The Horseshoe Review
The Copeland PTO Newsletter
President’s Corner By Amanda Ball
We are off and running!
Our fall major fundraiser, Big Kahuna, kicked off on Wednesday, September 18th! Hopefully you have taken the time to look through the information your child brought home on Wednesday and have already registered online. I know the kids are excited to collect their lanyard and all the sharks that are offered. I’ve seen several kids already wearing them! Catalog sales concludes on Friday, October 4th & online sales concludes on Friday, October 11th. Please return all catalog sales orders (including payment) by Monday, October 7th. We appreciate you supporting Copeland by placing an order or making a donation, which allows our children to benefit from all the wonderful programs we have planned for this school year.
Thank you to our clinic chairman, Valerie Effinger, for organizing and setting up the vision/hearing screenings. Thanks also to all the numerous volunteers who came out to help with the screenings.
Thank you to all the new and returning volunteers who attended the Volunteer Fair on Thursday. We had a great time! Thanks to all the chairmen for providing information regarding their committee. I hope everyone found an area of interest in which to volunteer. If you were not able to attend the fair and would like to find a way to volunteer for your child’s grade level activities or for the school in general, please visit our website at www.copelandpto.org!! We are still in need of a few chairmen, see list below, and if you are interested please send an email to copelandptovips@gmail.com.
I know many volunteers have already put in countless hours at the school and at home assisting with tasks needed at the beginning of the year. The administration, staff, students, and PTO thank you for these efforts. Keep up the great work!
PTO Executive Board
President: Amanda Ball 713-557-0316 CopelandPTOPresident@gmail.com
Vice President: Cree Sanford 713-304-7016 CopelandPTOVicePresident@gmail.com
Cultural Arts: Penelope Miller 914-433-3050 CopelandPTOCulturalArts@gmail.com
VIPS Coordinator: OPEN CopelandPTOVIPS@gmail.com
Social Media: LaKishia Edwards 409-338-7667 CopelandPTOSocialMedia@gmail.com
Fundraising: Jennifer Alvarado 832-928-1968 CopelandPTOFundraising@gmail.com
Secretary: Jillana O'Dell 210-845-3918 CopelandPTOSecretary@gmail.com
Treasurer: Valerie Effinger 281-685-6275 CopelandPTOTreasurer@gmail.com
Sign up now and be part of the team!
Sign up for your 2019-2020 Copeland PTO Membership. It’s only $12 to join and it helps us provide so much for our Copeland Colts.
STAY CONNECTED & GET ALL THE LATEST INFORMATION
Copeland PTO Facebook - @CopelandElementaryPTO
Copeland PTO Instagram- @CopelandElementaryPTO
Remind App Copeland PTO Volunteers – Text @2868g4 to 81010
Remind App Copeland PTO Events – Text @aeb664 to 81010
P.E. Twitter Page Fun
Check out our Twitter page @CopelandPE3 for P.E. fun photos.
Volunteer Opportunities
We are happy to announce that we have found a homeroom coordinator (HRC) for each classroom! Throughout the year, your HRC will keep you informed of class parties, school events, volunteer opportunities and much more. If you haven’t received any emails from your HRC, please ask the teacher for your HRC’s contact information and reach out to the HRC to ensure she has your email address. The HRC’s will rely on email for all communication so it is really important to provide them with your email.
Parent Readers
Cheer on our Colts
Field day is approaching. We will be seeking volunteers and we also love for parents to come out to support the kids. More information will follow in the coming weeks from your HRC.
Oct 22 – 2nd and 4th
Oct 23 – 1st and 5th
Oct 24 – Kinder and 3rd
Bring an item
We will be hosting our first staff luncheon of the school year on Sept 24. For those that are new, we host these luncheons for the wonderful Copeland staff once a month. These luncheons couldn't be successful without your help. Anyone who signs up to donate an item you will get a reminder two days before the items are due. If you are unable to bring an item you signed up for please go back and remove your name from the sign-up.
Chair positions still open:
Yearbook Committee We have 2 people for layout, so we just need 1 person to handle communications & finances. We are using Balfour and you will have a monthly meeting with our Balfour rep, so you will not be doing this alone.
Yearbook Photographers - We need 5 more yearbook photographers; one photographer for each grade level, we have a volunteer for 2nd grade. Your responsibility will be to take pictures at your grade level events & upload them.
Colonial Day Co-Chair – (usually a 5th or 4th grade parent, but can be any grade parent) 5th grade travels back in time to learn how people lived in the colonial days. The kids learn to make candles, go to a typical colonial day of school, learn games, see a working spinning wheel and many other things. Chairman will recruit volunteers to run each station and work with teachers on the layout for the day.
5th Grade Liaisons - (5th grade parents) 5th Grade Liaison responsibilities will be organizing the 5th grade luncheon and 5th grade fun day. They will also help with 5th grade picture, distribute 5th grade shirts & help answer questions from 5th grade HRC's.
5th Grade Memory Book – (a 5th grade parent is requested) Chairman organizes this special "through the years" book for our 5th graders. They talk about their favorite memories at Copeland, favorite teachers, and we get to see their Elementary career in pictures from Kinder through 5th grade. We need someone to help organize this.
3rd Grade Multi-Cultural Day – Chairman helps organize multi-cultural day which consists of the kids traveling the world to explore food, traditions & games of other countries. Several volunteering opportunities needed from helping in a classroom on that day to donating an item.
Co-Chair Spirit Wear – Co-Chairman works with the chairman to organize t-shirt sales and distribution. Duties include communication with vendor, keeping track of inventory, processing of orders, distribution of purchases and ordering dates.
Co-Chair Gardening - Co-Chairman works with the chairman on garden days with our 3rd grade classes to grow and take care of the garden at the front of the school.
Science Resource Center News
Calling all Parents! Thursday, September 26th is the only training date for parents who wish to attend the 3rd or 5th grade Nature Trails Field Trip being held on October 30 and 31. We still have plenty of slots available. Please click the link below if you would like to volunteer.
Training is being held at CFISD Nature Trails located at 13500 Shaft Drive, Cypress TX 77429. Please contact Andrea Packer at CopelandSRC@gmail.com or 832-465-2228 with any questions.
There are also many volunteer opportunities for parents wishing to lead Science demos for all grades. Below are the links for all grade level trainings coming up this semester.
The Garden by Tracy Reynolds
Do you like to garden or want to learn more about the garden? The garden is needing a co-chair for the garden. If this sounds like fun contact Amanda Ball at copelandptopresident@gmail.com.
Also, remember to dress your child in shoes and clothes that can get dirty. In the coming garden classes, the students will be planting fall crops, harvesting sweet potatoes and weeding the beds.
The garden can also use help weeding, and watering the garden.
Our garden has a new scarecrow! Special thanks to our 3rd Grade Copeland Scout Troop; Taher Hebatullah, Peter Moorehead, Lucas Subieta, Austin Shoemate, Landon Dixon, Aaron Polanco, Nicholas Rohat, and Konnor Schmid for all their hard work.
Volunteer of the Month
Copeland Yearbooks
It's never to early to start talking about yearbooks...
They will sell out fast so...
Spirit Gear by Amanda Ball
Show your Copeland Colts pride by wearing your Copeland spirit shirts on Fridays. If you are in need of spirit shirts or gear please visit our website, copelandpto.org, click Fundraising from the menu, then Spirit Wear to place your order.
Your child will be bringing home a spirit gear order form this week also if you would prefer to fill it out and return with payment to place your order.
Deadline to order to guarantee the size you want will be September 25. If you have any questions please email Amanda Ball at copelandspiritwear@gmail.com.
SAVE THE DATE: September 25 Spirit Night
SAVE THE DATE : September 30 Spirit Night
Birthday Marquee
Support your Copeland PTO and wish your Copeland Colt a HAPPY BIRTHDAY by featuring them on the Copeland Elementary Marquee the week of their birthday.
It's Simple and Easy...
- Choose the week you want to feature your Copeland Colt
- Complete the Birthday Marquee Form
- Submit the $20 Birthday Marquee Fee
- Watch the look on their face when they see their name
Spots are limited to 5 listings per week. You must submit the form and payment by noon on the Friday prior to the week selected. So sign up your Copeland Colt TODAY!
Does your student have a summer birthday or is the week of their birthday already filled up? You can choose any week that is still available.
Due to processing, payments must be made online or by cash to guarantee your spot on the birthday marquee. If you are paying by cash; complete this online form, choose the "pay later" option then submit the payment within two business days to the school, either to the front office or send it in with your student.
FREE MONEY for Your Kids!!!!
Link your Kroger Rewards card to Copeland Elem at www.KrogerCommunityRewards.com.
Are you a big Amazon shopper? Start using Smile.Amazon.comand select Copeland Elem as your charity.
Download Shoparoo App and snap a picture of your receipts from any store and they will make a donation to Copeland Elem.
BoxTops is switching to digital. Just scan your receipts on their app from any store and they give a donation to Copeland Elem. There are a few products that you can still clip the BoxTops for. Send these to the school and they can feed the shark in the front office!
Does the company you, or your spouse, work for match donations or pay for hours you volunteer at Copeland Elem? These companies do: Shell, BP & Microsoft. If you don’t know if your company does, please ask your HR Dept.
Logging in as a Volunteer
Working for our kids as a volunteer is both rewarding and important. Please log your volunteer hours in our Raptor Portal.
CFISD has provided an online program to make it easier on volunteers to log and track their
volunteer hours. This program is called Raptor, which is part of the V-Soft security software
that helps keep our schools safe.
Copeland does not have logbooks in the front office to record your hours. So, in order to
log your hours, you will need to establish a raptor account. This is quite easy and will allow
you to log your hours at home.
The steps to register online are as follows:
1. Go to https://www.cfisd.net/en/community-involvement/community-engagement/volunteer/# or click on the "New to Raptor" button below.
2. Complete this form in its entirety and submit (you must have an email address to do this)
3. You will receive an email from support@raptorware.com with your account information and password.
4. Once you receive the email use the button below to log in to your account.
5. Add this website to your favorites (this is where you will log hours)
6. Log in with email and password
7. Select campus
8. Select the tabs you will need
This program will be used to determine volunteer of the month and reporting our total volunteer hours to the district, enabling them to apply for various grants and programs.