Weekly Blog 10/1

Dear Wines Families,

Today's blog contains a link to our first Wines Times newsletter of the year. Since there is LOTS of important information for families in the newsletter, I'll keep my announcements brief. You can find the Wines Times online at: http://winespto.org/docs/wtOct2014.pdf

I have just one other reminder about Walktober.

Walktober is Here!

Now that it is October, we will celebrate our annual Walktober here at Wines. Each Friday this month (as well as next Wednesday which is International Walk to School Day) we will encourage our community to leave the cars in the driveway and walk to school. Even our bus riders and our morning care students will be able to participate. Our busses will drop riders off at the south parking lot of Forsythe on walk to school days and I will walk our morning care students to Forsythe to greet them and we’ll all walk the rest of the way to Forsythe together. An informational flyer is attached to today’s email. I hope to see you all walking Friday!

Thanks, and please spend a few minutes reading through the Wines Times.

David

Weekly Blog 9/24

Dear Wines Families,

I hope this message finds you well today. I have a few important announcements this week.

Important information from the Office

We are finalizing all of our paperwork in our system this week. If you have not turned in your opening week paperwork please do so ASAP (items include the green emergency card, Google Apps permission, and other items sent home the first week of school). If you need another copy of anything, please let us know.

Please, if you are visiting the school for any reason, you must sign in to the front office. Our computer system has finally officially crashed (we’ve been waiting for that for a couple years), so we have the old fashioned sign in located at the computer station. I realize that many parents are frequent visitors to our school and are known by our entire staff. We need you folks to set the example for everyone else! This is a critical safety issue and we appreciate your help.

Picture Day Next Week

Our annual Picture Day is next Tuesday. Picture forms were sent home last week. You can also order your pictures online. Go to order.inter-state.com and use the Wines access code 735833. Please note, on the order form and online, there is a package 11, which is just a yearbook. ALL WINES STUDENT RECEIVE A YEARBOOK WHETHER YOU ORDER A PICTURE PACKAGE OR NOT. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE PACKAGE 11. All students will have their picture taken and be included in the yearbook even if you don't order a package.

Adult Run-a-Thon Registration

Just a reminder that adults can participate in this year’s Run-a-Thon and receive a t-shirt. Registration ends on Sunday. Go to the link below to register.    https://ugpogo.undergroundshirts.com/groupIndex.php?cart_id=3832

Walktober Starts Next Week!

Our annual celebration of Walktober begins next week. Every Friday during the month of October as well as on International Walk to School Day (Wed. Oct. 8) we encourage all Wines students to walk to school. If your child rides a bus to school, busses will drop students off at south Forsythe parking lot and I will be picking up our morning care students and walking a loop to Forsythe to pick up the bus riders. So everyone can participate in this great Wines tradition! So plan on walking beginning next Friday.

BYOT Permission Forms

We hope to collect all of our BYOT permission forms this week so we can begin to slowly roll out BYOT in our classrooms. As I’ve indicated a few times, the roll out will be deliberately slow so please watch for classroom emails or newsletters with specifics on if/when devices will be allowed in your child’s classroom. If you need a new form, please let me know.

Fairy Garden and More Art Room News

Let’s build a spectacular Fairy Garden for Wines Elementary!  Enhancing community bonds while we’re at it! Among the trees near the Butterfly Garden, Ms. Hendrick and the Fairy Garden Committee have devised a way to attract fairies, gnomes, dwarves, and other magnificent creatures known to be kind to children to this beautiful space.

All families are welcome to join our effort to create an atmosphere of fun, whimsical, outdoor play in our very own schoolyard. Please sign-up for gardening sessions, plants and other donations, natural building material collection, and much more fun:   

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/9040B49ABA92BA02-fairy 

We’ll have many opportunities to join in!  Phase One is underway this fall. Phase Two continues in the spring, and beyond! For more information, please contact Jill Anthony Stephenson jamastep@gmail.com and Patricia Ferrer Beals pferrer@umich.edu>.

Ms. Hendrick’s Art Room News was also attached to today’s email.

That’s all for this week.

David

Weekly Blog 9/17

Dear Wines Families,

The school year continues to be plugging along nicely and we are all certainly into our routines. I have a number of announcements this week.

Run-a-Thon is Coming!!

Our annual Run-a-Thon is quickly approaching. This wonderful event for our entire community takes place during the morning of Friday, October 10. Every student at Wines participates and we hope every student also helps solicit pledges for their participation, as the Run-a-Thon is one of our two major fundraisers of the year. Much more information will be coming home soon.

There are still sponsorship opportunities available for the Run-a-Thon. If you own or work for a local business and would like to be a sponsor, an informational flyer was attached to today's email. You can also contact our Run-a-Thon chairperson, Molly Bazzani at mollybazzani@hotmail.com.

Parents, do you want to run with your child? Do you want a Run-a-Thon t-shirt? We have added a parent participation component to the run this year. Parents will be able to order a t-shirt in advance and run with their children during the Run-a-Thon. A separate parent sign up will be sent out soon. $15 is the cost for the parent run and t-shirt. As soon as we have the online sign up, I will send out the link. At that time I will also have a schedule of when each classroom is running.

Art Room News and Volunteer Opportunities

Attached to today's email you will find Mrs. Hendrick’s Art Room Newsletter and volunteer request. Jancie is always looking for volunteers in her room (you need not be an artist!). In addition, Janice has some exciting changes in store for this year’s annual Art Night and we need lots of help to make it a success. Please have a look at her newsletter.

Skyline Homecoming Parade and Game this Friday!

The annual parade begins at 5:30. Come see your favorite Skyline teams, floats and homecoming court in the only homecoming parade in town! After the parade have a pregame snack from Satchel's BBQ, Cookie Love cookies and the awesome Kona Ice truck! Free spirit giveaways will be given to all students entering the stadium prior to 7pm kick off! Homecoming Court presentation and the awesome Skyline Marching Band will perform at half time! Come cheer on your Eagles to victory against SEC rival Monroe!

That’s all for this week!

David

Weekly Blog 9/3/2014

Dear Wines Families,

What a great first couple of days! It was so wonderful to see everyone on Tuesday and while the first day of school is never a “normal” day, by the end of the day and certainly into today, there are moments when it seems like we never left.

For new families, this post serves as the first of my weekly blog messages. Since this is the first post of the year, it will be a bit longer than usual! On Wednesdays, your child will also come home with a take home folder with items from class and those items that must go home on paper (though we try to be nearly paperless from the office). In the folder that comes home today, you will see lots of important back to school information. Much of it needs to be returned to school. Please take some time to review today’s folder. One item that is in today’s take home folder is a yellow packet with information about the rollout of Google accounts for all students. This is an exciting district initiative. Please read through the information and return the items that need to be returned. I will be discussing this at some length at Curriculum Night next Tuesday evening. I will also be discussing the Wines rollout of Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) and discussing our newly acquired iPads at Wines. This is an exciting time to be a Wines student and I know there will be many questions. I will try to address all your questions, but please know that there will certainly be a bit of unknown this year.

Welcome Back Picnic

Please join us for our annual PTO Welcome Back Picnic tomorrow evening beginning at 6:30 on the back playground. Please bring a picnic dinner and beverages for your family, a blanket, and if possible, fruit to share (K-2) or dessert (3-5).

Curriculum Night

Our annual Curriculum Night is next Tuesday, September 9^th. Teachers will be presenting in their classrooms from 6:30-7:00. I will welcome our entire community in the Multi-Purpose Room from 7:00-7:30. Teachers will be back in their rooms for a second presentation for those of you with more than one child from 7:30-8:00. We hope to see you there! Please note that Curriculum Night is for parents only. We simply cannot provide childcare at this event.

Run-a-Thon

Our annual Run-a-Thon takes place on Friday, October 10^th. You will be receiving lots of information in the coming days and weeks. This is not only an important fundraiser at Wines, it is also one of the most fun days we have at school for both kids and adults! Do you own or work for a local business that would like to help sponsor Run-a-Thon? Are you interested in being part of the planning committee or volunteer the day of the event? Please contact Molly Bazzani at mollybazzani@hotmail.com.

Library Volunteers

Mrs. Evaldson is in need of volunteers in the Media Center. No need to know the Dewey Decimal System required!! Attached to today’s email was a volunteer sign up form.

ThinkStretch

Our kids have been working hard all summer on their ThinkStretch summer learning packets. These will be due next Friday, September 12th. Attached to today's email was a letter about ThinkStretch from Kerianne Tupac. Please have a read!

David

Welcome Back to Wines!

Dear Wines Families,

I want to welcome everyone to the 2014-2015 school year. I hope you have had a wonderful summer and are enjoying the last few days we have left. Robin and I have been back at Wines for a couple of weeks now and we both are at the point where we are ready to see our school full of kids again. I want to remind everyone of a few things as we move into our last week before school starts.

Kindergarten Meet the Teachers: Tuesday, August 26th from 6-7 PM. 

1st-5th Grade Meet the Teachers: Wednesday, August 27th from 3-4 PM.

Both of these events will take place on the back playground of the school. If you cannot make the Meet the Teacher event, you will receive class placement information via email later that same day and we will also mail the packet of information students receive that day. Parents, please make sure your child picks up his/her envelope at the Meet the Teacher event. The envelope contains my welcome letter and some first day of school information.

Tuesday, September 2nd: First day of school! Our first bell rings at 8:45. Many parents will want to accompany your child into school that morning. We welcome you to do that. If you are coming in that morning, please plan ahead so you have time to find parking, etc. Once the school day starts, please join us for coffee and goodies in the cafeteria.

Thursday, September 4th: Welcome Back Family Picnic 6:30-8:00 PM.

Tuesday, September 9th: Curriculum Night 6:30-8:00 PM.

Much more information will be included in my welcome letter that you will receive next week as well as in your child's school folder that will be sent home during the first week of school. I look forward to seeing everyone. Also, attached to this email is some information about the Future Eagle event happening next week at Skyline.

Finally, below is a video that might describe how you are all feeling as we approach the school year. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s56-Ta35JRk

David

Weekly Blog 6/4

Dear Wines Families,

I will be sending out a Friday email this week containing the final Wines Times newsletter of the year. That will contain lots of end of the year information. I have just a couple of other announcements for today.

• Field Day is this Friday. Grades K-2 begin at 9:15 and grades 3-5 begin at 1:00. Please make sure your children wear appropriate shoes and clothing for outdoor athletic activities. The kids will be outside for approximately two hours so please make sure they are dressed appropriately.

• If your child has medication here at school, please make sure you pick it up by the last day of school. District policy requires us to dispose of any medication left at school over the summer.

That's all for now. Look for the Wines Times on Friday.

David

Weekly Blog 5/14

Dear Wines Families,

As I indicated last week, please expect additional emails over the next couple of weeks as we head into the Country Fair and Raffle on May 30^th. In addition, my weekly emails and blog posts will likely be longer as I will have general messages as well as Country Fair information. At the end of today’s post, you will find lots of Country Fair information and beginning tomorrow you will be receiving grade level specific emails about volunteer opportunities. As we say each year, in order to have a successful Country Fair, we need help from every family!

Severe Weather

Well, the Monday afternoon tornado warning was certainly an “experience”. I want to commend our students and our staff for doing such a great job that day. I also want to express my appreciation to parents for your understanding of my decision not to allow students to leave the building with family during the warning. This is a fairly straightforward safety issue and I appreciate the many parents who waited it out with us and helped facilitate dismissal when it finally ended.

Volunteer Breakfast

You are cordially invited to a breakfast in honor of our incredible parent volunteers next Wednesday, May 21^st at 8:00 AM in the Media Center. Our teachers and staff are anxious to express our sincere appreciation for all that you do for us. Please join us next Wednesday morning!

No Floor Hockey this Week

We will not have Floor Hockey this Friday. Our final floor hockey session for this school year will be next Friday, May 23^rd. We will certainly pick up again with weekly floor hockey next fall!

Photo Permission

As I wrote about last week, our 2^nd-5^th graders recently took part in an exciting series of workshops brought to us by the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. During their stay, the folks from the museum took pictures of kids that they may use in promotional materials. No children’s names will be used in the materials. There are many pictures to choose from so if you wish for the museum NOT to include your child in the materials, please let me know and I will be sure any pictures including your child will not be included.

Student Council Book Drive

Beginning this week, Student Council members are asking the Wines Community to donate used books to help a school in Ghana get their new school up and running. In a partnership with The Philippines Project, Barbara and Godwin Okonkwo are working with Council members to collect and box books for a new school in Ghana. Last year, students collected school supplies for a school in the Philippines coordinated with Virginia Rezmierski and her Philippines Project. This year, Virginia has connected us with the Okonokwo’s. Won't you join us in bringing in any books that will go help to help kids in need?

FRIDAY MAY 30th WINES COUNTRY FAIR, RAFFLE AND AUCTION

Country Fair

This year, families have the opportunity to buy food tickets, wristbands, and raffle tickets in three ways:

*Pre-Order Online with your credit card from May 14-25 at http://winespto.org/raffle/tickets.php . Tickets can be picked up at the Will Call table during advance ticket sales or the night of the fair. We are no longer using Google for online sales, we are using SquareUp.  For online sales we would like to request a minimum purchase of $10.  Please note: tickets will NOT be shipped.  

*Advance Ticket Sales the week of the fair (May 27-30). A table will be located outside the main doors before and after school. (Cash, check, or NEW THIS YEAR credit card.) 

*At the Fair - ticket sales tables will be set up the night of the fair outside of school. (Cash or check only.)

Note: Tickets are NOT available at the school office.

Questions about ticket sales? Contact Christine Hale at chale1084@yahoo.com.

Raffle/Silent Auction

The raffle/silent auction committee is hard at work collecting prizes for the upcoming raffle and silent auction. We hope families will consider making a prize donation. To see our complete wish list click on the link: http://www.winespto.org/ raffle.php.

Some popular items to donate: $1 scratch-off lottery tickets, cotton-candy machine, sno cone machine, books, board games, pillow pets, official minecraft handbooks, Quality 16 movie passes and team regalia. We welcome ALL prizes and really hope you may surprise us with a great prize idea!!

Don't have time to shop? Consider making a monetary donation and we'll do the shopping for you. Just contact us to make arrangements.

Donations may be placed in the bin in the office workspace room now through May 23. Thank you for your support!!

Any questions please contact:

Margaret Compton - bagladycompton@yahoo.com

Kerianne Tupac - kmtupac@umich.edu

Classroom Basket donations are also being collected now through May 23. If you would like to contribute to the classroom baskets you may send in your donation to your child's classroom. The classroom themes are:

K - Arts & Crafts

1 - Legos

2 - The Wonderful World of Science

3 - Camping, Swimming & Outdoor Fun

4 - Sports & Outdoor Fun

5 - It's A High Tech World

Any questions please contact Stephanie Gensheimer at tsgensheimer@att.net.