Weekly Blog 4/25

Dear Wines Families,
I have a number of important announcements this week. Please take a few minutes to read through this (long) blog posting.

Art Night

One final reminder that our K-5 Art Night is Friday evening beginning at 6:30. While everything is nearly ready for the evening, we could always use a few more volunteers. Here are links to sign up to bring food: www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084BAAAE283-artnight and/or volunteer to supervise a fun craft like Paper Hats, Face Painting, Beading with Wire, Fish Printing or Puppets:www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084BAAAE283-artnight1.

Wear it Blue for Autism Awareness!

In honor of April being Autism Awareness Month, Wines will be participating in our first annual Wines Wear it Blue Day on Monday, April 30th. All students and staff will be encouraged to wear blue that day. In addition, we will be hosting a breakfast to recognize our teachers and staff who work in the Communications classrooms. If you would like to make a food or refreshment donation for the breakfast, please sign up online at the link below or contact: kellyvansingel@yahoo.com
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0E49A8A628A57-breakfast.

Final “Great Ideas” Grants

Our final Great Ideas grant deadline of the school year is quickly approaching. We are accepting applications until May 1st.  There are adult and student grant forms available on the Wines website (www.wines.a2schools.org) and hard copies are available in the office.  Don’t let a great idea go to waste!!

Science Olympiad

Last Saturday our Science Olympiad team competed against 24 other schools in Washtenaw County. The kids had fun, learned a lot, and did a great job! There were officially 1621 student participants representing 25 schools. They competed in 20 different events in what is the largest Elementary Science Olympiad in the country. Every school earned at least one medal. Both our 2nd/3rd teams and our 4th/5th grade teams finished 3rd overall and earned a trophy. While there was so much more to Olympiad than winning, it is nice to see the fruits of all of our fine work!

I’d like to thank all of our volunteers who helped make Science Olympiad such a success at Wines. A special thank you to Kelly Michaels Soluk who coordinated the entire event and coached a team. I’d also like to thank Erin Telemaco for serving as volunteer coordinator. Finally, a thank you to our coaches and assistant coaches: Thank you to Chris Patel, Shireen Syed, Phil Rodgers, Marcie Austerberry, Maha Ali, Amy Cohn, Anke Eichstaedt, Nasreen Islam, Robin Hescheles, Nicole Brittis, Sue Smith, Michael Smith, Debbie Tirico, Patty Kersch, Michael Austerberry, Ann Scott, Sam Patel, Michael Dempsey, Michael Gaies, Joanne Keeling, Marc Bradshaw, Rick Witten, John Whitney, Donna Whitney, Mori Richner, Jaspreet Sawney, Carol Davis, Marc Bradshaw     Kelly Michaels Soluk, John Younger, Carol Lively, and Russ Derry.

Classroom Basket Collections for the Country Fair & Raffle!

The classroom baskets based on themes for each grade are a huge addition to the Wines Country Fair & Raffle each year.  Kids enjoy having an active role in selecting and bringing in a donation.  They see the end result when their donation is part of a nice collection of items in that category – with a basket full of tickets in front of it!

Baskets will be available in your child’s classroom for any donations between
May 3 – May 18.

Please donate what you can!
This year’s themes are:
Kindergarten: Arts & Crafts
1st Grade: Legos
2nd Grade: Legos
3rd Grade: Camping & Outdoor Adventures
4th Grade: Sports & Backyard Fun
5th Grade: It’s a High Tech World
Any questions? Contact Margaret Compton at bagladycompton@yahoo.com
Or Sheila Nicholas at Sheila_nicholas@yahoo.com

Landscape Coordinator Needed

Our current landscape coordinator is stepping down, and we need a volunteer to help take care of the Wines grounds over the summer. The coordinator will organize an 'adopt-a-garden' program and make sure the volunteer families weed and water their gardens over the summer. Please contact Carol Lively (carol.lively@sbcglobal.net), Elissa Gaies (egaies@umich.edu), or Becky Maley (rhmaley@aol.com) if you are interested.

Bike to School Day

Looking ahead, Wines will be participating in National Bike to School Day on Wednesday, May 9th. More information to come, but it might be time to get the bikes out and grease the chains, check the brakes, etc.!!

Sorry for the long posting, but it is a busy time of year!!

David

Weekly Blog 4/18

Dear Wines Families,

I have just a few announcements today. First, I want to remind all of our Science Olympiad participants that this Saturday is the annual competition at Pioneer. Wines will bring another outstanding team of 100 students to Pioneer. We will be competing against nearly 1600 students from across Washtenaw County. Kelly Michaels Soluk, who coordinates Science Olympiad at Wines (no small task!!!) recently shared with me that more students in Ann Arbor participate in Science Olympiad than do Rec & Ed soccer!!

I also want to remind everyone that next Friday evening, April 27^th is Art Night. Mrs. Hendrick is busy preparing a show that will feature art from ALL Wines students!! The evening begins at 6:30 PM. We are still looking for volunteers for the event to help hang art, help with art activities that evening, set up and clean up, and my personal favorite, help at the dessert table!! Please contact Patricia Beals at pferrer@umich.edu if you can volunteer.

That’s all for now!! 

David

Weekly Blog 4/11

Dear Wines Families,

Please check your email today as the April Wines Times was attached. Thus, I will keep this week's blog posting brief. 

 

I do want to remind everyone that tomorrow night, Thursday, there is an important PTO meeting beginning at 7:00 PM in the Media Center. At the meeting, Robert Allen and Elaine Brown from the Superintendent’s cabinet will be in attendance to talk about the upcoming Technology Bond. In addition, the PTO will be holding elections for executive board members for next year. We are still in need of a nominee for Secretary. If you are interested, please contact Elissa Gaies at egaies@umich.edu. Our 5^th grade choir will also be performing at the PTO meeting. If you haven’t attended a meeting this year, Thursday would be a great opportunity!! As always, childcare will be provided. 

 

Don’t forget to take some time to read the attached Wines Times.

David