Cougar Community Connection

Dear CRUN Family,

It's been a great week at Cougar Run. The weather is cooling off and October is upon us, which feels unbelievable to me that time is flying by so fast!! Hopefully you have noticed the front rock bed that is closest to the parking lot beginning to fill up with our "One Word" rocks. Mrs. Barlow did an AMAZING job of facilitating this project with the kids, helping them choose what their one word for this school year would be to stay focused on as the year marches on. Classroom teachers are bringing their students out to ceremoniously place their rock in the rock bed where we will continue to visit it and reflect on our ability to keep that one word in the forefront of our thinking. We also finished our first round of Growth Monitoring assessments this week allowing us to evaluate growth and progress since the beginning of the year. We also had a great turn out at our Watch Dog Dads night. Thank you to Nate Biggs for organizing and hosting a great event that will bring in male role models to help with safety in our school. If you have interest, please take a look at the section of the newsletter that showcases the Watch Dog Dads program. Mrs. Simmons and I love the Fridays when we have our Town Halls. We ended the week meeting with each grade level of kids, talking about the celebrations and challenges that are happening within their classroom families. It is such a great opportunity for us to keep that connection with the kids and celebrate with them as well as address the challenges as a group in order to problem solve a solution for improvement. It was a great way to end the week together as a family!!

#CRUNFamily

READ-A-THON is over! Thanks to your generous donations, we raised $12,430! This will mostly cover the cost of iReady for the school year. The Prize Store items have all been shipped. Let's have a prize-sorting PARTY at Megan's house on Tuesday evening from 7-8pm. Sign-Up HERE

Donuts with Dad is Friday, October 7th from 7:30-8:30am at Cougar Run Park. Students are welcome to bring a special dude in their life to enjoy a yummy breakfast. Bring chairs or picnic blankets because seating will be limited.

Ladies! We need your help with set-up, serving, and clean-up. Sign-Up

The October PTA Meeting is being moved to Friday, October 7th at 11:30am! It will be in the Learning Commons or by Zoom.

Our October Restaurant Night is at Wild Basil on Tuesday, October 11th ALL DAY! This delicious restaurant is owned by a Cougar Run family. Let's support our own as they also give back 15% of all sales to Cougar Run. Please make sure to mention Cougar Run at check-out.

SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH!!! The Cougar Run Parent's Happy Hour & Auction is BACK and IN-PERSON! The timing will be 2-5pm, with the option to stay for dinner after the event. We are setting up a childcare option in the Cougar Run gym/cafeteria, so you can enjoy this adults-only party.

If you have an item, service, or experience that you would like to donate towards the auction, then please email crunpta@gmail.com or call Megan at 303-519-6538. We are offering new advertising opportunities based on the value of the donation.

Friday DJ is BACK! Would your student like to choose the song for the Friday dance party in the morning announcements? All Fridays for the school year are ready to be claimed. Friday DJ Link

Meet our Cougar Club Staff. They are lead by our director, Sumer Sandel, and are an awesome addition to Cougar Run. Our Cougar Club is in action before and after school, taking care of kids, but also providing an incredible enrichment program filled with activities and fun. The crew comprised of Suzy Najara, Hunter Wosilius, Amanda Teirelbar and the assistant director Leslie Hutchins are committed to kids and are always looking for fun new ways to engage them in before and after care. You can reach summer at sumer.sandel@dcsdk12.org for more information about Cougar Club.

We are excited to announce that Holly Raue has joined our EA IV team and will be working with our SSN students. That leaves us with an opening on our EA I team that we have posted on the DCSD Human Resources webpage. Please reach out for Shannon McPherson or Andrea McNamara if you have interest in the position and would like to find out more about what being an EA I at Cougar Run is all about.

If you are a dad, grandpa, uncle, father figure, male role model, then Watch Dog Dads is the group for you. Nate Biggs is leading the charge to bring Watch Dog Dads back to Cougar Run. Along side Terrance Freeman, Dan Smith and Justin McNeal, these gentleman have invested time into getting this program off and running again here at Cougar Run. HERE is the power point that was shown at the Watch Dog Dads event Wednesday night. There is a QR code at the end to get signed up. HERE is the fun video that Dan, Nate, Justin and Terrance put together to promote this awesome program.

Does your kiddo like to draw in their free time at home? Does your kiddo have a piece of artwork that you think is amazing? The CASB (Colorado Association of School Boards) is hosting their annual student art contest and exhibit. All submissions are due by Friday, October 14th. Please contact Lindsay Barlow (lbarlow@dcsdk12.org) if your kiddo is interested in participating and would like more information.

October 7-7:30-8:25 Donuts with Dads

October 7-11:30 PTA Meeting

October 7-11:00 Room Parent Meeting

October 17-21-Fall Break

October 28-Halloween Parties/ Outdoor Costume Parade

October 31-NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS-District PD Day

November 5-Parents Night Out and CRUN Auction

November 8-CRUN Restaurant Night

November 14- CRUN Book Fair

November 21-25-Thanksgiving Break