CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS Monday, March 21 Beg. Band Rehearsal, 8 a.m. Support CHAMPS, 3-3:25 p.m. Tuesday, March 22 Adv. Band Rehearsal, 8 a.m. In-Coming Kindergarten Parent Orientation, 9:15 a.m. in the Learning Commons Lion King Jr. Rehearsal, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Full 5th gr. cast and 4th gr. show Community Service Award, 5 p.m. at GHS Wednesday, March 23 Adv. Orchestra Rehearsal, 7:50 a.m. Boogie Chillun Assembly, 2 p.m. Thursday, March 24 4th & 5th Grade Chorus, 8 a.m.. Lion King Jr. Rehearsal, 3:20-4:30 p.m. Full 5th gr. cast Wear Blue – Celebrate the norm “Let Go & Move On” Friday, March 25

NO SCHOOL – Good Friday

COS COB SCHOOL WEEK AT A GLANCE

MARCH 21 - 25 FROM OUR PRINCIPAL Dear Parents, What a great evening last Saturday’s fundraiser was. Congratulations to all those who worked so hard to make it such a success. On behalf of my staff, Barbara, and I please know how much we appreciate all that the PTA does to supplement our programs, and for all the enriching programs you sponsor for us. Be assured nothing ever goes unnoticed! This week the circus was certainly the “main event” here at Cos Cob School. Students were thrilled to learn circus acts in their PE classes, and our fourth and fifth graders are anxious to perform this evening at GHS. I am looking forward to seeing many of you there. Next Tuesday the Greenwich Public Schools will be celebrating 30 years of acknowledging the community service projects all schools participate in. This year Cos Cob School actively participated in the following school-wide projects: Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, UNICEF, Veteran’s Day Clothing and Candy drive, Thanksgiving Food Baskets, Giving Tree, coat and food drive for Neighbor to Neighbor and CHAMPS. Thank you to all of our families who supported these service projects. It is a great way to instill the importance of giving to others in your children. Each year at the awards ceremony, a fifth grade student from each school is asked to accept the award on behalf of their school. Congratulations to Grace Nash who was nominated to accept the award on behalf of Cos Cob School! Grace is an active member of Cos Cob Cares Club and participates in many outside community projects. Next week our students will be treated to the music of Boogie Chillun, which is a program ’designed to take students and faculty on a musical journey through America’s music history, which has influenced the whole world. It transcends all boundaries, cultures, races, creeds and colors. With a brief introduction for each artist’s song and its contribution to American Music Boogie Chillun will bring a review of American music to our school culminating with their own hallmark song, “Read Baby Read”! At the beginning of this year all elementary schools including CCS, retrained students on how to gain access back into the building in the event they found themselves locked outside without staff supervision. Thankfully, this is something that does not often occur, however, last week one of our students found himself locked out of the building when he stopped to gather a belonging as his class was coming in from outside. Due to his training at the start of the year, he knew exactly what to do. He immediately walked around the side pathway to the front of the building, pressed the buzzer and was admitted by the office staff. He was safely back in his classroom within a few minutes. First, congratulations to that student for putting his training into practice. Second, please take a moment to remind your child about this important protocol. And finally I want to inform you that in light of this incident, we have instituted an additional safety procedure this week to prevent this type of situation from reoccurring. Anytime students are returning to the building from an outside activity, a staff member will remain at the outside door until all students are safely inside. We believe that this precautionary measure will provide an additional level of support in our efforts to keep all of our students safe at school. Have a wonderful weekend with your family. Gene

FROM THE COMMUNITY

Science Saturday, March 19, 11 a.m.-12 p.m. at Greenwich Library. Kids ages 6-10 will conduct hands-on experiments!

Greenwich St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Sunday, March 20, kicking off at 2 p.m. from Town Hall and going down Greenwich Avenue. Cos Cob Library hosts Book Wizard book club for grades 4-6, pizza & discussion of Crenshaw on Monday, March 21, 5:30-6:30 p.m. AND Read to Otis & Cinder on Monday, March 28, 4-5 p.m. Registration required, call 203-622-6883. Tag Sale at the International School at Dundee, 55 Florence Road, Riverside, on Saturday, April 2, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free entry, easy parking! Gently used sports equipment, toys, baby items, DVDs, books, clothes, housewares and small furniture at affordable prices. Conversation & Tea Thursdays, 1:30-3 p.m. at Jodi’s house, 41 Grove Street. Contact Jodi Shankarlingam at jodinsuresh@gmail.com or 203-561-6949 (cell), 203-629-9311 (home). MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The next What’s Cooking will be hosted by Deepa Walton on March 24, 7:30-9:30 p.m. Learn the essentials of delicious Indian cooking. Contact Emily Kunschner for details and to sign-up: emilysk73@gmail.com Early Bird Club is available every morning from 7:30-8:30 a.m. before school. Please click on the Early Bird tab in the PTA section of the website or follow this link for information and/or to register: Early Bird Club

FROM THE PTA March Madness was an overwhelming success! We are grateful for all of the support received from parents, the Cos Cob school staff and members of our community in making the evening a great achievement. We are so appreciative of all the participants who bought tickets, provided donations to the silent auction and class baskets, those who purchased auction items and raffle tickets, and others that donated to the PTA. 100% of the evening's proceeds will go toward educational enrichment programming for all of our students and building improvements to Cos Cob School that everybody will enjoy. It was a long and involved planning process and many people helped along the way. Thank you to all of the parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends of Cos Cob School who gave generous donations to the silent auction and class baskets. Thank you to Susan Williams and Sheila O'Donnell for guidance and help during the planning process and the event. Thank you to Sean Robertson for developing the March Madness 'brand' through creation of the flyer and invitation/RSVP letter. Thank you to Hernan Donoso at the Arch Street Teen Center, who was a pleasure to work with, helpful with all of his suggestions and patient with all of our contract negotiations. Thank you to our local Cos Cob businesses, which were incredibly generous with their donations of food & products to our event, and gave us great local Cos Cob flavor! Many businesses came out to support our children, including Fleishers, Little Pub, Cos Cob Liquor, Chicken Joe's, Fjords, Gravina, Pizza Post, Green & Tonic, Riverside Square Pizza, Dirt Floral, Party, Paper and Things, the POG, The Joseph Pilsudski Society, Greenwich Calligraphy, and Greenwich Staffing. Thank you to our auction committee for all of their hard work: Mary Kate Anderson, Sandy McMurray, Doreen Conte, Sheila O’Donnell and Sarah Jessen. Thank you also to Meredith Lovejoy for gathering so many donations, and to Jane Anderson for spreadsheet help. Thank you to Charlotte Stenhammar and Leila Marin for their help with games. Thank you to Lisa Natale for her help with the finances. Thank you to a hardworking and efficient set up crew on Saturday: Matt, Jack and Stephen Rossi, Mary Kate Anderson, Amy Peel, Madelyn Peel, Doreen Conte, Sheila O'Donnell, Ann Robertson, Charlotte Stenhammar, Leila Marin, and Chrissy and Katie O'Brien. Thank you to our neighborhood band Huckster, who gave us great tunes. Thank you to our clean-up and breakdown crew: Tom Ehret, Pam Orr, and Lisa and Brian Natale. We are so grateful to all of the people in our Cos Cob community who assisted in making this event such a great evening. We had a blast, and we sincerely hope you did too. Thanks for everything! -Kristen Rossi & Nicole Ehret If you won an auction, contact Kristen Rossi (kristen.a.rossi@gmail.com) for information on picking up your prize. Be a PTA Volunteer for the 2016-2017 session. Contact Missy McKenzie, VP Nominating, for open positions and further details: missymckenzie@gmail.com

Attention 5th Grade Parents: The Nominating Committee at CMS is in the process of putting together the PTA slate for the 2016/17 school year. The positions range from Committee Level to Executive Board. Getting involved with the CMS PTA is a great way to stay connected! Please contact Marisa Mingione atmsminge99@aol.com. You can reach us anytime for questions at pta.coscob@gmail.com. Sheila O’Donnell & Susan Williams, PTA Co-Presidents 2015-2016

FROM THE DISTRICT

Community Engagement Sessions presented by the School Start Time Steering Committee will take place April 6, 7 and 19 for feedback and parent perspectives. Visit School Start Time Exploration for information. Check out the Digital Safety and Monitoring presentation to learn how to set parental controls on Google search and YouTube, place time limits on iPad usage and texting, and configure your home network with security controls. Please note: While Guided Access passcodes can be useful on personal iPads, please do not set passcodes on student iPads. The PTAC Nominating Committee for is looking for a DLE Co-Chair to get involved in the Digital Learning Environment and work with an experienced Co-Chair. Position includes raising DLE concerns and issues to District Administrators and working to find solutions. Communications between Administrators and school PTAs is a primary responsibility. School DLE Representatives, assigned by the PTAs, make up the committee. Co-Chairs meet regularly and also organize and run meetings with school Representatives and Administrators 3-4 times a year. Please contact Anne Pfetsch, VP PTAC Nominating, at AnnePfetsch@gmail.com if you are interested or have questions.

Support CHAMPS! All proceeds go toward the purchase of the new Mine Detection Dog, Emily! (Named in memory of Emily Fedorko) MONDAY AFTERNOONS 3:00-3:25 (In the back hall)

Water bottles $5 Pens $1

Charm Bracelets $5 Bows $5

Barrettes $5 Pony Tail Ribbons $10

Key Fobs $5 Trading Cards $0.50