Thornhill Elementary PFC Newsletter
Volume 28, Issue 7, September 22, 2020
In This Issue
No School this Friday, September 25!
Note from our Principal
Note from our PFC Co-Presidents
EBT SNAP and Amazon Partnership
Math Book Pickup
Thornhill Take-out Events
Enrichment Classes
Individual Class Packets
Auction 2020
Calendar of Important Dates
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From our Principal
Dear Thornhill Families,
Thank you for all of your hard work in supporting your children with Distance Learning. It is truly amazing what our students are doing.
I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate the tremendously hard tasks our teachers have taken on. It is so inspiring to see what the Thunderbird staff is doing to engage and teach our students. I see all the teaching and learning that is happening online and the progress that students are making. Students are taking charge of their education by participating, speaking up, and explaining their thinking! They are building relationships with each other and their teachers are working into the evenings and on weekends, planning for distance learning to be effective and engaging. This is no easy task... I can only say I am in awe of our teachers and I have yet to see a staff as dedicated to their students and community as Thornhill’s!
Thornhill teachers, you are an inspiration and you ROCK!
Keep up the good work!
Love,
Mr. Daubenspeck
P.S. Reminder - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS ON FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25th.
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And Now a Note from our PFC Co-Presidents
Ahoy mates!
I hope everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the glorious sunshine, fresh air and a sprinkle of heavy dew that seemed to have washed the first half of last week away.
PHEW!
Gardening is in full swing and not only are we getting to see Ms. Alexis in our classes, she's also been harvesting from Thornhill's abundant garden and leaving goods out for our community Friday mornings (usually after 9am). As the summer season is coming to a close, go enjoy some tomatoes and other delicious fresh veggie treats that our students worked hard on last year.
In other news, your PFC is working hard on brainstorming AWESOME ideas for community building and fundraising. Keep a lookout for fun stuff to come!
Apples! Red, orange, yellow leaves! Pumpkins! Sweater weather! Fall!
Wishing you fair winds and calm seas,
Alicia Streight & Rex Crum
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EBT SNAP and Amazon Partnership
Great news! Your EBT SNAP card can now be linked to Amazon Fresh and Pantry with delivery! It's a super easy process and makes fresh, healthy food available and accessible during these uncertain times.
And don't forget that anytime you purchase something from Amazon, make sure you're logging in through smile.amazon.com and you've selected Thornhill Elementary as your charity! Additionally, pick up your phone right now and activate AmazonSmile so you’ll never have to think about it again. We'll receive a percentage of every purchase, which will go a long way towards helping to fulfill our students’ and teachers’ needs simply by doing something you may be doing anyway!
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Math Book Pickup
Here is the schedule for pick up this week at Thornhill. If you have more than one child at Thornhill, please pick up for all of them at the assigned time for the oldest child.
Monday 9/21 8am-12pm: 2nd and 3rd
Tuesday 9/22 8am-12pm: K and 1st
Wednesday 9/23 8am-12pm: TK, 5th and tech
Thursday 9/24 1-3pm: make-up
Friday: 9/25 1-3pm: make-up and tech
LOCATION: Enter through the side gate on Alhambra, near where the packets have been put out. (See picture below in the Printed Packet section.) There will be tables set up outside the back of the MPR (multi-purpose room), where the Lost & Found usually is.
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Thornhill “Take-Out” Events Are Here!
Mark your calendar to take a night off from cooking! While we would much rather be breaking bread together at one of our favorite Oakland hotspots, this is the next best thing. We’re partnering with these restaurants to raise money for Thornhill — when you order take-out on the days listed below, we earn a percentage of sales, in some cases up to 33%! The money earned will help the PFC fund important initiatives for our children.
Stay tuned for details on how to make sure Thornhill gets credit for your take-out order on these dates. Info will be on Konstella.
When & Where:
Wednesday, September 30: Taps & Takeout
Wednesday, October 14: The Star on Grand (take-out & delivery)
Wednesday, November 4: Chipotle (Broadway location)
Thursday, December 10: Zachary’s (College Ave)
Enjoy!
Christina Gibbons, Merchant Partnerships Chair
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More Enrichment Classes
Another great class has been added to our schedule!
Live Online Drama Club Grades 3-5 (ages 8-11)
During each 55-minute class students will be learning acting fundamentals and playing drama games that entertain while teaching social skills, creativity, and self-expression all through the interactive Zoom online platform. Students begin class with theater games and move on to working on skits, monologues, and short scenes. Classes will teach acting fundamentals like projection, articulation, dramatic movement, and improvisation. We encourage students to express themselves and collaborate…all while building confidence! At the end of the semester, students will present a partially live (on Zoom) performance that will be recorded to share with family and friends. No previous experience is required. There is a middle school class, also!!
Thursdays: 3:00-3:55pm
16 classes total: Oct 8, 15, 22, 29, Nov 5, 12, 19 (off 26), Dec 3, 10, 17, (off Dec 24, 31), Jan 7, 14, 21, 28, Feb 4, 11
Price: $465 ($28 per class)
12 students max Minimum of 10
Additional offerings: Origami Mami, Martial Arts and Self-Defense, Berkeley Chess School, ANTS Sports, 3 O’Clock Rock, Jazz Education Ensemble, Nusku Arts, Doug’s Drama, and Spanish.
Read about these new programs and the current offerings on Konstella.
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Individual Class Printed Packets (No More OUSD Strong Start Packets)
If your teacher tells you that printed materials need to be picked up, they will continue to be in the same spot —- on the fence near the TK trailer and the Alhambra entrance. Stay tuned and check Konstella for updates on pickups postponed by poor air quality.
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Auction 2020 Still Lives!
We will be holding one last collection/distribution event in the next few weeks. Details to come soon. In the meantime, if you have outstanding items that still need collecting, please email becky.urbano@gmail.com so I can make sure to gather all the appropriate items. Some are here, some are there, so your help (and specificity) is appreciated. Hopefully this one last time will get all the things to their proper and forever homes.
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Calendar
Friday, September 25: Teacher Professional Development Day - no school for students
Wednesday, September 30: Take-Out for Thornhill: Taps & Takeout (details TBA)
Monday, October 5: PFC meeting (5:30-7pm, Zoom link in Konstella)
Monday, October 12: No School: in lieu of Lincoln’s birthday
Wednesday, October 14: Take-Out for Thornhill: The Star on Grand (details TBA)
Wednesday, November 4: Take-Out for Thornhill: Chipotle (details TBA)
Monday, November 9: PFC meeting (5:30-7pm, Zoom link in Konstella)
Wednesday, November 11: No School: in lieu of Veterans Day
Thursday, December 10: Take-Out for Thornhill: Zachary’s (details TBA)
Be sure also to subscribe to the Thornhill Google Calendar here, and download the OUSD District calendar here.
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About the Thornhill Newsletter
The Thornhill Parent-Faculty Club (PFC) eNews team publishes this weekly newsletter each Tuesday in the school year to communicate school, PFC and OUSD news, events and information.
Email submissions to our Newsletter Chair, Jill Evans, at newsletter@thornhillschool.org by 8 p.m. Thursday for approval—nothing sent after this will be included in the following week’s newsletter unless there are extremely compelling extenuating circumstances. It’s fine to include text in the body of the email with links and no formatting, and attach photos preferably as 150 x 150, 72 dpi JPG or GIFs only (not embedded in email or Word file). Submissions may be edited for spelling, grammar, brevity and clarity. Advertising and items not related to Thornhill are not accepted, as we need to keep the newsletter focused on need-to-know info for the community.
THANK YOU to everyone who submits articles and to PFC Board Members, Teachers, VPs of Communications Erin Proudfoot & Evie Nagy, PFC Presidents Rex Crum & Alicia Streight, and Principal Steve Daubenspeck. Member of Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).
Email: webmaster@thornhillschool.org
Website: thornhillschool.org
Location: 5880 Thornhill Drive, Oakland, CA, USA
Phone: 510-339-6800