Weekly Blog 10/30

Dear Wines Families,


It appears that I forgot to post my blog last week. As a reminder, the information in the blog is the same as what is sent in email so hopefully everyone received last week's information. Attached to today’s email you will find the October Wines Times newsletter with lots of important information. Below are a few other reminders.

Superintendent's Listen and Learn Tour
One final reminder that tonight at 6:30, Dr. Jeanice Swift, AAPS Superintendent, will be at Wines to meet with our community as part of her Listen and Learn tour. I hope to see you there!

Halloween
Tomorrow is Halloween and it is always a fun day here at Wines. Students should not come to school in costumes. Instead, they can bring their costumes in a bag and kids will change in the afternoon. Our parade will begin at 2:00 and we will walk along Saunders Crescent to Hillridge and then through the Forsythe path entrance from Hillridge back to Wines.

Halloween and Lunches with Love
Need something to do with all of the extra candy from Halloween? Please encourage your children to donate some of their Halloween candy to our Lunches with Love program! Once or twice each month, classes in grades K-5 make lunches for needy people in our community. The kids decorate paper lunch bags with their classroom teachers and then come to the cafeteria with parent volunteers where they make 100 sandwiches and assemble bag lunches with fruit, granola bars or juice boxes. Recipients will be very happy to have a special treat in their lunch bag! The program is supported by the Wines PTO and is in partnership with Food Gatherers. We will be collecting candy for a few weeks after Halloween. There will be a box outside the front office.

Support Arts Programming, Vote for Wines!
The Bank of Ann Arbor is giving $3000 to a local school to support arts programs. Voting for Wines is easy. Please visit http://cafegive.com/pva/bank-ann-arbor/result/9582#vote

Book Fair
As we head into November, it means our annual Book Fair is fast approaching. Attached to today’s email is our first informational flyer. If you have any questions about Book Fair or would like to help out, please contact any of our Book Fair organizers. Amy Unsworth aeu1aeu2@comcast.net, Nicole Brittis nicolebrittis@hotmail.com, or Robin Hescheles robinhescheles@yahoo.com.

Final Call for Office Items
We have nearly completed our annual collection of the many forms families need to turn in when we return to school. We are still missing items from many families, however. We recently sent home forms to families who have not turned in items. Please turn these in ASAP. We are looking for:
• (green) Emergency Cards
• (pink) Permission to Publish Form (K and New Students)
• (white) Concussion Information Sheet
• (gold) Computer Use Agreements (K and New Students)

If you need a new copy of any of the forms, please stop by the office.

Please take some time to read the Wines Times this week. And please remember there is no school next Tuesday.

Best,

David

Weekly Blog 10/16

Dear Wines Families,
This week's blog is a long one so I apologize in advance! Here goes:

Run-a-Thon
Last week’s Run-a-Thon was a great success and the pledges are beginning to trickle in. We are hoping that every Wines student collects pledges for the Run-a-Thon. Kindergarten through 4th grade pledges will go to purchasing new playground equipment and all 5th grade pledges go directly to help pay for our trip to Camp Tanuga this spring. 10% of proceeds will be donated to the Leslie Science Center. If everyone contributes, we will be able to do great things for our kids!! Every student received a pledge form last week. I’ve attached another copy of the form to today's email if you need a new one. Also, pledges can be made online at http://winespto.org/runathon.php. Please have your child turn in a pledge form even if all pledges are made online. This will really help our record keeping. Next Friday, October 25th is the final day to turn in pledges.

Spirit Wear Sales!
Wines Spirit Wear is available for order!  Check today’s Wednesday folders for the 2013 Spirit Wear order forms. Sample sizes will be on display periodically by the entrance to the school.  Forms are due to teachers by Friday, November 1. I attached the form to today's email as well. In addition, Spirit Wear can be ordered online at http://winespto.org/spiritwearsale.php. (Please note that the online form is not available yet. It will be available this week, however).

Builders and Science Fair
Our annual Builders and Science Fair is quickly approaching. The annual event open to all Wines students takes place next Thursday, October 24th. You can download an information and appliation form at http://winespto.org/SandBFair.pdf.

Dr. Swift’s Listen and Learn Tour: Oct. 30th
Please join our new Superintendent Dr. Jeanice Swift as her Listen and Learn Tour stops at Wines on Oct. 30th. The evening begins at 6:30. This is a great opportunity to meet our new leader and share your hopes, dreams, and concerns about the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

Walk to school Friday
Walktober continues this Friday with another Walk To School Day.

Halloween
Halloween is quickly approaching and again this year we will celebrate the day at Wines. Students can bring their costumes to school in a bag in the morning and they will change into costumes in the afternoon. Please remember that all costumes need to be friendly. No fake blood or weapons. A general rule of thumb is that if you have a question about the appropriateness of a costume or part of a costume, it likely isn’t appropriate!

I’m pleased to announce that we will return to an old Wines tradition of holding our annual Halloween Costume Parade through the neighborhoods behind our school. The parade will begin at 2:00. I will send out a route of where we will be walking next week!

Parent/Teacher Conferences
Parent/Teacher conferences are starting for most teachers during the next couple of weeks. I wanted to give all parents a quick message that there will be a new component to our conferences this year. As part of our School Improvement Plan, every student at Wines has a Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) this year. Our PLP’s offer a quick “data snapshot” into where each student was at the beginning of the year and each teacher’s goals for their students for this year. Our PLP’s use some of our available data and as with anything, the PLP does not address every way we assess student strengths or areas of opportunity. However, it does give us a nice starting point.

In our School Improvement Plan, we included a parent component to our PLP’s. At our Parent/Teacher conferences, teachers will ask parents to make a commitment to what you are willing to do to help us meet our goals for your child. Some teachers may send out a request for this information in advance of the conference and some may talk about it at your conference. We are not necessarily asking for parents to change what you are doing, or make any new sacrifices. However, we want you to formalize your commitment to our ongoing partnership.

So what might you commit to? I will use myself as an example. We read to our kids every night before they go to bed. However, we are often in a hurry to get them to sleep so I don’t often ask them to tell me about the story we read. I know that checking for understanding is a critical reading skill, so I am going to commit to asking my kids to give me some details about the stories we read each night. Hopefully this example helps.

Thanks!
David

Weekly Blog 10/2

Dear Wines Families,

Here is all the news for the week:

Walk to School Friday

Friday we begin our month-long celebration of “Walktober” here at Wines. We encourage all kids to walk to school this Friday and every Friday in October. We will also walk next Wednesday in honor of International Walk to School Day. Check with your neighbors for meeting locations! For bus riders, the busses will drop off at the Forsythe south lot where I will meet them and walk to Wines together. Students in AM care can join me for the walk to Forsythe and back.

Run-a-Thon

Our annual Run-a-Thon is next Friday, October 11^th. This is a great day at school and it is also one of our largest fundraisers. This year, we will again use proceeds from the Run-a-Thon to purchase new playground equipment. In addition, all of the money raised by 5^th graders will go directly to supporting the 5^th grade camp trip in May. Finally, 10% of our earnings will go to charity. Students are voting for which charity we will support this year. The three finalists are Peace Neighborhood Center, Leslie Science Center, and the Healing Wall Project at Mott Children’s Hospital. The winning charity will be announced at our Run-a-Thon kickoff pep rally on Friday afternoon. Next Wednesday in the Wednesday Folder, your child will come home with a pledge envelope for the Run-a-Thon. There are also online pledge opportunities (great for out of town friends and family). We are hoping to have 100% participation from Wines students this year. There is no pledge too small!!

We still need volunteers on the day of Run-a-Thon. Please sign up at this link:  http://vols.pt/dxUerY

If you would like to come cheer your child on, we hope you can join us for all or part of the morning. To help you plan, here are the approximate start times for each grade level:

9:30-3^rd Grade

9:50-4^th Grade

10:10-5^th Grade

10:30-2^nd Grade

10:45-Kindergarten

11:00-1^st Grade

Run-a-Thon Spirit Week!

Don't forget that Spirit Week is next week. This is a fun way to display some team and individual spirit as it leads up to the Wines Run-a-Thon on Friday, October 11.

Monday 10/7:  Wacky Hair or Hat day

Tuesday 10/8:  Pajama Day

Wednesday 10/9:  Biggest Fan (Sports) Day

Thursday 10/10: Fashion Disaster Day

Friday 10/11:  Team Unity Day* and Run-a-Thon!

*Parents: You may want to see if your child's teacher would like any help in motivating their class to display their team spirit in some wacky way!

Girl Scout Round Up

We will have a Girl Scout Round Up on Oct 3^rd at 7pm. There will be information about Girl Scouts and sign ups for each of our 3 troops—Daisies (K-gr1), Brownies (gr2-3), and Juniors (gr 4-5). We have an exciting year ahead and can’t wait to tell everyone about it! 

The first Brownie meeting will also take place on Oct 3^rd from 3:45-5 before the round up. We will welcome both new and returning 2^nd and 3^rd grade Brownies! The first Junior meeting will be on Oct 10^th from 3:45-5:30. The first Daisy meeting will be finalized and announced in the next few days. Meetings will occur every other week on Thursday.  Even if your daughter has a conflict for part of the year on our meeting days we encourage you to join us if she is interested!

Please email sknoel@umich.edu with ANY questions or if your daughter is interested but you are not able to attend the Round Up!

MEAP

The annual state MEAP test begins for 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grades next week. I will be sending out some more specific information to families in those grades. However, the schedule is as follows:

Tuesday 10/8—3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade (Reading Day 1)

Wednesday 10/9—3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade (Reading Day 2)

Thursday 10/10—4^th Grade (Writing Day 1)

Tuesday 10/15—3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade (Math)

Wednesday 10/16—4^th Grade (Writing Day 2), 5^th grade (Science)

As always, we simply ask that students come to school well rested and ready to work hard. Of course, we ask that every day! Please do not plan to take your child out of school early on any of the MEAP days. Thanks!

Thanks,

David