Students will have a chance to shop and buy gifts for friends and family this week—12/10-13! See schedule below for times classes will be visiting the Holiday Shop.* Students who want to shop should bring money in an envelope on their scheduled day!
If you’d like to volunteer, there are still a few open spots—please sign up here.
The Cook-Wiss HSA coordinates the sale of soft pretzels every Tuesday during the school year for students and staff members to purchase. Each pretzel ordered costs $.50 and must be pre-ordered by the deadline to ensure your child will receive a pretzel. Pretzels are delivered to the students on Tuesday mornings before their lunch period.
Payment, along with the Pretzel Order Form, should be sent in an envelope marked with the student’s name and amount enclosed. The amount in the envelope must be exact. NO REFUNDS or change! You can pay by cash, check payable to Cook Wiss HSA, or PayPal https://paypal.me/cookwisshsa
If paying by PayPal, please write your child(ren)’s name(s) in the memo line and indicate that it’s for Pretzel Orders.
We want to thank everyone who has volunteered so far this year—for events, field trips, and for other school needs! We appreciate all you do to support Cook-Wiss!
Interested in volunteering? Please make sure you have all your clearances and then click on any of the choices below to sign up!
Giving Thanks!
Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our Special NUT Day on 11/21! We raised $240 for the North Light Community Center!
Thank you, too, to the Wissahickon Sustainability Council and the volunteers who participated in a school grounds clean-up day last month! They weeded, raked, picked up trash, and built a new bench for the front of school!
Congrats to the CW Choir for their perfomance in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade! They were awesome!
The next few weeks are busy at Cook-Wissahickon. Below is a rundown of what’s coming up and a few important notices:
HSA Membership: If you aren’t a member yet, it’s not too late. Join Now! Classes with 90% participation by 11/9 will win a pizza party!
School District Survey: Love or hate the new earlier start (and end) to the school year? Wish Spring Break were still a full week? Now is your chance to share your thoughts—the district is asking for feedback. Take the survey.
Classroom Parent Program: We are in the process of kicking on our 2018-19 Classroom Parent Program! This program helps with so much, from organizing donations for the teachers, volunteering for field trips, and helping to increase parent involvement in our school—but we can’t do it without you! So far, we have substantial coverage in K, 1st, and 2nd grades, and have leaders identified for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. We still need leaders for Middle School. The CW HSA will be staffing a table this Wednesday & Thursday during the parent-teacher conferences. If you are interested in getting involved with this program in any way or have questions, please stop by. If you have any other questions, ideas, or concerns, please stop by. We’d love to hear from you! You can also always email the HSA or our volunteer coordinator with any questions.
Volunteer Corner: Do you want to volunteer at CW this year? Please make sure you have all your clearances and then sign up for what you can help with! Check out our current needs here.
Parent & Community Advisory Council: The Philadelphia Board of Education is looking for applicants for its newly created Parent & Community Advisory Council. Interested? You can get more information or apply online here. The deadline for applying is November 9. The application should only take about 15 minutes to fill out.
Donate Games to the Afterschool Program: The CW Afterschool program wants to update its supply of games and activities for students. If you have new or gently used games you’d like to donate, please consider giving to the afterschool program. See Ms. Smith for more details or questions! Thanks!
Note of Thanks From the HSA President: A huge thanks goes out to all the volunteers and guests who braved the sudden change in the weather to join us in the schoolyard for our Movie Night featuring Beauty and the Beast. Movie night would not have been as much fun without the great crowd. And the crowd would not have had an event if not for all of the volunteers. It means a lot to me to see everyone enjoying their night together back at the school. It’s super encouraging to see all the families together, meeting each other, and coming out for a good cause. Thanks to PA Rep Pam DeLissio for coming out and talking to our families. Thanks to Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym for sending her support. All told we raised $934.24 for improvements in the Cafetorium to support our Cook-Wiss Theater Department.
Thanks also to all those who came out for and volunteered for the Art Department’s 7th Annual Harvest Festival! It was a great evening!
—Dan McGurk, HSA President
The 7th Annual Harvest Festival Art Fundraiser is coming up on Thursday, October 25 from 4:30-6:30 pm in the CW Cafeteria. If you pre-register, it’s $10 for 50 tickets. Your student can return the form to his or her homeroom teacher or to Ms. Kimmel’s mailbox in the office. Student names, homerooms, and grades must be provided as well as the amount of tickets with correct amount included. You can also purchase tickets at the door for $10 for 40 tickets. Tickets can be used for pumkin painting, light food & refreshments, a card-making craft station, and games & prizes. All money raised will go toward supporting the art department.
Of course, the success of this event depends on volunteers! If you are able, please sign up to help out! We’re so grateful for any time you can volunteer. Signup here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0d4cabae2ba5fa7-cook
Also, the Wissahickon Sustainability Council (aka CW’s Green Committee) is raffling off an awesome Halloween Lap Quilt – tickets will be available for purchase at the Harvest Festival (and you can see the quilt in person) or you can buy tickets ahead of time via paypal for $5 per ticket or $20 for 5 tickets! Visit paypal.me/cookwisswsc to purchase tickets. Put your contact information in the “special instructions” on Paypal when purchasing and you’ll be emailed a picture of your raffle tickets. They’ll be picking a winner on 10/25 at the end of Harvest Festival – and don’t worry, if you aren’t there at the time of drawing, they’ll contact you to let you know you won! Money raised through this particular fundraiser will go to the WSC to help fund maintenance costs for schoolyard cleanups, tree mulching, and meadow maintenance.
Important Dates
Reminders:
Do you want to volunteer at CW this year? Please make sure you have all your clearances and then sign up for what you can help with!
Click on any of the choices to sign up!
Thanks to everyone who joined the HSA this year! As of 9/23/18. Close to 20% of families have joined so far and Rooms 106, K2, and 208 are in the lead for the most members. All classrooms with 90% membership by Oct. 1 will win a pizza party. If you haven’t joined yet, fill out the Google Form now or download a membership form here (You can pay dues via cash, check, or PayPal).
NUT Days: On Fridays and half days throughout the year, students can dress down (No Uniform Today) for $1! This year, we started offering a few option so pay ahead—pay for the year, pay 2 times a year, or if you prefer keep paying by the day! If you want to start paying ahead from October on, please download the updated form here.
Pretzel Order Forms were sent home last week. If you didn’t receive it, downoald one here. Orders for 10/9-12/18 are due 10/3. All students will receive a free pretzel on 10/2!
For anyone interested in volunteering at school this year, Cook-Wissahickon is holding a Volunteer Orientation on 9/25. One session will be held from 9:30-10:15am and another from 1:30-2:15pm! Download the Volunteer Orientation Flyer for more information. If you can’t attend in person, visit https://www.philasd.org/face/volunteer and click “Volunteer Orientation.”
The school selection process opened Friday, Sept. 21 and will be open through Friday, Nov. 2. Presenters from various High Schools will be visiting CW to speak to 8th-grade students (families are welcome to attend) this week:
We hope to see lots of new and familiar faces at Back-to-School Night on Thursday, September 13 from 5:30 to 7:30pm!
Hopefully your student brought home several forms in his or her weekly Wednesday folder this week, but in case something was missing or never made its way into your student’s hands, here are links to paperwork we want to make sure you have:
Thanks for your continued support! If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, please let us know. Email cookwisshsa@gmail.com!
The Cook-Wissahickon HSA needs you! We invite Cook-Wissahickon families to join or renew their membership wih the HSA! We are parents and guardians of students in Cook-Wissahickon Elementary School committed to working together to strengthen our school community and enrich our children’s education. Together with our school’s teachers, staff, and other community partners, we can play a large role in the success of our school. Everyone is welcome to join and participate in monthly HSA meetings, but only dues-paying members can vote. (Dues are $5.00 per family, per year. Additional donations are welcome and appreciated. All money raised goes to supporting CW and our students.) You can also check off volunteering oportunties you might be interested in on the membership form. If you have an idea for the HSA, please reach out. You can email cookwisshsa@gmail.com anytime with any questions, concerns, ideas, etc!
You can fill out the Google form online or you can download the 2018-19 HSA Membership Form and print it and have your student return it to his/her homeroom teacher in an envelope marked HSA Membership. Payments can be sent to school via cash or check (checks made payable to Cook-Wissahickon HSA). You can also pay via Paypal https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QBK2GHUY3QZ78 – just mark your child(ren)’s name, grade/teacher, and Membership Dues in the space for special instructions. If you have a question about PayPal or any issues, please email cookwissahickontreasurer@gmail.com.
Thanks for your continued support! Our goal is 100% involement. All homerooms that have 90% membership sign-up by Oct. 1 will receive a PIZZA PARTY!
September is a busy month at school – here are some dates, events, and news you should know about:
September 6: HSA Meeting at Hilltown Tavern at 6:30 (see attached PDF for meeting dates for the year or visit https://cookwissahickonhsa.com/2018/09/04/2018-2019-hsa-meetings/)
September 6 or 7: Mandatory Choir Parent Meeting. Attend either on 9/6 at 3:30pm or 9/7 at 5pm in the school library
September 10: Rosh Hashanah – Schools Closed and Administrative Offices Closed
September 13: Back-to-School Night
September 15: WSC’s Green Your Home and Community Event (11-2pm)
Get more details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2508976255794794/
Sign up to volunteer here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050f45a8a72bab9-green
September 19: Yom Kippur – Schools Closed and Administrative Offices Closed
September 21: 2019-2020 School Selection Process Begins
September 25: Volunteer Meeting at the school 9:30am and 1:30pm (look for more information to come home from the school soo
Ongoing: NUT Days (No Uniform Today: Students can dress down for $1 on Fridays and half days)
Cook-Wissahickon now has a full-service cafeteria. Breakfast and Lunch are available to all students free of charge daily! Visit https://www.philasd.org/foodservices/about/menu/ to check out the menus for September!
Looking for info about the before and aftercare programs. Visit: https://cookwissahickonhsa.com/2018/09/03/morning-and-aftercare-begins-9-4/
Robotics Club: Fourth and Fifth Grade Families: Interested in learning about CW’s first Lego League Team? All interested families MUST register at: https://tinyurl.com/y8lfs3xx Questions? Contact Mrs. Brown (FLL Coach) rbrown@philasd.org
