Castlemont Newsletter for October
October is a busy month at Castlemont. Ms. Prindle shares news about our upcoming events.
Dear Castlemont Families and Friends,
As we transition to Autumn, we have news, activities, and important dates to share with you. This is a busy and rewarding time of year as our students settle into our school routines. Please take a moment to read about the upcoming events happening at Castlemont.
If you use our Castlemont drive-thru loop or enter through these gates, you have probably noticed our fabulous new mini library in front of the MU. Former Castlemont student, Joseph Tighe, built this creative community library for his Mitzvah project. Joseph went above and beyond when designing the library as a small castle emblazoned with a fire-breathing dragon. Open the doors to find donated books. Anyone in the community is encouraged to take a book and/or leave a book! Stay tuned for the time and date of our dedication ceremony. A huge thank you to Joseph for building and donating this gift to the Castlemont community.
This is our second of eleven AIM (Arts, Innovation, and Music) weeks. The AIM teacher specialists have created a blog to share with our families. Take a look at what our students are learning in their AIM classes. AIM Blog Link
First on our October calendar is our fall Parent-Teacher Conference Week, October 2nd - 6th. All families are invited to meet with their child’s teacher. Building a home-school relationship is a remarkably powerful way to help your child succeed in school academically and emotionally. Our teachers are reaching out to schedule conferences now.
We are on a minimum day schedule during conference week, October 2nd - 6th. Start time remains the same, but school is dismissed two hours early. TK-3rd grades students will be dismissed at 12:30. Fourth and fifth graders are dismissed at 12:35. Thank you for making arrangements for your student to be picked up on time. .
Fun and fundraising are also on the calendar for October. Our Halloween Dance will be on Friday, October 13th, 6-8:00pm. Tickets are $8, pre-sale only. Paper order forms were sent home. You can find additional forms in our main office. Only 300 tickets are available -- this event sold out early last year. This is a teacher-sponsored event to raise money for classrooms. The fundraising committee would appreciate any donations of canned Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, root beer, orange soda, and cases of water to sell at the event. Donations can be turned into the office.
Many students, even in elementary school, have access to electronic devices and are regularly exposed to various types of social media. If you would like to learn more about the effects of social media on our children, please join Mrs. Bell and me for our Coffee with the Principals on Monday, October 16th from 6:00-7:00 pm. We will be holding our meeting via Zoom. Our presentation will be in both English and Spanish. A Google form invitation, with space for your questions, will be sent out next week.
Our second fun/ fundraising event is our annual JOG-A-THON! This Home and School Club sponsored event raises money for field trips, assemblies, teacher supply stipends, and much more. Jog-a-thon will be on Friday, October 27th. Grade level start times are staggered. Families and friends are encouraged to come to cheer on their favorite Castlemont Dragon(s) as they run. Each student and staff member receives a FREE Jog-a-thon t-shirt that includes original student artwork on the front. The t-shirt design winner has been chosen and will be announced this Friday.
We look forward to welcoming you to all of our October events!
Yours sincerely,
Kristen Kimoto Prindle, Principal