Weekly Blog 2/25

Dear Wines Parents,

I hope this message finds you well during this cold snap. As I type this, I see that the windchill has gone above zero and we will finally have outdoor recess today!

I just have a couple of announcements today. First, one final reminder that Kindergarten Round Up is tonight. If you have a child who will be eligible for kindergarten next year or if you have friends and neighbors who do, please spread the word. If you (or your neighbors) can't make it tonight, please contact our office so we can get you the information you need.

My Absence Next Week
I want to remind everyone that I will be undergoing shoulder surgery on Friday. I anticipate being out of the building for most or all of next week recovering. Our building leadership team is prepared to ensure that everything goes well next week during my absence.

Art Room News
Our new format of Art Night was a great success!! A huge thank you to Janice Hendrick and her army of volunteers who made the event so special. Attached to today's email was a message from Mrs. Hendrick about Art Night and all things related to the Art Room. Please have a look.

Floor Hockey
I have been asked A LOT lately by both kids and families about when we are going to start Friday morning Floor Hockey again. So let's get started! We will plan on starting hockey at 8:00 AM on Friday, March 13. This year more than ever, I'll need parents to help out each Friday. It does not take much other than to be here a bit before 8:00 to help get the equipment ready and to organize the rotation of players during the game. I will be around as much as possible, but I won't be able to help out with any of the set up due to my shoulder recovery. We will plan on hosting hockey each Friday until later in the spring. If you can commit to any of the Friday's over the next couple of months, please send me an email with which date(s) you are available and I'll put together a schedule of sorts. Please email me directly if you can help out!

There is no school on Monday, March 9.

That's all for now. I'll miss Wines next week.

David

Weekly Blog 2/3

Dear Wines Families,

I hope everyone is warm and not too overly put out by a second snow day. I know it is very challenging for families to coordinate childcare and work schedules on these days. It will be nice to get back to school tomorrow. Since we are off a second day and my schedule tomorrow will be quite full with made up appointments, etc., I figured I would post this week's blog a day early. Next week we have both Parent Involvement Day and Art Night so please read on about both events.

Parent Involvement Day

Our annual Parent Involvement Day is next Monday, February 9^th. We hope you can spend some or all of your day with us. Many teachers have specific times when their activities are best suited for lots of adult visitors. Other teachers have a more open schedule that day. Please refer to any communications from your child’s teacher regarding specifics. As always, we will be serving lunch to adult guests. Thank you to the many parents who have already filled out the lunch RSVP. We are going to finalize our lunch order on Thursday evening this week, so please RSVP by no later than Thursday afternoon. Below is a link to the RSVP.

Parent Involvement Day RSVP

Wines Winter Walk Art Night

Janice Hendrick and her army of parent volunteers are busy putting the finishing touches on Art Night, which takes place next Wednesday evening. The evening highlight is an outdoor walk with luminaries created by every Wines student. Attached to today's email was a flyer regarding the event and as with any large event like this, there is still room for volunteers. Information regarding the evening and volunteering are on the flyer. Please have a look!

Snow Day Hot Lunch Menu Changes

Due to the two snow days, our lunch menu for Wednesday and Thursday has changed. The menu is as follows:

Wednesday: Macaroni & Cheese or Cereal Fun Lunch

Thursday: Chicken Tenders or Triple Dipper Fun Lunch.

Friday we will return to the regular menu with Pizza.

News from the Media Center

I forgot to attach Mrs. Evladson’s Media Center news last week. It was attached to today's email. Please have a read of all the exciting things happening in ILT!

Thanks and we’ll (hopefully) see you all tomorrow.

David

Weekly Blog 1/28

Dear Wines Families,

I mentioned to a parent yesterday who wanted an item included in today’s message that I didn’t have much to share this week. Since that time, a number of items have come up that I’d like to share! So here goes:

International Night is tomorrow Thursday, January 29 from 6:30 until 8:00 pm

The night is shaping up to be a great celebration of the heritage and culture of the Wines community.  We will have a gymnasium full of student-created projects, crafts, delicious food, cultural performances and an international fashion show featuring our Wines students.  This event is a fascinating showcase of the international roots of the families that make up Wines, and you can participate in the following ways:

* We still need volunteers to run the evening!  If you have 45 minutes or an hour to give, please visit http://vols.pt/TeToGh and sign up where you can.

* Come experience the event!  You do not need to be a registered participant to enjoy the evening.  Bring your family and learn about countries and cultures from around the globe.

*  For an added learning experience, fill out the “Where is my family from?” form attached to today's email with your kids and bring it to the event.  While there, find your family’s roots on the world map and look to see if your family’s country of origin is represented at one of the student presentation tables.

Parent Involvement Day: February 9^th

In your child’s take home folder today, you will see a yellow invitation to join us for our annual Parent Involvement Day on Monday, February 9^th. This has historically been a very well attended day in our community and we hope you can join us. For new parents, there is a lot of information contained in the invitation. Later this week, I will send out a digital RSVP for parents. You do not necessarily need to RSVP to join us. However, it does give us a sense of how many people we will expect. Additionally, we will be serving lunch to parents so if you are going to join us for lunch, we do ask that you RSVP so we can be sure to have enough food. Look for the RSVP later this week.

Notes from the Office

Parents, please call the main office if your child is going to be late or absent to school. Many parents do contact teachers—which is nice—but that message does not always reach the main office.

Students must stop for a pass and check in the front office when they come in after the bell. Teachers take attendance right away in the morning and then begin their instructional day. The pass is an important communication tool between the office and the teacher that we know children have arrived and tells the teacher that the office staff knows the student is present. And as always, please do all you can to have your child arrive to school on time.

David

Weekly Blog 1/21

Dear Wines Families,

Just a few announcements today. First, I want to remind everyone that there is no school on Monday, January 26th as the entire Ann Arbor Public School staff will be engaged in professional development.

International Night
International Night is coming up next Thursday, January 29 from 6:30 until 8:00.  The event committee is looking for volunteers to help out with international crafts during the evening, such as:
• Henna designs
• Origami
• Any other skill you have to offer!
If you can help out with one of these crafts, please contact Katie Page Sander (katie@thepages.net) or Annemarie Dolan (akilburndolan@comcast.net).  For other open volunteer positions, please visit our volunteer sign up at http://vols.pt/TeToGh.

Dr. Swift’s “Continuing the Conversation”
As you hopefully know, Superintendent Dr. Jeanice Swift has initiated a follow up to last year’s Listen and Learn tour of the school district. There are various dates coming up. The next date is next Thursday evening at Forsythe. This conflicts with our International Night. I have spoken to Dr. Swift about this conflict and offered to reschedule our event. She graciously asked that we not reschedule but rather encourage the Wines community to look at other dates. Below is a link to information about the tour. Please note that she will be near our area on Feb. 12 (Slauson), March 9 (Peace Neighborhood Center) and March 31 (AA Open) as well as many other dates across our community. I encourage everyone to attend one of these events.

Continuing the Conversation Information and Dates

Girls on the Run-Spring 2015
Registration for Girls on the Run at Wines is open for girls in grades 3-5 from now until February 19. Learn about this program that promotes friendship, teamwork, and health at the GOTR website (http://www.girlsontherunsemi.org/) or by contacting Suzanne Admiraal (admiraal@umich.edu). The spring season runs from March 10 until May 21, and the Wines team will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school until 5:15 PM.

Parent Involvement Day—Save the Date!
Our annual Parent Involvement Day takes place on Monday, February 9th. We encourage parents to spend some or all of your day at school with your child. A paper invitation will be coming home next Wednesday.

David

Weekly Blog 1/14

Dear Wines Families,

Despite the cold, it does look like we are going to have a full week of school this week. This week was not without some unexpected drama, however. Your child may have come home Monday talking about the “flood” in the computer lab. Fortunately, it was not a flood, but we did have a coil burst in our HVAC unit causing steam to blow into the room over the course of two or three days last weekend. As a result, our lab resembled a steam room on Monday morning more than a classroom. While things were quite wet, our Technical Assistant, Cheryl Wonders along with Sally Evaldson and our wonderful custodian Jamil Jackson sprung into action and cleared the room and dried everything off. Yesterday a technician from Apple checked our computers and iPads and everything appears to be in working order. We are waiting another day to ensure that the keyboards have had time to sufficiently dry, but we anticipate our lab being operational on Thursday. So disaster avoided!

With the snow days and the “flood”, our NWEA schedule has been changed significantly. We will resume our assessments tomorrow and we will eventually complete this round of assessments this month. Just a quick note on NWEA. The purpose of NWEA is to provide our teachers with another piece of data in order to best meet the needs of our students. NWEA is part of a larger picture of student performance to help us know each child as a learner. It is by no means a “high stakes” test and we know as professionals that while the data may be very helpful for some students, the NWEA does not always accurately reflect how a student learns and we never rely on a single piece of data. Again, it is just part of our work to ensure we are meeting students’ needs at their personal level.

In other news, I want to highlight the three attachments to today's email:

Important Science Olympiad News

Attached to the email is a letter that addresses a change in the tournament set up resulting in a situation where Wines may not be able to send every participant to participate because our team is too large. We are working hard at trying to find solutions to this so that any interested WESO participant can participate. Please read the attached letter if your child participates in Science Olympiad.

Social Media Safety Presentation at our PTO Meeting Next Tuesday

Our PTO meeting next Tuesday evening will feature a presentation from the Washtenaw Council for Children on Social Media safety. I urge parents to attend this meeting. We begin at 6:30 and childcare is available. A flyer is attached to today’s email and a paper copy comes home today as well.

International Night

Attached again today is the sign up to participate in International Night. If you would like to share your family culture or traditions, please fill out the form. We would like all forms back by this Friday.

Stay Warm,

David

Weekly Blog 1/7

Dear Wines Families,

Happy New Year and welcome back. I hope you are all staying warm today! Our PTO is busy putting the finishing touches on the latest Wines Times newsletter. I will be sending that to you either tomorrow or Friday. Therefore, I'll just send a couple of messages today.

International Night

International Night is coming up on January 29. This great event needs your help. If you would like to participate in International Night and share your heritage and culture with our community, please fill out the attached flyer. We are hoping to have all participants signed up by next Friday, January 16. More information will be included in the Wines Times.

Lunchtime Extra Specials

We need more parent volunteers for Lunchtime Extra Specials!  Extra Specials start on Tuesday, January 20th and go for 7 weeks.  We only ask for one lunchtime a week and encourage you to bring younger siblings along to participate!  We are looking for parent volunteers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for Free Dance and a few other activities.  If you are available and interested, please contact Annemarie Dolan at akilburndolan@comcast.net.

Look for the Wines Times later this week.

David

Weekly Blog 12/17

Dear Wines Families,

As we head into the winter break, I want to thank everyone for a wonderful first part of the school year. It really does seem like yesterday when we were meeting each other on the playground under the sun eating popsicles. I look forward to 2015 with you and with your children. As we leave for two weeks, please remind your children to take all of their belongings home. We have many students who leave boots and other winter clothes at school (which is a great idea, by the way). Please make sure these items get home on Friday. We will also remind students of this as well. Below are three VERY important messages from our PTO. Please note the special PTO meeting on Jan. 20^th.

David

In the new reality of iChildhood...

Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, You Tube, Minecraft. 9 out of 10 kids have their own or have access to a smartphone, tablet, or computer. 81% of kids use social media. Over 55% of youth have been a victim of or witnessed bullying on social media. And age restrictions don’t matter - the use of social media by children as young as 5 is growing. We're the first generation of parents in the world of iEverything - grappling with these statistics and the simple inability to keep up with the ever-changing online landscape.

Please join us at the PTO meeting on Tuesday, January 20 at 6:30PM for an in-depth look at CyberSafety. Featuring experts from the Washtenaw Area Council for Children, the evening will explore issues of cyberbullying, sexting, online predators and privacy, and navigating social networks. Come learn some strategies for finding the balance between the cyber and real worlds for our children.

International Night

The International Night committee needs your help!  International Night is scheduled forThursday, January 29, 2015.  It is a wonderful evening during which students and their families create displays representing countries that are connected to their heritage or simply of interest to them.  Displays may consist of projects, clothing, souvenirs and often delicious food for all to taste as well.  The evening culminates in an international fashion show put on by Wines students.  We are hoping to begin planning for this event but are short of committee members!  If you would like to help us make this unique night happen, please contact Annemarie Dolan at akilburndolan@comcast.net.

The Wines Country Fair Raffle/Silent Auction

There soon may be snow on the ground, but plans are already afoot for the big day. This wonderful event is great fun for the entire family and Wines’ largest PTO fundraiser. 

It’s never too early to consider grabbing items to donate to the Raffle/Auction - especially in this time of great sales before and after the holidays. One parent picked up boxes of Legos when they were on sale just for the raffle - now that’s thinking ahead. So when you’re out and about fulfilling your holiday to dos - add the raffle to your list!

Here are this year’s classroom themes:

Kindergarten - Arts & Crafts

1st Grade - Lego’s

2nd Grade - The Wonderful World of Science

3rd Grade - Camping, Swimming & Outdoor Fun

4th Grade - Sports & Outdoor Fun

5th Grade - It’s A High Tech World

Books, board games, other ‘cool’ toys, and team regalia are always favorites as well. Stash your donation away till May (don’t forget where you put them!), and we’ll let you know when to drop them off at the school. If you don’t have room in your house, send me an email and I'd be happy to make arrangements. The Raffle/Auction wouldn’t be as successful as it is without the generous donations of the Wines community. Thank you for your support!

Contact: Kerianne Tupac: kmtupac@umich.edu