Friday, August 24, 2012

September Newsletter

Here's our first newsletter of the year. Hope to see you all Monday for Back to School night. We are starting at 6 p.m. Come meet your teachers!

Check out the newsletter here!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Get Ready, Get Set and Join Us!

We are excited for Back To School Night, Monday, Aug. 27 at 6 p.m. Please take this opportunity to meet your teachers and find ways you can help out. Official needs list vary by teacher, but here are a few good ideas to stock up on and donate if you can.

*Glue Sticks
*Colored Pencils
*Disinfecting Wipes (like Clorox Wipes)
*Expo Dry Erase markers
*Facial Tissue
*Indoor games or puzzles for inside days

Also we have a few new opportunities for you to consider.

*Chinese Liaison-we need a parent with a child in the Chinese Immersion program to work with the PTO and help us know what's going on in the class, where help is needed and how we can lend a hand.

* Math Club- several parents have asked for this opportunity for the lower grades. We are willing to offer the program, but we need a parent to head up the group in Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades or we won't be able to bring the programs school wide. There are some materials available and knowledgeable volunteers in the upper grades to help volunteers in the lower grades.

*Dads and Donuts- we would really like to offer this to all students. This program happens four times a year. We need someone in charge of picking up donuts and doing flyers to remind kids and parents to come; we will also need volunteers to just serve donuts. This is a great way to have parents and kids spend time together--you don't have to be a Dad to bring your child, any adult is welcome to bring students.

*  Room Mom and Class room help sign up sheets will be available in your teacher's classroom on Back to School Night. Look for the light purple paper.

*Field Day Coordinator- to help plan the year end field day in May for all grades.

*Country Fair- We need lots of help at this event: Food Chair, Publicity, Donations, and people to help set up, clean up and run games. We will be more successful with your help. This event will be May 10, 2013.

We need everyone's talents and time. Don't forget our Six for Southland Challenge where each family is asked to give 6 hours of service during the year to our school. We have great teachers, kids and parents. Together we can make a difference!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Welcome Back to School

We are so excited to be on the brink of another new school year. Hopefully you've had a great summer and the kids have kept up on their reading.

We have some important reminders for you.

Monday, Aug. 27 at 6 p.m. is Back to School Night.
Friday, Sept. 7 at 9 a.m. is the first PTO meeting. Everyone is welcome.

We are still looking for volunteers. Hopefully you've all filled out the volunteer info. in the online registration packet--step 8--and have printed it off ready to come back to school the first week. If not, please consider helping the PTO this year either in the classroom, with a program or at the annual Country Fair.

We are still looking for someone to Chair "Dads and Donuts,"  and a chair for the Chess Club, and someone to help coordinate Field Day in the spring. The following are programs that we really need support in this year so we can continue to offer them at Southland.

Dads and Donuts happens four times a year, and the person chairing this event would be in charge of picking up donuts, milk and paper goods and working with the school to get the cafeteria set up. We have a group of parents who come to help the morning of the events, so the chairperson won't be doing everything alone.

The Chess Club was a new club last year, open to all the students. We need one person to chair the committee and 8 parents to help supervise during the lunch hour. The schedule is flexible for this club. However, if we don't have parents support, the club will be in jeopardy.

We are excited to announce that the Math Club will be provided to all grades IF we can find enough parents to help. K-3 will be doing Monster Math and 4-6 will be using the Singapore program. Jen Preece and Shauna Eccles will be helping guide volunteers along the way, so you don't have to know everything, they are happy to show you what to do. We need help in Kindergarten, First, Second and Fourth grades.

The Field Day Coordinator would help streamline the annual end of the year field day, work with teachers on planning what we are hoping to be a school wide Olympics. This is also a flexible volunteer position and the planning and prep can be done from home.

We are also looking for a Donations Chair who is an organized individual to help us track our donations. There won't be cold calling involved, but mainly letter sending and tracking who's donated to our programs during the year. This can be done completely from home.

If you are  a creative person who likes to design flyers and posters we need you! We are looking for a Publicity Chair to help with the designing and printing of flyers for our programs, and especially helping us get the word out when it comes to the Country Fair next May.

Don't forget if you like to be a room mom or help with class parties, you can sign up for that with your teachers on Back to School Night, or by sending an email to Room Mom Coordinator Heather Parry (hparry78@gmail.com).

We are looking forward to offering all our students many great programs this year, but can't do it without you! Please contact President Katie Larsen (larsenkatie@comcast.net) with any questions.