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

No Regular November Meeting

We will not be having a regular November meeting next week. Instead, the PTO will be at the upcoming Literacy Night on November, 19 from 4-6 pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

A New School Year is Coming!

After taking a break from school activities, the PTO Board is getting ready to start planning our new school year. We'll be meeting soon to talk about what went well last year and what we can improve upon. We'd like to hear from you on both topics - leave a comment below or send us a note at samuelsonpto@gmail.com

We are also looking for a few more parents to serve on the PTO Board this school year. The purpose of the PTO is to support our school staff and get the school the resources they need to teach our students. The Board meets in person most months of the school year and by email as needed.

We need 2-3 parents to serve on the Board this year. This is the last year our Treasurer will have a student at Samuelson, so we will need to fill that position soon. Ideally, the new Treasurer would help out this year while Heather is still here to pass along all the "how to's".

If you'd like to serve on the Board, or get more information, please leave a comment or send us an email.

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

Samuelson 3rd Annual Walk-a-Thon

Tuesday, September 23 is the start of the Third Annual Samuelson Walk-a-thon. Students will collect donations for walking 30 minutes on the school walking track on Friday, October 10. This is the PTO's main fundraiser for the year and proceeds will be used for PTO activities and for our Technology Fund for our classrooms.

Students can ask family, friends and neighbors for donations but they must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Students can earn a variety of prizes for the donations they collect. Donations envelopes will come home with students on Tuesday and have all the details on the Walk-a-thon prizes. The top earning student will win an iPod shuffle and iTunes gift card. And the top earning classroom in each grade level will win a Popsicle Party.

If you have any questions about the Walk-a-thon, please send us a message (samuelsonpto@gmail.com) or leave a comment here. Thanks for supporting Samuelson!

Buffalo Wild Wings Fundraiser ... Now until New Year's Eve!

Samuelson PTO has partnered with Buffalo Wild Wings on Merle Hay Road to raise funds for our Technology Fund.  Anytime you visit the Merle Hay BWW between now and December 31 the restaurant will give 10% to the PTO.  

Simply let your server know that you are supporting Samuelson and show them the printed attached flyer.  Or, you can simply show them the flyer on your phone.  If you would like an emailed copy of the flyer, please send a note to sameulsonpto@gmail.com.

Hopefully we'll be able to add a lot to the Technology Fund in the next four months!

Feel free to share the flyer with friends and family. Just remember to visit the Merle Hay Buffalo Wild Wings.   If you have any questions, please contact Trish Dohrn at trishdorn@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.

Facebook Update

If you follow Samuelson PTO on Facebook, you may not be seeing our posts in your newsfeed due to some changes made recently by Facebook.  Apparently if you don't comment often on our posts, Facebook will stop putting our posts in your news feed.  So simply comment occasionally to keep seeing us!  Your comment can be as short as a single word, so nothing too difficult! Also at the top of our page, click on the "Like" button and then click on "Get Notifications" in the drop down menu to help keep seeing our posts.

If you don't already Like us on Facebook, simply search for "Samuelson PTO"  It is another great way to keep updated on PTO activities.

Thanks for supporting Samuelson!

A few more PTO activities

Thanks to everyone who support Samuelson at Fun Night before Spring Break. There are a couple months of school left and the PTO has more things to accomplish! 

Our next meeting is Tuesday, April 8 at 6:30 in the school library. We'll be discussing volunteers for 5th grade Recognition, how many funds to set aside for the Technology Fund, PTO Board members for next year, and plans for the Popcorn Popper.

Thanks

Like Us on Facebook!

Samuelson PTO has a new Facebook Page.  Click on the link below to go to the page and "like" us to keep updated on PTO activities and events.

www.facebook.com/samuelsonpto

Thanks to Megan Stevens for creating our page and adding a lot of useful information about our organizaiton.

If you don't have Facebook, you can also sign up for PTO email updates by sending an email to the following address and asking to be added to the email list:  samuelsonpto@gmail.com

Welcome to Samuelson Elementary!

Welcome to the first day of classes at Samuelson Elementary!  I saw lots of smiling faces this morning when taking my 5th and 2nd Graders to their classrooms.  There were a few tears (including mine!) but once everyone settles into their new routines it will be a great year!

It may only be the first day of school, but the PTO Board has been busy getting ready for the school year.  Here are a few new, different, and exciting things happening!

+ The PTO has a new email account!  We will be using samuelsonpto@gmail.com to send out notes with information on PTO events and volunteer activities.  If you want to be added to our email list, simply send a note to the email with "Add me to the List" as the subject.  Emails generally are sent out a few times a month, with a few more during the first month or two of school.

+ We are developing a PTO Facebook page!  Megan Stevens is getting this ready, and when its done you can "Like" us to get updates on PTO activities.  If you don't have Facebook you can always sign up for the emails, check events here on the Blog and we'll have updates in the school newsletter too.

+This year we have a new PTO President!  Megan Stevens has volunteered to take over as President.  We'll offically vote on her nomination at our first meeting on September 11 at 6:30 in the school library.  The rest of the board is: Kris Jackson - Vice President, Heather Silberhorn - Treasurer, and Heather Ashton - Secretary.  Thanks!!!!

+ We have a new Fundraiser!  Last spring the PTO decided to have a Fall Walk-a-Thon rather than a traditional catalog sale to raise funds for our PTO activites.  School staff has asked that we help purchase additional Technology for the classrooms, as Lap Tops or I-Pads.  They are currently deciding exactly what the school needs as we raise the funds to purchase at least one unit per classroom (thats 23 with the new addition).  The Walk-a-Thon is October 12 and more details will be avaliable soon.

I hope everyone's school year is off to a great start.  There are lots of volunteer activities in the next 2 months and we'll be in touch about those soon!

Spring Pictures

Spring Pictures are Tuesday, April 10th. Unlike Fall Pictures where you pick a package and pre-pay for your student(s) pictures, in the Spring picture packets are sent home for parents to review before deciding which sheet(s) to purchase. Simply select the sheet(s) you'd like to purchase and send the required amount (along with un-purchased sheets) back to Samuelson.

The PTO recieves a small fee for each student who has their picture taken on picture day, regardless how many pictures their parent or guardian may purchase later.

To help the picture taking process run smoothly, we need 4 volunteers who can help the morning of April 10th from 8:30 to noon (approx). If you can help, please let me know (274-3688 or 5silberhorns@gmail.com). The Photography company often provides a small thank-you to the parents who help.