Cougar News

Hello Smallville,

Is it me or are the days really moving this fast! I can’t believe we are already halfway through the month of October. Please mark your calendar for Oct. 24th and plan to join us on campus for our Trivia Night. I’m excited to work alongside our PTA to create more opportunities this year for us to come together as a community to fellowship, learn, and have fun.

What I love most about Small is the way our staff is intentional about maintaining and building rewarding opportunities for all of our students. However, even with our daily focus on creating these opportunities, it can be challenging to stay in tune with your students' school life as they look forward to the upcoming holiday breaks and the cooler weather has them hiding in their hoodies. So don’t feel discouraged if you ask your child “How was your day?” and their only response is “good or okay.” From experience, I have had success using the following probing questions to get them chatting:

• What was the most interesting thing you did today?” ...

• “I know you've been working on _______. How is that project/lesson going?...

• “Did you get to solve any problems/make anything cool/help anybody today?” ...

• “Is your work still challenging/rewarding to you?” ...

• “If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be?”

I hope these suggestions get your conversations with your teenager flowing. Have a great weekend!

Stay Present Cougars,

Bedford

Last spring we held our first ever trivia night here at Small and it was a huge success! It is rare to find an event that the whole family can participate in and have a blast.

Join us this Tuesday for a quick PTA meeting at 6:00 and Trivia starting at 6:30!

Teams of up to 5 people, bring the whole family. You will need a Chromebook, laptop or cell phone (one per team) to be able to connect to the game!

PTA is selling food for $5 a person. Register here by end of day Saturday so they know how much food to buy: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTYJNczoILqnLOSYf32fnhmL2BcpsAjC5mvX35yktbZ3Jasw/viewform

If you don't want to buy food, your team can just show up!

Looking for something to do with your pumpkins after Halloween? Drop your pumpkins off at Small and we will give them to our sheep and goats. They love the special treat. Just drop them on the shelves by the front office and our Green kids will take them to the farm.

Thanks

- the Green Team

Week of October 30th - November 3rd

Our Halloween spirit week will end with the Fine Arts event of the year... SMALLOWEEN!!!! School Dance and Haunted house combined. Tickets are $10 and are sold everyday during lunch.

The PTA is offering the Reflections Program for CSMS students 6th - 8th grade.

This year's theme is I am hopeful because...

Reflections has been a staple arts program in many schools for over 50 years. Through the efforts of our Local PTAs, millions of students have found a creative outlet in the areas of:

Visual Arts

Dance ChoreographyFilm ProductionLiteratureMusic CompositionPhotography

Eligible students may enter any or all of the six art categories. Each entry must be the original work of one student and created specifically for the Reflections program based on the national theme and follow the program guidelines.

At least one person in your primary household must be a current PTA member.

Reflections Entry Form | Spanish

Reflections Rules | Spanish

Entries must be turned into the office by the end of the school day on Friday November 3rd.

Entries will be judged to advance to the next level of competition.

Plans include to announce the results for CSMS entries during the month of December.

Any questions please contact the Arts in Education Chair at artsineducation@clintsmallmspta.org

We are gearing up for Smalloween our annual haunted house/dance sponsored by our Theater and Visual Arts departments. Save the date November 3rd and sign up to volunteer...

Ticket Sales: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080C4EABA92FA31-37402726-smalloween

Donations & Chaperones: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080C4EABA92FA31-csms

For those of you considering transferring to Small for the 24-25 School year, know that the district is changing how transfers are done for next year.

All tranfer requests and applications will open on November 8th, in the parent portal. Look for the Enroll Austin tile. The transfer request/Application deadline is February 6th.

Zoom events and Tour dates are open. Go To our Green Tech page to learn more: https://small.austinschools.org/our-programs/green-tech-academy

For our capstone project, we would like to start a program where bunnies visit different advisory/homerooms. We will also want to make a bunny pen for them to stay whenever the security fence is done. If you could donate anything, it will be much appreciated.

Here is a link to our wish list of items: https://a.co/aMVMfd4. Thank you for your consideration.

Last year many of our students waited until yearbooks were distributed in May to decide that they wanted to buy one. By then it is too late and we had lots of disappointed kids.

Yearbooks must be preordered.

They are expensive to print and although we do order extra's knowing people forget, we can not guarantee you a yearbook if you do not PRE-ORDER your yearbook.

Order your yearbook today!

$35.00 (until winter break)

How do I order a 2023-2024 Yearbook?

1. Have your student take cash or a check for $35.00 to Mr. Shoptaw's classroom, Room 300. He will provide a receipt, please keep for your records OR.....
2. Click here to Order online

Home of the Cougars and the Green Tech Academy!

Email: jennifer.newell@austinisd.org
Website: https://small.austinschools.org/
Location: 4801 Monterey Oaks Boulevard, Austin, TX, USA
Phone: 512-841-6700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057069836221