Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Weekly Blog 5/25

Dear Wines Families,
Today’s Blog post is all about the upcoming Wines Country Fair and Raffle, which is just over a week away!!

Help make this year’s Raffle the best ever!
The Wines Country Fair Raffle is almost here and it’s all about the kids! We truly appreciate all of the support we get from our Wines families to make this a wonderful event. There are two ways you can donate to help make this year’s prizes exciting for our students:

Each year the classrooms from each grade come together to create a great raffle basket. The kids battle it out to have the “best” array of cool prizes. Collection baskets are located in each classroom. Here are this year’s classroom themes:
Kindergarten - Arts & Crafts
1st Grade – Legos (Legos are 20% off at Target this week!)
2nd Grade - The Wonderful World of Science
3rd Grade - Camping, Swimming & Outdoor Fun
4th Grade - Sports & Outdoor Fun (Team regalia is great too!)
5th Grade - It’s A High Tech World

Secondly, if you would like to donate a specific item to the raffle, please check out our wish list athttp://bit.ly/WinesRaffleWishes. Wish list items include: board games, slip-in-slide, Quality 16 movie tickets, scratch-off lottery tickets, loose change, gum, scooter, sponsor a teacher experience, and many more. These items are all wildly popular with Wines students, which is why they come back year after year. 

Grade Level Volunteer Opportunities (WE NEED YOU!!!)
Kindergarten: http://vols.pt/QH3SBj

 Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated. If you have any questions or have a new idea, please contact Raffle Chair Kerianne Tupac at kmtupac@umich.edu or 734-657-5870. All ideas are welcome!


Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Weekly Blog 5/18

Dear Wines Families,
If you can believe it, we have just four weeks of school left after this week! As many of you know, at this time of year we begin sending out more information weekly about the Country Fair and Raffle. This week starts those messages. Please expect an additional email tomorrow with all of the Country Fair information. I will also be sending out grade level specific emails with volunteer sign ups. So please look for those items tomorrow. On to the “regular” weekly news:  

Wines Science Olympiad: GREAT JOB!!
Our Olympians had a great day at the WESO competition this past Saturday. I am so proud of all of our teams. Wines had 39 teams, 24 of which received placement or honorable mention medals. Here is an AAPS article and slideshow that features some Wines students. http://news.a2schools.org/massive-washtenaw-elementary-science-olympiad-sparks-students-interest-in-science-at-critical-time/. Big thanks to all of our incredible parent volunteer coaches and to Rhonda McCammon who has again this year done an OUTSTANDING job organizing our Science Olympiad program. Thank you Rhonda for all your years as you now “graduate” to Forsythe.

Annual All School Picnic
Last year we began a new tradition of an all school picnic rather than grade level picnics all over town. We will again host this at school on June 14th. We need some help in organizing each grade level’s activities. If you are able to help organize, please contact your child’s teacher or Annemarie Dolan at akilburndolan@comcast.net. The picnic will take place at approximately 1:30 and at about 2:45 that same day we will hold our Teachers/Student kickball game featuring the class who wins that raffle prize.

Medication at School
If your child has medication at school, please plan on making arrangements to pick up the medication by the last day of school, June 17th. Before closing our office for the summer, we must dispose of left medication per state law.

Children’s Business Fair
You are invited to Ann Arbor’s first annual Children’s Business Fair – showcasing kids’ entrepreneurial enthusiasm – this Saturday from 10am-noon! This fun family event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Kids create a product or service, decorate their booth, set their pricing, and then sell to real customers at this one-day public marketplace at 424 Little Lake Dr. Ann Arbor. Plan to join us this Saturday, May 21, to support these young entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit www.ChildBusinessFair.org.

Boxtop Winners!
Finally, I’m pleased to announce the winners of the Boxtops contest. The winning classes were Ms. Milanowski’s and Ms. Caruso’s? Great job!!

That’s all for this week. Again, look for Country Fair and Raffle emails tomorrow.

David


Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Weekly Blog 5/11

Dear Wines Families,

Here is all the news that’s fit to print this week. Please look for an email on Friday with the May Wines Times newsletter.

THANK YOU!!!!
I want to thank our community, lead by our PTO leadership, for the tremendous staff appreciation week. The daily tributes, the video, the t-shirts, and the school decorations really made our staff feel special and appreciated. THANK YOU!!

UMS Video Featuring Beth McNally
Below is a link to a video produced by UMS celebrating Beth McNally as the recipient of the UMS/DTE Energy Fund Educator of the Year. Please check it out!

PTO Meeting Tomorrow
Our PTO is meeting tomorrow night at 7:00 PM. As always, free childcare is available.

Final Call for Parent Input
Our teachers and I will be meeting over the next two weeks to finalize our class placements for next year. If you haven’t already and would like to include your input, please fill out the form by clicking on the link below. As always, we do not accept requests for specific teachers nor requests not to have your child assigned to a certain teacher. Below is the link:

After School Programming at Wines 2016-2017
The Rec and Ed Department is putting together next year’s after school “menu” and would like your input for the classes that will be offered at Wines. Please take a minute to fill out the survey if you would like input on the after school classes we will have next year. Below is the link:

That’s all for now. Again, look for a the Wines Times on Friday.

David