1. There is no school on Friday, March 21.
2. Lunches with Love meets on Tuesday just after drop off in the cafeteria until 9:30.
3. Fresh, local, pasture raised, organic chicken eggs are available again this week. Please order by Wednesday, March 19 at 5 pm (hstarman@comcast.net) The eggs cost $4.95/dozen and Earth Shine Farm is donating 10% of sales to the PTO. We need to return the egg cartons – there will be a box outside the office where you can leave your cartons.
4. Note card fundraiser packets are due by Wednesday, March 19, please send them into your classroom teacher or drop them in the note card box in the office. Questions? Meg Wallace (jwall@umich.edu) or Ellen Janke (ejanke@med.umich.edu)
5. The Special Interest Fair is this Wednesday, March 19! Students should check in their projects at the main entrance to the auditorium on Wednesday morning between 8 and 8:45 am. Class viewing will take place all day, and family and friends are invited to view the fair from 6:30 to 7:45 pm. (Please remember that all projects must go home that evening.) We’re expecting more than 60 terrific projects, so we hope you’ll come check out the fair even if your child decided not to participate-it may just be the inspiration he or she needs to join us next year! Questions or comments? Please contact one of the Special Interest Fair co-chairs: Kim Mass, 213-5255, nkhmass@selectivityinc.com, or Patricia Silverman, 998-1156, boczar@med.umich.edu. See you on Wednesday!
6. March Is Reading Month: Our annual reading program started last week… an information packet explaining this year’s theme (READ TO FEED!) was sent home with all students, as well as the sheets to track the number of hours they read each week. If they have been misplaced, you can download the packet from the school’s website in the media center section. This year students are reading to raise money for a fund that will be donated to Heifer International. Heifer International will use the money to buy various farm animals for families in need in third world countries. If you would like to make a contribution to the fund, there is a collection box in the media center, as well as at two generous local businesses: Morgan & York and Stadium Market. Please let your family and friends know about this exciting and meaningful project that the Burns Park students are participating in…the more money we raise, the more families we can help! If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth DeRose at ederose@comcast.net.
7. March Is Reading Month Read-A-Thon: Volunteers are needed for the annual Read-A-Thon on Friday, March 28 from 1:15 – 2:45 pm (there are a few opportunities from 9:00 – 10:15 am as well). Volunteers will read to grades K, 1 & 2, escort students to different reading stations and/or keep time. Bring your own books or read from a selection provided by Miss Erdstein. For more information and to volunteer contact Deb Fisch (dfisch@monkey.org)
8. WALK AND TALK IS BACK! Spring is in the air and Walk and Talk is beginning again. Walk and Talk is an activity where the students gather to walk or run with each other around a specified loop at Burns Park. The kids earn “toe tags” for a certain number of loops around the park and really are motivated by the fresh air, their friends and the encouragement of the parent volunteers. We had a great turn out this Fall and want to be prepared to run together as the Walk and Talk team for the upcoming Burns Park Run, Sunday, May 4th and help those kids participating in the Martian Marathon conclude their 26.2 miles. We plan to start the week of March 24th weather permitting if we can get our parent volunteers in place by then. Walk and Talk will take place for 5 weeks beginning on March 24th with the exception of our district spring break. If you can help out on Monday, Wednesday or Friday during lunch time (approximately from 11:15 am – 1: 10 pm or any part thereof or even every other week), please let Marci Ammerman know at 662-7812 or mbammeman@comcast.net. This wonderful activity cannot take place without your help. If you cannot commit to a shift, we would also like to encourage parents to come and walk and talk with the kids – enjoy each other plus the added bonus of modeling/inspiring physical fitness too!
9. The school community is invited to attend the 3rd grade concert “Songs from Africa and the African Diaspora” on Wednesday, April 2 at 7 pm. In addition to the third graders, the “Ghana Bronyi” ensemble will also perform. The Ghana Bronyi Ensemble performs traditional music of Ghana, West Africa including songs and dances from many musical traditions accompanied by a variety of drums as well as xylophones, gourds, and bells. The ensemble is made up of undergraduate students from the University of Michigan who traveled to Cape Coast, Ghana in summer of 2007 with Dr. Carol Richardson, School of Music, Theatre and Dance, to study Ghanaian music/dance with Antoinette Kudoto and her Nyame Tseatse Cultural Group. Their 3-week musical journey included home stays with Cape Coast families and internships at a primary school in the village of Okyeso, where students spent each weekday morning teaching full classes in lessons they’d created in such areas as health, painting, story writing, Michigan geography, and English. The Ensemble performances spread the energy and joy of this music throughout Michigan while the proceeds support the education of girls in the village school as well as micro loans to our collaborators in the Nyame Tseatse Cultural Group in Cape Coast. There will be an open box donation at this concert to raise tuition for girls to attend school in Ghana; $200 pays for one year of tuition and 100% of monies raised by the group go directly to Ghana. Please contact Cynthia Page-Bogen, pageboge@aaps.k12.mi.us with any questions.
10. The Tappan Players present The Sound of Music, Thursday and Friday March 27th and 28th at 7:30 pm and Saturday, March 29th at 2:00 pm. Ticket information will be sent soon!
11. Please note there are two flyers attached to this posting, the first is information regarding testing toys for lead and the second explains an opportunity for local families to host an exchange student for three and a half weeks this summer.

Helen Starman, PTO President
994-8553 or hstarman@comcast.net

Elizabeth DeRose, President Elect
677-0882 or ederose@comcast.net