Weekly Blog 12/14

Dear Wines Families,

Well, winter is certainly here! With winter here to stay for a few months, please remember that students need to come to school prepared to go outside daily. We will go outside when the wind chill is zero degrees or above. Families cannot request that your child stay inside for recess unless we have a note from a doctor. There are a number of important announcements this week.

Science Olympiad Call for Coaches

On-line Coach Sign-Up:  https://goo.gl/forms/dOCRqDhYoCjaSkOu2
No experience necessary.  The number of students that Wines can send to WESO competition on June 3, 2017 is unlimited and we would like to send a record breaking team.  Team assignments will begin right after break, but please realize that unless parents volunteer to coach, teams will not be formed.  Coaches' children will receive priority event placement. Event Descriptions can be found here: https://sites.google.com/a/aaps.k12.mi.us/weso-wizards/events-2017. For questions about Science Olympiad or the registration process email scienceowines@gmail.com.

Lunchtime Extra Specials Begin Jan. 17

As I indicated above, students will go outside daily. However, beginning Jan. 17 we will begin our annual “Extra Specials” program at lunch where we will have indoor activities for kids to choose from. This is one of the Wines students’ favorite activities of the year and we need volunteers to make it happen!  The commitment is only one lunchtime per week, for a total of 6 weeks, starting January 17th. Please contact Kathy Werns (ktwerns@gmail.com) and sign up to lead or assist in an area that interests you.  We are currently in need of one or two more ideas for topics - if you have an idea for an activity that you’d like to lead, please email and let us know.  Younger siblings are always welcome!

Here are some of the activities we are considering:

• Free Dance

• Yoga

• Knitting
• Paper Airplanes
• Legos
• Rainbow Loom

• Sewing and Crafts
• Bal-A-Vis-X
• Board Games

Items needed

For our knitting extra specials, we are in need of a few items. If you have single mittens, single socks, or buttons please send them to the office. Thank you.

Lost and found

Speaking of single mittens, etc., our Lost and Found is again filling up. We will be donating all remaining items before we leave for break next week so please remind your children to look for missing items or come by and have a look!

Staff Gifts

As we approach the holiday season, this is often a time when families seek to find the right gift for their teacher or faculty member. I want to remind families that is it AAPS district policy that school staff can only accept gifts of “token value” and our staff certainly appreciates thoughtful items and cards made by students and families. If you are seeking to make a larger gift that will support our school, you can make a direct donation to our PTO. These tax-deductible donations go directly to support our kids. Our PTO uses funds to purchase technology, improve our playground, send 5^th graders to camp, provide field trips, school assemblies, and much more. Donations can be made at https://squareup.com/market/wines-elementary-school-pto.

Food Drive and Unwrapped Present Drive

Just a reminder that we are currently running a Food Drive in conjunction with Food Gatherers and an unwrapped gift drive with our Girl Scouts and the SOS Center. Bins for both can be found at our school entrances. Thank you!

Reminder: School starts at 8:47

Last Wednesday I sent a reminder about school starting at 8:47 with our first bell at 8:44. On Thursday and Friday, I was so pleased to see great improvement and I thank you! I’m hoping today was just an aberration as I stopped counting at 31 cars that did not even enter the driveway until after the second bell had rung.  Thanks for helping make sure your child starts school on time each day!

That’s all for this week.

David