Weekly Blog 9/28

Dear Wines Families,

As we near completion of our first month of school together (wow!), I have a number of messages today.

Picture Day
Picture Day is next Tuesday, Oct. 4th. Information and order forms went home last week in the Wednesday Folder. You can also order your prints online if you go to www.inter-state.com/order. Our school code is 09191BA. You will see that there is no yearbook option in our picture package. All Wines students receive a yearbook regardless of whether you purchase a picture package or not.

Walktober Starts Next Week!
Our month-long celebration of Walktober begins next Wednesday, Oct. 5 with International Walk to School Day. We will also walk to school each Friday all month long. Bus riders will be dropped off at the south Forsythe lot and met by staff and parents to walk to Wines. Next Wednesday we will kick off the celebration by participating in a friendly competition with Evening Street Elementary School outside of Columbus, Ohio. The school with the greatest percentage of walkers "wins" and the other principal must dress in Ohio State or Michigan clothes for a day. Please don't make me wear those Ohio colors!! We will have a special spirit day next Wednesday as well. If your child is a Michigan fan, please have him or her wear their maize and blue. If you are a fan of another team (even Ohio State), you can wear your favorite team colors or Wines spirit wear.

Library Volunteers Needed
Look in today's email for some information and a sign up to volunteer in the Library. Please consider this great volunteer opportunity!

Auction Committee Volunteers Needed
We are looking to put together an Auction Committee to help the wines auction run smoothly. Last school year was our first off-site auction and as well as being a success it was fun night out!

So did you attend and have any ideas that may help us or are you new to Wines and think this might sound like a great opportunity to get to know people while helping your child's school? We shall have a kick-off meeting on October 6th at 8.50am (after drop off) in the teachers lounge. If you know you'd like to help but can't make it please email me at traciemcginty@hotmail.com

Many Thanks
Tracie Clarke & Amy Treder Holland

Parenting in the Digital Age
The Washtenaw Intermediate School District is hosting a seminar on "Digital Parenting" on Oct. 25th. This is a great opportunity to learn and share about being a parent in this digital age. Look for a flyer in today's email.

That's all (and a lot!) for this week. As always, don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.

David

Weekly Blog 9/21

Dear Wines Families.
Well, here we are in Week 3 of the school year. This is usually the first "normal" week of the year and it certainly feels that way. The newness of the first week of school is now gone and the first full week of school is behind us. So we are now into our routines here at school and, hopefully, for you at home as well. Here is the news for the week!

• Our first PTO meeting of the year is next Tuesday, September 27th. At 6:00 PM we will hold a special meeting/orientation for new families. This will give you a sense of what our PTO does, how you can be involved, and we will look at the school event calendar so you have a better sense of the specifics of our many events. At 7:00 we will hold our regular meeting. New families are certainly welcome to stay for both meetings! As always at our PTO meetings, there is childcare available.

• Picture Day is Oct. 4th. An order form is coming home today in your child's Wednesday Folder. You can order your pictures online at www.inter-state.com/order. Our school code is 09191BA.

• Project Lead the Way is underway at Wines!! Our 1st and 5th graders began their first PTLW units this week and I can see already that we are in for a fantastic, project based, STEM learning experience this year. In today's email, I sent a link to the first PTLW newsletter. Sarah Schemanske will send a newsletter home weekly to the grade levels that are doing PTLW. I wanted to give everyone a chance to see what is coming your child's way this year.

• If your child is going to be absent or late to school or if there are changes to pick up routines, etc., please be sure to call the school office (you can leave a message). While it is also nice to send an email to the classroom teacher, it is critical that the information comes to the office. Also, if your child is home sick and you are leaving a message, please let us know in the message the symptoms they are experiencing. We must report certain illnesses to the state and it is helpful for us to know. We also alert classrooms when certain illnesses are in the class. Thank you for your help with this.

That's all for this week. As always, let me know if you have any questions.
David

Weekly Blog 9/14

Dear Wines Families,
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend Curriculum Night last evening. It was so nice to see new and familiar faces! In today's email I included links to my presentation as well as Sarah Schemanske's Project Lead the Way presentation.

I'll keep the rest of my message short this week because I also included our first PTO newsletter in my email today. Please take a few minutes to review the monthly publication of the Wines Times.


Thanks!
David

Weekly Blog 9/7

Dear Wines Families,

Here we are half way through day two of the school year and things are going along very well!! It’s a bit hot but we are surviving and the kids and staff are already engaged in their routines. In many ways, it seems like we never left and for our new students, it seems like they’ve been here for years!

For our new families, welcome to my first Weekly Blog of the school year. The blog contains the same content as my Wednesday Emails and you can expect to receive the email every Wednesday. I usually have it out before I leave for the day, though sometimes it will come in the evening. All of the important information from Wines will come via my emails/blog so please plan on taking a few minutes to read this each Wednesday. There are times during the year when I’ll send more than one email a week, though I try hard not to fill your inboxes.

I want to point your attention to two important dates. First, our annual Back to School Picnic is tomorrow (Thursday) evening at 6:30. Please provide your picnic meal for your family. Our PTO will supply water. Second, our annual Curriculum Night is next Tuesday, September 13^th. Our teachers will present in their classrooms from 6:30-7:00. From 7:00-7:30 I will speak to our community in the auditorium. From 7:30-8:00, our teachers will repeat their presentations so if you have scheduling challenges or multiple children at Wines, you have two opportunities that evening. Please note that at this event, we will not have adequate childcare so we ask that this is an adult-only event.

Please look for your child’s red “Wednesday Folder” in his or backpack today. While most of what we send is done via my emails, we do send some items home on paper and the Wednesday Folder is where you’ll find it.

Finally, just a reminder that there are MANY ways to keep up with all things Wines. In addition to the Wednesday Email, the content of my email can also be found on my blog at www.winesprincipal.blogspot.com. In addition, I use Twitter regularly so Twitter users, please follow me @winesprincipal. Finally, the Wines Facebook page is active this year and can be found at www.facebook.com/wineselementary.

Thanks for a great first day and a half!! Looking forward to many more.

David