Cougar Community Connection

Dear CRUNFamily,

It was a great week wrapping up our mid year diagnostics and taking a look at all of the growth our kids have made this first semester of learning. Reports will come home in Friday Folders next week to give you a snapshot of growth your kids have made in each of the domain areas of reading and math. We always keep in mind that as educators, a body of evidence of our students' data is what we value most knowing that multiple data points across time truly showcase the whole story of our kids' growth and progress. iReady is one of those data points and we use this midyear data in our data protocols in January to make any adjustments to our kids' programming that is needed to kick off the second semester of our school year. One of our core beliefs is that early intervention/enrichment and immediate response is how we make the most groundwork in supporting kids where they are, so we will be digging in and ensuring that needs are met in our PLCs in January. With only a week left in our 2024 school year, we will be spending our time reflecting as a classroom family, celebrating the progress we have made as a learning community with winter parties to finish out the week next week and send us off into winter break. We wish you a great weekend and remind you to get excited about our spirit week next week that has a Power of One theme, positively impacting families in need this holiday season. Please take a look at the sections below for details about spirit week.

Hello #CRUNfamily

We hope you all enjoyed the holiday Market this week. Between the money raised from the Shoppe, plus a VERY generous anonymous donation, we are able to help support families in need in our own Cougar Run Family. Thanks to everyone who made it to our last PTA meeting of 2024. Please note, we will not have a PTA meeting in January so we hope to see you all at our PTA meeting on February.

Get ready for Spirit Night at **Wahoo’s Fish Tacos** on Monday, December 16th! 20% of your purchase will be donated to the Cougar Run PTA – it's the perfect excuse to grab some tacos and support our school at the same time.

Don’t forget to check out the PTA website for all things PTA, reserve the Rock, and keep up to date on School happenings!

As always, THANK YOU to our business sponsors this year!!! We are so grateful for the community support you provide:

• Wanderlust with Laura
• AGG Law Firm
• Math Tutoring
• Dr. Holt Orthodontics
• Sunny Party Rentals
• Spenga
• School of Rock
• Bad Boy Boards
• Children's Wellness Center of Colorado
• Andy's Frozen Custard
• McMannis Wealth
• Aaron Lebovic, Realtor
• Playwell Group
• Strive Learning
• Master Je Taekwondo

The CRUN PTA

Our First Grade Team are a group of ROCKStars. These ladies combined have close to 80 years of experience. Then you add the support of our retired first grade teacher volunteer, Mr. Vittal and we are well over 100 years of education experience supporting the needs of our first grade babies. First grade is a pivotal year in children's academic development as it is a cornerstone grade for emergent reading (learning to read), writing and math skills, preparing our kids to be able to "read to learn". This team devotes all of their time and energy with a direct, hands on approach, ensuring that we are responding to our students' learning data in the moment in order to keep their growth trajectory in an upward direction all year long. You can't be in better hands than this first grade team and we are so grateful for their love, their skill and expertise with all things first grade. From left to right they are pictured below, Struck, Barr, Holmes, Vittal, Addy, Harper.

We are notifying our community early that we will be doing a "Power of ONE" spirit week the week of December 16th as a CRUNFamily. Our ROCKS Council students are heading up a cause for us as a community to use our Power of One to make a positive difference in the lives of others this holiday season. Please check out the flyer below and get excited for this great opportunity to use your "Power of ONE" to give back to those in need!

If you are not receiving emails or texts from DCSD or CRUN regarding the delays or closures, please follow this link and follow the directions.

When you receive communication from the DCSD SchoolMessenger system, the number displayed will depend on the type of message. The two types of communication include:

Emergency Notifications (critical communications)

855-695-9448 (you may wish to add this number to your contacts)

Standard Notifications (lunch balance, event reminders, general communication)

877-279-4061 (you may wish to add this number to your contacts)

If you’ve scrambled this week trying to find your child's winter gear.....it might just be in the lost and found. Please be sure to check it out before we leave for winter break as ALL ITEMS will be donated on December 20 at 7 am!!!!

We received great news that our Cougar Run bus route is now fully restored for the rest of the school year. This means that there are no longer canceled routes in the AM or PM for the rest of the year! Bus Driver Buck is so excited to be able to serve our kids every day of the year moving forward.

Teacher & Staff Wishlists

Need ideas for Teacher & Staff Gifts? You can find out their Favorite Things HERE!

Thank you to our amazing PTA and all of the volunteers who helped make CRUN a better place this December!

Hello Folks,

We have a few choir events coming up so check them out below.

5th and 6th grades interested in DCSD Honors Choir

Art To Remember

Hi families and friends,

Our school is participating in a creative fundraiser with Art to Remember that allows you to purchase keepsake products customized with your child's art. There are over 60 products and many are less than $20. These make great gifts and a percentage of every purchase goes right back to our school. Click on the link below and enter the online order code shown on your child's order form or to search for your child's artwork. Then, have fun shopping!

https://arttoremember.com/school/4WEEK9

Parents,

We are excited to create a memorable keepsake for students this year, but we cannot be everywhere to photograph every event nor every classroom. We have to depend on YOU to submit photos in order to create this keepsake. Please submit your information and photos to this form. You can fill out the form as many times as you would like! Thank you for being the eyes and the photographers to make this successful!

HERE is the Yearbook Submission Form.

December 16-CRUN Restaurant Night-Wahoos Fish Taco 4-9PM

December 20-January 6- NO SCHOOL WINTER BREAK-School Resumes January 7th

January 10-8:45 PTA Meeting in the LC

January 14-CRUN Restaurant Night

January 17-No School for Students Professional Development Day for Teachers

January 20-No School DCSD Closed Martin Luther King Jr Day Holiday

January 31-7:30 Muffins with Mentors

February 7-8:45 PTA Meeting in the Learning Commons (Also Virtual Option)

February 10-13- Parent/Teacher Conference Week (See your teacher's schedule for sign ups)

February 14 & 17- NO SCHOOL PRESIDENT'S WEEKEND HOLIDAY