Weekly Blog 9/28

Dear Wines Families,

As we near completion of our first month of school together (wow!), I have a number of messages today.

Picture Day
Picture Day is next Tuesday, Oct. 4th. Information and order forms went home last week in the Wednesday Folder. You can also order your prints online if you go to www.inter-state.com/order. Our school code is 09191BA. You will see that there is no yearbook option in our picture package. All Wines students receive a yearbook regardless of whether you purchase a picture package or not.

Walktober Starts Next Week!
Our month-long celebration of Walktober begins next Wednesday, Oct. 5 with International Walk to School Day. We will also walk to school each Friday all month long. Bus riders will be dropped off at the south Forsythe lot and met by staff and parents to walk to Wines. Next Wednesday we will kick off the celebration by participating in a friendly competition with Evening Street Elementary School outside of Columbus, Ohio. The school with the greatest percentage of walkers "wins" and the other principal must dress in Ohio State or Michigan clothes for a day. Please don't make me wear those Ohio colors!! We will have a special spirit day next Wednesday as well. If your child is a Michigan fan, please have him or her wear their maize and blue. If you are a fan of another team (even Ohio State), you can wear your favorite team colors or Wines spirit wear.

Library Volunteers Needed
Look in today's email for some information and a sign up to volunteer in the Library. Please consider this great volunteer opportunity!

Auction Committee Volunteers Needed
We are looking to put together an Auction Committee to help the wines auction run smoothly. Last school year was our first off-site auction and as well as being a success it was fun night out!

So did you attend and have any ideas that may help us or are you new to Wines and think this might sound like a great opportunity to get to know people while helping your child's school? We shall have a kick-off meeting on October 6th at 8.50am (after drop off) in the teachers lounge. If you know you'd like to help but can't make it please email me at traciemcginty@hotmail.com

Many Thanks
Tracie Clarke & Amy Treder Holland

Parenting in the Digital Age
The Washtenaw Intermediate School District is hosting a seminar on "Digital Parenting" on Oct. 25th. This is a great opportunity to learn and share about being a parent in this digital age. Look for a flyer in today's email.

That's all (and a lot!) for this week. As always, don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.

David

Weekly Blog 9/21

Dear Wines Families.
Well, here we are in Week 3 of the school year. This is usually the first "normal" week of the year and it certainly feels that way. The newness of the first week of school is now gone and the first full week of school is behind us. So we are now into our routines here at school and, hopefully, for you at home as well. Here is the news for the week!

• Our first PTO meeting of the year is next Tuesday, September 27th. At 6:00 PM we will hold a special meeting/orientation for new families. This will give you a sense of what our PTO does, how you can be involved, and we will look at the school event calendar so you have a better sense of the specifics of our many events. At 7:00 we will hold our regular meeting. New families are certainly welcome to stay for both meetings! As always at our PTO meetings, there is childcare available.

• Picture Day is Oct. 4th. An order form is coming home today in your child's Wednesday Folder. You can order your pictures online at www.inter-state.com/order. Our school code is 09191BA.

• Project Lead the Way is underway at Wines!! Our 1st and 5th graders began their first PTLW units this week and I can see already that we are in for a fantastic, project based, STEM learning experience this year. In today's email, I sent a link to the first PTLW newsletter. Sarah Schemanske will send a newsletter home weekly to the grade levels that are doing PTLW. I wanted to give everyone a chance to see what is coming your child's way this year.

• If your child is going to be absent or late to school or if there are changes to pick up routines, etc., please be sure to call the school office (you can leave a message). While it is also nice to send an email to the classroom teacher, it is critical that the information comes to the office. Also, if your child is home sick and you are leaving a message, please let us know in the message the symptoms they are experiencing. We must report certain illnesses to the state and it is helpful for us to know. We also alert classrooms when certain illnesses are in the class. Thank you for your help with this.

That's all for this week. As always, let me know if you have any questions.
David

Weekly Blog 9/14

Dear Wines Families,
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend Curriculum Night last evening. It was so nice to see new and familiar faces! In today's email I included links to my presentation as well as Sarah Schemanske's Project Lead the Way presentation.

I'll keep the rest of my message short this week because I also included our first PTO newsletter in my email today. Please take a few minutes to review the monthly publication of the Wines Times.


Thanks!
David

Weekly Blog 9/7

Dear Wines Families,

Here we are half way through day two of the school year and things are going along very well!! It’s a bit hot but we are surviving and the kids and staff are already engaged in their routines. In many ways, it seems like we never left and for our new students, it seems like they’ve been here for years!

For our new families, welcome to my first Weekly Blog of the school year. The blog contains the same content as my Wednesday Emails and you can expect to receive the email every Wednesday. I usually have it out before I leave for the day, though sometimes it will come in the evening. All of the important information from Wines will come via my emails/blog so please plan on taking a few minutes to read this each Wednesday. There are times during the year when I’ll send more than one email a week, though I try hard not to fill your inboxes.

I want to point your attention to two important dates. First, our annual Back to School Picnic is tomorrow (Thursday) evening at 6:30. Please provide your picnic meal for your family. Our PTO will supply water. Second, our annual Curriculum Night is next Tuesday, September 13^th. Our teachers will present in their classrooms from 6:30-7:00. From 7:00-7:30 I will speak to our community in the auditorium. From 7:30-8:00, our teachers will repeat their presentations so if you have scheduling challenges or multiple children at Wines, you have two opportunities that evening. Please note that at this event, we will not have adequate childcare so we ask that this is an adult-only event.

Please look for your child’s red “Wednesday Folder” in his or backpack today. While most of what we send is done via my emails, we do send some items home on paper and the Wednesday Folder is where you’ll find it.

Finally, just a reminder that there are MANY ways to keep up with all things Wines. In addition to the Wednesday Email, the content of my email can also be found on my blog at www.winesprincipal.blogspot.com. In addition, I use Twitter regularly so Twitter users, please follow me @winesprincipal. Finally, the Wines Facebook page is active this year and can be found at www.facebook.com/wineselementary.

Thanks for a great first day and a half!! Looking forward to many more.

David

Welcome to Wines 2016-2017!

Dear Wines Families,

Welcome to the 2016-2017 school year! It’s great to be back but as with every year, being at school without any kids around is a fairly lonely feeling. While we still have a bit of work to do before everyone arrives, I certainly can’t wait until September 6^th!

Our family had a remarkable summer. We spent very little time in Ann Arbor so we missed all of the heat! You might title our summer “Our Favorite Places and Favorite People” as we got to spend time in special places with special friends and family. We spent much of the summer up north with my parents in Northport where the sun seemed to shine every day and the temperatures stayed about 10-15 degrees below what was happening downstate. Northport is one of my favorite places on earth and it was nice to spend an extended period of time there. While there, we were able to see lots of family and friends and my college roommate and his family visited us in Northport from Denver for a week at the end of July. That was a special treat as my friend’s wife is from a small town in the Colorado mountains and neither she nor their son had ever seen the Great Lakes.

At the end of our summer, we made a fairly impromptu trip to Maine with our best friends. Their family has a historic, rustic home on a secluded island near Brunswick. We’ve now been there seven times over the past 15 years or so and the island and the house are very special to Trish, me, and our boys.  

It was a great family summer and one where I feel refreshed and energized for the new school year!

Staff Changes

For many returning families, this section of my annual letter is often a lengthy one. Not so this year as our staff has remained quite stable. As we know, we said goodbye to our beloved music teacher, Beth McNally, after her retirement. I’m pleased to welcome Jessica Glaser to Wines as our new music teacher. Jessica spent last year student teaching at Thurston Elementary School. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and in addition to extensive teaching experiences, she also participated in MSU Opera Theater productions as well as the MSU Choral Ensemble. She has a long list of awards and honors and we chose Jessica from an amazingly talented group of interviewees. She certainly wowed us during a competitive interview process!  

Our school will implement “Project Lead the Way” (PLTW) this year in all grades. PLTW is a project based, STEM learning experience. Units are co-taught by a PLTW teacher alongside of our classroom teachers. I will speak more about PLTW at Curriculum Night. We welcome Sarah Schemanske to Wines as our PLTW teacher. Sarah received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Albion College and her Master’s Degree in Reading Education from Appalachian State University. She taught in North Carolina for seven years and most recently taught in Clinton, Michigan.

Our outstanding Teacher Clerk, Katie Moore, is in school full time this year so we welcome a new face in our office. Please welcome Flavia Kocivelli to our office team. Flavia came highly recommended by Katie and is excited to be working around kids after time working in healthcare.

The only other change to announce is that Samantha Yribar has taken her married name and her last name is now Shanteau. She will have a new email address but her former address will still work for the time being. In addition, Natalie Hickman got married over the summer—though she has kept her maiden name. Congratulations Natalie!!

Classroom Placement

Our entire classroom teaching staff comes back to us this year and teachers will be teaching in their same assignments as last year. As we’ve done in the past, students will learn their teachers the week before school starts. The dates are:

• Kindergarten: Tuesday, August 30^th at 6:00 PM.

• 1^st-5^th Grades: Wednesday, August 31^st at 3:00 PM.

Each event will take place on the back playground. Kindergarten students will also spend time in their classrooms. The 1^st-5^th grade event is outdoors only. If you are not able to attend the gathering, we will be emailing class assignments on those same days. You can also call school beginning on Thursday, September 1^st to inquire about placement.

New Bell Schedule

The bell schedule has changed once again this year. Below are the new times:

First Bell: 8:44

Second Bell (classroom instruction begins): 8:47

End of day: 3:50

New Snack Policy

As everyone knows, we have traditionally made the first four weeks of school a fruits and vegetables only snack policy at school as we worked to make sure we had a good handle on student allergies, etc. At the end of that month, what resulted were multiple different “rules” for each classroom. This inconsistency was confusing and potentially dangerous. In addition, our school follows the state guidelines for healthy foods and our snack policy often caused there to be confusion about what is and what isn’t a healthy snack. After much consideration, we have decided that Wines will be a fruit and vegetable only snack school for the entire year. We ask that your child’s snack be only fruit or vegetables. This policy is consistent with numerous other AAPS elementary schools.

We realize that this will be a change for many families. However, since we have always been successful with this policy at the beginning of the year, I believe we can be successful all year. Also, if your family is at all like mine, there will be times when you simply don’t have fruits or vegetables for your child’s snack. With the help of our PTO, we will provide fruit and vegetables daily for students who don’t have a snack. We also realize that some students have special dietary considerations. We of course will allow for flexibility with this policy to ensure the health and safety for each student.

Please note that this policy does not apply to student lunches. We will still alert families of allergens in your child’s classroom but with this new policy, allergens in students’ lunch boxes will not enter the classroom. I appreciate your understanding as we make this small change. This will help ensure the safety of many of our students and encourages good healthy snack choices for all of our students.

Other Important Dates

In the first day packet, you will receive a calendar with our various events for the school year. However, I do want to point out a few early in the year events so you can have them on your calendars.

• New Family “Orientation”: Wednesday, August 24^th (6:00 PM)

• First Day of School: Tuesday, Sept. 6^h

• Opening Day PTO Coffee: Tuesday, Sept. 6^th (9:00 AM)

• Back to School Family Picnic: Thursday, Sept. 8^th (6:30 PM)

• Curriculum Night: Tuesday, Sept. 13^th (6:30-8:00 PM)

Keep Up To Date with Wines!

As always, we strive to always keep everyone in the loop about what is happening at our school. There are multiple ways to keep up! I will continue to send my weekly “Wednesday Email” and the same information from the emails can be found on my blog at www.winesprincipal.blogspot.com. Also, I’m proud to say that I now have 244 followers on Twitter!! Twitter users, please follow me @winesprincipal. Our Facebook page will also be more active this year. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wineselementary.

Annual Traffic Reminder

I want to repeat my yearly reminder about our parking lot. These reminders are more important than ever as our school reaches capacity with students and cars! The area along the main entrance of the building from the beginning of the sidewalk until the gate is an active drop-off/pick up zone. Please pull as far ahead as possible and stay in your car. Do not park in front of the gate. In the Cooley lot, the area from the end of the gate to between the portables is a similar pick up/drop off zone. There are signs marking these areas. We ask that the Cooley lot continue to be used by Kindergarten families (and siblings) only. Last year, I noticed at the end of the day that our pick up line often extended along our entry driveway all the way to the soccer fields. Please note that you may not park your car along this driveway for any reason. Please say in your car and continue to pull ahead (it seems like a long line but if everyone follows the system, it moves pretty fast!).

As a reminder, our school was never designed to accommodate lots of car traffic so please utilize the bus if your child is on a bus route and we always encourage a healthy walk or bike ride to school too! If you are driving to school and wish to park and come in, please make sure you are parked in a designated area. As always, a great option for parking is the Forsythe overflow lot near our Newport entrance.

Enjoy the final days of summer and we’ll see you soon!

Sincerely,

David DeYoung

Principal

Final Weekly Blog for 2015-2016!

Dear Wines Families,

So here we are nearing the end of a wonderful year together. For many of you, this is the last message you’ll ever receive from me and for others this is the last one for a while (and I’m sure that regardless of which group you are in, you are ready to stop hearing from me!!).

This year marks a somewhat special year for me personally as the 5^th graders who are leaving us on Friday were in Kindergarten when I arrived as principal six years ago. It is a source of great pride to know I’ve been with these kids for their entire elementary school career. I look forward to being with many more classes!

I want to thank our community for another fantastic year at Wines. This school is such a special place and I continue to be excited to come to school each day. The support we receive from our parent community is without comparison. We couldn’t do it without you! I want to give a special thank you to our fabulous PTO who works so tirelessly to support our school. They seem to never say no to anything we ask for and are always looking for more ways to help our school. Special thanks to our Executive Board including Nicole Brittis, Rhonda McCammon, Kelly Collins, Colleen Van Lent, Jen Haft, Kerianne Tupac, and Molly Bazzani. Even at a school with such tremendous parent support, it is our Executive Board the really does ALL the heavy lifting!

I want to extend my deep appreciation to Annemarie Dolan who is finishing her time as PTO president at the end of this year. Annemarie has worked side by side with me for the past six years starting out as an outstanding parent volunteer and ultimately taking on the role of PTO president for the past three years. She is a true partner to me and a true champion for our school! Thank you, Annemarie!

I wish you all a safe and relaxing summer. Below are a couple of important end of year reminders.  

Enrollment for 2016-2017: Important

Again this year, each family  needs to electronically register your child. The week of June 1st, the district sent an email communication from backtoschool@a2schools.org with instructions on how to access the system for your child. The email contained a link/instructions and a secure “snapcode” that links directly to your child’s information. Please check your inbox or SPAM folder for a message from backtoschool@a2schools.org. Please click the link and complete the process asap! Thank You!

Medication Pick Up Reminder

Please make sure you pick up any medication we have at school for your child. After the office closes for the summer, we are required by law to dispose of medications.

Thanks for another wonderful year. Enjoy the next few weeks and we’ll be right back here before you know it! I’ll be available via email all summer if you need to reach me.

Best,

David

Weekly Blog 5/25

Dear Wines Families,

Today’s Blog post is all about the upcoming Wines Country Fair and Raffle, which is just over a week away!!

Help make this year’s Raffle the best ever!

The Wines Country Fair Raffle is almost here and it’s all about the kids! We truly appreciate all of the support we get from our Wines families to make this a wonderful event. There are two ways you can donate to help make this year’s prizes exciting for our students:

Each year the classrooms from each grade come together to create a great raffle basket. The kids battle it out to have the “best” array of cool prizes. Collection baskets are located in each classroom. Here are this year’s classroom themes:

Kindergarten - Arts & Crafts

1st Grade – Legos (Legos are 20% off at Target this week!)

2nd Grade - The Wonderful World of Science

3rd Grade - Camping, Swimming & Outdoor Fun

4th Grade - Sports & Outdoor Fun (Team regalia is great too!)

5th Grade - It’s A High Tech World

Secondly, if you would like to donate a specific item to the raffle, please check out our wish list athttp://bit.ly/WinesRaffleWishes. Wish list items include: board games, slip-in-slide, Quality 16 movie tickets, scratch-off lottery tickets, loose change, gum, scooter, sponsor a teacher experience, and many more. These items are all wildly popular with Wines students, which is why they come back year after year. 

Grade Level Volunteer Opportunities (WE NEED YOU!!!)

Kindergarten: http://vols.pt/QH3SBj

1^st Grade: http://vols.pt/cjn5ue

2^nd Grade: http://vols.pt/SxS7hg

3^rd Grade: http://vols.pt/xrwFPH

4^th Grade: http://vols.pt/yHNS7W

5^th Grade: http://vols.pt/xLmNXr

 Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated. If you have any questions or have a new idea, please contact Raffle Chair Kerianne Tupac at kmtupac@umich.edu or 734-657-5870. All ideas are welcome!