Weekly Blog September 14

Dear Wines Families,

I will apologize in advance if this is a longer than normal entry, but now that we are in “full gear” this year, there are lots of announcements and reminders to pass along.

PTO Meeting

First, I want to remind everyone that TONIGHT at 7:00 we are hosting our first PTO meeting of the year. Childcare will be provided.

Curriculum Night

Next Tuesday evening is our annual Curriculum Night from 6:30-8:00. We have changed the format this year in order to better accommodate parents with multiple children at Wines and to give families a bit more flexibility during that evening. Teachers will be hosting two sessions in their classrooms. Parents may attend either session. The first will be from 6:30-7:00. At 7:00, I will be hosting our community in the multi-purpose room for a brief presentation. At 7:30, our teachers will be making a second presentation in their classrooms.

PBIS

On Friday we will be formally kicking of Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS). Last year our entire staff learned about PBIS and a strong group of dedicated teachers met with me regularly to plan the roll out this fall. Since school started, our students have been learning about the behavior expectations for all areas in the building. We do this with students every year, but PBIS allows us to be much more uniform and consistent. Our PBIS team has created short lessons that all teachers use in their classrooms to actively teach behavior. Now that our students have learned about behavior expectations across the building, starting next week we will begin recognizing students for exhibiting positive behavior at Wines. Teachers and staff will be passing out Wines Wildcat Power Paw tickets to students who are caught being good. Students will turn their tickets into their classroom teacher and each week we will hold a drawing and one student from each classroom will have their ticket pulled. These students will have their picture posted on our PBIS bulletin board for the following week and we will post their names on our website and in our monthly Wines Times.

Speaking of PBIS and our new ticket system, we are in need of parent volunteers to help us copy and cut out tickets. If you are available on Thursday or Friday, please let me know and we will put you to work!

NWEA

The Ann Arbor Public Schools will be assessing all students in grades K-5 starting September 19 and ending September 30 on the North West Evaluation Association (NWEA) assessment. This is a web-based program and there is no written portion to this assessment. This test will be given 3 times a year. As educators we are looking for student growth and will be using these assessment to focus on areas of strength and growth opportunities for each student. There is nothing students or parents need to do to prepare your child for NWEA. Just send them to school ready to learn like you do each day! I will be speaking briefly about NWEA at Curriculum Night next week.

ThinkStretch

First let me thank our families for the overwhelming support we received for our summer learning ThinkStretch program. The students seem very excited! If your child has not turned in his or her ThinkStretch workbook, please do so right away. Even if your child completed just a little bit, we are recognizing everyone who did something. Next Friday, we will have be passing out medals. 

Wines School Directory
Do you own or work for a local business? Let the Wines community know by advertising in the Wines directory.  We are aiming to get the directory out as soon as possible so if you are interested, please contact Frances Carlson at fslcarlson@me.com or (248) 761-8310 (e-mail preferred).

Run-a-Thon
Get Ready for the Wines Runathon on Friday, October 21!
Mark your calendars for this spirit-filled, healthy fundraiser! We will need a lot of volunteers to help this event run smoothly. More information will be sent home later this month.

Newport Road

For the many Wines families who use Newport Road, please note that the current speed limit on Newport is 25MPH. This is a high foot/bike/car traffic area—particularly during morning drop off and afternoon pick up for Wines and Forsythe schools. The City of Ann Arbor is proposing to increase the speed limit on Newport. City officials including two city council members would like to meet with the residents of our neighborhoods to discuss raising the speed limit on Newport Road. Unfortunately, the meeting takes place during our Curriculum Night. However, if you have interest in this issue, you may be able to talk to friends or neighbors who no longer have children at Wines to see if they can attend the meeting.  
DATE:     Tuesday, Sept. 20
TIME:     7:00 p.m.
PLACE:    Ann Arbor Free Methodist Church, 1951 Newport Rd.

Warm the Children

Warm the Children is an AnnArbor.com program that buys new winter clothing for children in need. Children who receive free lunch or who receive some sort of public assistance would qualify for the program.  Each child will receive $90 in new clothing. Families shop for these items with a shopping coordinator at area Target locations. The program will be accepting applications from now until October 28, 2011. Shopping begins in October and is on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications for the program are now available in the office at Wines (994-1973). Referral forms are due by October 28, 2011.

Please see the attachment to this weekly email from our local Cub Scout Troop.

Sincerely,

David