Almond Thursday Word

Parent volunteers needed!

With our biggest family event of the year coming up in 9 short days, we do not have enough parent volunteers to run the Walkathon on Oct 12th. We need your help to make it a success and helping out is easy and fun! With over 200+ volunteers required for a fun and safe day, there are openings in all categories and times. Please sign up now using the link below and we appreciate if you are able to sign up for more than one shift. We also need to borrow coolers and canopies for the event, so please use the link below to sign up.

The day of the event

Bake Sale for Walkathon

Loan your Canopies or Coolers

Look for more information to come home with your student this week.

Thank you and see you at the Walkathon on October 12!

-Your Walkathon Team

Dear Almond Families:

Family Movie Night

Please join us for our first Friday Family Movie Night of the year tomorrow night! We will have food trucks on the blacktop beginning at 5:30, if you want to grab some food here, and the movie, Lilo & Stitch, will begin around 6:45. See you there!

Walk or Wheel (WoW) to School

Thank you to all of the students and family members that participated in Almond’s Walk or Wheel to school day. It was a treat to get a preview of the LAHS marching band and color guard show and see some of our Almond student alumni. Thank you to Carrie Zeisler for spearheading the WoW event yesterday and the many parent volunteers who were out there bright and early to provide a variety of snacks and treats to our walkers and wheelers!

Cares and Shares Grant Awarded to Mrs. Day-Bobb, Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Martinez

Congratulations to our third grade team for being the recipients of the Cares and Shares Grant Award.

The mission of the Cares and Shares program is to contribute to the well being of the community which we support while making an enduring commitment to early learning, childhood development, and the effectiveness of elementary school education. The Cares and Shares program is a designated fund at the Los Altos Community Foundation (LACF). Founded in 1991, LACF strengthens the community by stimulating local philanthropy and civic engagement.

Mrs. Day-Bobb, Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Martinez will be awarded $1000 which they will then use to support all students in their math fluency skills. They will be recognized at a ceremony on October 10th.

Student Council officers

Our elections results are in and we would like to congratulate Ella--President, Sophie--Vice-President, Ryan--Communications Manager and Vivaan--Secretary. We can’t wait to see how you all support our entire student body in making Almond a great place for kids!

Almond Ohana School Mural

All Almond students were given a colored heart and asked to write one thing they love about themselves. We took all of the hearts and created a school-wide mural to display our collective Almond Ohana. If you haven’t yet seen it in person, it is amazing to behold. You can find it on the side of flex room B out on the blacktop or check out the pic below.

Here’s to all the lovely members of our Almond Ohana!

Raquel

We have over 100 items including camps, sporting events, teacher-hosted kid parties, fitness classes, reserved school parking and much more!

The silent auction will be online bidding only. Register now to preview the catalog and save your favorites. We are still receiving donations so check back before the auction goes live on October 10th.

Important Silent Auction Dates:

• Oct 3 - Catalog Preview Opens
• Oct 10 - Online Bidding Goes Live - Start Bidding!
• Oct 12 - Walkathon 9am-1pm (Silent Auction closes at 12:30pm)

A special thank you to our Sponsors this year:

Alex Wang Real Estate, The Campi Group, Intero, Bald Eagle Sports Camps, Boschken Orthodontics, and Golden Eagle Summer Sports Camps!

Thank you as well to the generous families who have already donated to the silent auction. If you have last minute auction donations, or would like to donate to our Gala Auction in March, please submit here. We are still looking for: Adult Parties, Experiences and Vacation Homes.

The Book Fair is almost here! Come to the Grand Opening Coffee on Thursday, October 10 at 8:15am and check out our great selection of books. The Book Fair will be open October 10 -15 ((Thursday, 8:15am – 2:30pm, Friday, Monday & Tuesday, 8:15am-3:45pm, and during the Walkathon on Saturday, 9am-3pm). You can also order online from today until October 16 at http://www.scholastic.com/bf/almondelementaryschool. If you worry about your child(ren) bring money to school you can also setup an eWallet for your child(ren) on this Almond Book Fair website and set a spending limit for them. They just need to bring their eWallet barcode to the Book Fair. Scholastic will donate part of the sales proceeds to Almond and PTA uses them to purchase books for teacher classrooms and library. Contact Amy Lee at atlee3@gmail.com or Young Kwon at kwonhyeyoung@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Want to see the kids during the Book Fair? Consider volunteering for a shift or two here

Come meet the new librarian, Julie McCullough, on Tuesday, 10/8, after drop-off. Have a cup of coffee and learn about the different ways to volunteer in the library, either during your child's library time or other times that work for you. Questions? Contact Mrs. McCullough at jmccullough@lasdschools.org.

You’ve contributed $1.5M! THANK YOU! We’re making good progress towards our 2019-20 goal of $3.4M. Your donations are funding teachers and staff who are making a difference for your student every day.

The LAEF Annual Report 2018-19 is here! Enjoy the photos and highlights of the year. We are grateful to our volunteers and donors, whose names are listed in this report.

The LAEF Phonathon is October 1st and 2nd and our team of volunteers are working hard to help us raise the final $1.9 Million. We strive for 100% participation from all of our LASD families. Donate or Pledge today and help fund teachers at your school. The suggested annual donation is $1,200 per student or $120/month per student. Every donation of any amount is appreciated.

Learn more about why our local public schools need your financial support.

Anna Kjos | LAEF | Ph: 650.559.0445| Fax: 650.559.0446 | laefonline.org

It sounds far off, but our Gala Auction Committee is putting together an amazing event! The Gala Auction is Almond's biggest PTA fundraiser and a great way for parents to mix and mingle while supporting our school. It is an adults-only event featuring dinner, dancing, silent and live auctions and will be held Saturday evening March 7, 2020 at the Los Altos Golf and Country Club.

Purchase tickets by October 11, 2019 on the BTS registration system for a special BTS online price of $120 per person. Prices will increase on October 12, 2019 to $145 per person so get your tickets now!

Fri, 10/4, TOMORROW, Family Movie Night, 5:30, Almond field

Sat, 10/5, Community Engagement Process Charrette, 9:30 am, Egan School

Tue, 10/8, Meet the Librarian, Library, 8:30 am

Wed, 10/9, PTA Board Meeting, 8:30, conference room

Thu, 10/10, Scholastic Book Fair opens!

Sat, 10/12, Almond Walkathon and Silent Auction!!

Thu, 10/17, Minimum Day, 12:15 Dismissal for ALL STUDENTS

Wed, 10/23, PTA General Meeting, 8:30, Multi

Fri, 10/25, Halloween Carnival, more information soon!

Community Engagement Process for Our Local Schools

The Los Altos School District (LASD) has initiated a Community Engagement Process to involve the public in formulating a long term facilities plan to house Bullis Charter School (BCS) and ensure a top quality education for all children. We value your perspective and welcome your participation in a process to envision the future of education in our neighborhoods.

Please join us for the second charrette

(Each charrette will have the same format, so you only need to attend one)

Saturday, October 5, 9:30-11:30 am

Egan Junior High School Multipurpose Room, 100 W. Portola Ave.

As a participant in this charrette, you will work in a small group to review previously considered ideas and help generate new ideas for the community to discuss and consider. You will have a chance to evaluate these ideas at subsequent workshops in November. Our process consultant, MIG, will then organize and summarize the results, which will be presented to the LASD Board in January.

For more information visit LASD’s Community Engagement webpage. Please email communityengagement@lasdschools.org with any questions.

The MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series presents:

Max Stossel

Education in the Age of Distraction
Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019 - 7:00 - 9:00pm | MVHS Spartan Theatre | 3535 Truman Ave, Mountain View, CA

Join us as Max Stossel, Head of Education at the Center for Humane Technology, explores the ways technology is designed to be addictive and distracting, highlights how social media is impacting adolescent minds, and recommends ways to help our kids build a healthier relationship with technology.

To register for this free event, go to https://mvla2019-20-maxstossel.eventbrite.com

Sponsored by Los Altos Educational Foundation (LAEF), MVLA High School Foundation, Mountain View Educational Foundation (MVEF), and Los Altos-Mountain View PTA Council.

Recent extreme weather has left many families without access to basic resources. It is our job, as citizens of this world and engineers, to design solutions to help! Students are invited to design a protective structure that would allow for an airdrop care package to land safely in an area of need. Using limited supplies and an egg to represent perishable supplies, students will design, create and test their devices in an effort to investigate problems associated with supply delivery in remote regions.

Design Challenge:

• Create a prototype to protect a care package (a.k.a. egg) launched from a slingshot.
• No restrictions on who or when you build
• Only use recycled materials
• Structure no bigger than 6” x 6” x 6”
• Must be able to insert and remove egg on event day

Testing will be during lunch on Tuesday, October 22nd. Questions? Please email Alison Gentile (STEM IST) at agentile@lasdschools.org