Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Weekly Blog 5/23


Dear Wines Families,
The Country Fair is just over a week away. Please read through the information about the fair (and how to support it!) as well as the other information for the week.

The Wines Country Fair and Raffle needs your help to make this an awesome end-of-the-year celebration for our students! Please sign up to volunteer at the fair on Friday, June 1, or donate an item for the raffle.

There is a long list (mobile users please note there are multiple pages) of volunteer opportunities so you can find something that will be fun for you. Also, if you have a high school age student that needs volunteer hours or a middle school student who would like to get involved, we would love their help too! Volunteer questions? Email Cristina Rojas.


K-5 Classroom Raffle Basket donations are being accepted through Friday, May 25. Each year the classrooms from each grade create an amazing raffle basket. Below are classroom themes for your donations. Collection baskets are located in each classroom.
  • Kindergarten - Arts & Crafts
  • 1st Grade - Legos
  • 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
Raffle questions? Email Tracie Clarke.

Get your wristbands and tickets at Wines starting Tuesday, May 29.
Purchase wristbands and tickets at the sales table outside the main school doors before and after school. If you purchase them online you can also pick up your order during this same time. Please allow for a 24-hour turnaround.
Country Fair questions? Email Denise Cope.

Volunteer Breakfast Friday
Please join us on Friday as our staff invites all of our volunteers to a special breakfast at 8:15 in the Library. We look forward to celebrating with you.

Box Tops
The Boxtops contest is drawing to a close!  Turn in your boxtops marked with your teacher's name by June 1!  The winning classes will have the choice of a pizza or cupcake party for their class during the last week of school!

That’s all for this week.

David

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Weekly Blog 5/16


Dear Wines Families,
As I said last week, these end of year messages are longer than normal—and more important! Please take a moment to read through all of this week’s announcements.

Country Fair
ONLINE WRISTBAND, FOOD, AND RAFFLE TICKET SALES ARE OPEN FOR THE WINES COUNTRY FAIR & RAFFLE!
This event takes place on June 1, from 6:00–8:30 p.m. at Wines Elementary and features:
  • The Raffle where students can enter to win themed prize baskets, fun events with Wines teachers, and items from the community
  • Cake Walk (student entries due by 9:00 a.m. on June 1)
  • Carnival-style games and prizes
  • Farmer John’s petting zoo with two fun-filled shows
  • Photo booth
  • Lemonade
  • NYPD Pizza
  • Michigan Creamery ice cream
  • Performances from the aerial artists of the Aviary
  • Fifth Grade Flush Tank
  • And more!

THREE WAYS TO PURCHASE:
Pick up wristbands and tickets at the sales table outside the main school doors during advance sales or the night of the Fair. If ordering the week of the Fair, please allow for a 24-hour turnaround.
  • In Advance at Wines (May 29 – June 1): (Cash, Check, or Credit Card)
Purchase tickets at the sales table outside the main school doors before and after school.
  • At the Fair (June 1): (Cash, Check, or Credit Card)
Purchase tickets onsite at ticket tables outside the school.
Country Fair questions? Email Denise Cope.

 THREE WAYS TO GET INVOLVED:
  • RAFFLE:
K-5 Classroom Raffle Baskets: Each year the classrooms from each grade create an amazing raffle basket. Below are classroom themes for your donations. Collection baskets are located in each classroom. Classroom basket donations are being accepted through Friday, May 25.
    • Kindergarten - Arts & Crafts
    • 1st Grade - Legos
    • 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
Raffle questions? Email Tracie Clarke.

  • VOLUNTEERS:
Like most events at Wines, we rely heavily on parent volunteers to make this a wonderful celebration for our students. Please sign up to help! Also, if you have a high school age student that needs volunteer hours or a middle school student who would like to get involved, we would love their help too!
Volunteer questions? Email Cristina Rojas.

  • CAKE WALK:
Calling All Student Bakers K-5 For The Country Fair Cake Walk! Bake a cake or cupcakes based on the theme "Favorite Movie/Movie Character". Bring it in on Friday, June 1 by 9 a.m. to be eligible for the cake contest where teachers will judge cakes and award ribbons to the top three best-themed cakes in each grade. Entries will be used as prizes for the Cake Walk that evening and will be on display at the Country Fair!
We also appreciate any donations of cakes and cupcakes from Wines families for Cake Walk prizes.
Cake Walk questions? Email Mary Nickson.

Science Olympiad
We had a remarkable Science Olympiad last Saturday. The final numbers from the event were:
  • 98 registered participants
  • 31 Coaches
  • 1 Event Supervisor
  • 28 Event Volunteers
  • 87 students went to compete
  • 47 medals earned (54% of competitors)
I am so proud of our entire Science Olympiad team and thankful for our volunteer coaches and event volunteers. I want to extend a HUGE thank you to Anastasia Yocum who organized the entire Olympiad season and in her “spare” time, even coached a team. Thank You, Anastasia!

For Science Olympiad participants, we will host a Popsicle celebration at lunch on Friday. Please have kids wear their Olympiad t-shirts and medals on Friday.

Art Night Tomorrow
Please join us for our annual Art Night tomorrow, May 17, from 6:30-8:00. Come at any time to browse the wonderful artwork from all Wines students.

Volunteer Breakfast: May 25
Please join us as our staff in appreciating all of our volunteers next Friday at 8:15 in the Media Center. We can’t have a successful school without you!!

Staffing News for 2018/19
I’m pleased to announce two staff changes for the 2018/2019 school year. First, I’m incredibly excited to announce that Shanna Middleton will be our first ever Young 5’s teacher at Wines! As most of you know, Shanna is the architect of our Kindergarten program at Wines, which has become a model and leader in early childhood education. We are so excited as Shanna becomes the architect of our Young 5’s program.

With Shanna moving to Young 5’s, we have an opening at Kindergarten. I’m pleased to announce that Samantha Shanteau will be our new Kindergarten teacher. Samantha has taught 3rd grade here for the past three years. As you may know, Samantha did her student teaching in Shanna Middleton’s classroom so Shanna’s “hands” will continue to be on our entire early childhood program!!

With Samantha moving to Kindergarten, we will have an opening at 3rd grade. In the coming weeks, the interview process will begin. I will be participating in the first round of interviews at the district level on May 29. After that initial round, we will then bring candidates back for school-based interviews. We will need an interview team for that round that includes parents. If you are interested in serving on the committee, please let me know. You do not need to be a parent of a current 2nd grader.

Reminder: Early Release Wednesday, May 23
We have our final Early Release next Wednesday. End of day is 1:29. There is no PM childcare.

Thank you!
On behalf of the Wines staff, I want to extend a sincere thank you to all of our families for a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week last week. Each day brought a new surprise for our staff and we deeply appreciate your appreciation! Special thanks to the Hutton family for donating the coffee for one of the special days!

Thanks for taking the time to read through this long message! Hope to see you tomorrow night at Art Night.

David





Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Weekly Blog 5/9


Dear Wines Families,
As I said last week, over the next few weeks we’ll have lots of important information coming home so please expect longer messages from me than normal, and like with yesterday’s message, there may be multiple messages each week.

 2018-19 School Registration
Last Friday, you should have received an email from backtoschool@a2schools.org.  This email will walk you through registering for next fall. The process is very quick and most of the information pre-populates from the information you provided last year. If you haven’t done so yet, please open that email and register your student to return to Wines next year.

Important PTO Meeting Tuesday, May 15
Please join us on Tuesday, May 15 at 7 pm as we hold our annual PTO Board elections for next school year. We are actively looking to fill at least three member-at-large seats and welcome participation from anyone who would like to be part of the PTO. Childcare will be provided at this meeting.

Art Night May 17















Bottle Cap Collection Success! Message from Troop Leader
I am so excited to announce that we have reached our goal of 400 lbs of caps/lids for our Buddy Bench project! I am amazed by the efforts of Wines families and the A2 community at large. Everyone pulled together and collected what seemed like a colossal goal. I am so proud of the Girl Scouts for their sorting efforts. We have one more sorting session & we’re done. What an amazing legacy to leave at Wines - two Buddy Benches, a successful community effort & an excellent lesson in green living/recycling. Thank you also to the PTO for paying for the recycling costs through their Great Ideas grant program. Thank you again to every one who helped make this project a tremendous success!

Michelle Chien

No Floor Hockey This Week
There is no Friday Floor Hockey this week as we are using the gym for one final Science Olympiad practice. We’ll be back in action next week!

Interested in Advertising in our School Folder?
You may have noticed that some local businesses are featured on the communication folders that we use to get your student’s papers to and from school. If you are a business owner, or work for a business that would like to show support for the school while gaining visibility to our students and parents, please contact our folder company directly at bob.nationalschoolfolders@gmail.com for more information. Ad sales are presently underway for the 2018-19 school folders.

That’s all for this week!
David