Los Altos School District Weekly Newsletter
|
Springer Buzz! |
|
In This Issue |
|
Calendar Dates |
|
Quick Dates for your Calendar |
|
May 23, 1:00 pm: Spring Concert, grades 4, 5 & 6 |
|
News and Announcements |
|
WALK-A-THON 2014: Enter the T-Shirt Contest!
Get ready to WALK... and get ready to ROCK! Springer's 2014 Walk-a-thon is coming on October 11, 2014. This year we'll be rocking and rolling around Springer’s Field at the "Springer ROCK-a-thon! So save the date and dust off your dancing (and walking) shoes!
Meanwhile, enter the annual Walk-a-thon t-shirt design contest! Entry forms will be coming home in this week's Friday folders, and duplicates can be printed from the Springer website (http://springerschool.net - click on Walk-a-thon 2014 or click here). Each grade will be given a rock and roll theme to draw in the space provided, and winners will be included on the t-shirt given to ALL Springer student and staff at the Walk-a-thon. Students may enter as many times as they like! Entries are due Friday, June 6!
Walk-a-thon -- make that ROCK-a-thon -- planning starts now! If you'd like to get involved, from joining the committee to helping with decorations over the summer, drop us a line! karenhey [at] stanfordalumni.org or christine.gammons [at] gmail.com. |
|
Volunteer Appreciation Week, May 27-30
Next week is Springer’s Volunteer Appreciation week when we take the opportunity to thank our amazing community of school volunteers! The Springer Staff invites all volunteers to a special breakfast in their honor on Thursday, May 29 at 7:45AM to 8:30AM. We will be recognizing this year's volunteer service award winners at this event as well. Come help us celebrate your efforts! |
|
Looking for Noontime Funvisors
The Springer Community thanks the Noontime Funvisor parents, caregivers, and grandparent volunteers who donated their time to work with students at lunch this year! Through Springer's Noontime Funvisor Program, students in all grades at Springer were able to participate in activities at lunch including BINGO, Art, LEGO, dance, and gardening. With fun activities from which to choose, we hope that noontime recess is a time that students look forward to each and every day!
Many regular Noontime Funvisor Programs will be back next year! And we are also excited about the addition of at least two new Funvisor Programs! The first is our Special Guest Funvisor Day. On this day, parents can volunteer to come and introduce students to one of their skills, interests, talents or hobbies (e.g. volleyball techniques, magic tricks, juggling, crosswords, foreign languages, knitting, sewing, or love of poetry) even if it is just once a month, quarterly or once a year. We hope to have a diverse group of activities to choose from on that Special Guest Funvisor Day throughout the year! In addition, there will also be an opportunity for 5th or 6th graders once a month to lead their own activity for younger students. This will be an excellent opportunity for older students to engage and lead younger ones and provide good role models for the entire Springer Community. For more information about 2014/15 Springer's Funvisor Programs please contact Laurie Pasmooij, laurie.pasmooij[at]mac.com or 650-224-7859. |
|
Computer Lab volunteers needed!
The Springer computer lab is undergoing a transformation and we are in need of some volunteers. Currently we are looking for someone who can cut steel table legs (metal band saw needed). In a few weeks, we will need help in assembling TV carts. If you can help, please email Regina Regan at rregan[at]lasdschools.org. Thank you! |
|
MEDICATIONS AT SCHOOL
Medications cannot be stored over the summer. If your child is attending summer school, please pick up their medications and paperwork and take them to summer school on the first day. Thank you!
Any questions, please email us. |
|
Congratulations Springer: We Won the Drive Less Challenge!
The 2014 Drive Less and Greenest Schools challenge has ended with Springer Elementary taking top honors in 2 categories: Greenest Elementary School and School Community Award.
Springer students won the Greenest School Challenge with 65% of Springer students Walking or Wheeling to school on May 7, Bike to School day – Great job students!! And thanks to parents for supporting this effort. Springer also beat out other schools for having the most parents pledging to "Drive Less" during the two week period- great job!!
As a reward for winning the Greenest School Award, GreenTown will host an after school party at Springer with Jamba Juice on Thursday June 5th, for all students. We will send out another reminder later.
On Bike to School day, we noticed at Springer school that the maximum number of cars in the drop off pull-through was 6 cars at peak time for just a few minutes; whereas on a typical day, there is a line out onto Rose Avenue, about 12-15 deep total, lasting for 5-10 minutes. This is a huge difference for us! Let's continue the great work, keeping cars off the streets and our healthy kids walking and biking!
Blach won the Middle School challenge with 70% of kids choosing to WoW to school. Loyola continues to make steady strides in its WoW program again winning “Most Improved Elementary School” with a huge jump from 39 to 5 Walking or Wheeling to school as counted once in the fall and once on May 7th. GreenTown reports that overall WOW commuting is up 7% across the school district!
Thank you to Mr. Spenader, and all the encouraging students, parents, teachers for your participation and enthusiasm!
The WOW team: Kacey, Sharon, Kevin |
|
ANNOUNCING THE GRIZZLY FUN RUN!
Gardner Bullis is so excited to announce the very first annual Great Grizzly Fun Run on Saturday, May 31!! This will be the first school sponsored fun run in all of Los Altos and it will be a terrific community-building event. We are welcoming all of our local schools to participate with us, as well as neighbors and friends and family. This 5k (3.1 mile) run/walk will take place in the beautiful hills around Gardner Bullis School and will end at the Gardner upper field with refreshments, prizes, smaller runs for the younger kids and a visit from our local fire department. Strollers, dogs, wagons are all welcome!
All proceeds from this run will go directly to the LAEF - benefiting all of our district's wonderful schools.
Hope to see every school represented at this fun event!!
Click here to register: http://www.active.com/los-altos-hills-ca/running/distance-running-races/gardner-grizzly-fun-run-2014?int= |
|
REQUEST FOR NEW OR GENTLY USED BOOKS AND TOYS FOR KINDERGARTEN
For 2014/2015 school year
The Kindergarten teachers are requesting donations for the following:
Books- picture books, easy readers/leveled readers, beginning chapter books-for the classroom libraries
Legos, Lincoln logs, Brillo blocks, Unifix cubes, pattern blocks, Counting bears, Building blocks, strings and beads, or anything else at a kinder level
For the PE/Recess Shed:
Please bring by the Springer School Office.
Thank you! |
|
Campus Beautification Help Needed
If you are not going away for the holiday, please join us for a Campus Beautification Work Day on Memorial Day (Monday, May 26) from 9:00-11:00. We’ll work on sprucing up the campus by weeding, trimming and planting shrubs. Bring gloves, gardening tools and a refillable water bottle. Cold filtered water will be provided. Children are welcome; however, no play supervision will be available.
If you are not available on Memorial Day and/or are interested in other ways to get involved, we are also looking for help with:
Please contact Donna Murphy (at jcdrm[at]yahoo.com or 650-965-8320) if you have any questions or are interested in helping with any of these special projects. |
|
The Los Altos Art Docents are 80 dedicated volunteers who have taught more than 790 art lessons to the elementary school children in the Los Altos School District.
This year at Springer, the docents taught 118 art lessons.
Thank you to Springer parents Katie Cowley, Kirsten Davis, Kacey Fitzpatrick and Lara Rahn who contributed to the success of our program this year. Congratulations to our newest docents, Hansook Lee and Joan Schein for completing our training, look for them in the class next year!
New docents are taught the LAAD lessons by experienced docents on Wednesday mornings from September through April. The Los Altos Art Docents welcome new members to join the next docent-in-training class in September. To learn more, you are welcome to come to our informational coffee on August, 27th at 10:00 in the board room of the district office. For more information, check us out at www.losaltosartdocents.org!
|
|
Diapers For Care
Collection of Recycle Goods - EXTENDED. Springer Families - Please consider dropping off your plastic bottles and soda cans into any of the Brown Boxes marked for the Girl Scout Charity Drive for 'There with Care'. These are located at drive through and the main lunch area. We will accept donations through May 30. Tuesday May 27 is recycle day for Mt. View, so if you could bring them into school instead of curbside at your home, it would help a lot.
The Springer 5th Grade Junior Girl Scout Troop is working on earning the Bronze Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout Junior can achieve. Our project needs to address a problem within our community and provide a sustainable solution.
We have chosen to help “There With Care”, organization that provides support to families with critically ill children. The items they are in most need of are diapers and baby wipes, so we have chosen to help them in this area. Our goal is to collect 2,000 diapers and 4,000 wipes.
WAYS YOU CAN HELP:
1. Donate packages of diapers and baby wipes - all sizes and quantities accepted. They have a significant need for preemie, newborn, size 1, 4T and 5T pull-ups. We will donate them to There With Care. Dates: May 8 – June 12
2. Coins for Care: Students and parents can donate coins to the Coins for Care jar in the office. Dates: May 8 - June 12
3. Recycling Collection: We will collect soda cans and plastic bottles that are CRV eligible. Please consider bringing your recyclables from home to add to our collection. Dates: May 8 – Extended till May 30.
All coins from the jar and money earned from recycling will be used to purchase diapers. Please look for diaper/wipes donation boxes and recycling collection bins on campus.
Thank you for helping us achieve our goal! Any questions please contact Anita Rao at sg.arao@gmail.com. |
|
LAEF NEWS
A “BIG” LAEF Thank You to Ms. Aubrey’s 6th grade class at Almond for making your Project Cornerstone lesson meaningful for our schools and our community. The “BIG” bake sale donation to LAEF supports excellence in education at all the elementary and junior high schools in the district.
LAEF representatives at Springer are: |
|
Tickets on sale NOW for Springer Day at the San Jose Giants!
Game time is Saturday, May 24 at 5 pm. At the start, our very own Springer Singers perform the National Anthem; and 1st-grader Colby Basset throws out the first pitch!
Look for the Giants' ticket booth on the quad, before school or simply stop in the office to purchase tickets. Tickets are $5 per person. There is no admission charge for children 4 years and under.
Don't miss out celebrating our great Springer Nation, the amazing Springer Singers, and Spring ball!
Questions? Contact Chris Leahy (cleahy94025[at]ahoo.com) or Karen Eichstadt-Coy (eichcoy[at]yahoo.com). Go Giants! |
|
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 childÂ’s immunization record to your school office as soon as possible! |
|
Student Extracurricular Activities |
|
DezignKidz Summer Camp @ Springer this Summer!
DezignKidz, a fun, locally-run program for aspiring designers (which made its debut at Springer in 2009) is returning to its roots on Rose Avenue with even more options for creative kids.
Choose from our popular Fashion and Accessory Dezign sessions (including Fashion Dezign 3 for middle school fashionistas), add some style to your space with Interior Dezign, create beautiful handprinted fabrics in Textile Dezign, perfect your fashion sketching skills or try our BRAND NEW SESSIONS in Plush Toy Dezign and Cutting -Edge Quiltz. "Dezigners" will learn turn hand and machine sewing and other textile arts techniques as they turn their ideas from sketches into completed garments, accessories or home decor items. Check out our web gallery for photos of last year’s fun!
Week-long programs run 6/16-6/20, 6/23-6/27, 6/30-7/3, 7/7-7/11 and 7/14-7/18.
Sign up online at www.dezignkidz.com or call 650 346-5896. |
|
How to submit an article to the Springer Buzz |
|
If you have an article to submit to the 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. |
.jpg)
