PTO Updates!
Disseminating delightful delectable delicacies this December
Jenn Maeng’s relentless pursuit of ever more sunshine—not to keep, but to spread, with great magnanimity, throughout the teachers’ lounges of Johnson Elementary—continues apace. The Sunshine Committee’s plans for a pre-winter break spread of school-appropriate holiday cheer is dependent upon you, the fine families of our community, helping Jenn gather the necessary supplies to send our teachers sleigh-riding into break indulging in only the finest treats and drinks of our land.
Please click the buttons below to sign up to pick something up and drop it off before school by next Thursday morning. Or, if you won’t have time to bake or make it out to the store before then, send us along some money via Venmo and we’ll convert it directly into December sunshine at one of our local treat purveyors—just be sure to include some explanatory emojis (or words, if that’s more your style) to let us know what it’s for.
Thanks so much for helping us show the teachers and staff how much we appreciate their care and effort this year!
Principal Mickens and the PTO are planning a Sneaker Ball for the fourth graders next month, and we’re looking for parents who can help make the event as exciting and special for the kids as possible. We’re especially looking for fourth grade parents, of course, but everyone is welcome to chip in!
The plan is to transform the cafeteria into a dance hall for the evening of Friday, January 19, from 6 pm to 8 pm. We want to give our fourth graders a great start to their last few months at Johnson, and a Friday evening dance party seems like something they’d love. Come help us decorate, hang out as a chaperone, or, if you happen to be an amateur DJ with a passion for laying down some beats for the kids to bounce around to, let us know! We’re also, of course, looking for snacks and funds to help the event go off without a hitch. Please click the button below to sign up, or send along some cash—just stick Sneaker Ball in the memo line.
And if you’ve got some big ideas of your own for how to make the night special for the kids, please feel free to get in touch with Jill. Thanks!
Ms. Crawley, one of Johnson’s wonderful math and reading interventionists this year, is asking the PTO for help gathering supplies to be used in her work with our kindergarteners and first graders. Working with Ms. Robertson, they’ve developed some counting games that kids can work on at home or in school during independent work time. All she needs now is the stuff! She’s given us an Amazon wish-list, which makes fulfilling these needs extra easy. The PTO is excited to chip in, but we also wanted to share the list with all of you in case you wanted to help out, too.
Mr. K, Johnson’s widely-adored Assistant Principal/valiant troubadour of school spirit, is hoping to put together an after-school LEGO club. The obstacle to an officially licensed LEGO program is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the high cost. The PTO is still very much hoping to make an after-school LEGO club happen, and we wanted to reach out to our parent community to see if there are any passionate builders out there who could help us and Mr. K put together an engaging curriculum of LEGO play and construction challenges. We’re looking for small projects that kids can work on for an hour after school that stimulate the imagination, spark ideas for creative problem solving, or simply encourage them to play and build in satisfying ways. If you would like to talk about this more, please email the PTO and we can all start figuring out a program that the kids would be excited to participate in. Also, if you have a bunch of LEGO lying around, we’re happy to take it off your hands. Whatever curriculum we’re able to come up with will no doubt need plenty of bricks.
Finally—and I know this message has been a non-stop barrage of pleas for your money, help, and/or time—we have one last request (for now!): silent auction and bingo night volunteers. The tireless Laura Jordan is once again taking charge of the event this year, but we really need your help to make the event a success now and into the future. Laura is especially hoping to find someone to work closely with her these next couple of months to learn the ropes of what it takes to put on our most important and rewarding event of the year. This PTO regime will not be around forever, and we need some kindergarten or first grade parents to join us in keeping the PTO thriving after our own kids have moved up to other schools. Please reach out to Laura or the PTO email if you are able and ready to help.
Thanks as always for all you do to make Johnson the wonderful community that it is. We are especially grateful this holiday season to get to do the rewarding work of showing the teachers and staff how much we appreciate them and all they do to make our little corner of this chaotic world a joyful and functional and welcoming place. You’ll probably hear from us before then, but, just in case, we hope your winter break is full of warmth, love, family, and maybe even a little bit of relaxation.