Springer Buzz!

January 17th, 2014

In This Issue

Calendar Dates

Letter from the Principal

News and Announcements

Parent Education Opportunities

Student Extracurricular Activities

Quick Dates for your Calendar

January 20 & 21: No School

January 22: Family Night Out at Armadillo Willy’s

January 23: District English Advisory Committee Meeting

March 13: Science Fair

March 22nd: Springer Auction

Principal’s Letter

The Science Fair is coming!

This year, the Science Fair at Springer (known as Science-O-Rama) will be bigger than ever!  On Thursday, March 13th, Springer’s budding scientists and engineers will be showing off their experiments and findings. The afternoon will include 4, 5, and 6th graders presenting their experiments to a panel of judges. In the evening, the Fair is open to the public for all to see the great work of Springer scientist.

The first step is to visit the Springer website and click on the Science-O-Rama link. There you will find directions, guidelines, important dates, and registration. The link is designed to be paperless, so your child can register online. We ask that all students who are participating (this is an optional event for Kinder through 5th graders) register no later than February 14th.  

Is your child stumped on what to do?  Having trouble coming up with a good idea for an experiment?  Or, just need some help thinking it through? This year, Springer will offer “consultation” times for students to drop in and get help. Ms. Craddock and a team of parents will be available at lunch in the STEM lab on the following dates for students to come by and receive assistance:

Tuesday, Feb. 4th for 4th/5th graders and Thursday, Feb. 6th for 1st-3rd graders

Furthermore, the GirlSPARC STEM team will be available for consultation on Saturday, Feb. 1st for ALL students (times tbd).

We NEED Judges:  Are you interested in assisting in the judging of student experiments on Thursday, March 13th. A background in science, math, engineering, or other like field is encouraged, but not necessarily required. Judges receive a brief training, a free lunch, and then move to the multi to assess the experiments.  Judges need to be available on March 13th from noon to about 3pm.  If interested, click here to sign up.

The Springer Science-O-Rama is always one of the highlights of the year.  It is a showcase of our students academic and creative talents.   

News and Announcements

District English Advisory Committee (DELAC) meeting: On January 23rd from 3:30-4:30 in the District Office boardroom, there will be a district-wide meeting about the English Learner program in LASD. On the agenda are the following topics: Goals of the DELAC, election of officers, input into the District Local Control Accountability Plan process, timeline for future DELAC meetings and a 10-minute Systematic ELD mini lesson will be given. This is a public meeting and all who are interested are invited to attend. Please contact Raquel Matteroli, Coordinator of Categorical Programs and Student Assessment, at rmatteroli@lasdschools.org, if you have questions.

LAEF counts on the support of all families in the district. This year’s grant is already at work in our classrooms, benefiting every Springer student with programs like library, music, art, living classroom, small group instruction and STEM. Since every student benefits, LAEF strives for participation from every family, at any level. Every donation makes a difference. Together we can raise the $1 million remaining toward this year’s goal. Please visit www.laefonline.org today, to make a donation or set up an installment plan to spread your donation over several months.

LAEF Representatives at Springer are:

         Nancy F

         Susan Longyear, sue.longyear[at@gmail.com

         Brooke Schiller, bbwc[at]sbcglobal.net

         Kristin Najarian (member at-large), kristin_najarian[at]yahoo.com

Make Your Tax Deductible Donation Today!  www.laefonline.org

Pertussis Booster for Students in grade 6: Students currently in grade 6 must have proof of a Tdap or Dtap (Pertussis or Whooping Cough) booster given after their 7th birthday (after 10th birthday is recommended) in order to begin seventh grade in August of 2014. Please provide a copy of your child’s immunization record to your school office by March 14, 2014.

Save the Date! Prom Night Springer Auction 2014 – March 22, 2014 at 6:30 p.m., at Michael’s at Shoreline.  

The auction committee cordially invites you to Prom Night Springer Auction 2014. Find your favorite prom outfit (any era)— dress-up as much or as little as you want-- for the biggest party of the year to raise funds for our school.

Volunteers Needed! It’s volunteers like you that help make the auction the grand success that it is! Join your friends and volunteers. Click here <http://tinyurl.com/m28c6dl> to sign up to help via a google doc or you can cut and paste this link into your web browser: http://tinyurl.com/m28c6dl

We need volunteers to help with planning, on-site and with post-auction support.

Egan & Blach Parent Tours: If you have a 6th grader, be sure to note that New Parent Tours at our wonderful Junior Highs are scheduled in January and March.  You can check the website at either school for more information: www.eganschool.org orwww.blachschool.org.

WALK-A-THON 2013 WINNERS AND FUNDS RAISED !!!

$72,300 For Springer Elementary

We are happy to announce the total amount of money raised at this year's Walk-a-thon! Thank you for getting all your donations in before the end of the year! And, thank you for all you did to make this year's Walk-a-thon a success.

Over 92% of our school attended the Walk-a-thon this year. It is truly an amazing event and it does so much good for our school! It's not just the money that gets raised, but the community that comes together to support the event in every way!

Thank you Walk-a-thon volunteers and the Springer families that helped out!

We had the HIGHEST EVER Walk-a-thon Sponsor Card Donations! The dollars raised for pledges for laps walked raised $68,800! We also raised money by holding a raffle, food sales and more!

Now to announce the WINNERS:

Certificates were handed out and each winner was announced at morning assembly this week!

TOP EARNERS: Top money-raising students win special outing with Mr. Spenader to be held in March. Congratulations to:

· Kael Fitzpatrick, 4th grade

· Mica Horton, 4th grade

· Tyler Chatow, 6th grade

· Tegan Parket-Morris, 2nd grade

· Katie Chatow, 3rd grade

And...The top earner will also receive her name engraved on the Walk-a-thon plaque in the office and be the official starter for the 2014 Walk-a-thon!

Congratulations again to Kelly Kokka, 2nd grade

TOP CLASSROOM PARTICIPATION: One class from K-3 and one class from 4-6 with the highest percentage of student participation will win a special class party hosted by the Walk-a-thon Co-Chairs this Spring. Congratulations to Mrs. Smith in 3rd grade with 100% class participation and Ms. Millman with 84% of her class participating!

SPORTS CAMPS: Mt. View Spartan's Sport Camps

Four Students have won Sport Camps donated by Mt. View High School. These were randomly selected from the group of students that walked over 100 laps this year.

They are:

Matilde Pecora 2nd, Cassandra Ryder 4th, Dylan Chen 5th and Matteo Gobry 6th.

Thank you again to all the hard working volunteers and supportive members of the Springer Community! It was a road trip to remember!

Christy Gammons and Karen McKinley

Springer Family Dinner Night Out at Armadillo Willy’s!

The next Family Dinner Night Out is Wednesday, January 22nd at Armadillo Willy’s! Grab a burger or some tasty BBQ and earn 20% on food and beverage sales for Springer. Offer valid from 5pm to 9pm. Please bring in this FLYER in with you. See you there!

Cornerstone Corner

This month’s ABC book: “Blue Day Book for Kids” by Bradley Trevor Greive helps students understand that everyone has bad days. A series of animal photos convey what a blue day might feel like and offers ideas on how to turn these blue days around.

Goals of lesson:

1. Empower students to practice specific skills they can use to influence things that happen to them.

2. View disappointment and sadness as temporary and fixable states.

3. Act and switch directions so that the outcome of their day is changed.

4. Name feelings and notice the feelings of others.

5. Learn ways to accept and deal with feelings.

To reinforce this lesson at home:

·    Model the behavior of positive self-talk and switching directions when you are in a blue mood

·    Below are steps to help your child change how they feel when they want to get out of a blue mood:

1. Accept and name your feelings. For example, say to yourself, "I am sad." "I am scared."

2. Remind yourself that this feeling is temporary. You will feel happy again. Look to caring adults for support.

3. Relax and take a time out before you act. Take slow deep breaths and count to ten, relaxing all the muscles in your body. Get ready to choose the way you respond.

4. Think about ways to help move out of your mood. Use positive self-talk to make a plan.

Parent Education Opportunities

MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series

Springer would like to remind you of an upcoming event geared for parents of students in grades 5-9. As a part of the MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series, folks from My Digital TAT2 will be speaking on Tuesday, February 11, in the MVHS Spartan Theater from 7-9PM. The topic is “Parenting In the Age of Social Media.” We have heard great things about this organization and are looking forward to attending.

You can find out more at their website: http://www.lamvptac.org/category/parent-education/

Student Extracurricular Activities

EVERYTHING IS PERFECT

Los Altos World Records 2014

Want to be in the Los Altos World Record Book?  Czech Republic artist, Katerina Seda creates collaborative actions that center on the daily lives of ordinary people.  As part of Project Los Altos, SFMOMA on the Go, she is creating a book and exhibition of the people in Los Altos with an “ordinary talent”.  Seda focuses not on feats of strength or skill, but on the everyday attributes that make a person unique – the bluest eyes, the largest collection of baseball cards, legos, or dolls, the biggest holiday light display, etc.  Visit www.everythingisperfect.org for more information and to submit your record.  Deadline for submission is January 31, 2014.

Does Your Son Love to Sing?

The Ragazzi Boys Chorus is holding SingFest 2014, a free half-day mini-camp for boys between the ages of 7 and 10 on Saturday, January 18th. This low-key, fun event is a great way for boys to "test drive" the Ragazzi Boys Chorus and see if it's right for them.

For more information and to sign up for this event, please click here!

Also, please feel free to reach out to Chris and Vicky Brey, parents of a Ragazzi chorister, for more information. You can look them up in the Springer Directory.

Online registration is now open for the 2014 Girls on the Run season!

Registration is ONLINE ONLY.  To register your daughter, please follow the link: http://www.gotrsv.org/sign_up_a_girl

Click here for more detailed information!

LOS ALTOS-MOUNTAIN VIEW PONY BASEBALL

For more information and to register please visit the league website at http://www.lamvpb.org/

MVLA SOFTBALL SIGN-UP

Learn more about us at: www.mvlags.org

How to submit an article to the Springer STAR

If you have an article to submit to Springer Buzz, please send it to the editor at springer.buzz@gmail.com by noon on Monday for inclusion in the next edition.  Late arrivals will be included if possible but can’t be guaranteed! All flyers must be in either WORD or PDF format, accompanied by a brief summary of the activity in the email.