Four Winds Nature Program

The Nature Program is a workshop run by the Four Winds Nature Institute (fwni.org) to encourage curious kids to explore the natural world. 

Four times during the 2012-2013 school year (roughly once every other month), a Four Winds naturalist-educator will come to C.P. Smith to lead a two-hour informational presentation for parent volunteers.  We, the parents, then team-teach the lesson in our children’s classrooms. 

You don’t need a science degree or teaching certificate to be an effective Four Winds volunteer, just an enthusiastic interest in learning and sharing.  All the necessary background information and learning activities are explained at the training workshops, and include all the resources necessary to present an informative and engaging classroom unit.

For anyone interested in participating in 4 winds this year, our first volunteer training session will be Wednesday, September 19, at the CP Smith library, from 6-8pm.

NOTE: we currently have pretty good coverage of the classrooms, but do not currently have parent volunteers for Ms. Tetrault's, Ms. McHugh's, Mr. Safran's, and Ms. Minkler's classrooms. If you are a parent or know a parent of a child in these rooms, we could really use your help!

First PTO meeting

First PTO meeting of the year will take place TONIGHT, 6:30 p.m - 8:00 p.m. in the Learning Center

Childcare will be provided in the gym

Agenda:

Introductions -- 5 minutes

Principal Address - 30-40 minutes 

       Welcome
       Discussion regarding: District Goals/Action Plan related to: student achievement, school climate

       Family-community engagement

       Q&A

 

Staff Member report - 5-10 minutes

 

4 Winds Nature Program/Alex Reutter - 5-10 minutes

 

General PTO Business - Remainder of time

     Update on start of year events

     Discussion about upcoming events/fundraisers

     Volunteer opportunities

     Q&A

PTO Ice Cream social tonight!

Welcome (back) to CP Smith. To start the year, we invite you all to mingle with  our great school community.

WHO:     ALL STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES 

WHAT:   BACK TO SCHOOL ICE CREAM SOCIAL

WHEN:   THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6^TH  6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

                                WHERE:   CP SMITH PLAYGROUND  (In the event of rain, event will take place in the gym)

PLEASE BRING YOUR FAVORITE NUT FREE TOPPING TO SHARE (OPTIONAL)

How do I... follow C.P. Smith PTO activities throughout the year?

Not all details of all events are recorded in the C.P. Smith calendar at the beginning of the year.  There are a number of ways to keep up with what's going on:

Read the C.P. Smith Newsletter.
C.P. Smith sends home a weekly newsletter on Fridays called the Smith Times that covers general events at Smith.

Join the PTO Email list.
The PTO president maintains an e-mail list of PTO volunteers, and will send out calls for volunteers and reminders for events to this list.  Contact Jen L’Ecuyer or e-mail cpsmithpto@gmail.com to be added to the list.

Follow updates to this site.
There are a few ways to do this, including:

1. Visit the site regularly.
2. Sign up to follow by email.  Scroll down the page and look on the right for "Follow By Email".  When there are updates to the site, you will get an e-mail.
3. Subscribe to updates.

How do I... use the C.P. Smith online calendar?

On the right side of this page, there is a section that shows upcoming events at C.P. Smith during the 2012-2013 school year, including items from the Burlington School District calendar.  You can add the full calendar of events to your own Google, Outlook, or other calendar.

Google Calendar.

In your Google Calendar, in the left sidebar under "Other calendars", type cpsmithpto@gmail.com and hit Enter.

Outlook Calendar.
The C.P. Smith calendar has been saved as an ICS file; click here to download.  Then follow these directions to import it into Outlook.


We'll happily add links to instructions for other calendars if we get requests; generally it will involve importing the ICS file into the calendar program.

Welcome Coffee

Please join us the morning of 8/29 for a C.P. Smith welcome back coffee. We will be set up at the front of the school and will be starting about 8:00am, if the weather is not good we will move into the front lobby. After you have dropped off your children, please come by for some coffee and munchies, catch up with friends and meet some new families. We hope to see you there.

Welcome to the 2012-2013 School Year!

Dear C.P. Smith Families,

Welcome to the C.P. Smith community. Just a little bit of information for you about our wonderful C.P. Smith PTO. Our meetings take place the second Monday of each month from 6:30-8:00pm in the learning center. Our first meeting will take place on September 10^th, childcare will be provided.  Our meetings are not all about fundraising, we discuss important topics that are happening in our school community. Our meetings are a great place to give your input, ask questions, and to help your school community.

This past school year, money raised by the PTO funded, in whole or in part, the following:

• Classroom enrichment funds (mini-grants)                       
• Room parents – support classroom teachers                   
• $7.00 per student for fieldtrips                                          
• School musical: The Wonderful Land of Oz
• School Picture Day
• Annual Science Fair
• 4 Winds Nature Program
• Back to school ice cream social
• School directory
• Scholastic Book Sale to benefit the learning center
• Math night
• Room parents – support classroom teachers
• Field Day (a late spring celebration)
• School dances
• Staff Appreciation week
• Movie night
• 5^th Grade trip to Camp Abnaki

These are just some of the great things that we are doing. We have a wonderful group of volunteers and we hope that you will join us, we welcome all volunteers. If you have questions or are interested in volunteering please contact us. Our current officers are: 

• President:  Jennifer L’Ecuyer
• Vice President:  Gini Park
• Treasurer:  Karen Labelle
• Secretary:  Tiffany Delaney