Briarlake Elementary School PTA
October
22nd, 2009
Eleventh Week of School
onth,
Year - Vol 1, Issue
1 | |
|
PTA
Officers
|
Co-Presidents: Sarah Rigby & Laurie Hobbs VP
Programs: Heidi Carpenter & Lisa Moore
VP Fundraising: Irenea Seufert & Michelle
Linder
Treasurer: Micki Gulley
Secretary: Jessica
White |
| Dates to
Remember |
|
October 26 - 30
Red Ribbon
Week
October 29, 1 pm
School Council Meeting
Sun., Nov. 1
Daylight Savings Time
Tues., Nov. 3, 7
pm
Workshop at Oak Grove ES
Thurs.,
Nov. 5
Chick-fil-A Spirit Night
Fri., Nov. 13
Beaver Bulletin deadline
Nov.
15
America Recycles Day
Mon. 11/16 - Fri. 11/20
Food Drive benefiting
CHOA
Wed. 11/18 - Fri. 11/20
Book Fair
Thurs. and Fri. 11/19 &
20
Thanksgiving Lunches
Wed. 11/25 - Fri. 11/27
Thanksgiving Holidays
Tues., Dec.
1
Holiday Music Program
Pre-K-3rd
grade |
| Thank you
to: |
Workout
Anytime
Decatur
678.925.6621
One of our super sponsors for the
Fall Festival!
Nicole Spiro for organizing the
LifeTouch picture effort! We all will look our
best thanks to Nicole!
Everyone who attended the
PTA meeting Tuesday! We appreciate your support
and input. |
| What's going
on... |
From Mrs. Wright-
Starr: My preschool
class will be going to Yule Forest Pumpkin
Patch in Stockbridge,
GA on Thursday,
October 29.
Second graders: are
studying the moon and it's changing phases
1st, 3rd, and 5th
graders: are
celebrating the completion of the CogAT!
Congratulations!
|
| Reminders |
|
BOX
TOPS
Continue clipping Box Tops.
Look for Box Tops on many different products, not
just food.
School Store Hours
Open
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays before
school--7:35-8:00 a.m. Volunteers
needed! Contact Paige Fitts to help.
School Tours
Available:
Mondays
9 am
Tuesdays
1 pm | |
|
| Greetings
Briarlake Beavers, |
These beautiful fall days help to
remind us how "perfect" nature can be...take a minute
and notice how blue the autumn sky is, or how pretty the
leaves are as they change colors, or how the mums smile
in the sunlight...show your children how precious our
planet is, and the reasons we work so hard to protect
it.
*Terrific Thursday was as Terrific
as ever, thanks to the Kindergarten classes. What
a treat for our teachers!
*Directories are complete. If
you ordered one on Open House, you will receive
them tomorrow in your child's Friday folder. If
you see Melissa Forster-Green, please thank her...it
took a lot of time and energy to compile all our
information.
*Ms. Jenks has created a
Parent Assistance flyer with all the
necessary student information (student numbers)
needed to access the new
eSIS. It will come home tomorrow.
If your child does not receive one in his/her Friday
folder, please contact your homeroom
teacher.
*Please check the Lost and Found for
personal items. Our "closet" runneth
over!
|
| Teacher of the
Year |
CONGRATULATIONS to Mrs. Beth Rich, our 2010
Teacher of the Year!! Mrs. Rich teaches fourth
grade and is the chairwoman of the Yearbook
Committee. She is a wonderful example of how
important teachers can be in the life of a child.
Thank you for being a teacher to our children, Mrs.
Rich! |
| Sally
Foster |
Reminder - Sally Foster
Errors Due TODAY, Thursday, Oct 22. Please return
your item along with the Error Sheet to the school
office today.
Thank you!
Michelle and Irenea
Chairwomen |
| 5th Grade
Discovery Social Studies Fair---ALL Parents
Invited |
The 5th grade Discovery students
will be presenting their Social Studies Fair projects
for judging on Friday, October 30th at 9:00am in the
library.
Ms.
Fields and I are sending home invitations to the parents
of these students but we would like to open it up to all
Briarlake parents.
All Briarlake Parents are
invited to attend the Social Studies Fair on
October 30, at 9 am in the library.
The top 5
projects will go on to compete in the county level
Social Studies Fair in November at Stone Mountain Middle
School.
GOOD LUCK students!
Information provided by Melissa
A. McMillan
|
| Directories |
If you
purchased a school directory, they should be coming home
this week. If you do not receive one that you ordered or
you would like to purchase one now, for $5, please
contact Melissa
Forster-Green. |
| PTA
meetings |
Become an
active part of your child's school. Here are the
dates for the remaining PTA meetings
this school year:
November 17- 6pm
December--no meeting
January 19- 6pm-Science night
February 16-6pm-Family
activity
March 16- 6pm- Math night
April 20- 6 pm
May 11- 6 pm- International
Fair
Babysitting available. WE NEED
YOU!!
Minutes from Tuesday's meeting
will be published next
week. |
| Lakeside Health
Fair--Tonight--6-8 pm |
Lakeside HS
is providing a community Health Fair, tonight from 6-8
pm in the Lakeside gym.
* seasonal flu vaccines
will be available, but supplies are limited and will be
given on a first-come, first-served basis for
$20.
* North Atlanta Urgent Care will do sports
physicals on site for a reduced rate of
$25.
* The soccer booster club will be selling
subs, salads, chips and drinks.
Take advantage of this health and
wellness
opportunity! |
| National Recognition
for our Beavers |
Sarah Cook and her Healthy Habits
team were spotlighted in the October 2009 edition of
PTO Today. Check out the article here. Thank you to Sarah...our fearless, grant-writing,
healthy habit forming, safe walking
Hero! | | |
|
| Playground
Update |
At Tuesday's PTA meeting we
discussed our two year committment to raise funds for a
new playground. Sarah Cook presented several designs
that are under review. The following committee update is
important information for those who did not attend the
meeting.
What is the
status of the new playground?
If you have been wondering
what is happening with the new playground planning, here is an
update. The playground committee collected the votes
from the student body on playground features they want the
most last spring and used the results to develop a list of
components that we would like to see in a new playground
design. We submitted requests for proposals from 4
companies. Initial designs came back priced between
$40-$75,000. The committee then developed a list of 20
critical playground components and asked the companies to
submit revised designs that might reduce the budget and assure
that the designs meet county guidelines and student
interests. We have now received back two very exciting
and enticing playground designs with budgets much closer to
the $40,000 range. Briarlake committed to designating
proceeds from both last spring's and this spring's art auction
to help reach our fundraising goal. We are also seeking
grant funding, but we at present we are more than $20,000
short of our funding needs. We may be able to install
the new equipment in phases, but will need County approval of
the final design first. Our next steps are to finalize a
recommendation for Dr. Culbreath to take to the County Board
of Education for approval and to continue our fundraising
efforts full force to make a new playground a reality at
Briarlake. We will keep you updated as we progress and
will post visuals of the playground once we have them to
show. Thanks for your
support!
Information provided by Sarah
Cook
Please keep in
mind that new playground structures are extremely expensive,
and that we planned for a two year committment. Our
playground committee has worked tirelessly to research
the many different designs, the process we
must follow with the county, and have helped to
raise as much money as possible. We have a ways to go,
but we have several fund raisers left this school year.
WE CAN DO IT!
THANK YOU to
the playground
committee! |
| Celebrate
Calm--Workshop for Parents and Teachers |
Please save the date and join us for
this worthy workshop being presented by Oak Grove
Elementary PTA on Tuesday, November 3, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Kirk Martin is a nationally known speaker, educator, trainer
and guide for parents and teachers.
.Visit www.CelebrateCALM.com
to learn more.
For Parents and
Teachers!Save the
Date!! Tuesday, November 3rd.
10
Secrets to A Stress-Free Home & School
Workshop for
Parents
*Create a calm
home-eliminate yelling and arguing.
*Improve
focus, attention and behavior in school.
*Eliminate
defiance and disrespect.
*Create
stress-free discipline and homework time.
*Build
confidence, vision and internal
motivation.
Join us for a humorous, practical
workshop with nationally recognized expert Kirk Martin, who
has trained over 70,000 parents and teachers. Helpful in
reducing anxiety and stress in all families. Let's make this
school year stress-free! The Workshop is FREE thanks to
sponsorship by the Oak Grove PTA. There is no need to
register. Just bring friends and neighbors-we'll have a great
time, have several "Ah-hah" moments and leave with a dozen
practical tools that will help immediately.
Doors open at
6:30 for dessert and coffee sponsored by Joan Kaplan, The
Chuck and Marshall Group of Keller Williams Metro
Atlanta. |
| Healthy Planet-Healthy
Me--National Red Ribbon Week- October
26-30 |
National Red Ribbon Week at Briarlake -
October 26-30
The theme this year is
Healthy Planet, Healthy Me.
All students will be getting
an activity sheet next week listing ways to take care of their
bodies and the planet. Parents are asked to initial each
day the activities that children complete. Sheets
will be turned in to Ms. Norris Brown on Monday, November
2nd.
Please encourage your children
to participate!
We will also have themed days
all week at school to show our commitment to a healthy body
and a healthy planet.
October 26-30th
Monday - Fruit & Veggie
Day
Wear the color of your favorite fruit or vegetable, eat
it today!
Tuesday - Farmer Day
Dress like a
farmer and celebrate people who grow our
food
Wednesday - Be Green Day
Walk to school and
Wear Green to celebrate being Green and helping to keep our
planet clean!
Thursday - Wild Hair Day
Celebrate
wilderness & the animals that live there
Friday
- Sports Day
Wear your favorite team jersey to celebrate
being active in sports
Monday, November 2 - Turn in
Tracking Sheets to Ms. Norris-Brown
Thanks for your
support!
Information by Sarah
Cook
|
| eSIS--Going LIVE
October 23--Save Progress Reports |
|
The New eSIS Parent Assistant
(formerly Parent Portal) is COMING October 23, 2009!
DeKalb County Schools is transitioning to a
new student information system, eSIS. As part of this
transition, we are excited to announce the availability of a
new parent portal application, Parent Assistant (PA),
beginning October 23, 2009.
Parent Assistant (PA) is a secure,
web-based student access information application for parents,
guardians, and students. Access and data is secure in that
users can view only that information for which they are
authorized. Additionally, with the entire district having one
SIS parent portal, parents will be able to see data for every
child in any school level.
Features & Benefits
· Ability
to check student information 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week
· Ability to view a variety of student information
such as attendance and discipline
· Increased sense of
ownership and responsibility for personal progress
through
viewing of homework assignments and
due dates, grades, and test scores
· Improved communications with the school
and with students!
· Ability to ensure basic demographic data
is up to- date ~ view information
such as address and
telephone, emergency contacts and more.
Helpful Tip:
Progress Reports come home this week. "Save
It!!
If you want to be able to track your
student's grades and attendance, you will have to sign up
again for the new program. You will need the student
numbers that are located on the progress report (student
number and GTID -
(which stands for Georgia Testing
ID).
Keep it handy to make sign-up easier when they launch
the new program.
Information provided by
Mrs.
Gavrielides
|
| Community Outreach:
Donate coats and warm clothing |
|
The
International Rescue Committee has issued an appeal for warm
coats/jackets. With cold weather coming more quickly than in
previous years, the new immigrants from Myanmar and other warm
countries have no appropriate clothing (adults as well as
children).
Ms. Berry is willing to pick up
and deliver all items received. She will have a box in
the lobby for one more week, ending Friday
10/30.
Thank you for considering this
request.
Diana M. Berry,
Teacher-Librarian
_____________________________________________________________________________
Also
from a caring parent, Marlysa Brooks-Alt:
Briarlake Elementary has been asked to
participate in a clothing drive to benefit the homeless
community of Atlanta. St. Mark UMC will be the
distributor of the clothing. There will be a bin in the
lobby starting Monday, 10/26 through Friday 10/30.
All
sizes are needed for men, women, children
and infants. We especially need pants/jeans and
long sleeved shirts that these kids can wear to school. There
is a more itemized list below:
Pants/Jeans, shirts, socks,
shoes, gloves, undergarments, and blankets.
Thank you so much for your help
with this clothing drive. These clothes will benefit a lot of
people on need.
Sincerely,
Marlysa
It
is just this kind of caring spirit that Briarlake is known
for... at this time of year it is great to be able to reach
out to our
community. |
| Book
Fair Coming soon--Get Ready to Read |
Briarlake, are you ready to Read Around
the World?
The
Scholastic Book Fair is coming to Briarlake beginning
Wednesday, November 18 and running through Friday, November
20.
The
Fair will be open before and after school and during the
Thanksgiving Lunches on Thursday and Friday. This is a
great opportunity to get some new books, get started on your
holiday shopping, and help out our teachers by purchasing
books from their "Wish Lists" - and a portion of the proceeds
stays at Briarlake!
If
you'd like to help out (it's a lot of fun AND you get to shop
while you work!), contact Leigh Harris
Get
ready to READ!
Thank
you, Leigh, we can't
wait! |
| Green
Team News |
It was
wonderful to collect so many Sally boxes and electronics
last Friday! We collected 5 truck-fulls of
electronics! Way to go Briarlake!! It's
amazing what a small effort can do for our
environment. The amount collected from our school
community alone is quite impressive. Thanks
Briarlake for making our world a little nicer.
For those who still have electronics to
recycle, Decatur High is recycling electronics and clean
styrofoam this Sat. from 9:00 to
1:00.
Briarlake will continue to collect cell
phones and their chargers, headsets, and
accessories, all year long. The collection box is
near the front doors.
These phones will benefit gorillas
from the Democratic Republic congo area. What
an easy way to reach out and help another part of the
world.
Ms. Berry, our librarian, is
collecting batteries all year as well.
We hope
many of you are enjoying the morning walks to
school. Our safety patrols are ready to punch a
hole in your walking cards each week. .
This week is Week 3. Remember to walk or bike
to school at least one day each week to get your card
punched for that week so that at the end of 10 weeks we
can enter your card into a raffle for a prize. Walk to
Win!
Thank you Green
Team!
| |
Sarah Rigby and Laurie Hobbs, PTA
Co-Presidents
Briarlake Elementary PTA
| |
| |
