DVUSD News - Around Our Schools - February 8, 2010

From: "DVUSD News" <no-reply@dvusd.org>
Subject: DVUSD News - Around Our Schools - February 8, 2010
Date: February 9th 2010

Around Our Schools - February 8, 2010

Deer Valley Elementary Schools

Greenbrier
Greenbrier is hosting a workshop to educate parents about �The Choking Game� with guest speaker Becky Schultz on Thursday, February 25 at 3:45 p.m. in the Media Center. The Choking Game can start as early as third grade. Ms. Schultz is a counselor at Desert Sky Middle School, District Prevention Coordinator, and Crisis Flight Team Coordinator. Her presentation will last around 45 minutes. Ms. Schultz will be video taped because the district office is developing a podcast library that will be available online in the near future for staff, parents, and community members.

Greenbrier students can now enjoy a mural of an Arizona sunset complete with cactus and Sammy Sidewinder while reading a book with a donation from the LOWE�S store (located off of North Peoria).

Las Brisas
Las Brisas students recently received two pallets of water donated from business partner Albertson�s Food Store. The water is part of the school classroom lockdown emergency supplies.

Las Brisas students in grades 3-6 learned about anti-bullying earlier this month through traditional Native American music and stories. Chief Robert and Terri Lynn (Tall Tree) taught students to respect themselves, the Earth, and all living things with their presentation on Bullying, Teasing and Name-calling, Environmental Stewardship, Peer Pressure, Positive Character Development, and Respect.

Mountain Shadows
Mountain Shadows is hosting its annual Jump Rope for Heart Event on Saturday, February 27 at 10 a.m. to noon in celebration of American Heart Month. Friends and families are invited to join in the fun and support.

New River
New River�s Character Counts theme for February is Caring and the Kids at Hope theme is Anchor Adults. The students will spend time this month reviewing caring and learning about and identifying �anchor parents� in their lives.

The 2010 edition of the New River Elementary Yearbook is now on sale. The cost is $18.00 for the basic yearbook and will increase to $25.00 after February 26.

Student Council is sponsoring a canned food drive until the end of the semester. The items donated will be contributed to local agencies to help those in need.

Recently the Kindergartens visited the Phoenix Cookie Company enjoying a theatre production of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." The week was full of literature rich events that were culminated with the production. The students enjoyed the production and had the opportunity of seeing literature come alive.

The first graders have started on an exciting adventure to �Free the Horses�. They will be learning about cooperation, responsibility, making good choices, and much more. The program is video based with discussion and activities along the way.

New River's Green team will increase Green Sustainable Educational efforts through students, staff, and community members by incorporating various green events and school wide education messages for the 2009-10 school year which include:

�       Weekly green messages for the school at morning announcement time.
�       Plastic grocery bags, juice pouches or aluminum cans/tabs, and plastic bottles are collected everyday.  
�       Every half day is Half Day Hat Day and students who contribute tin cans are allowed to wear a hat during the school day.
�       Ink cartridges that are collected are donated to The Phoenix Zoo.
�       A green calendar has been put together for all events and distributed to staff and students.
�       New River will kick off Earth week in April with several events, guest speakers, and students working together in a green project.
�       The Green Teams Annual Re-Use sale is on Saturday, April 17 from 8a.m. - 1p.m. The Green Team will rent out spaces to those individuals or businesses that would like to sell new or used items. Each space will be $10 and all proceeds go to yearly Green Initiatives. Spaces can be reserved through Jana Wild at 623-341-4712.

Volunteers are needed to help with this important cause and to educate students to become sustainable green adults. Anyone interested in helping can contact Michelle Warburton at Michelle.Warburton@dvusd.org.

Park Meadows
Park Meadows students and parents recently enjoyed an evening learning about Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking presented by Cole Hickman from the Arizona State Attorney General's Office. Families were treated to a spaghetti dinner after the presentation.

First grade teachers Dena Mills and Betsy Hale were awarded an $800.00 grant from Target. The funds were used on a field trip to Lake Pleasant where students had the opportunity to experience outdoor education activities such as identifying animal tracks and learning about fish and birds.

Sixth grade students in Mary Sullivan's class wrote business letters to the cafeteria on what foods they liked best. All letters were sent to Geoff Habgood, DVUSD Food Service Director. Students wrote about how much they enjoy Sardella's Pizza served each Wednesday and business letters were sent to Mr. Sardella's office located at 43rd Avenue and Cactus where the business letters are now displayed by Corporate Office.

Park Meadows has been actively raising money for the victims of Haiti. First and second grades are selling Hearts for Haiti for $1.00. Each heart sold is displayed in the front office.

Some generous acts of kindness include kindergarten student Levi Weymouth in Jill Jorlamon's class emptied his piggy bank and brought in $6.00 of his hard earned money and fourth grader Gavin Logan in Shelly Coco's class chose to give up his birthday party to make cupcakes to sell and donated $47.13. All monies raised will go directly to the American Red Cross for the cause.

Sierra Verde
The Sierra Verde PTSA is hosting a Family Bingo Night on Friday, February 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room.

Stetson Hills
Stetson Hills students and staff participated in spirit week last month to collect money to send to Haiti. Spirit week consisted of hat day, sports day, pajama day, and twin day to collect donations. After the money was collected Stetson Hills raised a total of $1,091.40 to donate to the Red Cross.

Stetson Hills reading specialist Jennifer Buchanan was selected as Teacher of the Month for January. Ms. Buchanan was selected because she goes above and beyond for all students and staff. One of her many contributions is developing an outstanding book room for Stetson Hills. She, along with a book room committee, has worked hard to organize, level, and group a wide variety of books for teachers to use with their students. She has also held many voluntary teacher training sessions after school.

Deer Valley High Schools

Mountain Ridge High School
Mountain Ridge High School is celebrating Community of Caring month. The entire month of February will be filled with events and activities planned by Mountain Ridge clubs and student groups. Community of Caring Month has become a great tradition at MRHS. It is celebration of a community of young people who really care.

Each week of Community of Caring will focus on a theme: Friendship Week, Heroes Week, Heritage Week, and Random Acts of Kindness Week. There are many community service projects, fund raisers and community improvement projects going on here at MRHS. Last week, �The Ridge Army� and Boys� Basketball team dedicated Friday Night�s game to promote Cancer Awareness. The Best Buddies program is sponsoring �Eat Lunch with your Buddy Day� and Club Interact will visit an Alzheimer�s facility and the West Side Valley Food Bank as part of two ongoing community service projects. The number of events and participants this year exemplifies the strong commitment to caring for the community.

Sandra Day O�Connor High School
Sandra Day O�Connor High School Media Productions Teacher Chris Cunningham was selected as the FIRST EVER "Teacher of the Month" by schooltube.com. This is a new program and Mr. Cunningham was selected due to the quality of videos that his students/media production program uploads.