STEVENSON FUN RUN
Friday, February 3, 2012
Dear Stevenson Parents,
Thank you for your continued support and investment in our school! The mission of our Fun Run is to promote a healthy and active lifestyle for our students and raise money.
The way it works is as follows: each student finds as many sponsors as possible and asks them to pledge one flat rate amount. Help your child get pledges from friends, family and co-workers! Bring the completed pledge forms and donation money back to school NO LATER than Thursday, February 2nd.
Come cheer your child on! Below is the schedule for our event:
Kinder 12:30-12:40
1st 12:50-1:05
3rd 1:15-1:30
2nd 1:40-1:55
4th 2:05-2:20
5th 2:30-2:45
Prizes
The class that raises the most money will be awarded a popsicle party and extended recess! Each student that collects at least $25.00 in pledges will be entered into a drawing to win Pirate Gear (T-Shirt & Baseball Hat) and lunch with Miss Ginnetti.
There will be a scheduled time for each class to run, walk, or a combination of the two. Since the Fun Run takes place during school hours all students will participate. Each participant will receive water, fruit and a Clif Kid Organic Zbar. Parents are invited to come and cheer on the runners. A schedule will be sent home prior to the event to let you know when each class will be running.
If you have any questions or would like to volunteer for this event please contact us conahans@sbcglobal.net.
Thank you for your support!
~Made In The Shade
Families for Stevenson ask you to join us in welcoming Donna Dandino to our school. We are very fortunate to have someone of Donna’s calibre working with our after-school High Cs choir.
Donna is currently Assistant Choir Director at Burbank High School. She has many years of experience creating music curriculums, working with school choirs and has a Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance from Indiana University School of Music.
The choir met for the first time last week and I can honestly say that it was a pleasure to see Donna at work. Her warmth, experience and enthusiasm shone. The auditorium was filled with laughter and song, and boy can those kids sing!
After talking to my daughter and her friends, it’s clear that “Miss Donna” has the Stevenson seal of approval.
The High Cs choir will be performing at Talent Show, Friday, March 9th and Saturday, March 10th.
As the High Cs choir is only open to grades 2-5, we are working to bring an affordable after school singing program for our kindergartners and first graders. We’ll keep you posted.
Emma Clarkson
Co-President Families for Stevenson
emma@familiesforstevenson.org
FFS’s mission is to bring Arts education to all our students. This includes bringing quality, affordable after school enrichment classes to our families.
Instructors and programs have been approved by the FFS board directly and FFS handles program administration to keep the final cost down.
Dear Parents,
True wisdom is the ability to learn from other people’s experiences. Therefore, child psychologist, Dr. Charles Schaefer, asked this question of 50 parents who had successfully reared children: “Based upon your personal experience, what is the best advice you could give new parents about raising children?” The most frequent parental advice offered was:
Love abundantly
Discipline constructively
Be clear, consistent and authoritative
Punish in private
Be flexible, reasonable, and understanding
Discourage continued dependency
Spend time together
Develop mutual respect
Really listen
Tend to personal and marital needs
Parents and teachers function like a mirror to a child by letting him or her know what they are really like. Parents who are proud of, have confidence in, and like their child are strengthening their child’s ego and helping them to develop self acceptance and inner harmony. As parents and teachers we can:
Love and accept our child as they are from the day they were born.
Respect individual differences and appreciate each child’s unique characteristics.
Show affection frequently; physically through a hug or a pat on the back and verbally through our choice of words and tone of voice.
Really listen as a child talks to us. Listening attentively gives insight into how he/she feels, builds rapport and acceptance, and gives a child a sense of significance.
Help your children see themselves accurately so they can appreciate their strengths or accept their limitations.
Set realistic expectations so a child can feel adequate in keeping up.
Praise more than criticize.
Set limits so our children know for sure what gets our approval and disapproval.
Treat your child with respect and consideration. Children really do learn what they live.
How can we as teachers and parents build a child’s self esteem? Enjoy them and value their uniqueness. Celebrate their achievements and let them know you love and appreciate them.
Sincerely,
Debbie Ginnetti
Dear Stevenson Families,
Families for Stevenson is off to a busy start this year offering many great art and music education programs to our students over the next few months.
Veteran art teacher Barbara Eisner has begun a 10-week in-class art instruction program for our students. This is a continuation from 2 weeks of instruction at the beginning of the school year. The new and much anticipated 13-week High-C’s after-school choir program has started under the direction of Donna Dandino who is the Assistant Choir Director at Burbank High School. The choir enrollment is closed, but if you are interested we can put your child on a waiting list. Choir students are receiving group vocal instruction and will perform in the FFS Talent Show and at Stevenson Rocks!
Sponsored by FFS, the Talent Show 2012 themed “Dream Out Loud” is off to a great start. Talent show student participants are diligently practicing and refining their performances. The Talent Show will take place on Friday, March 9 and Saturday, March 10. Don’t miss this amazing show.
Thank you again for supporting arts education here at Stevenson Elementary. Together we are making a huge difference in the lives of our students!
Emma & Renee
A big part of wellness, in my mind at least, is having great conversations with others, especially our children. Stevenson Elementary has planned a jam packed week of interesting and conversation starting activities! I remember when my kiddo came home from school on the first day of Wellness Week last year and said, “Hey Mom, I tried celery today!”. Now my kiddo has had celery but he never had it at school served with a tahini sauce. That opened up an opportunity to talk to my son about nutrition and what he really liked to eat etc. The point being we were talking and talking about what he liked to eat and for once he did not feel like I was lecturing him! He was excited about trying something new. Wellness Week this year is so exciting and provides us as parents a chance to talk about so many things regarding our kids health and wellness. The week covers a taste testing and veggie washing demonstration, Jump roping demonstration and Fun Run to name just a few things. Check out the activities listed each day and start a conversation with your kid about what he or she did regarding wellness that day!
by LeeAnne Matusek
PTA HOLIDAY BASKET PROGRAM This year, Stevenson adopted four local families. With your help, every family received gifts and food.
At Stevenson, we started our collection drive right before Thanksgiving and continued until the day before we were dismissed for the holiday break. Every classroom got involved – one class made a field trip out of it and met at Target for a shopping trip with their own families! The students even wrapped the gifts that they purchased!
Thanks to a dedicated group of PTA volunteers, we were able to collect, sort and after an eight-hour wrapping marathon, deliver four incredible, thoughtful, over-flowing baskets. We received so many donations, that we’re confident that we’ll be able to adopt more families next year!
Your PTA would like to thank all of you who donated so many wonderful gifts and food items, as well as your time. Without you, we couldn’t have done this!
Burbank’s Coordinating Council received many calls and notes sharing how much this meant to these people. I know it meant a lot to those of us who volunteered our time. The holidays are a time for giving and Stevenson gave in a BIG WAY!
Thank you all so much!
