Congdon Park Weekly News 5/15/2024

Congdon Park's Student Council is organizing a food drive for the week of May 13th-17th. We are collecting non-perishable food items to be donated to Chum. Students can bring canned or dry goods into school and place them in the collection box in their classrooms. A collection box will also be available during the Spring Concert if any families would like to bring items then. Thank you!

Most needed items

Cereal

Instant Oatmeal

Canned Chili

Canned Beef Stew

Canned Pork and Beans

Canned Pasta

Canned Fruit

Canned Vegetables

Rice-A-Roni / Rice

Ramen

Canned Soups (No Cream Soups)

Canned Tuna

Canned Salmon

Spam

Peanut Butter

Macaroni and Cheese

Dry Pasta

Check out the Lost and Found while you are here for the concert on Friday. All items will be donated next week.

At the end of the 2023-24 school year 5 of our amazing teachers will be retiring - Bonnie Boyhtair (2nd), Carol Burger (2nd), Dan Kopp (5th), Kathy Lofstuen (5th) and Amy Sundland (2nd). The retirement of these 5 amazing teachers and people will leave holes in our hearts, but we are excited for them and the new chapter in their lives. Interesting fact these 5 teachers combined have taught a total of 193 years. Burger - 40, Kopp - 37, Boyhtari - 38, Lofstuen - 41, Sundland - 37.Can you imagine how many kids that is that these 5 taught??!!

Last reminder - you will need to call or email the office by 10am on Thursday if you would like to take your child home upon the completion of the 12:30 concert. heidi.klassen@isd709.org 218-336-8825

Upon the completetion of the concert, parents who are picking up their students early will remain in the gym. Once the other parents have cleared out, the students will be called down. The students will go up on the stage and search there parents. Once you have connected, your student will be released from the stage.

The end of the school year brings lots of fun activities, but these activities can't happen without your hlep. Please consider volunteering your time to make these activities happen for our students and staff:

Bike Rodeo - May 14th - https://signup.com/go/dMswDXT

Field Day -June 5th - https://signup.com/go/atOpOWB

Staff Brunch - June 7th - https://signup.com/go/dEDgjCD

Thanks for helping to support our Congdon community!

What is Field Day?

Field Day is a K-5th grade event that we try to have every school year. 3 grades participate in the morning, and 3 participate after lunch. Here is this year's schedule:

Date ~ Wednesday, June 5th (No Rain Date)

Grades K, 1, 2 ~ 8:15am to 10:45am

Grades 3, 4, 5 ~ 11:00am to 1:15pm

Food for volunteers will be available 10:30-11:30. We encourage afternoon volunteers that want to eat, to eat at 10:30 so they have time to get to their station by 10:50. Morning volunteers will after their shift.)

Volunteers are needed to make this event happen! If you would like to volunteer please click HERE

You can sign up for the morning session, the afternoon session, and/or the extra help for set up or a floater. Feel free to sign up for one area or the whole day!

For safety reasons...we are unable to allow visitors to this event due to the large amount of students on the field. However, you are more than welcome to sign up as a volunteer!

Do you like cutting, gluing, and stapling? How about helping our incredible teachers? If so, PHIT needs you! PHIT (Parents Helping Incredible Teachers) meets every other Wednesday morning from 9:00-11:00 and helps the teachers by doing tasks that make their day easier - like cutting, gluing, stapling or sorting. Our last two meetings of the year are May 8 and May 22. Come check us out! For more information contact jennifer.a.engel@gmail.com.

Our spring concert will be on May 17th. The format will follow years past. Concerts at 8:30 and 12:30 and prelude music provided by students starting 30 minutes before the program.

• Two identical performances in our gym...8:30 am & 12:30 pm on Friday, May 17.

• Please attend only ONE performance. We want to have seating for everyone, and there will be A LOT of parents, siblings, grandparents, etc, coming to hear our students sing.

• Doors will open at 7:45am and 11:45am. Anyone who arrives earlier will need to wait outside of the school.
• Please be respectful of our neighbors and do not block their driveways or the Congdon Park driveways. Remember there is alternate side parking in effect - do not park on both sides of the street.
• WE WILL BE HAVING A NON PERISHALBLE FOOD DRIVE. THERE WILL BE BOXES IN THE LOBBY TO COLLECT YOUR DONATION - THANIK YOU STUDENT COUNCIL FOR ORGANIZING.

Thank you so much to all the parents who showed such love and appreciation for the teachers and staff at Congdon Park. A special shout out to our PTA and Ashley Moseley, Amanda Sutton, Brianna Halvorson, Jamie Messina, Stevie Haasken and Kayla Foley who provided veritable feasts in the staff lounge every day. There were raffle drawings on Friday from a number of local restaurants and all staff were given flowers to bring home to add to their gardens! We cannot thank you enough for your support.

We are celebrating the end of the year with one last game of Bingo on June 4th. We are in need of chapter books to give away as prizes. There will be a box in the lobby if you have some to donate.

"Once again, the PTA is offering prepackaged school supply packs for sale as a convenience for our Congdon Park families! These kits can be ordered now at https://www.educationalproducts.com/shoppacks/ , using code CON036 (3 letters/3 numbers). Place your orders by 6/2/2024 for the lowest price! Proceeds from the sale support PTA-funded activities."

This year's theme was “I am Hopeful Because…”. Arthur Foley received an Honorable Mention in Visual Arts for his drawing “Battle Bots”. Ariana Shahmammadli received an Honorable Mention in Literature for her poem “The Sun”. Additionally, Ariana’s photograph “Heavenly Harbour” took first place in the State and has been advanced to the National Level. The National PTA selected Ariana’s photo from among 900 student entries and awarded her a silver medallion, a $200 Young Artist Scholarship and an Award of Excellence certificate.

Congratulations to Ariana and Arthur!

The theme for next year has already been announced and is available on the National PTA website. It is “Accepting Imperfection”. Students are encouraged to start reflecting and creating their art in the following categories: Visual Arts, Film Production, Choreography, Music Composition, Photography, Literature, and Accessible Arts.

Please ask Yelena Sokolova any questions regarding the Reflections, yelena.evs@gmail.com.

The yearbooks have arrived. They will be distributed to students the last week of school. We do have some extra if you would still like to order. Cost is $25, cash/check up front on a first come first served basis. The yearbook will be held in the office until we do the mass distribution to students who ordered one.

Find out more about Keyzone at Congdon, dates, times registration etc.

https://www.isd709.org/community/key-zone

You may remember our teacher wish tree from the hallway of the school. Teachers would list items they need for their classrooms and parents could take down the apple, purchase the item(s), and return the item(s) to school. The tree is gone and the list is virtual! Teacher wishes are in a sign-up and will be updated throughout the year, so keep an eye on the list! Once you purchase the item, tag it with the teacher's name and drop it in the labeled bin in the school lobby.

Here are our teacher wishes so far.

Click HERE for more information on summer basektball.

Please reference last week's newsletter for all information previously posted about summer camps and activities for kids.

Kathi Kusch Marshall - Principal

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Website: https://www.isd709.org/congdon-elementary
Location: 3116 E. Superior St
Phone: 218.336.8825
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cpsduluth