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

Weekly Blog 9/26

Dear Wines Families,
Sorry my blog post is a day late this week.

Attached to yesterday's email was the latest edition of the Wines Times Newsletter. There is a lot of information in there, so please have a look. September is the only month with two newsletters going home. The rest of the year, please expect a monthly Wines Times.

I have a couple of other quick announcements in addition to what is in the Wines Times.

Run-a-Thon
We need your help for this year's Wines Run-a-Thon.  Please sign up for a volunteer position here or contact Jennifer Hall at a2halls@gmail.com.  Many thanks! An informational flyer about the Run-a-Thon and the many events leading up to the Run-a-Thon was attached to yesterday's email.

PTO Volunteers Still Needed
If you have not had a chance to sign up to volunteer at one (or more!) of our many events, sign up sheets have been put out near the Kindergarten doors inside next to Shanna Middleton’s classroom. In addition, we are looking for chairpersons for a few events. Please stop by the Kindergarten area to sign up. You can also contact Nicole Brittis at nicolebrittis@hotmail.com if you have any questions or would like to sign up.

Skyline's Homecoming is this Week!
Please join us for Skyline's Homecoming Parade this Friday, September 27 at 5:30 PM!

Also, join the Skyline Athletic Booster Club for Homecoming Pre-Game Festivities from 5:00 to 7:00. We will have Satchel's BBQ sandwich meals, blue cotton candy, Washtenaw Dairy blue ice cream and popcorn for sale before, during, and immediately after the Parade that starts at 5:30. Then stay to cheer on the Skyline Varsity football team as we play our cross-town rivals Pioneer! Wear Skyline blue!

Hope to see you Friday night.  Go Eagles!!


That’s it for this week. Be sure to have a look at the Wines Times.

David

Weekly Blog 9/18

Dear Wines Families,

This will be a fairly lengthy post today. But that is good news because it means there are a lot of great things happening at Wines!

Final Call for ThinkStretch Books
If your child has not turned in his or her ThinkStretch workbook, there is still time! We will be passing out medals on Friday. As a reminder, every child who completes any part of the workbook will receive a medal. If you have a book lying around your house, have your child bring it to their teacher by Friday.

Show Your Support
I want to remind everyone of the Show Your Support fundraiser happening at the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop this week: Please shop at the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop this week (through Saturday 9/21) to earn money for Wines and Lunches with Love. For every $5 you spend, you'll earn a token that you can put in a jar for Wines. Wines and the 3 other schools will split $1000, based on the proportion of tokens in their jars. The money we earn will go toward the Lunches with Love program, which provides lunches to needy families. The PTO Thrift Shop is located at 2280 S Industrial Hwy.

Run-a-Thon Oct. 11th
The Run-a-Thon is coming up on October 11th. This is one of the most exciting days of the year here at school and it is also one of our two large fundraisers. Attached to today’s email is a flyer with information about the Run-a-Thon. If you have any questions, please contact Frances Carlson at fslcarlson@me.com or Liz Marek at ajkeam@aol.com. More information will be coming home over the next couple of weeks.

Wines Speech Team
As I mentioned last week, we have a new club for students to join: the Wines Speech Team. If your 4th or 5th grade child loves to argue and perform, or would just like to improve their confidence, speaking and thinking abilities, this is the club for them. It's like track and field for the brain. All students love the Team Debate and Improvisation events, but a brave few also compete in literary performance events like Original Prose & Poetry. Here's how Improv works: Imagine you and a partner are given a topic and have only a few minutes to plan out a funny skit on that topic. The topic could be something like "How do you manage bossy parents? Go!" It sounds hard, but it's actually quite fun, and kids even do it better than professionals a lot of the time. This is a fun competitive activity with the side benefits of challenging kids’ intellectually and reducing their fear of public speaking for the rest of their lives. The club will meet on Wednesdays after school 3:45-5:15pm in room 100. Contact Shawn Batt at (517) 281-8521  shawnbatt@gmail.com to sign up and/or volunteer to help out.

Cub Scout Round Up
The annual Wines Cub Scout Round Up is next Wednesday, September 25th at 7:00 here at Wines. Scouting is available to boys in grades 1-5. If you are interested in learning more about our scout troops, please come to the round up. An informational flyer is attached to today's email with contact information for the scout leaders.

Back to School Paperwork
One final reminder about the back to school paperwork that was sent home the first week of school. If you are like me, you may still have a small pile of papers sitting on a countertop. If everyone could please make sure everything that needs to come back to school comes back, we would really appreciate it!

Finally, I want to let everyone know that both Robin and I will be out of the building on Friday afternoon. We have the office covered by a very competent person. However, if we could please limit the amount of last minute changes to kids’ schedules, it will help us out a great deal. Thanks!

David

Weekly Blog 9/11

Dear Wines Families,

It was great seeing everyone at Curriculum Night last night. If you were not able to come or you forgot to sign up for a Parent/Teacher conference, please contact your child’s teacher to set up a date.

I want to remind everyone that a red take home folder was sent home with each child last Friday with all the important back to school information. Many of the forms need to be brought back to school. Please try to do that ASAP. If for some reason you did not receive a folder, please let the office know and we will get the information to you.

ThinkStretch summer workbooks are due on Friday. Please have your child turn the workbook in to his or her teacher. Medals will be going home for all participants next week.

I want to highlight a new club at Wines. This year we will have an after school Speech Debate Team. Participation in speech and debate is a great way to improve students' confidence and hone their creative and academic abilities. We are starting up a team here at Wines and are looking for parents and/or staff to help out. The team is for 5th graders and patient 4th graders. It will meet Wednesdays 3:45-5:15pm in Room 100 starting September 25, and there are 4-6 Saturday tournaments during the year where students can compete in team debate and several performance events (improv, prose & poetry, oral interpretation). Please contact Shawn Batt if you are interested in helping or if you know of students who would like to participate (shawnbatt@gmail.com  | 517-281-8521)

That’s all for today!

David

Weekly Blog 9/4

Dear Wines Families,

What a great start to the new school year! These first two days have been better than we could have even expected and we are not only up and running, we are in “midseason form”.

For our new families at Wines, welcome to Wines and welcome to my weekly blog post. Please look for a weekly “Wednesday Email” from me all year and this weekly blog. The information in the blog is the same as in the Wednesday Email—minus attachments. Some weeks there is a lot of information to include, and other weeks there is less. I will try to limit the emails to one a week, though often there are important other announcements that need to go out at a different time. This week, for instance, you will receive an email from me on Friday with our September edition of the Wines Times newsletter.

Looking ahead, please mark your calendars for next Tuesday, September 10th for Curriculum Night. Curriculum Night is will take place from 6:30-8:00 PM. At 6:30, parents are invited to your child’s classroom for a teacher presentation. At 7:00 PM I will be speaking to our community in the Multi-Purpose Room. At 7:30, teachers will present a second time in order to meet the needs of families with more than one child at Wines or for families that could not make the 6:30 session. Please note that Curriculum Night is for adults and, unfortunately, we will not have childcare available.

On Friday, your child will receive a red folder with all of the beginning of the year paperwork. Please take some time this weekend to go through the packet and return any necessary documents next week.

We had a tremendous amount of participation in our summer learning ThinkStretch program. Please note that ThinkStretch booklets are due next Friday, September 13th. Your child can turn in the booklet at any time to their classroom teacher.

Attached to today’s email was a form looking for volunteers in the Media Center. This is a great place for parents to volunteer and there are opportunities daily!

That’s it for now!

David