OCTOBER 24, 2014 * ISSUE 10242014

Upcoming Important Dates

10/28	Picture Retake Day
10/28	October Passport Check Day
10/28	Pumpkin Family Fun Night
10/30	Vision Screening
11/3	PTA Reflections Due
11/6	PTA General Membership Meeting
11/7	Lost and Found Items to be Donated
11/10	No School
11/11	No School - Veteran's Day
11/14	Last Day for RAD Minutes Tracking
11/19	PTA/Principal Coffee
11/25	Passport Re-check day
11/27 & 28	No School - Thanksgiving Holiday

Bronze Award 5 Years in a Row!

The Puesta del Sol PTA has the great distinction of receiving the Bronze award from the Washington State PTA for enrolling 50% of our previous year's membership by September 30th. We have received this award for 5 years in a row! Thank you to all our members for enrolling early! Last year we also earned the Silver and Gold awards for increasing our total number of PTA members by 10%. We appreciate our PTA members and your support! Click here

for more details. If you have not joined yet, it is not too late! Join our PTA or renew your PTA membership at here. Any questions? Email Alison & Jana at membership@puestadelsolpta.org.

Pumpkin Family Fun Night - Volunteers Still Needed!

Tuesday, October 28th, 6:30 - 8:00pm

Carve your own pumpkin and watch an amazing live pumpkin-carving demonstration! Don your favorite western duds and join us for pumpkins, prizes and goodies. Don't miss this festive, fall, family-fun night!

Please bring

A CLEANED OUT/GUTTED pumpkin to carve
Kids' carving tools and cash for treats
No knives please!!
Cash donations for the PTA will be accepted.
The carving show will begin approximately at 7:10 pm with raffle to follow.

Please RSVP to this event by clicking here.

Volunteers needed!! Click here to sign-up.

Questions?? Email Sarah Fink: finksarah@hotmail.com

RAD: LEE M�S!

As the 3rd week of the RAD reading challenge comes to a close, we hope you have enjoyed some quality stories with your children! If you have not already, please remember to get your reading agreements turned in and reply to your classroom RAD volunteer with your minutes for the week. Keep on reading! LEE M�S!

Email us or find out more at the PTA website: Readers Are Doers!

Passport Club for October

Tuesday, October 28

The next Passport Club Check Day will be held Tuesday, October 28 from 11:30-2:00pm in the school library. If you would like to volunteer, please contact passportvolunteer@puestadelsolpta.org

October's Special Itinerary is Brazil! Check out the Special Itinerary (SI) bulletin boards in the cafeteria and library each month for great visual displays which contain the answers to the activities. Special Itineraries are a great way for your child to learn more about one country on each month's check list. There will be several copies of the SI at the bulletin board or you can print them out online. At each Check Day every month, there will be a small prize for completing SI projects.

CORRECTION: The Passport Information sheet that went out with the new study maps stated that Passport Club was part of the Academic Challenge. This was a mistake. Passport is NOT included in the 2014-15 Academic Challenge.

Academic Challenge Opportunity!

This Year's Theme is: "The World Would Be a Better Place If..."

It is time for the first Academic Challenge opportunity! Reflections is a fun and creative way for students to let their artistic side shine. The Reflections Program is a National PTA and Washington State PTA cultural arts competition that includes school, district, state and national levels. Students from all grades can enter a project in one of six categories: literature, music, photography, visual arts, film/video, or choreography/dance.

All entries must follow:

National PTA Reflections rules
Be original work completed by the student
Be accompanied by a signed official entry form

Complete guidelines, rules, and the entry form can be found on the Puesta del sol PTA website. To conserve paper, hard copies will not be distributed. If you do not have access to a printer, please email reflections@puestadelsolpta.org to get a copy of the form. Artwork with completed entry forms should be dropped off in the "Reflections" box located in the front office between Monday, October 27 and Monday, November 3 (by 3:30pm).

Finally, join us in celebrating the students' hard work and creativity at the Reflections Gallery Night where we will display all entries and announce which have been chosen to go to the District level competition. The Reflections Gallery Night will take place on Wednesday, December 10 from 6:30 to 7:30 in the school gym where students can take their artwork and ribbons home starting at 7:15pm.

International Night: Volunteers Needed

Calling all parents that want to be a part of an incredible Puesta Del Sol tradition. The International Festival is the culminating event of the school year where our students come together to perform cultural dances, songs, and music taught by volunteer and paid members of our International Spanish Academy community, staff, and families and experience the tastes of food from countries around the world. However, to put on this high-caliber show it literally takes a village! Each year, new and returning families have proven to have amazing talents to share behind the scenes. Help support bringing back this incredible tradition this year by volunteering!

We need committee chairs for:

Ticket Sales
Performance/Stage managers
Emcee
Amity coordinator
and more!

If interested in leading a committee or if you would like to help out in any of these or other areas email InternationalFestival@puestadelsolpta.org

Call for Talent: International Festival

Applications due November 1st

Calling all hidden talent in our Puesta Del Sol Community! Deadline: Nov 1st! We are looking for student-inclusive acts that represent an array of our student's cultural population and our school's Spanish foundation.

If you have a culturally unique and entertaining talent - we need you! Our International Festival is now accepting applications for performance acts. We need 6-8 acts of 2-4 minutes in length to fill out the performance line-up for our March 21st International Festival. There are two great ways you can help make our International Festival performances even more amazing:

Teach a dance and/or song(s) from your culture to a group of Puesta Del Sol students.
Already have a student or students with a unique and entertaining cultural act ready to shine on stage?

Details about the International Festival and submission guidelines are available on the PTA website. Anyone interested please email internationalfestival@puestadelsolpta.org no later than Nov 1st.

Please Vote for Initiative 1351

The PTA has not voted on any endorsement of this initiative, but we do encourage you to vote. We are obligated to share both the pro and con position. The Washington Policy Center's Citizens guide to Initiative 1351 can be found here. The Washington Research Council's position can be found here. A report from the Washington State Office of Financial Management can be found here. The I-1351 website is here.

TechVentures coming Spring 2015!

Coming January 2015!

The Puesta del Sol PTA will be sponsoring TechVentures to teach an 8 week coding class after school on Thursdays; 3:30-4:30. This will be available for students in 2nd -5th grade. Look for registration information in the El Sol coming in November.

Right now we are looking for a parent who is willing to organize this program. Responsibilites include:

Attending each class,
Completing a project beforehand in Scratch
Organizing the registration process through the PTA website.

If you are interested please email Crystal at edenhancement@puestadelsolpta.org. You can find out more about the coding class here. Thank you!

Garden Club

Thursdays, 2nd recess

The weekly school Garden Club started the first week of October during Thursday 2nd recess with great turnout by the kids! Please email katpizzo@comcast.net and join the Puesta del Sol School Garden facebook group here to stay informed of the garden activities and schedules, and to volunteer either in the garden or with your child's class as a Garden Ambassador.

Picture Re-Take Day - October 28th

Please be sure to have your child take their photo if they haven't taken them or need re-takes. Pictures will not be taken in the Spring. This is the only opportunity.

Vision Screening

October 30th from 9:00 - 11:30am, Old Art Room

Volunteers are needed to assist with vision screening. Please click here to signup.

School Clinic: Donations Needed

Do you have outgrown clothes lingering in your closet? Please consider donating items to the school clinic. There is a need for small girls and boys pants, Kindergarten and 1st grade size. For ease of use, elastic waistbands are preferable.

Lost & Found

Unclaimed items will be Donated Friday, November 7th

Please remember to check for lost/missing items. �Gracias!

BSD Community Education Series

Discover the invaluable Community Education Series presented by the Bellevue School District Special Education Department. Check out the calendar for classes like "Motivating Academic Interest and Building Executive Functioning Skills", "Launching Into Adulthood", "Positive Behavior Supports Across Settings", and more! Click HERE for more information.

Click the Links Below
to Sign Up

Amith

Amity Interns
Have Arrived!

Help us welcome them into our school community. Consider inviting them to your home for dinner, or if your family has a fun activity planned, invite them along. Click here to find information for tutoring or visiting with our Amity Interns.

Are you a Facebook fanatic?

If so, please LIKE US on Facebook to get up to date reminders of events and programs plus more!

Did you know you can view the calendar in Outlook or Google and upload the calendar to your personal calendar? That way whenever we make a calendar change, it updates your calendar automatically!

Check Out the Community Page on the PTA website!

Each Box Top is worth 10� for our school! That adds up FAST! The last two years we raised over $1,300. Can we reach $1,000 in a year?

Clip, save & have your kiddos drop them in Box Top box located in the school office on the PTA table to the right of the door.

(We will only be collecting Box Tops this year, NOT Labels for Education.)

Puesta del Sol PTA Unit 2.3.95, Bellevue, WA

Lisa Dembo, Co-President

Julee Seibel, Co-President

425.456.6143 PTA Office

425.456.6100 School Office