Cougar Community Connection

Dear CRUNFamily,

What a great week we had together at CRUN. It's mid year diagnostic testing season and we are excited to see all that our students have learned this first semester. We value this data as it informs our instructional next steps and programming needs of our kids. It is only one data point, given on one particular day, but it adds to the body of evidence we use to make academic decisions about our students. We will be sharing this data at our next round of conferences in early February, but will send home a "Family Snap Shot" report prior to that date to give you an idea of how your kiddo is growing. Learning how to be a good test taker is a part of elementary school knowing that assessments are just a part of educational careers for our kids. We don't view any data as bad data as we value what any piece of data tells us about a student. Sometimes, it isn't the content that is tripping up a student, but rather their test taking skills or ability to maintain sustained focus in order to perform well on a test. No matter the outcome, the data gives us much to work with when it comes to the success of our students. We appreciate your efforts at home to have conversations with your kids about assessments being an important way for them to show what they know and all they have learned.

Art and Culture night on Thursday was a great success. It was the first ever addition of the culture fair part of the night, and man was it awesome. From authentic foods to fabulous learning about the cultures that are a part of our CRUNFamily. A huge shout out to Hila Hassid, Lulu Gao, Nate Biggs, Allena Kendall, Megan Noraddin and Emily Joines for all of their work preparing, organizing and putting on such a great event. The art projects were a huge success and the kids had a blast with their creations. Thank you to everyone who joined us for such a fun night as a CRUNFamily!

The PTA would like to thank everyone that made Art & Cultural Night a smashing success! Thank you to Laura Butler and Mrs. Emily Joines for the fun FREE crafts and the pottery painting. If you painted pottery, then it will be going home with your students before Winter Break. Thank you to the Cultural Team: Allena Kendall, Hila Kesos Hasid, Lulu Gao Zhu, and Nate Biggs. Everything in the gym looked great and ran smoothly! Thank you to our Cougar Run families that shared their cultures with the community. The food was delicious and the information was great! Thank you to Katie Busch for stepping in on her first day as Volunteer Coordinator to help us with our student and parent volunteers. Thank you to ALL of our volunteers that helped at the art tables, in the art room, and serving pizza. We couldn't have done it without you! Lastly, thank you to everyone who attended the event and had a blast!

Our next event for the PTA is Holiday Shop. This is a beloved Cougar Run tradition for our students. We will be selling cute gifts that can be gifted to friends and family for the holidays. There is even gift wrapping, so students can take wrapped gifts home. Holiday Shop will be held Tuesday, December 12 through Thursday, December 14 in the main hallway from 3:15-5:15pm. All proceeds will go to Cougar Run families in need of help this holiday season.

ROCKS Council Members: We need you! Please consider signing up to pass out the gift items to shoppers or manning the gift bagging station. We will provide snacks. Check out our sign-up: https://signup.com/go/GCjOjgJ

Our next PTA Meeting will be Friday, December 8 at 8:45am in the Learning Commons or by Zoom. The agenda and Zoom link will be sent out on Monday to our PTA list. Want to get involved? Email crunpta@gmail.com to get added.

Our December Restaurant Night is Tuesday, December 12th at Nicolo's Pizza on University & Highlands Ranch Parkway from 4-9pm. We will be getting 15% of TOTAL sales, so no need to mention Cougar Run. Just order your pizza & enjoy!

https://www.highlandsranchnicolos.com

Note: Delivery takes 45-60 minutes, but picking it up takes only 20 minutes. Dine-In is also an option. There is a lot of seating at the restaurant. Let's have Cougar Run take Nicolo's over!

Time to get ready for the holidays with CRUN Spirit Wear! We kept the same great design, if you missed it! There are also new options available! Click the link to take a look and place your order now!

Last Day to Order 12/3/2023!

https://denverathletic.chipply.com/CougarRunElementary/

Allena Kendall is a master of welcoming and inclusion. Our families and students who speak another language and come from other places outside of the US always have a welcome home at Cougar Run thanks to this fabulous human! Allena connects with families and pours her heart and soul into making sure that our ESL families feel the love from our CRUNFamily the second they arrive. Her skill set as a teacher is also stellar. Our students show incredible growth not only in their language development but also in their overall academic achievement. Allena is a true advocate for students and families and stops at nothing to ensure their sense of belonging is felt at our school. We are so grateful to have Allena in our Cougar Run Family.

Thank you everyone for coming to our fall book fair! We sold $13,800 in merchandise, put 1000 books into kids hands and raised $3,500 to our library! Thank you for all of our amazing volunteers, from working the registers, helping on the floor, setting up and taking down. We couldn’t have done it without all of you and your giving hearts. Big shout out to Alyssa Ohrtman and Jen Bosley as they ran the whole fair while Mrs. Woody was home sick! You two are ROCKSTARS! We hope everyone enjoyed the week and found something to snuggle up and read!

Congratulations to our 2023-2024 Cougar Run Battle of the Books Teams! These students will represent Cougar Run in the Douglas County Library’s Battle of the Books Competition. Where they will go up against other douglas county schools and battle questions from 10 books! Good Luck this season CRUN Teams!

3rd/4th Team

Thaddues Barnes

Stella Cisek

Easton Dimino

Elliot Jessop

Brier Ohrtman

Olivia Porter

Coach - Jen Bosley

Coach/Program Coordinator -

Wendy Jo Woody

5th/6th Team

Jackson Brant

Oliver Cisek

Jack Crandall

Andrew Kaiser

Sofia Nickoloff

Logan Scott

Davis Shumaker

Coach - Alyssa Ohrtman

Registration for the 24-25 school year is now open!

If you have an incoming kindergarten student or know of someone who has a NEW student to register for the 24-25 school year - NOW is the time to register!

Go to this link to register your NEW 24-25 student.

See our Registration Page for more information.

CRUN Friends & Family, I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your hours of volunteering, willingness to help out last minute and dedication to helping me make Cougar Run an amazing place to work and learn. As you may know, my family has purchased SPENGA Highlands Ranch and I will be passing the Volunteer Coordinator position to Katie Busch. She is an active member of our PTA, devoted volunteer and probably the most organized person I know!! I’m excited for my new adventure, for you all to get to know Katie, and to get back to CRUN as a parent volunteer!

The District Accountability Committee (DAC) is now accepting applications to fill vacancies currently open. The DAC is looking for parents (2) with child(ren) currently attending DCSD school(s). To complete the DCSD DAC online application click this link.

From Mrs. Boisson (School Counselor)

Enrichment topics/lessons this week (Burgundy 12/4-12/8)

K-6th: Social Skills (Communication/Problem Solving/Working Together)

The Denver Counseling Center is offering free counseling services through December. Please vist their site at https://www.denvercounselingcenter.org/ for more information.

We would love to host Girls On The Run again for the spring of 2024. If you are interested in volunteering as a coach and/or would like more information on the program, please reach out to me at tboisson@dcsdk12.org

Helping Hands for the Holidays is an Integrated Family Community Service enrichment program that provides children aged newborn to 10 years old with holiday gifts through the generosity of community sponsors and donors. Please have your families use this site to apply.

December 8-9:00 PTA Meeting (Welcome to all parents)

December 11-15 Holiday Shoppe

December 11-15- CRUN Bus Canceled

December 12-CRUN Restaurant Night- Nicolos Pizza

December 15- ROCKS Assemblies 9:00 prek-3rd/ 2:15 4th-6th (ROCKS Invites will come home in Friday Folders the week of December 4 for any student who was chosen for ROCKS this first semester. )

December 22-January 8-Winter Break No School

January 9-Classes Resume at CRUN

January 9-Cougar Run Restaurant Night

January 12-PTA Meeting (All Parents Welcome)

January 15-NO SCHOOL-MLK Day

January 18-6:30pm CRUN Choir Concert in the Gym

January 29-February 2- CRUN Bus Canceled

February 9-PTA Meeting (Please Come)

February 12-15- Parent/Teacher Conference Week

February 14-Valentines Day Parties

February 16-No School for Students (Teacher Professional Development Day)

February 19-No School- Presidents Day