IMPORTANT DATES

Dear Wines Families,
Welcome to the 2017-2018 school year. We are busy getting ready for the start of another great year together. Next week I will be sending a longer welcome message but I wanted to make sure everyone had a few important dates on your calendars.

• New Family Orientation. Wednesday, August 23rd 6:00 PM. If you are new to Wines, please try to attend this event. I will go over a number of items that I hope will help make your transition to Wines easy! You'll get a chance to learn about how the day to day operations work at our school as well as learn about the various events we host throughout the year.

• 1st-5th Grade Meet the Teacher. Tuesday, August 29th at 3:00 PM. Meet us on the back playground for popsicles and and meet your new teacher and classmates. If you can't make the event, you will receive an email later that day with teacher placement information.

• Kindergarten Meet the Teacher. Tuesday, August 29th at 6:00 PM. We will host our kindergarten kids and families at 6:00 on the 29th. Come have a popsicle and spend a little bit of time in your kindergarten classroom. We will begin on the back playground for popsicles and then the teachers will take their classes into the classrooms. Parents, we will start the in-class portion of the event with just the kids. After a few minutes, we will invite parents to come in as well.

• First Day of School: Tuesday, September 5th. Please note our new school hours 8:56-3:59 (first bell at 8:53).

• Curriculum Night: Tuesday, Sept. 12th 6:30-8:00.

As I said, I will send a longer welcome back message next week. I look forward to seeing everyone again and meeting our many new families.
Best,
David

Weekly Blog 6/14

Dear Wines Families,

Well, here it is, the final weekly email of the year. As always, the year went extremely quickly, but it was another wonderful year at this special school. It continues to be an absolute pleasure to serve as principal at Wines. I have a couple of logistical announcements about this week and a couple of announcements about important items for the fall.

This Week:

• Our 5^th grade celebration takes place on Thursday evening at 7:00.

• Our final assembly is at 10:30 on Friday morning.

• We will “clap out” our 5^th graders at approximately 11:45 on Friday.

• Dismissal is at 11:53 on Friday.

• There is no childcare after school on Friday.

• Please pick up all medication in the office by Friday or we will need to dispose of it by law.

Important Fall Items (but timely now!!)

Enrollment:

Reminder: The Ann Arbor School District is preparing for the 2017-18 school year. We will be using InfoSnap, an online student pre-​registration​ validation system, to confirm your student’s enrollment for the upcoming school year. The system is a secure process, which allows the district to verify all student demographic, emergency and medical contact information for your child prior to the start of the new school year. The system will also allow you to electronically sign the annual permission forms for school district policies. You should have received an email communication in email from backtoschool@a2schools.org with instructions on how to access the system for your student. The email will contain a link/instructions and a secure “snapcode” that links directly to your student’s information. Please check your inbox or SPAM folder for a message from backtoschool@a2schools.org.

Health Information

Please check today's email with a link to a letter from our school nurse regarding requirements for next year regarding immunizations, health plans, medication, etc. 

Thank you for another wonderful school year. I’m already looking forward to August (though I do have my immediate sights set on July…).

David

Weekly Blog 6/7

Dear Wines Families,

Believe it or not, school comes to an end next Friday. Friday is a half-day with dismissal at 11:53. We will “clap out” our 5^th graders at about 11:45. With the end of the year coming, I want to remind everyone to come and look at the lost and found. All items will be given to charity before the end of the day next Friday. Also, if you have medication at school, you must pick it up by Friday. By law, we must dispose of medication left at school.

Finally, I want to take a moment to recognize this amazing Wines community. The last week has been the most obvious example to me of what a special community we are. The tragic loss of Miles Roberts broke our collective hearts. This community came together to support the Roberts family, our students, our staff, and each other. We will continue to need each other in the days, weeks, and months ahead and I know we will continue to be there for each other.

In addition to coming together in the face of tragedy, we also witnessed other examples of our collective support. Unforeseen circumstances caused there to be a need for our PTO to “rally the troops” to put on the Country Fair and Raffle. Through the tireless work of many parents—but notably Tracie Clarke, Kelly Collins, Keiranne Tupac, and Cristina Rojas—the Fair was its usual smashing success!!

We also came together to have another fantastic experience at Science Olympiad. We continue to have a “no cut” team meaning we sent over 100 2^nd-5^th graders to Pioneer last weekend and they competed well and had a great time. This could not have been done without countless parents who volunteered as coaches throughout the past few months and the dozens of parents who volunteered at Pioneer on Saturday. Most importantly, it could not have been done without the tireless work of our head coach and organizer, Anastasia Yocum. Thank you everyone!!

I look forward to finishing the year strong with you all!

Best,

David

Weekly Blog 5/24

Dear Wines Families,

Below is A LOT of very important information and requests for our Country Fair and Raffle. PLEASE take some time to read through the information. Before that, however, I have some important news to share.

Fond Farewell!

It is with a bit of sadness but more importantly, appreciation, admiration, and affection that I share with you today that Susan Seely will be retiring at the end of the school year. Susan’s career started in Iowa in 1982 where she served as a teacher for Hearing Impaired students. In 1986, Susan began her career at Wines teaching in the Hearing Impaired program that used to be housed in our school.  After five years in that program, she began her career as a 1^st grade teacher at Wines where she has been serving for the past 26 years!! 

Susan has been an anchor on the Wines staff for 31 years and everyone at our school will miss her dearly. I am honored to have been able to share in seven of those 31 years and I hope you join me in recognizing and celebrating a tremendous career by a true educator in every sense of the word!

10 days to the Wines Country Fair! 

Join us Friday, June 2, 6-8:30 p.m. on the playground for carnival style games, inflatables, rock climbing wall, group photo booth, flush tank, NYPD pizza, lemonade, water, popcorn, Washtenaw Dairy ice cream, the Cake Walk, Farmer John’s farm animal show, and of course the amazing raffle!

Purchase Tickets for Wristbands, Food & the Raffle:

Purchase Tickets Online (Now through May 30) with your credit card, a minimum purchase of $10 is required at https://squareup.com/market/wines-elementary-school-pto/. Pick up tickets at the Will Call Table during advance ticket sales or the night of the fair. If ordering the week of the Fair, please allow for a 24-hour turn around.

Purchase Tickets at Wines (May 30-June 2) at the sales table outside the main school doors before and after school with cash, check, or credit card.

Purchase Tickets at the Fair (June 2) at the sales tables outside of the school with cash, check, or credit card. Tickets are NOT available at the school office.

Cake Walk Contest - Calling all Wines K-5 Bakers and Cake Decorators! 

This year's contest theme is "Literary Characters/ Favorite Book." To be eligible for the contest, student entries must be delivered to Wines by 9 a.m. on June 2. Throughout the day teachers will judge entries based on theme fit compared to other entries from that grade. Entries will be used as prizes for the cake walk and will be on display throughout the Fair!  **Donations of cakes and cupcakes from Wines families are also welcome.**

K-5 Classroom Raffle Baskets - Donations Needed:

Each year the classrooms from each grade create an amazing raffle basket. Below are classroom themes for your donations. Collection baskets are located in each classroom.
Kindergarten - Arts & Crafts

1st Grade - Legos

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

Raffle Items Needed – See the Wish List:
Please see the wish list at http://bit.ly/WinesRaffleWishes. 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. We appreciate your donations! If you have questions or may have a new idea, please contact Raffle Chair Kerianne Tupac atkmtupac@umich.edu or 734-657-5870.

Calling all Volunteers!  

Please sign up today! The link can also be accessed at: https://signup.com/client/invitation/6775657374/1884032/false#!1884032/false/false. We still need volunteers for 45 min. shifts to help with the carnival games, raffle, cakewalk, tykes basketball, ice cream table and food concessions.

We invite your entire family to join us for an evening of fun!

The Wines Country Fair Team: Christy Hale (Chale1084@yahool.com), Denise Cope (dcopeaa@gmail.com), and Mary Nickson (mnickson@umich.edu)

David 

Weekly Blog 5/17

Dear Wines Families,
Despite how busy things are around here, I just have one message today! Please read as it has to do with enrollment for next year.

2017-2018 Enrollment
Reminder: The Ann Arbor School District is preparing for the 2017-18 school year.  We will be using InfoSnap, an online student pre- ​registration​ validation system, to confirm your student’s enrollment  for the upcoming school year. The system is a secure process, which allows the district to verify all student demographic, emergency and medical contact information for your child prior to the start of the new school year. The system will also allow you to electronically sign the annual permission forms for school district policies.

This week you should have received an email communication in email from backtoschool@a2schools.org with instructions on how to access the system for your student. The email will contain a link/instructions and a secure “snapcode” that links directly to your student’s information. Please check your inbox or SPAM folder for a message from backtoschool@a2schools.org.
David

Weekly Blog 5/9

Dear Wines Families,

I am sending this week’s message a day early because we have a special event tomorrow that I want to make sure everyone knows about.

Bike to School Day

Tomorrow we will be participating in our annual Bike to School Day. We encourage everyone who is able to ride your bike to school!

Art Night is Thursday!

Enjoy Student Art | Share Cookies 

 ~ Families can drop off cookies on their way in, then roam the halls and look at art.  

See you there.

THANK YOU!!

On behalf of our entire staff, I want to thank our community for an amazing Teacher Appreciation Week last week. From the signs, the flowers, the smoothies, the catered lunch, and an incredible appreciation assembly, we felt extremely....well, appreciated!! Big thanks to our PTO for your efforts. Thanks to Kelly Collins, Nicole Brittis, Shannon Stewart, Jen Haft, Jill Coultas, Sarah Meyer, Jini Jain, Kerianne Tupac, and countless others for all of your work making last week so great (my sincere apologies for names I have omitted). I also want to specifically recognize Annemarie Dolan on her efforts to make last week special--particularly her work on the assembly. As many of you know, Annemarie has been part of our PTO leadership team for, I believe, seven years. She was our President for three years and has been instrumental this year in supporting our new PTO board members and positioning the team for ongoing success. The outstanding assembly on Friday was in many ways Annemarie’s final act as a Wines parent and parent leader. What an outstanding final effort, Annemarie!!! We all owe you a great deal of gratitude for last week and the past seven years!! THANK YOU.

Hope to see you on your bikes tomorrow! I will be sending out grade level specific emails tomorrow regarding classroom baskets for the Wines Country Fair and Raffle.

David

Weekly Blog 5/3

Dear Wines Families. I have a number of important announcements in today's message including a link to this month's Wines Times newsletter. Please take a few minutes to read through the messages.

THANK YOU!
I would first like to thank everyone who came out to vote yesterday in the Sinking Fund Millage election yesterday. We appreciate everyone for making their voice heard--regardless of your stance on the issue--and we are excited as a school district about the renovations and repairs that will be covered with the resources used by the Sinking Fund.

Wines Times Newsletter
Below is a link to the May Wines Times PTO Newsletter. Please have a look!
http://winespto.org/docs/WTMay2017.pdf
Parent Input: Class Placement
Below is a link to our annual parent input form for class placement decision for next year. Thank you to the many families who have filled this out already. The link will stay open until next Friday, May 12.
https://goo.gl/forms/0HrWXs5qDD7tG0f53

Art Night

It's May...and Art Night is almost here!
Thursday, May 11th from 6:30-8 pm.
Enjoy Student Art | Share Cookies
 - Families can drop off cookies on their way in, then roam the halls and look at art.
Questions? Call or text Peg Knight at 360.298.0060

Cake Walk 2017
Calling all Wines bakers and cake decorators - it's time to get ready for the Cake Walk at the Country Fair, Friday, June 2! 
This Year's Theme is "Literary Characters." To be eligible for the contest, student entries must be delivered to Wines by 9 a.m. on June 2. Throughout the day teachers will judge them based on how well the cake fits the theme compared to other entries from that grade. Entries will be used as prizes for the cake walk. It is exciting for students to see their cakes on display and to show their friends and family their wonderful works of edible art at the Fair!  **Donations of cakes and cupcakes from Wines families are also welcome.**
Questions? Email Mary mnickson@umich.edu or Alison alimik45@hotmail.com.
That's all for this week.
David