PVSD Banner
District Calendar  |  Weekly Archive  |  PVSD Home  |  PV Schools Foundation  |  Submit an Article
Weekly Post
June 9, 2014

Happy Summer Vacation!

New PTO Communication & Website
Dear Ormondale and Corte Madera Families,
 
The PTO Leadership has some exciting news, a new website!  Please visit us at www.pvpto.com to check it out.  Any comments or suggestions about the site are welcome and we look forward to hearing feedback.  We will continue to improve it throughout the year.
 
We are currently updating and simplifying our communications, in line with the District's new plan for the fall of this year, in order to lessen repetitiveness, and respond to the needs of our parents!
 
Beginning in August, the PTO will be sending out the "PTO Weekly" every Sunday night.  It will be a simple format, easy to read, with calendar items for the PTO and District listed for both schools for two weeks.  There will be helpful links and a "Community Section" at the bottom.
 
HRP's will no longer be sending out weekly e-mails unless there is a special event happening in their specific classroom, or the teacher would like them to send something out.
 
We hope our new website will allow for families to attain information easily, be a one-stop shop to sign up for events and CMS after-school sports, purchase Spirit Wear, and explain more about what we do for our District, children, teachers, and community.  Our all important Amazon.com shopping link is also there so please bookmark it to your computer for year-round shopping !
 
Thanks for a wonderful year and we look forward to seeing you in the fall!
 
Sharon Shaffer - CMS President
Heather Asborno - CMS Vice-President
Michelle Bellomo - ORM President
Susan McLaughlin - ORM Vice-President
In This Issue
SART News
ORM Principal's Message
CMS Principal's Message
CMS Fall Sports Registration
Community Section
This Week's Calendar
Ormondale * Corte Madera * District
Mon, June 9 (B)

Tue, June 10 (A) 
6-8th BBQ Lunch with 5th Graders

CMS School Site Council 3:15 Rm 102
Wed, June 11 (B)
School Board Meeting, CMS Room 102 6pm
Thu, June 12 (A)
ORM 3rd Grade Celebration 11am-2:30pm
Fri, June 13 (B) 
Last Day of School

ORM 3rd Grade Clap Out 11:45am 
 
CMS Graduation 5pm
The Weekly Post team would like to extend a huge
Thank You to Kristi Patterson who has been providing you for five years a weekly edition of the post, a publication that started on paper and became available electronically thanks to her initiative and leadership. We will greatly miss Kristi from our school community and are tremendously grateful for all her contributions. THANK YOU, Kristi!
SART News
THE HARDWARE STORE MURAL IS DONE!

Check out the Portola Valley Hardware "Periodic Table of Hardware" mural now permanently installed over half of their window front!  This long term collaboration has now reached fruition and we are all so proud of the work; Mark, the owner of the store and generous donor to SART has been a pleasure to work with.


SART students in every grade worked on parts of the mural during the entire 2013-14 school year.


It is truly a fait du accompli, a lasting contribution to the community at large.  It is my pleasure to be able leave the District on a such a positive note; working with such dedicated and talented young people has been a 'joi!'

The Final Finale in SART
Last two weeks of school?  My last year in PVSD?  You couldn't tell from all of the action in the classroom!  There is no slow down or coasting in SART and the Sciences in room 701.  There are frog dissections available for all grades, upcycled multi-media art and jewelry projects, shrinky dink magnets next week, and much more.  Right up until the last day students will be engaged in science, art, and the connections there in.



I will miss working with a community that helps me grow and keeps me engaged and passionate about learning across the disciplines, not just the Arts and Sciences.  I hope that students have and continue to love and thrive in science and art during their studies at Corte Madera.  It has been an honor to work the fantastic staff, students, and parents in this very special community.


Edible Insects, the End of an Era

After 11 years of serving edible insects, CMS students are enjoying their final offerings as I wrap up my last year at Corte Madera.  Every year, my '21st Century student' have joined the majority of the world's population that actively consume insects by getting a chance to sample some for themselves.  

Over the years I have provided our kids with a wide variety of delectables, including but not limited to: meal worm rice krispy treats, local fried beetle grub, dried ants, and most recently, high protein Chapul brand cricket powder energy bars (a recent 'Shark Tank' TV contest winner).

Ask your offspring if they became a member of the "I Ate a Bug Club."  Even if they didn't, just knowing more about diet, nutrition, and other cultures is fun for them.  Even the seemingly esoteric art of 'entomophagy,' insectivory, or eating insects if you will, makes better citizens of our kidlets. Bon Appetit!

Here's the Diehl with the SART Animals
All of the SART animals will need to find new homes.  Next week, names will be drawn for to see who gets to take home an animal.  

The drawing will be held Wednesday June 11th.  Care taking instructions and ALL of the supplies will be provided!

If you are interested, please contact me for more information on the care of our:
bearded dragons, leopard geckoes, corn snakes, fish, and hamsters (tarantulas and the guinea pig have a home already :))

Treena Joi Diehl

 
 
Ormondale Home
ORM Principal's Message

Dear Families,

 

Thank you to the entire Ormondale community for an excellent 2013-2014 school year. I have to say that I have been more than excited to be a part of our Ormondale community. We have accomplished a lot this year, from our California Distinguished School Award to the opening of our STEM lab. Our strategic plan and the PV Way have helped to guide our work. Our partnership with our parents, PTO, PVSF and community have helped to support all that we do for our students and your children. It is not hard to notice this, but we have a very dedicated, hard working, innovative and professional staff. And last, but not least are our students. Our students are hard working, intelligent, creative, collaborative, open to the challenges of learning and growing as students and citizens, and just fun to be around. They really are an amazing group of kids!

 

With 13-14 winding down, we have started to shift gears towards 14-15. We started our journey with Writer's Workshop and will continue to grow our capacity as teachers, with ongoing coaching and training, while we work to create engaged, excited and high achieving writers. Over the summer, the staff will be working with the Buck Institute on Project Based Learning, another piece of the strategic plan. When we return in 14-15, we will work with our local PBL staff experts, our newly trained staff and start our school wide PBL journey. I am looking forward to supporting our staff, working with the community, and watching our students shine!

 

3rd Grade Clap Out

Join us on Friday, June 13th at 11:45 to congratulate our 3rd grade students on their careers at Ormondale and wish them good luck in 4th grade.

 

Office Hours

The office will be close the entire month of July. We will be operating on limited hours starting August 1st. Please call the office before coming in.

 

14-15

Class Meet and Greet - Friday, August 22nd at 2:00 PM

First Day of School - Monday, August 25th at 8:15 AM

 

Summer is here. My family is looking forward to lots of fun in the sun and water with swimming, fishing, and surfing! I hope that you have a chance to enjoy your family and the beautiful summer weather. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact me at [email protected]  or 650-851-1777.

 

Sincerely,

 

Kevin F. Keegan


Corte Madera Home
CMS Principal's Message

The warm weather is here and the buzz that comes at this time of the year is evident all around CMS. How did the end of school year arrive so quickly? As we wrap up, I would like to share some important information regarding the end of the year with you and also look ahead some to next school year.

 

4th and 5th Grade Report Cards: I would like to provide 4th and 5th grade parents with some reminders about the report card format. Our primary goal is to communicate your student's learning and progress towards Common Core Standards, critical learning/social habits and content areas such as social studies, science, art, music and PE. As you will remember from the mid-year progress reports, the comments section is smaller than in past years. This was done intentionally in order to better communicate student progress towards to the standards.

The report card marks of NP, B, A, M or E are our descriptors of learning. This report reflects your child's cumulative growth over the entire course of the school year. Should you wish to review the progress report with your child, and you feel it is appropriate, I hope you use it to have a conversation about all the hard work and successes your child has demonstrated this year. The report card is also a valuable tool to use as a guide for discussing learning goals as you look towards next school year.

Report cards will be mailed home the week of June 16. If you have any questions about your student's growth, please make sure to contact his or her teacher(s). Finally, please feel free to share any feedback about our report card with me. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about our new reporting system.

 

6th, 7th and 8th Grade Report Cards: Report cards for our middle school age students will be mailed home the week of June 16. You student's final grades will be available online through PowerSchool by the end of the day on Monday, June 16.

 

2014/15 Master Schedule: Our new master schedule is finished and ready to go for next school year. The re-design of our schedule for next year was an action item of the strategic plan developed last school year. The group of staff, parents and students that worked on this project met throughout the year to identify priorities and create schedule prototypes using the Design Thinking process. We also held two community meetings and there were two board presentations during the development phase. As well, a parent survey was given and findings considered by the group. Key priorities identified for the new schedule were flexibility, teacher collaboration, minimizing transitions, optimizing learning opportunities for students and allowing for more student choice.

 

I am excited by the outcomes. We will have a more streamlined 4th and 5th grade schedule, a common 6th, 7th and 8th grade bell schedule, equal class periods running throughout the day and opportunities for projects and service learning that were not available to our students in the past. As well, the middle school schedule will have a core class (Language Arts and Social Studies/History) in all grade levels. Integrating these subject areas greatly supports our focus on common core English/Language Arts standards and allows for students to continue having a longer block of time with their teacher (core is two consecutive periods with the same teacher). We were able to accomplish all of this while still keeping Flex Time as part of our middle school schedule.

 

Our new bell schedule will be posted on the website over the summer break and more information will be shared when we return in August as well. Thank you to the group of parents, staff and students who worked on this project!

 

Finally, I would like to say thank you to all of our parents, staff and students for a fantastic school year. Portola Valley is an impressive community and our collective efforts have resulted in great learning for all our students! I hope you have a wonderful summer break with family and friends and we will see our Panthers back at CMS in August.

 

 

Michael Corritone

 

Principal

CMS Fall Sports Registration is Open

Monday, June 9th - Thursday, June 19th

at www.pvpto.com 

 

CMS Volleyball is open to all 4th-8th grade girls. All volleyball teams will start practice the week of Sept 1st. 

 

Find registration form and additional information at:

 http://www.pvpto.com/cms-athletics-fall-volleyball-registration.html 

 

4/5th grades: PracticeTues and Thur from 3:15-4:30 at Corte Madera

 

Practice times for the 6-8th graders will be available very soon.

6th grade: Tues games at Arrillaga Center in Menlo Park.  Rotating start times of the games between 3:45 and 6:00.  

 

7th grade: Mon games at Arrillaga Center in Menlo Park.  Rotating start times of the games between 3:45 and 6:00.  

 

8th grade: Mon games at Arrillaga Center in Menlo Park.  Rotating start times of the games between 3:45 and 6:00.

 

Please contact Kate Cox at  [email protected] with any questions.

 

CMS Flag Football is open to all 4th-8th graders.

 

Find registration form and additional information at:

 http://www.pvpto.com/cms-athletics-fall-football-registration.html 

  • Most games last an hour and are scheduled at 4:00 or 5:00. 
  • All practices will be held at CMS from 3:00-4:30. 

7th & 8th grade teams will have practice/games on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. The season will begin on Thursday, 8/28 and conclude on 11/6.

 

6th grade team will have games/practice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The season will begin on Friday, 8/29 and conclude on 11/7.

 

The 4th/5th grade program will begin on 8/29 and end on 11/7. This program will be an intramural program that will be offered on Friday afternoons from
3:15 - 4:30.  

 

Please contact Dan Flahavan if you have any questions.

 

Cross Country is open to all 5th-8th grade boys and girls.  Practices will begin on Monday, September 1st. 

 

Find registration form and additional information at:

 http://www.pvpto.com/cms-athletics-fall-cross-country-registration.html  

  • Practice will take place on the trails surrounding Corte Madera so it will begin and end at Corte Madera.  
  • Practice will be 3:15-4:30 on Mon and Fri. 
  • Practice will be 2:30-3:45 on Wednesdays.  

Most of the meets will be on Wednesdays, but there are a few scheduled for Mondays, so meets will take the place of practice on those days.  

 

Please let Kate Cox know if you have any questions. 

Community Calendar and Events
Creative Art For Young Children: Parent/Child Class
CREATIVE ART FOR YOUNG CHILDREN PRESENTS SOMETHING NEW!!!!!!!
@ Portola Valley Town Center

CLASSES FOR 3RD TO 5TH GRADERS AND ADULTS... WHO WANT TO SET THEIR
INNER ARTIST FREE!
Some parents have expressed an interest in wanting to do the art
classes with the kids, which I think is a great idea, one I have
wanted to do for a long time...a way to free their inner child.

SESSION #1: July 15th and 17th
Hokusai's Japanese prints and the book "The Great Wave." We will paint
Hokusai's wave with our own little twist......explore how Japanese
prints inspired the impressionists...and make our own prints while
studying the Japanese block printing process. Then with rice paper
create Japanese brush paintings with special brushes and sumi
ink...and let our imaginations run free!

SESSION #2: Aug. 5th and 7th
Marc Chagall the Russian artist painted his dreams, fantasies
andmemories in his own unique way. He painted what he liked. We will
explore what we like and give it life in our own paintings. Then
marvel at the Russian onion domed buildings and draw them as well as
make stained glass windows with watercolors and sharpies.

Tuesdays and Thursdays    1-4:00    $120 per session (per person)

Teacher Jeannie Goldman (650) 851-1914
*To register contact P.V. Town Hall (650) 851-1700, Cindy (ext. 200)
* Reg. forms available @ their office, 765 Portola Rd. or
* Reg. online (portolavalley.net) * Sign-ups start June 2 P.V.
residents and... June 16 Open Reg. 
Creative Art For Young Children: 3-8 Year Old Classes
CREATIVE ART FOR YOUNG CHILDREN SUMMER 2014 @ Portola Valley Town Center
Join us for some summer fun with famous artists who take us to wild
jungles, use magical scissors and experiment with new techniques!

Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays! Sign-up for any or all 3 sessions!

SESSION #1: JULY 7-18
Henri Rousseau and his jungles with many shades of green. We will
paint jungles and read "The Salamander Room" where a boy's room
becomes a woodland paradise for his pet salamander. The kids will make
box jungles and model magic creatures.

SESSION #2: JULY 21-AUG. 1
Henri Matisse and his magic scissors...We will paint paper, solid
bright colors, and then cut out Happy shapes for Happy pictures...draw
with long sticks and create a world all around us with our art...make
handmade paper and become inspired by the greek legend Icarus!

SESSION #3: AUG. 4-15
Jackson Pollock...spray and spatter and drip paint...and create your
own techniques with chalk, paint, ink and silver markers. We will also
make collages of Kokopelli the Indian flute player because Jackson
loved Indian legends which found their way into his paintings!

3-5 yrs.    Mon. and Wed. and Fri.    10-12:00    $230 per session
6-8 yrs.    Mon. and Wed. and Fri.    1-3:30    $290 per session

Teacher: Jeannie Goldman (650) 851-1914
*To register contact P.V. Town Hall (650) 851-1700, Cindy (ext. 200)
* Reg. forms available @ their office, 765 Portola Rd. or
* Reg. online (portolavalley.net) * Sign-ups start June 2 P.V.
residents, and, June 16 Open Reg. 
Alpine Strikers FC

Fall Soccer Programs For Preschoolers, Kindergartners, First Graders

 
Is your child excited about soccer? Alpine Strikers, the local soccer club offers a variety of fun and high energy programs for preschoolers to first graders. All programs focus on age appropriate activities centered around individual player development. Registration is now open for preschool soccer (3-4 year olds), attack (5-6 year olds) and academy (6-7 year olds). For more details and registration, please visit our website
Summer Cooking Fun Workshops

Is cooking or baking your passion? Join other cooking fans for any of our series of 2-day summer workshops. Each workshop is 2 consecutive days because we'll have projects that require extra time. Each morning is 3 hours of intense, but fun, baking and cooking that we'll sample or take home. There'll also be a mystery beverage of the day. Class details below. 

 

To register, contact Cindy Rodas at Portola Valley Town Hall (650) 851-1700, ext. 200 or [email protected]

For questions, contact Linda Ross at [email protected] or (650) 996-1311.

 

*Please alert Linda to any diet restrictions or food allergies.

 

Instructor: Linda Ross

Location: Portola Valley Town Center Kitchen

Grades: 4th - 8th (or other grades with consent of instructor)

Day/Time: Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm 

Fee: $105 (all materials included)/per 2-day workshop 

  • Workshop #1, July 8th & 9th. Cupcakes & Sprinkles, Oh My!? Cupcakes are the rage! You'll make your own decorated mini-cake and oodles of cupcakes to fill, frost, and decorate. Along the way, you'll learn hints about making cupcakes and frostings, how to fill and frost these gems, and how to use a pastry bag and tips.
  • Workshop #2, July 15th & 16th. Cake Rolls and Layered Cakes: Learn how to make a gorgeous cake roll, filled with fruit, whipped cream or buttercream frosting. You'll also help create a 5-layer multi-colored birthday cake for all to enjoy! Yumm!
  • Workshop #3, July 22nd & 23rd. Sweet and Savory Pies and Tarts?: Learn bakers' secrets for making flaky piecrusts and luscious fillings. Our recipes will include fruit and cream tarts, hand pies, galettes and lattice-top mini pies.
  • Workshop #4, July 29th & 30th. Candies and Confections: ?Have you ever wanted to make truffles, meringues, candied citrus peel, marshmallows or taffy? Here's your chance!
  • Workshop #5, August 5th & 6th. Cookies and Ice Cream:? You'll make buttery madeleines, crisp sugar cookies, chocolate wafers, home made ice cream, ice cream sandwiches and more. Brrr....
  • Workshop #6, August 12th & 13th. Yay, Ready for School!? How about making your own homemade treats that you can grab-and-go for breakfast or lunch? Create breakfast muffins, granola, quick breads, cheese crackers and more that you'll find handy for the start of school. We'll also make smoothies and easy soups to match your baked goods.