Greenwood PTA

3/1/2020

Culture night was so much fun this year. Thanks to all of our students that participated and to all of our performers that did an amazing job! It was fun touring the world with you. 

This weekend was the kick off to Greenwood’s 50th year and what a way to start with our very first Gator Gala! It was a night full of laughs, music, and our great Greenwood community. Thanks to those of you that were able to attend, we hope you had fun. And a huge thanks to the awesome committee that made this event happen!!

Our next PTA meeting will be Tuesday, March 3rd in the media center from 7-8pm, babysitting will be available.You are welcome to join even if you are not yet a member of the PTA, we’d love to see you there and have your input. Be sure to come a little early so that you can swing by the Scholastic Book Fair taking place in the media center, it will be open until 7pm on March 3rd. Better yet join us for milk and cookies in the APR and listen to our faculty guest readers for our Pajama Time event which starts at 5:30 (see below for more details).

Board Positions

Do you love being involved in the ins and outs of Greenwood? 

At the end of this year Secretary, Vice President and President board positions are open. All interested individuals should contact the head of the nominating committee Jen Madison at jenemadison@gmail.com.

Pros to being on the board:

• You will have information on the runnings and dealings of the school.
• You get to make decisions on the direction of the PTA, for instance:
  • Programs you love but have ideas to make even better? Fantastic.
  • New Programs? 
  • Change direction of some oldies but goodies.
  • Finally tackle the chaos that is the school drop off circle.
• It’s a great way to get involved in and make an impact at the school that your children attend.

Pajama Night!

Families are invited to join us for a night of reading on Tuesday, March 3rd from 5:15-7:00pm. During Read Across America week Greenwood PTA is hosting a pajama night with special guest readers in the APR. Come in your pajamas or dressed as your favorite storybook character, grab a cookie and some milk and listen to our amazing faculty read you their favorite short stories. Doors open at 5:15pm, our first reader will appear at 5:30. Everyone that attends can enter (for free) to win one of three raffle baskets of Scholastic books!

Spring Book Fair

The Scholastic Spring Book Fair coincides with Read Across America week, March 2-6th. Come instill a love of reading in your gator and stock up on new books! The book fair will be open on Tuesday evening, March 3rd, so you can shop on your way to our monthly PTA meeting. All classes will visit the fair on Monday and Tuesday and will be filling out wishlists with their favorite books available at the fair. Be sure to consider using eWallet for your kids. It’s free to set up, funds are available immediately, safe and secure, and unused funds are returned to your card. Find Greenwood at scholastic.com/fair to get started.

Black History Month        

Thank you to all of our poster participants who are so talented and creative. The posters have been on display in the main hall across from the office and appreciated by all.

Spring After School Programs

Creative Enrichment is offering Silver Knights Chess, Shining Kids Yoga, Zany Brainy Science, Young Chefs, Silver Knights Coding, and Silver Knights Robotics this Spring. Classes begin March 30th. To view the flyer and registration information visit the PTA website: http://greenwood-pta.org/after-school-programs/

Both the Coding class and Yoga class need two more participants in order to take place. If you are interested please sign your children up now.

Skate Night

Skate night will be Saturday, March 21 from 4-6pm at the Rockville Ice Arena. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time on Membership Toolkit, https://greenwoodpta.membershiptoolkit.com, or at the door. Flyers will be sent home with more information via backpack express. If you would like to participate but are in need of financial assistance please contact Ms Lee for help.

Wellness Night

Family Health and Wellness Night will be April 23rd at 6:30 pm and will feature activities to help you engage in and learn about ways to care for your family’s physical, mental, and emotional health.  Don’t miss our fun fitness warm up followed by an opportunity to rotate through a variety of stations run by local experts who will provide valuable information and hands-on activities. Come collect age-appropriate tools to cope with anxiety, become a nutrition detective, engage in mindful art, calm your mind and body with yoga, and collect a variety of resources to support positive development!  Most importantly, opportunities will be provided for you to reflect on how these resources can work for YOUR individual family.

Variety Show

The Music for the K-4 acts was due March 1st! If you have not submitted your music and information regarding your act (props, type of act, how many performers) please send it now to Lindsay at vicepresident@greenwood-pta.org. 

Tickets went on sale for the show on March 1st. Performers do not need a ticket, however all seats are reserved so be sure to get enough seats for the whole family to come and enjoy. To purchase go to https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/36935. Tickets are $8/seat.

Preview night for K-4 acts is coming up. All K-4 acts will be contacted by email and given a time to report to Greenwood on March 24th to take group pictures and give a quick run-through of their performance. Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be perfect (or even complete) there’s months to go. The point of preview night is to ensure that we have your right music, to see what props you will be using and get a feel for the type of performance your group is doing in order to organize the main event. Be sure to come fully dressed in your costumes for your group picture!

Save these dates:

-March 1: Music for K-4 acts due

-March 1: Tickets for the Variety Show go on sale

-March 24th: Preview and photos for K-4 at Greenwood

-May 12: 6-8pm: Variety Show Dress Rehearsal at Sherwood HS
-May 15: 6-8pm: Variety Show Dress Rehearsal at Sherwood HS

-May 16: 2pm: Variety Show at Sherwood HS.

The Variety Show store is now available in Membership Toolkit. You can purchase photos, advertising, shout outs and the DVD. Go to https://greenwoodpta.membershiptoolkit.com/, select the General Store and then the Variety Show store; you can also use the app. In the store you'll also find the required 5th grade props fee.

Information was sent home to your K-4 group coordinator or directly to 5th grade ensemble participants. For reference it is available at http://greenwood-pta.org/2020-variety-show/

Box tops

Well let’s all just admit that the new boxtop system isn’t amazing. They are transitioning from clip and save box tops to scanning your grocery receipt for electronic boxtops. It doesn’t appear that as many products are part of the program as there used to be. That being said Kelly is still working hard to collect as many good old fashioned box tops as possible this year. So if you have them send them in! 

MCCPTA news

• On March 24th at 6:00pm: Math Madness-impacts on choices made in 3rd grade, discussing changes in trajectory.
• On March 28th, from 10am-2pm: Let's Clear the Air Symposium-providing resources and education about the risks of vaping.

Boundary Analysis

WXY Studios (WXY) has completed the first phase of large community engagement meetings, and is continuing to hold smaller meetings with hard-to-reach stakeholder groups. This includes meetings with:

• Spanish, French and Amharic-speaking community members
• Low and moderate income residents
• Community members with children not yet in MCPS

Additionally, MCPS hosted a live student virtual meeting, which can be viewed here.

Interim Report

The scope of work for the Districtwide Boundary Analysis calls for an interim report. The interim report will highlight key aspects of the data analysis in each factor of utilization, diversity and proximity. Other aspects and analyses of data in these factors will be further explored and presented in the final report. The interim report will also contain a summary of community engagement to date; background contextual information on the county and school system; and an executive summary.

This report was initially scheduled to be released at the end of February. WXY has been working closely with MCPS staff to ensure the report presents complex layers of data in a way that is understandable to the community. Given the work remaining at this juncture, we will release the interim report on March 13, 2020.

Phase 2 Community Engagement

In addition to the release of the interim report, details about the next phase of this work will also be available on March 13. This will include engagement with the interactive tool.

Please visit the MCPS website for more information about the Districtwide Boundary Analysis.

Yearbook

Yearbooks are now on sale and can be purchased online only. For information on how to order please visit the PTA website, http://greenwood-pta.org/.

We are already hard at work on the layout for the yearbook. If you have pictures to submit for the yearbook please upload them now to https://greenwoodmcps.shutterfly.com/ the password is: GreenwoodMCPS.

Upcoming Dates to Remember

March 2-6: Spring Book Fair and Read Across America Week

March 3: PTA meeting 7-8:00pm

March 18: 6-8pm GES Math and Reading Night

March 21: GES Skate Night at Rockville Indoor Ice Arena

April : Spring Break

April 23: Wellness Night

May 16: Variety Show 2pm

June 6: Spring Fair 2-5pm

June 9: Rock N Roll Recess

Please feel free to contact the PTA with any questions or comments.  Your insights are invaluable to our school. If you have not done so already Like our Facebook page “Greenwood Elementary School PTA” and be sure to visit http://greenwood-pta.org/ for up to date information. Hope to see you at our next PTA meeting, Tuesday, March 3rd from 7-8pm. 

Sincerely,

Mary Quirion

PTA President, President@Greenwood-pta.org