PTA Weekly
Important Upcoming Dates
Thursday, Oct. 4, 6 p.m.: Diversity and Inclusion Committee meeting
October: annual PTA pledge drive
October 1-31: Walktober tracking: Track your walking minutes!
Wednesday-Friday, Oct. 3-5: Fifth Grade Camp @ Camp Sealth
Monday, Oct. 8, 6:30-8 p.m: PTA board meeting
Thursday, Oct. 11: School pictures
Thursday, Oct. 11, 6-8 p.m.: Kindergarten social
Friday, Oct. 12, 6-8 p.m.: No school - Teacher in Service Day
Thursday, October 25, 5-7 p.m.: School potluck
Wednesday, Oct. 31, 8:15 a.m.-8:40 a.m.: Move-a-Thon assembly
Friday, Nov. 2: Reflections Art projects due
Monday, Nov. 5: PTA Food Drive begins
Monday, Nov. 5, 6-8 p.m.: PTA board meeting
Monday-Friday, Nov. 5-9: Scholastic Book Sale
Wednesday, Nov. 7: Move-a-thon
Friday, Nov. 9, 1:40-2:20 p.m.: Veterans Day Assembly
Friday, Nov. 9, 6-8 p.m.: Fall Dance and Food Drive
Monday, Nov. 12, Veterans Day observed (no school)
Thursday, Nov. 15: Make-up Picture Day
Monday-Wednesday, Nov. 19-21: Parent Teacher conference (no school)
Thursday-Friday, Nov. 22-23: Thanksgiving holiday (no school)
It's the 2018 PTA Pledge Drive!
Did you know all funding for library materials comes from our parent community? The district does not budget for library materials such as new books, or to replace lost books. We couldn't create our reading culture without our families! Thanks to the generous donations from our parent community, our students are able to have updated books and materials in the library.
**You should have received a pledge drive letter and giving form in your students' folder. Please consider giving at a level that is comfortable for your family. Send in your Pledge Drive donation today!
Take 5 minutes to help set legislative priorities on education
PTA Survey
Take this brief online survey to help your PTA delegates vote on the TOP 5 issues that are most important to your school.This year Washington State PTA starts a 2-year legislative priority cycle for 2019-2020. The platform will be voted on at Legislative Assembly in late October. This input will help them set priorities, ranging from recess to SEL to teacher shortages, gun safety and more.
Tonight: Diversity and Inclusion Committee open house
Thursday, Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. in the library
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee strives to ensure that every student and family feels welcomed and fully included in our school community. We work to foster a school culture that engages all families while promoting and celebrating our diversity, and to identify and address equity issues in our community. Our committee is comprised of a chair or co-chairs that are part of the PTA Board of Directors, and our committee members - YOU! Come join us in the library to learn more about Diversity & Inclusion in PTA, and share what you’d like to see and/or contribute to this year at Wedgwood!
Garden Corner: Volunteers wanted
Thanks to our 2017 Garden Grant from Whole Kids Foundation and a plethora of dedicated parents and volunteers, the first annual Fall Harvest Party went off without a hitch! There were over 140 people in attendance playing games. making crafts, pressing cider, and gathering as friends and neighbors. The Garden Grant is a $2,000 award that is allowing us to expand our garden curriculum to 3rd-5th grade as well as extend the amazing benefits of our school garden to the Wedgwood community.
We are still looking for dedicated parent volunteers to help us run our Learning Garden programs! Are you interested in helping weed, prune, and maintain the garden? Would you like to work with students to expand their knowledge of the schoolyard ecosystem?
Sign up here to participate in one of these exciting opportunities! You can also check the garden bulletin board for updates on garden tasks to be done on weekends or after school when you are waiting to pick up your child. No prior garden experience necessary. If you have any questions about how to get involved, contact Nicole Parish-Andrews, Garden Coordinator, at nparish@foxberryeducation.com.
Marmot Chess Club!
This year's chess season is kicking off! Registrations are due on Friday, October 5. If you didn't see the flyer come home in your child's folder, the registration form is here:
Wedgwood has an active chess club open to students of all skill levels from K-5th grade. The emphasis is on learning to play a good game of chess, sportsmanship, and fun! Professional coaches will work with student cohorts based on their interest, learning style, and ability. Weekly practices will occur on Wednesdays at 1:25–2:25 p.m. from October–April. Students who opt to participate in the local elementary tournament scene will commit to approximately one Saturday per month. Please email marmotchessclub@gmail.com for further information.
Wanted: FUN volunteers for awesome nature curriculum
Are you looking for another way to get involved at Wedgwood?!?! Great, because the 3rd grade team is looking for a group of volunteers to help with our Audubon FUN (Finding Urban Nature) program for four weeks in the fall and four weeks in the spring. You don’t have to be a parent or guardian of a 3rd grade student to help out! You’d be in charge of leading 5-6 students through weekly, hands-on nature/science lessons outside on the playground. This amazing program is free to us, but we do need lots of volunteers to make it a success.
The fall dates for FUN are: October 10, 17, 24, and November 7, with a time commitment from: 8:45-11:20 a.m. (prep 8:45-9:05 a.m., Session #1 9:05-10:05 a.m., Session #2 10:20-11:20 a.m.)
There is a one-time training required for the fall lessons, and one training for the spring lessons. Dates for the training are:
Friday October 5th, from 11:00am-12:00pm at Seattle Audubon (8050 35th Ave NE)
Saturday October 6th, from 9:00am-12:00pm at Seattle Audubon (8050 35th Ave NE)
via e-training, on your computer, at your convenience – They’ll email the e-trainings to you!
For more information or to volunteer, please contact Wendy Walker at FUNvolunteer@seattleaudubon.org.
Move those feet: It's Walktober
Did you know that October is also known as Walktober and is International Walk to School Month? You should have already received a walking minutes log for each student in Kid Mail so you can track your walking in October. Turn it in at the end of the month and we'll see which classroom has walked the most! Any walking counts -- not just walking to school. This is a great warm-up for the Move-a-Thon.
Seeking business sponsors for Move-a-thon
Our annual Move-a-thon fundraiser is approaching, and the PTA is looking for event sponsors! At Move-a-thon, Wedgwood students raise money by walking, jogging, running, or moving around track. Their laps are tallied on a student designed Move-a-thon T-shirt distributed to every all students and faculty on the day of the event. So that all funds raised by students can go directly to enrichment programs, the PTA is seeking the help of local businesses to cover the cost of the T-shirts. With a minimum donation of $150, business sponsors will receive prominent recognition on the shirts, at the event, and on the school website.
For more information, or to become a business sponsor, please email Lillian Keil and Keilee Kramer at wedgwoodmoveathon@gmail.com
Keep the Mighty Movers Moving!
Mighty Movers is a program during the kids lunchtime recess (K-3rd) where they can run or walk around the track. Kids earn foot charms when they reach a certain goal. Please help our kids with this special program. I have kids stop me in the hallways and on the playground asking if there will be Mighty Movers this week, but we often don’t have enough volunteers. Please consider volunteering, it doesn’t have to be a weekly commitment, please sign up here when you are available. Thanks! You may sign up here. Volunteers are needed on Mondays from 11:40 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Questions? Contact Roshni Hourselt azroshni04@yahoo.com
School musical update!
By this time, all the parent information meetings for the musical (Willy Wonka) have happened. If you didn't attend a parent meeting, your child cannot audition for the cast. However, there will be many crew opportunities, including backstage tech, props, and sets, so stay tuned!
Key dates:
Auditions are October 24, 1:30-3:30 p.m. in Multi-Arts Portable 1.
Sign-ups for musical crew will happen in November; fee for participation in tech is $50.
Rehearsals run after school October 29 through February 28. Attendance is required on both days: Mondays 3:30-4:45 p.m. and Thursdays 2:45-4:45 p.m.
Tech rehearsals are required and held in WW cafeteria March 1, 4, and 5 (2:45-5:45 p.m.), March 6 (1:30-4:30 p.m.), Mar 7 (2:45-5:45 p.m.), and March 8 (2:45-4 p.m.)
Performances: Friday, March 8, at 6 p.m., Saturday, March 9, at 6 p.m., and Sunday, March 10, at 4 p.m. in WW Cafeteria
Want to volunteer for the musical?
We now have our parent coordinators! Woohoo! If you’d like to help out with the musical, feel free to reach out to wedgwoodmusical@gmail.com and let us know what you’re interested in doing (props, set build, kid wrangling, costume creation, etc.) and we’ll put you in touch with the right coordinator. (Your child doesn’t have to participate for you to volunteer.)
Submitting to the Weekly
Got a news item you want the school community to know about? Send your news item (that's either related to Wedgwood or our local community) in 200 words or less by Monday at 5 p.m. to wedgwoodPTAweekly@gmail.com. Please include your text in the body of an email and remove all formatting. Please do not submit PDFs, flyers or images.
The 5 p.m. Monday deadline is final.
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