Green Tip from Quinn
If you ever go on a picnic you can bring paper plates but what’s better is to use plastic plates from home. You don't have to go looking for a trashcan and it saves paper.
Green Garden Club News When the Green Garden Club went to the Rodney Square Earth Day celebration we started in the Wilmington Library where they showed us about what happens when it rains in the city. We learned about taking care of the storm drains and not putting things in them. We also walked through the demonstrations in Rodney Square and got to do a craft – making paper beads. Some people actually took home a dogwood tree sapling.
The Green Garden Club meets tomorrow after school. Club members should be picked up by 4:00 PM if they are not in the extended day program. The club’s last meeting will take place on May 20th.
Technology News
Today the elementary students “talked” via computer with students from around the world who have organic gardening program at their schools. We talked with students in Taiwan, Cuba, France, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Colombia, Slovenia, and Japan. Many of these schools have much bigger gardens than we do, and they, like us use composting. We even saw that the lunchroom in Taiwan uses the vegetables and fruits that they grew. We may have to look for a community garden! Attached here is additional news from the multi-media center’s technology wing.
Needed:
The classroom and art teachers would welcome your collecting up brown bags (Trader Joe’s style are especially welcome) to use as they gather things up to send home with the children at the end of the year. There is no hurry on this, but we will appreciate bags as you have them.
Also, we had had a parent volunteer to transfer some LPs to CDs for us, but the technology did not work for her. If anyone else out there has the ability to do that and would like to take it on, we’d welcome the help.
Finally, the Green Garden Club is interested in building some raised gardening boxes. If you are a confident woodworker and are interested in finding out more about this project, please contact Amy Dwyer or Debbie McDowell.
Alumni Update Scott Killheffer is studying Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Delaware. Kate Killheffer is studying business administration at UD.Dana Townsend-Porter will attend the University of Delaware this fall.
Grandparents’ Day
Grandparents’ Day takes place at EWMS on Friday, May 7 from drop-off time through lunch. This event is designed for children and their grandparents. There are set “performance” times for each class, but the day is Open House in format, otherwise. Below is the schedule in case your parents have misplaced theirs:
Time
Class/Ages
Location
9:30 AM
EI (6 – 9 year olds
Second Floor
10:45 AM
EC2 (3 – 6 year olds)
Annex (outside)
11:40 AM
EC1 (3 – 6 year olds
First Floor
Noon
LUNCH
Children should pack their lunch as usual. Lunch will be provided for the grandparents and a dessert will be provided for children and their guests.
If children will be going home with their grandparents or anyone who is not on the carpool list, parents should send in a note to that effect. Grandparents should be prepared to sign their grand children out in the office or at the back gate.
The Hospitality committee is looking for extra hands during the festivities and/or to help prepare for them. If you can help, please contact Kate Frawley.
Confidential Parent Survey
On Monday, a confidential Family Survey was sent home to our Delaware-resident families. This survey will help the local school districts determine the EWMS share of resources and expertise we are entitled to. Thank you to the 45% of families who have returned the survey already. Please return the survey by tomorrow if you have not done so as yet.
Images from: Clipart.com, E. Sharon Francis, Molly Snowberger, Amy Dwyer
T.V. Turn-Off Week Festivities
We had a good, TV Free (or at least cognizant) week, beginning with the well- attended TV Turn-off Potluck Dinner a week ago. The EWMS Thespians put on “Mouse T.V. and Quinn read “Jimmy Jet and his T.V. Set by Shel Silverstein, and the mood in the room was terrific. On Friday, we enjoyed twins day, and today, we were thrilled to wear our PJs to school and we enjoyed some very silly socks and hairstyles, too. The best, perhaps was the culminating activity of an ice cream celebration at which we shared some of the activities we were able to enjoy while we were not focused on a screen: reading, sleeping, playing outside, playing inside, coloring, playing board games, cooking, going on outings, and riding bikes, to name a few activities. Many kids raised their hands when asked how many had not watched any TV for the whole week. Everyone said they had watched less TV than they ordinarily would have. Thank you all for helping your children spend their time especially creatively in the last week.
In-service Day
There is an in-service day this Friday. There was not enough need for day care, so there will be no care here that day.
Fundraising News We still have not gotten a final bill from all of the vendors we dealth with for our Chili Cook-off, so we cannot yet tell you how well we did. Stay tuned to this section in the weekly newsletter for the good news.
We just received a check in the mail for $118.62 from the Box Tops for Education folks. We are in the final leg of another Box Tops drive: if you have not yet sent in your collection, now is a good time to do so. We’ll see if we can top the above amount!
This most recent book fair was not a fundraiser in a traditional sense, but it was well-attended by our parents and the classrooms earned many books due to your purchases and the many gifts they recieved from generous families. Thank you for supporting your children’s reading, and this school’s libraries.
If you have already signed up with Escrip consider downloadiing the AutoEARN program. This saves you a step. Any participating merchant’s website will pop up in such a way that you willl be able to go through Escrip to make your purchases, thereby automatically earning EWMS a percent of the sale at no additional cost to you. If you haven’t signed up with Escrip, today’s the day to do so: it’s fast, easy, and helps your children’s school.
Montessori in the News
Clark Montessori, a public junior and senior high school in Cincinnati, OH, has been selected as one of six finalists in a nationwide competition, sponsored by the White House, to “win” President Obama as their commencement speaker. There is a movement afoot to help Clark Montessori win this contest by encouraging the Montessori community to vote. The voting closes tomorrow, so if you’re interested, here is what you must do to vote:
View 6 films (and read short statements) from each of the finalists
Follow the directions for rating the schools according to how well they meet the specified challenge criteria. (Important note, 5 is the highest rating, 1 is the lowest.)
Each film is about 3-minutes long.
Calendar
Friday, 04/30
Teacher in-service Day; Day Care available.
Friday, 05/07
Grandparents’ Day
Friday, 05/14/10
Elementary trip to the Franklin Institute Museum 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Saturday, 05/15
Maintenance Day, 8:00 AM – Noon
Friday, 05/21
Teacher in-service Day; Day Care available with enough enrollment
When the Green Garden Club went to the Rodney Square Earth Day celebration we started in the Wilmington Library where they showed us about what happens when it rains in the city. We learned about taking care of the storm drains and not putting things in them. We also walked through the demonstrations in Rodney Square and got to do a craft – making paper beads. Some people actually took home a dogwood tree sapling.
We had a good, TV Free (or at least cognizant) week, beginning with the well- attended TV Turn-off Potluck Dinner a week ago. The EWMS Thespians put on “Mouse T.V. and Quinn read “Jimmy Jet and his T.V. 
Set by Shel Silverstein, and the mood in the room was terrific. On Friday, we enjoyed twins day, and today, we were thrilled to wear our PJs to school and we enjoyed some very silly socks and hairstyles, too. The best, perhaps was the culminating activity of an ice cream celebration at which we shared some of the activities we were able to enjoy while we were not focused on a screen: reading, sleeping, playing outside, playing inside, coloring, playing board games, cooking, going on outings, and riding bikes, to name a few activities. Many kids raised their hands when asked how many had not watched any TV for the whole week. Everyone said they had watched less TV than they ordinarily would have. Thank you all for helping your children spend their time especially creatively in the last week.
We still have not gotten a final bill from all of the vendors we dealth with for our Chili Cook-off, so we cannot yet tell you how well we did. Stay tuned to this section in the weekly newsletter for the good news. 
Calendar