Thornhill Elementary PFC Newsletter
Volume 24, Issue 32, April 28, 2017
Spring Carnival--May 6
Whatever you do this school year, the carnival is not to be missed. Just look at this lineup of activities that you and yours can spend your afternoon participating in a week from Saturday...
HI-STRIKER--THE STRONGMAN GAME
(Start working out now for this one)
RING-A-BOTTLE
(It takes more strategy than playing chess)
FISH BOWL FRENZY
(How frenzied can these fish be?)
FAT CATS
(Maybe with actual fat cats?)
DUCK POND GAME
(It's ducks! It's a pond! Everybody wins!)
MILK BOTTLE KNOCK DOWN
(Bring the high heat for this one)
This is one of our biggest Thornhill community events all year so you don’t want to miss it, especially new TK and Kindergarten families!
AND...We will have a Magic Show performed by the "Magical Nathaniel" by way of generous donation on behalf of Michael Maggio and Coldwell Banker in Montclair.
By now you should have heard from your class coordinators asking you to volunteer. If you haven't perhaps your class has yet to designate someone and YOU can step up to fill the role! Please sign up for a shift (it’s always really fun) or help take apart your booth & clean up at the end of the day. We also need lots of donations for the Cake Walk (sweets can be home-made or store-bought).
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0f49a8af23a6fa7-2017/
Other Ways to Participate and Help
Sign up sheets will be posted in the lobby for several more volunteer opportunities
- Booth Set-Up — Friday afternoon, May 8th, from 2 p.m. -4 p.m. We’ll teach you what to do. We just need bodies so the work goes quickly! Drop by between 2 & 4 to help when you can — your kids can help too!
- Dads’ Club BBQ — Contact dadsclub@thornhillschool.org
- Face Painting — Great for Thornhill alums to do
Thank you in advance,
Shanyn Lloyd-Gibson, 2017 Carnival Chair carnival@thornhillschool.org
Sweets Needed for the Carnival Cake Walk!
We need LOTS of baked goods for the 5th Graders’ Cake Walk! Please sign up to bring a homemade or store-bought sweet (brownies, cupcakes, pie, cake, cookies, etc.): http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0f49a8af23a6fa7-2017/ Please label your sweet if it is gluten-free or has nuts.
You can drop off your treat in the Main Office on Friday, May 5, or bring it to P-17 (Ms. Contreras’ portable) when you arrive at the Carnival.
Thanks!
Kate S. & Amy T., 5th Grade Carnival Coordinators for Mr. Wilkins & Ms. Bernard
Principal's Letter...
Spring is upon us and the weather should be nice and warm this weekend. I hope that you are all taking advantage of the sunny warm days to get out in nature.
Wednesday was Administrative Professionals Day! And our amazing office staff Christina and Sherry were treated to lots of love from our students and staff. Please appreciate our office staff when you have a chance. Or come and read the The Top 10 Reasons Why Our Office Staff Rocks! A book with illustrations written by Mrs. Forbes' Class that's posted in the office. It's a very cool book.
Our Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast was also on Wednesday. Thank you to all that came. Parents and family members, thank you for all that you do to make Thornhill great. We so appreciate all your support.
MLK Oratorical Trophy arrives! Having not received a trophy since 2008, our Thunderbirds were due. As you may remember, Thornhill participated in a OUSD district wide competition and won 1st Place for Published Poetry-Chorals Grades 3rd-5th.
SCIENCE FAIR NIGHT-What a great turn out from our Thornhill Families. Student participation in Science Projects was outstanding this year. It's so great to see our students resenting scientific ideas and learning the inquiry process. Clearly, we have some future scientists that will make great contributions to the field of science.
READ-A-THON--Thank you all for your support with the Read-A-Thon and we still need your support in this final week. It would be amazing if we got 100 percent participation from all students and families. Let's keep this rockin' and make our goal of $25,000.
Dads Club News
Thornhill Facebook Groups
We are excited to announce the new Dads Club Facebook Group. Yes! Dads finally have their own place to meet each other, share photos and keep track of all Dads Club-powered events. Not only dads can join, of course. Spouses and partners can keep up to date with all the great volunteer work being done by Dads Club. To join, please check out www.facebook.com/groups/Thornhilldadsclub/
If you haven’t joined the Thornhill Parents Facebook group, you should! It’s a great way to keep up with community news, see pictures from school events, and connect with other parents. Join here: www.facebook.com/groups/112072928803723/
DADS CLUB CORNER
Call for Volunteers to Help at Carnival BBQ
Dads Club is running the Spring Carnival BBQ once again on Saturday, May 6th from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. This is our last event of the year, the last chance to raise a cold one with your fellow Thornhill dads. Are you a grill master? Know how to give correct change? Excel at putting buns on plates? We need your special talents! Please give us one hour and Volunteer for BBQ
Thornhill Night at the A’s Thank Yous
Thanks to all the families that came out for the game and the Dads Club Tailgate Party. Robert Jacobs did a great job once again putting it all together. Big shout-out to all our fearless volunteers who made it happen: John Cox, Rex Crum, Rudy Gonzalez, Noah Kahn, Mike Maggio, Bill Peterson and Thomas Vaquerano. Great job everyone!
NO MEETING in May
There will be no Dads Club “3rd Thursday” meeting in May (calendar is too packed with end of school activities). So see you at the Carnival! If you work for an hour, the suds are on us!
Thornhill Talent Show!
The Student Council is happy to announce the Spring Talent Show on May 12 from 3:15-5:15 p.m.
All grades are welcome to participate, but we need an application form filled out and parent permission first. Please go to the Office or Room 3 to get an application form (there is specific talent show information on the form) and turn it in to the Talent Show Box in the office by May 5.
Thank you!
Charlotte Fithian
Student Council President
Thornhill Staff Appreciation Week: May 1-5
Hello Thornhill families! The PFC hospitality committee is planning several ways to show our appreciation to Thornhill teachers and staff next week to celebrate STAFF APPRECIATION WEEK!
Our teachers and staff work effortlessly for our children. Lets take a week to make them feel special and appreciated for everything they do in helping our children learn and grow. The PFC hospitality team needs your help. We are in need of sign ups for food/drink items and still need more help for set-up and clean up for the staff luncheon on Wednesday next week. Please follow the link below to see where you can help. We appreciate anything you can do to help us with the fantastic week we have planned to show appreciation to the Thornhill staff!!
Pennies For Patients Update
It’s our FINAL WEEK for the Pennies for Patients penny drive to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Please bring in your remaining pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars, dollar coins, and bills of all sizes…Each classroom still has a donation box.
Thornhill can really help! Every cent counts! Only 7 cents a day can help a patient with his or her doctor visits.
Thank You!
Yours truly,
Lola Harris, 4th Grade
Community Service Officer
Library News
Read-A-Thon Update
The Thornhill Read-a-Thon has raised $17,000 and counting! Great job Thornhill! We believe we will reach our fundraising goal of $25,000 by Monday, May 1. Let’s go for it! Last week, Ms. Gustafson took a pie in the face when reached $5,000, and Ms. Forbes did the ice bucket challenge this week when we made our halfway mark of $12,500.
Remember, we will have a community donut party if we make $30,000!
Parents, if you haven’t done so already, please help your student create their Read-a-thon page, and use your social media accounts and email address to get sponsors. We need everyone’s help in order to meet our fundraising goal, and continue supporting our Thornhill students through library, art, and music programming. The class that raises the most donations will get an ice cream party, and the class with the most reading minutes will get a pizza party courtesy of Mr. Daubenspeck!
If you have a business you would like to advertise through the Read-a-Thon, please contact Adamika at adimika@gmail.com.
Thanks for supporting the Read-a-Thon!
Adimika Arthur and Maura Hennessy
Donations!
Thank you to Vivien Olofsen and her family for donating another book! Strong is the New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Themselves is the latest new title on our library shelves. Thanks again Vivien!
Be sure to look at the list of books on the Thornhill Library Amazon Wishlist. There are so many wonderful titles to choose from, and the library would love to have them on our shelves. Feel free to support our local bookstores by making your purchases there. As always, thank you for supporting the library!
Author Visit
Adrienne Kress, author of The Explorers series, will visit 3rd through 5th graders on Monday, May 1 at 2 p.m.! Check out this flyer for more information.
Happy Reading,
Maura Hennessy
Librarian
Fentons Creamery Celebration and Fundraising Night
Come out and have some ice cream to celebrate the end of the Read-a-Thon and your child’s accomplishments by dining at Fentons Creamery on Tuesday, May 2!
Fentons will donate 15 percent of your check back to Thornhill for our Read-a-Thon Fundraiser (excluding tax, gratuity, Myrtles Creation, and gift card sales). Guests must dine in for the fundraiser--whether it be dinner and ice cream or just ice cream or just dinner.
This fundraiser will be a bit different from the other Dine Outs we’ve had. (Fentons has not partnered with BigPie). A flyer about this Celebration/Fundraising Night will be sent home on Monday, May 1 in your child's backpack. Bring this with you on Tuesday, May 2.
NOTE: You MUST bring in a printed copy of this flyer for Thornhill to get the 15 percent donation. Fentons will not accept digital copies on your phone. We will email the flyer to all families too through the Room Parent Network the weekend before the event so you can print it out yourself if you’d like, plus we will post the flyer on our Facebook page, so you can print it out from there too.
The Star Dine Out RESULTS
Also, a big THANK YOU to everyone who came to The Star on Grand Dine Out on April 18. It was a big success and a great turnout! BigPie is still confirming the final numbers with the restaurant, but their initial results are that Thornhill parents spent around $2,700 at The Star, so with the 20 percent giveback, that would be a contribution of about $540 to our Read-a-Thon!
Box Tops Contest
Keep Collecting Box Tops!! Contest No. 2 is still going until May 26.
WHAT TO DO:
1) Cut Box Tops out and glue them onto the Box Tops Collection Sheet that was sent home with your child in early March. You can download another copy here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B78l5i8Nk_oDSVJtQXRKUFlJTXM/view?usp=sharing
2) Be sure your name and your teacher’s name are clearly marked on the sheet
3) Bring Collection Sheet to your teacher or the Office by May 26. It's OK if there are less than 25 on the sheet!
PRIZES:
· Classroom that collects the most Box Tops wins a Cupcake Party on June 5!
· Classroom with highest percentage participation will win a Popsicle Party on June 5!
· 1st, 2nd & 3rd Place Prizes for the students who collect the most Box Tops!
· Everyone who brings in Box Tops will be entered into a drawing & one lucky winner will get a Yogofina $10 Gift Card!
Winners will be announced June 1.
About The PFC Newsletter
The Thornhill Parent-Faculty Club (PFC) eNews team publishes this weekly newsletter each Friday in the school year to communicate school, PFC and OUSD news, events and information.
Email submissions to our Newsletter Chair, Rex Crum, at newsletter@thornhillschool.org by 3 p.m. Wednesday for approval, including Word or Text files, with links and no formatting, and 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 is not accepted.
THANK YOU to everyone who submits articles and to PFC Board Members, Teachers, VP of Communications Mavis Scanlon, PFC Co-Presidents Shauna Fithian and Shanyn Lloyd-Gibson and Principal Steve Daubenspeck. Member of Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).
Email: newsletter@thornhillschool.org
Website: thornhillschool.org
Location: 5880 Thornhill Drive, Oakland, CA, United States
Phone: (510) 339-6800