Cascadia Elementary PTA

The calendar of grade level and neighborhood playdates for Cascadia Families is now available! Each playdate is on the events calendar, and a summary list is in the document below.

Come and play with others on the playground. Any grade/neighborhood is welcome as are friends and siblings of Cascadia students. You are welcome to bring your own picnic as you wish, and come/go at the time that best suits your family. We hope to see you there!

Contact [email protected] if you have further questions.

DOCUMENT IS PUBLISHED AS OF JUNE 20. PLEASE REFER TO THE EVENTS CALENDAR FOR THE MOST ACCURATE AND CURRENT DETAILS.

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Remember to vote by August 6, 2019 for the Seattle School Board primary!

This year, 4 of the 7 seats on the Seattle School Board are up for election. With 12 primary candidates holding a wide variety of perspectives, your August 6 vote is incredibly important. If you will be out of town, make a plan to cast your vote while you are away. King County Elections has tips here.

The Seattle Times has posted profiles. The 32nd District Democrats have endorsed Eric Blumhagen. The 36nd District Democrats have endorsed Eric Blumhagen and Lisa Rivera Smith. The 43rd District Democrats have endorsed Eric Blumhagen, Lisa Rivera Smith, and Rebeca Muñiz. The 46th District Democrats have endorsed multiple candidates.

Additional endorsements will be shared when possible.

Please ask your child to go through the lost and found before the 27th, or pop in and check for items you recognize. The lost and found will be emptied by our parent volunteer on the morning of the last day of school.

Dear Families,

Summer is just around the corner and I know many of you are looking forward to a slower pace, which means more time for great books!

Last week we had a great visit from Lena Quijano, the Children’s Librarian at the University Branch of SPL. She spoke to us about the Summer of Learning Program at the public libraries and shared some great book talks with us.

Below are some link and resources for summer reading suggestions. I hope you enjoy a fabulous summer, the great outdoors and a great book!

Merrick Bodmer
Teacher-Librarian

SPL Programs and Reading Suggestions:

• University Summer of Learning Reading Suggestions
• Your Next 5 Books
• Summer Learning Reads

Mrs. Bodmer’s Reading Suggestions and Book Lists:

• Read Kiddo Read
• American Literacy Association 2019 Summer Reading

Summer Reading: Book Lists and Tips for Every Age

Summer Reading Series

This past weekend, Team Cascadia competed with nearly 200 other students in the Debateable’s All-city Debate Tournament.

The eloquent orations of our 11 person strong team were recognized with Top Team and Top Speaker awards. Every team member won at least one round. Great job, debaters!

A big THANKS to our dynamic coaching duo, Derek and Diana Streat.

Top Speaker Awards:
Austin Elms
Sean Kohno
Sid Shirodkar

Top Team Award:
Marie Costanzo
Nico Thompson
Vishad Lamba

Dear Cascadia Families,

Our final PTA general meeting of the year was last Thursday, and it was very productive! Thanks to all who attended.

• The PTA board presented a budget for next year, and it was approved by the general membership. We are excited to continue offering grade level programs such as Shakespeare and garden to our community. As we will have a full time general music teacher next year, the PTA is working to replace our STYLE program with an iLab program. Stay tuned for more details. Additionally, we will continue funding the counselor and instrumental music, as well as our many events throughout the year.
• We also voted to approve the slate of nominees for next year’s board. This board is full of amazing parent volunteers and will be headed up by Megan Hazen as President. I have no doubt it will be a great year!
• Finally, I am pleased to announce the recipient of this year’s Golden Acorn Award for honoring an individual who has given outstanding, continued, and dedicated volunteer service to the children of our school community–Jean Hanson. As written in her nomination letter: The 3rd Grade Garden program would not be what it is without Jean. She’s always ready to help with whatever needs to be done in the garden, to support Rowan’s lesson and help the kids learn in a way that’s fun. But—even more importantly—she’s a great “big picture” planner and always has amazing ideas for how to integrate educational concepts into garden activities. Her ability to make connections—between people, kids, ideas, projects, science, abstract concepts, and concrete realities—is inspiring.One standout is that she always evaluates her projects to include as many kids as possible as part of their school day….Jean’s consistent presence has provided a good deal of enrichment for the whole grade level.  Thank you, Jean, for all of the time and energy you have devoted to enriching our students’ learning experience at Cascadia!

Go Dragons!

Katie Detrano, Cascadia PTA President

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New student/family welcome night – Thursday June 6, 7pm

Save the date! Incoming students and families are invited to attend a new student welcome night on Thursday June 6, scheduled for 7-8:15pm at Eagle Staff MS. Meet other students, learn about the school, chat with PTSA, find out about sports and music and other programs, and enjoy some refreshments.

Can’t make it on the official night? There will be an additional opportunity to get connected to the school on Tuesday, June 11, 6-7pm. Afterward, you are welcome to stay for our end of the year Orchestra Concert starting at 7pm (note that parking will be limited due to the concert – consider parking at Cascadia).

Staff Appreciation Week
May 6-10th 2019

Staff appreciation week is coming up May 6-10th. This is the perfect time to show some extra appreciation for our incredible Cascadia Staff! We have a fun week of special events planned and would love support in making this a great week!

MONDAY, May 6: Coffee & Donuts (Provided by the PTA)
TUESDAY, May 7: Smokin Petes BBQ catered lunch (Provided by the PTA)
WEDNESDAY, May 8: Staff “Favorites” Day. Room parents will be sending out communication on how you can help!
THURSDAY, May 9: Taco Bar Potluck (Provided by parent volunteers) [SIGN UP HERE]
FRIDAY, May 10: Notes of Appreciation. All week, boxes with each staff members name will be located in the hallway by the Lost and Found. Students are encouraged to write a note of thanks, but would love for parents to also consider writing their own notes of appreciation. Please chat with your student to ensure they take the time to write their teacher a note as well as other staff members that have impacted their days at Cascadia! If students would prefer to write their notes at home please use [THIS FORM].

If anyone has any questions please reach out to Jolie Nivison (Levi, third grade) at [email protected] or Jen Fraser (George, third grade) at [email protected]
Thanks so much!

Kids Co. at Cascadia is hosting summer camp onsite all summer! Enrollment information can be found on our website at www.kidscompany.org/cascadia. Each week is a different theme which will include field trips, onsite guests and lots of outdoor fun! We hope to have you join us!

Summer Flyer Cascadia 2019

Summer of Discovery Themes 2019 Cascadia

Contact [email protected] with questions.

Before spring break the Cascadia PTA hosted our first Community Reads book club meeting. A small group of parents discussed So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo. Our goal is to share a book with the community a few times a year, and we are pleased to announce our final selection for 2019.

This spring we have chosen the book Raising You Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. This book description says: The spirited child—often called “difficult” or “strong-willed”—possesses traits we value in adults yet find challenging in children. Research shows that spirited kids are wired to be “more”—by temperament, they are more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent, and uncomfortable with change than the average child. In this revised edition of the award-winning classic, voted one of the top twenty books for parents, Kurcinka provides vivid examples and a refreshingly positive viewpoint.

While this book is not explicitly directed towards academically highly capable children, we believe that many of our parents will appreciate the positive approach to parenting our sometimes challenging, but always amazing children. The book contains real stories from other parents and numerous practical tips for working with your children.

We also believe that considering the variation in children and their strengths will help our community discuss learning and neuro-diversity, supporting our goal to build a welcoming school for every student.

Please join us in reading Raising Your Spirited Child during the next month. We will be holding a book discussion on May 16, directly following the General Membership PTA meeting. We hope that this is both a productive and enjoyable evening for all of our members.

Hello Cascadia Families!

If you haven’t met me yet, let me introduce myself, I’m Ms. Bush and I am Cascadia’s new art teacher. Please feel free to come by and introduce yourself to me in person. I am making updates on Schoology so please look there for more information about lessons. It has been a wonderful year so far! My basis for the art program is to teach students dispositions so that they can learn to think like an artist. Those dispositions are based on research done out of Harvard called the eight studio habits of mind: develop craft, engage and persist, envision, express, observe, reflect, stretch and explore, and understand the art world. Through these dispositions we learn ways of thinking that are important to developing 21^st Century skills.

5^th and 4^th grade have now worked very successfully on two group projects. They worked on masks inspired by West African art, and were fully engaged in performing and writing dialogue. Many 5^th graders worked on the big idea, “We All Live Here,” based on the artist Richard Alapack from Chicago who wanted to bring community together through art.

3^rd grade has been focused mostly on contemporary artist’s like Yayoi Kusama and Faith Ringgold. They recently finished artwork inspired by their families and by Faith Ringgold’s book Tar Beach. They are currently completing their work and moving on to working on their art journals more and learning different collage techniques.

 1^st and 2^nd grade did a whole unit on monsters that included wax resist, rubbings to make textures, and storytelling through art. We are now moving on to make Super Hero Selfies.

While some work is already up in the hallways, a lot more work will be put up for our Arts & Talent Show Night on May 22^nd. So please stay tuned and please feel free to contact me if you are interested in volunteering that day for the show. During the event you will see an art exhibit representing all students as well as exciting student performances. All lessons include learning objectives based on the National Standards in Arts and Washington State Standards in the Arts. Creating, presenting, responding, and connecting are the four pillars of the national standards. Learning is assessed using a fall baseline and Spring final SPS assessment tool designed to show growth, through ongoing teacher observations and lesson linked rubrics as well as through self-reflection activities, written response and class presentations.

Most importantly, the Art Studio is a place for students to have some serious fun and explore their unique identity and confidence through art and self-expression!

Are you interested in bringing a running program to the boys of Cascadia?  “Let Me Run is a nonprofit wellness program that inspires boys to be themselves, be active, and belong.”

If you would be interested in coordinating this type of program at Cascadia, please contact [email protected], and consider attending the local training session on March 31st.

http://www.letmerun.org/region/greater-seattle