Mon Nov 14 – PTSA community meeting, featuring Winterhaven Math
Overview– 6:30-8pm
From The PTSA President
It
was great to see so many of you recently at the Fall Frolic. What a
great turnout for such a fun event. I want to offer a gigantic thank
you to Julie Young for once again orchestrating it all, and gratitude
to all the volunteers who helped make it happen.
We
had great participation and lively discussion at the last PTSA
community meeting focused on our
science program
with Ms. Sexton and Mr. Dyer. I am looking forward to the next one on
Monday, November 14th where Mr. Avison and Mr. Levear will lead a
similar conversation on the arc of mathematics our kids experience
from kindergarten through 8th grade. This meeting will also feature
Kristin Doherty, Winterhaven parent and volunteer with Moms Demand
Action for Gun Sense in America, introducing the SMART framework to
help parents and adults prevent child gun deaths and injuries - come
hear what it's all about and learn how to help keep your child safe.
Final,
a BIG
thank you to all the
families who have already contributed to the Pledge Drive. These
contributions allow our teachers to offer field trips and other
special programs and activities to our kids, fund the elementary and
middle school electives treasured by our youngsters, make Battle of
the Books books more accessible to participants, improve our
emergency preparedness and so much more. If
you have not yet pledged, there is still time to do so and take
advantage of the 2016 tax deduction.
Contributions large and small are welcome through the Donate button
on our website
or by dropping a check to Winterhaven PTSA at the office. Thank you!
Alan
Scott
initiatives & announcements
Dine
out for Winterhaven - Mark your calendar!
Our first one is November
1 at Pizzicato
– Dough for Dollars at 1630 SE Bybee Blvd, Portland Oregon - We
get 20% of ALL SALES from open to close ALL day!!!
THIS IS COMING RIGHT UP!! This year, kids get to enter a contest to
have their favorite pizza on the menu for that night. ( mail with
more details shortly). Portland is filled with wonderful family
oriented restaurants that are also willing to contribute to our
school. We try to partner with one restaurant each month to help
raise money for our children. Save the dinner dates of 12/5-6, 1/11,
3/14 and find our entire schedule here on the site.
(https://sites.google.com/a/winterhavenschool.org/home/ptsa/fundraising/ways-to-donate)
Amazon
Smile –
Did
you know that every time you buy on Amazon,
you
can prompt Amazon to donate to our school?!
It
is super easy. All
you need to do is to remember to go to AmazonSmile.com instead of
Amazon.
When
first visiting AmazonSmile, you will be prompted to select a
charitable organization. Chose Winterhaven PTSA. Here’s a link to
get you there fast - https://smile.amazon.com/ch/93-6039299.
For eligible purchases at AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation
will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to the customer’s selected
charitable organization. That can REALLY add
up fast
Variety
Show:
The annual Winterhaven Variety Show is happening this January. It can
be a busy time of year, so we wanted to encourage students to start
preparing their act now so that they can be ready for auditions the
week after winter break. The Variety Show gives us a way to showcase
creative and interesting things that the students enjoy doing. As
always, we are looking for a VARIETY
of acts to be in the show. Music, dance, comedy, skits, athletics,
speech, novelty, magic...just to name a few.
Box
Tops raise
money!
–
Lots of companies have joined the Box Tops program – Cascadia
Farms; Zip Lock; General Mills products; Annie’s Organics; Nature
Valley – the list goes on and on. In fact, here’s a link to the
full list of products -
http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/participating-products.
Look for a coupon like the one below; clip it; and stuff it into the
bag hanging on the PTSA bulletin board outside the School Office.
It’s easy. And it works!
Winterhaven
Directory
The
Winterhaven
parent directory
DRAFT is available now – Please
review your information to make sure it was correctly transcribed
before we finalize the directory for the school year.
This directory is tied to the winterhaven domain, and in order to
view / comment on this directory, you
must be logged in to Google using your winterhavenschool.org
user id.
If you don't know your password (or user ID which is typically
firstname.lastname@winterhavenschool.org), you will need to send a
request to reset it or request it through
admin@winterhavenschool.org.
Your directory information is (hopefully) on each tab for the grade
in which you have a child attending Winterhaven at
this site address http://tinyurl.com/hob5x6s.
It is comment only in Google Sheets in
order
to prevent anybody else from editing your personal information. Any
parent who opted out of the directory on the PTSA Communication
Permission Form has had their information redacted.
Chinook
books – Do
you have one yet?
They
are an important
part of the PTSA’s
fundraising efforts and a great investment. Half of the cost goes
directly to support our kids and their teachers, by using just a few
coupons at local businesses you likely already patronize, you can
recoup the full cost of the book, and then you can use the rest of
the book to discover and enjoy new experiences while supporting local
businesses and organizations. The books pay for themselves and it is
a win-win! How cool is that? Books ($22), Apps ($15), and combo
packs (a book and an app for $30 - it's the best deal!). To purchase,
contact Nicole Cordan at Rcordan@pewtrusts.org.
(Or you can post a paypal
payment on the site
http://www.winterhavenschool.org/ptsa/fundraising
and then email.)
Shamrock
Run!
Join the Winterhaven Team for the annual Shamrock
run. If we get enough participants we can raise PTSA funds while
keeping our bodies moving! The event
is on Sunday March 19, 2017 and register for team 8705. Contact
marisha.childs@gmail.com.
OPPORTUNITIES TO GET INVOLVED – We
need You!
Find our volunteer sign up
page at http://www.winterhavenschool.org/volunteer,
or email volunteer@winterhavenschool.org
for more info:
-
Parent
elective helpers needed Friday mornings this autumn! Middle
School electives run 10/28, 11/18, 12/2, 12/9 & 12/16 from
8:30-10:10 am. We need helper parents to support our awesome
teachers in classes like Multicultural Foods! Holiday Crafts!
Variety Show! Classic movies! Yearbook! Improv Theater! If you have
an extra hour or two on Friday mornings, we would love your
assistance!!
-
Calling
all Web Designers: Wouldn't you love to see
our PTSA website go from OK to Amazing? Web designers, you know who
you are. Please email admin@winterhavenschool.org
if you'd like to be the person to take us to the next level!
-
Conference
Meals for Teachers:
During Parent-Teacher Conferences Nov
9 and 10th,
our wonderful teachers go from morning to night to talk with us all.
They barely have enough time breathe, much less eat. Providing some
food during the long hours of conferences is a great way to show
just how much we appreciate them. We've divided the dishes up into
manageable parts, together we can provide amazing, convenient meals
for them. If you need to bring food earlier than indicated on the
sign up, please feel free to do so. Visit this sign up link to help
with food for our teachers: http://signup.com/go/Aj5iPt
-
Variety
Show Helpers:
The annual Winterhaven Variety Show is coming up this January. We
will be sending out some more information in a few weeks, but if you
are interested in helping with auditions, stage crew, lights &
sound, etc. we would love to hear from you. Most of the events
happen after school and in the evening hours, so it's a great
opportunity to help outside of school hours. Please email Kari at
karijkey@gmail.com
if you would like to be involved.
-
Cultural
enrichment: Do
you have knowledge of cultural experiences/ceremonies that you'd be
willing to share/teach kiddos at our school? Dia
de los muertos? Dusshera? Ashura? Mashujja? United Nations Day? You
name it, I'm interested in speaking with you to expand the minds of
our kiddos. Be it a virtual world trip with a tasting table potluck,
our community deserves to see the world beyond Portland. Also,
we
could
use a
few fab parents to help us bring these super fun and educational
experiences to life. Please
contact marisha.childs@gmail.com
-
Community Events:
Community Events Coordinator needed:
Partner with the PTSA Volunteer Chair to support several key events
throughout the year, including coordinating childcare for PTSA
Community meetings, and organizing volunteers for Move-Up day and
the Spring Carnival. If you are interested, please contact Kari Key
at volunteer@winterhavenschool.org
for more info.
-
Lost and Found needs
YOU:
Five minutes,
one day a week!! If each parent spent just
a few
minutes, one day a week at the school hanging up 3 jackets, rinsing
out one lunchpail, or throwing out one bag of leftover food, we
would never have a stinky lost and found again! This is the shortest
volunteer job you could ask for - and SO NEEDED!!
accomplishments & Updates
Native
Garden Make-over!
Volunteers
planted dozens of native plant species, pruned shrubs, moved five
cubic yards of compost, and restored the native area around the
driveway. Thank you to all
of our awesome community members who
came together and gave our native garden some
love.
A big thanks to Cindy Hayford for delivering the plants and
to Fawn Lengvinis for organizing!
It takes a village to raise a forest. Your work is going to give our
kids a great year of exploration.