Weekly Blog 3/13

Dear Wines Families,

It finally feels like we are back into full swing now with a few full five day weeks under our belts. Here is the news for the week:

Report Cards

Report Cards will be sent home with students next Friday, March 22^nd.

Welcoming Schools Update

Thanks to our outstanding teachers and students, our entire school has been engaged in our Welcoming Schools lessons this month. Each classroom has or will soon be engaging in lessons related to inclusion, being an ally, bystander roles, words that hurt, and how to feel safe in school. I’ve had the opportunity to visit classrooms during these lessons and the work has been quite powerful and this school wide effort, we hope, will have a positive impact on all kids. We are proud to be part of this important work.

In addition to the classroom lessons, we are also initiating our “Family Book Bags” as part of our school-wide diversity literature project. Each classroom has family book bags with titles related to diversity and inclusion. Students will have the opportunity to take these bags home and families can choose to spend time together reading these books. We are getting a bit of a late start on this project and having this as part of the regular classroom routine will take some time. But we are excited to get started and we hope to have a great launch this year as a great kick off to a full year of use next year. In today's email, I included a document with more information on this prjelow is a link to information and book titles about this project.

Disability Awareness Workshop - Call for Volunteers!

Our annual Disability Awareness Workshop will be on Wednesday, April 17. We're in need of parent volunteers to help out with this wonderful event for our 4th grade students. You do not have to be a parent of a 4th grader to volunteer! 

To volunteer, sign up at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080c48afaf28a31-disability. Any questions, please contact Jessi Averill 267-495-6208 or jessi.averill@gmail.com

Wines “Off Site” Auction April 27

Get your babysitters lined up for our fantastic adult event on April 27^th. The annual Wines Auction (silent and live) takes place on April 27 at the Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter (formerly Null. Same location as previous years, new name). We hope to see you there. Below is a flyer with more information. Please mark your calendars!

That’s all for this week.

David

Weekly Blog 3/6

Dear Wines Families,

A second week of five days of school! It certainly now seems like we are back into the daily groove. Here are the announcements for this week:

Wines Wahoo: This Friday Evening at Forsythe

Join Sick of the snow? Tired of the cold? This Friday is the Wines Wahoo!!! Join us for a warm tropical evening guaranteed to drive away the winter blues! Thank you to all the volunteers so far but we need more to make this event happen (even middle and high schoolers can volunteer). Please consider helping out for a bit, catch up with friends and then join in the fun!

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10c0c4da5a622a75-wines

Final Open Gym: Friday March 15

Our PTO sponsored Friday evening open gym has one final date. Join us next Friday, March 15 at 6:00 PM in the gym.

Box Top Winners!

Congratulations to Mrs. Rodriguez class!  They brought in the most Box tops for Education for the first half of the year!  They have won $50 in Scholastic Dollars to buy books for their classroom.  Keep those Box tops coming and be sure to mark them with your teacher’s name to help your class win the prize for the second half of the year!  The competition is tight!

March is Reading Month

Our first week of March is Reading Month has come to a close. New reading logs go home today. You may have heard that I have challenged the school to have at least 90% of our students turn in full reading logs all month. If we hit 90%, I will spend an overnight on the roof of our school.

That’s all for this week. Hope to see you at the Wahoo!

David

Weekly Blog 2/27

Dear Wines Families. 

Today’s update is a fairly lengthy one. Please find some time to read through this important information.

Early Release Today

We dismiss at 1:29 today. There is no PM Childcare.

International Night Tonight

The third time will be the charm! Join us for International Night tonight! 6:30-8:00 PM.

Wines Times

Below is al ink to the latest edition of the Wines Times newsletter. Please have a look. Of note in the Wines Times, please see the information from Mrs. Evaldson about March is Reading Month. The first reading logs go home today.

http://winespto.org/docs/wtFeb2019.pdf

Wines Wahoo March 8

The annual Wines Wahoo is scheduled for March 8th at Forsythe Middle School. This Wines tradition needs volunteers to make it another fantastic event. Please click on the link below to volunteer.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4da5a622a75-wines

Spirit Week Next Week

As part of our lead up to the Wahoo, our Student Council has scheduled a spirit week for next week. Below are the days:

Monday - Pajama Day

Tuesday - Wacky Hair/Hat Day

Wednesday - Crazy Mustache Day 

Thursday - Crazy Sock/Mismatch Shoes Day

Friday - Hawaiian Shirt Day

Science Olympiad

WESO registration is open.  Teams will be formed this week for practices starting the week of March 4th, eek that's next week!  Please register your children, if interested:  https://goo.gl/forms/1eZhqMg9eGF0sfUf1

Great Ideas Grant Deadline Friday

Do you have a great idea? The Great ideas Grant program is an opportunity for Wines students, parents, and staff to turn a great idea into a funded program to benefit the Wines community! The grant approval committee meets twice a year to vote on applications. Submissions are now accepted online only.  The next deadline is March 1, 2019.

The links for the Adult and Child application can be found on the Wines PTO website: www.winespto.org 

Don’t let a great idea go to waste! Submit now! Submit several! We look forward to hearing from you. Contact: Sumi Sood – sumi.sood1@gmail.com

Welcoming Schools

As you know, we have worked closely with the Human Rights Campaign’s Welcoming Schools program this year. This has included staff training, parent workshops at Parent Involvement Day, and ongoing classroom lessons and corresponding materials. Our school has now embarked on a school wide inclusion project with more lessons and materials from Welcoming Schools. In addition, we will soon be starting a take home Family Book Bag program for families. In the coming days, I will be sharing more specific information about what we are doing and how you can support our work at home.

Sorry for the long message this week, but as you can see, we have a lot happening here at Wines!

David

Weekly Blog 2/20

Dear Wines Families,

Sorry for the late message today, I’ve been busy getting my head above water today. With some success… Here is the news for the week.

Let’s Try Again! International Night Wednesday, February 27^th

International Night has been rescheduled for next Wednesday, February 27. The planning team could still use a couple of volunteers, mostly with event set-up and clean-up. Please sign up to help here: here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a4fa8af2da1ff2-international

Science Olympiad

Due to the snow days, there has been a delay in getting the sign up out for Science Olympiad. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything. Please look for a sign up and information either tomorrow or Friday. I will send via email. Practices will begin the week of March 4^th.

Great Ideas Grants

Do you have a great idea? The Great ideas Grant program is an opportunity for Wines students, parents, and staff to turn a great idea into a funded program to benefit the Wines community! The grant approval committee meets twice a year to vote on applications. Submissions are now accepted online only.  The next deadline is March 1, 2019. The links for the Adult and Child application can be found on the Wines PTO website: www.winespto.org 

Don’t let a great idea go to waste! Submit now! Submit several! We look forward to hearing from you. Contact: Sumi Sood – sumi.sood1@gmail.com

 The WINES TIMES is Accepting Student Art!

We need to spruce up the masthead of the WINES TIMES and are asking students to consider submitting original art incorporating the words WINES TIMES into their piece to use as the front page header of the PTO newsletter.

It would be best to keep the design 4-5 inches wide and 3 inches in height. The chosen piece will be randomly selected from all submissions. One submission per student, please. Art can be placed in the PTO mailbox in the office or emailed to newsletter@winespto.org.

Wines Open Gym

We had great success at the first Friday Open Gym. The next open gym dates are: Friday, February 22, March 1, March 15.  6-7pm.

News from the PTOC

All are welcome!

The Ann Arbor PTO Council is Unifying Our Community Through Engagement!

Please join us for our PTO Council Member Meeting.

DATE:   Monday, February 25. TIME:   7:00-8:30 PM

LOCATION:  Westerman Preschool & Family Center, 2775 Boardwalk, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 

TOPIC:  Special Education: Ins & Outs of Process and Services across the AAPS

Concetta Lewis, Interim Executive Director of Special Education will provide an overview of special education within the district and how the process works for accessing services. 

Information will be useful for any parent to understand the context of how specialized instruction and supports are delivered.

Open Mic Question & Answer Session  

Thanks for all your support over the past week. I really appreciate it.

David 

Weekly Blog 2/6

Dear Wines Families,
Well, for the third week in a row, I find myself at my kitchen table typing my weekly message! The crazy thing is that all in all, this has been a fairly mild winter. Our biggest problem at school right now is mud on the playground—which is usually a spring problem. It does look like we will have four days of school this week, which is a step in the right direction. Lots of information today, so please read below:

Parent Involvement Day/Welcoming Schools RSVP’s: LAST CALL!
Thank you to everyone who has RSVP’s for Parent Involvement Day on Monday and also signed up for the Welcoming Schools sessions during the day. Below are the links once again. It is critical that we have a good count for adult lunches so please RSVP if you plan on coming on Monday.
PARENT INVOLVEMENT DAY RSVP
WELCOMING SCHOOLS PARENT WORKSHOP RSVP

Wines Open Gym: This Friday Evening
Burn off some energy.  Play games.  Meet your friends.  Wines Open Gym is an opportunity for Wines students, their younger siblings, and caregivers to utilize the gym space on Friday evenings.  All are welcome.  Bring a basketball, soccer ball, jump rope or just a dry pair of gym shoes.
The first open gym time is THIS FRIDAY, February 8, 6pm-7pm.  A responsible adult must sign students in and out and must remain in the building.  This is not a drop-off event.  Thank you to the Great Ideas Grant program for bringing this opportunity to our community.  We hope to see you there!   Future dates will be announced.

It’s Not Too Late to Sign Up for Lunchtime Extra Specials!
Please contact Michael Newberry at mnewberry88@gmail.com with your child's name, teacher, and their requested activities for each session. We still have availability in the following Extra Specials for Session 1 and Session 2:
TUESDAY:
Paper Airplanes (1st-5th grades, both Sessions)
Recycled Art (1st-5th grades, both Sessions)
STEAM in the Computer Lab (limited availability, 1st-5th grades, both Sessions)

WEDNESDAY:
Logic Games & Puzzles (3rd-5th grades, Session 1; 1st - 5th grades Session 2)
K-Science (K only, both Sessions)

THURSDAY:
K-Art (K only, both Sessions)
Legos (1st-5th grades, both Sessions)
Quiet Reading (1st-5th grades, both Sessions)

FRIDAY:
Arts & Crafts (limited availability, 1st-5th grades, both Sessions)

Save the Date: Wines Auction “off site” Auction April 27
Our annual adults “off site” auction takes place on April 27^th at the Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter (formerly Null—same location as past years). Below is a flyer about this fantastic event.

Great Ideas Grants
Do you have a great idea? The Great ideas Grant program is an opportunity for Wines students, parents, and staff to turn a great idea into a funded program to benefit the Wines community! The grant approval committee meets twice a year to vote on applications. Submissions are now accepted online only.  The next deadline is March 1, 2019.
The links for the Adult and Child application can be found on the Wines PTO website: www.winespto.org
Don’t let a great idea go to waste! Submit now! Submit several! We look forward to hearing from you.
Contact: Sumi Sood – sumi.sood1@gmail.com

International Night: Wednesday Feb. 13
Just a reminder that International Night that was cancelled due to last week’s snow days has been rescheduled for next Wednesday, Feb. 13. See you there!

Thanks, and we’ll see you tomorrow!
David