Leopard's Spot

GIVING THANKS IN A SEASON OF GIVING

Thanksgiving is always an opportunity to reflect on the experiences and people that enrich our lives. Sitting down with family and friends last week brought made us all thankful for everyday things. We'd like to extend that gratitude through this season of giving. Take a moment
over the next couple of weeks to express gratitude to the people who make your life better in both large and small ways. "Thank You" might be the best gift you give this year.

Within our La Entrada School community we have dedicated teachers, helpful staff, and those amazing bus drivers, who make each day better for our children and ourselves, to thank. As representatives of the parent community, the PTA has a large number of volunteers to thank
for giving their gifts of time, dedication, and persistence in helping create the fabric of our school community.

Renee Greenstein, Tutoring Center Volunteer Coordinator, is responsible for finding long- and short- term tutors for children at La Entrada. Her effort is important and selfless. Please give her a call if you can give an hour a week to help a district child.

Marcia Hakansen and Alka Sehgal, Geo Bee Coordinators, organized a volunteers, judges and contestants for a wonderful afternoon of geography and competition.

Lori Brockman, Liesl Noble, Linda Waissar, Maureen Goode, and Eva Bryer, Book Fair Committee, spent hours organizing and staffing another wonderful book fair for our community. Their efforts and your purchases raised funds to acquire materials for the library that every
student can use.

Susanna Segre and Limor Wilks, Teacher Appreciation, for their ongoing monthly efforts at expressing our gratitiude for our teachers and staff.

Susan Peterson, chair, Julia Massa, volunteers, and Mary Zarucchi, outreach coordinator, Hot Food, organize our largest ongoing program and make sure it runs flawlessly.

Terry Aguiar, Flu Shot Clinic, not only handles PTA membership, but she organized a flu shot clinic during conferences to help keep us well.

Hot Lunch Volunteers--five people a shift, two shifts a day, five days a week-spend 45 minutes each shift, sometimes working two in a week, to make sure the Hot Food meals are distributed. It would be impossible to have this program without those volunteers.

Thank you!

Now, looking forward.....

Holiday Faire will be held in Jensen Hall this Tuesday, December 7. Libby Beasley, Kristin Galvin, and their team of volunteers have created a great group of projects for students to make and later give. In addition, there is a purely philanthropic activity, writing letters to men and women serving in the Armed Forces oversees. Enjoyed by children, volunteers and parents, the day promises to be fun!

For our young scientists, the Science Fair Committee is working on plans for the Science Fair in January 19-21. Encourage your scientist to look for an announcements on information meetings during lunch, so they can plan can work on their project over the winter break.

Bee Season approaches. The Spelling Bee is tentatively scheduled for January 7 and the PTA coordinators are working on arranging the event.

Please read the short article on hot food that follows.

With gratitude,
Marsha and Lucia

A message about Hot Food..

Please talk with your children about the lunchtime rules and policies.

Choice Lunch (http://www.choicelunch.com/) is the company that provides hot lunches to La Entrada students. Choice Lunch was chosen because it allows for online ordering and payment, a wide variety of entree choices each day, and the flexibility to change or cancel lunches up to the day before. Each lunch is comprised of an entrée, one fruit or vegetable, one snack (such as a cookie or pop chips) and a drink. Students bringing lunch from home may pre-puchase milk
tickets online (24 tickets for approximately $15). Each ticket is good for one beverage when presented to the lunch line volunteers. Drinks are not provided to students who do not present a milk ticket.

Children are expected to act with integrity as they move through the lunch line taking only what they are have purchased. By the request of the administration, children taking more than one entrée, one vegetable or fruit, one snack, and one drink per hot lunch order or a drink without a milk ticket will be reported to the Principal's office for stealing, identified as a serious behavior in the school handbook.

If a child did not bring a lunch from home and would like to purchase a lunch from Choice Lunch, they must wait until all pre-ordered lunches are served. If there are lunches available, the child may agree to buy an emergency lunch. If there are no lunches available, the child may choose to purchase milk and cereal. The cost of this lunch plus an administrative fee will be added to their Choice Lunch account. If a parent has opted-out of the Choice Lunch program, or if there is an unpaid balance with Choice Lunch, an emergency lunch cannot be sold.

Choice Lunch does not provide backup lunches for free.

If you have questions please contact Hot Lunch chair, Susan Petersen.

HOLIDAY FAIRE REMINDERS

The La Entrada Holiday Faire is tomorrow, Tuesday December 7th!! Samples of many of the projects are on display in the PTA glass case outside of Jensen Hall. Hopefully the kids have had a chance to take a sneak peek.

Please have your child bring a handled paper bag with their name written prominently on the outside to carry their projects home. Some of the projects can get a little messy, so best not to wear your favorite clothes!

Thank you in advance the many volunteers who give their time to make this an extra special day for the kids and the La Entrada Community!

THE SCIENCE FAIR IS BACK!

It's that time of year again - time for the annual La Entrada Science Fair, to be held on the evening of January 19-21, 2011. This is a great experience for students and for parents to come up with a cool science idea, develop a hypothesis, design and carry out an experiment, and then present the results at the Science Fair. We all use the scientific method every day and don't even know it - when cooking a meal, kicking a soccer ball on a windy day, or even walking in the rain or doing the dishes!

Our parent volunteers (PJ Utz and Sarah Bodary) are scientists, and one is a professor at Stanford, and they will help you and your child with all aspects of the project - brainstorming ideas, designing experiments, and putting together a poster to present on the night of the Science Fair.

Please encourage your son or daughter to attend one of the lunchtime Science Fair Planning Meetings in Room 52 (Mrs Tinkham's class) on Mon 12/13 and Fri 12/17 when volunteers will go over how to put together a fun and educational project. If you have any questions, please feel free to email PJ Utz.