The Dolphin’s Tale The bi-weekly principal’s newsletter of Travilah Elementary School

The Dolphin’s
Tale
The bi-weekly principal’s newsletter of Travilah Elementary School
Susan J. Shenk, Principal
December 4, 2015
Issue #7
December
9
17
23
Interims sent
World Culture Night – rehearsal
World Culture Night
Flu Mist clinic, call to register
Rescreening Vision and Hearing
Winter Concert – 4th and 5th chorus and Adv. Band
2:30pm - students
7:00pm - parents
Kindergarten to Imagination Stage “Frog and Toad”
Grade 2 Mad Science “Matter of Fact”
Last day prior to Winter Break – Full day of school!
4
5
7:00 – 8:00pm
13
15
18
18 – 29
20
7:00 – 8:30pm
22
25
27
2:00 – 3:00pm
29
School Resumes!
PTA meeting – Staff presentation on “Testing”
Cultural Arts presentation – Flow Circus
Grade 1 Mad Science – Living Things
No school for students & staff - Dr. Martin Luther King Day
School-wide Read-a-Thon
Read-a-Thon Pajama Party
2nd Marking Period ends
No school for students – Professional Day
School-wide Spelling Bee
Grade 5 to Frost M.S. – Band Concert
11
14
15
16
7:00 – 9:00pm
January 2016
Visit our website! http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/travilahes/
School Phone: 301-840-7153
School Attendance Line: 301-670-8223
School Fax: 301-670-8230
Visit the PTA website! http://www.travilahpta.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
THANK YOU PARENTS AND PTA!!! – We have such a generous and supportive parent community and PTA!
We recently completed our Dollars for Turkeys drive. This year we collected $1200.00. What generous families!
We were able to purchase sixty $20 gift cards to Giant Foods. These gift cards were delivered to our sister school,
Summit Hall Elementary School. Our school community helped to buy Thanksgiving meals for so many of their
families. What a wonderful message to share with our students. Thank you also for your support to our own school.
The PTA has provided us with the funds to support teachers when purchasing supplies for their classrooms, funds to
support students in need, and upcoming cultural arts performances that the students will enjoy. The teachers were
thrilled with your support of the Book Fair to make all their book wishes come true. Thank you for all you do for our
students, staff, and community.
PRINCIPAL’S WRITING WALL – Each week students’ writing is displayed on the Principal’s Writing Wall. All
students will be featured at least once during the year. The following student’s name was inadvertently left off the last
issue of the Dolphin’s Tale.
Grade 1: Mrs. Fishman’s class – Nathan Leitan
EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT FROM OUR ART TEACHER, MRS. BOYER - I have been busy setting up
our online art gallery through a program called “Artsonia.” Many elementary schools in Montgomery County use this
program in some capacity to showcase the amazing work that students are doing during Art. While our gallery is still
in its infancy, I am adding work to it every week. Students in grades 3, 4 and 5 photograph, edit and publish their own
art work at its completion. Students in grades PEP, K, 1 and 2 have either parent volunteers or myself do the
uploading. The kids are very excited to see their work in the digital world. Their work is listed only by first names, to
respect the artists’ privacy. Parents can look at their child’s work by logging into Artsonia or downloading the app.
The easiest way I have learned to view the artwork from there is to search by state/city/school to see the art work from
Travilah. There is a lot to the program, so I’m sure there are other ways to view student’s work if you play around
with the program a bit. If your child’s work has not been uploaded it may be for two reasons- either we have not
completed the process for his/her class yet, or permission to publish anything with the child’s name on it was not
given when the forms were filled out in the beginning of the school year. I hope you enjoy seeing your child’s work
online! In the future, I am hoping to use Artsonia as a fund raiser for the Art program. For this year, we will still be
using a similar company “Original Works” as a fundraiser for the PTA.
BOOK FAIR - Our PTA Sponsored Scholastic MONSTER book fair was a great success!! We sold over $15,000 in
books and raised over $3000 for the PTA. We were able to purchase $700 worth of books for the media center! $165
was collected in donations for ALL FOR BOOKS which allowed students needing assistance to buy books. 24
posters were raffled off to students who donated. Mr. Tilkens was the lucky winner of a gift certificate to the book
fair for the teacher/staff breakfast raffle and Lynn Grainger was the lucky winner for our parent volunteer raffle.
Thank you to Mrs. Shenk, Mrs. Hairston, Mrs. Foecking, the building services staff and all of our wonderful book fair
parent volunteers for helping to make our book fair a success! We couldn't do it without you! A special thanks to
Yoonie Min for coordinating the teacher preview breakfast and Callie Pinto and Kris Sellman for the wonderful
decorations outside of the media center and for Halivart!!! He was a big hit with students, staff and parents!
Everyone was excited to see where he would show up each day!!
HEAD LICE – We recently have been informed of a few cases of head lice. The policy from the Montgomery
County Health Department is that if there are two or more reported cases in one classroom, we send a letter to that
entire grade. The important thing to note is that parents need to let us know!!! Once we know, the children must be
checked by Ms. Ruthie in the Health Room prior to returning to class. They will also be rechecked by Ms. Ruthie
seven days later. Attached to this Dolphin’s Tale is an information sheet about lice. If you have any further
questions or concerns, please call the health room.
PTA FUNDRAISER - Travilah Elementary School is inviting you to participate in a unique fundraiser to “Pave the
Way” for our students. Leave a lasting legacy by purchasing a paver to be permanently displayed and remembered
forever. Each paver that you sponsor may honor you, your student, a teacher or staff member, former student, a family
member, friend, local business or anyone! The pavers will be etched with your custom inscription and placed within
the landscaping around the circle, in front of our school.
All of the proceeds from this fundraiser will go to our PTA.
Please submit orders before Friday, April 15, 2016 for spring 2016 installation.
For more information please visit the PTA website or contact:
Erinn Foster at 301-370-4502 or mail to: [email protected]
SCHOOL PHOTOS – Earlier this week you should have received a flyer announcing a special from Freed
Photographers. They are offering free shipping if you get your order placed by December 7 th online at
www.Freedpics.com. If you lost your personal password, you may use the new generic one for the school. It is
TEDOLPHINS. However, if you requested us to hold your personal information from the directory, you must still use
your personal password. Call the school if you need your password or if you have questions.
RADON TESTING – As you are aware, there has been a lot of information in the news about high levels of radon
found in some MCPS schools. Travilah was tested last summer. Our radon levels were very low, and well below the
recommended safety level of four picocuries per liter (pCi/l). Travilah’s range was 0.5 – 1.2. Please see attached letter
and fact sheet.
JOB OPPORTUNITY – We may have a possible job opportunity. Are you interested in working for two hours a
day? We will be looking for a cafeteria helper beginning in January. If you are interested, or know someone who
may be interested, please contact Mrs. Shenk.
LAPTOP – Do you have an old laptop that you no longer use? We are looking for one for staff to use to check out
reading materials. All we need to put on it would be Excel and our book inventory. If you have one, please contact
either Mrs. Simkanich or Mrs. Shenk. Thanks!
PTA TREASURER – The 2015-2016 school year's PTA Treasurer needed to step down due to personal
circumstances. The prior school year's Treasurer, Sonal Shah, has agreed to step back in to help keep the PTA
running on an interim basis. The PTA would like to find a permanent treasurer by January that can commit to be
available for the rest of the school year and could be available next year as this is a very difficult position to fill each
year. The treasurer position is critical for our PTA to exist. The role requires maintaining all accounting, filing and
submitting taxes, communicating in a timely manner with many parent volunteers for disbursement and
reimbursement requests, executing banking transactions in a timely manner, building and tracking budgets, and
serving as the source of knowledge for financial rules. A background in accounting or bookkeeping along with good
outreach and communication skills is important for this role. If you are interested please contact Beth Ann Edell at
travilah.pta,president or (202) 436-1709 or Sonal Shah at [email protected]. They will work with
you to provide training, arrange for the required MCCPTA financial training, and help you transition into this
rewarding and important role.
PLAYGROUND SUPERSTARS – Weeks of November 8-20, 2015 are:
Grade 5: Charles Makobongo, Chris Castelli, Mills Littlefield, Lunah Schleret, Liam Graham, Christian Vande Krol,
Abbey Dexter
Grade 4: Coby Pinto
Grade 3: Bethany Vande Krol, Tyler Coapstick, Joey Song, Jack Kerns, Max Lizondo, Ali Abdullah
Grade 2: Mackie Noble, N’Tony Kalala
Grade 1: Elena Firoozfar, Quinn Lam-Vu, Katie Graham, Evan Halpern, Jashwin Fernandes
Kindergarten: None
P.E. CLASS OF THE WEEK – Week of November 16, 2015 Congratulations to Ms. Bañales’s class!
P.E. STUDENT OF THE WEEK – Week of November 16, 2015 Congratulations to in Sarayu Penchala in
Ms. Bañales’s class!
P.E. CLASS OF THE WEEK – Week of November 30, 2015 Congratulations to Mrs. Knight’s class!
P.E. STUDENT OF THE WEEK – Week of November 30, 2015 Congratulations to Sammy Somwaru in
Mrs. Hart’s class!
SPECIAL DOLPHIN TALES THANK YOU TO:
 All the volunteers in the Media Center for their continued support!
 Adela Firoozfar for all her work in the Book Room!
 Yoonie Min and Beth Ann Edell for laundering and delivering the coats from our Winter Coat Drive to
Summit Hall Elementary School!
 Yoonie Min for purchasing gift cards at Giant Food for the Dollars for Turkeys program and delivering them
to Summit Hall Elementary School!
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