Brackett PTO

January

• 01/09 - Evening teacher conferences (6-8pm)
• 01/13 - 2nd & 3rd Grade Math Night (6-7:30pm, Brackett Cafeteria)
• 01/13-01/17 - Tissue and Wipe Drive
• 01/13-01/17 - School Council Elections
• 01/16 - Brackett PTO Community Meeting: Our Kids and Media
• 01/16 - Andrina's Pizza Night (mention "Brackett PTO" at checkout)
• 01/17 - STEM Committee Meeting (7pm, Zoom)
• 01/20 - No School - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• 01/24 - Brackett Movie Night ("Toy Story", doors open at 6pm, movie starts at 6:30pm)
• 02/03-02/07 - Hour of Code
• 02/07 - Glow Dance (6:30-8:30pm)
• 02/11 - Coffee with Dr. Vice (7:30-8:30am)

Friday Math Mornings - every Friday at 7:20am for 3rd (Brackett Library), 4th (Room 312), 5th (Room 201)

Second and Third Graders and their parents (or other adult caregivers) are invited to join us for a playful evening of hands-on mathematical exploration at Family Math Night. Enjoy diverse math- and logic-based puzzles, games, magic tricks, and other fun activities. Activities are designed to be appropriate for all second and third graders, regardless of math background or whether they already love math or haven’t yet discovered how much there is to love.

For more information about this event or other STEM Committee events, visit www.brackettpto.org/stem.

Come join us on January 16th at 6:30pm (in person, at Brackett) for our first PTO community meeting of the new year. We'll cover PTO updates and then leave time for discussing this meeting's topic - media and our kids. We look forward to seeing you!

The PTO will be hosting a community movie night on Friday, January 24th at 6:30pm (doors open at 6pm). Entrance and popcorn are FREE, and pizza and drinks will be available for purchase. Bring a blanket, sleeping bag, or low beach chair to sit on and enjoy this (relatively short) classic!

A few key details (more info can be found here):

• Friday, February 7, 6:30-8:30pm
• Entry is FREE and open to all students, their families and Brackett faculty
• Everyone will get one free glow bracelet - more items, plus food and drinks (bring a reusable water bottle!) will be available for purchase
• Please note that this is NOT a drop off event - all students must be supervised by an adult and no students will be allowed to leave the building without an adult

Lots of help is needed to bring this event to life - there are multiple ways to volunteer and every bit helps (sign up here):

• Donate food and drinks
• Help with setup and cleanup
• Sell food and drinks or glow items at the dance (shifts are split so you can volunteer AND enjoy the dance)
• 5th Graders - there are lots of opportunities to help out and you can sign up for multiple slots!

The PTO STEM Committee is excited to continue our tradition of bringing the Hour of Code program into Brackett classrooms during the week of February 3-7, 2025.

Hour of Code is a national education initiative – the goal is to give millions of students across the country their first taste of computer programming. Brackett has participated in the Hour of Code for several years. The tutorials, arranged as a series of games, are easy to explain to the students and work well to expose them to coding fundamentals.

Hour of Code helps prepare Brackett students to handle technology classes at Gibbs/Ottoson and beyond and hopefully introduces programming to a few students who wouldn’t have tried it otherwise.

We will be looking for parent volunteers to go into classrooms to run a 40-minute coding activity during school hours. This is a great opportunity to see your child in action and meet their classmates! Absolutely no coding experience is necessary — all materials and instructions will be provided. Volunteer information will be posted to www.brackettpto.org/volunteer the week of January 20.

Questions? Email Tammy Kalt at tkalt@brackettpto.org. More information at www.brackettpto.org/stem.

Calling all STEM enthusiasts!

The Brackett STEM Committee is gearing up for an exciting new year, and we want you to be part of it!

Join us for our next committee meeting on Friday, January 17th at 7:00 PM via Zoom. This is a great opportunity to:

• Learn about upcoming STEM events
• Get involved in planning fun and educational activities
• Collaborate with other passionate STEM supporters

No prior experience necessary! Whether you're a seasoned STEM professional or just curious about getting involved, we welcome you.

RSVP to Jamie Strand (iahawks98@gmail.com) or Tammy Kalt (tkalt@brackettpto.org) to get the Zoom link and secure your spot.

We can't wait to see you there!

The Fifth Grade Committee is hard at work creating a memorable final year at Brackett for the Fifth Graders!

The Fifth Graders held two successful fundraisers this fall to help fund their fifth grade activities, including their yearbook, class t-shirt, and the Celebration of Learning in June (formerly fifth grade graduation).

Election Day Bake Sale -

While grades K-4 had the day off on Election Day, November 5, the fifth graders were hard at work running a bake sale at the Brackett polling location. Fifth graders and their families baked almost 2,000 baked goods — cookies, muffins, cupcakes, banana bread, and more! The event virtually sold out by the end of polling hours. All of their hard work paid off — the fifth graders raised over $2,000 for the Fifth Grade Fund.

Movie Night -

On Friday, December 6, The fifth graders held a student-run fundraiser Movie Night where they showed the movie Ferdinand, in honor of this year’s mascot, the Brackett Bulls. The event was very well-attended and the fifth graders raised over $1,200 for their activities!

Great Job, 5th Graders!

Thank you to everyone who coordinated and attended the Arlington EATS events in December - they were a huge hit! The 5th Grade Community Service Committee has shared more opportunities and ideas of ways to get involved in January, February, and March here. More volunteer events will be announced as they are scheduled. Thank you to the 5th graders (and their grownups) for getting involved and volunteering in our community!

For more information on Fifth Grade events, visit https://brackettpto.org/fifthgrade/

Learn more about the school council candidates here.

The Brackett Family Directory is now available on PowerSchool. Once you log in, the Directory is an option on the left side column. It's easy to search by name for students or teacher name to get a list of everyone in a class who has opted into the directory.

We're looking for a few people to help out with the following:

• Brackett Bank Lead - coordinate student deposits and volunteers
• Read-a-thon - help out with planning before and/or events during Read-a-thon (02/24-03/07)
• Tissue and Wipe Drive - collect tissues and wipes for a few minutes before or after school the week of 01/13-01/17

For more information about any of these opportunities or if you'd like to learn how to get involved in other ways, email info@brackettpto.org

Thank you to the generous businesses in our community (Alta Coffee Roasters, Andrina's Pizzeria, Book Rack, Henry Bear's Park and Maxima) that have worked with the PTO for events and fundraisers! We appreciate their support and partnership and hope you think of them when you're out and about in Arlington!

Thank you to all of the Room Reps for coordinating holiday gifts for teachers and staff! This year, classroom gifts were funded by contributions to the annual appeal and PTO fundraising. The PTO also gave gifts to teachers and staff that weren't covered by Room Reps.

All of your generous donations that make this possible!

December’s Brackett Book Fair was a huge success!

The Brackett PTO partnered with Fantastic Book Fairs (a local venture run by The Book Rack in Arlington Center) again this year to bring the annual Brackett Book Fair to the school on December 9-13, 2024. The fair’s proceeds are used to purchase new books for the Brackett Library — this year we were able to raise $2,500!

Thank you to everyone who donated to their classroom's Teacher Book Fund — through your generosity, classroom teachers received over $2,000 in total to spend at the Book Fair to get books for their classroom libraries!

Check out Arlington SEPAC's January newsletter here. The SEPAC monthly meeting is the 2nd Tuesday of every month; so mark your calendars! January's meeting is coming up on 01/14.