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 September 2009 Newsletter |
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 Welcome Wildcats!
Welcome to the first issue of Wellington Elementary PTA's online newsletter!!! This is one of many new and exciting things planned for this school year! Your Executive Board has been working very hard to bring some of the best opportunities available to Wellington and we're off to a great start!
I am honored to serve as your PTA President this year! Thank you for the opportunity to work so closely with our parents, teachers, administration and the wonderful volunteers that we have at Wellington Elementary!
PTA provides an excellent way for you to play an active role in your child's education. We want everyone to get involved because it takes strong parents, teachers, administration and community to achieve and maintain an exemplary school rating and support PTA's vision, "to make every child's potential a reality"!
One of the best ways to support Wellington is through giving your time as a volunteer! We have many opportunities and always need more volunteers. You are the key to our success! The other is with your membership and support of our fundraising efforts. WES PTA sponsors programs for students, parents, and teachers (i.e. BrainPop, Love & Logic, Science in the Movies, etc.) as well as Paw Publishing, Birthday Books, teacher stipends, grants, field trip buses, class parties, field day, carnival, school directory and many others.
Please read more to see what's going on at WES!
Let's make it a FANTABULOUS year!
Shawn Boyd
shawn.pta@gmail.com
972-874-9727
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PTA Vision...
Making every child's potential a reality.
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PTA Mission
PTA is...
A powerful voice for all children,
A relevant resource for families and communities, and
A strong advocate for the education and well-being of every child.
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Welcome Back!
Dear Wellington Parents,
Welcome back!! We are so excited to be starting the
school year off so well. The
students are already settling in well for the year and it's such fun for me to
go visiting in their classrooms and see them getting excited about a topic or
project.
I wanted to take a
moment to encourage you to get involved with our PTA. We truly have a fine base of parent support and such a
variety of different types of activities that you are sure to find something
that suits your interests.
Of course, with this
many children in one location, we sometimes share more than just ideas, fun, and
discussion. The first cases of flu
are appearing in the district and it will take a joint effort to keep the
impact as minimal as possible. If
your child appears ill, please keep him or her home until you have a full 24
hours fever free without the use of fever reducing medications. While the Center for Disease Control does
not believe any additional disinfection of environmental surfaces beyond
routine cleaning is required, we are stressing hand washing with our students
to assist in this effort. If you
can help us with extra reminders at home as well, that would be
beneficial. The district's website
www.lisd.net has additional information for you on this
topic.
Traffic is going
remarkably well for this early in the school year. Thank you so much for your smiling cooperation with our
front and side circle procedures.
It really helps. A few
reminders ~ please have children exit your doors on the sidewalk side of the
car out front. The middle lane is
a moving traffic lane, so the children exiting on the other side are stepping
into moving traffic. If you have
another child in a car seat or booster seat, it helps if you move those to the
left side of your vehicle behind the driver's seat so exiting children can
leave through the right side.
Also, please make sure if you are in the front parking area that
you park in an actual parking space.
Vehicles waiting in the center area behind parked cars are creating a
traffic difficulty. A final
reminder is to please avoid parking in the side lots, which are reserved for
staff. We realize there is limited
parking for you, but it's very important for our staff to be able to find
spaces and get in the building to their waiting students! Thanks for your help with these issues.
Teachers have their
Schoolwebs up and running for the most part, so you have a ready source of
information regarding both the classrooms and the school in general. Additionally, you can reach teachers
and administrators through e-mail with any questions, concerns, or news from
your end. Please feel free to stay
in touch.
We're happy to be
back in session!
Robin Macke, Ph.D., Principal
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Hello
Wildcat Families! I hope your school year has gotten off to a great start. Our
PTA membership drive is underway, so please take a moment to download the form from
the website and join soon. In addition to the incredible WES programs your PTA
dollars help support, your family receives an array of benefits by being a PTA
member. From discounts on car rentals, vacation packages, cellular service and
much more - there's something for everyone in the family. Take advantage of
these terrific opportunities by joining today if you haven't already done so!
If you prefer to have a form sent home with your student, send me an email with
your name, child's name and teacher and I'll send a form to you. Email tpeden@rockpointechurch.org for
your form today!
One
important note for 2009/2010 - we've combined the membership and directory
forms this year. Please indicate which line items (if any) you'd like included
in the student directory - and speaking of directories...do you have a business
you'd like to advertise? Rates are incredibly reasonable and reach a phenomenal
audience. For more information on advertising, please email Jamie Spence - pjspence@verizon.net.
Thanks again
for your support of Wellington and PTA. If I can answer any questions or help
in any way,
do not
hesitate to contact me - Tammy Peden, Membership Chairman - tpeden@rockpointechurch.org.
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Community Service
In October the community service committee will begin to participate in the Texas PTA SMART Program- "Start Meeting and Reading Together". The SMART program is in honor of the Texas PTA's Centennial, it encourages students and families to read more, both individually and together as a family.
They can choose from reading 100 stories, 100 pages, 100 minutes, or 100 books. We will also be encouraging Wellington to donate gently used books during the week of October 5-9 that we will be donated to children in disadvantaged or difficult circumstances in our community.
We would love for families to help us gather, sort, and distribute the books that we receive from our Wellington family. A couple of hours here and there would be very helpful!
In November, we will be helping CCA collect food for the holiday season and in December, we will be collecting toys- "drive thru style." We would love to have families participate and volunteer together!
Please let us know if you are interested in helping by emailing me- misty@daley4.com.
Misty Daley
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Volunteers
by Jodi Rhinehart-Doty.
Thank you to all
of the volunteers who signed up at the Back to School Nights! Wh  at a great
response to our need for volunteers! Many of our activities could not run
efficiently or at all without all of our great volunteers. We had many new
people sign up to help out around the school. We still do have many
opportunities to volunteer. So, if you did not get a chance to sign up, please
feel free to contact me at jodi.pta@verizon.net.
I will be happy to
talk with you and we can find a great place for you to jump in and volunteer.
Volunteer of the Month for October
Deb
Hattendorf
Our Volunteer of
the Month for October is Deb Hattendorf. Deb is our Outdoor Beautification
Coordinator. She worked many hours over the hot summer (without even being
asked!) to help keep our wonderful Outdoor Garden from being overtaken with
weeds and to prepare for fall plantings! Deb's passion and knowledge for
gardening really is fantastic, but Deb says she really just loves being with
the kids and having them enjoy the garden! Thanks so much, Deb, for all that
you do for Wellington!! You are so appreciated! (You can read more about Deb on
the front PTA bulletin board in the Volunteer of the Month section.)
 Our Volunteer of
the Month is nominated by anyone at our school (staff, teachers or other
volunteers). They receive use of the "Volunteer of the Month" parking spot in
the front of the school and their bio and picture is placed on the PTA board outside
the front office. So, if you know of anyone who is doing a great job as a
volunteer please nominate them! We really want to recognize our fantastic
volunteers! Nomination forms can be found outside the front office in the flyer
bin by the PTA board.
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PAW Publishing
Opening September 23rd
Editors of the Paw Printer Publishing Company are helping our Wellington
students become published authors!
Paw Printer Publishing Company is funded completely by the PTA, and is
staffed with wonderful parent volunteers. It was created in 1999 for the
sole purpose of turning studentsʼ stories into hardcover books, which are
then presented in their classrooms.
This gives students authentic reasons for writing while greatly enhancing
their writing skills. And, just like reading, the more they are excited about
writing, the more theyʼll write, and the better theyʼll get.
To get started on a story, have your child ask his/her teacher for a Paw
Publishing packet.
If you are interested in volunteering please fell free to email me, Caty
Demers, at cpdemers@Verizon.net , or call me at 214-325-3125.
Paw Printer Publishing Company
Helps Students Become Noted Authors
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Change in Booster Seat Law
Starting September 1, 2009, you are required to keep your child in a booster seat until: - 9 years old or older or
- 4' 9" or taller
Warnings will be given until June 1, 2010. At that point fines will be issued. To read the actual legislation, click below. While you are there you can sign up for legislative email alerts. Booster Seat Legislation
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 By now, you have been hearing and reading a lot about our
new Green Initiatives at Wellington.
(Hopefully, you are reading this in your email instead of on paper.) There are folks on our board and among
our members that know a lot more about how to do this than I. But, I love when doing the right thing
is also the easy and more convenient thing, like having information available
to me when and how I need it.
So,
in an additional effort to reduce our paper consumption for information
distribution we have reinvented our PTA web presence. From email newsletters to our updated school website and a
new PTA website, you can get the information you need when you need it. The new PTA website can be found at http://wellingtonpta.txpta.org/. This is a work in progress and will
become more rich and informative as we move along.
This will be a place to check the PTA calendar, find contact
info for PTA board members, review PTA meeting minutes, find forms and flyers,
and helpful links to other PTA and parenting resources on the web. Please, email me at
don.wespta@verizon.net with content suggestions and questions as we all work
together to bring these resources to their full potential.
In order to take advantage of all of these features like downloading documents and viewing minutes, you will need to register. The registration button is in the upper right corner of the web page or you can click here to take you directly to the form.
Don McDaniel
WES PTA VP of Programs
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Which Way Do I Go?
Some of the most frequently asked questions concerning
traffic at WES pertain to the flow structure that has been put in place. Why can I only turn left out of the
main entrance and why can I only turn right out of the faculty lot? And why can't I just park on Kenwood in
front of the school in order to pick up my child?
Our goal is to keep the number of cars that must pass thru
the crosswalks on Kenwood to an absolute minimum. The fewer cars that enter the crosswalk areas, the safer your
children are. So by following the
signs that are posted in the lots and turning in only the direction you are
asked to turn in, you are providing a safer environment for your kids and
allowing the crossing guards to do their jobs with fewer distractions.
Parking on Kenwood in front of the school not only increases
the number of cars passing through those crosswalks, but it also creates both
vision and congestion problems.
The crossing guards must be able to see in both directions in order to
not just get the children across the streets safely, but to assist with the
traffic flow. If you park on
Kenwood in front of the school, you are severely limiting their vision. Also, Kenwood is the only access street
for buses to enter WES. Those
buses have a difficult time getting through to the entrance if cars are parked
on the street.
So we need your help.
Please follow the plan that is in place. Doing so will help to contribute to the safety of all of the
students and families at WES. If
you have any questions or are unsure of the rules, please do not hesitate to
contact me.
Jeff Shelby
Child Safety and Welfare Chairperson
jeffshelby@verizon.net
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Save the Date for the:
5th Grade Social!!
Date: Friday, October 16th
Time: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Games, Music and an Ice
Cream Sundae Bar will be available for all 5th Graders!
Information will be sent
home with students closer to the date.
Volunteers are needed so
please call Debra Wilson, 972-874-1319 or email Debra Wilson if you would like to help
or if you have any questions!
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H1N1 (Swine) Flu Report
We're continuing to take reasonable precautions at Wellington to minimize the impact of illnesses when you
have large groups of children in one location. We do have
reports of H1N1 flu at various schools in the district,
including a few cases here, but thus far it's not been
more
than a few isolated cases for us.
We continue to remind the children about the number one
preventive measure,
which is hand washing. We'd love it if you would continue
to stress that at
home as
well. Additionally, we're
continuing to ask for your support in minimizing
the spread of illnesses by keeping your child at home
until s/he is fever (100 degrees
or higher) free for 24 hours without medications to reduce
fever. Other
symptoms to watch include a cough, sore throat, or other
flu-like symptoms.
Thanks! Robin Macke and Nurse Kaiser
LISD Swine Flu Policy
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News from Wellington's Building Leadership Team (BLT)
Those of you who
were in attendance at our first PTA
meeting of the year
were treated to a wonderful flag
ceremony by several
of our Girl and Boy Scouts.
Texas has a history
of showing respect to our flag,
which is reflected
in our morning recitation. At our
recent BLT meeting,
it was discussed that, while we recite the pledge each morning
we don't always
take the time to teach the proper behaviors that should be displayed
while
pledging. Our teachers will be
stressing that in our classes over the next few
weeks (quiet,
standing straight, eyes on the flag, with our right hand over our heart).
To model the
behaviors expected, all adults in the building (no matter where we are)
will be pausing in
our busy days at that moment to join in.
This will include the
front office, so
we're asking that all of our
visitors do so as well if it is
not
against your belief
system.
We realize there
are some individuals who have beliefs contrary to reciting the pledge
and we fully
respect their rights not to recite the pledge. Our country was founded on
recognizing the
differing beliefs that individuals hold in a non-judgmental
fashion. We will, however, request that respect
be shown in both directions and quiet
be maintained while others pledge. These are similar behaviors denoting
respect
that we would expect from all of our
students if they were visiting another country
and that country's
anthem was played or flag was shown.
A good example to point
out to your
children is the quiet attitude maintained by competitors as various
country's anthems
or symbols are displayed in the Olympic Games.
We will be
beginning our new procedures on Monday, Sept. 21st.
Wellington's
Building Leadership Team
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WES Spirit
This
month, we will have our first "Bite Night" with Texas Roadhouse on September
22, and Chick-fil-A will round out the month on September 29. I hope you will all get out and support
Wellington on these nights.
The spirit wear you have ordered should be coming in soon. I will get it delivered to your
students as soon as I have it. Don't
forget to show your school spirit each Friday by wearing your WES shirts and
colors! Watch for winter wear coming
soon.
Thanks~ Vicki Christensen
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Grade Reporting
Our electronic age is making it much
easier for parents to keep up with
children's grades through a quick check of the eSembler grade book. Parents can
access grades in this way without having to wait for
the six weeks to be
completed or even a three week progress report. The LISD policy is that
three week progress reports be sent out in hardcopy for any student who
is failing at that
point in the grading period.
WES
has been sending out
three week reports on ALL of our students, even those
with straight A's,
which is not really necessary with the instant access
provided through
our online grading program (and it's not in keeping
with our "Go Green"
efforts!).
Beginning with our second six weeks, three week progress
reports will ONLY be sent home in hardcopy for those
students who are
failing.
If you have any problems accessing your child's grades
electronically, we'll be happy to help you!
Robin
Macke, Principal
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Go GREEN with WES!!
Welcome
back Wildcats! I hope your school
year is off to a great start. I
want to let you know about some of the AWESOME plans we have for reducing,
reusing, and recycling at Wellington.
This year
we will be collecting ink cartridges, drink pouches, and bottle caps to be
recycled. There will be clearly
marked bins for each of these items, located inside the school. The ink cartridges and bottle caps can
be brought in and recycled any time during the week. The drink pouches will be collected on "Drink Pouch Fridays"
in the cafeteria after each lunch.
You can save your pouches throughout the week and bring them all in on
Friday to be recycled. We will be
sending them to a company called "Terracycle", which will then clean them and
make them into really cool lunch bags, grocery totes, pencil pouches, etc. The bottle caps will be collected and saved for a very
special "Spring Green" project....more details on that in 2010!
Next on
the agenda is the "Save the Planet Club" for WES students in 3rd, 4th,
and 5th grades. This
PTA sponsored club will be held once a month, after school, at WES. Our hope is to make the 3 R's
(reducing, reusing, and recycling) not only fun, but interesting and educational. We will be inviting teachers and
parents to come and share a special skill/favorite eco-friendly activity with
the club members (ex. composting, energy audits, repurposing items, community
recycling).
Last, but
not least, we will be doing two "green" projects: a "Fall Green Project" and a "Spring Green Project". In the spring we will be using the
bottle caps collected throughout the year for a sculpture garden....details are
top secret! To get a glimpse of what we can do with bottle caps, visit Bottlecap Art. Our fall project
begins on September 22nd and will be kicked off with a collection of
all of the recyclable materials thrown away in 1 day at WES. The students will be encouraged to,
"think before you toss it....can it be recycled?" All of the items will then be used to create a sculpture to
be displayed at Wellington. We are
fortunate to have the expert guidance and creative insight of the ARThouse
staff while making our masterpiece!
Thank you ARThouse...you rock!!
(You can visit their website, studioarthouse.com, for class and event
information.) Some examples... From artist, Anna Johansson, cleverly crafted bird sculptures from reclaimed, recycled cans and tin.Artist Tone Holmen's sculpture of a polar bear made from plastic bags is displayed at the Recycled Sculpture Show at London Zoo on May 29, 2008 in England. Artist Robert Bradford is using discarded plastic toys to full effect in his upcoming exhibition, which will be in London from the start of next month.
We are
looking forward to a "green" year at WES....there's no doubt we can make a difference, and will!
Renee McCann mmcann@msn.com
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Congratulation to Mrs. Cindy Peterson!
Congratulations to Mrs. Cindy Peterson on being awarded a Lewisville ISD Education Foundation (LEF) grant! Wellington PTA is a proud supporter of LEF! LEF was created to support excellence in education by establishing and distributing supplemental funds for enrichment purposes in designated program areas not otherwise funded by LISD. LEF awards teacher grants for projects that enhance and augment educational opportunities for students and teachers in LISD.
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Reflections
2009-2010
"Beauty Is......" is the theme of this year's Reflections
contest! Start thinking about what you think is beautiful. Think
out of the box. Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
What is
Reflections?
Reflections is an annual arts program sponsored by the National PTA. The
Reflections Program offers students an opportunity to create works of art for
fun and recognition. Each year a theme is chosen and students then use
the theme to develop original works of art in six areas:
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Literature *
Visual Arts
* Musical
Composition
* Dance Choreography
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Photography *
Film/Video Production
The goal of the Reflections Program is participation, no winning. In its
more than 30-year history, the program has encouraged millions of students
across the nation and in American schools overseas to create works of art.
*How do
students participate?*
Young artists participate in the Reflections program by submitting original
works of art to their local PTA. A student may submit more than one entry
in each category as entries in more than on category.
- Specific rules for each category and entry forms are available online at Rules and Entry Forms.
Packets will also be distributed to each student in the next couple of weeks.
I look forward to seeing all of Wellington's
creative entries!!
Debra Wilson
Reflections Chair
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Thanks to our Supporting Businesses
Our local businesses do so much to help Wellington Elementary and our PTA. This month we would like to mention the following:
- Texas Roadhouse
- Great Harvest Bread Company
- Kroger
- Salerno's
- Boosterthon
- Wal-Mart - Highland Village
Please show your appreciation by giving them your business.
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Everyone is Creative!
You just need an outlet for your creativity!
You will get that when you join Destination ImagiNation,
the most fun you'll have in education!
In DI, you can:
-
Travel
in time and visit exotic locations
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Build
structures from newspaper that hold hundreds of pounds and weigh mere ounces
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Build
a robot that changes your life
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Save
something endangered using a superpower of your choice
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Create
your own story and put it to life using puppets.
You only need a few friends to form a team, one or
two adult volunteers to act as team managers, and lots of good ideas!
DI
teams are forming now. For more
information, contact your school DI coordinator or LISD's DI Facilitator, Robin Napier, at napierr@lisd.net.
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Would you like to help your children become more
responsible?
Provide them with confidence and dignity?
Have less arguing among siblings?
The counselors at Liberty and Wellington
Elementary Schools, through generous donations of their PTAs, will be offering
Love and Logic classes for Parents this fall.
What is Love and Logic?
Love and Logic is a philosophy of raising and teaching children which
allows adults to be happier, empowered, and more skilled in the interactions
with children. It is a way of working with children that puts parents back in
control, teaches children to be responsible, and prepares young people to live
in the real world, with its many choices and consequences.
Wellington Elementary - counselor's office
Wednesday mornings
Oct. 7, Oct. 14, Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, and Nov. 18
8:30 am -10:00 am
Liberty Elementary - cafeteria
Thursday evenings
Oct. 8, Oct. 15, Oct, 22, Oct. 29, Nov. 5, Nov. 12
6:30 pm-8:00 pm
Both series of
Love and Logic classes for Parents are being offered to Liberty and Wellington
parents.
Please email Linda Krause at krausel@lisd.net if you have questions or would like to enroll for either
class.
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School Calendars are still Available!
Enjoy artwork from Wellington students and be "in-the-know". Purchase a Wellington Wildcats calendar for only $5.00!
Call Deb McMann if you have questions: (972) 355-8036.
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Don't Miss out!
We hope you like this environmentally friendly, interactive newsletter! If you have not yet signed up for E-Newsletter, please use the link below.
Thank you,
Katie Mayer
Wellington Elementary PTA Publicity |
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