Issue: #14
January 11, 2016

This Week:

Auction Tickets Now on sale - see link below

Jan 12: Site Council Meeting
Jan. 13: Early Dismissal
Jan. 18: Martin Luther King Jr. Day - No School 

The Thornton Creek website has moved!
by Anna Marshall - anna@sunshineslowdown.com
 
Our thorntoncreek.org URL now directs you to a new website on the Seattle Public Schools platform.

The Thornton Creek web team-a small group of parent volunteers-has been working to update, expand on, and move existing content to this site since late summer. We moved the site for a number of reasons, including:
  • We needed to transition to a mobile-friendly website; the district's platform is mobile friendly.
  •  The district is pressuring all schools to move to its new platform, which is designed to meet accessibility standards for people with disabilities, such as sight impairment. 
  • The district will maintain the platform, allowing Thornton Creek's parent volunteers to focus on content. 
This new site contains the same or more information on Thornton Creek, our learning environment, staff, and ways to get involved. The information is slightly reorganized to fit the district's requirements.

Visit the new site and click around. We hope you enjoy the new digs. And, as ever, please feel free to ask questions, provide feedback, make requests, or supply content. 

You can email the web team at website@thorntoncreek.org. 

Thank you very much,
The Thornton Creek web team
(Jacob Kosman, Amelia McGee, Anna Marshall)
From the Principal
From the Principal
by John Miner - jminer@seattleschools.org
Thornton Creek Principal

Thornton Creek Families
 
Back from winter break and off we go!  We will be celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in chorale music the afternoon of January 21st. Thanks to Mary K. and Kofi for their musical direction in our gathering.
 
Our fabulous Talents Night is fast approaching. Each year, students and parents put a lot of time and effort into making this evening a fabulous show of student talents. Mark February 5th on your calendars for this exciting evening!
 
Tours are about to begin. New families will be visiting Thornton Creek to learn more about our program as they make enrollment decisions for their children.   
 
Our annual science fair will be upon us in March. Students will display their experiments, explorations, and inventions on March 9th. If your child is interested, it's not too early to begin.  Come join us the evening of March 9th for a wonderful array of student discovery and imagination.
From the Office
Office News
by Jennifer Evans  - jevans@seattleschools.org
 
Open Enrollment
Open Enrollment is Feb. 17 - March 1. New kindergarten families will have the best chance of being assigned to a school outside their attendance area if Choice forms are returned during this window. May 31 is the final deadline for current students to request a different school. Kindergarten Admissions Nights will be held in each of the district's five regions beginning in January. Please see the flier for more information.
School & Program Tours and Open House
by Emily Wong - emily.seattle@gmail.com
Jennifer McDowell -  jenniferwisemcdowell@hotmail.com
Co-Chairs Hiring and Recruitment Committee 

We are quickly approaching the time of year when families take on the challenging task of choosing a school for their children. After break during 5 weeks, Thornton Creek will offer several opportunities for families to see what our school and community are all about.

Our morning tours will begin at 9:30 am on the following dates:
  • Jan 28 (Thurs)
  • Feb. 4 (Thurs)
  • Feb. 8 (Mon)
  • Feb. 11 (Thurs)
  • Feb. 25 (Thurs)
There will be one evening open house & tour: Feb. 23 (Tues) 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Tours can last up to 2 hours. 

There are two ways for you to get involved:   
  1. Volunteer!  We need parent volunteers to assist creating a welcoming and informative environment for prospective families.
  2. Spread the word!  If you know families who are looking for a great school, let them know about Thornton Creek and the upcoming tours and open house.  You can always refer them to our website.
If you are interested in helping out, please contact Emily or Jennifer.
January Lunch Menu

The January Lunch Menu is posted here.
 
From Your PE Teacher
It's time to sign up for Archery!

Today 4th and 5th graders will be coming home with information about the Archery team along with a permission slip.  For students to participate, they must return the permission slip to me as soon as possible, beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, January 12.  Space is available on a first come, first served basis as we are limited to 32 archers.  Once I receive their student's permission slip, an email will be sent to parents with a link to sign up for practices.  Sign-ups will close no later than January 22.

Here are the highlights you need to know:
  • Practices begin Tuesday, 2/2/16
  • Practices are either mornings or afternoons on T/TH
  • Archers must choose two consistent practice times for the 7 week season, attending at least 10 practices
  • The TC tournament is Saturday 3/5
  • The State Tournament in Ellensburg is Monday 3/21
  • Parents are responsible for the transportation of their student to and from practices and all tournaments
  • Parents are needed to volunteer at least one practice to help keep everyone safe and things running smoothly
Please look for more specifics in the handout coming home with your 4th or 5th grader.

Thanks for your continued support of PE.

Sue Doty

From the Art Studio and the Library
News from the Art Studio
by Ginny Alleman - vaallemann@seattleschools.org and Maria Callahan - mlcallahan@seattleschools.org

This week Ginny and Maria coordinated our lessons to cover the life and work of artist Horace Pippin. Next Tuesday the 12th, we will be lucky to have Book-It Theatre perform A Splash of Red, the Life and Art of Horace Pippin written by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Ms. Sweet is a Caldecott Award winner for illustration.

Book-It Theatre uses the entire text of a work and the actors "act out" everything, including narrative and descriptive sentences, not just dialog. In library, Ginny read and discussed the book-a biography- and history of his life. Guiding questions were "What difficulties and obstacles did Horace Pippin face during his life?" and "How did he respond to those challenges?" Students are asked to use text evidence in their answers to these questions. Ginny also made suggestions for other picture book biographies.

Maria and the students explored and wondered over his paintings. Maria says:

As children entered the art room this week, we started with a few grounding minutes of silent drawing. Then we moved to the rug area to look at the work of Mr. Pippin. We used our Visual Thinking Strategies to appreciate and ponder his paintings.
 
VTS involves three questions:
  • What is going on in this piece of art?
  • What do you see that makes you say that?
  • What more can we find?
Students in all the grade levels amazed me with their powers of observation and ability to look deeply. We had lengthy discussions about the time of day in Pippin's painting, The Domino Players. We looked at the Man on the Red Bench, wondering what was the white animal-ish shape in the background. Some ideas; a dog, a ghost squirrel, a person in a costume, a white rabbit, a cat-dog-squirrel combination? Each student is asked to back-up their own ideas with evidence. For example, "I think it is a person in an animal Halloween costume because the leaves on the tree above the man are yellow and gold, Fall colors!" (actual kid quote) There were so many examples of excellent, deep thinking.
 
We will continue to do this Visual Thinking work all year long. It is one of many truly joyful parts of my job.
 
See you in the art room!
Maria
 
Be sure to see the Thornton Creek Library website for links to Horace Pippin's work and more about his life!
 
Go to vtshome.org to learn more about our Visual Thinking Strategies, too.
From Site Council
Site Council meeting this Tuesday, 7pm
by Stacy Earlywine - stacy.earlywine@gmail.com
Site Council Chair

Site Council meeting this Tuesday, 7pm in the school library.  See you there!

Childcare will be provided. Please email me to request a spot. The agenda can be found here.  
From the Traffic and Safety Committee
by Lyndee Belinda - lyndeebelina@comcast.net

As you all know, increased traffic and reduced parking are a challenge this year.  As part of the Thornton Creek Transition committee, a traffic and safety subcommittee was formed to identify ways we can make sure our students get to and from school safely.  Right now the main focus is to make drop-off and pick-up times efficient and safe, and to encourage people who park to follow the City of Seattle parking rules.

Due to increased traffic around our school, we are asking the Thornton Creek community to follow these traffic rules to keep our students safe:
  • Park 30 feet from all stop signs and 20 feet from all crosswalks (marked and unmarked).
  • Please do not park in front of curb cuts or driveways.
     
  • If you drop off your student at school, please only do so on the north side of the school.  Pull all the way forward and parallel to the drop off zone.  Jim (our wonderful morning helper) says that there is room for 3 vehicles to drop off at a time, as long as you pull forward!
  • Once you have pulled in parallel, please make sure your child gets out on the right side of the car.
     
  • Do not pull in as if to park in the drop off zone. When you back out, you stop traffic and put students at risk.
  • After you drop off your child, please continue east on NE 80th St.  Do not turn right onto 43rd Ave NE, due to bus traffic.
When we return to school the week of January 4th you might see signs encouraging you to park mindfully.  Please remember that this is not to scold or inconvenience anyone, but to make sure no one gets hurt.

Traffic Survey
Another item the traffic and safety team would like to do is to find out how our students get to school.  As our school grows, traffic will be more challenging.  The possibility that another program will move into the Decatur building when we move to our new building is very high, which will mean even more traffic.  We hope to find out where people live, how they get to school, what might encourage them to carpool, walk, bike or take the bus.  Please fill out this short survey to help us understand what we can work on for next year and beyond.
http://tinyurl.com/grbhwr3

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments about traffic or safety issues,
Lyndee Belina
Parent Group
Thornton Creek Juggling Club is back for its 4th year
by Robert McAbee - rdmcabee@hotmail.com
 
The Thornton Creek Juggling Club is a free club that meets on Fridays from 3:50 - 4:35 in the Gym, starting on January 22nd. Students in grades 3-5 can join. This club teaches kids how to juggle balls, clubs, Chinese Yo-Yo's and much more. All props are provided. Registration forms are beside the bulletin board in the main hall across from the office and can be filled out and left in the Juggling Club envelope there.  If you have a question, contact Robert McAbee at rdmcabee@hotmail.com.

Start getting ready for the Thornton Creek Science Fair
by Pat Boyle and Tracy Fuentes - patboyle@gmail.com tracyfuentes@gmail.com
 
Thornton Creek parents are organizing a science fair. The Thornton Creek Science Fair is scheduled for Wed., March 9 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. More details are available at: http://tcsciencefair.blogspot.com/

You can sign up online.

There will be 1-2 informational sessions to help brainstorm ideas and help with the project in February.

Parent Group Fundraising
Tickets on Sale TODAY!
by Lissa Armato - auction@thorntoncreek.org

Tickets go on sale today at 9 a.m.!!!  

Don't miss your chance to attend our biggest fundraiser of the year!  Early bird pricing is in effect, so buy your tickets today.  Buy now! 

We still need donations!  We will have the auction table set up through January Wednesdays 9:20-9:50, and Thursday and Fridays 3:20-3:50.  

We need volunteers!  Please contact Lissa Armato if you are interested in volunteering for the event.  There are many things that need to be done!

WE ARE ONE!

Auction Volunteers Needed
by Hee Jung Kim - heejungkimbel@gmail.com 

Volunteers are needed for Thornton Creek's annual fundraiser auction to be held March 25th at Husky Stadium. I hope you will join our team of volunteers who will create a successful event to benefit our children.  The auction is the biggest fundraiser for the school and also a night of great fun and community for our school families.

Please contribute your talents to our event by filling one of the 80 volunteer positions which are detailed here: http://thorntoncreek.org/auction/volunteer

Please sign up using the Signup Genius link:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0e45a5af2aa7f49-2015

To our wonderful bartender volunteers, sadly there will be no bartenders needed this year since Husky Stadium will handle all the alcohol.

Thank you for volunteering!

Read-A-Thon Pledges - Final Request
by Deb Glazer - debglazer@gmail.com

Forgot to turn in your Read-A-Thon pledges...you are in luck!!  It is not too late to turn in your financial pledge for your children's reading efforts.  We are doing one more shout out to remind those that meant to contribute, but for one reason or another did not get around to it.  We have been told by several parents how much their children enjoyed the Read-A-Thon and hope to see it continue next year.  We now need to turn our children's hard work reading into dollars.  

Remember, the Read-A-Thon helps fund academic assistants, our music program, arts, expeditions, playground supervisors, and the library.  Read-A-Thon money also goes to scholarships so that all our children can participate in music, field trips, camp, and other classroom activities.  If you like what you see at Thornton Creek and want programs to continue or want to see changes, we need your pledges!!  So, bring in those checks or click here to make an online payment.  Checks can be turned in to the office.  Thank you to everyone who has already turned in their pledges and helped make our first ever Read-A-Thon a success.  

Keep on Reading!! 
Deb and Erin
District Approved Communications to Families
Please Note: Information below is not specifically endorsed by the school, nor have they been vetted by school staff.
Advertising Review/Approval Process

Per Seattle Public School Board Policy, outside materials must be approved before being distributed. The materials must meet district criteria, be approved by the Office of Public Affairs, and must be pre-printed and delivered to the school with the approval form attached.

 

You can find details regarding the review/approval process here. All requests to include information in the Thornton Creek Newsletter should be submitted via this process. 

Nathan Hale Winter Concert

The Nathan Hale Music Department presents their annual Winter Concert on Thursday, January 14 at 7 PM at the Nathan Hale Performing Arts Center.  Come hear performances from the Concert Choir, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Vocal Jazz, and Wind Ensemble.  Admission is free.

Hazel Wolf Tour Dates

Weekday morning tours 9-11 a.m.
Thursday January 28th
Wednesday February 3rd
Tuesday February 23rd
Monday February 29th

Weekday evening tours 6-8 p.m.
Thursday February 4th
Wednesday February 24th
 
No RSVP necessary. 
Loyal Heights Tour Date - February 10, 2016

Loyal Heights Elementary Open House/Tour date for prospective students and parents, will be Wednesday, February 10, 7 p.m.
JAMS Tour Date - February 11, 2016

Jane Addams Open House/Tour date for prospective students and parents, will be Thursday, February 11th, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment is Feb. 17 - March 1. New kindergarten families will have the best chance of being assigned to a school outside their attendance area if Choice forms are returned during this window. May 31 is the final deadline for current students to request a different school. Kindergarten Admissions Nights will be held in each of the district's five regions beginning in January. Please see the flier for more information.
TC Logo Medium7711 43rd Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98115

TEL: 206-252-5300
FAX: 206-252-5301
In This Issue
TC Website has moved!
From the Principal
Office Updates
School Tours & Open House
January Lunch Menu
Archery
News from the Art Studio and Library
From Site Council
Traffic and Safety
Juggling club
Science Fair
Auction Update
Read-A-Thon Pledges Due
District Communication to Families
calendar icon
CALENDAR 

The 2015-16 Seattle Schools Calendar (in PDF format) can be found here.   
 
Thornton Creek calendar can be found here

January 12
Site Council Meeting

January 13
Early Dismissal

January 18
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (No School)

January 28
Thornton Creek Tour 9:30-11:30 a.m.

January 29 
School Day (revised)

February 4
Thornton Creek Tour 9:30-11:30 a.m.

February 8
Thornton Creek Tour 9:30-11:30 a.m.

February 11
Thornton Creek Tour 9:30-11:30 a.m.

February 15-16
President's Day/Midwinter Break

February 17-19
School Days (revised) 

February 23
Thornton Creek Tour 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

February 25
Thornton Creek Tour 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Quick Links

  
  
  
  
The Source Children's
Library accounts
Thornton Creek is a Box Tops for Education School

 

Thornton Creek Elementary is a Box Tops for Education school! Look for pink Box Top coupons on products you have at home (e.g. Cascadian Farm cereal), then just clip and drop them in the collection basket just inside the front door of the school. For coupon information, go to:  

www.boxtops4education.com 

Say Thank you

We have a tradition at our school of saying "thank you." If you would like to submit a thank-you note, send an email to ae2newseditor@gmail.com or  click here.

THANK YOU WEB TEAM!
I want to send a
HUGE thank you to Jacob Kosman, Amelia McGee, and Anna Marshall for the many hours of work that have gone into the fabulous new website! We all recognize that this is a "volunteer" job, and the work that you have put into giving TC a user-friendly website is "above and beyond!" The site is beautiful, easy to use, and informative!

Thank you so much for your dedication to TC!
Thornton Creek Parent
Thank you to the wonderful person(s) who found my kindergartner's jacket & backpack outside and put it in her locker!
- Erin Shade
NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS
Do you have an article or Bulletin Board item you would like to submit to the newsletter?

Click here for submission guidelines. Click here to send your article to the editors. Content is due Thursday for the following Monday's edition.