Cougar Community Connection

Dear CRUNFamily,

It was a great week back from fall break. Ending the week with our Donuts with Grownups event was a great treat. A huge thank you to the volunteers and our PTA for hosting such a fabulous event. It is always one of our most heavily attended events and it was so fun to have our CRUNFamily all together sharing sweet breakfast treats.

A couple of reminders to our families about our start time at school and scooters and bikes on campus. We are seeing more and more kiddos, especially our 5th and 6th graders, showing up early to school. We don't have supervision outside until 8:25 and many of our kids are arriving much earlier than that. We had one scary event take place this year already with a theft in our parking lot and just want to ensure that our kids are supervised and safe while on campus. Please, please, please don't drop off or let kids leave the house early to ride to school as staff are in meetings, professional development or preparing for the day and don't have eyes on kids until that 8:25 bell. We are reminding kids about walking bikes and scooters once they arrive at school. We have had some close call situations with them zipping around before and after school and almost hitting kids and adults. Thank you so much for your help reminding your kiddos to walk their transportation items once on campus.

Hello #CRUNfamily!

Thanks for attending donuts with groups this morning! We loved seeing you all bright and early!

Our next PTA meeting will be Friday November 8th, please feel free to join us in person or join on Zoom. We always love seeing new and returning faces!

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
• Expert Home Team
• Playwell Group
• Strive Learning
• Master Je Taekwondo
• 
  

-Have a great rest of the week!

The CRUN PTA

This fabulous team of humans support our teachers as Educational Assistants each and every day. The tasks they focus on range from instructional groups, clerical tasks and supervision in the cafeteria and playground. These ladies focus heavily on building strong and positive relationships with kids becoming another trusted adult for them, helping them to become the very best version of themselves. These ladies bend over backwards to support our teachers and make great things happen for kids. We are so grateful for their love and dedication to our babies.

Left to Right- Mari Diaz, Ana Lopez, Adeline Kozlovic, Holly Raue, Marianne Margheim, Alissa Schuessler, Murk Memon

POP TABS

R.O.C.K.S. Council is excited to run the collection of pop tabs again for this school year! Whether you have started or not, all you have to do is start collecting aluminum tabs off of pop/soda cans, soup cans and/or adult beverages at home! You can even ask relatives and/or parents can start a trend at their jobs and have others start collecting them too! Then, have your student bring them to school in a ziplock bag, as often as you would like, and put them in your classroom jar. Classes will have their jars counted monthly to help with the competition to see which class can collect the most pop tabs by May and win the Pop Tab Trophy! This is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate our ROCKS Trait of the Power of One. Please read more information on the flyer that went home today in Friday Folders.

The high-flying Harlem Wizards (think Harlem Globetrotters!) trick basketball team is coming to

Highlands Ranch High School on Sunday, November 3 rd ! The Wizards are playing Highlands Ranch

elementary school teachers for an event filled with tricks, hoops, and alley-oops! Part basketball game,

part hilarious antics with audience participation, and all fun for the whole family!

Check out a sneak peek of what’s in store for this unforgettable evening!

Enhanced Experiences are also available:

 Courtside Seating that includes a pre-game meet & greet with 2 Harlem Wizards and souvenirs!

 Warm Up with the Wizards by purchasing a replica jersey to become a “Wiz Kid” and step onto

the court with the Wizards before the game!

Game starts at 3pm and the doors open at 2pm. Tickets start at $15 and go on sale October 1 st .

Children ages 3 and under are FREE!

Our school earns $2 per ticket, so this is a great way to support our school!

We also have volunteer opportunities available for this event. Volunteers receive FREE admission to the

game AND receive a 20% discount on Wizards merchandise! Sign up here to volunteer at the game!

ORDER HARLEM WIZARDS TICKETS

NOTE: Link for video above is: https://vimeo.com/343307058

NOTE: Link for ticket sales above is: www.harlemwizards.com/tickets/highlandsranch

As of today you will find the 2024-2025 Apple Award Nomination link LIVE on your school's page on the FoundationDCS.org website. The 2024-2025 Apple Award Nomination window will be open from Monday October 1, 2024 through Sunday November 11, 2024. We invite our DCSD students, teachers, staff and community to join us in nominating their favorite teacher(s), principal, classified employee and department employee. After the Nomination window closes on November 11th we will return the list of nominees to each school for your own selection of this year's school representatives. Each school may submit one educator and one classified representative to be considered for the 2023 Apple Award!

Put these dates on your calendar!

October 1, 2024 - November 11, 2024

NOMINATION WINDOW OPEN!!

It's that time of year again to plan for our Halloween festivities at Cougar Run. Our Halloween costume parade will begin at 9:00 around the perimeter sidewalk of our school. It will start on the bus loop side of the building and continue all the way up to the pavilion at Cougar Run Park, down the hill and back into the building through the front doors. The parade begins with 6th grade and ends with Pre-K bringing up the caboose of the train. Spread out all along the parade route and check out the creative costumes that our kids come up with. Costumes can have masks and face paint, but no blood or gore knowing we have 4 year olds in our building participating in the parade. We also cannot have any facsimile of weapons of any kind. Halloween parties are all throughout the day based on grade level preference. Classroom teachers will communicate details about their parties with you in their individual newsletters.

October 30, 2024 5:30-8:00pm

CogAT Universal Testing and Referral Information

DCSD is committed to implementing equitable practices to increase access to advanced/gifted learning opportunities. Based on state and national recommendations and requirements, we implement Universal Screening for students in 2nd grade (February) and 5th or 6th grade--a student's final year of elementary school (November).

6th Grade Universal Screen

As part of this process, ALL students in Cougar Run not identified for gifted programming will take the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) on November 5 & 6. This assessment indicates the level and pattern of cognitive development of a student in comparison to grade and age mates. These general reasoning abilities, which start developing at birth and continue through early adulthood, are influenced by experiences gained both in and out of school.

If your child is already identified for gifted programming, they will not participate in this universal screen testing. Your Gifted Education Facilitator will contact you directly with information about this process.

Gifted Identification Referral Testing

• If your child is in grades 3, 4, 5, and you believe they need evaluation for Gifted Identification and Services, you may refer your child for testing by initiating the Gifted Identification Process.

• NOTE: Requesting this assessment automatically initiates the process to evaluate for Gifted Identification.

• Please request CogAT testing for your child by completing the Referral for Gifted Identification linked HERE

• Upon receipt of this form the Gifted Education Facilitator will connect with you to discuss next steps in the gifted identification process.

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.

November 8th- PTA Meeting 8:45 in the Learning Commons

November 12- CRUN Restaurant Night

November 18-22- CRUN Book Fair

November 25-29- NO SCHOOL THANKSGIVING BREAK

December 2-6- NO CRUN BUS THIS WEEK

December 9-13- CRUN Holiday Shoppe (Hosted by PTA)

December 12- ROCKS Assemblies 9:00 PK-2nd Grade, 2:15-3rd-6th

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