Cowles Montessori Crier

At Des Moines Public Schools, we embrace growth. We want to know whether our students are making gains academically throughout the school year. Because we value our students' growth in the classroom, this year we begin a new and improved way to measure their progress: the Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP test, which provides a timelier tool for both teachers and students. We will begin administering the MAP test this month at Cowles Montessori School.

Follow us on Facebook

Please be sure to Like CMPG on Facebook (www.facebook.com/CowlesMontessori) and from a desktop computer select the See First option on the Liked button. This will ensure that you are seeing everything going on at Cowles. You can comment and ask questions directly on this page. We also have a Twitter link on the left side, which can only be seen when not mobile right now so follow @CowlesDMPS and #CowlesDMPS when posting.

School Supply Fees

If you haven't already paid your school supply fees, please do so soon. We are going online with My School Bucks this year. Use this link to access your account at myschoolbucks.com. These fees are used to purchase all the nifty supplies that our classrooms need and we don't want the teachers to have to use their own money.

Box Tops

There is an amazing Box Tops robot near the front entrance to help us all remember to save our Box Tops (they get turned into $$ for the school). However, please do not leave the Box Tops with the robot (and remember that he is fragile). Box Tops are going to go to the individual classrooms this year. More information is coming.

We need volunteers

There are a lot of great ways to volunteer at Cowles, whether it's inside the classroom or outside. CMPG will be hosting a community building event nearly every month, plus there are two wonderful fundraisers (November and April) coming up. If you would like to help out in any way, please email cmpgpresident@gmail.com or signup at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0448aea923a2fb6-cowles

Some of the events are:

December Craft Fair

Valentines Dance

March Iowa Energy Game

End of School Year gathering at Colby Park

Cowles Merchandise

Cowles Website Referral Page

Cowles Grant Request Team

On Tuesday September 13th every 3rd grader received a literacy based kit to take home, from the United Way of Central Iowa. The literacy kit was based on the book If You Made a Million. Every student received a copy of this book and an interactive game. Students were excited to be able to take these kits home and share them with their families. We are thankful the United Way of Central Iowa is committed to supporting students love for learning!

Every Clip Counts!

Welcome back to school, parents! My name is Nicole Williams and I’m thrilled to be our school’s Box Tops for Education Coordinator.

Clipping Box Tops is an easy way to help earn cash for our school. Each one is worth 10¢ for our school! Just look for the pink Box Tops on hundreds of products. All you have to do is clip them and send them to school.

Last school year, we earned $667.60 for our school from Box Tops. This school year, our goal is to earn $1200.

The highest earner in our area is Dallas Center Grimes. They have the same number of students and usually bring in around $7000 every year! I called their coordinator and asked for some advice. They are not doing anything over the top. Awareness seems to be the key. And contests.

This year we are starting a new program. Instead of turning our box tops in at the front door, you will turn them into your teacher. We will have two contests per year and the class with the most box tops wins! I have a volunteer parent for each classroom to help with sorting and counting. Thank you parents!

For more information on Box Tops, including a list of participating products, go to BTFE.com. Be sure to sign up as a member (it’s free!) so you can check out our school’s earnings details and get access to coupons and bonus offers.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m here to help make our school’s Box Tops for Education™ program a huge success this year.

Thanks for your help!

Nicole Williams

Phone: 515-778-8088

Email: 2nkwilliams@gmail.com