Official Chesterbrook PTA Logo
 
In this issue
Family Directory
Library Volunteers Needed
FLEX Language Classes
Candidate Forum
HomeMade Pizza Night
Collecting Recyclables
Student Support
Haycock Fall Festival
Auction Kick-Off
Book Fair Volunteers
Food Day 2011
Grocery Cards
Quick Links
Join Our Mailing List
Like us on Facebook
Chesterbrook Friends
Coming soon! We'll be highlighting our Business Friends every week.

FAQs
Q: My kid keeps saying she needs money for the Pencil Sale? Weren't pencils included in my School Supply Kit?

A: Technically, yes, your daughter should have all the pencils she "needs" in class. The SCA (Student Council Association) holds a Pencil Sale every Tuesday and Friday outside the library to raise funds for several of their activities. They sell fun or decorative pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, and other novelty items. Items run from $0.50 to $2. Hope she gas fun!

Check out our new FAQs section on the website for more as the year goes on. Send any questions to  Ask Chester and we'll answer them here and/or on the website.
Chesterbrook PTA Weekly Digest

No. 7, October 10, 2011  

 

Tomorrow morning is the October PTA meeting, and we hope to see many of you there. We will have a presentation about improving our outdoor track and two fundraisers offered by a Chesterbrook family and a newcomer to the PTA, among other important business items. 

 

Here's what's coming up in the next few weeks:   

  • PTA Meeting, Tuesday, 10/11, 8:30 am, cafeteria
  • Principal's Coffee, 10/12, Pod
  • FLEX language starting 10/13 and 10/17, details below
  • School Outreach fall clothes and supplies collection, details here 
  • Treasurer and assistant still needed, details here  
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid orders due, 10/18  
  • HomeMade Pizza Night, 10/19, details below 
  • Candidate Forum, Wednesday, 10/19, 7:30 pm, Haycock gym   
  • Food Day 2011, 10/24, details below  
  • Auction Kick-off Meeting, 10/26, 8:45 am, Julia Nelson's home 
  • Box Tops due Friday, 10/28  
  • Book Fair volunteer signups (Fair runs 10/31-11/7), details here and below  
  • Ann Dolin talk on homework strategies, Thursday, 11/17, NOTE DATE CHANGE, details to follow 

Beth Mahood

2011-2012 PTA President 

Family Directory
The Family Directory is almost ready for the printers. If you have not submitted your form, you may not be listed correctly in it, and are at risk of not receiving both school and PTA email notices. Please contact [email protected] immediately to correct this.
Library Volunteers Needed
Thanks to all the new volunteers for the library! We still have a few empty slots and can use a few more volunteers. Those who've volunteered are welcome to sign up for more shifts too. Shift signups are on Sign-Up Genius.

If you are new, and even if you aren't, we encourage you to come to a very brief training -- 5-10 minutes tops! -- as some materials have been moved this year. It's really important that books be shelved correctly so students can find what they need.
There will be a brief training at 8:30 am on Tuesday, October 11, just before the PTA meeting. If that's not convenient, contact Leigh Horner, Library Volunteer Coordinator, to find another time.
FLEX Language Classes
Bonjour! Hola! It's not too late! There is still have room left in both our Spanish class and our French class for this year! Come join us for exposure to a new language, some culture, and fun as your child broadens their horizons and experience. The languages will be taught through conversation using games, songs, drama, drills, dialogues, maps and culturally-related activities. The classes from year-to-year are different, and FLEX guidelines recommend that students take the same class twice before moving on to the next level.
  • Spanish for Grades 1 and 2, Mondays at 12:55 to 1:55 p.m. Starting October 17
  • French for Grades 3-6, Thursdays at 3:25 to 4:25 p.m. Starting October 13
You can find registration instructions and additional details on the PTA website. If you prefer paper registration, please contact a PTA FLEX Coordinator at [email protected].
Candidate Forum
On Wednesday, October 19 at 7:30 pm, the Haycock Elementary PTA is hosting Dranesville School Board candidates Janie Strauss and Louise Epstein for a "Meet the Candidates" event.  Each candidate will have a turn to speak for twenty minutes. This is not a debate but instead a chance for each candidate to introduce herself and present her views.

Please note that parking will likely be tight that evening so plan to carpool and be prepared to park in the neighborhoods surrounding Haycock. We hope that you can join us! Many thanks to the Haycock PTA for planning this important event.
HomeMade Pizza Night
Pizza

Tired of cooking? Need something quick before the Candidate Forum? Take a night off and raise some dough for Chesterbrook! For ONE night only - Wednesday, October 19 - we will receive a donation for every purchase made at the HomeMade Pizza Co. store located at 4514 Lee Hwy (Lee Heights Shopping Center in Arlington). They will donate:

  • $5 for every large pizza sold (including gluten-free crust, available in Medium size only, but we'll still get $5!)
  • $2 for every large salad sold
  • $1 for every dessert sold

Order online at www.homemadepizza.com or by phone (703)527-6556. It's that easy. Pick up your dinner between 3:00-9:00 pm. (No delivery.) Be sure to tell your friends and neighbors, too.

 

If you have never had a HomeMade Pizza, it is made of all-natural ingredients and you bake it at home. They also offer a variety of fresh salads, bake-at-home cookies and ice cream. Let's turn pizza dough into Chesterbrook dough. Questions, contact Julia Nelson.  

Collecting Recyclables

The Art room is in need of materials to use as paint containers and for storage of art materials. If you have any of the following recyclable items, please send them to the Art room:

  • Clean baby food jars
  • gallon ice cream buckets
  • 6oz. plastic yogurt containers (no Yoplait or Chobani)
Student Support Activities
We've recently updated the Student Support section on our webpage with a number of upcoming opportunities for parents sponsored by the FCPS Parent Resource Center. Check them out here! Note that we are also sponsoring our own Ann Dolin: Homework Made Simple presentation on Thursday, November 17 at 7 pm.
Haycock Fall Festival
The Haycock PTA is inviting the whole community to their Fall Festival this year. On Saturday, October 22, from 4-7 pm, they'll have food trucks, live bands, moonbounces, slides, face painting, a ortune teller, scarecrow stuffing...all for $8 kids' admission. Click here for more information.
Online Auction Kick-Off
We are looking to expand our auction team. Everyone is welcome to come to Julia Nelson's house (1970 Massachusetts Avenue) to learn what it's all about and how you can help. The Auction will open from February 12 until March 4, 2012, but we need to get started soon.  Can you help us with any of the following?
  • solicit auction items - NO "cold calling" required, we have a long list of businesses which have donated before with contact information, requests may be made by email, phone or letter
  • enter auction items into online system
  • proofread auction items online, very flexible timing, work when it's convenient for you
  • produce and send thank you letters to donors
  • package and mail auction items 1 week after auction closes
Fall Book Fair is Coming
Our Fall Book Fair is Monday, October 31 - Monday, November 7, 2011.books  Book Fair proceeds will generate funds for our school library.  Volunteer shifts are generally in 1-hour increments, but please sign up for consecutive shifts if you can! Friday, Oct. 28th is set-up and inventory; Monday, Oct 31st and the morning of Tuesday, Nov 1st are preview days; the afternoon of Tuesday, Nov 1st through Monday, Nov 7th are selling days; and Tuesday, Nov 8th we will break down/pack up the remaining books. Questions?  Contact Marsha Camp. Thank you for volunteering!
Food Day 2011
Please support our our Health and Gardens Committee as we join Real Food for Kids Logocelebrated author, chef, educator and advocate, Ann Cooper and award-winning chef and Chesterbrook parent David Guas of Arlington's Bayou Bakery Coffee Bar & Eatery, Real Food for Kids (including our own Rick Barnard), and students, parents, teachers, administrators from across Faifax County as they create a truck-full sized salad! The Food Day 2011 event will be held on Monday, October 24th at 2:30 pm at Wolf Trap Elementary School. RSVP at www.realfoodforkids.org. This is an important event for all Fairfax County parents and students, as leadership from Fairfax County Public Schools will also be in
attendance, discussing ways to provide "real" food for students without
increasing costs. 

A special thanks to local farmer Chris Guerre of Maple Avenue Market
(Vienna, VA) who is donating produce for the event, Whole Foods Market, and Chef Tim Ma, owner of Maple Avenue Restaurant, is coming out to lend a culinary hand.

Food Day, a nation-wide event, organized by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, will encourage people around the country to "eat real" and support healthy, affordable food.  Food Day is modeled on Earth Day and is led by honorary co-chairs Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).
Grocery Cards, Etc.
Giant A  Bonus Bucks We believe many people have not redesignated their grocery cards. You can redesignate your cards in several ways:
  • When you join the PTA online, the form asks for your card numbers for each store.
  • You may email your numbers with store names to Maryam Redjaee, our VP of Fundraising.
  • You may register your numbers yourself through our website.   
Safeway/Escrip will be sending an email based on information you submitted to us; please open it and click on Renew to complete the process.

While you are thinking about free money, we also are an Amazon affiliate, which means that a portion of each purchase comes back to the school when you begin your shopping at http://chesterbrookpta.org/amazonchesterbrook.aspx, which is also on our website. Bookmark it!
Chesterbrook PTA Newsletters Disclaimer

The Chesterbrook PTA Newsletter (Weekly Digest and Digest PLUS) may contain external links to non-Chesterbrook ES PTA websites and access to certain third-party services, which may include, without limitation, social bookmarking services. These external links and services are provided as a convenience, and the Chesterbrook ES PTA is not responsible for the content of any linked website or use of any third-service service. Any external link to a non-Chesterbrook ES PTA website or service accessed from the Chesterbrook PTA Newsletter is independent from the Chesterbrook ES PTA, and the Chesterbrook ES PTA has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policy, terms of use and practices of such website or service.  Any such website or service has terms of use and a privacy policy different from the Chesterbrook ES PTA's privacy policy.  In addition, an external link to any non-Chesterbrook ES PTA website or access to a third-party service does not imply that the Chesterbrook ES PTA endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content or use of such website or service.  By using any such website or service, you expressly release the Chesterbrook ES PTA from any liability arising from your use of such third-party website and service and any related content.