There’s something about May that carries two energies at once. We experience an eagerness for the finish line and a tug toward what’s next. In these final weeks of school, we find ourselves doing both: wrapping up what’s been, while gently reaching for what’s ahead.

It’s a season of promotions, graduations, recitals, projects, and portfolios… of soaking up the last lessons and beginning to imagine slow mornings, backyard adventures, and maybe even letting a little boredom in the door (that’s where creativity lives, after all). But just because the school year ends doesn’t mean connection has to.

In fact, this May, we’re planting something new that we hope will grow all year long: Cottonwood Community Groups, which are small, regional groups of families who will walk the homeschool journey together, from field trips and park days to shared rhythms and support.

Alongside these new groups, we’re offering free summer field trips and weekly park days, including a few new Family Liaisons leading the way, Jana in Sacramento and Lina in Elk Grove. Whether you’re new to Cottonwood or simply looking to deepen your roots, we hope you’ll find something that fits just right.

As you start to reflect on this year and dream a bit about what’s next, here are a few resources that might bring inspiration, encouragement, or even just a breath of fresh air:

• ✨ 20 Simple Ways to Celebrate the End of the Homeschool Year

• 🧭 The Benefits of Boredom

• 📓 Homeschool Planning Templates for Summer & Beyond

• 🎧 Podcast: Homeschooling Through the Summer—Yes, No, or Maybe?

Here’s to finishing strong and beginning something beautiful.

Kindly,

Kara Parkins, Parent Support Supervisor

Coming this fall, we’re launching Cottonwood Community Groups (CCGs) which are regional connection groups led by your local Family Liaison and filled with nearly-weekly opportunities to gather with the same group of families throughout the year. Amanda Bell piloted this program with great success in the Roseville area this year and will continue her group next year. Her success led us to launch these across our other regions and with the Slavic community.

By signing up for a CCG, you’re joining a smaller community within our larger school. You will join a group where relationships can grow deeper through repeated connections and shared experiences like field trips, park days, and simple in-person meetups. Additionally, signing up for these groups offers field trips and sign-up opportunities that are exclusive to those individual groups, meaning you will have additional field trip opportunities beyond the all-school offerings.

📝 Click here to learn more and sign up for your regional Community Group
(Each group has its own flyer and sign-up form. Scroll through and find the one closest to you or the Slavic Community Group with Maria and click to fill out the interest form!) You are only able to sign up for ONE group.

We’re thrilled to offer a playful and connected summer across all regions of Cottonwood, including:

• 🎟️ Free Field Trips: Open for Registration, Tomorrow – May 15, 2025
  From animals to art and science to history. Enjoy curated outings at no cost.

• 🛝 Weekly Park Days – No Registration Required – Come one, Come all!
  Relaxed, drop-in style fun where friendships blossom and families mingle.

Starting in June, our new liaison Lina will host weekly park days in Elk Grove. In July, we’ll welcome Jana, our new Sacramento Region Liaison, who will begin hosting park days too. That brings us to FIVE weekly park days and more regional connection by midsummer!

• Our summer plans, highlighting a variety of free field trips and weekly park days across our regions

• Summer Park Days and Field Trips 2025

• Registration links are at the end of this newsletter as always.

• Our Year-at-a-Glance for Cottonwood Presents Events and Academic Adventures

• Year-at-a-Glance 2025/26 School Year

• Staff Appreciation Week: A Tribute From Our Families

• A Day To Remember: Looking Back at Curriculum Showcase

• Promotion & Graduation: HS Grad Slideshow Extension, Ceremony Nest Links

• Digital Literacy: Summer Online Program Access

• K-8 Instructional Programs: Registration is Open

• High School Counseling: Concurrent Enrollment Info

• CTE: CTE and Personal Finance Students are AMAZING!

• CCPA: Poetry Slam Success!

• Everybody Belongs: AAPI Month & Heritage Ambassador Sign-Ups

• And Much, Much More…

And always at the end of The Wednesday Weekly

• Event registration links and schedules for Park Days, Mondays at the CCC, and the Lending Library.

You can find more info about dates and events throughout the newsletter or on the Hawks’ Nest calendar.

Remember, this list does not include all events hosted by The Cottonwood School. Please check your personal calendar and email for field trip reminders, class reminders, and more.

Thurs, May 15

• Summer Field Trip Registration Begins at 12:30 pm

Friday, May 16

• Suite 100 Closed for Field Day

Mon, May 19

• Final Mindset Mondays for the year
• Storytime & Craft Club at The Lending Library, 2 – 3 pm

Weds, May 21

• Library on Location Van – Sacramento & Elk Grove
• Regional Park Days – Elk Grove, Roseville, Antelope, Folsom

• Lending Library Items Due
• Last Day of School!

Wednesday, May 28

• Library on Location Van – Fair Oaks & Placerville

This week, we invited our families to share their gratitude for the amazing staff members who support, guide, and cheer them on throughout their homeschooling journey. The responses came pouring in!

From heartfelt thank-you notes to shout-outs full of love and admiration, it’s clear that our team is making a powerful impact every day.

👉 Click the link below to read the full collection of family messages.

Thank you to every HST, librarian, program coordinator, and behind-the-scenes superstar who helps make Cottonwood a place where families feel supported, seen, and celebrated. You are deeply appreciated!

Staff Appreciation Week is all week long. If you have a message you’d like to send to a staff member, it isn’t too late to share your thoughts and gratitude. It will make someone’s day if you do!

What an incredible day! Our Curriculum Showcase was a huge success. Thank you to everyone who joined us to explore curriculum options, connect with vendors, and engage with our staff and programs. The event was filled with energy, inspiration, and a true sense of community.

📸 This week, we’re excited to share a fun video featuring snapshots from our brand-new photo booth! We loved seeing so many smiling faces, families, and friends capturing memories together. See if you can spot yourself or your child in the video montage!

🎥 Next week, we’ll be sharing a full slideshow of highlights from the entire event so you can relive all the magic or catch anything you missed.

Thank you again for making this day one to remember!

Monday was a fun morning in the drizzle at our Sandstone Campus! Noah Baker, brother of Cottonwood students and Eagle Scout Candidate, took on our project of building our school’s four raised beds to help beautify our campus! Thank you to all the students and parents who came to help shovel gravel and dirt to fill the beds. The materials were purchased at Berco Building & Landscape Supply in El Dorado Hills who were super generous with a big discount. We highly recommend checking them out if you are in need of supplies like this.

At our Back to School Open House in August, you will have an opportunity to help plant the beds since they will be fully irrigated at that point. We also had enough extra dirt that we were able to share with CCPA to use in the raised beds some of their students have built as part of a project. Thanks again to Noah and all his helpers!

If your high school graduate hasn’t submitted information for the senior slideshow, we encourage them to do so! We would love to feature and celebrate them during the graduation ceremony and on our social media pages!

We’re extending the submission deadline to Friday, May 16th. They can submit their slideshow information using the form below. Thank you for helping us honor our amazing graduates!

We’re in the final stretch of the 2024–25 school year, and it’s time to complete your Spring STAR tests! These quick assessments help us celebrate your student’s growth and guide planning for the year ahead.

🎯 Let’s aim for 100% participation—because that’s how awesome our Cottonwood students are!

Here’s where we stand:

• 📖 Reading: 75.8%

• 🧠 Early Literacy: 78.6%

• ➕ Math: 76.3%

If your student hasn’t completed their STAR test yet, now’s the time to log in and wrap it up. Let’s show up, finish strong, and finish proud!

We are thrilled to announce that priority registration is now open for all TK–8 instructional programs for the 2025–26 school year!

Please take a moment to review the updated program schedule—RISE class times have recently changed. You’ll find both the updated schedule and the registration form linked on The Nest and below.

🗓️ Priority registration is open from May 5–16.
After that, we will hold a lottery if needed and send out confirmation emails to families before summer break.

Here are the resources you need to get a jumpstart on registration:

• 2025-2026 CVHS Program Details

• 2025-2026 CVHS Live Class Schedule

• CVHS 2025-2026 Class Request Form

• 2025-2026 CVHS Class Lists & Live Class Schedule

Students planning to enroll in summer or fall courses through concurrent enrollment should submit their Special Admit permission forms as soon as possible. Registration has already begun for both summer and fall at Sierra College and Los Rios Community Colleges. Students should contact their counselor for support with the process.

Get your applications and Special Admit Forms in before summer break to avoid any delays in the process! Take a look at our Concurrent Enrollment Guide for more information!

* Los Rios includes Folsom Lake College, Sacramento City College, American River College, and Consumes River College

Lindsey Romero, School Counselor | Schedule an Appointment

On Thursday, May 15th at 5:00 pm, CTE Completers will be celebrating the completion of their programs and all that they have accomplished!!

Personal Finance students wrapped up their final unit (Buying a House) with a visit from Fernando Mota, Realtor. For this unit, students compared the pros and cons of renting vs buying, examined the processes of loan preapproval, house hunting, offers and negotiations, inspections, appraisals, escrow, closing, the costs of home maintenance and utilities, and more!

Our first-ever Coffee Shop Poetry Slam was a huge success! Students of all grades showed up (and showed out!) whether they were performing or there to cheer on their peers! Over the past few weeks, our students truly found their voices through heartfelt poems and even some hilarious haikus. It was truly heartwarming to see so many families and community members come out to support our hard-working students. The pride on their faces after each round of applause was a beautiful reminder of just how powerful encouragement can be.

We were especially proud to hold the event in a real-world venue, giving students the chance to showcase their work outside the walls of the classroom. Even students who didn’t perform still came to support their classmates, showing just how strong our community is. At CCPA, we believe that learning doesn’t stop at the bell, but rather lives in spaces like these, where young people can be seen, heard, and celebrated. We’re already looking forward to more events like this that blend creativity, confidence, and real-world application! Do you know a high school-age student who would thrive in our environment? Reach out to us at (530) 285-2003 or email isabella.brenneman@cottonwoodk12.org to learn how to join us for the 2025 – 2026 school year!

We are now accepting sign-ups for Heritage Ambassadors for the upcoming school year! If your family would like to share your culture during one of our monthly spotlights—or if you know someone who might be interested—please use the form below or share it with others in our community.

As the school year winds down, don’t forget to return any borrowed items by May 23rd—the last day the library will be open before our summer inventory closure.

✅ Curious about overdue items, summer checkouts, or using borrowed curriculum over the break?
Check out our Library FAQ below to get all your questions answered!

📅 The Library Schedule graphic outlines key dates for May–July, including:

• 📕 Last day to return materials: May 23

• 📦 Library closed for inventory in June

• ✅ In-person checkout reopens July 7

• 🛒 Online catalog reopens July 21 to place new orders

We’re here to help you wrap up the year smoothly and gear up for a great summer of learning!

We’re down to the final stretch of the school year, and there’s still time to connect, play, and soak up the sunshine with your Cottonwood community!

Check out next week’s Park Day line-up for May 21:
📍 Elk Grove – Horseshoe Park, 10 am (with Alaynah M.)
📍 Folsom – Econome Family Park, 10 am (with Saralynn D.)

📍 Roseville – Woodbridge Park, 10 am –12 pm (with Amanda B.)

📍 Antelope – Dry Creek Park (Roseville), 10 am – Join us for Crafts! (with Maria O.)

💬 This will be the last park day of the 24/25 school year! Park days will take a pause next week and resume early June! Park days will run throughout the summer.

🔔 Stay in the loop all summer and into next year:

Join your local Remind group to receive updates on Family Liaison-led park days, cancellations, and more!

REMIND: Rocklin/Roseville/Lincoln Park Day

REMIND: 50 Corridor: Folsom/Placerville/Rancho Cordova

REMIND: Elk Grove Park Day

REMIND: Antelope/Fair Oaks/Citrus Heights

We’re excited to share our Year at a Glance flyers, giving you a preview of some of the engaging events and learning opportunities we have planned for the 2025–26 school year! While this isn’t a full list, it offers a snapshot of what’s to come. Trust us, there’s even more in the works.

You’ll notice we’ve introduced two event categories this year to help you navigate our offerings more easily:

• Cottonwood Presents: These are school-hosted events designed and led by our amazing staff and programs. They foster community, connection, and creativity—think assemblies, seasonal celebrations, showcases, and enrichment gatherings.

• Academic Adventures: These are educational field trips and experiences led by trusted vendors and community partners. They offer hands-on, real-world learning opportunities that tie into academic goals in a fun and interactive way.

Take a look, mark your calendars, and get ready for another amazing year of learning and connection at Cottonwood! Registration will begin in July.

• OFFICIAL Facebook Community Group
• Official and private, moderated by Cottonwood School staff.
• Ensures accurate information and verifies active members as parents/legal guardians.
• A secure space for information, updates, and community connections.
• Public Instagram
• Pinterest – Tons of resources and ideas to be found.

• The Parents Hawks Nest – Everything you need to know and more is found here.

• Past Wednesday Weekly Newsletters
• 2024/25 School Calendar

THE COTTONWOOD SCHOOL

Serving transitional kindergarten through 12th-grade students in El Dorado, Amador, Alpine, Placer, and Sacramento Counties.

Location: 3921 Sandstone Dr. Ste 100, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762, USA