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Publications - Meadow Messenger |
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Dear Parents, It was wonderful to greet so many volunteer parents at our luncheon this week. The entire staff thanks you for all that you do for us throughout the school year. We could not teach the way we do if it was not for your support in the classrooms. And we could not maintain our “out of classroom” programs if we did not have the support of our Board members, and the many adults who share their expertise! If you were fortunate enough to get tickets for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you know what an awesome play this was. It was High Meadows first attempt at producing a multi-age play and it was so successful in so many ways. Twenty-eight children in grades 3, 4, and 5 performed, and fourteen children in grades 6, 7, and 8 managed the production. Kudos go to Annie Kimball and Sarah Dietrich for their creativity, enthusiasm and talent. Next year we want performances over two weekends! I also want to acknowledge the many staff members and parents who supported our first Blood Drive. It was a huge success. Thanks to Susan Brown who organized this event. Once again, our music program represented High Meadows School in such a wonderful way. Thirteen of our students have been preparing for weeks to be ready to play, sing and perform at the Atlanta Area Orff Honors Concert. Thanks to Paula Williams, Sarah Dietrich and Mike Perdue for spending so much of their personal time with our children. Our two school bands and our percussion ensemble will perform at High Meadows tonight, May 7th, at 5:00 p.m. in the Primary Commons. All families are welcome to attend this concert. Field Days are quickly approaching and parents and friends are needed to help on these days. Field Day for children in Middle Years and 4/5 is Friday May 9th and for children in kindergarten through third grade is Friday, May 16th. Both Field Days are in the morning. Depending upon possible construction on the lower meadow, Field Day might be held in the upper meadow. Parking could be difficult on those two days, so please plan accordingly. Our Family Picnic on Friday, May 9th should be a wonderful High Meadows event. At the picnic, our beginning and intermediate bands will be performing at 6:00 and 6:15 and our drumline will be performing at 7:00. Please plan to attend. Why not bring a former High Meadows family with you? We have invited our families new to High Meadows for the upcoming school year. Please find more information on this picnic elsewhere in Meadow Messenger. With so many end-of-the-year events that are going on in our classrooms and at our school, we ask that you please be considerate of others as you are driving on campus, as well as parking on campus. Especially be mindful of carpool dismissal when you park during the day. All cars MUST be able to move through all lanes by 3:00 p.m. I want to wish every mother and grandmother a Happy Mother’s Day! I hope that you always know how much I value your dedication to the education of your children. May this weekend be filled with all of the love and gratitude that you deserve! Cordially,
PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN NEWS Dear Families, Moving into the homestretch, our children in Preschool and Kindergarten are raring to show you their skills as performers. Our thanks to Ms. Annie Kimball for all she has put into making the drama performances special for you as an audience. I would greatly appreciate if you would let your classroom teachers and me know if you are unable to attend in the audience. You might not realize that we would welcome any family member or family friend to join the audience in your absence. The children are so thrilled when they know someone out there is watching them specifically. At the family picnic this Friday, there will be many Preschool and Kindergarten families who have recently been accepted to join High Meadows next year. Do you remember how recently that was you? I hope you will join me in reaching out to them with kindness and friendship. I will see you there! Sincerely, Grace Shickler
PRIMARY AND ELEMENTARY NEWS What a fabulous Parent Volunteer Luncheon we had this past Monday, May 5th, 2008. I would like to give a special “Thank you!” again to Ms. Paula Williams, Ms. Sarah Dietrich and the band for performing at this event. I would also like to thank our Kindergarten classes for sharing their gift of song with their voices during our celebration of thanks. “Bravo!” to all of you! This luncheon is our way to say “Thank you!” to all our volunteers that provide such a valuable service for our students, teachers and our school community. Together, we all work to make High Meadows School such a special place to be. Please remember to mark your calendars and plan to attend our Family Picnic this Friday, May 9th, 2008. This is always such a wonderful High Meadows community event. I’m looking forward to seeing you there! Remember to stop by and say “Hello” to me in the little red caboose. Sincerely,
MIDDLE YEARS NEWS Debate Banquet: The debate banquet will be on Thursday, May 8th at 6:30 p.m. Information has been sent home with debaters. Please make a reservation by Monday, May 5th. The banquet will cost $15 per person. Any student who was in debate for twelve weeks or who participated in a tournament, should have received an invitation. Family members are also invited. We need to have an approximate count by Monday. Eighth Grade Finals: Eighth graders will have finals on Thursday, May 8th and Monday, May 12th. English and Math finals will be on Thursday. Spanish and Science finals will be on Monday. The social science final will be on May 22nd. Fifth Graders join Middle Years for Picnic: After the 4/5 and MY Field Day activities on Friday, May 9th, all fifth grade students are invited to lunch in Middle Years. We will have a cookout. Fifth graders will also meet with Ms. Wolf to visit about the transition to sixth grade. Mini-Course Request Forms: Please note that mini-course request forms for fall term will be sent home electronically this week. Please return either electronically or in hard copy to Ms. Wolf by May 20th. Eighth Grade Trip: All eighth graders should meet at the North Springs MARTA station by 6:15 a.m. on May 13th to leave for Colorado. Eighth Grade Trip Forms: Eighth grade trip information and forms are now due. Eighth Grade End of Year: An email was sent to all eighth grade parents with the eighth grade schedule for the remainder of the school year. MY Years Party/Dance: Middle Years Students are invited to celebrate the culmination of a fantastic school year at the Middle Years End of Year Party/Dance. An evite and hard copy invitation have been mailed to the MY student population and staff. This celebration will be held on Friday, May 23rd, from 7:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. at Unity North Church, 4255 Sandy Plains Road, Marietta, GA 30066. Refreshments and finger food will be served. Festive attire. Join us for a night filled with music, dancing, laughter, good friends and lots of fun. And say farewell to the High Meadows Class of 2008! The DJ will accept music requests in advance of the party! A collection box is in the Middle Years Commons area for your music requests. The cost is $20 per student; please make checks payable to Kristy Nijenkamp and deliver your payment to Molly in the office. The deadline for payment is May 9, 2008. This party/dance is hosted by the parents of the graduating class.
FROM THE BUSINESS OFFICE Alert Now: High Meadows School has acquired the services of Alert Now. This service will allow us to quickly notify parents in the case of an emergency, such as an early dismissal for bad weather. We will conduct another test of this system on Monday, May 19th after 6:00 p.m. At that time, the Alert Now team will contact each of your numbers, home, work, and cell that are currently listed in our database. If you have any questions prior to or after this test, please contact the High Meadows School front office. Parent Forms: The deadline for adding/updating your child(ren)’s information on High Meadows School-Parent Forms Portal is Wednesday, May 14, 2008. The revised bus registration form and Extended Care form are available online for you to print, complete and forward to the Business Office.
S.H.A.R.E. NEWS S.H.A.R.E. Fundraising: Please remember that you can support High Meadows School at home or in your office by using Good Search as your internet search engine of choice. When you register with Good Search and choose High Meadows School as your recipient, we will receive a donation with every future internet search that you do. To register with Good Search and begin raising funds for High Meadows School, please go to www.goodsearch.com and enter High Meadows School under “Who Do You Good Search For?” Then, make Good Search your default search engine and use it as you would any search engine. GoodSearch and GoodShop are two of the easiest ways to help our school, but we need you to use it and spread the word. If you shop online at Amazon, eBay, Target, Gap, Staples, Best Buy, J.Crew, or any of more than 600 top stores, remember to go to www.GoodShop.com first and link over to these retailers. A significant percentage of virtually every purchase will go toward your favorite cause! S.H.A.R.E. Merchandising: We are excited to offer new T-shirts at the Spring Picnic! Come one come all for several new designs, as well as other High Meadows merchandise. The Merchandising Committee is seeking a new chairperson for next year. This is a fun and rewarding position, and there is lots of room for personal input. If you are interested, or if two people would like to co-chair, please contact Jill Kaplan at 770-363-7219, or jillkap@hotmail.com Enrichment News: Last Thursday the 4/5’s, as part of their unit of study ‘Acting up,' participated in an hour-long Drama Play shop with the Atlanta Shakespeare company. Working outside, they woke up their vocal cords and bodies, then began using tone of voice and actions to give life to Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’. In the words of my daughter, it was ‘awesome’! On Wednesday the 7th the 3rd grade classrooms, as part of their unit on ‘Take a Look Inside,’ will be getting down and dirty with the High Tech High Touch program Globs, Goo and Guts! They will be touching real cow hearts, muscles, kidneys, stomachs adn more and getting an up-close look at brains adn eyeball. Rolling up their sleeves, they will be making all kinds of icky sticky stuff to learn the systems of the bode and find out what makes us tick. What could be more fun? These programs conclude our enrichment for this year. I hope your children have enjoyed the programs. If you care to drop me a line, I would love any feedback you might have. I would like to give special thanks to Stephanie Dempsey who has spent many hours working as a liaison to the PYP teachers. I would also like to thank all of our teachers who contributed suggestions and embraced the programs and made them relevant in their classrooms. Thank you to Molly in the office who helped many of visitor 'presenters' and to all the parents who joined S.H.A.R.E. Without the funds from S.H.A.R.E., these enrichment programs would not have been possible. Enrichment Chair – Susan Wildermuth sew@ix.netcom.com
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS Rain Barrel Workshop #2: If you have signed up and paid for a rain barrel, we are planning to assemble them at the spring picnic this Friday. Please meet over at the vegetable gardens with Mr. Kinzel from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Again, a big thank you to Mr. Kinzel for helping us conserve water. Children must be accompanied by adults. Summer Garden Help: Would you like fresh organic vegetables from our garden, be willing to help water and give the extra to North Fulton Charities while supporting the national “Plant a Row for the Hungry” program? I am currently taking names and your pick of a week your family would like to volunteer to do this. We have given about 200 pounds of veggies each summer for the past 3 summers. E-mail me with your choice of week and contact information at crobie@highmeadows.org Milkweed for Monarchs: If you were one of the lucky people that were able to purchase a milkweed plant at Earth Day, you probably realize that this is the only host plant for the Monarch butterfly. A host plant is the plant on which the female butterfly will lay her eggs and the caterpillars will use the leaves as a food source. The plant that you bought is Asclepias curassavica, commonly called Mexican Milkweed or Bloodflower. You may guess from the common name that this plant is not a native to Georgia. As with any non-native plant, there is the possibility that it could become an invasive but because of our cold winter temperatures, it usually dies back here in the Atlanta area. The seeds could be collected and used to start new plants for the next year. There are twenty-two native species of milkweeds in Georgia, many of which are perennials. For more information about these, visit the Monarchs Across Georgia (MAG) website at www.monarchsacrossga.org. Unfortunately, sources for these milkweeds are difficult to find. Ask your local nurseries or search the Internet for the Georgia native Asclepias species. Smog Season began Last Week: Please continue to turn your cars off while waiting for carpool to begin. MISCELLANEOUS Spring Picnic: This Friday, May 9th from 6:00 p.m. to dark. We are in desperate need for volunteer popcorn servers. Popcorn servers become the kids’ best friends…for the evening anyway! Please let me know, if you could help. Jewett_amy@yahoo.com. This is a great evening to spend relaxing on the meadow with friends and family. Bring your picnic dinner. Our talented musical students will begin playing at 6:00 p.m. in front of the Primary Building. This year we will have the picnic in the grassy area behind the CST building and in the upper meadow, due to construction. Parking will be tight, so please plan ahead. The church across the street will provide some overflow parking. Nirvana has once again offered to deliver food to the picnic and donate 10% back to High Meadows. Attached is the menu and order forms, if you missed them via backpack. If you do not use the menu, please drop them off at school or at Nirvana. Nirvana has promised to re-use them. (Thanks Nirvana!) This event is a “pack in/pack out,” please take all of your trash with you. Bring your checkbooks to buy HM merchandise! Blood Drive a Success!: Thanks to everyone who helped to make our Blood Drive a huge success! We had about 40 people show up to give, and we took in about 32 pints of blood which they said was very good for a small school. Please don’t forget about the importance of giving blood on a regular basis. Most people can donate once every 56 days. If you give platelets only, you can donate every two weeks. The closest centers are Old Alabama Rd. in Alpharetta, 770-619-5575 open Monday through Saturday, and Roswell Rd. in Marietta, 770-578-1977 open 7 days a week, and Atlanta Midtown 770-852-4530. Field Day is here!: Volunteers needed for 4/5 & MY Field Day from 9:00-12:00 on Friday May 9th and for K-3 Field Day on Friday May 16th. Field Day is going to be different this year, so it is important if you are volunteering to be at the PE room by 9:00. Instructions need to be given for each event before the students come out at 9:30. Please e-mail kallen@highmeadows.org or sign up on the PE room door, if you are interested in volunteering. Please keep in mind, that Field Day in impossible without volunteers! Nirvana Café & Grille to Cater Spring Picnic: Would you like Spring Picnic food that’s easy and naturally delicious? How about a gourmet sandwich that’s all-natural with no nitrates, preservatives, MSG or Trans Fat? This year, let Nirvana Café & Grille in Roswell deliver your picnic food and they will donate 10% back to High Meadows. Menus and order forms were sent home last week and are due by Thursday. You can drop your order form at the HM office or fax/deliver it to Nirvana. You can view the full menu at www.eatnirvana.com Enjoy fresh, healthier picnic food and help High Meadows at the same time. President’s Challenge T-Shirts: The 1st-5th grade students have completed The President’s Challenge. They worked hard to reach their goals! Your child will be bringing home an order form for a President’s Challenge T-Shirt. If you are interested in ordering a t-shirt for your child, please fill out the bottom of the sheet and attach a check or $10.00 per shirt. Return the form to your child’s homeroom teacher. Thanks! Karen Allen Recycle and Give Big at the Same Time!: Your gently used backpacks can help a Haitian child in need! The Restavec Foundation needs backpacks and art supplies to help give indentured Haitian children a chance at education. Often neglected, Restavec children are worked relentlessly from dawn to dusk taking care of entire households. Some as young as 4 years old, these children live as slaves until they are adults. The Restavec Foundation provides hope in the form of education and emancipation. Please bring your used backpacks, and any extra art or school supplies (i.e. pencils, pens, rulers, notebooks, etc) you have lying around your house to the High Meadows Family Picnic on Friday, May 9th; there will be a drop-off box next to the merchandise tables. All of the items we collect will be sent to the foundation for direct distribution to Restavec children in Haiti. You can learn more about John Robert Cadet’s Restavec Foundation by visiting the website, www.restavecfreedom.org Music Department News: There will be an important 2008-2009 Informational Band Meeting on Monday, May 12th, from 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. in the Primary Commons. All current and prospective band parents and students are encouraged to attend this meeting regarding scheduling and structuring of next year's Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Band Programs. If you are unable to attend, please see the music website at www.myhighmeadows.org for details after Monday's meeting.
Upcoming Dates as of 5/5/08 This Week 5/5/08 – 5/11/08 Next Week 5/12/08 – 5/18/08 Future Week Next School Year
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