greogryptsa.org

Staff, District; & Community News

What do drums & Starbuck’s have in common? Ms. Bede’s Music Class! Read on…

DonorsChoose.org is a fantastic website where teachers can go online and request donations for classroom needs. Our own Ms. Bede has applied for a $275 grant to purchase 6 drums, like the djembes and tubanos, to replace the buckets our students have been using for years. You can help her reach her goal and bring new drums to GH by visiting Starbucks!

On Wednesday October 5, stop by any King County Starbucks and pick up a free $10 DonorsChoose gift card. These free gift cards are redeemable at www.donorschoose.org/kingcounty2011 . Find Ms. Bede’s project request: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=643066&verify=-1017848497 and apply your $10 gift card to her project!

The Dollar Book Store Is Back! We are happy to say the Gregory Heights Dollar Book Store will be back in business soon. This is an opportunity for our students to buy new or gently used books for $1 each with all proceeds going back into the program to sustain the sales. The goal is to create student interest in book ownership and provide books for our kids at a cheap cost.

With thanks to The Highline Schools Foundation for Excellence which provided original grant money to start this program, we are back purchasing gently used books of interest to our students including non-fiction, children’s chapter books, and picture books, from local thrift and book discount stores. We are also accepting book donations.

Do you have any children’s books still in good shape that you might like to pass on? If so and you think they will work for this program, please consider donating them to our Gregory Heights Library Dollar Book Store. What a good way to recycle! Remember children’s books only.

We should be having our first Dollar Book Store sale sometime in October with more information on the date coming soon. Thank you.

Michael Bento
Teacher/Librarian
Gregory Heights Elementary

KUDOS!
Thank you to our GH volunteers! To date we have registered a total of 44 volunteers registering 220 volunteer hours for September! If you are a GH volunteer, please be sure to sign-in at the front office so we can give you credit for volunteering. This is important because we send a monthly volunteer report to our district AND look forward to giving out volunteer service awards through out the year.

Gregory Activities

Family Pizza Buffet Night: Round Table Pizza is hosting “Family Pizza Night” for Gregory Heights’ Families on Wednesday October 12 from 4:30-7:30pm. A portion of the profits from the buffet sales AND all raffle sale proceeds, will be donated back to Gregory Heights. Join us for this fun family social AND enter in a raffle where one lucky family will receive a large pizza each month for 1 year! (Enter as many times as you want-raffle tickets cost $1.00 and will be on sale at pizza night only- need not be present to win). This is a great way to support our school and feast with friends. Location: 15730 1st Avenue South, Burien, WA 98148, (206) 431-8600. Questions? Please contact Lonnie Gibson, knlgibson@comcast.net.

2012 Auction News

Procurement Forms are Now Available in the office! Parents-it is time to start pounding the pavement to secure donations for our 2012 Benefit Auction! Some popular and top-selling items from our last auction were: “wax & wine party;” Private catered dinner from local chef, Steve Brendlinger; vacations, spa services and so much more! So be creative and “think outside the box” when procuring. Remember-it is a tax write-off for donors and businesses love the advertising!

Another great way to ask for support is to ask businesses, friends and family to make an online donation/contribution. Learn more by visiting http://ghptsa.ejoinme.org/giveGHlove.

Need help getting started? Contact Brenda Sutherland-Field, Marketing Director or Jana Lipscomb, Procurement Director at sutherfield5@comcast.net or janalips@gmail.com They will make it easy for you to sell Ad space, sponsorships and procure items for the event with ready-to-use informational packets and forms.

Coming Soon… Your Auction Directors are hard at work and are excited to include and inform you of the many ways you can participate in making the 2012 GH “Love is…” Benefit Auction the most successful auction to date! Your Auction Directors will be sending out a weekly “AUCTION e-NEWS” that will highlight auction-specific information such as “Sponsors Spotlight,” lists of procurement items & goals, incentive prizes & winners, volunteer opportunities, auction day activities, instructions for how friends & family can make online donations and much, much more.

Gregory Clubs News:

Spanish Club: There is still space left in Spanish Club for last minute registrations this week. If interested, you can pick up an application in the office and/or email Jennifer Lucero, jimandjen2000@comcast.net for more information.

Chess Club: Begins Tuesday October 11th and will meet thereafter every Tuesday & Thursday afternoon, from 3:15-4:00pm in the Multi-purpose room. Look for the sign up form in tomorrow’s blue folder. PARENT VOLUNTEERS WELCOME! Parents are welcome and encouraged to come to Chess Club and help children learn the game of Chess, help with set-up (boards/pieces), & monitor play. Snacks will be provided so donations are appreciated! Please remember, parents must complete the emergency contact card (will be sent out after registration is complete) and PROMPTLY pick students up at 4:00pm.

Mile Club: The first Mile Club of the school year was a success! Our students did a wonderful job of doing their laps with the limited amount of time that they have. We plan on having all the kinks worked out this coming week as we adjust to the new lunch recess times. Hopefully the weather will behave for this Friday.

Mile Club happens every Friday during lunch recess – weather permitting. Please join us! Come have fun and get rewarded for exercising! Signs will be posted on days that Mile Club will occur. Please check-in near the baseball field. Sometimes the field can be wet and muddy. Students participating in Mile Club are encouraged to wear athletic/running shoes on Fridays.

Mile Club Volunteers: If you would like to help record laps for our students, please contact the Mile Club Chair: Travis at tajackson@hotmail.com.

PTSA: Join up! Help us beat last year’s membership goal of 250! Membership forms are available in the office. Cost to join is $12 individual member; $20 family; and $10 staff. Questions? Please contact Crissy Pryor or Rachelle Langhans at Membership@GregoryPTSA.org.

Fundraisers

Entertainment Book Sales: GREAT JOB GH parents & students!! So far, we have registered a total of 464 books sold! (54 books online & 410 books by students). Our gross income is $11,625.00! If you still have orders to turn in, now is the time. GH is SO close to reaching our 500 book sales mark-only 35 books more to receive 50% of the proceeds, which would give us a net income to above $6000!

Box Tops for Education Contest: Keep Clipping! The class that collects the most Box Tops for Education by October 16th wins a class party! Questions? Contact JoAnn Wakefield, joannstampingfun@comcast.net or Lisa Courter, lisa.courter@comcast.net.

Volunteer Opportunities

Trunk-n-Treat: Trunk-n-Treators love those decorated cars, canopies and trunks! Volunteer to be a part of the fun, contact Don Field at sutherfield5@comcast.net for more information on this event.

Fall Carnival: is Saturday October 22nd…right around the corner! Thank you to the many people who have already committed to volunteer! We are still looking for additional helpers to run games, serve food, sell popcorn and glow accessories, run the cake-walk and entry tables. A successful carnival needs between 25-30 volunteers to work well and to make sure everyone only works one 30 minute shift so they have time to enjoy the event as well. Contact Brenda Sutherland-Field to volunteer at president@gregoryptsa.org

Geography Enrichment Club:
We have lots volunteer opportunities related to geography for those who would like to lend a helping hand:

1) Passport Club Volunteers
2) Help with Geography Bulletin board (e.g. changing the clocks monthly) + posting FYI’s
3) Help assembling bookmarks to pass out to students
4) Help posting the summer postcard display
5) Help cutting & organizing stamps for students

If any of these sound interesting, please contact Lynda Lykes at lykeslynda@gmail.com

Spanish Club:

There is lots of work to be done in order to get Spanish Club up & running by October. A “Co-Chair” would be very much appreciated & it really doesn’t entail a whole lot (the busiest time being enrollment in September-October and possibly a little help with “pre-enrollment” in May). Specifically, we need help with:

1) Photocopying registration forms & delivering to office
2) Receiving/organizing/reviewing registration forms + data entry to create student roster
3) Collecting checks & submitting them to treasurer
4) Would anyone like to officially “co-chair” by chance???
5) Possible photocopying for parent packs

Please contact Jennifer Lucero at jimandjen2000@comcast.net or 206-439-7057

Find us on Facebook!

Did you know we have a Gregory Heights Facebook group? Find us on Facebook and explore another way to share and receive information.

Looking Ahead…more info to come:

Pizza Night-Oct 12th
Box Tops Deadline-Oct 16th
Trunk-or-Treat/Fall Carnival-Oct. 22nd