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| Business Friends | |
if interested in becoming a Friend for the 2013-2014 school year.
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| FAQs | Question: We just moved here and I learned about the school closing and delay last week from neighbors, but how else can I find out? And what happens in we get another snow day?
Answer: The FCPS website says this:
When Fairfax County Public Schools have a schedule change (closing or delay) due to inclement weather or other emergencies, the information is communicated as soon as the decision is made in these ways: - Posted here, Facebook and Twitter.
- Posted on TV Channel 21 (Cox, Reston Comcast, and Verizon cable customers only).
- Sent via e-mail to parents, employees, and KIT Plus subscribers of Delayed Openings and School Closings through the Keep in Touch e-mail notification system.
- Called in to area radio and television stations.
- Sent via text message to Keep in Touch Plus subscribers who have opted to receive Delayed Openings and School Closings.
There is quite a bit more information on the website about how decisions are made. We have used up the allotted 3 closed days, so if we have more closings, we will have school on February 17 and April 7, instead of the schedule teacher workdays/student holidays. After that the schedule alternates between "forgiving" a lost day and adding a day onto the end of the year in June.
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Chesterbrook PTA Digest
No.9, January 13, 2014
Happy New Year and welcome back to school! A couple housekeeping items: Join us for the rescheduled January PTA meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, January 14) at 8:45 a.m. in the cafeteria for updates on International Night, Fun Fair, planning for school supply kits for next year, and more. Also, looking ahead to February - mark your calendar for our meeting on Tuesday, February 11 at 7:00 p.m. when we will be joined by guest speaker Jane Strauss, our Dranesville District School Board Representative. Also, at our February PTA meeting, we will be voting on our committee to nominate officers for the upcoming year. This committee also assists in filling board and committee chair positions. We are graduating some of our most active PTA members this year and are looking for a few more parents to step up and fill these shoes! Please contact nominating@chesterbrookpta.org if interested. The Virginia PTA requires each local PTA unit to review and revise its bylaws every five years. The Chesterbrook PTA's bylaws are due for such a review this year. If you are interested in serving on the Bylaw Committee, please contact Kate Garcia. Finally, a big THANK YOU to Catherine Palumbo, Lavina Colaco, and Muhuntha Ravindran for their Treasurer work on the Book Fair. We couldn't have done it all without you! Upcoming events:- PTA Meeting (new date): Jan 14, 8:45 am, cafeteria
- MLK Holiday: Jan 20
- AAP parent information meeting (NEW DATE): Jan 21, 7 pm, media center
- Band Concert: Jan 24, 2:20 pm and Jan 28, 7 pm
- Student holidays, teacher workdays: Jan 30-31
- Cultural Arts ("Reverb"): Feb 6
- International Night: Feb 7, 6 pm
- PTA Meeting (Jane Strauss discussing budget): Feb 11, 7:30 pm
- Restuarant Night - Jason's Deli: Feb 12, 5-10 pm (details coming)
- Principal's Coffee: Feb 12, 9-10 am
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After School Drama
| Creative Drama registration began, last night, January 12th at 7pm on the PTA website. For details and to regsiter, click here.
Please email afterschool@chesterbrookpta.org if you have any questions. |
| International Night |  Mark your calendar for Friday, February 7 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. for International Night! It is a delicious and fun event to celebrate the wide array of cultures represented at Chesterbrook! We are looking for volunteers to represent a country. The country can be one you are from, one where your ancestors lived, or just a place you love. Volunteers provide bite-size snacks from their countries - as well as complete a provided display board as they choose with fun facts, photographs, mementos or whatever they wish from their country. Send an email to Nancy Stuckwisch or pick your country and sign up on our Sign Up Genius. |
| Library Volunteers Needed | |
The library is still in great need of volunteers to help shelve books. With over 600 students, there are hundreds of library books returned each day. It's a great way to find new books for your children and see what everyone else is reading. Ideally, two volunteers are needed each Tuesday through Friday and one volunteer is needed on Mondays. You can come in any time during your scheduled period.
If you haven't volunteered in the library yet, please contact Robin Birchfield to set up a quick tutorial session. Please sign up for as many slots as you can using this Sign Up Genius .Thanks to all the great volunteers who have helped so much this year!
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Fun Fair Update
|  Fun Fair 2014 will be held on Saturday, March 15th from 10 to 2. We are excited to announce our Olympic theme for this year's fair. And we are especially thrilled interest is so high in volunteering for this great event. This is the kids' favorite day of the year and it takes a lot of volunteers to make it happen. Please feel free to contact Jennifer Von Elm or Hope Mallon Perlish at funfair@chesterbrookpta.org with any questions.
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Where is the Auction?
|  The Chesterbrook auction is on hiatus this year. The PTA decided that it was time to take a break from this fundraiser and focus on other avenues this year. Frankly, the 400+ volunteer hours needed to successfully execute the auction became too much. We are grateful for your past support of the auction either with donations or purchases. This year, we focus on the armchair fundraiser, Friends of Chesterbrook, and hope that you will choose to donate to this fundraiser as a way to support the activities of the Chesterbrook PTA. We thank you for all of your support of the PTA's activities and programs, which touch each child at Chesterbrook, and we look forward to another rewarding year. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for details about our fabulous Fun Fair, which will be held on Saturday, March 15, 2014! |
Friends of Chesterbrook
|  With the Online Auction on hiatus this year, this is one of Chesterbrook PTA's primary means to support important academic and school support needs. We ask for everyone's support of $100 per family to reach our goal, but your gift of any size is appreciated. Check out all our donors so far! We can also help determine whether your company participates in a program to match employee donations.
Businesses that donate $500 to our "Business Friends of Chesterbrook" program will be recognized on our website and in other ways at school. For more information visit our website and click on the "Become a Business Friend" tab.
There are two easy ways to give:
- You can donate online on our website: Family Friends or Business Friends.
- You can donate by check. Please make checks payable to "Chesterbrook PTA" and forward to school via backpack mail or mail it directly to Chesterbrook PTA, 1753 Kirby Road, McLean, VA 22101.
Contact Trisha Downey or Amanda Abraham with any questions. |
GOTR/GOT Spring Session Registration
|  Registration for the Spring Session of Girls on the Run (GOTR) and Girls on Track (GOT) will begin on January 20, 2014. GOTR/GOT is a program that combines training for a 5k (3.1 mile) running event with self-esteem enhancing, uplifting workouts. The goals of the programs are to encourage positive emotional, social, mental, and physical development. Registration closes on February 17th, 2014. Late Registration goes from February 22nd through March 14, 2014. The Spring Season begins on March 3, 2014 and will go through most of May 2014. Practices will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 pm. Chesterbrook plans to have 2 GOTR teams (3rd-5th grade) and 1 GOT team (6th grade only).
There is a minimum of 8 participants needed for each team to be formed. GOTR should have space for 40 and GOT will have space for 15. To register, visit the GOTR of Nova website. All registrants will be put on a wait list until registration closes . If there are more registrants than spaces for Chesterbrook's GOTR/GOT programs, a lottery will take place to select participants. GOTR/GOT charges $165 per session and payment is made directly to GOTR on the website. Please note that credit cards will not be charged until the participant is accepted into the program.
NEW THIS SPRING!!! - The 5 k race will be held on 2 separate days, Saturday May 17th & Sunday May 18th. Which day our team will participate in the 5k is not yet announced. Girls on the Run of NOVA is confident that these changes will create a memorable experience for each and every girl and a day that runs smoothly for all participants. In addition, the races will be held at locations that are more convenient to our community - one at the Mosaic District in Merrifield and the other at a Taste of Arlington in ArlingtonA.
We are looking forward to a great GOTR/GOT Spring Session! For more information, contact Katia Luedtke.
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Summer Quest 2014
|  Chesterbrook's very own summer camp program, Summer Quest, is just around the corner. Camps will run in week-long sessions July 7 - August 1 with offerings for rising kindergartners through rising 7th graders. We'll be doing morning, afternoon, and after camp care. We are aiming for a mid-February registration. You can get an idea of about the policies and range of classes from last year's program.
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STEM Saturdays at Kent Gardens ES
| Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology students will be joining teachers at Kent Gardens ES to interact with their students in the STEM subjects on the following Saturday mornings: January 11 & 25, February 8 & 22, March 1& 8. Registration for our STEM Saturdays is now open to students from neighboring elementary schools, including Chesterbrook!
There are many wonderful programs for students! Please see the attached brochure for our 2014 STEMS program for descriptions of the courses. Do you have questions? Please email Marie Hinton. Families may register online here.
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City Year/Shootback Donations
|  Perhaps you received a new camera for the holidays and have one to donate? A McLean resident is embarking on a new photography education project in partnership with City Year DC, an education-focused non-profit that unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service to keep students in school and on track to graduation. They are planning to pilot a City Year/Shootback project at Thomas Elementary School (Anacostia Ave NE, DC) in January 2014, possibly as a special 5th grade-wide project. Do you have any old digital cameras, cellphones with cameras, or even old laptops that you would like to donate to their creative cause? There is a collection box outside the library. Thank you! |
Calling All Chocolate Lovers
| | The McLean and Langley High Interact Clubs and the Rotary Club of McLean are partnering to hold McLean's third annual chocolate festival on Sunday, January 26, from 11-5 PM at the McLean Community Center. The Community Hall will be filled with over a dozen vendors selling anything chocolate: candy, cakes, ice cream, cupcakes, etc. The admission fee is $2, which includes a $1 ticket toward the purchase of chocolate. Children under 6 get in free. Twenty-five percent of all proceeds will support local community organizations like the Falls Church McLean Children's Center, Homestretch, Literacy Council, Timber Lane Elementary School, high school senior scholarships, the Safe Community Coalition's 6th grade Ethics Days, and many others. Down the hall from the vendors, Interact Club students will lead children in chocolate-related games while their parents watch. For more information, please visit www.McLeanChocolateFestival.org. |
GameWright Game Night
| The Family Fun Committee held it's first game night on Friday, December 13th. Even though it was right in the midst of the holiday season, over 75 people attended the evening event.
Gamewright, a company founded in 1994 by four parents whose kids wanted great games, provided the demonstration games for Chesterbrook families to play. Gamewright's mission is to create the highest quality family games with outstanding play-value. Guided by themes and experiences that transcend age and salted with a bit of irreverence, Gamewright's games are designed to foster laughter, learning, friendship and fun. Some of the games that were a hit that night were: Take the Cake, Feed the Kitty, Slamwich, Wig Out, the Scrambled States of America game, Sleeping Queens and Forbidden Island. It was obvious from the laughter and in some cases intense competition that both students and parents found the Gamewright games engaging and entertaining. If you are interested in learning more about the games that were played, you can go to Gamewright's website www.gamewright.com
It was great to look around the cafeteria and see groups of parents and children having good old-fashioned fun playing games together.
Special thanks to the "game gurus" who helped make Game Night a success especially Alison Massida, Elizabeth Bowen and Vincent Dennis.
The Family Fun Committee is planning another game night, bingo night and movie night in the coming months so watch the calendar for the specifics of these upcoming events.
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 Check out the Chesterbrook PTA Facebook page! We'll keep you up to date and in the know! |
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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. |
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