TouchPoint
Volume 3,
Issue 6 |
January 2011 |
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Terraset PTA
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Address
Terraset
Elementary School
11411 Ridge Heights Road
Reston, Virginia
20191
Visit our Blog!
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Dear Friend of Terraset,
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fabulous break and enjoyed
the cold weather. If you are one to make a few New Year's
resolutions, maybe you made a resolution to volunteer more! A
great way to work toward such an excellent goal would be to donate
towards Bingo night, fast approaching in February! Or maybe you
just want to make that Three-For-Me pledge to be aware of
opportunities as they come available? Either way, we always look
forward to seeing parents in the school helping out.
This month's newsletter is a little on the quiet side. The month
has been hibernating away the coldest days of winter with a cup of hot
cocoa and a dream of warm sunshine. But just because January has
been quiet doesn't mean great things aren't in the works! From
writing stories to playing Bingo, Terraset has something for
everyone. So read on and enjoy this issue of TouchPoint!
Devon Boatwright
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 Reston
Youth Triathlon: Exercise to Benefit More Than Just Your Heart!
We
all know how exercise benefits the heart. Well, here's exercise that
benefits the heart in strength as well as goodwill. Three friends
from South Lakes High School have teamed together to organize the
Reston Youth Triathlon in memory of their friend, Amy Boyle, who died
of a brain tumor three and a half years ago. All profits from the
triathlon go to the Childhood Brain Tumor Foundations. In the
past three years, the friends, along with the Relay for Life and Amy's
Amigos, have earned over $24,000.
In
order to make a bigger impact, this year they are involving the whole
community. The triathlon is coming on May 22, 2011 - for ages
6-15. Registration - Jan. 20th at 7:30pm. Please visit www.RestonYouthTri.org for more
information.
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Tiger
Tales Seeks Talented Students!
If
you are new to the school, you may not know that Terraset publishes a
literary magazine each year - Tiger Tales. A group of 5th and
6th graders, supported by Mrs. Forman (reading specialist) and Ms Dix
(technology specialist), act as peer editors, reviewing submissions
from the rest of the school. Children from kindergarten through 6th
grade are all encouraged to submit something: poetry, stories,
non-fiction, jokes, comics or reviews... anything that demonstrates
their special writing talents will be considered. The magazine has been
published twice now, and it has proved to be very popular reading in
our household -- throughout the year. We love to re-read stories
written by friends and to look at their artwork. It's also interesting
to read what students in higher grades are writing about... it gives
the younger kids a little insight into their future. Needless to say,
seeing your own child's story published is pretty exciting too!
I
would really encourage you to start talking to your child about writing
something for this year's magazine! Your child's anticipation of seeing
their work in print along with other kids they know makes the launch of
the magazine a very special event.
If
you are looking for something to do on these cold weekends, this is a
perfect project. Most of the older children submit their work by email
to Mrs. Forman .
However, younger kids may want to submit paper-based writing and
artwork. Just send submissions in via the Tuesday Pack marking them to
Mrs. Forman's attention.
Encourage
your kids to join in and make this year's magazine a great success too!!
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Terraset Night
at Chili's- Be There!
Chili's on Sunrise Valley
is donating 20% of all proceeds (even take-out) all day Tuesday,
January 25, 2011 from 11am - 10pm! Send this flyer to your
friends, family and neighbors. Set up business lunches at
Chili's, birthday dinners, special celebrations, anything! Come
out and have dinner and enjoy half-price appetizers from 3p - 8p.
We'll also hold a raffle for Chili's dinner certificates. In
order for Terraset to receive proceeds the flyer must be
presented. Spread the Word, Terraset Night at Chili's next
Tuesday!!!
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New
Daisy Troop forming at Terraset
 Girl Scouting
builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world
a better place. If there are any Kindergarten girls
interested in joining a new Girl Scout Troop please contact us at info@terrasetpta.org.
Meetings will be starting soon!
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Valued
Volunteer- Emily Brondos Strompf
 It
was pretty easy to do a spotlight on Emily Brondos Strompf this month.
After all, she is my partner in crime
for our Terraset Brownie troop and she is one of my best friends here.
So of course I was thrilled to pass
along some questions for her to be spotlighted as one of our valued
volunteers this month!
Emily
does quite a lot at Terraset. One thing she is
involved with is Math Superstars. Your child may
eagerly anticipate doing the Math Superstars sheet that comes with the
Tuesday Packets. Emily is just as eager to grade
them! She takes all the worksheets for the 5
graders and scores them. She keeps track of each
person's score and awards prizes as those student's scores accumulate.
She,
along with Jen Randall, also teach GRACE Art to Mrs. Byrnes' second
grade class. For those who don't know, Grace Art is
a supplementary art curriculum taught once a month to each class by
volunteer docents. It's popular with the kids as
the portfolio is always sure to contain an interesting artist or art
style along with a plethora of art posters and a project emulating the
style of the artist featured.
And,
ever ready to get into the school and help out even more, Emily has
recently started reading 2010-2011 Virginia Reader's Choice books to
Mrs. Byrnes' class! This is probably her favorite
volunteer activity as children's literature is perhaps her favorite
over any other genre. When I asked her what
children's book she treasured, she said definitely "Miss Rumphius by
Barbara Cooney... The main character, Miss Rumphius, travels all over
the world, and I love to dream about where I'll travel next. But most
of all, I love that it's a story about making the world a better place."
Emily
had a lot to say about the values of volunteering in general.
She feels it is not only one of the best
ways to contribute to school and neighborhood communities, it also
feels great to help out. And the kids deifnitely
reap the rewards. "It sounds cliché [but]
children are our future" she says "and the kids are wonderful!"
When
I asked Emily what she did in her spare time, I could almost hear her
laughter through the computer. "What spare
time?" I could hear the incredulity, "I email with Devon. And
drink coffee. But only decaf."
Really,
much spare time is spent running Troop 2128, a joint effort with co
leader Devon Boatwright that takes a lot of foresight and planning.
When she's not doing busy planning meetings, she enjoys hanging out
with her 7 year old daughter, Sofie, her 1.5 year old son and her
husband. She also enjoys anything outside from
hiking, biking, swimming and running. She also
enjoys visiting DC museums and going to string quartets. Recently,
she has been working on starting her own small home-organizing business.
It
seems Emily is always on the go volunteering! From
helping out within the school to helping our girls grow into strong
women through Girl Scouts, she does it well. Thank
you, Emily, for being one of our valued volunteers at Terraset this
month!
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Time
Management Skills- We all Need Them!
As
I work on this article, hours before I am due to schedule the
newsletter for delivery to everyone, I contemplate whether or not I
should be the one to be writing this. After all,
time management is certainly not my strong suit. My
manager at my old job told me it was my weakness. And
nowadays I am the one who is chronically taking on too many tasks. I am
the one who occasionally makes my children late for school because I
needed clean the kitchen before we walk out the door (why? No one is
going to see it before I get back!). I have used
planners on computers and phones. I've carried
around pocket planners and have a calendar the size of Texas on my
kitchen wall to write down everything. But I'm
still left rushing through life. I appear to be
setting a fabulous example for my son, who suffers from poor time
management as well. He forgets things at school, or
saves his homework until the last possible second. He's
been known to do his homework as I stand over him, tapping my foot,
saying "OK, already! We have to go!" Needless
to say, the life lesson in time management seems to have passed us by.
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of the most common complaints my son has when it comes down to getting
tasks completed is that he ends up lacking free time when he is
spending all his time on homework. Part of the
reason this happens is because he saves things until the last minute.
The other reason is he works hard, but
he doesn't work smart. So how do we guide our
children through this hurdle? After all, good time
management skills will help them throughout their lives. Now, my
children are young enough that I would probably sit and help them
through these steps. But older children can do much
of the planning themselves. It's an initial time
investment, but will pay off in the long run.
- Divide tasks into
three categories: Have-to, Want-to, Goals.
Have-tos are those that must get done, no matter
what. Things like homework, sleep, hygiene and
school are in this category.
Want-tos
are those things one desires to do. For my son,
these would be football, playing with friends and video games.
Goals
can be subdivided into short term and long term goals.
- Next step: Create
a daily and weekly planner.
The
number one thing to do here is to make sure you include all your
Have-to tasks. Include some of your Want-to as
well, but make sure you prioritize! If your daily
list goes over 24 hours (don't forget sleep and planning for meals!)
then you'll need to cut back on some of those less intense Want-to
items.
- Don't complain! It
just annoys everyone and you are only avoiding the inevitable.
Don't
fall into the trap of whining about tasks. Just do them.
Make tasks fun- dance while you clean your room. For homework,
make sure you have a set time for doing it and don't underestimate your
assignments! You may think something will only take five
minutes. Really, it may take an hour. So don't put homework
on your daily planner for 30 minutes before you go to sleep at night-
just in case that task may run over. And parents, help your
children manage their time wisely. Try to be aware of what
reports they have due so you can make sure your child is setting aside
proper time for the test.
As
you plan out your time more wisely, you'll realize how much time you
actually have. And, while there is no conclusive evidence that
effective time management will become second nature to everyone, having
the tools to manage time wisely will benefit even the most resistant of
us.
Thanks
to pbskids for such a great article on Time Management for
children. They also have many forms for download- from planning
your day, to your week, to your month!
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BINGO-
There's Something for Everyone!
An evening the whole family can enjoy! Come one
come all and join your friends in a friendly game of Bingo.
There's even pizza and some homebaked goodies! Best of all,
there's prizes! Including door prizes!
Prize baskets include:
- Arts
and Crafts
- Sports
- Harry
Potter
- Kitchen
Fun
- Movies
- Science
Now that sounds like something for everyone! Join
us February, 18: 6-8pm for some Bingo Fun!
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Grace
Art Corner- Photography
From Alison Stobie
 Throughout
history man has been concerned with recording events and places.
However, it was not until the camera was
invented that people were able to accurately record pictures of people,
places and things. Camera means 'room' in Latin so
a camera is literally a 'room with a view.'
In the sixteenth century a device known as a
camera obscura was invented. This literally means a
'dark room' and this is what it was - a box with a hole it which
enabled light to copy an image. However, there was
no way for a camera obscura to store images.
The next development in photography was the use of
a lens to focus the image and refract the light. Film
was then developed to store the copied image. Jean-Louis
Daguerre, a Frenchman is credited with capturing the first sharp
photographic image on a copper plate back in 1837.
Until the early 1900s, photography was not
considered an art form. It was merely used to
capture images. Only when cameras became smaller
and exposure times shorter did people begin to use cameras as a way to
capture an unusual viewpoint or a special event.
Pictorial Photography
The subjects in this type of photography were very
similar to those in paintings. The images were
black and white or sepia and the photographer often used soft focus or
special light filters. The images were usually
manipulated in the dark room and sometimes photographers used etching
to add more detail to photos.
Documentary
Photography
This type of photography is often thought of as
photojournalism. The photographs are telling
stories of real-life events or situations. During
the Great Depression, photographers took pictures of the suffering and
poverty experienced by the unemployed.
Portrait and Fashion
photography
Portrait photography is the capturing of a person's
physical attributes - what they look like. However,
good portrait photography can also capture a person's personality and
character. Fashion photography attempts to create
beautiful, idealized images that others wish to recreate.
Modernist
Modernist photographers take photographs using
unusual angles, extreme close-ups, new perspectives and collages.
They pay great attention to light,
perspective and form.
Science Photography
In the late nineteenth century, photography became
a significant compliment to science. Photographers
were able to capture images which the human eye could not even imagine
e.g. the surface of the moon, tiny cells, the inside of the heart.
In the 1930s, Harold Egerton began using
flashes of light to stop action and capture sharp images in even the
darkest of settings. Nowadays, we see photographs
instantly on digital cameras and even take three dimensional
photographs using holograms. Developments in
computer technology mean that digital photographs can be manipulated so
that it is even more difficult to distinguish between art and
photography.
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| OJJDP Employees Enjoy Exhibition |
Terraset
Exhibitions to Continue
For the past
several months, more than 30 Terraset students have had their artwork
on display at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. This exhibition represents an
ongoing relationship between the OJJDP and Terraset ES and is the
second exhibition the OJJDP has hosted. A third will be mounted in the
next month or so. Photographed are OJJDP employees Ralph Foote,
Donni LeBoeuf, and Darren Jones enjoying the Terraset Children's art on
display in the Administrator's Wing of the Office.
Each
artist will receive a certificate from the Administrator commending
their work.
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Providing
Windows of Opportunity: Flexible, Tax Advantaged, Afforadable,
College Savings!
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Dates
to Remember
Jan 25: Band/strings winter
concert 7p
Jan 25: Terraset Day at
Chili's all day
Jan 31: Student Holiday
Feb 1: Student
Holiday
Feb 8: PTA meeting
at 6:30pm
Feb 14: Band/Strings Valentine
Concert
Feb 18: Bingo Night
(save that date!!)
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Address and Hours:
11411 Ridge
Heights Road,
Reston, Virginia
20191
Bell Schedule:
Mon: 9:15-1:25
T-F: 9:15-3:55
Office Hours:
8:00AM-4:30PM
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With the winter months
keeping many kids inside, many parents might be bearing the brunt of
energy unleashed in the confines of the great indoors. The Winter
After School Program is currently enrolling and, while Lego Club is
full, we do have some room in Kids Zumba and Yoga on Wednesdays!
If you plan to enroll, please get your forms in soon.