Harvest PTA gives back

The PTA was honored to donate a $250 grant to Mr. Hunter, our computer specialist, for use in upgrading the keyboarding program. Fundraisers like our recent Winterfest have allowed us to put money back into the school. Your support of our PTA truly makes a difference!

Knowledge Bowl is coming up!

The knowledge bowl will begin having practices in January. We would love to have parents volunteer to be coaches. There will be a team of 3/4 graders and a team of 5/6 graders. The subject this year will be history. Email us at harvestpta@gmail.com or comment on this post. Thanks for your willingness to help.

Holiday Boxtops sweepstakes

Enter now to help our school get a chance to win up to 5,000 bonus box tops! Head over to www.boxtops4education.com/SweetenYourHolidays to complete and submit the online sweepstakes form. The sweepstakes goes from now until December 20th and you can enter once per day!

Tonight is Winterfest!

It's finally here...Winterfest! Tonight from 6:30pm to 9pm at the school. There will treats, games, crafts, and more! The silent auction will help you get a jump start on that Christmas shopping! See you there!

3rd grade program reminder

‎3rd grade program will be Thursday, November 18th at 1pm. The October classroom newsletter had it listed on the 19th so make sure you are coming on the right day. :)

Box Tops at Winterfest

Great news! Box tops will be accepted as payment for items and events at Winterfest! 15 box tops will equal a $1.00 ticket that night. Save up those box tops and bring them with you Friday. The fun will start at 6:30pm and go until 9pm. Look for a flyer coming home in the Wednesday folders tomorrow.

Reminders!

A couple of reminders: The 5th grade donut date is tomorrow at 9:30am and entries for the Relections contest are due tomorrow as well. :)

Website to see silent auction items

Here is the website where you can see the items up for bid at our silent auction at Winterfest on Friday, November 19th from 6:30pm until 9pm. Check out all the cool stuff!
http://harvestfestsilentauction.weebly.com

General PTA Membership meeting tomorrow!

There will be a General PTA Membership meeting tomorrow at 6:30pm. That time is a change from 7pm that was previously posted. See you all there.

General Membership meeting

On Tuesday, November 9 there will be a General PTA Membership meeting. We will be approving next year's election committee. If you are interested in serving on next year's PTA board please plan on attending this meeting. Of course we would love to have all PTA members (including spouses if they are members) in attendance. :)

Mark your calendars for Winterfest!

Mark your calendars for Friday, November 19th for our Harvest Elementary Winterfest! There will be food, crafts, choir performance, pictures with Santa, Scavengar Hunt, and a Silent Auction where you can pick up some Holiday gifts including donations by local businesses. The time will be 6:30pm until 9pm. Hope to see you there!

Winterfest!

Winter Fest
Come enjoy a night full of food, fun and family
Friday Nov. 19 from 6:30-9 pm
FREE crafts and activities
A Silent Auction (a good opportunity to buy Christmas gifts)
Get pictures taken with Santa
Choir performance by some of our students at Harvest
A plate that your children could decorate (more info to follow)

The PTA could use your help with manning the booths and donating items for the silent auction gift baskets. Each grade is going to have boxes in their classrooms for donations. If you’d like to donate items, drop them off at the appropriate classroom.
Themes:
Kindergarten: Outdoor activities/toys (ex-chalk, balls, jump ropes)
1st grade: Children’s books (Scholastic book orders might be a great place to find some of these)
2nd grade: Movie night (ex-movies, popcorn)
3rd grade: Children’s toys (ex-Littlest Pet Shop, Matchbox Cars, Puzzles, Coloring books)
4th grade: Game night (ex-Puzzles, Card Games, Board Games)
5th grade: Christmas theme (ex-advent calendar, decorations, cards)
6th grade: Chocolate (ex-gift certificates, anything chocolate really)

These are all just suggestions. Feel free to be creative and if you have a different theme you’d like to create a basket for to donate we’d love to have that too. Thank you for your support of Harvest Elementary PTA.

Receipts for General Mills cereals!

Have you bought General Mills cereal between August 1, 2010 and October 31, 2010? If so, bring your original store receipts (no photocopies) and deposit them in the office. For every box of 5 Big G kid Cereals, we can earn 20 Bonus Box Tops! We have to mail in the receipts ASAP, so make sure you turn them in by November 5th. The cereals that are included in this promotion are Boo Berry, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, Count Chocula, Dora the Explorer, Franken Berry, Golden Grahams, Honey Nut Cheerios, Kix, Lucky Charms, Reese's Puffs, and Trix. Also, General Mills cereals are only $1.49 at Smith's this week when you buy 4! Thanks for helping Harvest!

Cute Box Tops Video

Watch the Harvest Elementary box tops video at this link:
http://www.boxtops4education.com/share/makeadifference/default.aspx?vid=1174
Well worth the minute it takes to watch it. Keep sending in those box tops!

Box Tops

Congrats to Sra. Luiz's class for winning the October Box Tops contest! They won a soccer ball, volleyball, and bases for their class. Keep those Box Tops coming in!

Harvest Elementary won the Box Tops contest sponsored by A Fresh Market and won 500 Bonus Box Tops points! We are now in the running for a 10,000 Box Tops prize! Thanks to everyone who sent in their Box Tops! Go Hawks!

Book Fair!

Book fair starts tomorrow! Hours are Tue, 9-4, Wed. 9-8, Thur. 9-8, Fri. 9-3. FYI, they will no longer be accepting checks but will accept all major credit cards. They will also be taking pre-orders on the new "Wimpy Kid" book. Thank you for your support!

Smith's and labels for education

Go to elabelsforeducation.com to register your Smith's card and you will earn 100 Bonus Points for Harvest with Campbell's Labels for Education. Plus, if you purchase any 5 participating Labels products in the same transaction, you will earn 150 Bonus Points for our school. The registration at elabelsforeducation.com only takes a couple of minutes. Thanks for supporting our school!

Campbell's labels really help!

What do we get with all those Campbell's labels? We recently were able to "buy" 2 5-gallon water coolers to add to our school emergency supplies, as well as jumpropes, balls, and a portable PA system for our PE class. Thanks to all those parents who submit those labels. Every label gets us closer to needed classroom supplies. Thanks for supporting this program. You can turn in Campbell's Labels for Education in your child's classroom or in the office in the Campbell's container.

September Box Tops Winner!

Congrats to Sra. McDowell's 3rd grade class who finished first in the Box Tops contest for September with 346 Box Tops! The class won a soccer ball, basketball, and Chinese jumprope to play with at recess. Don't forgot to keep cutting those Box Tops! If every child brought in 10 Box Tops, we would have over $1,000 for our school! You can turn in Box Tops in your child's classroom or in the office in the Campbell's container.

Box Tops!

One of the best ways to help our school is through the Box Tops for Education program. Now through Halloween, if you purchase any 3 Juicy Juice products in a single transaction, you will receive 10 Bonus Box Tops at the register. This offer is available at Smith's and Walgreen's. Thanks for helping making our school the best!

You can also enter for a chance to win 30,000 Bonus Box Tops at our school by playing the El Tacodor game (that is $3,000!). Go to www.btfe.com and click on the "earn" symbol at the top and click on the Bonus Box Tops. The link to El Tacodor is at the bottom of the page.

T-shirt orders

School t-shirt orders were placed today. We will notify you as soon as we have a delivery date. Thanks to everyone who purchased a t-shirt, hoodie, polo, or blanket. We will do another t-shirt order in November in time for you to receive your items by Christmas. Questions? Contact Julie King at kingsofnv@netzero.net.

Please join us!

We appreciate all the parents who have joined PTA. If you have not joined yet it isn't too late. Forms are available in the office. Membership is just $5 per parent. Make a difference in your child's education and join us!

Pick up and drop off

The lanes in front of the school are now available for pick-up and drop-off. They used to be bus lanes but now they are for parents' use. Please take advantage of this.

Donut Date Update

At today's meeting, it was decided that we will keep the current budget and Donut Date program for this year. The responses have been overwhelmingly positive towards the program and the way it is being run. We are grateful for the PTA volunteers who are running this program well.

We will conduct a needs assessment to continue to insure that our budgets and programs reflect the desires of the parents at our school. {The budget this year IS based on a current needs assessment.}

We appreciate everyone who has a passion for PTA and has let that shine over the last few days.

Donut Dates Concerns

Last night, at our first General Membership Meeting of the Year, the subject of Donut Dates came up.

Donut Dates are an opportunity for each classroom to have the parents of the children come in during school hours and read with their child. The PTA provides a donut for both the child and parent. It is once a year, per classroom, for 15 minutes.

There were two parts of the concern voiced:
1. Not every child has a parent who is willing or able to come to the school for the 15 minute date, and that situation may create sad feelings for the children without parents who come in. I was approached by several teachers after our meeting last night who commented on this, and there were some suggestions about asking our local police, firemen, army staff, etc. come in to help with the children who don't have parents. We can certainly look into that if we decide to keep the program running this year.

2. Cost of donuts. The Donut Date program is part of the Family Life Commission, and they have a current annual budget of $1800, down from $2350 from last year. To be clear, NOT all of that money is spent on donuts, their commission sponsors THREE main things:
a. Family Week in November {you may remember this week from the last few years-- the keystone event of the week was when families were invited to the school to watch a movie},
b. the Birthday Table {each child is invited to have a small piece of cake and juice during lunch. The Family Life Commissioner is planning on saving money this year by serving water instead of juice}, and
c. the Donut Dates.

The Family Life Budget is currently $1800, about 4.69% of the total PTA budget for the year.


Some additional things that have been brought up to consider:

Donut Dates are not the only school function where children are invited to have a family participant to come to the school- the 5th grade maturation program and the 1st grade grandparents day that would also fit into that category.

The goal of the Donut Date program is to provide a fun activity where the parents are invited into the classroom, can see the environment there, how the teacher interacts with students, and see who their children are buddies with. Parents have expressed support for the program citing those benefits.

As your PTA board, we want to be sure that the programs we are funding are meeting the needs of the families at our school!! Please weigh in on this issue and help us get a feel for how the PTA general membership at our school feels. We will be in further discussions about this Tuesday morning at our 9:30 am board meeting, and we welcome you there. Our meetings are held in the teacher's lounge.

Thank you for your support! Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Jen Cox
President, Harvest Elementary PTA
jencox4@yahoo.com

Back To School Night

Back to school night is on Thursday, September 2 at 5:00-7:00pm. The PTA will start off the evening from 5:00-5:30 in the multi-purpose room. After the PTA presentation there will be three 20 minute sessions for you to meet with your children's teachers.
We will be serving dinner at Back To School night. Pizza, chips, and a choice of capri sun or water bottle for $2. Come support our PTA!

Box tops for our school

It is Bonus Box Tops time! If you purchase 8 Betty Crocker items in the same transaction at Smith's, you will receive a 25 Bonus Box Tops promotional code to earn extra box tops for our school! Every little bit helps and this is a great way to support the school with products you already purchase. Also, look for Betty Crocker products with multiple box tops on such boxes as Chex Mix, Totino's pizza rolls, Kleenex, Hamburger Helper, Ziploc sandwich bags, Toaster Strudel, Honey Nut Cheerios, Nature Valley granola bars, Yoplait Trix yogurt 6-pack, and Fruit Roll-Up value pack. You can stock up on items for school lunches and support the school at the same time! Thank you for helping make Harvest Elementary a successful school!

Welcome 2010-2011 school year!

The countdown until the first day of school is on! Class lists will be posted on Thursday, August 19th, the Open House is Tuesday, August 24th from 4-6pm, and school starts on Wednesday August 25th! Check back on this blog often for updates and information. Also, we just added a facebook page so check out HarvestPTA and like it to receive updates as well. Our twitter account is HarvestPTA to follow us there.

Looking forward to next year!

As we look forward to next year's PTA Board, we still have a few spots that we a eager to fill!!

We are looking for excited individuals to fill two positions: Health Commissioner and Safety Commissioner.

For more information, or if you are interested, please email: jencox4@gmail.com!

Next Year's PTA Board

The PTA is currently in the process of nominating members to serve in next year's Executive Board. We will also have commissioner possitions available, and would love to see some new face on the PTA Board!! Below is a copy of the flyer that was sent out this month in a Wednesday folder. Please read over the descriptions and let us know if you are intersted in serving next year! We'd love to have YOU!

The Harvest Elementary PTA Needs You!
It is time to look for vice presidents and commissioners for next year’s PTA! If you are interested in volunteering for any of these positions, please contact Julie King at kingsofnv@netzero.net by January 23rd.

Legislative Vice President-works with parents to take concerns to lawmakers at State Capital. Communicates parent’s concerns about education funding.

Membership Vice President-maintains records of all school PTA members. Seeks to increase parent participation in the school.

Leadership Vice President-

Secretary-takes notes for all board and executive board meetings, distributes board meeting minutes, keeps contact lists for all PTA board members.

Treasurer-follow all PTA guidelines in maintaining PTA funds, distributing reimbursement checks, keeping current budgets.

Family Life Commissioner-oversees reading “donut dates,” birthday table, family game night, family week, and Parent Resource Center.

Safety and Welfare Commissioner-oversees school emergency supplies, Safety Fair, Green Ribbon Month, school emergency kits, works with the school to coordinate fire and earthquake drills.

Community Involvement Commissioner- coordinates monthly school newsletter and book fairs.

Communication Commissioner-seeks to keep parents informed about school events through the school blog and social networking.

Education Commissioner- maintains and staffs Take Home Reading Library, assists with Knowledge Bowl and other educational pursuits as supported by the school.

Fundraising Commissioner-seeks to raise funds for the PTA through various activities such as the walk-a-thon, family portraits, t-shirt sales, and other activities as approved by the PTA President.

Health Commissioner-oversees Red and Purple Ribbon Week.

Individual Development Commissioner-coordinates Reflections contest as well as Spirit Days.

Follow the Harvest PTA on Twitter!

The Harvest PTA has created a twitter account in an effort to have more direct contact with parents. The account name is:

HarvestPTA

One of our ongoing goals as a PTA is to have increased parent involvement in our oranization. We'd like to know how best to keep parents up to date! We currently have the monthly newsletter that comes in the Wednesday folder, this blog, and now a twitter account. We would love to have input on how YOU, as a parent, would like to keep up with PTA news and school events. Please leave a comment and tell us how you feel about the communitation, with any suggestions for improvement!

Thank you!!!

Ribbon Week is THIS Week! (January 19th-22nd)

In an effort to empower our children to make good decisions and help themselves, we are celebrating Red Ribbon Week and Purple Ribbon Week simultaneously. Please take some time to discuss the relevant issues that these ribbons represent. The red ribbon represents a person's strength to abstain from harmful substances such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and inappropriate use of legal medications. The purple ribbon represents your child's right to be free from abuse - whether it is from a trusted adult or from his/her peers.


Jan 19, Tuesday
"Take a Stand"
WEAR RED


Jan 20, Wednesday
"Be Strong"
WEAR EXERCISE CLOTHES


Jan 21, Thursday
"Violence Free"
WEAR PURPLE


Jan 22, Friday
"Stand Together"
WEAR SCHOOL COLORS


*We will have a daily prize drawing for those kids that wear daily themes AND red wristbands!*


Please take time to discuss with your children the importance of being drug, alcohol, tobacco, and abuse free. Helpful websites:

• www.theantidrug.com


• www.nfp.org


• www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov


• www.parentsempowered.org


• www.preventchildabuse.org


• www.ncpc.org