Creekside Elementary

Dear Creekside Families,

Thank you to everyone who attended our caregiver conferences. Your participation and partnership play an important role in supporting your child’s academic success, and we value the time you took to share insights and collaborate around learning goals.

This is also a reminder that students should not bring balls, toys, or personal belongings from home to school. We have plenty of equipment available for recess, and personal items can become distracting during the school day.

As we move closer to winter break, our focus remains on student growth in Reading, Math, and Social Emotional Learning. Our classrooms continue to lean into the “Coyote Way,” helping students grow not only as learners but also as kind, responsible, and resilient members of our community.

Thank you for your ongoing support in helping make Creekside a place for every child to learn and grow.

In Partnership,
Katie Mould

CAFE News (Community and Family Group)

We enjoyed seeing many of you at our Halloween Community Fun Night and we are looking forward to many more opportunities to support our Coyotes this year!

You're Invited: Next CAFE Meeting on Nov. 11

Looking for an opportunity to get more involved at Creekside to support our fantastic students, faculty and staff? You are more than welcome to join our next Creekside CAFE meeting (Creekside's PTA) on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Click here to learn more and RSVP.

New Board of Directors

Your new CAFE Board of Directors are here to help you connect with the school and get involved! Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We are still looking to fill a few open roles, so if you are interested, please let us know.

• Becky Yelk, President
• Tom Rippinger, Vice President
• Patra Teasdale, Treasurer
• Julia Snow, Fundraising Chair

I hope everyone is enjoying the crisp fall air and all the beauty this season brings! November is a wonderful time to cozy up with a good book — and our Creekside Coyotes are doing just that.

Book Checkout Reminder
Please help your child remember to return their library books each week so they can check out new ones. Our shelves are full of adventures, mysteries, and amazing facts just waiting to be discovered — and returning books on time helps everyone enjoy them!

What’s Happening in the Lab
It’s been a busy and creative fall in our Library Lab!

• Kindergarten–5th Grade: Students have been exploring digital citizenship — learning how to be safe, kind, and responsible online — and showing curiosity and teamwork in the Makerspace.
  
  

• 3rd–5th Grade: Students will be diving deeper into Google Workspace skills.
  
  

Thank You for Supporting Our Book Fair!
A huge thank you to our Creekside families for making the Scholastic Book Fair such a success! It was wonderful to see so many readers excited about new books. Thanks to your support, we’re able to add even more great titles to our school library and continue building a community that loves to read.

I’m so grateful for the enthusiasm, kindness, and curiosity our students bring to the library each week. Here’s to another month of reading, exploring, and creating!

— Mr. Brandt and Ms. Engle
Library Media Specialists

• Hello families. In the month of November, I will be working on personalized feedback for your artist. Be on the lookout for their Q1 studio tracker and self-assessment coming home, both of which are a great way for you to see glows and grows for your artist.

In the month of November, I will also be sharing Artsonia login information. In the Art LAB, we use http://www.artsonia.com, a website that serves 3 purposes.

• It is an online portfolio of your child’s progress from Kindergarten-5th grade.

• You can share photos with friends & family. It is a safe way for your child to get comments from these people.

• It is an optional fundraiser for our art program. You can have your child’s art printed on t-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, mouse pads, and more. These make beautiful gifts and keepsakes and can be ordered year-round! A portion of the proceeds are donated to Creekside.

Selected student artwork will be posted here throughout the year. You will get either an email notification or a printed slip of paper with directions on how to set up your account. Only new students and Kindergarten will need to set up accounts. In the event that you decline permission to have artwork publicly posted, artwork will remain visible only to me. This allows me to keep digital portfolios for assessment purposes. After you create your account, be sure to check your Spam Folder and add Artsonia to your list of safe senders. Please contact Mrs. Kudrle if you need assistance in setting up an account.

How is it already November! We have flown through this fall, but what a beautiful fall it has been! We hope that you and your family have spent lots of time outside moving and grooving together! This month we will dive into some really great activities using Jump Ropes followed by SpeedsStacks. Creekside PE classes will participate in the 2025 Stack Up in an attempt to help break ANOTHER Guinness Book world record! Back by popular demand with 13 years of partnering, Kicks Unlimited PE Teachers for the day introduce scholars to a 30 minute martial arts/karate lesson. These lessons not only share self defense skills, but also essential life long skills such as respect for others and oneself as well as discipline. Know of other outside organizations that would like to share their movement talents with Creekside? Send them our way. We LOVE to have PE Takeovers by athletic & movement experts in our community!

Bring Your Caregiver to PE Week 1.0 was a huge success and we thank all the families that were able to swing by and join a class. If you didn’t get in on the fun, no worries, our doors are always open! You are always welcome to stop in and check us out! CLICK HERE to access your scholar’s PE Schedule. Check below for more specifics on how to volunteer at Creekside. Our next Bring Your Caregiver to PE Week 2.0 will occur during our December Skating Unit, Monday, December 15th-Friday, December 19th.

Volunteering at Creekside: All you have to do is make sure you have your ID to check in the front office and a current background check completed with our district. Click English & Spanish to complete a background check. Background checks are good for 3 years. If you are unsure of your background check status, please contact Kirsten Janssen (kajanss1@sunprairieschools.org/608.834.7702).

As always, please let us know if you ever have any questions! Mrs. Alison Anderson (ajander@sunprairieschools.org) teaches 4th & 5th Grade Health, ALL 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade PE, as well as 2nd Grade Wangelin, 2nd Grade Thao, 1st Grade Mitchell and Kindergarten Garvey! Mr. Michael Falk (mcfalk@sunprairieschools.org ) teaches 2nd Grade Langum, 1st Grade Kramer, 1st Grade Lakatos, 1st Grade Brimmer, Kindergarten Vang and Kindergarten Pierce.

Creekside Focuses on Bullying Prevention

October was National Bullying Prevention Month. All K-5 Creekside students spent time learning about what bullying is and how we can prevent and stop it. Read the Creekside Caregiver Bullying Letter to learn a bit more about what students have learned and how you can follow up and support these efforts at home.

Our district uses the Second Step curriculum to teach about this important topic. You can read more and access the “Home Links” to see what your student has learned and how you can further support them at home: Second Step Caregiver Link

Thanksgiving Baskets will be distributed during regular pantry hours starting Wednesday, November 12 through Wednesday, November 26th at Sun Prairie Emergency Food Pantry. Please see the Sun Prairie Emergency Food Pantry website for hours.

Clients can pick up their Thanksgiving Basket during their normal pantry visit. A pantry visit is not required to pick up a Thanksgiving Basket. No sign up is required for Thanksgiving Baskets this year! This year, Baskets will be choice-based and with more options.

The Spirit of Giving program matches families in need of gifts for their children during the December holiday season with community members who want to help. The program is available to families in Sun Prairie with children ages birth to 18. A link to sign up for Spirit of Giving will be sent out to all families enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program ON November 1st. Please reach out to Kia Sims, School Social Worker for the link and questions.
608-834-7707, kxsims@sunprairieschools.org

Dates:

November 1: Applications open

November 15: Applications close
December 13: Gift pick up (Heartland Church)

Eligibility: Must live or attend school in Sun Prairie
How to Sign up: All students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program will receive an email with the sign up link.
Gift Pick up: December 13th from 8a to 11a
Location: The gift distribution will be done at Heartland Church (800 Wilburn
Road,SP)
● You MUST bring your confirmation email with your FAM number on it to pick up
your gifts!
● If you are unable to come on Dec 13th, please make arrangements for someone to come for you WITH your confirmation email. In order to serve more families this year, Spirit of Giving will no longer be providing holiday food baskets.

PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) efforts continue to be a strong focus with Creekside staff and students. Our Coyotes work hard to practice ARROW and the Coyote Way! They are Accepting of others, Resilient when faced with set-backs, being Risk-Takers in their learning, showing Ownership, and Working Collaboratively.

PBIS MONTHLY THEMES:

October’s theme was “I am a scholar.” Our students spent the month demonstrating positive learning behavior. They showed us how paying attention and working hard can create amazing learning spaces within our school!

November’s theme is “I am accepting.” Our students will focus on including others, celebrating differences, and respecting the people we share our public spaces with. Many students need a reminder to be accepting of themselves, especially when they make a mistake or are learning new things.

PBIS DATA REVIEW - HOME CONNECTION!

An area of focus at Creekside right now is recess. Staff have been hearing and observing some challenging behaviors. Some students find it difficult to choose appropriate people to play with or appropriate games to play. Some students struggle to handle conflict or competitive games. Some students have a hard time re-entering the learning environment and re-focusing their energy after recess is over.

At home you can support your student by asking them what their recess looks like. Who do they play with? What do they play? What problems or challenges sometimes occur? Are they being a good sport and a good friend? Are they returning to learning when they re-enter the classroom? Work with them to brainstorm solutions to common social conflicts. Role play with them to help them practice effective strategies in action. Talk to them about good sportsmanship. Encourage them to move away from negative activities and seek out experiences that make them feel happy and good. Maybe they can try interacting with new people or play new games! We want recess to be a fun break in the day for all students!

Thank you for supporting these Creekside expectations and life skills at home!

As our lost and found grows please help us by checking in with your children to see if they are missing something. Feel free to come check out our lost and found anytime during school hours. Labeling your students items is a great help!

The School Nutrition Department is truly dedicated to providing a diverse and nutritious menu to all our students. Our priority is to expose children to a wide range of nutrients and meal components, which is critical for their overall health and development, and for encouraging them to build a positive relationship with food.

Because we serve over 5,500 meals daily across the district, we operate as a mass production kitchen and must adhere to strict USDA guidelines. To maintain consistency and efficiency, we are unable to cater to individual meal preferences without a doctor-signed medical necessity form. If your child has a medical situation with the foods they consume, please contact us.

We understand that not every meal we offer will be every child's favorite. On days when the main entrée may not appeal to a student, our Offer vs. Serve program is a great solution. Students can decline the main dish and still select our fruits, vegetables, and milk, which together constitute a complete and vegetarian-friendly meal. Remind your students that they must take a ½ cup fruit or vegetable (or both) with every lunch.

To ensure children always have a satisfactory lunch, we encourage all families to review the monthly lunch menu closely. On days when their preferred items aren't on the menu, caregivers may send a packed lunch from home that meets their child's specific dietary needs or they may wish to supplement the school meal with an item the child likes.

This year we have begun a food sampling program where all students, even children with lunches from home, can taste test some of the foods we offer. For example, we have offered Naan Bread and Hummus to students at Meadow View and Token Springs recently. We also served samples of Roasted Butternut Squash at Bird, ES and HE. In September, PV students got to try samples of Beef Gyros. We surveyed the students that tried these items and that data will help us decide whether or not to continue serving them. More information about our taste tests will be found in upcoming newsletters.

Thank you again for your support as we work to uphold the nutritional guidelines and serving procedures that allow us to provide thousands of healthy meals efficiently every day.

Part time positions available at RO, MV, ES, EHS

10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Full time positions available at CH, EHS

7:00 AM - 2:30 PM

Apply here: Nutrition Dept. Jobs

Please remember that buses may be slightly delayed when we are experiencing snow and icy conditions. Anything within 5 minutes of the scheduled arrival time is considered “on time.”

If your child’s bus is delayed and/or evacuated for any reason (bus breakdown, emergency, etc.) students must stay with the driver and wait for further instructions. If another bus is dispatched, students are to ride that bus and only get off at their assigned stop.

Our donation area will be in the front entry way. Thank you for considering helping the Sun Prairie Sunshine Place, so they can help our community!

November 13- World Kindness Day

Wear colors that remind you of love!

Everyone can join in on the fun!

Native American Heritage Month

November 11- CAFE Meeting, 6:30pm
November 21- 2nd Grade Feild Trip, Aldo Leopold Nature Center

November 26, 27, 28- No School/Thanksgiving

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