Weekly Blog 9/26

Dear Wines Families,
Sorry my blog post is a day late this week.

Attached to yesterday's email was the latest edition of the Wines Times Newsletter. There is a lot of information in there, so please have a look. September is the only month with two newsletters going home. The rest of the year, please expect a monthly Wines Times.

I have a couple of other quick announcements in addition to what is in the Wines Times.

Run-a-Thon
We need your help for this year's Wines Run-a-Thon.  Please sign up for a volunteer position here or contact Jennifer Hall at a2halls@gmail.com.  Many thanks! An informational flyer about the Run-a-Thon and the many events leading up to the Run-a-Thon was attached to yesterday's email.

PTO Volunteers Still Needed
If you have not had a chance to sign up to volunteer at one (or more!) of our many events, sign up sheets have been put out near the Kindergarten doors inside next to Shanna Middleton’s classroom. In addition, we are looking for chairpersons for a few events. Please stop by the Kindergarten area to sign up. You can also contact Nicole Brittis at nicolebrittis@hotmail.com if you have any questions or would like to sign up.

Skyline's Homecoming is this Week!
Please join us for Skyline's Homecoming Parade this Friday, September 27 at 5:30 PM!

Also, join the Skyline Athletic Booster Club for Homecoming Pre-Game Festivities from 5:00 to 7:00. We will have Satchel's BBQ sandwich meals, blue cotton candy, Washtenaw Dairy blue ice cream and popcorn for sale before, during, and immediately after the Parade that starts at 5:30. Then stay to cheer on the Skyline Varsity football team as we play our cross-town rivals Pioneer! Wear Skyline blue!

Hope to see you Friday night.  Go Eagles!!


That’s it for this week. Be sure to have a look at the Wines Times.

David

Weekly Blog 9/18

Dear Wines Families,

This will be a fairly lengthy post today. But that is good news because it means there are a lot of great things happening at Wines!

Final Call for ThinkStretch Books
If your child has not turned in his or her ThinkStretch workbook, there is still time! We will be passing out medals on Friday. As a reminder, every child who completes any part of the workbook will receive a medal. If you have a book lying around your house, have your child bring it to their teacher by Friday.

Show Your Support
I want to remind everyone of the Show Your Support fundraiser happening at the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop this week: Please shop at the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop this week (through Saturday 9/21) to earn money for Wines and Lunches with Love. For every $5 you spend, you'll earn a token that you can put in a jar for Wines. Wines and the 3 other schools will split $1000, based on the proportion of tokens in their jars. The money we earn will go toward the Lunches with Love program, which provides lunches to needy families. The PTO Thrift Shop is located at 2280 S Industrial Hwy.

Run-a-Thon Oct. 11th
The Run-a-Thon is coming up on October 11th. This is one of the most exciting days of the year here at school and it is also one of our two large fundraisers. Attached to today’s email is a flyer with information about the Run-a-Thon. If you have any questions, please contact Frances Carlson at fslcarlson@me.com or Liz Marek at ajkeam@aol.com. More information will be coming home over the next couple of weeks.

Wines Speech Team
As I mentioned last week, we have a new club for students to join: the Wines Speech Team. If your 4th or 5th grade child loves to argue and perform, or would just like to improve their confidence, speaking and thinking abilities, this is the club for them. It's like track and field for the brain. All students love the Team Debate and Improvisation events, but a brave few also compete in literary performance events like Original Prose & Poetry. Here's how Improv works: Imagine you and a partner are given a topic and have only a few minutes to plan out a funny skit on that topic. The topic could be something like "How do you manage bossy parents? Go!" It sounds hard, but it's actually quite fun, and kids even do it better than professionals a lot of the time. This is a fun competitive activity with the side benefits of challenging kids’ intellectually and reducing their fear of public speaking for the rest of their lives. The club will meet on Wednesdays after school 3:45-5:15pm in room 100. Contact Shawn Batt at (517) 281-8521  shawnbatt@gmail.com to sign up and/or volunteer to help out.

Cub Scout Round Up
The annual Wines Cub Scout Round Up is next Wednesday, September 25th at 7:00 here at Wines. Scouting is available to boys in grades 1-5. If you are interested in learning more about our scout troops, please come to the round up. An informational flyer is attached to today's email with contact information for the scout leaders.

Back to School Paperwork
One final reminder about the back to school paperwork that was sent home the first week of school. If you are like me, you may still have a small pile of papers sitting on a countertop. If everyone could please make sure everything that needs to come back to school comes back, we would really appreciate it!

Finally, I want to let everyone know that both Robin and I will be out of the building on Friday afternoon. We have the office covered by a very competent person. However, if we could please limit the amount of last minute changes to kids’ schedules, it will help us out a great deal. Thanks!

David

Weekly Blog 9/11

Dear Wines Families,

It was great seeing everyone at Curriculum Night last night. If you were not able to come or you forgot to sign up for a Parent/Teacher conference, please contact your child’s teacher to set up a date.

I want to remind everyone that a red take home folder was sent home with each child last Friday with all the important back to school information. Many of the forms need to be brought back to school. Please try to do that ASAP. If for some reason you did not receive a folder, please let the office know and we will get the information to you.

ThinkStretch summer workbooks are due on Friday. Please have your child turn the workbook in to his or her teacher. Medals will be going home for all participants next week.

I want to highlight a new club at Wines. This year we will have an after school Speech Debate Team. Participation in speech and debate is a great way to improve students' confidence and hone their creative and academic abilities. We are starting up a team here at Wines and are looking for parents and/or staff to help out. The team is for 5th graders and patient 4th graders. It will meet Wednesdays 3:45-5:15pm in Room 100 starting September 25, and there are 4-6 Saturday tournaments during the year where students can compete in team debate and several performance events (improv, prose & poetry, oral interpretation). Please contact Shawn Batt if you are interested in helping or if you know of students who would like to participate (shawnbatt@gmail.com  | 517-281-8521)

That’s all for today!

David

Weekly Blog 9/4

Dear Wines Families,

What a great start to the new school year! These first two days have been better than we could have even expected and we are not only up and running, we are in “midseason form”.

For our new families at Wines, welcome to Wines and welcome to my weekly blog post. Please look for a weekly “Wednesday Email” from me all year and this weekly blog. The information in the blog is the same as in the Wednesday Email—minus attachments. Some weeks there is a lot of information to include, and other weeks there is less. I will try to limit the emails to one a week, though often there are important other announcements that need to go out at a different time. This week, for instance, you will receive an email from me on Friday with our September edition of the Wines Times newsletter.

Looking ahead, please mark your calendars for next Tuesday, September 10th for Curriculum Night. Curriculum Night is will take place from 6:30-8:00 PM. At 6:30, parents are invited to your child’s classroom for a teacher presentation. At 7:00 PM I will be speaking to our community in the Multi-Purpose Room. At 7:30, teachers will present a second time in order to meet the needs of families with more than one child at Wines or for families that could not make the 6:30 session. Please note that Curriculum Night is for adults and, unfortunately, we will not have childcare available.

On Friday, your child will receive a red folder with all of the beginning of the year paperwork. Please take some time this weekend to go through the packet and return any necessary documents next week.

We had a tremendous amount of participation in our summer learning ThinkStretch program. Please note that ThinkStretch booklets are due next Friday, September 13th. Your child can turn in the booklet at any time to their classroom teacher.

Attached to today’s email was a form looking for volunteers in the Media Center. This is a great place for parents to volunteer and there are opportunities daily!

That’s it for now!

David

Welcome Back to the 2013-2014 School Year!!

Dear Wines Families,
We are getting closer to being back together.
I've had a number of inquiries asking if we will have our annual Popsicles with the Principal where students meet their new teacher. The answer to this is yes! We will actually have two different events this year. First, we will invite our Kindergarten students and families to Wines next Tuesday, August 27th at 6:00 PM. Students will meet their teacher, visit their classrooms, and have a popsicle. The following day, Wednesday August 28th at 3:00 PM, we will invite grades 1-5 to school for a similar event. The only difference is that on Wednesday afternoon, the inside of the building will not be open.

Powerschool, our computer enrollment system is connected to my Schoolmessenger email system. Powerschool has been down for maintenance until last Friday. Therefore, I am still using our "old" list of students for my mass emails. As soon as we are all updated, I will send out more information about next week's events. In the meantime, I know that not all of our families are receiving this message (particularly families who have recently registered). So, please help spread the word to your friends and neighbors about next week!

Thanks!

David

Final Blog for 2012-2013 School Year

Dear Wines Families,

It is hard to believe this is the last Weekly Blog of the year. It has been a wonderful year and while I look forward to a small bit of down time, I will miss seeing all of your children each day. This last email has a few important announcements.

Half-Day Friday
I want to remind everyone that Friday is a half-day of school with students being dismissed at 11:45 AM.

Medication Pick-Up
As you make plans for the end of your child's school year, please stop by the office to pick up any medications your child has kept at school this year. Medications may only be released to parents for pick up. If you anticipate needing medication at school next year, you may want to pick up a form from the office to have completed by your child's physician over the summer.

Country Fair Donation Acknowledgements
Thanks to the generous donations from the Wines community the Country Fair Raffle and Silent Auction were a huge success. Many of you donated time, money, and prizes. For those who donated cash or prizes directly to the raffle or silent auction the committee will be sending acknowledgement letters next week. If you do not receive an acknowledgement or if you donated to the class basket collections and would like to receive an acknowledgement for tax purposes please message winesptotreasurer@gmail.com.

From the Principal for the Day
Today Lewis McCammon is serving as Principal for the Day after winning the opportunity at the Raffle last week. As part of his tasks today, he has a message for the Weekly Blog. Here goes:

School is coming to an end. I hope we see you next year. Good luck fifth graders at your new school. Tell your kids to do their Think Stretch just a little every day. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING DURING THE SUMMER IS TO HAVE FUN!!!


Have a great summer.

David (and Lewis)

Weekly Blog 5/24

Dear Wines Families,
For those of you who frequently check this blog, I apologize that this information is a couple of days late!


Believe it or not, next week is “Country Fair and Raffle Week” with our annual year-end celebration taking place next Friday, May 31st from 6:00-8:30 (rain or shine--but we know it will be a shiny day!). Today’s message will be devoted entirely to important information about the Country Fair and Raffle. Please take a moment and read through this important information.

Ticket Sales

• Online Fair, Raffle, and food ticket sales are now available through May 26th at  winespto.org/raffle/tickets.php

• Ticket Pre-sales will also take place before and after school Tuesday through Friday of next week (May 28th -31st) at the Wines front doors. Of course, tickets will also be available the night of the Fair. Cash or Check only.

The Raffle and Silent Auction Book is Here!!!!

On Friday of this week your child will be coming home with the famous Raffle and Silent Auction Book with descriptions of all of the Raffle and Silent Auction items. I’ve had a chance to preview the book and there is certainly something for everyone this year! I also emailed everyone a PDF version of the book earlier this week.

Volunteers Still Needed

A big thanks to everyone who has already signed up! However, there are still lots of important opportunities for volunteers. We need your help to make the Fair a success! Below are links to volunteer spots by grade level.


http://vols.pt/Auf5HG
Kindergarten link

http://vols.pt/QPe4rn
1st grade link

http://vols.pt/rFFGSj
2nd grade link

http://vols.pt/zxmjG2
3rd grade link

http://vols.pt/PoV2VC
4th grade link

http://vols.pt/9Y4u1j
5th grade link

Contact Erin Telemaco 5telemaco@comcast.net if you have any questions or problems with the links.

Classroom Raffle Baskets

Classroom Raffle Basket items are due today. If you would like to donate an item you may send it in with your child. Each classroom has a collection box. The raffle committee will organize the items into baskets of goodies to be raffled off at the Country Fair on May 31. Grade level themes for baskets are:

      Kindergarten- Arts & Crafts

      1st Grade- Lego's

      2nd Grade- More Lego's

      3rd Grade- Camping, Swimming & Outdoor Fun

      4th Grade- Sports & Outdoor Fun

      5th Grade- It's A High Tech World

Thank you for your support. If you have any questions contact:

Stephanie Gensheimer- tsgensheimer@att.net

Linda Peppin- qpep@comcast.net


Thanks and enjoy a great Memorial Day Weekend!



David