October Garden Club

Garden Club October Schedule:

10/2: Let’s get ready to celebrate Dia de los Muertos/ Day of the Dead!  Though Dia de los Muertos isn’t until Nov 1-2, this week’s garden club will start to get ready with special guest Senorita Zaragoza, who will read us a special Dia de los Muertos story while we snack on Mexican conchas (very similar to Pan de Muerto that is eaten during Dia de los Muertos celebrations). Then we will plant bright marigolds, which will be harvested by students closer to the end of October to be used in our school and neighborhood ofrendas.  We will add extra color to our Dia de los Muertos bed, and the garden, with decorations.

10/9: no garden club for Indigenous People’s Day Weekend

10/16: Oak Park Public Library’s beloved Book Bike is joining us at garden club this week! Kids can check out books, listen to a great story time with our librarians, and we’ll start preparing our garden for winter. We’ll harvest seeds for our home and school gardens in the spring, and more!

10/23: NO SCHOOL

10/30: Join us for our last garden club of the fall with two special guests!  We’ll have a Halloween Spooktacular, with special guest Ms. Mura, who will help us get ready for Halloween with a super gross tasting (crickets!), explore a bit about sustainable foods and bug eating practices around the world. We’ll explore decomposer bugs from our own garden (which we won’t eat!!) and start preparing our garden for winter. Our second special guest Ms Koransky will lead us in making mandalas, made entirely from our garden, with leaves, petals, and much more. Let your creativity blossom and come connect to the garden in a new way!
Questions? Contact Alix at alix.strunk@gmail.com
?Preguntas? Escribe a Alix, alix.strunk@gmail.com

Get Involved 2026-2027

PTO Meetings take place on the first Thursday of every month. All are welcome!

Join us in person (in the Irving Library) or online (via Zoom) at 7pm

We will have committee updates during the first half hour and we will also introduce the PTO and explain how to get involved and hear a Principal’s Update from Ms. Mura.

See you there or on Zoom!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/87844748905pwd…
Meeting ID: 878 4474 8905

Passcode: 835188

Room Parent Sign Up!

BECOME A ROOM PARENT

What is a room parent?

Room parents serve as an important link between classroom teachers and students’ families, as well as being a conduit for PTO information these families need to know. If you volunteer to be a room parent in your student’s class, you will find you have a unique opportunity to get to know and help your student’s teacher and be more involved in your student’s school experience. You’ll likely have a partner to work with on this job.

Room parents are an essential part of initiating and creating an atmosphere of teamwork that will make elementary school more rewarding and fun for everyone involved.

What will I have to do?

The key to being an effective room parent is communication and delegation—communication with the teacher to understand their needs, and communication with families in order to fulfill those needs and let them know about events and opportunities happening at school. You’ll coordinate with your co-room parent to manage this. You can absolutely do this job if you work full time and/or if you are not available to be at events during the school day.

Your job is not to do all the work, but to plan and coordinate efforts.

While the role of a room parent will vary from class to class depending on the teacher and grade level (younger grades are often more hands-on than older ones), typical things you may do include:

  • Forward emails from the Irving PTO and various committees to the families in your classroom to facilitate communication and community.
  • Help plan and coordinate teacher/staff appreciation gifts at the holidays and end of year (participation is VOLUNTARY for all classroom families)
  • Help coordinate classroom celebrations (these can include Halloween, 100th Day of School, Winter Holidays, Last Day of School)
  • Help recruit volunteers and donations for school-wide activities (in the past these have included the Fun Run, Cookie Crumble, Fun Fair, Silent Auction, Book Fairs, Olympic Day, and more), and coordinate the creation of a class basket for the basket auction, a PTO fundraiser

Still have questions?


Please contact Caitlin Zinsser, room parent committee co-chair, at caitlin.zinsser@gmail.com.