you would like to help (http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/272345634822668057) If you have any questions, please contact Hilary Stoermer (chickensmama@comcast.net).

We want the school to be in great shape in order to welcome back the students and start the school year off right. We need your help!

Beth Rhine, Principal
Hilary (mother of Jessie in 4th grade)
Kristin (mother of Mia in 4th grade and 1st grade teacher)
Karen (mother of Anna in 5th grade)
Edible Garden Co-Chairs

Dear Incoming Kindergarten Families,

First of all, we would like to welcome you to Crocker Highlands!  We are looking forward to you and your child becoming part of our wonderful school community.

Kindergarten is an exciting time for our new students. The first three days of school for all our students are minimum days, 8:40 – 1:40.   A full school day can be a challenge for the younger students, particularly after a long summer.  Therefore, in order to make it a gentle transition for our new kindergarten students, we are extending minimum days for the first two weeks.  The schedule will be:

Monday – Friday, August 29^th – September 9th Minimum Days (8:40 – 1:35)

(Monday, September 5^th – Labor Day Holiday for all students)

On Monday, August 29^th, the first day of school, we are inviting all kindergarten families to meet us downstairs in the multi-purpose room (also called the cafeteria) at 9.00a.m, 20 minutes after the 1^st – 5^th graders arrive. This will give the parents with other children time to get their older student(s) to their new class.  Please do not bring your child into the building beforehand. Parents are invited to stay for a welcome reception with the principal, Beth Rhine, and the PTA co-presidents, Jessica Tagami and Wendy Ghorai, in the Library.  We will have coffee and bagels and be available for any questions that may arise.

We are excited to start the year off right and are eager to get to know your children.  Information about the classroom routines, expectations, and what your child needs to bring on the first day of school can be found in the Kindergarten Handbook which we have attached, and which is posted on the Crocker Kindergarten website. Kindergarten is an exciting time for everyone and we want to make sure everyone – students, families, and teachers – are successful!

For those of you whose children were unable to attend the Kindergarten Round-Up last May, we are having Round Up II on Monday, August 22^nd at 9.30am.  Please bring your child to school and meet us in the school office. You will have 30-45  minutes to relax and go get a cup off coffee while we spend some time with your child.   And don’t forget about the New Families’ Picnic on Sunday, August 28^th at the North Temescal Picnic Area.  Details will be posted on the Crocker website.  We also begin the year with two PTA meetings, one on Thursday, August 25^th and the second on Thursday, September 8^th.  We would like to encourage new families to come to the meetings and hear what is happening at Crocker Highlands.

There are so many great things happening at Crocker Highlands.  In order to get the most current information, be sure to visit the Crocker Highlands website, http://crockerschool.org/ , and subscribe to the Weekly Email Bulletin and the Crocker yahoo group.

We are looking forward to meeting you soon!

On behalf of the PTA, welcome to Crocker Highlands Elementary School!

We want to get to know you better and would also love to help you get to know each other better.  Please come with your family for an afternoon of fun, food and conversation.

Place:  North Temescal Picnic Area

(http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=&q=lake+temescal+north+entrance&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl for directions)

Feel free to bring scooters, bicycles, soccer balls, Frisbees, etc.

Date:  Sunday, August 28

Time:  11:00-1

Please bring a dish to share based on your child’s last name:

A-K:  Appetizer or Salad

L-R:  Main Dish

S-Z:   Dessert

The PTA will provide the plates, napkins, drinks and eating utensils. We hope to see you there!

Last Friday, we held the 8th and last Crocker Cougar Word of the Month assembly to celebrate FRIENDSHIP and talk about all the other Cougar words of the month for the school year 2010-2011. In August and September, the Cougar word was RESPECT and our cougar classes were Ms. Uk’s kindergarten and Ms. Eng’s 3rd grade classes. They all did a wonderful video about Respect that they showed us. In October, the Cougar word was COOPERATION and our cougar classes were Ms. Henry’s kindergarten and Ms. Fisher’s 3rd grade classes. These Cooperation Cougars showed the portraits they made together and shared some thoughts about the meaning of the word “cooperation.” The cougars also sang “Lean on Me.” In November, the Cougar word was SELF-DISCIPLINE and our cougar classes were Mr. J ‘s 1st grade and Ms. Foster’s 4th grade classes. At the assembly, these Self-Discipline Cougars showed a video they had made describing what self-discipline meant to them. In December and January, the Cougar word was ACCEPTANCE and our cougar classes were Ms. Anderson and Ms. Butler’s first graders and Ms. Ski’s 4th graders. These Acceptance Cougars sang “I’m Me and You’re You” with the 1st grades trading song lines with the fourth grade. In February, the Cougar word was COMPASSION and our cougar classes were Ms. Shannon’s kindergarten and Mr. Donahue’s 3rd grade classes. At the assembly, the Compassion Cougars showed us a banner they had made to help raise money at Children’s Hospital. To understand compassion, each buddy had traced the other buddy’s shoe and asked how their buddy wanted to have it decorated. The idea was to “put themselves into someone else’s shoes”. The classes also recited a poem called “Empathy.” In March, the Cougar word was RESPONSIBILITY and our cougar classes were Ms. Keller 2d graders and Ms. Spees 5th grade classes. The Responsibility Cougars described how they had been exploring all month what it means to be responsible at home, at school and in the world. They showed us cranes they had been making to help raise money for the tsunami in Japan. In April, the Cougar word was PERSEVERANCE and our cougar classes were Ms. Kallus and Ms. Kantrowitz’s 2d graders and Ms. Oretsky’s 5th graders. These Cougar buddies held up almost 30 signs they had beautifully designed that described what it means to persevere. At the end of the assembly, the Perseverance Cougars sang songs including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and “Don’t Stop Believing.” In May and June, the Cougar word was FRIENDSHIP and our cougars were . . . . EVERYONE! And remember, the word Friendship covers all the other Crocker Words of the Month.

We’ll be using all these words again next year so try to use them over the summer: RESPECT, COOPERATION, SELF-DISCIPLINE, ACCEPTANCE, COMPASSION, RESPONSIBILITY, PERSEVERANCE, AND FRIENDSHIP. Thank you and have a great summer from the Crocker Cougar and the Cougar’s helper, Liz O’Brien.