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A Strandwood PTA Publication
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JANUARY 9, 2012
Good Morning
Every Monday Email Club members receive important information regarding upcoming events and communications from The PTA and Strandwood staff via the Roadrunner. The Roadrunner also provides links to important flyers and new items on the PTA and school websites. Do you have any comments about this Roadrunner or suggestions for future Roadrunner articles or features? Drop us a line at roadrunner@strandwood.org .
If you no longer wish to receive these electronic communications please use the "Safe Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the newsletter.
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| Box Tops Contest Winner
By Megan Wilson
| Congratulations to our December Box Top contest winner, 5th grader Tessa Phair. She turned in a total of 308 Box Tops! Great job Tessa! Thank you to everyone that turned in Box Tops this past month!
The next contest will end Friday, January 27th. Remember to have your Box Tops labeled with your childs name, class and number of Box Tops collected. Strandwood's goal for this school year is to raise $1,080 and we are half way there. Great job.
Any questions please email me at Megan.Wilson@sbcglobal.net. |
Chess at Strandwood
| | Chess comes back to Strandwood starting this Wednesday, January 11th. Click here for the flyer. |
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Photo courtesy of the Bargmann family.
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Calendar
Click the image below to go directly to the monthly Strandwood PTA web calendar.
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| Online Shopping and Escript
By Cindy Turner
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Make a New Year's resolution that will easily benefit Strandwood. Every time you shop online, go first to www.escrip.com. Find your store and click through via the Escrip website It's so easy to do and Strandwood will get a monetary percentage of every purchase you make. Chose from over 100 retailers like Amazon, Lands End, Walmart, Williams-Sonoma, Macy's and Target - give your school the extra support it deserves.
Don't forget to register your credit cards with Escrip and Strandwood will get an additional percentage of every purchase made at participating merchants. These are EASY fundraising methods that don't cost you an extra cent.
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| Outdoor Ed Fundraiser Idea
By Caryn Heine
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Happy New Year Everyone! My name is Caryn Heine and I am looking to put a committee together to create a large fund raiser for Outdoor Ed. The concept is a school hosted yard sale. I cannot do it alone, however, and would appreciate your help. This could be a fantastic fundraiser for a wonderful and valuable program. I will hold the first meeting at my house January 18th @6pm. I would love to hear any of your fantastic ideas! Please contact me at 925-457-6669 for further details. Thank You!
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| FAME Lesson for January | |
FAME is a six-year cycle of fine arts lessons that focus on one artist and one composer for six lessons throughout the school year. Because no lesson is repeated throughout the six years, students never get the same FAME lesson twice. This is FAME IV out of VI.
This is FAME's sixteenth year at Strandwood! We are thrilled to have enjoyed strong administration, staff, PTA and parent support throughout that time.
FAME takes place on Tuesdays throughout the month. If you're interested in observing, please contact your child's teacher for their schedule. Parent visitors are always welcome.
Art: "The Delphic Sibyl" (from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling) by Michelangelo Buonarroti Music: "Gregorian Chant" (from chants compiled by Pope Gregory) Click here for a sample of a Gregorian Chant |
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Nutcracker News
By Cindy Turner
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We are very pleased to announced that Strandwood PTA has received a $1,000 grant for the Nutcracker, from the Debbie Downer Abono Memorial for Music. A special thank you to Julie Ebding for making this all happen. The Nutcracker will continue to be a cherished Strandwood tradtion thanks to the love and support of our teacher, staff and parent community.
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Kindergarten Registration
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Pre-registration of children eligible for kindergarten in August 2012 will be conducted in all Mt. Diablo Unified School District elementary schools on a first-come basis starting Tuesday, February 7, 2012.
Children who will reach the age of five (5) years on or before November 1, 2012, are eligible for kindergarten in August. Parents should bring the following documents with them: an original birth certificate or some otherofficial documentary proof of the child's birthdate; three original documents to verify where the child resides (one must be a photo ID); and a written immunization record from a health care provider indicating that all immunization requirements listed below have been met.
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Intradistrict Transfer Deadline
From MDUSD.org | | Completed Intradistrict transfers must be submitted by January 17, 2012 for the 2012-2013 school year. No applications will be accepted after January 17th. For more information on intradistrict transfers click here for the MDUSD information page. |
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New Law Regarding Children and Booster Seats
| "A change to California's Child Passenger Safety Seat law will now require children to
ride in either a car seat or booster seat until the age of eight, or until they reach a height
of 4 feet 9 inches. This law also requires children who do not meet the age or height
requirement to ride in the rear seat of a vehicle unless the vehicle has no back seats, the
restraint system cannot be properly installed or the rear seats are already occupied by
children under age eight. However, the law still maintains that a child may not ride in the
front seat of a vehicle with an active passenger airbag if they are under one year of age,
less than 20 pounds, or riding in a rear-facing child safety seat. (SB 929, Evans)"
(Drivers caught breaking the booster seat law can face fines starting at $475) |
Online Monitoring Important
From our friends at Parents.com
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As your kid becomes more tech-savvy, monitor his activity to protect him in cyberspace. There are many apps available to help: CyberSynchs is a monitoring service that reports content with flagged words indicating bullying, sexual behavior, and violence on your child's phone.
Click here for the article. To move from tip to tip use the next button.
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Kahn Academy Receives $5M from The O'Sullivan Foundation
Excerpt from Marketwatch.com
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(The most recent influx of cash came from the $5 million donation from the O'Sullivan Foundation. Khan has also received funding from other sources: Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix donated $3 million; Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit, and his wife donated $1 million; Google last year donated $2 million; and Bill Gates has donated more than $5 million in total over the last few years)
Here is part of the Marketwatch.com article.
One use of the grant from the O'Sullivan Foundation will be to expand Khan Academy's faculty from one lesson producer to at least five full-time-equivalent teachers, extending the range of subjects taught from primary STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) to the arts and humanities. Already, the grant has been used to appoint Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris to produce content on art, history, and the humanities. Dr. Zucker was formerly Chair of Art and Design History at Pratt Institute. Dr. Harris was Director of Digital Learning at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Their videos are now available at http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org
Another use of the O'Sullivan Foundation grant will be in the development of a testbed for physical programs and K-12 curricula... "When I spoke to teachers, administrators, and students who use the Khan Academy system for STEM learning, I was blown away," said O'Sullivan. "The facts on the ground show that engaged students can absorb and master material much more rapidly than we had previously thought possible. Below average students become above average, and average students can become exceptional. We cannot delay in implementing these systems for our children, for our economy, and for our society."
The Khan Academy model allows teachers to discover which students are struggling with which concepts, and allows students to repeat sections of videos or online tests until they master the material. One of the goals is to re-engage students, some with significant gaps in their knowledge, who have previously felt lost and disengaged. "We can now build a new reality, using today's technologies, where learning is custom-tailored and collaborative, bite-sized and iterative," said Salman Khan. "When students learn at their own pace, and become more self-directed, they remain engaged. This helps teachers build strong foundations, so that even students that are labeled as 'slow or remedial' become advanced in a matter of months."
To read the entire article please click here.
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| Flyers In The Office or Online | |
Flyers regarding the following items are available in the office this month. You can also click on the link, underlined if there is one, to go directly to that site.
Berkeley Chess School
Pleasant Hill Recreation and Park Department
Heritage Soccer Club
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| Free Winter Soccer Clinic | | Heritage Soccer Club is providing their 6th Annual Free Winter Clinics for boys and girls ages 8 to 14. The final clinic will be at the College Park High School turf field on January 14th from 10am-12pm. Come out and have some fun. Click here for the flyer and a link to the registration forms. |
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Dates, Times and Place
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January 5 - PTA General Membership Meeting. Come listen to our 2nd Grade teachers present. Free child care is available.
January 12 - Field Trip 5th Grade - Delta Voyage
January 13 - Spotlight Assembly - rescheduled from the 6th
January 16 - School Holiday - Martin Luther King Day
January 17 - Field Trip 4th Grade - Sonoma Mission and more
January 18 - Student Council Spirit Day - Career Day
January 27 - Principal Blue Slip Pizza Lunch
January 30 - School Holiday - Teacher In-Service
View the calendar on the Strandwood PTA website by clicking here.
Visit the Strandwood Elementary School website by clicking here. 
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