Kate Fischer, President
kate2.fischer@comcast.net

Bonnie Buckley and
Jean French , Co-Treasurers
bonnie_buckley@hotmail.com
jmfrench62@msn.com

Join us for Chick-fil-A Restaurant DAY on Founders Parkway (near Target) on Thursday, 12/15/05. You can attend any time during the entire day! ANYTIME from 6:30 AM to 10 PM. Go for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and they will donate 10% of the ACS-generated sales to our school. Flyers will be going home as a reminder, but are not needed to hand in to the restaurant. Be sure to tell the cashier that you are with ACS for SPIRIT DAY when you place your order. You can even use the drive-through! Just remember to tell them. Reminder flyers and stickers were handed out today (12/9).

Four local businesses, owned by families in the ACS community, are giving back a portion of sales to ACS during the month of December. Those businesses include:

By frequenting these establishments, we support Castle Rock community merchants, privately owned business and even our school!! Just identify that you are a part of ACS (student, parent, employee).

Below are three enrichment program options for you to consider engaging your child in this coming New Year. A brief summary of each program is provided in addition to the web sites where you can log on and read more information. If you are interested in any of these programs and would like to organize a group to include your child and others with the same interests, please call Sherry Hill, PTO Enrichment at 303-808-8356.

Community Family Club
Community Family Club is a small group model that offers quality coeducational youth development programs for parents and children. Utilizing Camp Fire USA Curriculum, the concept involves the entire family in Camp Fire USA’s small group, asset-building activities and experiences.

Families come together once a month to share a meal and participate in a recognition ceremony designed to recognize both individual and group accomplishments. The club then breaks into age-level groups for an activity session led by a team of parents who volunteer for the short-term assignment for that month.

Once a month the group takes part in a field trip on a topic related to the curriculum work, or takes part in a council-wide event like a family campout. Once a month they are encouraged to meet for an informal activity night to work on the curriculum projects to gain recognition items. For the fourth week of the month they are given take-home family activities which enhance the large group experience. For more information log on to www.campfireusadallas.org

Colorado Destination ImagiNation®
Destination ImagiNation is a community-based, school-friendly program that builds participants’ creativity, problem solving, and teamwork in enjoyable and meaningful ways. Teams of five to seven members to work together to apply creativity, critical thinking and their particular talents to solve a Team Challenge.

The Destination ImagiNation Team Challenge is a challenge that is solved over a period of eight weeks or more. There are five competitive Team Challenges from which teams may choose, each with its own educational focus. Each Team Challenge is designed to be open-ended and solvable in many ways and on many levels.

There is also one non-competitive Team Challenge, called the Rising Stars! Team Challenge, for preschool and early elementary children. There are two parts to the Team Challenge: the Central Challenge and Side Trips. The Central Challenge is a set of required elements that all teams must complete. Side trips are two additional elements teams create and include in their presentation.

Teams compete by level based on the age/grade of the oldest member of the team. The levels are:

Team manager trainings are held in January. For more information call Colorado Destination Imagination at 303-871-2531 or email:nkimmett@du.edu

The World Affairs Challenge™
The World Affairs Challenge encourages middle and high school students to discover and explore exciting new content and they work with peers on a collaborative project. Participants will experience the following benefits:

Developed in 1991 at the University of Denver’s Center for Teaching International Relations, the World Affairs Challenge is now expanding across the country. The Challenge is rooted in academics, emphasizing creativity and solution-oriented critical thinking. Each year, CTIR chooses an overarching annual theme confronting the international community to help focus student research. The Challenge offers four separate elements within one program, each of which engages a different set of skills and talents from the teams involved.

Working on teams, students choose an aspect of the annual theme to be their Formal Presentation topic. On Challenge day, students present their findings to panels of judges drawn from the community. They meet peers from other schools around the state and engage in substantive discourse about the annual theme. To find out more information about this, log on to www.du.edu/worldaffairschallenge.

Thanks to all who helped make our first Restaurant Night at Red Robin a success. We raised over $250 in one evening simply eating with our families and friends.

Thank you to Emily Ragan for the wonderful posters that show the fun memories of the Fall Carnival. Thank you for your time, effort and creativity. What a wonderful way to remember a day of fun for the ACS community.

Wishing you one and all a very heart warming holiday season.
V. Arnett
PTO Communications

Web: www.academycharter.org/pto

© Academy Charter School