Otter Tales - Creekside PTSA

PTSA Board Members:
President:
Kavitha Kumar
kavitha.k.kumar@gmail.com
Creekside PTSA Newsletter – Volume 6, Issue 8, May 2014
Creekside Elementary * 20777 SE 16th Street * Sammamish, WA 98075
CREEKSIDE PTSA CELEBRATES
Executive VP:
Jackie Firth
jacquelinecfirth@gmail.com
and
Linda Arnold
vaporbuggy@gmail.com
Treasurer:
Amy Lowrance
amygator@yahoo.com
Secretary:
May 12th to May 16th
Michele McCoy
michele@healeyalliance.com
Staff Power Breakfast & Super Hero Thank You Notes
Co-VPs Fundraising:
Soup er Hero Lunch Buffet – Please sign up for lunch items @
Link: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/409044BAFAD2DA46-super
Lisa Bourdeau
lisabourdeau22@gmail.com
and
Kim Meade
meadek@comcast.net
2 Hour Coffee Cart
Co-VPs Volunteers:
Students bring a treat / gift to Staff
Christine Chafin
thechafins@hotmail.com
and
Marquelle Morgan
chrisandmarquelle@hotmail.com
All day power snacks & Dessert Buffet &
Wear a superhero T-shirt
Co-Chair of
Communications:
We need help THIS Friday May 9th at 2:00pm to put up decorations
around school. For more information please email Ghada Madkour
@ghadahamdi7@yahoo.com
Theresa Nguyen
thn12@uw.edu
and
Ghada Madkour
ghadahamdi7@yahoo.com
Webmaster:
Jackie Firth
jacquelinecfirth@gmail.com
Community Liaison:
Christine Watson
clcwatson@gmail.com
Check out Creekside PTSA’s website for the latest PTSA
news and events. Like us on
Facebook!
PTSA Hotline:
(425) 837-5260
Monthly Facts About Your Creekside
PTSA
Why You Need To Be Involved
Fact #8
You’ll Help Raise Necessary Funds !
The PTA fundraises to provide more educational
services for Children. Fundraisers remain important
to improving the quality of the school overall, and
parent groups make them possible.
Contents
Staff Appreciation
1
End of School Year BBQ
2
Talent Show Event Highlights
3
Save The Date & Updates
4 &5
Newspaper Club
6
ISF
7
Mental Health Forum
8
PTSA NEWS
9
Volunteer Appreciation Raffle
10
Creekside PTSA’s
End of School Year
CELEBRATION
Friday June 6th
5:00pm - 7:00pm
BBQ – Food – Music – Games
Time to celebrate an amazing year with friends
Bring the whole family!!
Event Highlights
A MESSAGE FROM THE PTSA PRESIDENT
Great Show at the Talent Show
Lauren Trencher tap dancing to Rock This Town
by the Stray Cats
Great job to everyone who participated in the
Talent Show at Creekside on May 2nd. The art
work submitted was wonderful and each act that
was presented by the students was
awesome! Keep up the great hard work
kids. Many thanks to the Talent Show hostsKathie Arnesen; Janae Muhlestein and their
team of volunteers who made this evening a fun
one for all by working hard behind the scenes.
Thank you! Chen, who spent a lot of hours
working out the logistics and planning this full
day event at the school. Thank you to you all!
Chase Hanson Playing the guitar & Signing
Bastille’s “Pompeii”
Tara Thirumurthy Snging Katy Perry’s “roar,” Accompanied by her sister Shreya Thirumurthy on
the viola
Grace Marney singing “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen
Isabella Lowrance performing a lyrical dance to
Ron Pope’s “A Drop in the ocean”
Sophia Yaple & Lainey Slish singing “I want you back” by Cher Lloyd
Sienna Gould & Kate
McBride dancing to Olaf’s “In Summer” from Disney’s Frozen
Outstanding Visual Arts Display
The audience enjoys the talent at Creekside
See You All Next Year
Spring Scholastic Book Fair
Coming Soon
The Spring Scholastic Book Fair is
coming soon! Please join us May
20-22 to stock up on some great
titles for summer break. More info
to follow soon. Please contact
Laura Shelby at
shelbysfour@msn.com, or Sally Dudy
at sdudy@msn.com to volunteer for
this fun event.
General PTSA Meeting
Upcoming Events
IMPORTANT UPDATE
General PTSA meeting: Please plan
to attend this last General Meeting
of this school year. We will be
electing our new Board for the
PTSA and also approving the new
budget for the next year. We hope
to see you there. Bring a friend or
two.
CHESS CLUB
Graduation
Party
th
May 29
2014
As we are getting close to end of term, it is time to recognize
kids hard work and achievements. On May 29th we’ll celebrate graduation day from the chess club. Kids will get
trophies and enjoy donuts and pizza. Please share your
thoughts. This event will cost approx. $150.00. Since PTSA
can not sponsor this event, I’ll need your help sponsoring this event.
I am thinking approx. $10.00 per parent will cover the cost
this event. The Lead time for trophies is approx. 2 weeks.
So, I’ll need the funds now. If you like, please drop a
personal check payable to “DHARMESH KUMAR” in PTSA box. I’ll present the checks once I have enough funds to cover the cost of event. In case I do not get enough funds, I’ll return the checks back to your kids on 5/22 chess club
meet.
May 8
ISF Nourish Every Mind Luncheon
May 12-16
Staff Appreciation Week
May 14
ISF Nourish Every Mind Breakfast
May 20
General PTSA meeting
May 20-22
Spring Scholastic Book Fair
May 22
Mental Health Community Program
May 29
Chess Club Graduation Party
June 6
End of Year BBQ Party
June 16
5th Grade Promotion
Matching: Time & Money
Thank you Volunteers for your time and effort in
helping at Creekside.
Some of the companies match the time their
employees put in for a school program and donate
money to the PTSA. So please do avail of this
facility if your company supports it.
Also, if you have friends and family( who had
company matching funds options via their
employer) who supported your fundraiser during
the fall, please remind them to put in their
matching amounts in the company matching
requests, if they haven't already done so.
If you have any questions or concerns please
contact Kavitha Kumar
Kavitha.k.kumar@gmail.com
CREEKSIDE MATH CLUB
1ST
WINS
PRIZE MEDAL
It is with great pleasure that we want to announce the achievements of our Creekside math club in the
WA State Math Olympiad (http://www.wsmc.net) for the 2nd consecutive year. Creekside math club
students made us proud by winning a 1st prize medal and a bunch of superior/excellent ribbons in the
competition. Below are the details of the event, participants and the awards they won.
Little bit about the Math Olympiad competition:
The Washington State Math Olympiad is a state wide team based competition where each team
competes to gain as many points as possible. Teams are recognized for having achieved at the levels
superior, excellent, very good or good in each of six components: a long session problem, and five
short session problems in the content areas Number Sense, Probability and Statistics, Measurement,
Geometric Sense, and Algebraic Sense.
Participants name: Devi Bharani, Justin Yang, Jayden Devasia, Pavan Varthakavi,
(Session 1): Excellent Ribbon
(Session 2): Excellent Ribbon
Participants name: Abhivan Gopinath, Laasya Nagareddy, Karan Hanswadkar, Mustafa Miyaziwala
(Session 1):Superior Medal
(Session 2): Superior Medal
Participants name: Aditya Gopinath, Isaac Ramirez, Pranav Kammili, Richard Tang
(Session 1):
(Session 2): Excellent Ribbon
We would like to give a big shout out to our volunteer coaches – Bhanu Reddy, Kaiv Hanswadekr and
Jagadish Prasanna for their dedication and efforts in coaching the math club kids throughout the year.
Special thanks to our awesome Principal, Robin Earl, Creekside PTSA president, Kavitha Kumar and
Math Chair Supreeth Ranganna for their support in getting this club going!
Regards,
Supreeth Ranganna
INTRODUCING
Creekside Times
CREATED BY CREEKSIDE STUDENTS
New This Month, Otter Tales would like to
showcase the work of some very talented
writers at Creekside.
Creekside Times
March 2014
Volume 1, Issue 3
Created by a group of proactive 4th graders:
Sylvia Daw, Serena Cao, Anna Kuhner, Megan Karr, Emily Karupiah, Eleanor Miller,
Emma Pavlich Vishnu Varadhan and Norah White.
ALL ABOUT THE
NEWSPAPER CLUB
Creekside Cultural Fair
By Sylvia Daw
Do you want to know all about the
Cultural Fair? Well you came to the right
place! There were about 48 countries
represented at the fair. Additionally, at
the Culural Fair there was dancing, food,
student performances and music. Also
the Skyline dance team came to dance
with students! In my perspective the fair
was great. It was a learning experience
for all who went! I also think it wasn’t just a learning experience it was an event
for everyone to have fun and participate
in awesome activities! I had a wonderful
time!
Science Fair
By Norah White
Do you want to know more about the science
fair? First of all, it is run by Mr. Pollock,
Kristan Holes, Karath Kumar and Mrs.
Meyers. Both 4th and 5th graders are required
to do a project for the science fair. Projects
will be judged by if you have all elements that
you need including question, hypothesis,
materials, data, results and biblioligy . If you
are a Kindergartner, 1st grader, 2nd or 3rd
grader you do not have to do the science fair
but we encourage you to! The science fair is
held on March 26th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.
We hope to see you there!
Students representing several
countries enjoy the Cultural Fair.
An Interview with Ms Martinson
by Anna Kuhner and Megan Karr
We met with Ms. Martinson recently and
asked her about her career in teaching.
This is Ms Martinson’s first year of real teaching as last year she was only a
substitute teacher. She worked as a
substitute at Newcastle Elementary
School.
Ms Martinson was inspired to become a
teacher by all of the teachers she had
growing up but especially her 2nd grade
teacher. Her favorite subject in school
growing up was math and then later, she
loved reading. Ms Martinson’s favorite grade to teach is 3rd grade but she also
likes 2nd grade.
Finally, when asked about the funniest
experience sher has had while teaching,
Ms Martinson said that in her class there
is something EVERYDAY! We really
enjoyed learning about Ms. Martinson and
hope you did too.
The Newspaper Club was started
by a group of 4th graders who
created the very first edition
entirely on their own. Because of
their interest in writing, April
Stevens, the Guidance Counselor
offered to be the advisor for a more
formal Newspaper Club and
opened it up to any others who
were interested in joining. The
club meets on Wednesday
mornings at 8:30 (roughly every
other Wed) and the students work
on their articles on their own in
between meetings. The students
really run the club. They decide
what they want to write about and
April helps them pull it all together
into a newsletter format.
Please check out the full edition at the Creekside office.
Last Call!
The Nourish Every Mind Luncheon and Breakfast are filling up but there’s still room for you. Join the Issaquah Schools Foundation on Thursday, May 8 from 11 am – 1 pm at the Issaquah Community Center or Wednesday, May from 14 from 7 am to 8:30 am at Eastridge
Church to be informed, inspired and entertained. We promise you will leave with a spring in your step and a deeper understanding of
the difference your gift makes for our students and schools. Suggested minimum donation is $150. Everyone is welcome. Contact Table
Captain, Jenell Tamaela jenell1973@comcast.net to reserve your seat at the table.
Six Days in May
That’s how much time you have to bid on a bevy of items at the Issaquah Schools Foundation’s Nourish Every Mind Online Auction. All
proceeds are directed to programs and investments that benefit every student at every school, every year. So … don’t dawdle. Grab a
cuppa coffee, grab your computer, settle in a comfy chair, go to NEM Auction and get your bid on. Remember, all proceeds benefit
students and schools across the District. Hurry, the auction closes on Tuesday, May 6 at 8 am. Questions? Contact the Foundation at
425.391.8557.
Donors Changing Lives
Thanks to donors, students at Echo Glen are improving their math skills with ALEK – software that provides teachers with access to
programs that can help students of all abilities. Because it is a juvenile detention facility, students at Echo Glen arrive with math
proficiency ranging from 3.9 to 12.9. ALEK fills the role of 8 different textbooks that teachers previously needed to teach a single class.
And, from the Thank You letters we received from students, it is evident that ALEK is changing student’s lives. Great work donors!
“When I first came to Echo Glenn I wasn’t very good at math. In fact I hated math but since I was introduced to ALEKs my whole
life changed. I am now great in math and I don’t hate it anymore. I love it! I wish I was introduced to ALEKs earlier in life cause it’s a really good help for me. • A.S. grade 10, STARS assessed math improvement from grade 5.6 to grade 8.3” Not Attending Nourish Every Mind? You Can Still GiveBIG
GiveBIG, the Seattle Foundation's 4th Annual one-day, online charitable giving event is Tuesday, May 6. From midnight to midnight,
every donation made to the Foundation at GiveBIG to ISF, will be stretched by a pool of donors the amount of the "stretch" depends
on the size of the stretch pool and how much is raised in total donations on GiveBIG day. In layman's terms ---the more people give, the
more our students and schools will get. Please add GiveBig to ISF on May 6 to your
bookmarks and remember the Foundation. Thank you!
School-Based Mental Health
Community Forum
You are invited to the School-Based Mental Health Community Forum on Thursday, May 22 from 6-8
PM at Swedish Issaquah Hospital. This is the perfect time to ask questions and gain a deeper understanding of
the resource of having Mental Health Counselors in each of the three High Schools in the Issaquah School
District.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) will be shared with parents on the night of the event and posted
online
Come talk to a panel of people who know...
o Swedish Issaquah leadership;
 Swedish Issaquah CEO, Rayburn Lewis, MD
 Medical Director for Psychiatric Services at Swedish, Arpan Waghray, MD
 Case Management at Swedish, Stacia Fisher, MSW, LICSW
o King County Public Health Community and School Based Partnerships, Sara Rigel, MPH, CHES
o The Mental Health Counselors from Skyline High School, Issaquah High School, and Liberty
High School
o Issaquah School District leadership
 Executive Director of ISD High Schools, Paula Phelps
Please more Information and to RSVP to the event please go to:www.swedish.org/issaquahschoolbasedhealth
Brown Bear Car Wash
Brown Bear tickets are on sale until the first week of June.
They can be ordered on line via PayPal or a check can be sent
into the school.
Here is the link to the PTSA
site. https://creeksideptsa.ourschoolpages.com/Packet/Brown%20
Bear/ProductsPacketPage/1
Creekside PTSA – New Website!
Check it out!
Our Webmaster has worked tirelessly to give our
PTSA a new, fresh look! Check out our new website
at:
http://creeksideptsa.ourschoolpages.com/Home
STOCK UP NOW!
1 for $6
5 for $25
10 for $40
To purchase these tickets, please contact Lisa Bourdeau
at lisabourdeau22@gmail.com or Kim Meade at
meadek@comcast.net.
Passive Fundraising for
Creekside PTSA
Creekside PTSA is participating in the
following passive fundraisers.
Please read below to find out how you can
support Creekside.
eScrip & Safeway is a
proven, passive fundraiser that contributes a
percentage of your grocery loyalty cards from
participating business partners, credit card and
debit/ATM card purchases to our PTSA. Getting
signed up is easy! If you would like to sign up or get
more information, please click here or contact
Theresa Nguyen at thn12@uw.edu for more
information.
You’ll be able to find information about all our
programs, PTSA meeting minutes, financial reports
and other helpful information.
For the upcoming General PTSA meeting, you can
see copies of financial reports by going to our
Creekside PTSA website, under “Important Information” then “Finances” or by clicking here.
Please help us appreciate and honor the Volunteers here at Creekside.
Put in the name(s) of any volunteers that you appreciate for their service to
the school and kids. We will draw names the 2nd Wednesday of every month
and honor them.
Everyone is welcome to recommend names.
Thank you,
Creekside PTSA
April Volunteer of the
Month
Lisa Boudreau
Lisa has a 4th grade daughter at
Creekside and has been very
involved in various school and
PTSA activities since Creekside
opened. Lisa serves at the Co-VP
of Fundraising for the PTSA, Art
Docent and volunteers during
various school and PTSA events.
Please join us in thanking Lisa for
her continued service to our
school and kids!