Family Movie Night - Ice Age

The movie for the upcoming

Family Movie Night on January 8th has been chosen!

Ice Age:  Dawn of the Dinosaur (PG)

Admission is free, Bring your whole family!

Suggested 5 General Mills box tops or

Campbell's Soup Labels per person for admission,

BUT NOT REQUIRED

Parents must accompany children.

Bottled water, licorice and popcorn will be available for purchase,

so remember to bring a dollar or two

Doors open 30 minutes prior to show time. Show starts at 6:30.

We hope to see everyone there!

1st and 2nd Grade Holiday Program a Success!

On Tuesday, December 15th, parents, family, and friends filled the gym to support the combined classes of the first and second grade for the Wascher Holiday program. The participation of both the students and families was exceptional!

The students have been working for the past couple of months on the program based on the book "Hurry Santa" written by Julie Skyes and Tim Warnes.The kids did an excellent job, thanks to the wonderful guidance from Mrs. Lay. I'm sure that everyone looks forward to more entertaining shows in the future. A big thank you to Mrs. Lay and to all the staff at Wascher Elementary who made this special holiday show possible.

Video to come

You Can Donate $$ Directly To Your Child's Classroom!

Did you know that you can donate $$ right to your child's classroom? The money is to be used only in your child's classroom at the discretion of the teacher. No red tape, no crazy paperwork, just a moment of your time and a bit of your budget. Is your child's education all that you dreamed? A small donation to their classroom can help provide the craft supplies, teaching tools, or little extras that can make their learning experience amazing. Think about it. Maybe instead of purchasing that extra or extra,extra toy for Christmas, write a check to the school and help your children get everything they can out of their education. Which do you think they'll get more out of? One more wrapped gift under the tree or a better/more memorable school year?

All you need to do is run into the school office (open during school hours), drop off a check, and let them know what classroom you'd like it to go to. As my first grader says, "Easy Peasy!"

If you have questions, please leave a comment or better yet, call the school at 503-565-5400. I can guarantee that they'll be happy to discuss details or any questions that you have regarding donations:)

Give the Gift of Learning

The Holiday Season is now upon us and in the spirit of Christmas many are pondering over the gift of giving. Giving to the poor in our community, giving to local churches and non-profits, giving to friends and to our families.

However, there is one way of giving that until recently I had not thought about in the same way, giving to our children by giving to the school.

Parents are usually asked to give to the school through a fundraiser, a book-sale or other organized event. Those things are all wonderful but what if we just gave to our school for the sake of giving and not because someone organized it.

My wife and I were talking that we currently tithe regularly at our church, give to local charities and support a child overseas. Why do we not support our child's school in the same way.

Wascher Elementary currently has two donation funds set up, a book fund and a needy student fund. You can also make a donation directly to your child's classroom or ask if there are other special needs that the school has that you may want to help with.

The donations are tax-deductible and will go directly to the area that you specify. So, during this Holiday Season as you are contemplating the gifts you will be giving consider your child's education. Consider a donation to Wascher.

The teachers and staff give everyday to our kids, and we are greatful for all they do. Let us show our support in the ways that we can. Some can give time, some can give supplies, some can give notes of appreciation and some can give financially.

Earn Money for Shopping

With the Christmas Season quickly approaching many of use will be starting to think about all the shopping that will take place. If you are anything like me the first place I go to start my shopping is to the wonderful world of the Internet.

As you already know Wascher Elementary participates in the Box Tops 4 Education program to earn rewards for the school. However, one thing you may not know is that you can earn rewards for the school by buying items online at many of the stores you already shop at simple by going to the Box Tops Marketplace first.

I was amazed at how many stores are participating in the program and the range of rewards is anywhere from 0.5% to 10+%. If the school can earn 1% for items that I buy from Walmart online or 8% from Barnes and Nobles for the books that I would buy anyways I have to ask myself - Why not?

As far as I can tell the only drawback is that I have to go to the Box Tops Marketplace web site first and select the store I want to buy from. Once I select a store I am redirected to stores main site and proceed like normal. Simple, effective and best of all we help out our students.

Next time you go to make an online purchase check out the Box Top Marketplace and see if you can make a donation to the school in the process.

Family Movie Night - Date Change

It was announced tonight at the PTA meeting that the Family Movie Night at Wascher Elementary has been moved to January 8th at 6:30PM.

A movie has not been selected yet and the PTA is looking for suggestions. The only criteria is that the movie must be G-Rated. If you have suggestions feel free to leave a comment on this post and I will pass them along.

Washer PTA Updates

The following is from a recent e-mail sent out by Wascher PTA President Katie Gladwill:

Dawn Walters, our librarian will need some help at the book fair this month. She is doing a book fair at both Wascher and Newby, so she will need all the volunteers she can get. Also for every time slot that volunteers work, they will receive a voucher for $5.00 to spend at the book fair. Here are the time slots that she need volunteers for:

Monday 11/9 2:30 – 4:30 (Filled Thanks to Michele Archer)

Tuesday 11/10 4:00 – 8:00
Thursday 11/12 12:00 – 4:00 & 5:00 – 8:00
Friday 11/13 8:00 – 11:30

As most of you know, tomorrow is the flu/H1N1 vaccination clinic at the school, remember you need to have your consent forms at the school if you want your child to be vaccinated. The clinic will be open to the community who are in the targeted risk group after school. You should also bring proof that you fall into one of the risk categories if you go after school. Also, Kyra said that they will not be needing volunteers during the school hours, but they need some help after school from 3:00-4:00. If you are able to help, please let me know. Thanks!

Also, the Wascher PTA now has their own e-mail address, so if you have any questions, or if you are able to volunteer, please let us know at wascherpta@yahoo.com

Thank you everyone and I'll see you this Wednesday the 4th at 7:00pm for our next pta meeting!

Thanks!!

-Katie Gladwill

Family Movie Night!!!

Mark your calendars!
Wascher Elementary will be hosting a Family Movie Night on November 20th January 8th at 6:30PM. Stay tuned for movie information and more details.

McMinnville Scool District E-News

It seems that our school district is starting to come into the Internet age and has set up a e-mail news list. There still is not an RSS feed or automatic sign up but if you want to get periodic news updates they will provide them.

Here is the information from the District web site:

"Sign up for E-News to receive updates about your schools electronically. Get the latest news and information about upcoming events. Send an email to Marcia in Communications: mlatta@msd.k12.or.us"

The Easy Way To Recycle!

In this weeks take home packet I found a flier for the "Little Red School House" project at Roth's. If you are anything like my family we drink a lot that comes from recyclable containers but do not find ourselves taking the bottles and cans back to the store very often. We currently have several bags full just waiting. Well, now there is a simpler approach then standing in line at the recycle machines in the store and you get to help out our schools in the process. Roth's has set up a "Little Red School House" in front of their store where anyone can donate Oregon deposit cans and plastic bottles. All proceeds that are donated are given to local area K-8 schools. It does not say if you can specify which school but all the kids in the district need our support.

I know my family will be clearing out some space and taking those bags of bottle to the "Little Red School House."

Thank You to Roth's for helping support our Schools!

Picture Time!

Once again it is time for School Pictures! This Thursday, October 1st, make sure you kids are dressed in their best and that they have their filled out picture packet. Depending on the outcomes from school pictures past you may even want to consider sitting down in front of the mirror and practicing those smiles.

Win a Busload!

In the latest newsletter from Labels for Education there was the following excerpt along with lots of additional information on their program.

You could Win a Busload of gear for your school!

One lucky winner will receive $25,000 worth of arts, athletics, and academics gear for their school! You could win trumpets & trombones, baseball bats & soccer balls, paintbrushes & easels, plus a whole lot more! You can enter once a day, so come back every day through 10/31/09! Enter Now.

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

Now that the blog is up and running, the calendar has some events on it and a few people have visited the site it is now time to fill it up. The question is "With what?"

I have my own ideas:

• Get more events on the calendar (PTA events, field trip information, school board and budget meetings, etc)


• Highlight more details on current and potential fundraisers


• Announce student/teacher/community members who receive awards or special recognition.


• Add pictures and details of events as they happen at the school

These are just a few of the ideas that I have but what ideas do you have? Leave comments on this post and let me know. Or if you would rather the idea not be announce publicly in the comments then you can always e-mail me at chadjriddle@gmail.com.

As a final note, if you are reading this then you already know where to find us, but there are a lot of people that do not yet know that we exists. Tell everyone that you know about us. The best way to expand the content, collaboration and effectiveness it to get more people involved.

The Big Clip and Bonus Box Tops

I have to admit that I have known about the Box Tops for Education program for quite a while and I know we have a little box house on our fridge that my wife puts the labels into, but other than that I had never really looked into the program. So the other night I decided to head over to their web site and learn a little bit more. For those, like me, who do not already know the program will basically give the school $0.10 per box top label that is turned in (check out the Box Tops FAQ for more details).

At first it may not seem like much but when I did some simple math:

100 students bring in 5 box tops per month = 500 per month
500 box tops * $0.10 = $50 per month
$50 * 12 months = $600 per year of free money for items most of us already buy.

That started to get me excited about the possibilities. What if 200 or 300 students participated, $1200-$1800 per year. That may not seem like much but I'm pretty sure that would put smiles on a lot of students when they could participate in an extra activity or play with new equipment at recess.

As I read more on the web site I came across several other great features, The Big Clip, Bonus Box Tops and Coupons.

The Big Clip

The Big Clip is a random drawing that is being held to give away 1 Million box tops to schools. To enter is simple, just go to the website and sign up. Each person is allowed to enter once per day up to the ending date on 10/31/09.

Bonus Box Tops
The Bonus Box Tops page offer more ways to get extra box tops through additional drawing or sweepstakes. Once again entering them is easy and many allow entering every day or week.

Coupons
There is also a entire page of coupons to help you save money on the products that support the Box Tops program. A great example is the coupon for fruit snacks. Many of us buy them for our child's lunch and the coupon saves you $1 when you buy two, but on top of that the fruit snacks have two bonus box tops, three total. So when you buy two you save $1 and the school get $0.60. Sound's like a good deal for what we already have in our cupboard.

There is a lot more on the Box Tops web site and you can even track how our school is doing. I encourage everyone to check it out, tell everyone you know, get Grandparents involved and lets make the best of this Great Opportunity.

Translations

Thanks to the magic of Google we now have automagic translations of this blog into many languages. You will see on the right hand side a "Translate To:" gadget. It currently has the default languages. If you know of any other languages that would be useful for readers or if there are languages that are not needed please let me know.

New Place for Information

I am the parent of a student at Wascher Elementary and over the past year I have realized that I am not involved in the school as much as I could or should be. I also noticed that as I did attend PTA meetings or events aimed at parent involvement I would always see the same handful parents. At a school with, most likely, more than 400 parents I found this odd.

As I thought about the reasons why I was not getting involved I kept coming back to one reason, information. The weekly newsletter is good but in a digital age it becomes outdated quickly. I spend the majority of the day behind the computer for my job and if the information I need does not come in my e-mail, through a news feed or automagically appear on my calendar I will most likely not keep tabs on it. Also, when the place I can look online for information is not up to date I find myself not checking it very often.

With that said the faculty at the school does a Great Job at what they need to do, educating our children, but I feel they need a little help in getting the news about what they are doing out to the digital world. That is what I hope that this blog will be able to do. Get the information out to those who need it, when they need it. Parent, grandparents, relative, friends, anyone who has an interst in the students at Wascher should be able to look in one place an get all the real-time information that they need.

If anyone has comments or suggestions on what information you want to see or if you would like to help by sending content for the blog, events for the calendar, or ideas to start a forum for discussion please let me know.