SEAHAWK FOOTNOTES

Arbor Heights, SEPTEMBER 1995

ARBOR HEIGHTS RECEIVES THE "SOFT TOUCH"

Something very exciting is happening with technology at Arbor Heights. Microsoft has given us a very generous gift. Here's the scoop.
One day Mr. Alhness received an email message from Rick Segal, Director of Education with Microsoft. "Believe me, when you get an email message from Microsoft, you sit up & take notice!" joked Mr. Ahlness. Soon Mr. Wilkie, Ms. Thompson and Mr. Ahlness went to Microsoft and met with Mr. Segal. He not only expressed interest in helping AH get access to the Internet in all our classrooms, but has promised to provide many things to our school. They are as follows:

- a fax machine (It's here! 281-6618)
- a scanner
- Windows 95 on all our computers
- Microsoft Office
- a high speed ISDN phone line connection from US West
- an ISDN Internet connection (no dialing in - we're ON the Internet)
- a router to connect the phone line to our school network
- a Windows NT server
- upgrades to 16 mb RAM on 25 computers
- more network cards
- an assistant from Microsoft to help us set all this up
- the loan of some computers for training
Wow! This will make the Internet (and the World Wide Web) available in all classrooms at Arbor Heights. Mr. Wilkie, Mrs. Thompson, and Mr. Ahlness have been busy getting information to Microsoft about costs of some of these things - checking with local vendors on their prices.

Microsoft hopes to learn from the experience of helping out our school. We are very thankful! Stay tuned for more exciting information!

THREE CHEERS FOR MR. AHLNESS!!
According to a dependable source (Mr. Wilkie), we would not be receiving all this wonderful computer support & equipment from Microsoft if it wasn+t for the forsight of Mr. Alhness. He has spent hours working on the Arbor Heights home page, converting this newsletter to Web language and in general, is literally the reason that Arbor Heights got noticed by Microsoft. After all, we were the first elementary school on the Internet & the World Wide Web. So next time you see Mr. Ahlness, give him five!

VOL 7, ISSUE 1

Published monthly by Arbor Heights PTSA, 6.15.35.
Current members:101
Arbor Heights Elementary School 
3704 SW 104th  Ñ Seattle, WA   98146  281-6230
Terry McDermott, President  -  932-6314
Roberta Post, Vice President  -  937-5613
Sue Murray, Secretary  -  243-8374
Betsy Forbes, Treasurer  -  938-8607
Donna Carreon & Karen Haines,
Fundraising Coordinators  -  938-4018 & 938-3531
Holly Guenther, Student Activities Coord.  -  935-2048
Lynn Moy, Public Relations Coordinator  -  935-9015
Laura Flannigan, Admin. Coord.  -  431-8654
Kathy Robison, Site Council Chair  -  932-4552
Gail Ballard, Newsletter Editor  -  938-0712
Carl Leatherman, Principal
Claudia Stroh, Dave Wilkie & Sapina Pele, Staff Reps

MR. LEATHERMAN RIDES TO TOWN

The PTSA welcomes Mr. Carl Leatherman, our new principal. Mr. Leatherman lives in West Seattle & has worked in the Seattle School District for 25 years. He has served as principal at Fairmount Park & Coe Elementary schools. We are very lucky to have him!

Did you know that Mr. Leatherman rides a purple motorcycle?
Did you know that Mr. Leatherman taught 5th & 6th grade & PE at Arbor Heights in the 1970's?
Did you know that Mr. Leatherman acknowledges each child on his/her birthday?
Did you know that Mr. Leatherman has a peanut machine in his office?
Do you think Mr. Leatherman will dress up on Character Book Day? (Halloween)

Any teachers, parents or staff of Arbor Heights school with any interest in exploring the idea of adding 6th grade to AH is invited to come to a meeting with Tom Bailey, District Coordinator of all 18 West Seattle Schools and Carl Leatherman, AH Principal on Tuesday, September 26th from 7 - 9 pm in the Arbor Heights Lunchroom. Please bring any questions, concerns, enthusiasm, or skepticism with you to promote lively discussion! We will be talking to the folks at Blaine Elementary before the meeting to ask them what their experiences were as they successfully implemented adding a 6th grade to their school last year. This is the time to share our thoughts, feelings and visions for how to prepare our students for SUCCESS academically, socially & emotionally as they enter adolescence. Please feel free to call Louise Sears, 938-4642 or Betsy Jansen, 937-3596 for more information or if you simply can't attend the meeting but would like to show your support. We hope to see you on September 26th!

HOW MANY?

Here is a fun & easy guessing game for your child! Please have them guess the amount of baseballs that are on the roll of Sally Foster Gift Wrap on display in the school lunchroom.

The student with the guess nearest the actual amount will receive a popcorn punchcard worth 10 free popcorns! Plus the parent or guardian will receive a free roll of Cupcakes gift wrap (R-39 in your sales brochure).
Look for further details in your Sally Foster sales packet. Contest ends Friday, September 29th, so start counting! Winner will be announced Monday, October 2. GOOD LUCK!!

PORTRAITS by Jami Moffett

937-2607 Order now in time for Christmas delivery. Have a special portrait drawn of your child by this published artist. Current prices good until 12/31/95.

FALL CLEAN-UP!

SATURDAY, SEPT. 30 IS THE ARBOR HEIGHTS FALL CLEAN UP. Vicki & Bob Viladouki will be co-chairing this important event. Please bring your own yard tools (rakes, brooms etc.). We will be meeting at 10:00 am to spruce up the grounds in preparation for the Open House on October 5th.

IS IT SOUP YET?

Once again, the PTSA is asking you to save your Campbell's, Pepperidge Farm & Swanson's labels for the school. In exchange for the labels we receive FREE playground & classroom equipment.
Please remove the entire label and send them to your childs teacher, or put them into the big Campbell's cannister in the school foyer. Thanks!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Arbor Heights Elementary is preparing its very own cookbook.We will be collecting as many recipes as possible from students & staff during the 2 week period of October 9 - 20. All student submitted recipes will list the child's name, grade & age. We will also be using artwork drawn by AH students.
Books are expected to be due back from the publisher sometime after the New Year. They will be available for sale immediately after their arrival. Any questions, contact Donna Carreon at 938-4018 or Karin Haines at 938-3531.

SALLY F. GIFT WRAP

The Sally Foster gift wrap sale will run September 14 - 29. Money raised will fund new projects, along with ongoing projects such as assemblies, field trips, student store, Artist-In-Residence, library books and the reading incentive program.

This is the schools main fund-raiser this year, so please support this sale! The school will receive 50% of each dollar amount sold. Please share your sales brochure with your family friends, neighbors & co-workers. How about taking it to work? If needed, additional sales packets are available in the school office.

The school Carnival has been moved to March 1, 1996. Previously it has been in the fall, but with so many other activities scheduled for that time, it was decided that the spring would be a less hectic time for this event.

Do you have a great idea for the Carnival? We'd like to hear from you! If you have a comment, question or suggestion or would like to volunteer for this event, please drop a note into the comment box in the school foyer. Or call Karin at 938-3531 or Donna at 938-4018.

OPEN HOUSE IS OCT. 5th

The Arbor Heights Open House will be held Thursday, October 5th at 7:00 am. Ice cream & beverage will be available in the AH lunchroom. Come meet or get reacquainted with child's teacher, see the classroom where they spend a large part of his or her day, visit the computer center and take a look at AH home page or introduce yourself to Mr. Leatherman, out new principal.

If your child is involved with Title 1 (formerly called Chapter 1) a general meeting will be held at 6:30 to 7:00 in Room 13. Notices will be sent home prior to the Open House informing Title 1 parents of this meeting. This is a chance to find out what Title 1 is all about and meet the Title 1 teacher that your child will be working with.
See ya there!

KIDS COME FIRST!

Illusions Hair Design, located at 5619 California Ave. SW did a wonderful fund raiser titled "Back To School." It purchased school supplies for students who attend the elementary schools in the West Seattle area. They held their fund-raiser during the summer & by the last week of August they had been able to get supplies to all of the following schools: Alki, Arbor Heights, Cooper, Fairmont Park, Gatewood, High Point, Lafayette, Pathfinders, Roxhill & Sanislo. Ten students at Arbor Heights received notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, crayons & scissors to begin the new year out right. Thanks again to a business in our community that cares about KIDS first. Thanks to the Illusions Hair Design Team: Becki, Mary, Sue, Rita, Shawn, Amy, Shannon & Denise

ROOM PARENTS

Calling all potential room parents! Last week a form went home with your child explaining the duties of a room parent. Interested? Send the form back to your child's teacher. It sure sounds like a good way to become involved with your child, be informed on academic programs in your child's classroom & in general help the teacher & kids!

FINGERPRINTS, NOT FINGERPAINT

At the next PTSA meeting on Thursday, October 12, you can get your children fingerprinted. This service will be available FREE to all interested parents. Also if you are planning on driving for field trips for the school, you will also need to be fingerprinted. This is a new requirement of Arbor Heights.

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL!

I would like to introduce myself. I am Terry McDermott, this years PTSA President.
We have a very busy school year ahead of us, but with everyone's help & support we should have no problems reaching our goals that we have set.
I hope if there is ever a concern, concerning either the school or our children, you don't hesitate to contact either myself or a Board member. There will also be a comment box placed in the lounge just inside the main entrance, please use it! Every question, comment or concern will be responded to, either by myself or another appointed person.
I also hope you all get a chance to meet out new Principal, Carl Leatherman. He was a former teacher here at Arbor Heights & we're glad to have him back with us once again.
You are going to see lots of changes this year. We have lots of new ideas & would appreciate any other ideas that any of you might have to offer! Please don't forget we need everyone's input to make this school the great learning place that it is. I am looking forward to working with all of you.
Have a Great School Year

THANK YOU

A BIG thank you goes out to all of the Arbor Heights parents/guardians who have volunteered to help at Arbor Heights this school year. The results of your volunteer information sheets that were sent home in the first days packet, are still being organized & entered into the computer.The response was overwhelming!! Those of you that volunteered, be expecting a phone call in the near future! I would like to thank Linda Hagen, who unselfishly gave of her time to visit our newsletter advertisers, and drum up support from the business community. Also I would like to thank each advertiser and Please, patronize them when possible.

GREEN ACRES

We need dedicated volunteers to form a committee to review the grounds survey responses from student, staff & parents. This survey was taken at the end of the 1994/95 academic school year.
Please call Bob Kiel at 244-5154 or Laura Flanigan at 431-8654 if you are interested in working towards being a part of the movement to "green up" the school grounds. We would like to schedule our first meeting the first week in October, so please call now.

ARBOR HEIGHTS BYTES

Connect up to the Arbor Heights World Wide Web site! Over 1,500 people a month from all over the world visit it at:
http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/arborhts.html
Mrs. Thompson has also set up a site to encourage young writers at Arbor Heights and around the world at:
http://www.halcyon.com/ahcool/home.html

Parents - Do you have an Internet email address? Would you like to have it listed on our "Parents on the Internet" page of our World Wide Web site? Contact Mr. Ahlness at school, or send a message to mahlness@cks.ssd.k12.wa.us - you could get email from people all over the world!

Our new fax machine is located in our computer lab. The number is 281-6618. Thank you, Microsoft!

Many staff members at Arbor Heights have Internet accounts. Ask your child's teacher for their email address!

PIPE - Partners in Public Education has donated over $500 for technology. This has provided a high speed modem and serial card for the computer in Room 12 and one in the Computer Lab. Thank you, PIPE!

RUN WITH THE PACK!

The September Pack meeting for Cubscout Pack 799 will be on Saturday, September 23rd. We are going to Blake Island, via Tillicum Village Tours. In addition to the boat ride over & back, we have scheduled a whole day of fun (going over on the 11:30 am boat, returning on the 7:30 pm boat), including hiking, exploring and a fabulous Indian Salmon Bake Dinner. The Pack will pay the cost for all registered cubscouts. The price for parents, siblings & potential cubscouts is $15.00 per ticket (a dramatic reduction from the usual price of $46.50 for adult tickets and $18.50 for student tickets, for a 4 hour tour only). Tickets must be purchased ASAP! For further information, please contact Cubmaster Jay DeMers at 938-1899.

LICENSED DAYCARE

I have some openings for full time,P/T & before & after school kids. I have 23 years experience, so please call me! - Irma 933-0508
Great turnout at the Sept. PTSA meeting! Thanks to everyone for coming. See y'all at the next one, Thursday, Oct. 12. Newsletter deadline is October 6. If you have any information, please leave it in my box at AH or call me at 938-0712. Thanks - Gail

THANK YOU!

A BIG thank you goes out to all of the Arbor Heights parents who have volunteered to help at the school this year. The results of your volunteer information sheets that were sent home in the first days packet are being entered into the computer as we speak.The response was overwhelming!! The deadline for returned forms is Oct. 2. Hurry, there is still a chance to help out. I would like to thank Linda Hagen, who unselfishly gave of her time to visit our newsletter advertisers, and drum up support from the business community. Also I would like to thank each advertiser and please, patronize them when possible.

The MUSIC BOX

Hello & Greetings Wonderful Arbor Heights School Community! My name is Kate Cronon, and I'm your afternoon music specialist!
I'm very happy to be here. In the month of September P.M. music will be focusing on Beat & Rhythm, in all its different contents.
October will continue this, with emphasis placed on dynamics (loud & soft) along with experience of vocal expression in using dynamics. We will also be highlighting music in major & minor Keys.
I would also like to start an African drum ensemble with the older kids. We will be looking for additional funding for drums during the school year.
Stay tuned - Ms. Cronon

POPCORN BITS

Once again Mary Fuller is the Popcorn Lady for Arbor Heights. It is sold every Friday for 35 cents Of course the last Friday of the month is Caramel Corn Day and this year cheese corn will be added the 2nd Friday of every other month! Mary needs adult helpers, so please sign up on the bulletin board or call Mary at 935-9623.Also you kids can earn FREE popcorn by signing up to help Mary. Sign up sheets should be going around your classroom right now!

The BOOK REPORT

On the first day of school I was pleased to meet our new Superintendent, Mr. John Stanford. He stopped in the library and talked with me briefly. He stated once again, how important he felt that reading is and the major role parents can play in helping their children become readers. Both as a Librarian and as a parent I share Mr. Stanford's feelings. I would like to share with you these "Tips for Raising Readers" from the Secret Garden Bookshop. This is a good list and several items I have starred.
- Ms. Napolitan

TIPS FOR RAISING READERS 1. Let your children see you reading. They learn by example.
2. Read Aloud-books, magazines, road signs, cereal boxes.
3. Set aside time every day for one-on-one book sharing.
4. Let your children make choices about the books you read together.
5. Make lots of books available, from the library & the book store.
6. Encourage your child to get a library card of his/her own.
7. Children learn to talk when you talk to them. Reading is similar.
8. Listening to rhythm & rhyme is an important pre-reading skill.
9. Identification of pictures, letters & words is a step to reading.
10. Large print helps a beginning reader.
11. Turn off the TV.
12. Half of learning to read is believing that you can read.
13. Learning to read is not as important as learning to love reading.

Safety Patrol Members Elysia, Jamie, Eric & Stephanie. Elysia & Eric were recently appointed Safety Patrol Captains. They are each Captain of a Squad of Safety Patrol Members.

KIDS CLASSIFIED ADS

WANTED: Broken electrical or mechanical devices for our take apart tables. (VCRs, clocks,...). We will collect these all year long. Also any extra handtools (screwdrivers & pliers) would be appreciated - Room 16, Mr. Femiano Grades 1, 2, 3

MARCKX MARKS 

We know how to say hello to Little Bear - Amanda
I  like lunch time & pattern blocks - Andrew
My favorite thing to do is play with cube links- Anthony
I like piano time. My favorite song is Walk Along John.- Ashley
I like going to PE. I've learned alot. - Danielle
I like pattern blocks & Show & Tell. - Dustin
We like Ms. Cronon singing, "Na, na, na, na, na, YES!" - Hilary
I like music because we play games. - Hoa
I like the listening center. - James
In Room 14 we have a hamster named Baby W. - Jessica
I like to go to gym. - Jesus
I like to play with pattern blocks. - Both Justins
We learned about tubs. I like music. - Katie
I like gym. - Portia
We learned about school manners. - Robert
My friend Jessica is nice. - Ryan
I learned to play with the tubs. - Sesen
I like the puppets. - Sovannay
I like playing outside. - Steven
I like Ms. Marckx because she is nice. - Ryan

WORLD WIDE WEB

This summer I spent 4 days going to a computer class, learning how to write on the Internet. Most of the students were grown ups. I was the youngest student in the class. It was exciting to learn how to write on the world wide web, but it was also hard to understand what the teacher was talking about! For instance, the codes you use to get just a sentence on the web are like a different language.
Now I have my own home page about accordions on the World Wide Web.
- SONYA - 5th Grade, Mrs. Crichton.
You can see it at http://www.halcyon.comahcool/home.html. Look under student projects. Sonya brought her accordion to class. We recorded sound files to add to her work. All of the teachers taking the workshop loved Sonya's accordion practice!

The FARM REPORT

Room 19, Mrs. Ballard's 1st grade has been studying apples. Here are some stories. Hannah says apples are delicious. Heather feels they are also nutritious. Jessica agrees that they are healthy. Olivia points out that they can be red and green. Kara says they are full of seeds. Henok mentions they are a fruit. Nathan says they are juicy. Apples are good for your teeth says Veronica. Paul agrees, but says they are just plain old good.

KINDERFUN

We have a wonderful new group of Kindergartners at Arbor Heights. They like Arbor Heights. In particular Vinson likes going out on the playground. Caitlin likes going into Activity Time. Elliott says he likes going to gym & playing basketball. Brian also likes going to gym. And so does Anthony.Aron, Domodes & Monica all like going to computers. Makaila likes going to music, Saweth prefers to play outside, Ronald likes it when it's playtime. Jesse also likes playtime and playing with playdough.

MRS. CRICHTON'S 5th GRADE

ROOM 21 IS OFF TO A GOOD START WITH 20 BOYS AND 8 GIRLS. WE HAVE STARTED OUR FIRST MATH-ART PROJECT. THESE MAY BE DISPLAYED AT THE NORTHWEST MATHEMATICS CONFERENCE IN OCTOBER HERE IN SEATTLE.

SOME DISASSEMBLY REQUIRED

As you know by now, Room 17 is a new multiage classroom with 1, 2 & 3rd Grade taught by Mr. Pharis. I am excited about this new opportunity. We have been getting to know each other and our daily routines and have come to realize that we are the best class in the school. (I'm sure there will be much disagreement about this, but it's true.) We have started a wish list and out number one item is things for our take-apart table. We are hoping for old clocks, toasters, hair dryers, blenders, mixers, radios, turntables, etc. almost any clean mechanical and or electronic item. If you are unsure of an item, please call. We are looking forward to a great year.
NO SCHOOL OCTOBER 13 Take your kids to Highland Ice Arena - FREE Ice skating on October 13. Skate Rental $2.

WATCH OUT PARENTS......

The kids in Room 16, Mr. Femiano's 1, 2, 3 are featuring Raold Dahl as our Author of the Month & we're learning lots of tricks to play on uncaring adults. Two such books, Matilda & Georges Marvelous Medicine are providing us with many ideas, as well as many laughs.
Return to the PTSA Page
Return to Arbor Heights Elementary School