MPA Newsletter 4/4/2012

There will be no official Thursday Folder going home this week - yay for not having to keep track of it over break!  There will be no e-newsletter going out next week, so enjoy this one for all it's worth - it's got to last you for two weeks :) Also, the school Lost and Found items will be donated to charity over break, so this is your last chance to come claim any hats, gloves, sweaters, boots, lunch boxes, or whatever else might be missing from your child's closet.  Come and get 'em by Thursday evening, or they're gone for good!

Student Information

An important message from Mrs. Wilson:  Parents, please be aware that there will be three overnight field trips occurring in short succession.  Unless MPA receives all the permission forms, medication forms, and necessary medications on the assigned dates, your child may not be able to attend the trip.  The important (iron-clad, last resort, we're seriously not making exceptions) due dates to remember are:

• Mohican trip forms and medications are due by Friday, April 20th. To find the forms, go to www.mohicanoutdoorschool.org,  mouse over "Outdoor Education" and click on "resources/forms". If you have any questions, email Mrs. Eby at janeth.eby@menloparkacademy.com.
• Washington, D.C. trip forms and medications are due Tuesday, April 24th.  Contactlynn.wilson@menloparkacademy.com if you need copies of the forms.
• Zoo overnight trip forms and medications are due Thursday, April 26th.  Contactlynn.wilson@menloparkacademy.com if you need copies of the forms.

The Wizards are now 2-0 after their recent 29-10 victory over the Clippers, our largest margin of victory so far this school year. All 11 boys played great defense in the game. Ojas Nardkarni had 10 points and Hunter Caraballo had seven, and eight different Wizard players scored in the game. The team enjoyed a victory lunch of wings and pizza at Geppettos thanks to Coach Willie and Sunnyside Audi. Check the calendar at the end of this message to see when you can come watch the UNDEFEATED Wizards play this spring!

Traffic alert ... Kindergarten screening will be taking place in the hall at St. Mel's Church on MONDAY, APRIL 16th and on TUESDAY, APRIL 17TH.  Incoming Kindergarten students and their parents will be arriving throughout the day, and they may not be familiar with the traffic patterns in the parking lot, so please use caution when driving in and around the school. Thanks - and welcome to the school, mini-munchkins!

 

Menlo Park Academy will again be having the ARTS FAIR & ICE CREAM SOCIAL on April 22, 2012 from 2:00-3:30 p.m.   This event is FREE and is not a fundraiser!  Instead, it is a celebration and showcase of the many talents of our MPA students.  Like last year, there will be an opportunity to play an instrument, sing, perform a dance or poem, or act out a famous historical character as a “wax figure”.  Students can perform individually or in a group.  In addition, many of your children’s beautiful works of art will be on display throughout the building for you to enjoy and there will be a fun craft for the children to make and take home.  At the end of the event, we will celebrate with a yummy ice cream treat!  Check out the attached flyer for more information on this fun event, and go to http://mpaspringartsfair2012.pleasebringit.com/public/VWy7PuFh1Zc to register your child to participate.  To sign up to volunteer, visit

http://mpaartsfair2012.pleasebringit.com/public/b86e20ESxVo.

Thanks go out to the Pallotta family, who will be loaning the school a car-top carrier to use on the Middle School trip to Washington, D.C.  Thanks!

The STEM Enrichment Committee thanks the many MPA parents who have given feedback about K-4 Math Night either to Committee members directly or through the feedback survey. If you haven't already given feedback and would like to do so, please take a few minutes to complete the survey so the Committee can make K-4 Math Night even better next year: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YXB9XHB. Thank you!

Bee there! The MPA school-wide Spelling Bee will take place in the gym on Friday, April 27, 2012 at 8:45 a.m. Congratulations to the following students who won their respective classroom spelling bees and who will be participating in the school-wide Spelling Bee:

• Kindergarten: Eitan Elan, Kennedy Koski, Ananya Madhavaram, Nicholas Romano, Meesha Tanna, Rahul Sanghvi, David Vidovich, Summer Hudak, Wyatt Mahoney, and Firat Begen
• Grade 1: Kaylee Geilty,  Will Gonzalez, Lewis Fetting, Gagan Vaidyanathan, Alexandra Youshak, Duncan Bryk, Alexia Wenzel, and Elizabeth Woods
• Grade 2: Emily Atkins, Claire Coleman, Brendan Kiskorna, Eliza Wegner, Carson Bauer, Noor Ahmed, Sathya Sunduram, and Dominic Mayhew (Alternates: Johnathan Carman, Megan O'Donnell)
• Grade 3: Lexi Soltesz, Hana, Connor Gallaugher, Ella Kazazic, John Evtimov, Katey Fritz, Shay Tanna, and Anna Rose
• Grade 4: Michelle Zhang, Hunter Caraballo, Milana Mudra, Rhiannon Bryk, Billy Baker, Jonah Fechner, Janna James, and Aidan Ingraham.  Joe Henson was also a finalist, but he will be out of town the day of the school Spelling Bee.  (Alternates: Sam Peacock, Matthew Harrington, Carolyn Homolka, and Natalie Costello)
• Grade 5: Sparsh Balabadrapatruni, Clement Liu, Hector Cummings, and Sam Ammari (Alternate: Patrick O'Malley)
• Grade 6: Owen Crowley, Owen Kranz, Ian O'Donnell, and Julia Moreno
• Grade 7: Stefani Hayne, Marshall Monnette, Zack Peacock, and Brennan McQuinn
• Grade 8: Fox Milenski, Aidan Harrington, and John Antolik

Congratulations and good luck to these students! The participating students will be bringing home their spelling bee study lists and other information on Thursday. The lists will also be provided to the participating students and their parents electronically.  Families are welcome to attend the Spelling Bee on the 27th. Questions about the Spelling Bee can be directed to Latha at LMS54321@gmail.com.

In early May we will be celebrating our wonderful Teachers and Staff during Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week.  With that in mind, we would greatly appreciate a small donation of $2.00 -$3.00 per student to help make this an extra special event for our Teachers and Staff.  Kindly place your donation in a sealed envelope to the attention of Janelle Daugherty, Teacher/Staff Appreciation and return it this Thursday, or the week after Spring Break.  Also, if you would like to volunteer to help please email Janelle at jldoc29@yahoo.com. There will be more details after Spring Break regarding this wonderful event. Thanks very much for your support!

Monday, May 7th, will be the day for candid and group photos for the yearbook.  If your child participates in a club, team, or other MPA organization, check with the group leader for information on when and where the photo will be done.  This information will be available in a few weeks.

Speaking of yearbooks, we'll be sending out information and order forms for the 2011-2012 MPA yearbook soon.  Please be aware that they will be produced and distributed to the families early in the next school year.

Development Information

A big "Thank You!" goes out to all the families who participated in the Walk-A-Thon fundraising.  If you forgot to send in your donation in time, we will still be accepting donations tomorrow.  I'm sitting here watching Mrs. Reno process a huge stack of donation forms, checks, dollar bills, and even piles of quarters.  We don't have a final total yet, but the level of participation was great.  For those who qualified to receive a t-shirt, we'll be distributing those after Spring Break.  Thanks to everyone who contributed time or money for tomorrow's event.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the weather holds and the kids get to walk outside tomorrow afternoon!

Are you smarter than an MPA newsletter editor?  Quiz Night is coming up - and I'm sending out a personal challenge to all the other MPA parents ... meet me on Saturday, April 28th, at Brennan's (13000 Triskett Road) with your group of eight adults, and we'll all go head-to-head in a trivia challenge.  Tickets are $40 per person and include hot and cold appetizers, non-alcoholic beverages, dessert, and one door prize ticket.  There will be cash prizes for members of the winning team.  And don't worry if you don't have enough people for a team - the event organizers will be happy to help form a team for you. I think there's still room for a couple people on my team ;) The registration form and PayPal link to register for Quiz night is now available on our web site at this link:  https://sites.google.com/site/menloparkacademy/parent-central/quiz-night  Registrations are due April 18th (not on the 16th as previously advertised - that's an inservice day).  I'll see you there!

Make sure you've got your calendars marked with Sunday, June 3rd set aside for attending the Lake Erie Crushersgame with the rest of the MPA extended family.  The kids will be singing the national anthem, an MPA student will be throwing the game's first pitch, and there will be plenty of fun and prizes to be had during the game.  Tickets will be available after Spring Break for $9 each, with a portion of the price going to the school.  The more tickets we sell, the larger cut the school receives, so get out there and find lots of people to join us at the game!  Everyone who attends (including MPA students) will need a ticket to enter the stadium.  

Volunteer Information

We're hoping to decrease the volume of waste produced by the school by increasing our efforts to recycle, but we need a few green, earth-friendly people to help out.  We're looking for:

• Someone to negotiate with our waste disposal company to include recycling in our trash pickup.
• Someone to help us measure the impact our increased recycling will have.  This will probably involve weighing the amount of trash we discard in one day before the recycling begins, and again after we are well into the recycling program.

If you can help out with either of these tasks, please contact Lorraine.Bouchard@MenloParkAcademy.com for more information.  Thanks!

We're also hoping to find someone who's good with wiring and all matters electrical.  The microphone that's used to help keep order in the cafeteria during lunch and school-wide events is somewhat temperamental.  We have tested the microphone and it works fine, but there's something going on between the jacks in the cafeteria walls and the speaker system.  If anyone has the ability to track down where the fault/short/wacky connection/alien invasion is happening, we'd greatly appreciate it.  Contact Lorraine.Bouchard@MenloParkAcademy.com if you can help out with this.  Thank you! 

Save the date:  Friday, May 25th, will be our Volunteer Appreciation event.  Keep your eyes open for more details in the coming weeks!

ARE YOU IN A SCIENCE, MATH OR ENGINEERING CAREER? The MPA STEM enrichment team is planning a STEM career night for grades 5-8 to take place either this spring or in the fall. If you would be willing to give a short (5-10 minute) talk about your STEM-related career on a weeknight from 6-8 pm, please contact Grant Henson at granthens@gmail.com.

Calendar Highlights:

• April 5 (Thursday) - Walk-a-Thon; New Board member elections will be held at the regular Board meeting
• April 6-16 - No school for students - spring break and inservice days
• April 20 (Friday) - Lego Olympiad at LCCC; basketball practice 4-6pm
• April 21 (Saturday) - Basketball double-header at 2:15 and 3:15 pm at Lakewood YMCA
• April 22 (Sunday) - Arts Fair and Ice Cream Social, 2-3:30 pm at MPA
• April 23-27 - OAA standardized testing
• April 26 (Thursday) - Seventh and Eighth Grade field trip to see Romeo and Juliet
• April 27 (Friday) - School-wide Spelling Bee; basketball practice 4-6pm
• April 28 (Saturday) - Quiz Night; Invention Convention; basketball game at 2:15 at Lakewood Gym
• April 30-May 4 - Eighth Grade field trip to Washington D.C.; Sixth and Seventh Grade field trip to Mohican
• May 4 (Friday) - Basketball practice 4-6pm
• May 5 (Saturday) - Basketball double header at 1:15 and 3pm at Lakewood Gym
• May 7 (Monday) - Candid and group photo day for the yearbook
• May 10-11 - Fourth Grade field trip to COSI in Columbus
• May 14-17 - Iowa Tests for grades K-4; Explore Tests for grades 5-8
• May 17 (Thursday) - 3:30 - 5 pm K-4 Carnival Sponsored by Student Council
• May 18 (Friday) - No school; 6:30 - 8:30 Middle School Dance
• May 21 - 25 - Student Council Sponsored Spirit Week
• May 25 (Friday) - Volunteer Appreciation event
• May 28 (Monday) - No school (Memorial Day)
• May 29 - June 1 - Eighth Grade Celebration Week
• June 1 (Friday) - Field Day at Lakewood Park
• June 3 (Sunday) - Crushers baseball game, 5:05pm in Avon
• August 26 (Sunday) - Back to School picnic at Lakewood Park  

If you've got something you'd like to share with the school - a need for volunteers for your school event, an exciting achievement your child has made outside of school, or anything else you think MPA parents should know about - send the information to Gretchen Woods at avonhokie@yahoo.com.  The submission deadline for the weekly newsletter is each Wednesday at noon.