PTO

Last night (9/25) was our first PTO meeting of the year and we had a terrific turn out. Our next challenge will be to keep attendance numbers this high. The PTO is very important to Sioux Trail; they make a difference by making our connection between school and family even stronger, running fund raising activities and and supporting the learning and infusing fun into our community.

Some of the agenda items from last night included:

• Reports from the principal, the treasurer and the volunteer coordinator
• Updates on Sally Foster, Harvest Fest and the Book Fair
• A proposal to get Art Masterpiece and Music Bravo up and running for the 2008-09 school year (we need more volunteers)
• A proposal to purchase and sell "Spirit Wear" (clothing with the logo on it - watch for it soon!)
• Recaps of the fall clean up and Burger King night (we cleaned up the exterior of Sioux Trail and it looks GREAT and we raised over $90 at BK!)
• An Update on Wish Lists (up to $10,000 is being granted as I type!)
• New items include: School Supply Kits, an online fundraiser and use the bouncies

The next PTO meeting is October 23 at 6:30 PM

It looks GREAT!

BEFORE

AFTER

Without question the best way to appreciate the change in the appearance of Sioux Trail is to come visit and take a look for yourself. We had a team of approximately 70 very hard workers who made an almost magical transformation. One of the most impressive things was how well all of the pieces came together. We laid out the basic plan to all that were present at 2pm and everyone jumped right into the work. Each participant found their niche and within a couple of hours all of the unwanted plants were gone, lots of plants we do want had been transplanted, the edging had been re-positioned and many volunteers were enjoying a hot dog.

Thank you to all the worked ahead of time to make this possible, thank you to those that we able to work on Saturday and thanks to those that continue to work behind the scenes after the event. A special note of thanks is due to Waste Management for donating the dumpster and to Robin Pintozzi for filling out the application and making all of the dumpster related arrangements.

The Sign Says it All

Waste Management donated the dumpster that we hope to fill.
We need Sioux Trail families & community members to donate their time and energy on Saturday, September 20 from 2 - 5pm.

In addition to taking advantage of your free labor we will feed you!

Observations

I hope this picture is detailed enough that you can see what Mr. Khamratthanome is backing away from. The objective of his lesson was for students to question what is happening and then develop different ideas about what happened and how it happened. This was a great activity that had a lot of student walking back in school with lots of theories and ideas.

For those of you that can't see the picture well, a couple of Menthos were dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke and the photograph is capturing the reaction.

Trouble-some Baked Good

Well it happened again - Mrs. Kunkel, our full day Kindergarten Teacher, made and baked a gingerbread man with her class. After he was loaded into the oven he escaped, and what may have looked like time dedicated to learning their way around a new school was really a hunt for the missing gingerbread man. After a long search, including a trip to the science classroom, the gym, media center and nurse's office he was found lounging on a chair outside of Mr. Akin's office!

He was captured (Mr. Glende is standing by with a net in case he attempts to escape again!), taken back to class and devoured!

First Day

The first day was a wonderful success! I went home at 9pm totally wiped out, but feeling very good. We had no major problems, a couple of upset kindergartners (but no upset parents that we saw), lots of excited students, a panther that was dancing in the gym and wonderfully supportive parents. Day 2 is underway and I'm excited and ready to continue our mission.

The photo on top is a photo of all Sioux Trail students (a.k.a. -the Panthers) in the gym for our first day of school assembly. The second photos is of classes filling up the gym before the assembly started.

It All Started Here!

My Dad and his wife, Rachel, passed through Minnesota on their way to Alaska in June. When they passed through Minnesota we spent some time setting up a blog for them to track their progress. This was the impetus to get the Sioux Trail Panther Pages blog started. No, I'm not going to Alaska this summer, but I am planning on being at Sioux Trail for the first day of school tomorrow and I'm VERY excited!