Water for Field Day

Field Day is coming up on Friday, May 20th.  Mr. Ho, our PE Teacher, organizes the day but the PTO provides many of the supplies he needs.

We are asking families to donate a case of bottled water for the day.  The students will carry the bottles with them while they have fun during the day.

If you can donate a case of water, please use the sign-up below or leave a comment here so we can keep track of donations.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0A49A4A929A57-water

Thanks for supporting Samuelson!

April PTO Meeting

The April PTO meeting will be on Tuesday, April 12 at 6:30 in the school library.  We will be talking about the results from the Scholastic Book Fair and Family Fun Night, the May Day Breakfast and will start the process to elect 3 new board members for the next school year.

5th Grade parents are invited to a planning meeting for the 5th Grade Celebration at the end of the year.  We'll be meeting in the school conference room on Tuesday, April 12 from 5:30-6 pm.

We hope to see you there.

Family Fun Night Week

Its Family Fun Night Week! Fun Night is this Friday, March 4 from 6-8 pm. The cost for students is $6 and anyone wearing yellow or green gets a $1 discount.

Local businesses have donated a bunch of great Door Prizes including: Blank Park Zoo, Wasabi Chi, Chuck E Cheese, Imagine Salon, Monkey Joes and Apex Athletics.

The concession stand will have cans of pop for $1, popcorn for $1, and Hyvee pizza for $1.50.

All proceeds from the evening will be donated to the school library for new books. Each book costs between $10 and $20, so we are hoping to earn enough for more that 50 books.

Children must be accompanied by an adult. We hope to see you there!

Kids of Character Baskets

Last week notes came home with students about the Kids of Character Baskets. The week of February 29 students can earn tickets from school staff for displaying the 6 Pillars of Character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship. Students will use their tickets to vote for their favorite Kids of Character Basket on March 4. One student will win each baskets

Families are askes to donate an inexpensive item toward their classroom basket. Each grade shares a theme, but each class will have their own basket. The class with the most popular basket will win a treat from the PTO.

Donated items are due by Tuesday, February 23. If you have any questions, leave a comment here or send a note to samuelsonpto@gmail.com

Grade themes
Kindergarten: Arts and Crafts

First: Game Night

Second: Sports and Outside Fun

Third: Movie Night

Fourth: Leap Year - Anything in groups of 4

Fifth: School Spirit - anything green, gold, or a husky pup

Upcoming PTO Activities

Here are Sign-ups for several upcoming PTO Activities.  If you don't want to use Sign-Up Genius for these events, please let a comment here and we'll be in touch to get you signed up.  Please consider donating your time to help support Samuelson!

1.  Scholastic Book Fair - February 24-25
Volunteers are needed to help set-up, sell books and pack-up each night.  All rewards will be used to purchase literacy materials for our classrooms.  We especially need help setting up on Thursday.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0a49a4a929a57-samuelson

2.  Staff Appreciation Dinner - February 24
We will provide a meal for building staff during conferences this day.  **All spots have been filled!  Thanks!  All volunteers will receive a reminder email two days in advance**

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0A49A4A929A57-samuelson6

3.  Family Fun Night - Friday, March 4
Family Fun Night is an evening of Fun for our students and all profit will be used for library books.  We met our goal for the minimum number of volunteers, but we still need more help to have more activities for our students.   All volunteers will receive a coupon for a pop and slice of pizza from the concession stand.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0a49a4a929a57-samuelson5/

Here is information about several upcoming PTO activities:

+ 5th Grade Celebration Meeting - January 11 at 5:30  Samuelson Library

Each year the 5th grade class celebrates their move to Middle School with an end 0f the year celebration at Samuelson.  While the PTO provides the funds for the event, it is up to the 5th grade families to plan and carry out the celebration.  Please plan on attending the first planning meeting on January 11

+ January PTO Meeting - January 11 at 6:30  Samuelson Library

Please join us for the January PTO Meeting.  We will be discussing the upcoming Book Fair, Staff Appreciation Meal and Family Fun Night

+ Scholastic Book Fair - February 24 and 25

The Spring Book Fair will be held February 24 and 25 in the school library.  Depending on sales, we can earn $1,000 in rewards to be used for classroom literacy materials.  Volunteers are needed to help set-up, sell books and pack up each day.  Please check out the sign-up genius link below to see how you can help.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0A49A4A929A57-samuelson

+ Family Fun Night - March 6

In order to plan the evening, we need to have 55 volunteers signed up to help with Fun Night by February 12.  Sign-up notes have already come home with students this week.  An on-line sign-up will be available soon (we'll post that information here next week).  Additional sign-up sheets are available in the office or send a note to samuelsonpto@gmail.com.

Thanks for supporting Samuelson!

Scholastic Book Fair Help Needed

The Scholastic Book Fair starts on Wednesday, October 21 and we need parents to volunteer to help set up, sell books and pack up the Fair each day. In the past school staff have been available to help when we didn't have enough volunteers. However, due to changes in school district policy that won't always be possible.

Please use this link to see the sign-up for the fair or leave a comment here or send an email to samuelsonpto@gmail.com

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0A49A4A929A57-samuelson3

Scholastic Book Fair and Staff Dinner

The Scholastic Book Fair is just a month away and the PTO needs volunteers to help set-up the Fair, sell books and pack up the Fair both days.

The rewards we earn from the Fair are dependent on sales and are used to purchase literacy materials for our classrooms. We usually earn about $1,000!

Please use this link to sign-up to help at the Fair. No Book Fair experience is needed! Thanks for supporting Samuelson!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0A49A4A929A57-samuelson3

We will also provide a meal for school staff on Wednesday, October 21 during Parent-Teacher Conferences. Most of the meal will be catered, but we are looking for donations of desserts, beverages, and paper goods. Please use this link to sign-up to donate items.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0A49A4A929A57-samuelson4

Also, don't forget about the Buffalo Wild Wings Fundraiser through September 29 and the Walk-a-thon on October 2!

Samuelson Walk-a-thon 2015

Walk-a-thon Packets are coming home with students tomorrow. Students can collect donations for walking 30 minutes on the school walking track on October 2.

Funds raised from the Walk-a-thon will be used for PTO activities, including purchasing books for the school library. We want to provide at least $2,500 for new books as they are well loved and used by our students.

Students earn the following prizes for their collected donations:
$10 earns a color changing Bracelet
$40 earns a Samuelson Backpack and Bracelet
$75 earns a limited edition Walk-a-thon T-shirt, Backpack and Bracelet
$100 earns a Pizza Party Lunch with our Principal, T-shirt, Backpack and Bracelet.

In addition, all who collect at least $100 will be entered into a drawing for one of two $50 Target Gift Cards

The top earning student will win an Amazon Fire HD 6 Tablet (6" HD Display, with Wi-Fi, 8 GB)!

The top earning classroom in each grade will win a Popsicle party.

Completed envelopes will all collected funds must be turned into the school by October 2 to be eligible for prizes. No prizes will be awarded until all collected checks are cleared by the PTO's bank.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment here or send an email to samuelsonpto@gmail.com

Thanks for supporting Samuelson!

Busy Time for Samuelson PTO

September and October are proving to be busy months!

+ Send in your Box Tops through the rest of the week to vote for your winner of the Iowa State v Iowa football game this weekend.
+ Beaverdale Fall Festival Parade Saturday, September 19. Plan on joining us walking in the parade to support Samuelson. Details will come home at the end of next week when the parade line-up is finalized.
+ Samuelson Walk-a-thon on Friday, October 2. Donation envelopes will come home next week with all the details. Check those backpacks!
+ Picture Day Tuesday, October 13. Two volunteers are needed from 8:30 to approximately noon to help get students to the photographer and make sure they look their best. Please leave a comment here or send an email to samuelsonpto@gmail.com if you can help

Thanks for supporting Samuelson

Samuelson PTO Activities for 2015-16 School Year

Dear Samuelson Families:

As this school year is coming to a close, the PTO Board has planned our activities for the next school year.  The activities we chose are based on the benefit to our school, teachers, and staff and parent involvement and volunteers this year.

The purpose of the PTO is to support our school staff and get the school the resources they need to teach our students.  If each family donated an hour of their time, we could accomplish these activities and so much more without the responsibility falling on just a few families.

PTO Planned Activities 2015-2016

·         Beaverdale Parade – Saturday, September 19, 2015

·         Walk-a-thon Fundraiser – Friday, October 2, 2015.  Rain date the following Friday.

·         Staff Appreciation Dinners – During Fall and Spring Conferences.  Date(s) to be set by District

·         Scholastic Book Fair – During Fall Conferences.  Date to be set by District

·         Samuelson Apparel Sales – October, 2015

·         Lifetouch School Pictures – Tuesday, October 13, 2015.  Spring date not yet determined

·         Family Fun Night – February or March 2016.  Date will be decided after the District decides Spring Conferences and if enough volunteers are secured.

·         May Day Breakfast – Friday, April 29, 2016

·         Teacher Appreciation Week – Week of May 2, 2016

·         Field Day – Friday, May 20 2016.  Rain date the following Friday.

·         5^th Grade Celebration (Planned and Carried out by the 5^th Grade Families) – May 31, 2016

When school starts in August we will provide more information on how Samuelson families can help with these projects.  We will continue to collect Box Tops for Education, Labels for Education and Tyson Project A+ labels as well.

We are also planning a change to our monthly meetings.  Meetings will feature various Samuelson student activities and will be a chance to learn about the activity, while getting an update on PTO activities.  We look forward to this change.

If you have any questions about the PTO or our activities, please send an email to samuelsonpto@gmail.com or contact any of the PTO Board members listed below.

Thanks for supporting Samuelson!  Have a great summer!

Samuelson PTO Board

Trish Dohrn – President

Sara Osterloh – Vice President

Heather Silberhorn – Treasurer

Cindy Roerig – Samuelson Principal

Box Tops Check

We recently received at check from Box Tops for Education for $911. Clipping those little labels really adds up. Thanks to the Langworthys for collecting, processing, and mailing in the labels this year!

The PTO needs a new family to take over this project starting in June. It can be done on your own time and is a great way to help earn funds for our building. If your interested, please leave a comment here or send a note to samulesonpto@gmail.com.

Input Needed for Family Fun Night

Several items were on the agenda at Tuesday night's PTO meeting.

 A large part of our discussion focused on a lack of volunteers, most recently at Samuelson Family Fun night, and for PTO in general. Due to a lack of volunteers, Family Fun Night 2015-2016 will likely not occur. We would really like for this tradition to continue, so please feel free to give us suggestions on how we can attract more volunteers. We truly want some input.  

You can leave a comment here or send a message to samuelsonpto@gmail.com

Thanks for supporting Samuelson!

Samuelson PTO Activities

The next month is very busy for Samuelson PTO.  We have put together sign-up lists for the volunteer activities and supplies that we need.   Simply click on the following links to see how you can help.  If you don't already have a SignUp Genius account it is free and easy. 

Family Fun Night on March 6 from 6-8 pm

Fun Night is a chance for our students to get together for fun and games.

We need about 15 more volunteers to help with the evening's activities from 7-8:15. Without more volunteers we won't be able to offer all of our planned activities.

Also, we are hoping to have many of the needed supplies donated to keep our expenses lower.  The proceeds from the evening will be used to buy more books for the library.

Volunteer times:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0a49a4a929a57-samuelson1

Donate items:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0a49a4a929a57-items

Thank-you to everyone who has already volunteered to help with these activities!  If you have any questions, please send an email to samuelsonpto@gmail.com.

A BUSY 7 Weeks!

The next 7 weeks are very busy for the PTO! There are over 100 opportunities for volunteers to help out with these activities. More information and sign-up sheets will be coming soon, but we wanted to let you know dates so you can check your schedules to see how you can help. These activities can't happen without a lot of support from our Samuelson Families!

* Scholastic Book Fair Wednesday, Feb 18 and 25 during conferences. Help is needed from 1:30-830 pm each day.
* Staff Appreciation Dinner Wednesday, Feb 25. We'll need donations for the meal and help setting up and cleaning up. Any yummy suggestions for the meal? We plan on feeding 50 staff that day.
* Family Fun Night is Friday, March 6. All proceeds this year will be used to buy more books for our school library. We need about 70 volunteers for that night, and we will be asking for donations of some supplies. Watch those backpacks! You'll also be able to sign-up on-line.
* We will be assembling Kids of Character Baskets the week before Fun Night and need help doing so. Not sure what these are? Watch those backpacks for a note in early February. And more information here!

We'll post links to Sign-Up Genius forms here for these opportunities soon. Watch this space! smile emoticon

Family Fun Night is coming and Help is Needed!

Samuelson Family Fun Night is just two months away and we need parents to help plan several parts of the night.  One family has handled these activities in addition to planning the all of the other activities and coordinating volunteers each year.  But since their time at Samuelson is all most done, other families are needed to help this year and in the future.

If you'd like to help, or have any questions, please leave a comment here or send us a message.

1. Kitchen - In the past we've served pizza, popcorn and pop during Fun Night.  We need a parent volunteer to coordinate the kitchen this year - handle the pizza order, seek pop donations, make sure we have the needed paper supplies, oversee the kitchen during Fun Night and make sure the kitchen is cleaned up after the event is over.
2. Door Prizes - In the past we've had Door Prizes worth around $10 for students attending Fun Night.  The students really enjoy hearing their name called when they've won.  This involves contacting local businesses to ask for donations, making sure donations are delivered to school prior to Fun Night and is something that could easily be done by a couple parents working together.
3. Kid of Character Baskets - School staff uses Fun Night week to remind students about the Pillars of Character (Trustworthiness; Respect; Responsibility; Fairness; Caring; and Citizenship).  Students earn raffle tickets from staff by displaying the Pillar Musics and then use the tickets to vote for their favorite themed baskets.  One student will win each basket.  Families in each classroom are asked to donate inexpensive items for their basket.  A volunteer is needed to coordinate this project: decide the basket themes (usually each grade has a theme, but each room has their own basket), gather the basket supplies (reimbursed by PTO), make sure classrooms have donation boxes, and assemble the baskets with other volunteers.

Our first Fun Night Planning meeting will be Tuesday, January 13 in the school library following the regular PTO meeting at 6:30 pm.  We hope to see you there!

Scholastic Book Fair

Volunteers are still needed to help with the Scholastic Book Fair on October 15, 16, 22, and 23.  

The link below will take you to the sign-up sheets for the event.  We still have over 40 volunteer spots that need to be filled so we can have this event.  Rewards earned from the Book Fair will be used to purchase literacy materials for our classrooms.

If you have any questions about the Book Fair or volunteering to help, please contact Heather at 5silberhorns@gmail.com

Sign-Up Link:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/70A0A49A4A929A57-samuelson

Thanks for supporting Samuelson!

Labels for Education

Samuelson PTO is looking for a school family to coordinate the our Labels for Education program. The labels are found on over 2,500 products, including Campbells, Pepperidge Farm, Prego and Bic.  By collecting these labels we earn points that are used to purchase needed items from the program catalog.  In the past, we've redeemed our points for folding tables (used at conferences and other school activities), office supplies (such as paper cutters and electronic staplers) and Fun Night prizes.

The McGuffins have coordinated this program for Samuelson for many years, but since their youngest is a 5th Grader this year they'd like to turn this project over to a new family.

Coordinating the program involves: collecting the labels from the school, following program guidelines for submissions, filling out the required paperwork, mailing submissions and keeping the PTO up-to-date on our current points balance and opportunities to earn extra points.  All of this can be done when you have the time!  More information can be found at:  http://www.labelsforeducation.com/

A big THANK-YOU to the McGuffins for helping Samuelson with this project in the past.  If you are interested in coordinating this for Samuelson PTO, please send an email to samuelsonpto@gmail.com

PTO Board Member Needed

The PTO Board needs your help! The Board plans the PTO activities for the year, sets our budget, supports our building staff, and finds volunteers to help with our activities. For this school year we need an additional lperson to serve on the Board as a Vice-President. All Board positions are equally important, they just have some specific duties in addition to helping with general PTO activities.

If you are interested in serving on the PTO Board this year, please let a comment here, send us a message or email us at samuelsonpto@gmail.com.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Today Samuelson Staff were treated to donuts, lattes, and other yummy beverages for Teacher Appreciation Week.

The next time you visit Donut Hut or Friedrichs Coffee, please thank them for their yummy donations.  And Thanks to Rachelle and Trisha for putting the event together and serving our deserving Samuelson Staff!