Parents' Association Meeting - NOTES

Hello, all!

Last night's Parents' Association meeting had the biggest turnout of any meeting of the past few years, so color us delighted. Thanks to everyone who came and helped throw out ideas on how to make our school and its events an even bigger success.

Lots of material was covered, and I'll try to include it all here, but if you attended the meeting and notice something missing, please let me know:

1) THE END-OF-YEAR CARNIVALS / FRIDAY MAY 23

In years past, we've held one event at Sacagawea Park to commemorate the last day of school. If last year's Christmas party taught us anything, it's that our school has grown significantly in the past year, and the key to having manageable events is to split them into mini-events by age group.

What we really need is a parent from each age group to step forward to help organize that group's mini event. Can you spare a few hours to help make your child's party a success? LET US KNOW. 

SEEDS will attend school as normal.

10:00am - 11:00am - SPROUTS CARNIVAL - School Building
Starting at 10am, the Sprouts will be having a small age-appropriate celebration in the Sprouts play yard. There will be carnival games and small prizes and a mid-morning snack provided by the school. It's not an official potluck, but if you have a dish you'd like to bring to augment the party, it would be welcome.  Each child must be accompanied by an adult; you can drop your Sprout off that morning at the normal drop-off time, but you'll need to join your Sprout at school at 10am for the party, and school will be dismissed at the end of the event (11am). Parent volunteers are needed for set up and clean up.

11:30am - 12:30pm - SUNFLOWER CARNIVAL - Sacagawea Park
At 11:30am, the Sunflowers in Indima's, Alyssa's and Sam's classes will walk to Sacagawea Park at the corner of 6th and Orange Streets (diagonal from the Orange Street Food Farm). There, they will perform a short musical presentation and enjoy carnival games, face painting, etc. This event is a potluck lunch, so please bring your favorite dish to share. Each child must be accompanied by an adult, You can drop off your child at the normal time in the morning, but will need to join him/her at the park by 11:30am, and school will be dismissed at the end of the party (12:30p). Parent volunteers are needed for set up and clean up.

1:00pm - 2:00pm - THE GARDEN CARNIVAL - Willard Park
At 1:00pm, The students who currently attend school in the former church building (Eric, Manda and Allison's classes) will arrive at Willard Park for their end of year celebration. Willard Park is located behind the Willard School building, two blocks west of the elementary school on 6th and Ash.  There will be a musical performance by the children, then carnival games, face painting, etc. This is a potluck event, so please bring your favorite dish to share. Each child must be accompanied by an adult, You can drop off your child at the normal time in the morning, but will need to join him/her at the park by 1:00pm, and school will be dismissed at the end of the party (2:00p). Parent volunteers are needed for set up and clean up.

At all of the above events, the school will be providing plates, cups, napkins and utensils. The school also has a collection of small carnival games, but if you have an idea for a game or event that the kids might find entertaining, we'd love to hear about it.

2) SUMMER PROGRAM

Throughout all three sections of the summer session, Sunflower and Elementary students will be enjoying swim lessons and field trips on Tuesdays and Thursdays, on a rotating schedule. For example, Sunflowers might swim on Tuesdays while the Elementary kids go on a field trip, and on the following Thursday, the Elementary kids would swim while the Sunflowers go on an identical field trip. Exact schedule will be mailed out to families who are enrolled for the Summer Session(s).

Some exciting changes in the works for this year:

Miss Julia has been hard at work lining up field trips for the kids. Some perennial favorites will be back on the schedule (Boone and Crockett Club, Natural History Center), along with some exciting new additions (Good Food Store, Osprey Park). There are just a few field trips remaining to be booked, so if you have a great idea for an activity the kids can walk to that is less than a mile from the school, please let us know. In the past, it's also worked well to have the children walk to Sacagawea Park and be met there by a guest teacher or specialist. If you're a parent and you have an idea on how you could educate and entertain the kids at the park, we'd love it. For example, one field trip last year was a "Dino Dig," where kids got to dig for dinosaurs in the park sand while talking about fossils, etc. Easy and fun.

Smaller kids in the Sunflower program will be grouped together for a separate swim lesson. We've noticed in the past that it's sometimes harder for the smallest kids to keep up with the bigger kids on the rope for the walk to Currents. In lieu of having them dragged along by the older kiddos, we're going to break them off into a smaller group that can take their time getting to the pool. Again, look for specific schedule in the packet being sent home, and if having your child in this smaller group appeals to you, let Katie know.

3) SPLASH BASH

Splash Bash is typically the largest Sunflower event of the year. Held at Splash Montana, the event includes a catered dinner for families and a private swim at Splash with a rubber duck race down the water slides. It requires a lot of help from parents, so we'll be posting more info about it as soon as the date for the event is booked (currently looking like either Aug 17th or 24th).

Some parents have mentioned that the event occurs too late in the evening for their littlest children to attend, so we're making an effort this year to schedule the event on a Sunday so swimming can begin around 6pm. We'll keep you posted.

4) THE NEW SCHOOL WEBSITE

We've added a Current Parents page to the site, which will soon be password-protected and will be a great private place to host our summer session directory. A few parents at the meeting suggested adding an online store to the site which would allow parents to buy T-shirts or other school merchandise, or even pay tuition online. Great idea. Look for it later this week. We're also continuing to round up bios and curriculum notes from teachers.

5) CLASS-SPECIFIC NOTES

SEEDS - The Seeds will be spending a lot of time outside this summer, so please provide sunscreen for your child. The Seeds will be building and planting a garden this summer, and the garden will be the primary Practical Life activity for the group. Ms. Correy is also looking to add sand and water tables to the Seeds yard, so if you own one your kids have outgrown, let us know, or if you'd like to volunteer to help build one, that would be awesome, too.

SPROUTS -  According to Ms. Jenn, the Sprouts would also love some parents to serve as guest teachers this summer, hosting a fun art or science or outdoor activity. Since the Sprouts are too little to go on field trips outside the school, it would be great if a field trip could be brought to them to add a little excitement to the school day. 10:30am would be the ideal time for this (before lunch/nap). If you want to hang with the two year-olds, they'd love to have you. Similarly, with the help of additional parent volunteers, the Sprouts would be able to venture out of the school for a walk to the park. If you can donate an hour or two one day this summer, please let Jenn or Anna know at drop-off.

SUNFLOWERS - Please bring your Sunflower to school with sunscreen pre-applied. We'll reapply in the afternoons, but often don't have time to apply sunscreen to each child before leaving for field trips/swim lessons. Make sure your child has a water bottle with his/her name on it. Specialists will continue throughout the summer in the late afternoons (Coach Shane on Mondays, Art on Wednesdays and Drama with Mr. Michael on Fridays).

ELEMENTARY - Construction is humming along on the new outdoor area at the school, which will allow some exciting new Practical life opportunities for the kids (like raising bantam chickens). Thanks to all who have been parking on the East side of the building for drop-off and pick-up.

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Whew. I think that's everything.

Here's looking forward to an exciting and successful (and fun!) summer.

Thanks all,
Brooke