OpenMinds: Fall/Winter Camps (formerly Life Play)

Hello Parents!

Attached you will find our Thanksgiving and Winter Camps! We are offering camps in Fiber Arts, Spanish, Music, writing, and Math this fall and winter and we'd love to have your child participate if the any of these were a good fit for your family! Camps are running as follows:
11/21-23 - Fiber Arts Gift Making
12/19-22 - Spanish Fun
12/27-29 - MovingMusic
1/3-6 - Writer's Workshop
1/9-13 - MathAdventures

Also big changes have been underway at LifePlay. We have officially split into two organizations.

LifePlay, run by Ashley McGuire, will be focused on all things theatre! She will now be the one offering the Theatre Stages class as well as other productions class.

The classes and camps I offer in art, math, yoga, foreign language and more will be under the new name of OpenMinds. Same great classes and camps, just a new name. You can visit us at our baby website, www.OpenMindsLearnBest.com or at the OpenMinds studio in Kensington (still at 4114 Adams Ave.)

Please email or call to register for camp or with any questions - we look forward to seeing you this fall!
Christine D'Amico
619-665-1264

Trunk-or-Treat at Birney

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011
4:30-6:30 p.m.

Picture this:
a huge parking lot with the back ends of cars, vans and trucks decorated in a variety of fun themes, complete with games and treats. Families plan their own theme for their vehicle. The parking lot is roped off, and kids in costume are free to skip or stroll from place to place safely.

If you're interested in participating by decorating your car and passing out treats, email the PTA (ptabirney@yahoo.com) or drop a note in the PTA box in the office.

For the children's safety, all cars must be parked and ready to go by 4:15 p.m. when we will close off the parking lot, and must stay parked until 6:30 p.m.

For some examples of what people do to decorate for Trunk-or-Treat visit, trunkortreat.homestead.com

Enjoy a cool Treat!

Join Us Wednesday, October 26th
for Family Yogurt Day at Fiji Yogurt.

50% of all sales that are accompanied by the flyer (which can be downloaded by clicking here)

Fiji yogurt is located in the Ralphs shopping center on University.
Next to Big City Bagels and La Salsa.

Support Your Student

New Extended dates for our Catalog fundraiser!
You now have until November 8, 2011 to turn your orders in to the teacher. Support Birney even more, show the Catalog to family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and those out of town relatives can support your child online @ www.sigfund.com , Signature Catalogs safe website.

Your order will be delivered November 28, 2011 so you can pick up those fragile orders yourself during your parent teacher conference.

Thank you for helping us to make this a successful year.

Jump For Heart! November 4

Time to raise money for the American Heart Association. Forms -went home in last weeks Buzz, here are the options for getting donations.

1) Help your child find people willing to sponsor them by adding their name to the form

2) Have out of town friends and family make donations online at the Heart Assoc. page, then click on Student Sign Up, then once the map loads, click on California type under the map, enter the school name Alice Birney Elementary and hit search. Then click on join the Birney Team page, then follow steps as directed. Then the kids can send e-mails and do all the fund raising through this site - really pretty cool.

Would be great to encourage your kids to help out. As always, thanks for your support with all of the Birney activities.

Thanks for your help!
Carol Lord

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Spaghetti Dinner and Star Gazing Party.

Don't FORGET!

This Friday night is our annual Star Party and Spaghetti Dinner.

The dinner starts at 5:30-7 pm and The Star Party kicks in at 7-8:30 pm.

Cost for dinner is $5 for adults, $3 children.

IF BY SOME FREAK OF NATURE it is overcast of fogged in, the dinner is still on and we will be showing a movie.

AZTECS and Birney

Birney Families

100% of sales will directly benefit BIRNEY! ~ ! ~ !

Come support our school at Qualcom Stadium and watch the San Diego Aztecs play the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday November 5th at 5pm.

Tickets are $10.00 per person - ticket orders are due by 10/31/11. (Open attachment by click this link or pasting into your browser. http://bit.ly/o1IqmI )

PLUS - some of our Birney students will be performing with Heartlight at half time.

33¢ a Day can make a difference at Birney!

YOU CAN HELP FUND ART, SPANISH & A LIBRARIAN AT BIRNEY FOR JUST 33 CENTS A DAY!!

Birney is a unique, thriving and diverse school because of its dedication to teaching the “whole child.” A large part of Birney’s successful approach to learning is its commitment to teach art and Spanish, and to have a librarian staff the school library, even in the face of severe budget cuts which have eliminated funding for them.

The 2011-2012 goal for Friends of Alice Birney Elementary (FOABE) is to raise the $55,000 needed to cover these essential elements of a Birney education. Last year’s spring jog-a-thon raised $15,000 toward that goal, and we have more community directed fundraising events and grant writing planned. But did you know that if every Birney family gave just 33 cents a day ($10.00 a month or $120 a year), we could fund our art, Spanish and a librarian for the whole year??

Not everyone can participate in our fundraising efforts. But, if you can, please consider downloading this form and making a donation to support the great things our principal, teachers, staff and kids are accomplishing at Birney.

Time for our annual Fall sale!

We are all set...
Starting on Wednesday October 19th

Wes of Signature will kick-off our Annual Fall Fundraiser. He will bring catalogs for the students (including pre-school) and will show a short movie to inspire the kids.

Be sure to watch for the catalog being sent home with you child. There will be prizes for sales and the class that sells the most.

REMEMBER: all profits from the sale helps support the programs, assemblies and field trips that you child enjoys at Birney. Every sale of an item helps and if each child sold just one item, we would be doing great. So check out the catalog and start your holiday shopping early.

Fundraiser end date: Tuesday, November 8
Merchandise delivery: by November 28 delivery date during parent/teacher conferences.

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Life Play Studio Classes

Hello Neighborhood Parents!
We wanted to let you know about a slight change to our schedule for the fall in case you or someone one you know might be interested. Our Mondays have become a lot of fun!

We now have a music class called MovingMusic for ages 2 1/2 up to age 6 running from 2:30 - 3:15 (may slide back 15 minutes)
This session we are exploring music and movement from different countries around the world.
The class includes exploration of rhythm, beat, ear training, movement, simple dance routines, and related instruments.
We started last week an you can join any time. The cost for the full session is $129 and we can prorate this after you begin.

We have also moved our Youth Beginning Spanish class to Mondays due to some parent changes.
This is a great class for youth ages 4-8. This class has been going for a couple of weeks, but you can add any time and we'll help your student to get caught up!
The cost on this class can also be prorated for you when you join.

Attached is the current studio schedule so you can see all of our fall classes. Also we will have a Thanksgiving camp and Winter Break camps this year. I will email out the all of the camp details in the coming weeks.

Call or email me to register or with questions. I look forward to seeing having you all at the Kensington Studio sometime very soon!
Christine D'Amico
619-665-1264

EScript Renewal

Hello Birney Families:

This is a reminder to renew your Vons Club card in the eScrip program. Please make sure you have identified Birney as the recipient of the contribution that will be paid out for using your Vons Club Card.

If you have never registered your Vons Club Card, please do! Vons will make contributions to Birney, based on purchases made by you, just for using your Vons Club Card. Your purchases are tracked and available to view online, allowing you to see just how much you are earning on your child's behalf.

For those who have never registered, visit the eScip website at www.escrip.com. Look for the red check mark with the word ‘Yes’, in the lower left corner and click. At the next screen, on the right side you will find a box that will guide you to ‘Register Now’.

For those who have registered their cards, but forgotten how to access their account, use the www.escrip.com address, click on the red check mark and enter the information requested. Then just follow the directions.

Birney Buzz now available online.

For those of you who never get a copy of the Buzz from your child, you can now download copies of the Birney Buzz School Newsletter. Just click on this link to your left below the title:

The Birney Buzz School News

and the pdf file will download to your computer.

It's just that easy.

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Jamba Juice's "Let's Jump"

Hello,

To celebrate Jamba Juice's "Let's Jump" effort to break the Guinness World Record for the most people jumping jacks in one day and Jamba Juice's partnership with First Lady Michelle Obama "Let's Move" initiative and the WNBA, I would like to invite you to visit your local Jamba Juice store and use this 50% off coupon! Feel free to share this coupon and encourage all of your friends and family to join Jamba Juice on October 11th and 12th!

Print this coupon and bring it to participating Jamba Juice stores on October 11th or 12th and get 50% off the price of your favorite smoothie.

http://teamupandpledge.com/coupon/

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Trunk-or-Treat at Birney

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011
4:30-6:30 p.m.

Picture this:
a huge parking lot with the back ends of cars, vans and trucks decorated in a variety of fun themes, complete with games and treats. Families plan their own theme for their vehicle. The parking lot is roped off, and kids in costume are free to skip or stroll from place to place safely.

If you're interested in participating by decorating your car and passing out treats, email the PTA (ptabirney@yahoo.com) or drop a note in the PTA box in the office.

For the children's safety, all cars must be parked and ready to go by 4:15 p.m. when we will close off the parking lot, and must stay parked until 6:30 p.m.

For some examples of what people do to decorate for Trunk-or-Treat visit, trunkortreat.homestead.com

Needed Classroom Supplies for Birney

Paper and Other Office Supplies

• white copy paper (we use a lot of this!)
• colored copy paper
• lined paper
• grid paper for math
• index cards
• glue bottles
• glue sticks
• black and white composition books (100 pages/cardboard cover)
• spiral notebooks, college ruled
• 2 pocket file folders (plain solid color, no brads)
• staplers
• staples
• scotch tape
• binders (3 ring, 3 inch)
• pencil pouches for binder
• subject dividers for binder
• journals with small grid paper for math
• rulers with standard and metric measurement
• protractors
• clipboards
• “White Out” correction tape and liquid
• 1 scissors

Pencils, Crayons, and Markers

• Number 2 pencils (small or large, Ticonderoga preferred)
• colored pencils
• hand held erasers
• pencil cap erasers
• pencil sharpeners, hand held with a lid
• electric pencil sharpener (for classrooms)
• pencil boxes
• primary crayons (16 count, the large crayons)
• post its (all sizes)
• dry erase markers
• fine point black felt tip markers
• color markers
• Sharpie pens
• blue or black pens
• yellow highlighters

First Aid and Cold Prevention

• Clorox Wipes (or similar brand)
• hand sanitizer
• hand soap with pump
• cleaning wipes
• tissue boxes
• band-aids

Other Learning Aids

• ziplock bags (gallon size)
• Costco Gift Cards (used for printing photos)

Get a Free Sticky Note and Support Your School

In a time when school budgets are tight, many businesses are recognizing the need for extra funding and are stepping up to help. Avery is no stranger to this concept and is passionate about helping schools through various programs.

Their newest is the “Avery® Sticky Notes Mark the Spot” sweepstakes that launches on October 3, 2011.

Twenty-thousand people who register for the sweepstakes will randomly be selected to win a free pack of Avery® See-Through Sticky Notes. Five of those winners will be randomly selected to receive 100,000 Box Tops coupons (valued at $10,000) that will be applied to a school of their choice. The selected schools of the “Avery® Sticky Notes Mark the Spot” promotion will be presented with credit for the 100,000 Box Tops for Education®.

It’s easy! All anyone has to do is:


Go to the Avery Facebook Page (facebook.com/avery)
Register to win a free pack of Sticky Notes
Choose the school they’d like the money to go to should they win.
Pretty simple, it’s a great cause, and it could be you guys!


Amanda

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BoxTops can help!

YOU can earn 25 points for Birney just for logging in and "watching" 5 videos about Ford.

Plus, just for logging on to the Box Top sight we are entered to win up to 250k points!

Each one of us increases our chances.

http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/bonus/Default.aspx

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Jamba Juice at Birney

This Wednesday is our first Jamba Juice at Birney Day.

Jamba Juice will be selling ALL FRUIT, (no dairy or nuts added) after school smoothies on the first three Wednesdays of every month.

The smoothies will be 8oz for $2 or 12oz for $3 and 20% of all sales will go back to Birney PTA to help out with field trips and all school projects.

So PLEASE support us, by picking up one of these refreshing treats.