Weekly Update 10/28

Dear Wines Families, 

Wow, it is hard to believe that we are approaching the end of October! As always, I hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. While I’m certainly not in everyone’s homes and I know things vary from day to day, I do believe we have gotten much more consistent day to day. We are experiencing fewer technology issues and I’m seeing great things from our kids and teachers. Considering the circumstances, I could not be more pleased with where we are as a school right now. Here is the news for the week. Please note the PTO Wines Times Newsletter. 

Wines Times

Below is a link to the Wines Times Newsletter from our PTO this month. Please take some time to go through the slides. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kpUREuCFtEE5bxMQM9T6N1dUfTXRZqoaMpYEDqKScdY/present?slide=id.g76f0044dcc_0_135

Run a Thon Success!! 

Thank you to everyone who participated in our virtual Run-a-Thon last week. We had lots of participation and it was great to see! As you know, Run-a-Thon is one of our largest fundraisers each year. While this year is different, we are hoping to raise some funds to support our school. The pledge site is still open at https://wines-elementary-school-pto.square.site/shop/run-a-thon/6. This is a great place for out of town friends and families to go to support our school!

Fundraising

Speaking of fundraising, I want to highlight something from the Wines Times. We are thrilled that our new lower elementary playground structure will be installed very soon. I met with the installers yesterday and they are looking to break ground within a week or ten days. So the structure will be here when we return to school! Funds for the playground came from our spring Auction and Country Fair fundraisers from 2019. 

As you know, we did not have our Auction or Country Fair last year and while it is sometimes hard to think about when we are virtual, our PTO and our school continues to rely heavily upon financial support from our families. Run-a-Thon is one way to support the PTO. In addition, being in a virtual world, this year more than ever we will rely on direct donations. If you are interested in making a direct donation to the PTO, you can go to https://wines-elementary-school-pto.square.site/shop/direct-donation/3. Any amount will help ensure that our school continues to function during our closure and has a strong opening when we do return! 

Save the Date: Supply Distribution Nov. 11

We are tentatively scheduled to host our second supply distribution on Nov. 11 from 3:00 PM-6:00 PM. Included in the distribution will be Art supplies for all students, Every Day Math Journal II for 1st-5th grades, and musical instruments for 5th graders. There are a few details to iron out before this event is official, but I wanted to get this on your calendars now as we are hoping to do the entire distribution just one time on the 11th. 

That’s all for this week. As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns. 

David

Weekly Update 10/21

Dear Wines Families, 

I hope this message finds you well. I just have a couple of updates today, each are important. 

Run-a-Thon

I hope everyone was able to participate in today’s virtual Run-a-Thon or able to participate earlier in the week or, perhaps, tomorrow or Friday. In addition to promoting school spirit, the Run-a-Thon is an important fundraiser for our school. We do hope that we have as much participation as possible. Below are the links I shared last week with the participation tracking form, the pledge form, and even the video starring Ms. Wahl again to help pump everyone up! If you have pictures from today or any time this week, please send your pictures to: WinesPTOSecretary@gmail.com.

RUN-A-THON PLEDGE SITE

RUN-A-THON PARTICIPATION TRACKING FORM

RUN-A-THON KICK OFF VIDEO FEATURING MS. WAHL!  

Wednesday Morning Meetings

Beginning next week, our teachers will no longer be hosting morning meetings. Based on feedback from families and students, AAPS has made the decision to make Wednesday’s completely asynchronous days moving forward. Teachers will continue to post asynchronous work for students on Wednesdays. 

State Required Assessments

Next week and possibly the following week, all of our students will be participating in assessments as required by the state of Michigan. Historically, all of our K-5 students participate in the NWEA assessment each fall to meet this requirement. This year, our 3rd-5th graders will participate in NWEA for both math and reading. Our 2nd graders will also participate in NWEA but for math only. In reading, our K, 1st, and 2nd grade students will complete more localized/individual assessments, and Kindergarten and 1st grade will also participate in local assessments in math. For students who are not taking NWEA, there will no changes to their daily schedule to accommodate the assessments. There may be limited changes to schedules for those students taking NWEA. Please look for more detailed information from your child’s teacher as we approach next week. 

Thank you and as always, please let me know if you have any questions. 

David

Weekly Update 10/15

 Dear Wines Families, 

Sorry, I forgot to post this yesterday. 

As always, I hope this message finds you well and your family healthy. We have an exciting week coming up next week with our annual Run-a-Thon with this year being our first virtual event and our event will honor Ms. Wahl for her over 50 years of dedication to Wines and the Ann Arbor Public Schools!! 

Run-a-Thon Next Week!!

Although the school year looks quite different this year, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to continue one of our favorite Wines traditions with a Spirit Week and virtual Run-A-Thon in honor of Ms. Wahl next week!

For new families to Wines, our annual Run-A-Thons serve as our largest fundraiser for the PTO. The Run-A-Thon is held in October during the school day on the soccer fields with a music, prizes, and snacks. Many parents say this is their favorite event at Wines as they join either to cheer their child on or to run along with the kids.

This year, your child will have the whole school week of October 19th (M-F) to collect minutes or miles run or walked, minutes danced, or however they choose to move their bodies to help celebrate our fabulous newly retired PE teacher Diane Wahl. Former Wines students are welcome to join in on the fun!

On Wednesday, October 21st we would love for the whole Wines Community to move their bodies in some way at 9:00 AM immediately following the morning meetings. In our past Run-A-Thons, Young Fives-2nd grades have run for 10 minutes, while 3rd-5th grades have run for 15 minutes. Feel free to pump your own jams in your backyard or neighborhood and see how far your kids can run during that time or make it even longer than 10 or 15 minutes!

At the end of the week, please fill out this FORM with the amount of time your child(ren) spent moving their body for the week. Also, please email photos of spirit week and your Run-A-Thon activities to WinesPTOSecretary@gmail.com. Parent volunteers will create a slideshow of the week's photos that you can share with your child and we can share with Ms. Wahl! We can’t wait to show Ms. Wahl how active our school was in honor of her!

Participate in whatever way works for you! You can simply move your body and record your activity or, if you wish, donate the Wines PTO will benefit by adding to their general fund which will help to support many student and teacher enrichment opportunities when we are able to return to school in person. Find out more about the PTO and how it supports the functioning of our school here. Any way you participate is a celebration of Ms. Wahl! Go Wines Wildcats!

Spirit Week

As we do each year, we will celebrate Run-a-Thon with a special Wines Spirit Week. Our Student Council met yesterday and came up with the following Spirit Days: 

Monday: Pajama Day

Tuesday: Twin Day

Wednesday (Run-a-Thon Day): Class Color Day

Thursday: Wacky Hair Day

Friday: Wines Spirit Day (if your child has Wines Spirit Wear, they can wear it today. If they don’t, they can wear red or anything that shows Wines spirit!). 

Wines Directory

Thanks to the tireless work of Robin Moore, our digital School Directory is ready. Robin used the choices families made when you registered regarding whether your information was included or not. If your information is not included and you would like it to be, please email Robin at moorero@aaps.k12.mi.us and she will update the document. Updates are made in “real time” on the document linked in yesterday's email.

That’s all for this week! 

David

Weekly Update 10/7

Dear Wines Families, 

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend Curriculum Night last evening. Below is a link to a recording of my schoolwide webinar. I started the recording a little late, but the video includes the bulk of my presentation (you’ll miss a bit of my introduction and explanation of my COVID hairstyle and beard length—but not much else!). 

Dr. DeYoung’s Curriculum Night Presentation

Here is the rest of the news for the week: 

Run-A-Thon for Ms. Wahl Week of October 19th

Although the school year looks quite different this year, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to continue one of our favorite Wines traditions with a spirit week and virtual Run-A-Thon. This year, we will celebrate this tradition in honor of Ms. Wahl the week of October 19th!

For new families to Wines, our annual Run-A-Thons serve as our largest fundraiser for the PTO. The Run-A-Thon is held in October during the school day on the soccer fields with a DJ, prizes, and snacks. Each grade takes turns running for a set amount of time. Many parents say this is their favorite event at Wines as they join in either to cheer their child on or to run along with the kids.

This year, your child will have the whole school week of October 19th (M-F) to collect minutes or miles run or walked, minutes danced, or however they choose to move their bodies to help celebrate our fabulous newly retired PE teacher Diane Wahl. Former Wines students are welcome to join in on the fun!

On Wednesday, October 21st we would love for the whole Wines Community to move their bodies in some way at 9 AM following the morning meetings. In our past Run-A-Thons, Young Fives, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade have run for 10 minutes, while 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade have run for 15 minutes. Feel free to pump your own jams in your backyard or neighborhood and see how far your kids can run during that time. Or make it even longer than 10 or 15 minutes!

Stay tuned next week to find out more about the Run-A-Thon including:

· How you can celebrate every day of the week by joining in Spirit Week

· How you can raise money for Wines by being active for Ms. Wahl 

Shout Outs to Ms. Wahl

The PTO newsletter, The Wines Times, wants to send Ms. Wahl our loudest shout outs as she heads to retirement.  Please send your email message to shoutoutsformswahl@gmail.com. Shout outs should be in text, png or jpeg format only. One message/file per family please.  Deadline for shout-outs is 10/12.

That’s all for now. Thanks again for all of your support and as always, please reach out to me with any questions or concerns. 

David