Weekly Blog 3/28

Dear Wines Families,

As I hope everyone knows, we are not in school next week for Spring Break. When we return, we will begin the race to the end of the year! It will be an exciting time and one of continued hard work.

As we look ahead to next year, we will begin our class placement decision-making process during the months of April and May. If you would like to provide information about your child that will help us make placement decisions, please click on the link below and take our survey. Surveys are due by Friday, April 13th. As always, we will not consider any requests for specific teachers.

CLASS PLACEMENT PARENT INFORMATION

When we return from break, I want to remind everyone that at our April 12th PTO meeting, representatives from the Superintendent’s cabinet will be in attendance to discuss the upcoming Technology Bond. I encourage everyone to become informed about the bond. A public meeting about the bond is scheduled for Monday, April 16th at 6:30 PM at Pioneer High School.

Have a nice week away from Wines.

David

Weekly Blog 3/21

Dear Wines Families, 

What a beautiful couple of days of weather we are having. Everyone here at school seems to have an early case of "spring fever," but the kids and staff are still working hard. I have just a few items this week: 

First, please tune in to the School Board meeting tonight as our 5th grade choir lead by Ms. McNally will open the meeting. The meeting begins at 7:00 and will be broadcast on your local CTN channel. 

Our next Wines Times will be delayed a week due to Spring Break. The April edition will come out on April 11th (Spring Break is the week of April 2nd). 

Friday is our annual Wines Wahoo held at Forsythe Middle School. The Wahoo begins at 6:30. At the end of this message is one final announcement about the event. 

Last call for Lost and Found items. We will make another donation to charity over Spring Break. If your child is missing anything, it is likely in our ever expanding Lost and Found collection! 

Attached to today's email is a flyer with the latest after school offerings for after school activities through Rec and Ed. 

A reminder that there are two upcoming opportunities to learn about the May 8th Tech Bond. On Thursday, April 12th, members of the Superintendent's cabinet will be at our PTO meeting to discuss the Bond. In addition, there will be a public meeting on April 16th at 6:30 PM at Pioneer High School. I hope everyone can attend one or both of these opportunities. 

Finally, just a reminder that school ends at 3:42. We have had a number of children being picked up well after 4:00 recently--well after our pick up line traffic has cleared. We do not have after school supervision for students unless you have signed up for childcare (which is a wonderful option!). This is a safety issue. Please plan accordingly. 

Below is the Wines Wahoo info and request for more volunteers. 

David

Don't forget...  Wines Wahoo this Friday (3/23) from 6:30 - 8:30 @ Forsythe Middle School

Is all this warm weather putting you in the mood for limbo, dancing, playing and fun?  Then come to the Wahoo this Friday night!!  

The Wines Wahoo is a luau-themed, fun, family event for all Wines students, their parents and younger siblings. The Wahoo includes music provided by a kid friendly DJ, fun activities in the gym, face painting, and tattoos. There will be pizza, snacks and beverages for sale.  A parent or other adult over the age of 18 must accompany each Wines student. Children over 5th grade will not be admitted to the event. Younger siblings are, however, invited to participate.

There is a suggested donation of $5 per family that helps to cover the cost of the DJ and decorations. There is also a nominal fee for the food.

 

We still need a few more volunteers.  Please sign-up at the Volunteer Spot site.  It's easy -- Just enter your contact information and then select an activity.

 

Questions? Contact Bobbi Coluni (bobbi.coluni@gmail.com) 734-604-0807

Weekly Blog 3/14

Dear Wines Families,

After a spring-like winter, I guess we should have expected for summer to arrive this week! Hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather. With the weather changing, please make sure kids still come to school prepared for anything. Boots are still important at this time of year because we will have mud around for quite a while. In addition, the weather changes so quickly that warm morning weather can wind up being hats and gloves weather by lunch recess. I’d rather kids have too many clothes than not enough.

With that said, when kids get warm, they tend to take things off and leave them on the playground. As a result, our Lost and Found is again bursting at the seams. We will make another charity donation from our Lost and Found during Spring Break, so please come have a look before then.

Your child’s report card will be sent home in his/her backpack on Monday, March 19^th.

I know many parents have asked me about the Technology Bond vote that is taking place on May 8^th. If you would like more information about the Bond, there are many opportunities. In our office right next to Robin, there is an informational binder and there are also pamphlets in our office. In addition, on Thursday April 12^th, members of the Superintendent’s cabinet will be speaking at our PTO meeting about the Bond. The meeting starts at 7:00. There is also a public meeting taking place at Pioneer High School on Monday, April 16^th at 6:30 PM. I encourage everyone to learn as much as you can about this bond.

Attached to today’s email is the most recent Art Room Newsletter from Mrs. Hendrick. Please also see below the information about the Wines Wahoo that is taking place next Friday!

David

Wines Wahoo - Friday, March 23rd, 2012 from 6:30 - 8:30 @ Forsythe Middle School

Are you enjoying this balmy weather?  Just a reminder about the upcoming Wines Wahoo and a plea for additional volunteers to make the event a success.  

The Wines Wahoo is a luau-themed, fun, family event for all Wines students, their parents and younger siblings. The Wahoo includes music provided by a kid friendly DJ, fun activities in the gym, face painting, and tattoos. There will be pizza, snacks and beverages for sale.  A parent or other adult over the age of 18 must accompany each Wines student. Children over 5th grade will not be admitted to the event. Younger siblings are, however, invited to participate.  There is a suggested donation of $5 per family that helps to cover the cost of the DJ and decorations. There is also a nominal fee for the food. 

Volunteers Needed!!  We still need about 25 more volunteers to help with set-up, admissions, refreshments, pictures, gym monitoring and clean-up.  

Sign up here!   It's easy -- Just enter your contact information and then select an activity.

Questions? Contact Bobbi Coluni (bobbi.coluni@gmail.com) 734-604-0807

Weekly Blog 2/29

Dear Wines Families, 

First off, I want to send out a quick leap year intellectual exercise. Please notice that the title of this week's blog is "Weekly Blog 2/29." The exercise question is, when will be the next time I will ever be able to post something with that subject line? 

Now on to more important things. I hope everyone had a nice week away from Wines last week. Now that we are back, we are hard at work and as I visit classrooms, the kids look like they were never away. I don't have a lot of news this week. However, next week our 4th graders will be taking part in our annual Disability Awareness Day Workshop. I want to thank Kelly Van Singel for organizing this outstanding experience and for the many volunteers we have lined up. We could still use a few more volunteers. Still needed are folks willing to bring in some fruit, bottled water, granola bars, etc. for our parent volunteers and our participants from the Center for Independent Living. Workshop volunteers and food donation contacts can be made on the volunteerspot link from winespto.org or by via email: kellyvansingel@yahoo.com or click directly on http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/1162345645418412084. Attached to this email is a flyer about the day. 

 

That's all for now. 

 

David

Weekly Blog 2/7/11

Dear Wines Families,

I’m posting today's blog a day early because there is some time dependent information for this week. I want to first thank our community for again coming through for our school and our community. Last weekend we participated in the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop “Show Your Support” effort. I’m pleased to announce that Wines had the highest participation of any school. We earned 714 tokens, which accounted for 32% of all tokens and we raised $320 dollars that will go directly to support our Lunches with Love program at Wines. Thank you to everyone who visited the PTO Thrift Shop! Thanks to Holly Derry for organizing our effort.

Attached to today's email is a flyer announcing our annual Disability Awareness Day for 4th graders. The date of this wonderful event is March 8th from 9:00 AM until noon. If you are interested in volunteering on this day (no experience necessary and you don’t need to have a 4th grader at Wines), please click on the volunteer sign up link below.
http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/1162345645418412084

We have had a tremendous amount of RSVP’s for Parent Involvement Day coming up on Monday, February 13th. If you are planning on coming to school to visit on Monday, please click on the RSVP link so we can have a good idea of how many folks to expect. Most importantly, if you are staying for lunch that day, please RSVP so we can be sure to have enough food for everyone (lunch is provided for adults only).
NAAPID RSVP

Tomorrow evening, (Wednesday February 8th) there is a PTO meeting in the Media Center. The meeting begins at 7:00 and will last one hour. This is an informational meeting, so if you’ve not been to a PTO meeting before, this would be a great opportunity! I attached the agenda to today's email. As always, childcare will be available.

Attached to today's email is a flyer outlining our Student Council’s efforts to provide gift cards to veterans at our local VA Hospital. Please check out the flyer to learn about this great community service opportunity.

David

Weekly Blog 2/1/12

Dear Wines Families,

 

Attached to today’s email you will find the Wines Times. Please spend a few minutes reading through it. In addition, I have just a couple of announcements.

 

First, your child will be coming home today with a paper invitation to our NAAPID celebration on February 13^th. I hope to see all Wines families, spend at least part of your day at school on the 13^th. I will be sending out an electronic RSVP within the next few days. Like last year, we will be serving lunch to parents. We want to make sure we order enough food, so if you are staying for lunch, please make sure you respond to the RSVP.

 

Kindergarten Round Up is tonight at 6:30.

 

Show Your Support for Lunches with Love. Shop at the PTO Thrift Shop through THIS SATURDAY (February 4) to help Wines earn money for Lunches with Love. Spend $5 and earn a token to put in the Wines jar.

 

Girls on the Run Update:

We have had a great showing for Girls on the Run at Wines this year so far!  We filled a first, and opened a second team.  This is a reminder that this is the last week for routine registration, though there will be "late" registration through Feb 11.  Please note:  due to the participation of Ann Arbor Rec and Ed there was a duplicate registration process this year - meaning each participant is required to register through both Ann Arbor Rec and Ed AND Girls on the Run of Southeastern Michigan.  Please make sure if you registered only through AA Rec and Ed to also register with Girls on the Run - as this is the official roster.   Registration is at www.girlsontherunsemi.org  If there are questions, please email Holly at holly.a.murphy@gmail.com or call Girls on the Run at 734 712 1049.

 

 

David

Weekly Blog 1/25

Dear Wines Families,

This is certainly a busy time of year and so I have lots of announcements today! Pardon the long email.

• Reminder: There is no school on Tuesday, January 31^st. All Ann Arbor Public Schools staff will be participating in staff development that day.

• Kindergarten Round Up is next Wednesday, February 1^st at 6:30 PM. If you have a child who will be 5 years old by Dec. 1, 2011 and is ready for kindergarten, please join us that evening with your child. Please help spread the word to your friends and neighbors.

• Our Great Ideas grant deadline is quickly approaching. We are accepting applications until February 1^st. Don’t let a great idea go to waste!! There are adult and student grant forms available on the Wines website (www.wines.a2schools.org) and hard copies are available in the office.

• Girls on the Run: Registration is now open for Girls on the Run.  In order to register, go to http://www.girlsontherunsemi.org/. For any questions, please email Holly Murphy at holly.a.murphy@gmail.com.

• Our next PTO meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 8^th at 7:00 PM.

• Science Olympiad registrations are due TODAY. Teams will not be formed until after Friday so we will accept late applications until Friday.

• Wines is participating in a fundraiser with the PTO Thrift Shop, called Show Your Support. Please help us spread the word so people shop at the Thrift Shop between Sunday, January 29 - Saturday, February 4.

How it works:

For every $5 people spend at the Thrift Shop, they get a token. They can choose to put their tokens in any of 4 schools' buckets in the lobby. The four schools split $1,000 based on their proportion of collected tokens. 

Our cause for this fundraiser:

Lunches with Love - students make lunches for needy families. Proceeds will help buy food and supplies.

For more information about the PTO Thrift Shop, visit www.a2ptothriftshop.org.

• Finally, attached to today's emails you will find a flyer from our Student Council. Our Student Council is collecting gift cards for veterans at our local VA Hospital. The flyer has all the information you need to support this great cause.

Sincerely,

David