Beagle 
Bugle
PTA Newsletter 
10.19.15
  Website: 
In This Issue
School Picture Day
You're Invited! First PTA Meeting of the year
Box Tops Contest-Due Fri
Running Club Starts Thurs
Art Contest - PTA Reflections
SchoolPool Update
School Spirit Day-This Fri
Math Challenge #2
Spelling Bee: Mock Bee Dates
Costume Parade Guidelines
Why Join PTA?
Quick Links
IMPORTANT DATES
(Filtered for Rockwell)

Oct. 20th, Tuesday
School Picture Day

Oct. 20th, Tuesday
LWSD-LWPSTA Special Needs Group Mtg
LWSD Resource Ctr - 7pm

Oct. 21st, Wednesday
Wear Orange for 
Unity Day/Anti-Bullying

Oct. 22nd Thursday
**First PTA General Membership Mtg of the school year - all invited!

Oct. 23rd, Friday
Rockwell Spirit Day - Wear your Rockwell Spirit Gear or Purple and Yellow!

Oct. 26th, Monday
Reflections Submissions are Due

Oct. 30th, Friday
All-School Costume Parade
(Parents invited)
2:00 p.m.

ROCKWELL SCHOOL PICTURE DAY - TUES OCT 20th
Picture Day is Tuesday, October 20th! To order portraits, please complete the Lifetouch order form provided (order forms were sent home in your child's backpack), enclose payment, and return to school on Picture Day. 

Orders can also be placed online at My.Lifetouch.com.  School Picture Day ID: LS115732Q0

Picture Day Chairperson
PTA GENERAL MEETING - THURS. OCT 22 - 7:00 PM
Our first PTA meeting of the school year will be held on Thursday,  
Oct. 22nd at 7pm in the Rockwell Library. All parents and guardians are cordially invited to attend.

The business portion of the meeting will offer updated news for parents.  It will also include reports from our school administrators and other staff members. Additionally, we will be discussing our new Capital Funds Committee and are looking for volunteers (and teacher representatives) to join this committee. And as always, we will provide plenty of time for a question and answer period. 

Please join us for this informative meeting.

Ellie O'Rourke and Cari Scotkin
BOX TOP & LABELS FOR EDUCATION CONTEST - 
**Ends This Friday, Oct. 23rd**
Box Top and Labels for Education contest ends this Friday, October 23rd!!  

Our goal is to collect 10,000 Box Tops and 5000 Labels for Education!  
So far we have 2300 Box Tops and 100 Labels for Education.

Go through your pantry and start clipping off boxes and cans! Ask your relatives for their Box Tops and Labels for Education!

Box Tops: Every Box Top collected earns the school 10 cents towards new NETBOOKS!

1. Find Box Tops on hundreds of products. Look for the PINK and WHITE little square.
2. Neatly Clip Box Tops from each package. Please make sure they are not expired.
3. Send the Box Tops to your teacher all week.

Labels for Education: Every Label for Education earns points towards recess materials like balls, chalk and more!

1. Find Labels for Education on hundreds of products. Look for the ORANGE and WHITE UPC code.
2. Neatly Clip UPC Labels from each package.
3. Send the Labels for Education to your teacher all week.

With Rules, come Rewards:

1. The GRADE with the HIGHEST average of Box Tops AND Labels for Education collected per student WINS 5 MINUTES extra of Lunch RECESS!

2. The CLASSROOM with the HIGHEST average of Box Tops AND Labels for Education collected per student WINS an EXTRA 15 MINUTE RECESS!

Click the link for more information on the Box Tops for Education program, including a list of participating products.

Click the link for additional information on the Labels For Education program, including participating products.

Co-VP's of FUNdraising
ROCKWELL RUNNING CLUB STARTS THIS THURS OCT 22ND
Announcing the start of the Rockwell Running Club! 
The kids LOVE staying fit by running during recess and they also love earning prizes! If there are not enough volunteers on a given day, they will cancel running club during the morning announcements
 
Who? Safe, Respectful, and Responsible 1st - 5th Graders who want to run during Lunch Recesses.

When? Tuesdays and Thursdays during Lunch Recesses, starting this week on Thursday, Oct 22nd, 2015. (Correction from previous Bugle)

Where? We will meet at the grass patch next to the sand soccer field, then run a marked looped path around the soccer field. Round and round they go!
 
Attention Parents! We REALLY need your help to kick off this program. We need 3-5 volunteers each Tues/Thurs to help set up, monitor and assist students with punch cards on laps being completed. Please sign up for volunteer shifts online here
(There is a tent available for weather, however pouring rain will result in cancellation.)  

Volunteers must have current LWSD Volunteer Approval. If you have not yet been background checked, you may fill out the volunteer application online here. (Approval is good for 2 years.)  Paper applications are also available in the Rockwell Elementary office.
 
Questions? Please email:
Christine Cottom/Rockwell PE Teacher
PTA REFLECTIONS ART COMPETITION  - Submissions Due 10/26
Participate in the PTA Reflections Art Competition:
"Let Your Imagination Fly"

Each year, the National PTA Reflections art competition challenges students to create art that supports a specific theme. This year's theme is "Let Your Imagination Fly"Students may enter through their school PTSA in any of six art categories: literature, music composition, photography, visual arts, dance choreography, and film production. Deadline is Oct 26th.

To get started with Reflections, download and read the rules and guidelines for the art category your child plans to enter. (Click on the links below.) Please also download and read the General Participation Rules that apply to all art categories. Download our PTSA's student entry form HERE.  Please also find the hard copies of the entry forms in the Rockwell office. 

Find more information about the Reflections program at Rockwell PTA Website - Reflections.

For more information, please contact:
Rockwell Reflections Co-Chairs
SCHOOL POOL UPDATE - SIGN UP TODAY
We had a great turn out at our Walk to School Day event!  It's a great reminder for how much fun walking to school can be, even in the rain.

One of the benefits of SchoolPool is it is easy to create "Walking School Buses" and share the responsibility of walking students to school with other friends and neighbors.  If you'd like to get a walking school bus started in your neighborhood, check out the SchoolPool blog hereThanks for participating!
 
P.S. If you took a non-drive alone trip (carpool, walk, bike, bus) to school last week be sure and add that trip to your SchoolPool calendar to raise $10 for our PTA. (Sign up here if you haven't yet).

Thank you all for participating!
Beth Batig and Kerry Bauman
ROCKWELL SPIRIT DAY!  Friday, Oct. 23
We've got spirit, yes we do!
We've got spirit, how about you?

Wear Purple
, Yellow AND your new Spirit wear!
Students, staff and parents- 
Show your school spirit; wear Rockwell colors Friday, Oct 23rd

Thank you for showing your school spirit
YEA BEAGLES!!

FUNdraising Co-VP's
MATH CHALLENGE #2
Math Challenge #2 is now available here. For this challenge, 12 qualified submissions will be randomly selected for a prize.  This is our second Math Challenge, so grab some friends and family and work on the challenge together!

The challenge due date is Thurs, Oct 22nd (before 3pm).

Let the challenge begin!
MOCK (PRACTICE) SPELLING BEE DATES
We will hold a MOCK (practice) BEE on Thursday Oct 22nd from 3- 4:15pm in the school library. This session will provide students with important tips and practice for the Final School Spelling Bee. We have 2 more such sessions scheduled on 
Nov. 19th and Dec. 17th - same time and place.

If you are interested in helping out for the Final School Spelling Bee in February, then join us for these monthly mock bee sessions by replying to nrspellingbeeclub@gmail.com.

Each volunteer must be cleared by the Lake Washington school district in order to volunteer in any after-school program. You can pick up a volunteer application from the front office or go online to LWSD Volunteer Application. It generally takes two weeks for approval. Please make sure you give yourself time to be cleared before you are scheduled to volunteer. 

Go to ww.youthspellingbee.com or contact:

The Spelling Bee Team,
Sarita Valji, Barbara Puk, and Chamu Kallem
COSTUME PARADE - DETAILS AND GUIDELINES
Hello Rockwell Families! As you may know, the Halloween parade at Rockwell is a long standing tradition.
 
The parade will be on October 30th, and we want to ensure that all children are safe and secure at this event. 

Please make note:
  • The parade will begin at 2pm and will run for about 20 minutes.
  • Families are welcome to come and watch. 
  • We will have clearly marked areas for family members to stand. We will hold the parade outdoors unless the weather prevents it. 
  • Wherever you stand, you will see all students pass by, so please distribute yourselves evenly along the parade route. 
  • Please leave strollers at home or at the front vestibule of the school.
  • Waving is fine, but please do not give high fives. This overwhelms some of our littler friends.
Children are invited to bring costumes for the parade. Please observe these rules:
  • Costumes must be brought (not worn) to school.Students will only have about 15 minutes to prepare for the parade. 
  • Costumes should be worn over a child's clothing, if possible.
  • Students are allowed to apply face paint, but will have very little time to do so. Staff will not paint faces.
  • No hairspray or other aerosols at school.
  • All costumes must be appropriate for school and all ages here.
  • No blood or fake weapons of any kind are allowed.
  • Masks that restrict vision may not be worn. Neither can very scary masks ("Scream", etc.)
  • Teachers will have final say on whether a costume is appropriate for school.

If you do not wish your child to participate in the parade and celebrations, please let us know.


Principal, Norman Rockwell Elementary School
ROCKWELL PTA - WHY SHOULD YOU JOIN OUR SCHOOL'S PTA?
The Rockwell Parent Teacher Association is a partnership between parents, teachers and community members with a mission advocate for the welfare, safety, spirit and education of our kids. 

Joining the PTA does NOT mean you are part of the PTA Board of Directors. Joining the PTA requires NO time commitment from members unless they specifically volunteer it.  If you do have time you would like to volunteer, the PTA has many opportunities to help out and you can get to know more people in our amazing Rockwell community at the same time!

Joining the PTA means that you are helping to support all the wonderful things the PTA does for Rockwell's kids.  What are those wonderful things?  There is a long list, but some of the highlights include:
  • Providing financial and volunteer support for MANY programs including Chess Club, Salmon in the Classroom, Math in Action, Art Docent program, yearbook and more.
  • Providing financial grants for educational enrichment to each grade level
  • Financial contributions for busses to take kids on field trips
  • Organizing many events for families each year, including the Welcome Back BBQ, the Ice Cream Social, Heritage Night, 5th Grade Promotion and more!
Another important role of the PTA is to advocate on behalf of our kids with the government.  The more members we have, the stronger our voice at the legislature.

Joining the PTA also has lots of perks, including discounts at Great Wolf Lodge, Fedex Office and more.  Check out wastatepta.org for more details on the perks. (There are also National PTA benefits!)

An individual membership is $18 for the year, and a couple membership is $30.

HOW TO JOIN THE ROCKWELL PTA:
Sign up on normanrockwellpta.org (login to your account or create one if you have not already) and you can pay using a credit card or PayPal. 

OR

Request a form at the office and drop off a check made out to Norman Rockwell PTA.  (You can send the form and check in your kid's backpack - just make sure it is in a sealed envelope labeled "PTA Membership.")
 
Questions about membership? 
Contact Rockwell's Membership Chair Heather Armenise 

Thanks for your support!
QUICK LINKS - IN EVERY ISSUE
-AmazonSmile: Give a little back to Rockwell PTA by using
our AmazonSmile link!  Bookmark it and use the link every time you shop.
 
-Volunteer Application:   LWSD Volunteer application. It's easy to complete and is good for 2 years. Fill yours out or check your renewal status today!

-Rockwell PTA Facebook Page: Stay connected and updated on  Rockwell PTA & school info. Stop by and "Like" us!  

 
-Bookmark & Register for your account on our  
New PTA  Website. Calendar info, announcements, forms, ordering yearbooks and spiritwear, and much more!

-Submit Photos to the YearbookPlease upload them directly to the secure LifeTouch website by visiting LifetouchRegister and use our NEW school access code: PHEBEV
Subscribe!
Bugle Article Submissions Welcome
  
The Beagle Bugle welcomes article submissions from students and parents.  Student journalists may submit articles about current events, students opinion-editorials and poems or short stories.  Parents may submit articles about PTA events and school related topics. 

Any article that is unrelated to PTA or Rockwell must be approved by the Lake Washington School District, and, upon approval, will be posted in the Peachjar eflyer system.  The Lake Washington School District website has more information on the submission and approval process.

Short pieces will be edited for inclusion in the Bugle, longer pieces will be posted on the website with a link in the Bugle.  The Deadline for submissions for the next weekly Bugle is the preceding Thursday.  The Bugle Staff reserves the right to be selective regarding the materials that are publicized.

Contact the Bugle staff or submit articles at rockwellbugle@gmail.com
  
Sincerely,
Angie Ballas
Beagle Bugle Editor
Norman Rockwell Elementary PTA