Thank you for helping us Raise the Roof….

Wondering how to get your winnings? Kevin Lucas has nicely volunteered to house your items and offer times for you to come get them.  Please stop by his house at 857 Portal (near Mandana). Any questions, feel free to contact him at kalucas@yahoo.com.

Wed. 3/10 7:00-9:00pm

Sat. 3/13 9:00-11:00am

Sun. 3/14 2:00-4:00pm

What you need to pick up…….

(1) silent and live auction items. If you only have gift certificates and documents for intangible items and sign-up confirmation, they will be mailed to you along with your final invoice.

(2) online auction items, but only if you also registered a bidder number at the auction; if you did not have a bidder # at the silent auction but you bought stuff on the online auction you will be contacted about getting your items.

(3) classroom creation items

For those of who didn’t attend the auction but would like to purchase your child’s individual class project, you still can! The items are also available for purchase at the home of Kevin Lucas. Checks can be made to Crocker Highlands PTA. Please note your child’s name and teacher on your check–and write “auction”. No cash please! Should you have any questions, please contact Kari Jeffs at the_jeffs@comcast.net.

Thank you again for your support.

Tamara Zirkle and Lisa Thorne

2010 Raise the Roof Auction Home Page

For the last staff development day, Beth Rhine and the PTA brought in a company called Playworks to train the teachers on creating a positive, safe and dynamic experience on the yard which engages the kids in the kind of play that teaches inclusion, respect and social skills.  The training also taught specific skills on setting up and facilitating playground games with the kids in a way that maximizes participation.  Our lunch and yard volunteers are an important part of creating this environment, so we are going to bring the Playworks training to you!

There will be a training Wednesday, March 10th, from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room.  The purpose of the training will be to introduce the Playworks ideals for our yard, clarify discipline strategies and play zones for the yard, and with the help of Coach B, learn a few playground games and practice facilitating those games.

Childcare will be provided.  Please RSVP to Jen Callahan at jlcabroad@yahoo.com.

I have very exciting news to report from the school auction.  We raised all the money we need to build a special edible garden right outside our classroom!  We have been working for several weeks to demolish the old structures and we have another work day this Saturday, March 13, from 9 until the job is done but not later than 2.  If you can come out for any portion, we could use the hands.  We hope that students will be planting vegetables as early as mid April!

Those of you who could not attend the auction, I have your child’s pillow in the classroom.  You can write a check to the Crocker Highlands PTA or send $25 cash with your child to buy the pillow.

Plan ahead:  we have minimum days on Wednesdays and we are adding one on Thursday, March 18 so that teachers can complete report cards.

Several of our classmates are performing in the play Sound of Music.  I’d like to send out the day and time of performance so that friends can attend and applaud!  Would anyone who has this information send it to me?

I am sending home the words to the 4 songs we sing in the classroom, the four songs I know how to play on the guitar (remember “Hello to _____, so glad to see you,” on the first day of school?!).  I told the kids that they have to sing them to you!  The phonograms we’ve learned have been highlighted so you can ask about those, too.

I asked the students to write down their new learning goals.  We’ll be polishing those and you’ll get a copy so that you can support whatever goal your child has selected.

We’re getting to the end of our “wool unit.”  We explored cotton last week and we will be weaving with ribbons this week. I’m thinking of offering to teach any interested student to knit as a finale!

Thanks to one of our room 8 parents, Laura Yee, mother of Will, we are kicking off Earth Week a little early.  She has arranged for Crocker to participate in a program called Cool the Earth.  We are having an assembly this week (I think I am Mother Bear).  The website is cooltheearth.org if you are interested in getting a sense of what the program is all about.  Basically, the theme is climate change and the goal is to inspire this new generation to take actions, big or small.  Crocker, as a school, is implementing several of the actions already, like no waste lunches, low flow toilets, edible garden, composting, and recycling.  Thank you, Laura!  

Have a good week–

Thank you all for your hard work.  We’re almost there…..only 2 MORE DAYS!!!

Raffle tickets – February 2010

Our NEW student raffle will start February 5^th.  This year the student raffle is combined with our March 6th auction event. We are foregoing both the wine and Fenton’s raffles, and have replaced them with one that will truly reflect the spirit of our auction’s theme: “Raise the Roof – Reach the Stars.”  Crocker is pleased to present “the blimp experience” as our Grand Prize; a trip for four with Airship Ventures (www.airshipventures.com) that provides you a first class “flight-seeing” experience over the Bay Area.

Photo Credit Airship Ventures

• Grand Winner: Trip for 4 with Airship Adventures
• First Prize: $250 Gift certificate to Best Buy
• Second Prize:  $150 Gift certificate to Nordstrom
• Third Prize:  $50 Gift certificate to Barnes and Noble

Buy your online raffle tickets here

Please note there will be a place to list your student’s name and teacher so we can make sure your student will receive credit and have a chance to earn a student prize.

And don’t forget to pass along this link http://tinyurl.com/yb9pzer to friends and family for chance to win while supporting our school.

For questions or to get involved contact Christine Clark, Melissa Heller and Stephanie Marshburn at raffle@crockerschool.org

The Crocker Highlands Online Auction closes tomorrow March 4, 2010 at 9pm!

If you haven’t had a chance to look at the great deals and fabulous items, NOW is the time to do so. There are sill plenty of items available (even some still without bids)… but watch out for those bidders who like to grab items at the end. Remember, you can use the “Auto Bid” feature by entering a bid two times higher than the next bid and the system will only use the bid if someone else places a competing bid. And if you really gotta have it, you can use the “Buy It Now!” feature to secure the item on the spot.

The Online Auction is doing great. So far we’ve received 503 bids on 149 items and raised over $8,600 towards Crocker Highlands PTA funded programs. We anticipate a strong close as we enter the final day.

Don’t forget to remind your friends and family about the auction to give them a chance to offer their support and get some great last-minute deals. Every bid counts!

Click here to browse or start bidding

Contact nicole.n.johnson@gmail.com with any online auction related questions.

Thanks and Happy Bidding!

2010 Raise the Roof Auction Home Page

For more information and to find out what families can do to support public education,  check out the OUSD website at http://public.ousd.k12.ca.us/ousd

Beth Rhine

We had a terrific time at the SemiFreddi Bakery last week.  I’m sure you got to sample part of the gigantic goodie bag your child brought home!  In celebration, we tried our hand at baking cinnamon buns last week.  The kids thought they were quite good.  Those students who want to try to bake them at home might bring home the recipe tomorrow.

The students voted to create an ocean habitat as a culmination of our unit on habitats/living things.  Duncan Moran’s father is going to put together a presentation for us before we start working on our class diorama.  Several of the students mentioned that they have “ocean books” at home.  I would love them to bring these books to class!  Do any of you have ocean expertise?!  Field trip ideas?

I am extremely excited about the progress to create our courtyard edible garden.  I have been meeting with 2 parents for almost a year now to get things off the ground.  At a previous school I built the garden with my first graders and loved every minute of integrating the outdoor and indoor classrooms.  We are so lucky to have one of our 3rd grade parents, Tyrone Perry, leading us in this project.  We have had one work day so far and I wanted to pass on the next work dates in the event that you’d be able to come out and lend a hand.  We are scheduled to work on Saturday, March 13 and Saturday, March 27.  The times are from 9 am to when we finish that day’s task.  We could use you as little or as much as you can spare.  No garden experience needed!  So far, we have weeded, removed benches, and planted the front section.  We have hired help to remove the rotting railroad ties and bad soil–this will be finished next weekend.  We will be installing new vegetable beds and perennials.  If you are as excited about this as I am, raising the necessary money is a “Pops” item at next weekend’s auction.  Hope to see you there!

Speaking of the auction, each student sewed a beautiful pillow which will be available at the auction for $25.  If you are not attending the auction, you can buy the pillow from me directly.  A BIG thank you to all the adults who helped me with this amazing project.  I have always wanted to sew with students and you made one of my dreams come true!

March Book Orders–I’ll send home the catalogs tomorrow,  The deadline for online ordering will be March 10.

We had so much fun with Officer Fred last week, Tyra’s dad.  We were instructed to learn our address and phone number, we got to sit in a police car (hopefully the only time for the kids!), and we were treated to a canine officer who played hide and seek in our classroom.  Thank you Officer Fred!

Kristin

 Because the week is half over, I will write a newsletter for this week and next.

 ***An important change is that our field trip to Semifreddi Bakery has been rescheduled for the day before previously planned.  Now we are visiting the plant on Monday, 2/22, from 12:00-3:00.

 Another timely message is that tomorrow is our library day so return those Crocker books if you have them!

 Two fun assemblies this week.  Tomorrow, Chinese Lion Dancers and Friday, Black History Celebration with yours truly.  Yes, in absentia, I was nominated to be the lead singer of the Chantels.  With some other silly adults I will lip sync to “Maybe” in front of the student body…keeps me grounded!

 We’re stuffing our pillows tomorrow.  Are any of you capable of hand sewing the small open enclosures together to finish them off?  Send me an email!

 Next week we have our bread field trip as well as a visit from Tyra’s father, one of the City’s finest.  He will talk to us about his life as a police officer!

 We’re making great progress moving through the phonograms for spelling and reading and in reading groups the students are just devouring those stories!  In math, we’re about to launch into an addition and subtraction phase where students devise strategies and practice these strategies to work with numbers to 20 instead of 10.  In science, I’m thinking through a way for all of us to create one beautiful habitat diorama after the students take a vote on which of the many habitats to choose.  This will be another way to collect data, tally the data, and graph the results.

That’s it–have a good one!