Weekly Blog 2/26

Dear Wines Families.

I think I covered all the important messages with my email earlier this week. Just a reminder that Kindergarten Round Up is tonight at 6:30 and Friday morning floor hockey will continue this Friday starting at 8:00 AM.

The Wines Times is a large file this week so again I'll include the link rather than the attachment. Click below to open this month's newsletter.

February Wines Times

Thanks!

David

Weekly Blog 2/12

Dear Wines Families,

If we are lucky, we’ll have another full week of school this week. Of course, next week we are off for Mid-Winter Break…

I want to start by thanking everyone who was able to attend our Parent Involvement Day on Monday. We had over 260 parents sign in during the day! While having 260 parents in the building is by no means a “typical” day, I hope you were able to gain a good understanding of what life is like at Wines each day. We were thrilled to have such great parent participation! Here are the rest of this week’s announcements:

Kindergarten Round Up

Again, I want to remind everyone that our Kindergarten Round Up has been rescheduled for Wednesday, February 26^th at 6:30 PM. This is for parents AND incoming kindergarten children.

Preschool/Young 5’s

Speaking of next year for our youngest kids, our school district is excited to announce an expansion of our Young 5’s program and our tuition preschool. The Young 5’s program will take place at Abbot, Bryant, and Dicken Elementary Schools. Bryant and Dicken will be full day classes and Abbot will have full day and half day options. Eligibility for Young 5’s is determined by birth date (students must turn five between May 1 and October 1, 2014 or by December 1 with kindergarten waiver). Enrollment in Young Fives is conducted via special "Young Fives" application window, open from Feb 3 to March 7. Forms for application, instructions, and information brochure were attached to today's email. Completed applications must be returned to the Balas Administration Building. A lottery will be conducted if demand exceeds space.

For preschool aged students, AAPS is offering full day and half day M-TH programs at Allen Elementary and Thurston Elementary. Families can opt for an additional Friday program with a STEAM focus. The Preschools will offer childcare before and after school.  Hours are as follows:

Full day:  8:30 - 3:30

Half day am: 8:30 - 11:30

Half day pm:  12:30 - 3:30

Eligible families may qualify for free preschool.  

Weekly tours on Thursdays from 1:30 - 2:30 are available at both schools and monthly open houses are posted on the website (www.annaborpreschool.com). Information was attached today as well.

SIT Meeting

Reminder: we will have a School Improvement Team meeting on Wednesday, February 26^th at 4:00PM. Any interested parent is invited to attend. If you need childcare for that afternoon, please let me know.

Disability Awareness Workshop

On Thursday, March 20, 2014, Wines 4^th grade students will again participate in the Disability Awareness Workshop. This hands-on, activity-based workshop helps students understand how challenging and complex daily life can be for individuals living with a variety of disabilities. The goal is for students to experience –through this hands-on event—that each of us should be respected and included in daily community life no matter how we may look, act, walk or talk.  Please consider volunteering to help with this workshop. You do not need to have a 4^th grade student to volunteer! For more information and to sign up contact Jessi Averill at jessi.averill@gmail.com or 267-495-6208.

That’s all for this week. Have a nice week away from school and hopefully we’ll return to spring weather. We can hope at least…

David

Weekly Blog 2/5

Dear Wines Families,

Sorry for the lateness of today's blog entry. With the snow and cancellations, my afternoon sort of got away from me! I hope everyone who has incoming kindergarten students received the notice that our Round Up tonight has been cancelled. We will have a new date posted within the next couple of days. 

Below is all the news for this week!

Parent Involvement Day Reminders

As I hope everyone knows, our annual Parent Involvement Day is next Monday, February 10^th. We hope parents can make it to Wines for some part of the day. To help make the day go as planned, I have a couple of important reminders.

RSVP: If you are planning on attending Parent Involvement Day, please click HERE to RSVP. Most importantly, if you are staying for lunch, please be sure to RSVP so we can have an accurate count. We will be putting in our lunch order Thursday afternoon so please RSVP right away if you haven’t already.

Lunch: We will have pizza, salad, and garlic knots from NYPD Pizza for adult guests. Lunch will take place during the regular student lunch. To help with crowding, we will open up space in the media center for parents to eat and we will bring some tables and chairs into the gymnasium as well.

Drinks: To be good stewards of the environment, we will not be providing bottled water on Monday. We will have our water tank available and cups. Of course, plastic cups aren’t much better than plastic bottles! If you have your own water bottle, please bring it on Monday or bring any other beverage of your choice.

Snacks: Our staff will provide snacks available all day long in the teachers’ lounge. Stop by at any time to enjoy!

Assembly: At 1:30 we will have an all school assembly with a slide show. There will be very little seating for parents, but lots of standing room only seats!

Parking: There will be VERY limited parking available. Please plan ahead and park legally in the neighborhoods around our school. Please walk if you live close enough.

Pictures: Be sure to have your picture taken with your child!

Girls on the Run-Spring 2014

Girls in grades 3-5 are invited to register for Girls on the Run through February 10. Our Wines site is full, but we are seeking two more volunteer coaches so that we can accommodate every girl who would like to participate. Training for coaches is provided, and registration fees for daughters of coaches are waived by GOTR. Please contact Suzanne Admiraal at admiraal@umich.edu or 734-327-0695 for more information. If you want to add your daughter to the waitlist, please follow the registration instructions on the GOTR website (http://www.girlsontherunsemi.org/). The Wines team will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school until 5:15, beginning on March 11.

Wacky Fridays in February and March

Our student council will be organizing Wacky Friday’s for school spirit during February and March. The dates are as follows:

FRIDAY 2/7: INSIDE-OUT / BACKWARDS DAY

FRIDAY 2/14: PJ DAY

FRIDAY 2/28: FASHION DISASTER DAY

FRIDAY 3/7: FAVORITE BOOK CHARACTER DAY

FRIDAY 3/21: HAWAIIAN CLOTHING DAY

Floor Hockey Fridays

Our second week of Friday Floor Hockey was another success. We had just under 40 students participate allowing us to have a very workable rotation. So, we will continue to allow anyone who is interested to play! We start at 8:00 every Friday and parents are more than welcome to join us for the game!

Be safe and enjoy the snow!

David

Weekly Blog 1/29

Dear Wines Families,

It may be cold, but I’m certainly happy that we are in school today! Below is a link to the January Wines Times newsletter. Please have a look!

http://winespto.org/docs/wtJan-2014.pdf

Since we have the Wines Times this week, I’ll try to keep my announcements brief. However, there are a couple of important items that are not in the newsletter.

International Night

International Night is this Friday from 6:00 to 8. Please see my email from Monday for volunteer opportunities. I hope to see you there!

Parent Involvement Day

In today’s Wednesday Folder you will receive a paper invitation to our annual Parent Involvement Day on Monday, February 10^th. Our staff looks forward to hosting our families that day. Please feel free to stay for the whole day or whatever part of your day you can spare. Below is a link to an RSVP for Parent Involvement Day. If you are planning on attending, please let us know with the RSVP. We will provide lunch to adult guests. If you are planning on staying for lunch, please be sure to RSVP so we can have a fairly accurate count.

Parent Involvement Day RSVP

Disability Awareness Workshop

On Thursday, March 20, 2014, Wines 4^th grade students will again participate in the Disability Awareness Workshop.  This hands-on, activity-based workshop helps students understand how challenging and complex daily life can be for individuals living with a variety of disabilities.  The goal is for students to experience—through this hands-on event –that each of us should be respected and included in daily community life no matter how we may look, act, walk or talk.  Please consider volunteering to help with this workshop.  For more information and to sign up contact Jessi Averill at jessi.averill@gmail.com or 267-495-6208.

Floor Hockey Friday

Our second Friday Floor Hockey will take place starting at 8:00 AM this Friday. All kids and parents are welcome! We will see how many folks show up this week and if we again have a large group, we will start a rotation or sign up for subsequent weeks. And a quick note from Mr. Mosher about floor hockey: “If parents want to come great. BUT THEY HAVE TO PLAY!”

Listen and Learn Follow Up

Finally, just a reminder that tomorrow evening, Thursday, Dr. Swift will be at Forsythe Middle School to hold a follow up discussion about her Listen and Learn tour of all AAPS schools and other meetings. The meeting starts at 6:30. If you can’t make it, there are meetings at other middle schools next week. More information can be found in the Wines Times.

Stay warm!

David

Weekly Blog 1/22

Dear Wines Families,

I hope you are staying warm today. Looks like winter is here to stay for a while. Although on days like today, we do not send students outside for recess, it is important to note that we do have outdoor recess daily if the temperature or wind chill is 0 degrees or above. So please be sure kids are sent to school with appropriate clothing. Students cannot be held out of recess unless we have a doctor’s orders.

I have lots of information this week.

•Newport Public Meeting

Tonight at 7:00 there is a public meeting at Forsythe regarding the proposed sidewalk construction from Wines to Riverwood.

No School Tuesday, January 28^th

This is a professional development day for our staff.

Kindergarten Round Up Feb 5^th

If you have a child who will be eligible for kindergarten next year or if you have friends or neighbors with kindergarten aged children, please come to Round Up (with children) on February 5^th at 6:30 PM.

Parent Involvement Day Feb. 10^th

We will be sending home formal invitations next week along with an electronic RSVP. We hope every parent can spend at least a portion of your day at Wines on February 10^th.

Floor Hockey Success!

Our first Friday morning floor hockey game was a tremendous success last week. We had nearly 60 students and many parents show up. Having so many participants is wonderful, but left us with a small problem (but a good one): too many kids! We will host floor hockey again this week and everyone is again invited to play—parents too. If we continue to have such a positive response, we will likely work out a rotating schedule with certain grades/classrooms taking turns each week. I will keep you posted. If your child is interested in playing, please come this Friday!

Coaches Needed for Science Olympiad

Again this year, we will have a full Science Olympiad team here at Wines. As always, to have a successful experience, we need coaches and we are still in need of a few coaches. Below is a list of events that still need coaches. If you can coach one of these teams, please contact Rhonda McCammon at rmccamm@umich.edu or David Creen at David.creen@benefitfocus.com.

Barge Building (2nd grade only)
Feathered Friends (all grades)
To Infinity and Beyond (all grades)
On Target (all grades)
Reflections (4th and 5th grades)
Straw Towers (3rd, 4th and 5th grades)
What Went By (2nd and 3rd)
Write It/Build It (4th and 5th grades)

International Night

International Night is Friday, January 31^st from 6:00-8:00 pm. It isn’t too late to sign up to participate! Fill out the sign up form attached to today's email and turn it in to the office. We are also in need of volunteers to run the evening—please go to http://vols.pt/SAa9id to sign up. For questions, please contact Annemarie Dolan mailto:akilburndolan@comcast.net) or Shireen Syed (shisy786@yahoo.com).

Great Ideas Grants

Do you or your child have a GREAT IDEA?  The deadline for the Wines Great Idea Grants program is fast approaching!  Please submit your GREAT IDEA to Sarah Ball (sjcball@yahoo.com) by February 1.  Blank applications are located in the office or you can download one from the Wines website.

Girls on the Run

Registration for Girls on the Run at Wines is open for girls in grades 3-5 from now until February 10. The Girls on the Run curriculum based program is MUCH more than a running program. Learn more at the GOTR website (http://www.girlsontherunsemi.org/) or by contacting Suzanne Admiraal (admiraal@umich.edu or (734) 327-0695). The spring season runs from March 11 until May 22, and the Wines team will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school until 5:15 PM. Come join the fun! 

Technology Committee

Interested in working with our PTO on improving technology at Wines?  The Wines Technology Committee will hold its first meeting Monday, January 27 at 4:00 in the Media Center.  Please join us!

That’s it for this week!

David

Weekly Blog 1/15

Dear Wines Families,

Now that we are finally back with a full week of school, there is a lot of information to share this week. Mainly I want to share a number of important dates coming up over the next few days and weeks.

Tomorrow, 4:00 PM
Art Night Committee Meeting
Art Night is April 25. If you are interested in helping with this fun event, join us at the Art Night Committee meeting on Thursday, January 16th, at 4:00 in the Art Room. Come by and enjoy a cup of tea while we lay out the game plan. If you have questions, please contact our co-chairs Margaret Compton bagladycompton@yahoo.com or Linda Peppin qpep@comcast.net.

Friday, 1:15 PM
Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly
All students will be performing. Parents are welcome to attend. Please note that this is an all school assembly so there will be very limited seating for parents.

Monday, January 20th
No school—Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

Wednesday, Jan. 22nd 
Newport Public Meeting
It appears that the long awaited sidewalk from Wines to Riverwood is becoming a reality. There is a public meeting about the proposed project next Wednesday at Forsythe Middle School at 7:00 PM. For more information please visit: http://www.a2gov.org/government/publicservices/project_management/Pages/newport.aspx

Tuesday, Jan. 28th
No school—Professional Development Day

Thursday, Jan. 30th 6:30 PM
“Listen and Learn” feedback meeting at Forsythe Middle School 
Our Superintendent, Dr. Jeanice Swift, has finished facilitating nearly 90 public meetings this fall. At the feedback meeting, Dr. Swift will be sharing the findings from these meetings. I encourage our community to attend.

Jan. 31st
International Night. (Please note that this is a date change)
The original date was January 30th, but we did not want to conflict with Dr. Swift’s meeting at Forsythe. There is a paper form coming home today in the Wednesday Folder. That form has the former date on it. We need volunteers for International Night. If you are able to help, please visit http://vols.pt/SAa9id. If you have any questions, please contact Annemarie Dolan akilburndolan@comcast.net or Shireen Syed shisy786@yahoo.com.

Feb. 5th 
Kindergarten Round Up
If you have a child who will be 5 by October 1, 2014 please bring your child to Round Up at 6:30 on February 5th. If you have friends and neighbors who have children eligible for kindergarten, please help us get the word out to families.

Feb. 10th
Parent Involvement Day
We hope you can find time to spend some or all of your day with your child here at Wines. A formal invitation will be coming home very soon.

Finally, just another reminder about the parking lot. I’ve had a number of parents come to me recently with significant concerns recently about folks in the lot engaging in dangerous behavior. Please use extreme caution at pick up and drop off, as there are lots of cars and kids walking. The Cooley lot should only be used by Kindergarten families and siblings. Do not drop kids off and allow them to cross the parking lot. Kids need to be dropped at the sidewalk or accompanied by an adult if crossing. If you are at either the front lot or the Cooley lot, be sure to remain in your car and pull forward as far as possible. Nearly everyone does a perfect job. However, it only takes one mistake for something regrettable to happen.

Please also remember that our first bell rings at 8:45 and school officially starts at 8:48. Please make sure you are doing everything you can to have your children arrive to school on time. Also, school is dismissed at 3:45. Please be in the pick up line no later than 3:50. We have far too many students waiting for their rides at the end of the day. At 4:00 we will begin placing children in childcare and you will be charged the drop in fee.

David

Weekly Blog 1/10

Hello Wines Families,

Now that we are back in the swing of things, I have a couple of announcements as we head into the weekend. First, due to the snow days, the hot lunch menu has been revised for the month of January. I attached the menu to today's email. You can also find it at http://www.a2schools.org/aaps/foodsvcs.menus/elementary_

We are finalizing the Science Olympiad rosters right now. If you have not registered your child, Monday is the absolute last day to sign up. You can register online at http://winespto.org/ScienceOlympiad/index.html or turn your form in to the office. If you have questions, please contact David Creen at David.creen@benefitfocus.com or Rhonda McCammon at rmccamm@umich.edu.

Below is a message from the Skyline Athletic Booster Club. Have a great weekend.

David

Tickets are now available for the 2014 Skyline Athletic Booster Club's Winter Gala on Saturday, February 1, 2014 at Barton Hills Country Club.  This fabulous, adult only, evening includes a seated dinner, dancing, silent auction, games with fabulous prizes and a chance to spend some quality time with coaches, teachers, administrators and other Skyline parents. It is an evening you don’t want to miss!!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

6:30 PM

Barton Hills Country Club

730 Country Club Road, Ann Arbor

Tickets are $50 per person and are now available to purchase online. Seated dinner included, with cash bar available.  Purchase your tickets early because after January 15, prices increase to $55 per person. Simply go to: 

http://webstores.activenetwork.com/school-software/skyline_hs_athletic/index.php?l=product_detail&p=330#.UrBGCdiA3IU

We are also looking for items and services to be included in our silent auction.  If you have something you would like to donate, please contact Susan Allison at susanallison1231@att.net