November 30, 2006:

This Saturday's (Dec. 2nd) babysitting has been cancelled. The Dec. 9th and 16th dates are still available. Please call to reserve your space today!

November 28, 2006:

Do you have holiday shopping to do or just want some time without your children? Partnership Elementary is offering babysitting for the next three Saturdays from 10am - 3pm! Please click on the babysitting flyer link to get all the details. (pdf)

November 19, 2006:

The Staff of Partnership Elementary is proud to announce that Coach Hardy was selected at Partnership's Teacher of the Year! Coach Hardy works tirelessly to make the PE and Health program at Partnership meaningful and relevant to every student. He is also very involved in the Helping Hands program (where he was Mentor of the Year last year!). This year, not only is he leading the Helping Hands program at Partnership, but he is helping out with Wiley Elementary's Helping Hand Program as well.

On top of all of that, Coach is active in his church and in other civic groups outside of school! We could not be more proud to have Coach represent Partnership in the WCPSS Teacher of the Year Competition.

November 15, 2006:

Book Fair
Our annual Scholastic book fair is coming November 28, 29, 30. Tuesday, November 28 is the first day of our Book Fair and we are declaring it Dress as Your Favorite Book Character day. Ms. Martin is going to try to dress up as Camilla Cream, the girl from A Bad Case of Stripes .....if she can find a curly black wig. Your child will shop with his/her class at the time listed below. Join us at the fair on Tuesday night from 6-8 PM, for book shopping. You can eat dinner at the book fair that night, because our 5th graders will be selling pizza to raise money for their class gift.

The Giving Tree
This is the season for giving, and Partnership families like to help each other during this time of year. The Giving Tree is up, and we hope you will stop by before Thanksgiving and select an item to purchase. Remember, if you would like to participate but don't have time to shop, we accept monetary donations and we will do the shopping. We want to shop for gifts for the children at the after Thanksgiving sales, and would love to have your cash donations in by that time. If you would like to purchase gifts for some Partnership children who need it, please visit the Giving Tree in the basement stairwell.

Read More Books
Our 2nd quarter Service project, Read More Books, is coming along well. Mrs. McCann's, Ms. C. Moore's, Mr. Pete's, Mrs. Lewis', Ms. Saylor's, Ms. Rindge's and Ms. Higgins' classes have all read over 100 books!!!!!!! Because they have met the goal, Scholastic Books has donated 100 books for each of their classes to children in underserved communities. So many other classes are ALMOST there!!! Please help your child write down 6 books that he/she has read, and turn it in to Ms. Martin. If you don't have the official Read More Books sheet, it is ok. You may use a plain piece of paper. Thank you for your help with this service project.

PTA Awards Nominations
We are looking for someone who likes to scrapbook to help us with several awards nominations booklets. This is an at-home volunteer opportunity. Please contact Ms. Martin if you are interested in helping with this project.

Other Items
Parents, please remember our policy on morning arrival as stated in the Partnership student handbook (also found on our website).
Attendance / Tardy / Leaving School:
1. Students are considered tardy if they are not in their homeroom by 8:30 a.m. If a student is tardy, he/she and their parent must check into the office and receive a pink tardy slip. All tardies must be for an excused reason (Not “I over slept” or “traffic”). If not an excused reason (doctor, dentist appt. or family emergency) it will be marked unexcused. When a child is tardy, it interrupts the child's routine and the routine of the class.

Please check the lost and found for your child's belongings. We are donating everything in the lost and found at Christmas!!!

If you are an online shopper, please check this website. The Box Tops Marketplace website allows you to shop online and earn $$ for Partnership simultaneously!!! The Box Tops Marketplace newsletter is now available. Please view it here:
http://view.exacttarget.com/?ffcb10-fe8c1c7071620c7871-fdf3107170610d7b7717707c-ff251c727c63

October 19, 2006:

Don't forget tonight's PTA meeting at 6:00. 2nd and 4th grade students will be performing.

Tomorrow, Friday October 20th, our Student Senior Partner for the Day, has declared it hat and necktie day. Please help your child participate in this spiritwear day by providing a hat and/or necktie for him/her to wear.

Please return your order form (with your child's artwork) for the art fundraiser by next Tuesday, Oct. 24th. This important event raises money for art programming at Partnership and makes great gifts for friends and family.

Parent Coaching Circles start in November!
Beginning November 3, Partnership parents will have an opportunity to participate in Coaching Circles at no cost. Coaching Circles are small groups of 8-10 people who work with a coach to address problem areas and set goals for maximizing performance. The goals of the Parents’ Coaching Circles are to provide a place to explore issues common to all parents and to help form connections among parents with children in the school. The Parents’ Coaching Circles will be held from 8:30 a.m.– 9:30 a.m. in Planet Earth on November 3, December 1, and January 12. (Coffee will be provided.) Susan Westbrook, a Life Coach and former educator, will facilitate the circles. For more information contact Susan at swestbrook@blackchaircoaching.com. To sign up to participate in the Parents’ Coaching Circles, contact Alison at ahiltz@wcpss.net.

Study Circles on Race & Ethnic Relations
A study circle is a small, diverse group of 8 to 10 individuals who meet once a week for five weeks at no cost to share individual stories, learn from others, and take action steps to improve race relations at our school. Each meeting lasts about 2 hours. Study Circles dates for this semester are Tuesdays from 6:00-8:00 p.m. in Planet Earth: November 7th, November 14th, November 28th, December 5th, and December 12th. For more information contact Starla McKenney at starlamac@aol.com.

October 16, 2006:

Planting Day is this Saturday, October 21 from 8-12 . Please come and help us plant pansies and bulbs, spread mulch and plant the 50 azaleas we were awarded by WRAL. We need LOTS of help. It's a busy weekend with the fair, sports and family activities, but please try to fit in a little time for campus beautification here at Partnership. Come for as long as you can. Bring your kids, your cousins, your friends. Bring shovels, bulb planters, wheelbarrows. It's a good way to earn your volunteer hours. Remember to bring in spring bulbs for us to plant. There is a green bucket outside the library to put them in.

Partnership Tips:
Our service project this quarter is in conjunction with Scholastic Books. For every CLASS that reads 100 books, Scholastic Books will donate 100 new books to children in under-served schools. A flyer about the project went home with most students on Friday. It has a place for your child to begin logging his books. Thanks for helping Partnership help other kids read.

September 19, 2006:

Thank you to everyone who volunteered for, bought raffle tickets for, and purchased game/food tickets for the Frolic. Thank you for coming, for bringing your families and friends. It was a tremendously fun evening for our children and our Partnership families.

Odyssey of the Mind --OM informational meeting on Thursday the 21st in Jim Pete's room at 3:15

Fall Planting Day is October 21st.

Fall is for planting! Please lend a hand to the Partnership Landscaping Crew and help us color our school grounds beautiful from fall into spring. Here's the plan:

September 11, 2006:

The Fall Family Frolic is only 4 days away! We have outgrown Longview so this year we are having the Frolic at Mt. Vernon School on Friday, September 15th. The rain date is Friday, September 22nd, but we hope not to need it! Mt. Vernon's address is 5418 Chapel Hill Rd. Raleigh, NC 27607. You may get directions here. The hours of the Frolic are from 5-8 p.m. See you there!

August 9, 2006:

Back to School Night & PTA General Meeting Schedule

August 17, 2006

We have a very busy evening planned for our Partnership Parents. Please look over the schedule for the evening. We have worked hard to provide each family with an opportunity to attend a presentation in your child(ren)’s classroom and to learn about our PTA all in one night. The 5:00 and 6:15 presentations are the same. Parking is always challenging for these school-wide events. We suggest you look for other parents to carpool with. Babysitting will not be provided. We look forward to seeing you. Please bring your notepads, questions and cheerful smiles.

5:00-6:00 Kindergarten through 5th Grade Presentations in Classrooms
PTA General Meeting in the Multipurpose Room

6:00-6:15 Transition Time

6:15-7:15 Kindergarten through 5th Grade Presentations in Classrooms
PTA General Meeting in the Multipurpose Room

7:15-8:00 PTA Fair in the multipurpose room

August 5, 2006:

Welcome to a new school year. We are off to a terrific start, students are learning about their classrooms, attending specials, and battling the heat and humidity. Gracious they are good!!

A few things to note:

• Please put your carpool signs in the passenger side dashboard or window with bold lettering because Ms. Martin has terrible eyesight and cannot read many of the signs. thank you from the carpool efficiency committee.
  
• Please come by the library to register as a WCPSS volunteer . You must renew your registration every year. If you have children in multiple schools, you only need to register once and put the names of all the schools where you might volunteer.
  
• The Fun Family Frolic is only 6 weeks away!!!!!! Our biggest fundraiser of the year happens on September 15. We need your help getting items for our auction . As you are shopping this weekend, please keep an eye out for items that we can put in themy baskets--a coffee basket, a sleepover basket, a movie basket, a wine lovers basket, a breakfast basket, a spa basket, a football afternoon basket, a Christmas basket, a dog lovers basket...those are just some ideas.
  
• We will be sending Frolic information home in Friday folders over the next few weeks. Please take a look and see how you can help us reach our $17,000 goal.
  
• Hurry. You may now re-link your Harris Teeter VIC card to Partnership Elementary. Our # is 2298. You have to re-link every year so that we get $$$ from Harris Teeter. It's kinda like free cash for our school.
  
• Our final service project last year was a big success!!!!! We collected over 50 bikes for the bike man. He will spiff them up and give them to children at Christmas. The bike man was thrilled by the generosity of our families. Thanks to everyone who donated a bike, and to Pat Shearon who packed them all up and delivered them to the bike man.
  
• Our first service project of the year will be an ongoing project all year. Students will be collecting the pop tops off of soft drink cans to benefit the Ronald McDonald House . Please start pulling off the pop tops and send them in to Ms. Martin.

Team Updates!

July 21, 2006:

The countdown is on! Just a few more sweet days of summer left! We look forward to seeing everyone for Meet the Teacher on Monday, July 24th from 11am-1pm.

If you want to get a jump on the school supply shopping, here are the supply lists currently avaliable...

Team Mars -- Third Grade Supply List 2006-2007 (word doc)
Team Venus -- Fourth Grade Supply List 2006-2007 (word doc)
Team Mercury -- Fifth Grade Supply List 2006-2007 (word doc)

If other supply lists become avaliable, we will add them here ASAP!

June 27, 2006:

Less than a month of summer left! Keep enjoying it!

Meet the Teacher Day will be Monday, July 24 from 11am-1pm. During this time, you will be able to find out your student's teacher for next year, walk through the building, and find your new classroom.

The first day of school will be Wednesday, July 26. Kindergarten will be the only grade level with a staggered entry start this year.

June 23, 2006:

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Keep collecting box tops over the summer - we also are collecting Harris Teeter milk tops!

We want to send a special congratulations to our outstanding Geometric Structure Odyssey of the Mind team. We are so proud of our students who represented Partnership, Wake County, AND North Carolina in the WORLD FINALS OM competition. At the competition in May, our team came in 4th in the world! This is an amazing accomplishment! We are all so proud of you!

At the end of the 2005/2006 school year, Coach Hardy celebrated with the Helping Hands group at their county-wide graduation. Our young men looked stunning in their suits. Partnership was a success in the awards department. Coach Hardy took home the Mentor of the Year Award. We are so proud of Coach!

As you travel this summer, please ask for donations for our Fun Family Frolic auction.

Keep reading over the summer!!