Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Weekly Blog 2/22

Dear Wines Families,

I hope you are all enjoying this warm spell we are experiencing. I’m sure this means we’ll have a terribly snowy and cold March, but we’ll take the nice weather for now! I have just a couple of announcements today.

SAVE THE DATE: WINES AUCTION
Our second annual “off site” silent and live auction takes place on April 22nd at Null Taphouse in Dexter. Start lining up your babysitters now for this wonderful event that was a big hit last year. This year we are raising money for dramatic playground improvements. Look for artist renderings of our potential new play structure very soon! 

Free workshop! Autism, Happiness & Systems Thinking: TONIGHT
Sylvia van Meerten is a Wines parent and the creator of Camp Tall Tree (an overnight camp for kids with autism and their siblings). She specializes in helping families with autism find practical strategies to build confidence and encourage independence at home. Sylvia has offered to do a free workshop for wines parents tonight from 6:00-7:00pm.  If you'd like to attend, please fill out the RSVP form here.  If you have questions for Sylvia, please call 828-458-0313.  


Planning for Next Year
Believe it or not, we are in the planning stages for the 2017-2018 school year. We’ve already hosted our Kindergarten Round Up and we making plans for the fall. In the coming days, please look for an email from me with a survey regarding your intentions on coming back to Wines for next year. With our school nearing capacity, knowing in advance how many families are not coming back is extremely helpful. Please look for a brief survey to come home—likely this week.

4th Grade Concert Tomorrow—DVD’s/Blu-Ray’s Available
4th Grade parents: Just a reminder that tomorrow evening at 7:00 our 4th graders will be putting on their concert. Again this year, our PTO has arranged for a professional videographer to record the show. If you would like a DVD ($5) or Blu-Ray ($10), you can purchase one at the door.

That’s all for this week.


David

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Weekly Blog 2/8

Dear Wines Families,
I have lots of important announcements today. Before moving forward, I want to send a sincere thank you to Jini Jain, Wendy Langrock, and Itzel Fernandez Camacho for all of their work putting on International Night last week. It was our largest event ever! Big thanks also to Mary Nickson for helping with the fashion show, and to the over 50 families who had displays and food that night. It was a great evening! On to this week’s news:

Parent Involvement Day Monday, Feb. 13
As a reminder, our annual Parent Involvement Day is next Monday. We hope you can join us for part of the day (or all day!). Please complete the RSVP at the link below if you are joining us. The RSVP is most important if you are staying for lunch so we have an accurate count for our order.  Please RSVP by tomorrow.


Wines Times Newsletter
This months PTO Newsletter is here. Please click on the link below for all the important information from our PTO.

Great Ideas Grant Deadline
Do you have a great idea? The Great ideas Grant program is an opportunity for Wines students, parents, and staff to turn a great idea into a funded program to benefit the Wines community!The grant approval committee meets twice a year to vote on applications. Submissions are now accepted online only.  The next and last deadline is March 1st.

The links for the Adult and Child application can be found on the Wines PTO website: www.winespto.org. Don’t let a great idea go to waste! Submit now! Submit several! Contact: Sarah Ball – sjcball@yahoo.com

Free workshop! Autism, Happiness & Systems Thinking 
Sylvia van Meerten is a Wines parent and the creator of Camp Tall Tree (an overnight camp for kids with autism and their siblings). She specializes in helping families with autism find practical strategies to build confidence and encourage independence at home. Sylvia has offered to do a free workshop for Wines parents on February 22nd from 6pm -7pm.  If you'd like to attend, please fill out the RSVP form here.  If you have questions for Sylvia, please call 828-458-0313.  

Autism, Happiness & Systems Thinking 
February 22nd 2017 
6pm - 7pm 
Wines Media Center
RSVP via email (sylvia@empowerautism.com) or this form.

 Disability Awareness Workshop
Our annual Disability Awareness Workshop takes place on Thursday, March 23. We will need parent volunteers to help out with this wonderful event for our 4th grade students. You do not need to be a 4th grade parent to help! To volunteer, please use the sign up link: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080c48afaf28a31-disability

Any questions, please contact Jessi Averill 267-495-6208 or jessi.averill@gmail.com

 Skyline Basketball Youth Night Feb. 10
Elementary and middle school students receive free admission to Friday evening’s women’s basketball game vs. Pioneer. This event is a fundraiser for the Vada Murray Fund for Cancer and the Skyline team features many former Wines kids! See below for an informational flyer.

That’s all for this week!

David


Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Weekly Blog 2/1

Dear Wines Families,
Wow, is that the sun I see in the sky today? It’s an exciting time at Wines with lots of great things coming up. Please see below with information on everything.

International Night: TONIGHT!
It appears that tonight’s International Night will be the largest International Night we’ve had with over 50 family presentations, a fashion show, and a parade. The evening begins at 6:30 and ends at 8:00. The fashion show and parade will happen toward the end of the evening.

Kindergarten Round Up: Feb. 7
We are already looking ahead to 2017-18 and our first step in that direction takes place next Tuesday night with Kindergarten Round Up. If you have a child who will be in Kindergarten next year or if you have friends and neighbors who are interested in having their child attend Wines for Kindergarten, please come to Round Up next Tuesday night at 6:30 (with the kids!).

Science Olympiad Registration: Now Open!
Wines WESO participation registration is now open!  Please use the Google form at: https://goo.gl/forms/AZtcKTOdPONuUaOi1 to register your children.  First come, first served.  

Practices will be held from March 6th through competition day on June 3rd.  Please keep in mind your child's possible sports schedule changes throughout the spring. Complete one form per eligible child and yes, you may re-use previous years t-shirts.  

Parent Involvement Day
Our annual Parent Involvement Day in honor of National African American Parent Involvement Day takes place on Monday, February 13th. We invite all parents to attend for part or all of the day. A paper invitation is coming home today in students’ Wednesday Folders and I will follow up next week with an electronic RSVP. We hope to see you there!

That’s all for now. Hope to see you at International Night tonight!

David