Weekly Blog 12/4

Dear Wines Families,
There is a lot to report this week! Here goes:

Book Fair
Our Book Fair is off to a great start! Family Night was very well attended last night and I want to thank Amy Unsworth for being quick on her feet and solving a small (well, large) scheduling/space issue last evening after we realized our school was double booked and she had to quickly move a portion of the Fair to the hallway. But everything went very well and it was a great night. The Book Fair will be open until 4:30 today and tomorrow and until noon on Friday.

Report Card Envelopes
Last week your child was sent home with his/her report card. The report card was in a small manila envelope. Please return the envelope to your child’s teacher so we can re-use them later in the year. As always, if you have any questions about your child’s report card (or if you didn’t receive one) please contact your child’s teacher.

Extra Playground Balls/Equipment??
In last week’s Wines Times, there was a blurb about our efforts to increase the number of balls and other playground equipment our kids have at lunch and other recess times. Before we go ahead and purchase more items, we figured we would ask families if you have any extra items at home—I know I do!! Basketballs, soccer balls, four square balls, jump ropes, and sturdy sand box toys will all find a good home here! There is a collection bin in the front hallway.

Science Olympiad
Have questions about Science Olympiad? Want to learn more?  What does a coach do? Who can participate?  Get all your questions answered at an informational meeting on Thursday, Dec 12 from 6:00-7:30 PM in the Wines Multi-Purpose room.

Stay tuned as Science Olympiad registration will start next week!!!
If you have any question, please contact David Creen at David.creen@benefitfocus.com or Rhonda McCammon at rmccamm@umich.edu.

Student Council/Food Gatherers Food Drive
Our Student Council in conjunction with Food Gatherers is again sponsoring a food drive for the next two weeks. There will be blue barrels stationed at three points throughout the school where you can put your donations. The drive will run through Thursday, December 19.

Coat Drive
Our Coat Drive will continue until December 20th. We’ve already filled the box once. Thank You! The box is in the front hallway of our school.

No Dumping Please!
When we arrived back from Thanksgiving break, we were greeted by our recycling dumpster being completely full. It was empty when we left!! Obviously, we don’t know who added their home items to our dumpster, but if you get the urge, please refrain from adding your items to our dumpsters (trash or recycling). We had a full house of friends and family over Thanksgiving and the thought briefly crossed my mind to take a load of overflow trash/recycling to Wines. So I know the temptation!

Introducing Friday Floor Hockey at Wines
I’m excited to announce a new fun and healthy opportunity for all kids and parents at Wines. Beginning after Winter Break, we will be hosting a weekly Friday Floor Hockey game in the gym for all students. Parents are also more than welcome to join us—we have 12 adult sticks. We will begin at 8:00 AM. Participants need to have proper gym footwear—no boots or snowy/wet shoes. Students will place their coats and book bags neatly in the hallway and pick up a stick and protective eyewear as they enter the gym. I’d like to thank our wonderful PTO for supporting parent Michael Fainter’s Great Ideas grant that was used to purchase the adult sticks, eyewear, and some other floor hockey materials.

Wines needs Coaches for the Spring Season of Girls on the Run!
The spring season of GOTR doesn't begin until March 10 but GOTR is already gearing up to get the season started! Wines needs at least 2 volunteer coaches to get our site registered for this spring season. We've had a great team for the last couple of years and we'd like to keep the site going! If you are interested in coaching, please email Jennifer Hall at a2halls@gmail.com for more information.

Thanks!
David

Weekly Blog 11/20

Dear Wines Families,

I have just a few quick announcements today. Please note that the November Wines Times newsletter will be coming out on Friday, so look for an additional email with the Wines Times later this week.

Last Call for Lost and Found
Our Lost and Found items have been on display at the front of the building for a while now. We will be donating all remaining items to charity after Friday. Please come have a look if your child is missing anything.

Coat Drive
Again this year we will be partnering with Reinhart Realty and will be collecting used winter coats. If they are clean, great. But don’t worry—we’ll clean them if necessary. A large box will be in the front lobby starting later today. We will keep the collection going through December.

Book Fair
Please look for lots of information about the Book Fair in the Wines Times on Friday. The Book Fair runs from Dec. 3rd-6th with our Family Night on Dec. 3rd beginning at 6:30

That’s it for this week. Again, look for the newsletter on Friday.

David

Weekly Blog 11/13

Dear Wines Families,
We have a number of important announcements this week:

Picture Retakes Friday
Friday is Picture Retake Day. If your child did not have his or her picture taken or that smile just wasn’t right, Friday is the day. Remember, if your child had his/her picture taken and you would like to try again, please bring the old pictures with you. Attached to today's email were two pieces of information from our picture company including online ordering information.

Movie Night
Friday evening is our first Movie Night of the year. We will be showing My Neighbor Totoro. Kids, if you like to bake, this is your chance to show off your favorite treat! Please bring a plate of baked goods and 20 copies of your recipe to share. Taste what your friends have made and take home new recipes to try. You don't have to participate in the baking event to come to (or eat at) the Movie Night. Everyone who comes can enjoy the baked goods. But this is a fun chance for all bakers to share their recipes and treats. Questions? Contact Kelly Hunter-Bryner: khbryner@yahoo.com.

Book Fair Time!
The Scholastic Book Fair will be held Monday, December 2 - Friday, December 6, 2013. There are plenty of spots for volunteering, don't be shy, we need you to help make this a fabulous fair! (Family Night will be Tuesday, December 3rd).
Please sign up for Wines Book Fair - here's how it works in 3 easy steps:
   1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/DEGoHq
   2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot)
   3. Sign up! Choose your spots - VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!
Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact Lisa Dempsey at lisadempsey5@sbcglobal.net and she can sign you up manually.

Box Tops
Thank you for saving and submitting Box Tops!  Wines just earned $603.70 from submitting 6,037 box tops in November.  Great job!  Please keep them coming! Visit http://www.boxtops4education.com/default.aspx for more Box Top information or to see a full list of participating products.
Contact Stacey Noel: sknoel@umich.edu or Joanne Keeling: keelingj@aaps.k12.mi.us for more information.

Big Thanks!
Finally, I want to thank the Wines Cub Scout Pack 78 for spending last Sunday doing some much needed fall clean up around Wines. The kids (and parents) worked hard and our grounds look fantastic. Thanks Pack 78!!
Thanks!

David

Weekly Blog 11/6

Dear Wines Families,

It’s been a busy week this week. Thank you to all of our parents who attended parent/teacher conferences this week. If you missed your conference time, please contact your child’s teacher to reschedule. It is always our goal to meet with 100% of our parents.

Professional Development
While we understand that having a day off from school can be challenging for parents, I wanted to let everyone know that our teachers had a very productive day of professional development yesterday. During our morning together, Meri Tenney Muirhead and Michele Madden from the University of Michigan School of Education led a workshop on leading/facilitating math discussions.  The discussion-leading skills and techniques encourage students to verbalize their mathematical thinking, back up their ideas with evidence, and critically (and respectfully) incorporate and evaluate one another's ideas in the process of problem solving. These are important skills for students, and are of critical importance in the Common Core standards. Our teachers left with ideas on how to better facilitate math discussion that they can apply right away.

Directory Information
This is the final reminder that we will be producing our yearly Wines Directory next week and we will be using the information we have on file for your family including parent names, address, home phone, cell phones, and email addresses. If there is information that you DO NOT want included, you can let us know by clicking on the link below and filling out the form. It only takes a minute. The deadline to fill out the form is Friday.
Directory Information

Art Room Newsletter
Attached to today’s email is the latest newsletter from Ms. Hendrick in the Art Room. Please have a look!

Skyline Madness
Skyline Boys Basketball is hosting it's 5th annual "SKYLINE MADNESS" 3-on-3 basketball event on Saturday Dec 14. Attached to today’s email is an information/registration packet. The event is for 4th-8th grade boys and girls teams (or very experienced 3rd graders.) We have averaged about 20-25 teams a year and hope to eclipse the 30 team mark this year! You can visit our program website for more details as well www.aaskylinebasketball.com.

That’s all for today!

David

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