Spirit Night at Fuddruckers

It's another fun Del Cerro Spirit Night! Join us on Thursday, Nov 4th, 2010 anytime between 1-9 pm 23621 El Toro Road Lake Forest 949-830-7210 Don't forget to bring in the Fuddruckers flyer so we can get credit.

Online Scheduling for Parent Teacher Conferences

      Parent Teacher Conferences will be the week of  Nov. 15-19.  This year parents will be able to schedule conferences with their child's teacher online.  Online scheduling will be available for parents Nov. 1-8.  Click Here for the online scheduler. Password = "dolphins".  Del Cerro welcomes parents who do not have internet access to com in and use one of the school's computers.  Please be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to efficiently schedule your parent/teacher conference.  Remember the appointments are available to be scheduled 24 hours a day and are on a first-come-first-serve basis.  Easy to follow instructions for scheduling are available via  Parent Instructions . Contact the School Office (949) 830-5430 for more assistance.. 

Red Ribbon Week

October 25-29, 2010
Be “cool in school”….just say NO!!!
Being cool is being able to resist drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

For Red Ribbon Week, we as a school will be participating in a different activity each day.
Monday: “Turn your back on drugs”….Wear your shirt or top backwards.
Tuesday: “Hats off to saying NO”….Wear your favorite hat.
Wednesday: “Sock it to drugs”….Wear a fun or silly pair of socks.
Thursday: “Team up against drugs”….Wear your favorite sport jersey.
Friday: Wear red!

Don’t forget the Red Ribbon Walk this Saturday, October 23 at 8:00 AM @ Mission Viejo High School.

For more info, go to www.cityofmissionviejo.org.

Spirit Wear Sale

Order this year's shirts & Sweatshirts before it's too late ! After seeing samples at the PTA meeting Monday night, many people changed the size on their order. To ensure that everyone orders the correct sized shirt or sweatshirt, samples will be on display in front of the office this Friday, Oct 22nd - during Fun Friday! We will extend the order deadline to next Friday, Oct. 29th!  Click Here for an Order Form

SIZE TIPS:
* order one size larger in shirts

• 2nd grade boy: Youth Short Sleeve LARGE 
• 2nd grade girl: Young Girls Short Sleeve MED 
• 5th grade girl: Womens Jr Style Tee SMALL

* order one size smaller in sweatshirts

• Small adult: Youth Zipped Hoodie XL
• 5th grade boy: Youth Zipped Hoodie MED 

View Samples

October 2010 PTA Meeting

Please join us for our second PTA General Meeting of the year on Monday, October 18, 2010 at 7:00pm in the MPR or the Library.

Pop Tabs Help Ronald McDonald House

What is a Pop Tab? A Pop Tab is the piece of metal that opens aluminum cans. Like the can, the pull-tab is recyclable and helps our environment while helping families in need.
Why Collect Pop Tabs? Money received from recycling pop tabs helps provide comfortable housing and emotional support to families of critically ill and injured children being treated at Orange County hospitals.
What YOU can do to help:Collect pop tabs, count them and store them in a zip lock bag. Ask your family and friends to collect too!
Turn in date is Friday, April 1st, 2011. Bring your filled zip lock bag in with your name, room number, and # of pop tabs collected. 4 Highest pop tab collectors will get 2 one-day passes< for Wild Rivers AND highest classrooms (one from K-3 and one from 4-6 grades) will get an ice cream party! Remember...recycling is great for our environment and doing a good deed to help those in need makes you a better person! Thanks for your help Mrs. Lewis, Pop Tab Program Coordinator and Mrs. Rodriguez & Mrs. Knoles, Parent Volunteers!

Fall Fundraiser Updates

Thank you for participating in our annual fall fundraiser. Your funds are paying for science and art this year for all the students at Del Cerro!

This is a reminder that this Friday, October 15, 2010 is the "Turn in Day". Please have your child bring his/her order to the teacher first thing in the morning. Please remember to:

• Make certain that all order forms have your child's name, phone #, teacher name and the room # filled in.
• Make sure the information has been carefully recorded on each order form (if you have more than one).
• Make sure all checks are payable to Del Cerro PTA.
• Return the white and yellow parts of the NCR-3 part order form. You should keep the pink copy for your records. The original copy will be returned with the order.

Delivery date will be Thursday, November 18th. Be sure to mark your calendars!

Please return your order form/s and money in the large white envelope that your brochure came in. Fill in all the information on the envelope. This will help our volunteers greatly.  Do not send large amounts of cash to your school with your child. If you have a lot of cash to turn in, please give your order directly to the teacher or turn it in to the front office first thing Friday morning.

Thanks so much for helping. We couldn't do it without you!

Sincerely,

Lesley Jackson

Del Cerro PTA fundraising chair 

Trick or Treat... So Kids can Eat

I have volunteered our school to participate in a Food Drive.  Oct 18- Oct 22, pick-up on Oct 22^nd.   Sponsored by MV High School Drama Dept..

Things to donate include:           
Peanut butter and Jelly..  (small and medium size)

Rice (10,20, & 50 lb bags)

Spaghetti & Pasta (1 lb packages)

Pasta Sauce (in cans)

Instant Potatoes

Hot and cold cereal

Canned Vegetables

Canned fruit

Juices

Macaroni and cheese

Refried Beans

Pork &  Beans

Canned meat

Tuna Fish

Chili & beans

Soup in cans & packages

Boxed cake and frosting

Hygiene items

Any donations will be sent to needy families.

Help if you can and support this effort.

Dr.  Larry M. Callison, Principal

School Assembly Canines Companions for Independence

On October 14, students and teachers will be invited to a presentation by volunteers from Canine Companions for Independence (CCI). During this special assembly, adults and students alike will learn about the amazing things that assistance dogs can do in a unique human/canine partnership. The assembly is coordinated by our PTA Special Education Liaison.

CCI is a nonprofit organization whose motto is,"Exceptional Dogs for Exceptional People." These highly trained dogs are very special. Bonnie Mueller, Susan Byrd, and Mary Hill will show you some of the tasks these dogs perform every day. It has often been said, "These dogs are not circus dogs; they do not perform tricks. They are service dogs; they perform tasks." Puppy raiser Bonnie and her 11th puppy-in-training "Tiffi" will teach about the process of raising a puppy for CCI for approximately 16 months, beginning when the puppy is just 8 weeks old. Volunteer Susan will explain her experience with CCI as well as being a veterinary nurse. CCI Graduate Mary and her Service Dog "Indy" (Indira III) will explain the process called Team Training and will demonstrate the tasks that Indy accomplishes for Mary on a daily basis.

The students will learn that CCI trains four types of assistance dogs: service dogs, hearing dogs, facility dogs, and skilled companion dogs. CCI does not train seeingeye or guide dogs for the blind. If you would like to learn more about CCI before or after the assembly, please visit www.cci.org. In case all questions aren’t answered at the assembly, students can probably find the answers on that website. The CCI volunteers will also have brochures for the teachers and a surprise treat for each student. So, don’t be surprised when your children tell you they saw dogs at school! These are exceptional dogs that help exceptional people. We know your kids will give a warm welcome to our CCI presenters and dogs on October 14 – and parents are welcome to attend too!
The K - 3 Assembly will be from 11:10am-11:30am,
grades 4 - 6 at 11:40am-12:10pm.
Both assemblies will be in the MPR.
Thank you.

A Message from the PTA President - Julie Fretwell, October 2010

Fall is here, the weather has cooled down and it’s getting dark earlier! Well, the weather cooled down for a couple of days anyway. Hopefully everyone has gotten back into the school routine! We had a great time at the Welcome Back BBQ. Thanks go to Elizabeth Rodriguez for organizing this large event. Thank you to the PTA board for coming in to help setup, serve and clean up. It was a great success and I hope everyone enjoyed meeting new people and seeing old friends. Back to School night was Wednesday, September 29th. Hopefully you were able to visit your child’s classroom and meet their teachers. It’s a great way to find out how your child spends their day and what the expectations are for the school year. All your membership, yearbook, and other PTA forms are being collected and money counted. We are hoping to have your receipts sent home during conference week. Please keep these receipts available as things come up during the year and you want to know what you’ve already paid for. Thank you to all of the parents and teachers that were able to attend our first PTA meeting of the year. This is the longest and most business oriented meeting of the year. Please don’t let that deter you from coming to more meetings!! We cover most business in the first meeting so that we can have more information and guest speakers at all the other meetings. Plus, the rest of the meetings are much shorter because most items are covered at the first meeting. We will start having guest speakers at the next meeting, Monday, October 18th at 7:00 p.m. in the Library. See you there! Julie Fretwell PTA President President@delcerro.org

Fall Fundraiser Kids Are First

The kick off is Friday,October 1st and runs for two (2) weeks. There are great prizes and class rooms with higher class participations will get more playground balls. There will be daily prizes for those students who  turn in their coupons and students with the highest items sold will be invited to a special Game Truck video party! There’s something for everyone in the catalog:

• Gifts for Mom, Dad, Kids & Pets

• Home

• Gift Wrap

•  Holiday Items

There’s also online ordering available. Just go to: www.kidsarefirst.com where parents can register your child for a sellers code.

Child Safety Event - Free Fingerprinting Kits Available

Presented by Assemblyman
Jeff Miller.
Please join us at our Fingerprinting booth, where children will be fingerprinted and will be able to take the fingerprinting kits home. Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 from 10am-1pm at 555 The Shops at Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo, CA Near the children’s play area within the mall. For more info, please contact
Stefanie Benvenuto at
949-598-7171 or Stefanie.
benvenuto@as.ca.gov
This a free event, open to the public. Children of all ages are welcome.

Principal's Message - October 2010 by Dr. Callison

School is well underway as we move into our second month of instruction. There are lots of planned events in the weeks ahead. We hope all of our parents joined us at Back-To-School-Night. We want to encourage every parent to be an active participant in their child’s education. We want you to know about the events planned by your child’s teacher and the school, to include the activities and instruction that is planned for the school year. Staying informed of the procedures and routines being established will help parents be active partners in their children’s education. Parents are the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT teachers their children will have as they grow, learn, and mature. Del Cerro’s first PTA meeting of the year was very well attended. We had over 40 parents join us and we are hoping for more next month. Each month we will present information on a program being funded by parents and the PTA. In the next few months we will have a presentation by Art Masters, our Science Specialist, our Librarian, and a review of our Computer Lab and
it’s great software. Del Cerro is very fortunate to have parents who support our programs with their time and their resources and we are mindful of that trust as we work with their children. I am very pleased to report that Del Cerro has exceeded its State Annual Performance Index target for 2010. Our target was a score
of 874 and Del Cerro scored 876. The school is scoring in the upper 10% of all elementary schools across the State and we are very proud of the efforts of our students and staff, who have made this happen. It should also be noted that Del Cerro met it Adequate Yearly Progress expectations, which are established by the “No Child Left Behind” Federal program. Parents are welcome to go to www.cde.ca.gov to get information about Del Cerro and other public schools in the county and state. All performance information begins with STAR testing results from our 2nd through 6th graders, who tested in May of last year. Parents can join the school is celebrating our students’ successes. Del Cerro is a great school and test scores are just one measure of our success, but we don’t want to fail to recognize the achievements of our students.
Please continue to read our monthly newsletter, get answers to any questions by going on our Del Cerro website at www.delcerro.org which is a great resource for parents, or the family portal which gives parents
information on grades and homework assignments. It has been a very smooth beginning and we look forward to a great school year. Be a part of our success!
Larry Callison
Principal