Weekly Blog 9/26

Dear Wines Families,

This week’s note is going out a day early due to the time sensitiveness of a couple items.

PTO Meeting Tonight

Our first PTO meeting of the year is tonight. Our “New Parent Orientation” and general meeting begins at 6:00 PM followed by the Executive Board meeting at 7:00. Childcare will be available.

Early Release Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our first Early Release day of the year. School will dismiss at 1:29 PM. There is no PM childcare tomorrow.

Run-a-Thon Volunteers

Our first major event of the year is just over two weeks away. Our annual Run-a-Thon is Friday, Oct. 13^th. This is a great event to be a volunteer. If you are interested in volunteering (and we need you!!) please go to http://signup.com/go/GcsqHvF

Picture Day, Tuesday Oct. 3^rd

Our annual Picture Day is next Tuesday. Paper order forms were sent home last week and online ordering is very easy. To order online, go to:

www.inter-state.com/order and our unique school code is 19156CF.

Walktober is Coming!

With October almost here (not that it feels like it!), our annual Walktober tradition continues. We will encourage kids to walk to school each Friday in October and we will kick of the celebration next week on Wednesday as we celebrate International Walk to School Day. We will again have the school busses drop off at the south Forsythe lot and I will meet the kids there along with morning care students so everyone can participate.

Reminder: Girl Scout Meeting Tomorrow

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the Wines Girl Scout information meeting in the multi-purpose room at 6:30. Bring your family for information on Girl Scouts at Wines (Daisies K-1, Brownies 2-3 & Juniors 4-5), eat some GS cookies, play with other Girl Scouts & learn about what we do!

If you can't make it, but want more information contact Michelle Chien at mknezek@hotmail.com or 248-250-2512.

That’s all for this week. Thanks!

David

Weekly Blog 9/20

Dear Wines Families.

Now that we are into our third week of school, I have a number of announcements today.  I try not to have my weekly message be quite so long, but there is a lot to talk about today!

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Tuesday, Sept. 26^th. PTO Meeting. 6:00 New Family Orientation and General Meeting. 7:00 Executive Board Meeting. Free childcare is provided at all PTO meetings.

 • Wednesday, Sept. 27^th: Early Release Day. Dismissal at 1:29. Students will eat lunch at school. There is no PM childcare.

• Tuesday, Oct. 3^rd. Picture Day. Information is coming home today in the Wednesday Folder. You can order online at inter-state.com/order. The unique order code for Wines Elementary School is 19156CF.

General Announcements

Wednesday Folder Items:

In your child’s folder today, you will see a card with their student number. This number is not used a lot at the elementary level, but as kids enter middle school, the parent portal for PowerSchool is used more often and the number is needed for that. In addition, the student number is necessary if you choose to pay online for lunch at www.mypaymentsplus.com.

4^th and 5^th grade parents, the state MSTEP parent report will be in your child’s folder today as well.

Morning drop off:

We’ve noticed a large number of students who are dropped off at school very early in the morning. Please note that school does not start until 8:53 and we do not have supervision until 8:45. Please do not drop students off before this time.  

Directory:

Robin is putting the finishing touches on the annual family directory. If you chose not to be included in the directory on your enrollment application, your information will not be included. Included information will be parent cell phone, email, and home phone (if you have a land line!). If you chose not to be included when you registered, but now wish to be included or if you would not like to be included and didn’t indicate that during online enrollment, please contact Robin at moorero@aaps.k12.mi.us. Please note, that we cannot make special requests to have or not have certain numbers included or not.

Friday Floor Hockey is Back!

We are starting floor hockey early this year.  We will start THIS FRIDAY at 8:15 AM. We will play through Thanksgiving and then take a break until after winter break when we will re-start. Parents are welcome to play!

Walktober is coming!

It's nearly October which means Walktober is going to be starting very soon.  Every Friday (rain or shine) during the month of October we encourage your child to walk or bike to school. Walktober will actually kick off on Wednesday, Oct. 4^th in celebration of International Walk to School Day and then follow each Friday during October. We will have a few check in point's for your child to have their hand stamped to show they have taken part - more details to follow.

Great Ideas Grants

Do you have a great idea? The Great ideas Grant program is an opportunity for Wines students, parents, and staff to turn a great idea into a funded program to benefit the Wines community! The grant approval committee meets twice a year to vote on applications. Submissions are now accepted online only.  The first deadline is November 1st.

The links for the Adult and Child application can be found on the Wines PTO website: www.winespto.org Don’t let a great idea go to waste! Submit now! Submit several! Contact: Sarah Ball – sjcball@yahoo.com

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts

Cub Scout Pack 78 Kick Off Meeting - Wednesday, Sept 20 (tonight!)

Interested in what Cub Scouts is about? Want to learn more? Want to have your son hang out and have fun with other boys in a positive environment? Come and check out Cub Scout Pack 78 tonight, September 20 at 7pm for our kick-off meeting. We will be meeting in the Wines cafeteria. Come check out the fun! Questions? You can email Seth Guikema, the pack committee chair, at seth.guikema@gmail.com.

Girl Scout Information Night Wednesday, Sept. 27^th at 6:30 PM in the cafeteria.  All grades K-5.

Wines Beautification!

Volunteers Needed for Wines Beautification on Saturday, Sept. 23 from 12-2 pm.

Please contact Mary Nickson (mnickson@umich.edu) if you can help anytime on Saturday form 12-2 p.m. with painting the portables ramp and stairways and cleaning out and putting down bags of mulch in the island flower bed between Wines and Forsythe. Thank you!

Thanks, 

David

Weekly Blog 9/6

Dear Wines Families, 

Welcome to the my first blog of the year. If you are new to Wines, please expect an email from me each week on Wednesday and this blog will include the same information. There will be announcements and reminders from me as well as various information from our PTO. 

The first day of school was a great one! The kids quickly got acclimated to the new school year and by mid morning, it looked like we had been in school for weeks! Ask your child about the furniture in the classroom. Each of our classrooms has brand new furniture that allows for lots of flexibility and choice in seating. I watched a number of classes work with their teacher to rearrange the furniture. It was exciting to see. 

Back to School Picnic Thursday 6:30 PM.

Join us on the back playground for this annual gathering. Bring a blanket and food/drink for your family. Get to meet new friends and reconnect with old ones. 

Curriculum Night Sept. 12

Our annual Curriculum Night is next Tuesday, Sept. 12th from 6:30-8:00. Parents are welcomed in your child's classroom beginning at 6:30. At 7:00, I will speak to all parents in the Multi-Purpose Room. At 7:30, teachers will repeat their presentations in their classrooms for parents who were not able to attend at 6:30. Please note that this is not an event for students. 

Transportation

I realize that there has been some frustration yesterday and today with bus service. I have been speaking with Durham Transportation all morning and we are expecting things to be much improved moving forward. Bus times have been reposted to the AAPS website. Please go to https://www.a2schools.org/Page/10472 to review AM and PM routes. I apologize that things have not gone smoothly thus far. 

Wednesday Folder

Your child will come home today with their red Wednesday Folder (a few classes were able to send them home yesterday). There is lots of back to school information in there including the year-long PTO calendar. Please expect this folder to come home each Wednesday. While most of what we do is digital, we do still send home some information on paper.

That's all for now. As always, don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. 

David

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