Read Me

Join reading enthusiast from throughout the school for one night only!

March 3, from 5:00 until 6:30 is literacy night at Whitney School.

Remember, this week is also the Read-a-Thon.  Have people pledge your students, get them to read as much as possible and then collect the pledge money.  Top readers will win prizes.  Proceeds will go towards end of the year activities at the school.

So, why is this week dedicated to reading?  Shouldn't every week be dedicated to reading?  Well, yes, of course it should!  This week is special though because March 2 marks Dr. Seuss' birthday: http://www.seussville.com/special/read.html.  Theodor Seuss Geisel would have been 107 this year.  Dr. Seuss loved to create books for children and probably books forcing adults to practice tongue twisters.  We spend the week celebrating reading but we should also take a moment to celebrate Dr. Seuss perseverance.  It took him 27 attempts to get his first book, And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, published.  It goes to show an ambitious character, with a lot of imagination can live on and inspire forever.

Every Child Ready to Read Family Workshops is a six week program that involves young children and their parents in learning about the six early literacy skills that help prepare children to be successful in school.  At the end of the six-week session, each family will have received six books, a book bag, other materials and great information to help prepare their children for school.
Part of this program is the Get Your Child Ready for Kindergarten  classes beginning Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 7 – 7:45pm at the Library! HILLCREST branch.  All of of with a student in school has been through the excitement of the first day of school and the nerves that go with it.  If you are interested in giving your student an early dose of what is to come, this is a good way to start.
http://libraries.idaho.gov/landing/every-child-ready-to-read
 
For school aged kids, become a mad scientist: Come and do fun science experiments. For school age children 6–12 years old. Meets in the Sycamore Room at the Library! Collister branch, Wednesday, March 9, 2011, 4pm.
 
Did I mention all of the events I've posted are FREE!
 

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

~ W. Fusselman ~

(I stole the above quote from Mrs. Faber's site: http://www.sd01.k12.id.us/schools/whitney/library/index.html)

Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
 
Have you ever wondered why we have a "Library!" and not a plain, old "Library"?  It's not just kids and Dr. Seuss who think reading is great, but also pizza people!  http://www.flyingpie.com/library.html

News from the PopCorn Kernel Colonels

Have you ever wondered about the chain of command involved in popcorn Friday?  It starts with, "Did you remember my quarter for popcorn day?"  "Um, I mean, may I have a quarter for popcorn day?"  and it ends with your student coming home with popcorn!

In between those two functions there are a lot of steps to make that possible.  Our Popcorn Kernel Colonels come in at 8:00am (better parking at that time) and they pop and bag all of the popcorn for the day.  By 10:30 all of the popcorn has been sorted and all of the teachers have sent their quarters and bins down to the cafeteria to have their orders filled.  At the end of the day, the bins have arrived back at the teacher's room and the popcorn is distributed to your students.

Do all of those quarters cover the cost of the popcorn machines up-keep and supplies?  No!  Believe it or not, the PTO covers those costs.  Why would the PTO cover those costs and not the money the students bring in?  Each week a different teacher is designated as the recipient of the popcorn money.  ALL OF THE POPCORN MONEY FOR THE WEEK GOES TO THAT TEACHER'S CLASSROOM!  This money goes directly to their classroom to buy the supplies for your child's classroom that their teacher would otherwise spend their own money buying.

How can you help the Popcorn Kernel Colonels??  Kara and Jennifer would love some reinforcements to help them shore up their regiment occassionally.  Can you spare a Friday here and there between 8:00 and 10:30?  Call the school at 854-6580 and leave a message for Kara or Jennifer regarding the popcorn brigade and they will get right back to you.  OR, if you're ready for immediate action, STOP BY FRIDAY morning at 8:00 and sign in for new recruit training! 

We promise, there is nothing more satisfying than providing much needed and deserved funds for our kids' teachers by making the kids happy 1 quarter at a time!

Did you know the original use of the word "colonel" comes from the French?  This is what they called the officer that headed the first column or company of a regiment.  And you thought you didn't learn anything reading this blog.

Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent

Read-A-Thon Feb. 28th - Mar. 4th

Read Across America week begins February 28th. To celebrate literacy and to raise funds for our end of year activities, we are inviting students to participate in a read-a-thon!

~ The week of February 21st students will ask friends and family to sponsor their commitment to reading. To keep things simple, an exact dollar amount should be pledged. For example, $2.00 for the total week of reading. Please make checks payable to Whitney PTO.

~The week of Feb 28th students will be given a tracking sheet to keep track of the number of minutes read and titles read. All reading counts, whether it is at school or home, if the child is reading independently or being read to. Each reading session must be initialed by parent or teacher.

~The student who reads (or is read to) the most minutes during the week will win a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card. Two prizes will be awarded. One for K-3 and 4-6.

~When the week is over, students will add up their total number of minutes read and finish collecting their pledges. Tracking forms and this envelope are due by March 11th.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, and even Louis Armstrong all said the same thing to me on vinyl not so long ago: Baby, It's Cold Outside.  What's a parent to do with kids that KNOW in their heart of hearts that spring is right around the corner and they want to play?

Here is the weekend forecast for Saturday, February 26: cold, snowy and a bit dismal indoors.  Don't despair, there is plenty to do around Boise this weekend.

• Jim Gill  Makes it Noisy in Boise! FREE FAMILY concert Saturday, February 26, 1:00pm at the Egyptian Theatre.   Contact the Boise Public Library for more details.
• Check out the FREE neighborhood open gyms on Saturdays presented by Boise Parks and Recreation from 10am until 2pm.  Call 384-4256 for an open gym.
• Read to a therapy dog at 2pm Saturday, February 26, at the Boise Public Library.  http://www.boisepubliclibrary.org/
• Call of the Wild, Movie and Book discussion.  Watch the movie, then join a book discussion for all ages at 1:00pm, February 26, at the Ada County Library.  http://www.adalib.org/  (This would be great for more advanced readers who have already read Call of the Wild.)
• ATTENTION MILITARY/BLUE STAR FAMILIES!  Idaho IceWorld Military Family Day offering free admission and free skate use for military families with military IDs.  Saturday, February 26, Idaho IceWorld, 1:30-4:30pm.  http://www.idahoiceworld.org/

There are many great resources for our kids on the weekends in Boise.  Almost every Saturday at the Discovery Center, kids can participate in age appropriate classes.  They have classes for preschoolers through the 6th grade!  (http://www.scidaho.org/)  Zoo Boise is another great resource for kids, yes, even in winter!  The animals and their habitats take on a new look in winter and while some animals appear lazy or never appear at all, the ones that you may never see in the summer are surprisingly awake and chipper in the winter.  Our elusive Red Panda makes more appearances, it seems, during the winter.  Maybe it's because there are viewer people visiting the zoo?  I have no idea but even on a cold day it's really not hard to find a warm place to view the animals by running in between enclosed exhibits.

Even though it's cold outside, Baby, It's Not So Bad.  Get out there, have fun and share your best finds with us!

Nikki Rutledge
Whitney Parent

Donors Choose You...Really!

Oprah has given it her seal of approval.  The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal agree on it.  The company I work for even likes to work through it to support public education and they want to work with our teachers to support them.

DonorsChoose.org is a website company set up to connect donors and public school teachers.  It allows people who want to donate as little as $1 or as much as they want to public school teachers who need materials in their classroom.

Here's how it works: teachers create an account on donorschoose.org.  They then "go shopping" in the e-school mall, which is comprised of vendors selected by DonorsChoose.  After filling up their cart with items they need for their classroom, the teacher goes through "checkout".  Rather than taking out their own debit/credit card, the teacher then goes through a process where they write the who, what, and why their classroom needs these items.  The project gets submitted and DonorsChoose.org reviews it and posts it to their site. 

Once it is posted to the donorschoose.org site, anybody (from anywhere in the world) that looks at the site and has the ability to give money can then give any amount of money to the project.  They can either fully fund the project or partially fund it.  The more compelling the project is, the more the draw is for people browsing the site to give money to it.  Some projects have the possibility of matched funds before the project is even posted.  If, for example, you would like an HP Laptop, HP automatically matches all funds through DonorsChoose.  Let's say the laptop costs $800, when it hits the project site, it will automatically go up on the site as a project that only needs $400 to be fully funded.  Horace Mann is another organization that has given generously to some schools and matches all project donations by 50%.

Whitney has a slight advantage over other schools, Whitney is listed as a "high poverty" school.  This is a designation that comes from a national education site and not something we can fiddle with.  This title is part of the draw for many donors.  Speaking from personal experience, I admit that I discriminate when I donate and I try to choose only High Poverty schools.  My hope is that if enough high poverty schools needs are met then we can work on moderate and minimal poverty school needs.

The entire process can be a bit daunting.  I have been through it a few times and I would be more than happy to help anybody that would like to set up a project.  This is an incredible way to get "free money" from people who know your story and some of these people do not know your story they just found the project to be so fantastic that they had to make sure it comes to life.

Talk to your teachers and have them read this blog.  Then have them check out the site and if that isn't working still, have them give me a call and I would love to come in and give some help.

Whitney Parent
-Nikki Rutledge
nikki.rutledge@hp.com
(208)387-1959

But I LOVE Bath Salts

I have to admit when I got the email from Whitney's School Counselor, Jennifer Tachell, subject line: "Bath Salts", I honestly thought it was for a school fundraiser and I was breaking out the checkbook.  Apparently, I missed something between work, kids, home, work, kids, home because "Bath Salts" refers to a very dangerous drug.

Confused?  I was when I heard about the designer (synthetic) drug now circulating through the Treasure Valley by the name "Bath Salts".  Since the ban on "Spice" last year, "Bath Salts" has filled this niche market where the DEA and FDA have difficulty enforcing drug laws because of the synthetic nature of the drugs.  This means dangerous checmicals are still getting into the hands of people intent on using them for the purposes of getting high.

"Bath Salts" are abused by snorting, injecting or smoking powders and come with innocuous sounding names like Ivory Wave, Red Dove and Vanilla Sky.  The effect can be as powerful as methamphetamine and some have likened it to cocaine.  The actual chemical names are mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV (if you're hanging out with your chemist friends).

This drug is currently legal, inexpensive and readily available in many places throughout the Treasure Valley.  What is frightening is that it is possible for a 12 year old to legally buy it.  How bad is it?  It can quickly cause addiction despite very unpleasant hallucinations.  This drugs addiction compels the user to continue binging on the drug until they reach a "perfect storm".  The hallucinations have caused severe self mutilation and in worse case scenarios suicide and homicide.  People with these hallucinations may not know their own parents and in one case a man believed two police officers were two demons, causing the individual to attack the police officers fully believing he was in the right. 

The good news?  The Idaho Legislature is likely to pass a bill this session banning "Bath Salts" and all forms of "MDPV" with an attached emergency clause, meaning the law will go into effect immediately after Governor Otter signs the bill.

If you need more information or suspect somebody you know has been exposed to one of these chemicals please strongly consider consulting Whitney's school counselor Jennifer Tachell (208-854-6588; emailto: jennifer.tachell@boiseschools.org) or some of the confidential resources offered on the Drug Free Idaho website: http://www.drugfreeidaho.org/resources/

-Whitney Parent
Nikki Rutledge

Learning Together

I am constantly amazed at how much our kids learn.  Not just from the beginning of the school year to the end of the year but from the beginning of the week to the end of the week!  It is always a treat for me to see the Learning Together activities come home in my student's homework folder but it's even more fun to go to a Learning Together Whitney Night!!

Prizes, raffle and pizza?  How could it possibly get any better?  Learning with my student too??  Wow!  It's FREE?!  That's incredible.  So, let me get this straight:

When: February 3rd
Time: 5:30-6:30
Where: Whitney School
Who: Whitney Students and their Awesome Parents
What: Learning Together with Prizes, Raffles and Pizza!
How much does it cost?  NOTHING!!

How can you possibly not come??