The Springer Buzz

September 2,  2016

In This Issue:

• Principal’s Message

• News and Announcements

• Parent Education Opportunities

Quick Dates for your Calendar:

• September 2, Friday: Minimum Day, dismissal 12:15pm

• September 5, Monday: Labor Day, No School

• September 7, Wednesday; 8:45am: PTA Meeting

• September 12, Monday: First day of extended day Kindergarten dismissal 2:15

• September 14, Wednesday: Photo Day!

• September 23, Friday: Staff Development Day, No School For Students

Principal’s Message

Back to School Night:  What an incredible night!  BTSN is such a special time. Together with you and the teacher you learned side by side what the year entails for your child.  It is such an exciting  feeling to walk in a class and feel the positive energy.  

Right before BTSN began, I began reading A Mindset for Learning by Kristine Mraz and Christine Hertz’s this statement resonated within me:  

“ Together, we will help your students become the brave, engaged, energized learners and people we need them to be.”   As I reflected on this statement, I realized that is what we are all doing as we educate our children and students.  We are teaching them to take risks and to embrace failure wholeheartedly and that we will be there to guide them, nurture them and teach them to find their inner voices.

Noon Duty Coverage Needed:  We are still in need of a noon duty aide on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:45 -12:45pm.  If you are interested or if you know of someone who is interested in taking on this position please contact the office.

Furry Friends:   As much as we love our furry friends we need to keep them off the school campus for the safety of others and our furry friends.  

Lynn Boskie

Principal

Back-To-School Order Form

The BTS Order Form is a quick, easy, on-line tool that allows you to join the PTA, make donations, and purchase Auction tickets, Spirit Wear and Yearbooks.  This is a convenient way to make a single payment for your donations and orders!

The link to the form is: Springer 2016 BTS Order Form

The password is: "stingers" (all lower case)

Thank you for your support of the Springer PTA!

Hot Lunch Volunteers Needed

We are seeking more volunteers to join the Hot Lunch crew.   Shifts are weekly, or alternating weeks, from 11:15-12:15.  We still need help every day except Friday.

Parent volunteers receive a free lunch credit from Choice Lunch for every shift worked.

Contact Rachel Michelson <michelson [dot] rachel @ gmail [dot] com> or Donna Murphy <jcdrm @ yahoo [dot] com> for more information.

Crosswalk Volunteers Needed

We ask every family to volunteer for Crosswalk Duty, at least two times per year, per student.  This greatly helps improve safety and reduce speeds in our parking lot and on Rose Ave, before and after school.  For more information and links to sign up, go to the Crosswalk page on the Springer website.  Thank You!

PTA Corner

A huge thanks to Nicole Bassett for putting on a fabulous Back to School Coffee on the first day of school!  Springer would not be the community that it is without volunteers and we truly appreciate all the parents who attended the coffee and signed up to get involved this year.  It takes a village!  If you are still interested in helping out at Springer, it is never too late to get involved.  We are still looking to fill PTA roles, both big and small.  Please email springerpta@gmail.com if you have a few hours to put towards important Springer programs.  One or two hours a month can make a significant impact on our school community so please don’t hesitate to contact us, even if your time is limited!

Be sure to join us on Wednesday, September 7th at 8:45 am in the staff lounge for our first PTA meeting of the year!  This is a great meeting to attend if you would like to hear more about PTA’s plans for the year and to have a voice in the budget.

Lunchtime Activities – Funvisor Program

Springer is one of the unique elementary schools in our district that has lunchtime activities for our kids. How many of your children have come home with a lanyard with runner tokens on it, a personal poem or story written in Scribes, or an artistic design to hang on their walls from Art Club?

For years Springer has had programs open to all students at lunchtime where they enjoy being creative, learning new skills, and staying healthy. But we can’t do it with out your help.

Make an impact on the Springer children. Please consider volunteering, 1 or 2 lunches per month, or more, for either:

Art, Lego, Run4YourLife, Board Games, Garden, Scribes, Volleyball, and Yoga.

Questions or need more information, email Jenni Tellefsen at jentellefsen@gmail.com

Come Join Cub Scouts!

Springer's Cub Scout pack invites all boys in grades 1-5 and their parents to a kickoff meeting -- featuring an animal show! -- on Wed., Sept. 14, from 7-8 p.m. in the Multi. Get a taste of Scouting and consider joining this fall! For more information, please contact cubmaster[at]springerpack36.org.

After School Student Activities

We have a lot of fun after school activities starting up very soon:

Chess starts on 9/8; click here for flyer.

We also offer Skateboarding, Art, Speak & Debate, Tennis, Legos, Tennis & Spanish--Click here for the link!

Cornerstone Corner

Project Cornerstone is an anti-bullying/asset building program that encourages caring adults to be an essential part of children’s lives by guiding them and teaching them life skills .

Each month a pre-selected book will be read by a parent volunteer to all students in each classroom. A lesson and activity will be used to reinforce the “developmental assets” presented in the book.  Developmental assets are positive values, skills, relationships and experiences that help young people grow up to be healthy, caring and responsible members of a community.  Because this program is school-wide, we increase the number of caring adults interacting with students.

At Springer, we believe that the program is most effective if ALL adults on campus model and reinforce the same skills and tools the students are learning in the program.  Please read the monthly letters from your classroom ABC readers, reinforce the skills at home with your child, and practice the skills at school, in the community or whenever the opportunity arises.

LAEF welcomes you to the 2016-17 School Year!

What’s new with LAEF this year? Check out Eric’s Video!

Check out this new student-created video "LAEF 2016-17: Are You IN?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhs5w7deE0I to learn what’s new at LAEF this year and how the programs we fund enrich every school day for your child.

Donate now to help LAEF pay for teachers and program staff for STEM, PE, libraries, art, music, and computer science, in addition to smaller class sizes in grades K-3 and 7-8, more junior high electives and a new Instructional Support Teacher (IST) focusing on 6th-8th grade math.

Our goal is $3.7 million and 100% participation from all of our LASD families.The suggested annual donation is $1,200 per student or $120/student per month. Every gift in any amount is appreciated. To donate now, make your pledge or to learn more, please go to LAEFOnline.org. Thank you!

Follow #laefonline on Facebook and Twitter.

LASD Art Docents Looking For Volunteers

Los Altos Art Docents are looking for new volunteers to join us! Please come to our Informational Coffee next Wednesday, August 24 at 10:am at the Los Altos School District Board Room; 201 Covington Road. See attached flyer for more details. If you are unable to come to the coffee, please contact the Art Docent office at (650) 947-1195 or kdickerson@lasdschools.org for more information.

Share Your Love Of Nature With Kids

Become a LIVING CLASSROOM docent... share your love of nature with kids!

It's time to harvest seeds from heirloom tomatoes, plant winter wheat and veggies, search the schoolyard for animal homes, learn about Native California Indian uses of plants, and much, much more!  If you like all those things and enjoy connecting kids with nature, please consider becoming a Living Classroom docent!  LIving Classroom is looking for docents to help deliver hands-on garden-based lessons to the students of the Los Altos School District.  No experience necessary as we provide all the training needed!  Our Fall Docent Training will take place Monday mornings from 9 - Noon from Sept. 12th – Oct. 17th.  Want to learn more about our program?  Please consider attending one of our upcoming Informational Meetings from 10-11am on Monday 8/22 or Monday 8/29 at the LASD iLearn Studio located at 201 Covington Road, Los Altos.  Please click HERE to view our Fall training flyer.

Questions? Email us at livingclassroom@lasdschools.org or call (650) 947-1103.  For more information about Living Classroom, please visit our website at www.living-classroom.org.

Parent Education Opportunities

Through enriching presentations from local and national experts on topics of interest to parents, faculty and staff, the MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series seeks to contribute to the academic, physical, and emotional health of our students. All events are free of charge and are for parents, faculty and staff in Los Altos and Mountain View public schools. For a schedule of upcoming presentations, please click here.

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.