End of the Week Announcements 10/28

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Dear Wines Families,

Just a couple end of the week announcements:

If your child hasn’t told you already, we are pleased to announce that 73.4% of Wines students walked to school on Wednesday. Our friends at Evening Street Elementary in Columbus, Ohio had 72% of their students walk to school. So Wines won our competition! I contacted their principal yesterday and offered a compromise since both schools did so well, and the numbers were so close. However, she was a gracious loser and she will be wearing Maize and Blue next week to school. Thanks to everyone for supporting all of our Walktober events.

I look forward to a fun filled Halloween celebration on Monday. We ask that students do not come to school in costume and instead bring their costumes in a bag. Our costume parade begins at 1:45. Please note that at approximately 1:30 we will close our parking lot near the front entrance to traffic for our parade. As a reminder, we want to keep Halloween a friendly event and our costumes should thus be friendly as well. Please, no fake blood or weapons. The general rule of thumb is that if you are not sure, it probably isn’t something for school.

I’m pleased to announce a great opportunity for any extra candy. The Junior Girl Scout troop at Wines is collecting Halloween candy to send overseas to troops in Afghanistan.  The troops love celebrating a little bit of Halloween tradition, and they distribute a good amount of candy to the children of Afghanistan.  Please send only wrapped items, no homemade treats, and no chocolate (it will melt). Please drop off extra candy in the designated box in the office anytime from November 1 - November 11.

Have a great weekend.

David

Weekly Blog 10/26

Dear Wines Families,

Well, this week I sent my weekly email a day early, and this blog is a day late!! .

Yesterday we had our final Walk to School day as part of our Walktober celebration. We competed with Evening Street Elementary in Columbus, Ohio to see which school had the largest percentage of walkers. I'm pleased to announce that both schools had tremendous participation and Wines narrowly beat Evening street with 73.4% of our students walking and 72% at Evening Street. I will be working with the principal at Evening Street on how we will celebrate our success. The "bet" was that she would wear Michigan gear to school. However, since we basically tied and each school did so well, we are going to figure out a fun compromise. 

Our Run-a-Thon pledge collection is going very well. We have already raised over $7000 meaning we are approaching our goal of $10,000. If your child has pledges to turn in, he or she can bring in the money any day until Nov. 2^nd. Checks can be made payable to “Wines PTO” and our online pledge opportunity can be found at http://www.winespto.org/runathon.php. Last week, Ms. Fisher’s entire class came to visit me after learning they had earned a popsicle party for completing the most laps in 4^th grade. Led by Student Council representative Lucia Sanchez, the class declined their party unless the other 4^th grades received one as well. Their argument was that everyone did a great job and tried their best. Well, I could not agree with Lucia and the rest of the class more!! So, we decided together that every classroom at Wines will receive a popsicle party. On Nov. 3^rd we will all celebrate a great Run-a-Thon with popsicles and I hope we will also be celebrating meeting (or exceeding) our fundraising goal!!

This Thursday evening from 7:00-8:00 we will be hosting our annual Builders and Science Fair. This event is for ALL Wines families, whether your child is participating or not.  Please come out to see the scientists and builders at Wines!  There will be some “try it” activities, and of course the fabulous projects created by our students.  The Fair runs from 7-8 pm.  Participants should arrive at 6:45 to setup.

The deadline to turn in Great Ideas grant applications is Nov. 1^st. This is a wonderful opportunity for parents and kids to turn an idea into something tangible for their school. No idea is too small! Hard copy applications came home in their child's Wednesday folder last week or additional applications can be downloaded or picked up in the office.

Finally, as you know next Monday is Halloween. This is a great day at Wines! In terms of logistics, our annual parade will take place at 1:45 in front of the building. AM Kindergarten families, Mrs. Rothman will let you know about your special activities for the day. Costumes should not be worn to school. Students will put them on in the afternoon. As always, please keep our costumes friendly. I ask that costumes do not include fake blood or weapons. A good rule of thumb is that if you are not sure about a costume or part of the costume, it probably isn’t appropriate. Classroom teachers have various plans for their own parties that they will share with you.

If you choose not have your child participate in Halloween activities, please let me know directly and we will have an alternative activity for him or her.

Thank you,

David

Weekly Blog 10/19

Dear Wines Families,

I hope this message finds you staying dry on this dreary Michigan day. While the weather is quite wet today and likely tomorrow, the weather report for our Run-a-Thon on Friday morning looks promising. Attached to my weekly email is the final flyer for the Run-a-Thon including the schedule of when each grade will run. We hope that everyone is collecting pledges for their participation. Our goal is to raise at least $10,000 for new playground equipment and with our PTO graciously offering to match our pledges up to $4,000, we are quite excited about the possibilities. In addition, 10% of our earnings will go to Alpha House, a very worthwhile charity that our students voted to support this year.

 

As a reminder, no pledges should be sent to school until after the event on Friday. For those of you who have already sent in your pledge, we have them locked securely. However, we would like pledges to be sent in after the event so we will be able to organize the collection at that time. If you haven’t had a chance to visit www.winespto.org/runathon.php, please do! On the site you can make a pledge with your credit card via a secure server. This is a great option for family members who are out of town! Over 30 families have already utilized the electronic option!

 

With just a couple days left, we are still in need of Run a-thon volunteers. If you can offer even a little bit of your time on Friday, please click on http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/120234563449630406 and sign up.

 

Once the Run-a-Thon is over, there are other great things happening at Wines! Next Thursday evening October 27^th from 7-8 PM is our annual Science and Builders Fair. It is not too late to sign up.  If a student would like to join in, they can just send a quick email to Debbie Tirico and they will be signed up – it’s that simple!  dtirico@comcast.net. If you can volunteer that evening, please let Debbie know. We need about 6 more volunteers to help circulate and pass out certificates.

 

Finally, while today was a wet Walk to School Day, our final Walktober event takes place next Wednesday, October 26^th. On this day, we will be competing with Evening Street Elementary outside of Columbus, Ohio to see which school has the highest percentage of walkers on a single day. I hope we can be near 100% so their principal will wear the Maize and Blue as the “loser” of this friendly competition. Many of our teachers are working on creative ways to encourage participation next week. A flyer is attached is attached to this week's email.

 

Sincerely,

 

David 

Weekly Blog 10/13

Dear Wines Families,

We have lots of exciting news today from Wines.

Movie Night

First, I want to remind everyone that our first Movie Night of the year is this Friday at 7:00 PM. We will be showing Gnomeo and Juliet. Bring sleeping bag, pillow, and snack. Just a reminder, Movie Night is not a drop off event. Students must be with an adult.

Run/Walk-a-Thon

Our Run/Walk-a-Thon is right around the corner. The event takes place on Friday, October 21^st from 9:30 until 12:00. Last week, your child should have come home with a packet of information and pledge sheet for the Run/Walk-a-Thon. I attached copies of each to my weekly email as well. We are excited that our PTO has set up an online secure payment system for the Run-a-Thon through Google Pay. So making your own pledge or getting pledges from friends and family who are not in Ann Arbor couldn’t be easier. Please visit http://winespto.org/runathon.php for more information about the event and to make your online pledge. We are hoping that we can raise enough money to buy a new swing set and perhaps other improvements to our playground. In addition, 10% of what we raise will go to a local charity. Our students are voting this week on the charity we will support. 

We are still in need of lots more volunteers for the Run/Walk-a-Thon. If you are available at any time during the morning of Oct. 21, please consider volunteering. You can volunteer by going to  http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/120234563449630406 and sign up. You do not need to commit to the entire morning. We can use help at various time throughout the event.

If you have any questions about the Run/Walk-a-Thon, please contact Frances Carlson at fslcarlson@me.com.

Walktober Michigan/Ohio State Competition

As I type this I am just back from walking with all of our bus riders on our weekly Wednesday Walk to School Day during the month of October. To promote fitness and walking to school, we have again teamed up with a school from near Columbus, Ohio for a friendly Walk-to-School competition. On Wednesday, October 26^th, we will see if Wines Elementary or Evening Street Elementary will have the largest percentage of walkers. The “losing” principal will wear the opposing team’s colors to school. As you might recall, in a close competition last fall, Wines lost and I had to wear the Ohio State Scarlet and Grey colors. I hope I don’t have to do that again this year!! An informational flyer about the Oct. 26^th competition was attached to my weekly email. Join us each Wednesday in October to walk to school and let’s have everyone join us on October 26^th!

Photo Contest on the PTO Website

The new PTO website has a monthly photo contest. The photo was taken somewhere on Wines' grounds. See if you can tell what it is.

We'll randomly choose 2-3 names among the people who guess correctly to win a prize! The deadline for this month’s contest is Wednesday, October 19. Please visit http://winespto.org/ and enter to win!

Sincerely,

David

Weekly Blog 10/5

Dear Wines Families,

I’m posting my weekly blog a day early this week because there are a couple of things happening at school tomorrow that I wanted to remind everyone about today.

First, tomorrow is the annual student count day in the state of Michigan. To make a long story short, about 75% of our state funding is based on the fall count day. It is important that all healthy children are in school tomorrow. Please, if your child is sick, do not send him or her to school. As always, just give us a call and let us know if your child will be absent. When your child returns to school, we will be able to have him or her counted. But if all of our healthy children are at school, Robin will have a little less paperwork to fill out!!

Tomorrow is National Walk to School Day and thus begins Walktober at Wines. There are four Walking Bus Stop locations:

·          Creal Park (on Creal Crescent side)

·          Riverwood Rd and Newport Rd

·          Sunset Rd and Brooks St

·          Westport Rd and Newport Rd

We need volunteers to walk with students from each of the four locations, and from the Forsythe parking lot. Please contact Anita Fontana ak.fontana@yahoo.com to help! Our busses will be dropping students off at Forsythe so students who ride the bus can participate in the morning as well. I will be meeting the students at Forsythe (hopefully with some volunteers). Also, if your child is in morning care at Wines, I will be walking with those students over to Forsythe to join the bus riders.

Next week we begin the annual MEAP assessments for 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders. The MEAP will be administered to 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders on Oct. 11, 12, and 18. 4^th graders have two additional days of testing on Oct. 13 and 19, and 5^thgraders have one additional testing day on Oct. 19. As with any school day, during the MEAP, please make sure your children come to school well rested and with a nice breakfast. As always, breakfast is available at Wines beginning at 8:30 daily. Breakfast costs just $1.00 and can be deducted directly from your child’s hot lunch account.

Do you have an hour or so to help us put together our new soccer goals? We have two new soccer goals for our lower elementary playground that need to be put together. If this is something you like to do, we could use your help. If you are interested, please contact Erin Telemaco at 5telemaco@comcast.net and she will put you to work!

Finally, I want to thank our community for doing such a great job of getting your back to school paperwork turned in. At this point, we have gotten our first day folder information back from nearly everyone. On behalf of Robin and Joanne in the office, thank you Wines families!!

Please check your email for this month's Wines Times as well as as Ms. McNally’s Music Room Newsletter. Also, please visit the new PTO website at www.winespto.org. The site has tons of information, volunteer opportunities, photo contests, and much more! 

David