Thornhill Elementary PFC Newsletter
Volume 25, Issue 13, December 1, 2017
Principal's Note
Dear Thunderbird Families,
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break. I'm sure that we all had a welcome rest with time to relax with friends and family. And of course, everyone ate a lot!
Just before Thanksgiving recess, we had the opportunity to have a wind ensemble perform for our students. The quintet Windsync came all the way from Texas to perform Peter and the Wolf. This amazing group delivered a phenomenal performance and had an interactive session with the students. I am grateful that we are able to attract great musical talent to Thornhill to inspire our budding musicians. Please check them out when you can.
Speaking of music, our Winter Music Assembly for all grades TK-5 will be on Tuesday, December 19 at 9:00am. Please come see and hear what our kids have learned so far.
Sincerely,
Mr. Daubenspeck
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Annual Popcorn Sale--Get Your Orders In!
The 2nd annual Thornhill Popcorn Sale is here and you may be amazed to see how many tasty variations of popcorn exist in the world. Not only do you get a tasty treat to munch on yourself or gift, but 50 percent of all sales goes to the Thornhill PFC.
Flyers were sent home in your child's backpack before the Thanksgiving break and prizes will be awarded to the top three sellers and the top two classes in terms of money raised. Payment is due with the order form.
Forms are due next week!
Wednesday, December 6 - All order forms and payments are due back to your child's teacher or to the box in the school office.
December 18-22 - Distribution of orders before and after school.
Questions? Email sandylowe@comcast.net or becky.urbano@gmail.com
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Support Thornhill While Holiday Shopping!
Shop Primary Clothing, Shutterfly and Amazon Smile and Support Thornhill!
As a reminder, these codes can be shared with family/co-workers and friends, the more the merrier!
Primary Clothing
Thornhill has a new partner, Primary Clothing. They sell good quality, bright and colorful kid and baby clothes for a very reasonable price. On top of that, they are offering a 15% giveback for all sales to Thornhill, a free pair of PJs with purchase, and free shipping.
Shutterfly
Ordering Christmas or holiday cards or photo gifts? Shop our Thornhill PFC Shutterfly Storefront and 13 percent of your purchase will be donated back to the school!
Start here: Thornhill.ShutterflyStorefront.com
We have 50 promo codes available for $10 off a $50 purchase AND free shipping, valid through December 31. First come, first serve – email escrip@thornhillschool.org and I’ll send you a promo code. Free shipping + a discount + giveback to the school … It’s like extreme couponing!
- Save $10 when you spend $50 on Shutterfly products. See promo details
- Get FREE Shipping on your Shutterfly order. See promo details
Amazon Smile
Holiday shopping on Amazon? Be sure to start at smile.amazon.com and set your charity to Thornhill Parent-Faculty Club – we get 0.5 percent back for Thornhill!
Shutterfly: thornhill.shutterflystorefront.com - 13% back to Thornhill PFC
Primary Clothing: www.primary.com/school/thornhill - 15% back to Thornhill PFC
Amazon: smile.amazon.com (with preferred charity set to Thornhill Parent-Faculty Club) - 0.5% back to Thornhill PFC
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Upcoming OUSD Meetings...
The Oakland Unified School District has three meetings in the coming weeks. If you want to attend, here are the details:
Wednesday, Dec. 6: Budget & Finance Committee Meeting
Committee Room, KDOL TV Studio, B-237, Met West High School Entrance
314 East 10th Street, Oakland.
Thursday, Dec. 7: Board of Education Resolution Review
5:00 p.m., La Escuelita, BOE Committee Room, 1050 Second Ave., Oakland.
Debriefing of the Nov. 27 meeting and a discussion of the agenda for the Dec. 13 meeting.
Wednesday, Dec. 13: Board of Education Meeting
5:00 p.m., La Escuelita, Great Room, 1050 Second Ave., Oakland.
The Board of Education will vote on the resolution including layoffs and school sites.
OUSD is hosting community dialogues regarding the future of OUSD.
Blueprint for Quality Schools Community Dialogues - Dec 6, 7 & 8
Share your thoughts about the future of OUSD at upcoming community dialogues. Topics will include: investing in school buildings; expanding, merging or closing schools; and changing grade configurations at existing schools. Please join us on either December 6, 7 or 8!
Meeting details and RSVP: www.ousd.org/getinvolved
More about the initiative: www.ousd.org/blueprintforquality
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Hot Cocoa Hootenanny
Tis the season for Hot Cocoa and merriment! The Thornhill Community Support team invites you to take an evening away from the holiday craziness and join your fellow Thunderbirds for Cocoa and fun family activities.
Further details (Hint: karaoke) to be unveiled soon; please save the date for Monday, December 11, 6-7:30 p.m. at the school.
If you have a crockpot or karaoke machine we can use, please email Becky Urbano at vpsupport@thornhillschool.org ASAP.
See you December 11!
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Thornhill's Annual Auction Fundraiser--Saturday, February 24
And the winner of the Auction theme for this year is: “Heroes and Villains”! The auction will take place on Saturday, February 24 from 6-11 p.m. at the Ascension Cathedral Community Center, 4700 Lincoln Avenue in Oakland.
Tickets will go on sale soon. Note that you must purchase tickets in advance of the event, they will not be available at the door.
And don't forget...Anyone can attend! Parents, faculty, and friends of Thornhill. So, bring a friend, the grandparents, and your favorite Hero or Villain!
We are looking forward to seeing everyone there!
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Annual Thornhill Food Drive
Hello Thunderbirds!
It's time to start our annual food drive to support the Alameda County Food Bank. Every year we see the big collection bins in the lobby filled with food that we distribute to the food bank with the goal of creating a hunger-free community.
Here are a few facts about the Alameda County Food Bank:
- It has been in business since 1985 with a mission to have a hunger free community
- It’s an organization that provides food for 240 non-profit agencies in Alameda County
- The ACFB distributes enough food for about 380,000 meals weekly
Here are some ideas of what to donate:
- Non-perishable items
- Canned fruits and vegetables, or canned fish/meat/chicken
- Bags or boxes of rice
- Dried pasta
- Boxes of cereal
- Peanut butter and other spreads
No glass jars, please!
The food bins are in the Thornhill lobby now and the food drive will continue through the second week of January.
Yours truly,
Zoe Howard, 4th grade, and Diego Tisnado, 5th grade
Community Service Officers
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TK and Kindergarten Tours
The next TK and Kindergarten tours are Dec 5 & 6 from 8:45-10:30 a.m., and the TK/Kindergarten Chairs are looking for six parents to help out.
If you can't stay for the tour, you can still help with coffee/goodies set-up: 20 to 30 minutes before or after morning drop-off. Sign up here!
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Fall Sweep Follow-Up
Did you notice anything different at Thornhill when you returned from Thanksgiving break?
Thanks to the hard work of our Fall Sweep clean-up crew, the Thornhill grounds have been beautified, trash has been picked up, lost and found items collected and weeds pulled. In fact, the crew filled 75 compost bags, two trash bags and several recycle bins. And for the record, Fall Sweep was actually more fun than work; it's not every day that you are praised and congratulated for taking out the trash!
If you missed the fun on the 18th, there will be another opportunity to help in a few weeks when our woodland mulch is delivered.
If you're missing a clothing item, please check the lost and found; all items that were found in the yard have been laundered and delivered to this area for pickup (Thanks to Pam!).
If you strive to be a Black Belt Recycler, check out this helpful resource to learn more about recycling (what can/can't be recycled, composted, etc). This site includes some practical ways to educate the whole family about Alameda County's regulations.
There will be another big cleanup event in the spring. Any on-going/daily efforts in keeping trash off our grounds and well sorted would be greatly appreciated!
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Library News...
I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are moving on to our Winter holiday stories and activities in the library. It is a fun and exciting time for all of us! Keep an eye out for the second grade Jolly Characters that will soon be popping up in the library, and our Snowing Books bulletin board display courtesy of the third graders.
Donations!
Thank you to Oliver Hybl and family for donating fabulous new books to the library! Pizza Day, See Fred Run, and It’s Shoe Time! The Hybl family donated directly from the Thornhill Library Amazon Wish List. Check it out if you would like to donate to the library before the end of the year!
Happy Reading,
Maura Hennessy
Librarian
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Dates To Remember...
If you've gotten this far but still need a reminder of what's coming up on the Thornhill calendar, well...Here are some dates to keep in mind. Remember, you can always get information by visiting the calendar page of the school website.
Tuesday & Wednesday, Dec. 5 & 6: TK/K Tour dates.
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About The Thornhill 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 and items not related to Thornhill are not accepted.
THANK YOU to everyone who submits articles and to PFC Board Members, Teachers, VPs of Communications Erin Proudfoot and Pamela Schwartz, 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