Many thanks to our amazing PTO, Room Parents and families for showering our staff with appreciation and love during Staff Appreciation Week. Among the lovely plants and flowers, thoughtful notes, surprise staff raffle and a delicious luncheon -- we all felt so cared for. On behalf of the entire staff, we thank you all for your kindness and generosity. Many thanks to our Room Parent Coordinator, Anna Erickson, and Hospitality Co-Chairs, Sarah Stanton and Ruth Facer, for putting together such a special week for the staff.

Wishing all of our moms a very Happy Mother's Day this weekend! 🌸

Upcoming Dates

• Tuesday, May 14 6:00 - 6:30 Y5/Kinder Spring Concert
• Wednesday, May 15 1:00 Dismissal, Early Release
• Monday, May 20 12:30 - 3:00 4th Grade Disability Awareness Workshop
• Tuesday, May 21 6:30 - 7:30 5th Grade Instrumental Concert
• Monday, May 26 - Memorial Day - No School
• Friday, May 31 5:30 - 7:30 Ice Cream Social
• Sunday, June 2 6:00 - 8:00 Parent & Staff Night Out
• Monday, June 10 Field Day
• Tuesday, June 11 6:00 - 7:00 5th Grade Promotion
• Thursday, June 13 Last Day of School - Half Day

AAPS Freeman Spring Environmental Festival

Join the Freeman Environmental Youth Council between 1:00-3:30 pm on May 18th at the Freeman Environmental Education Center for an afternoon of fun and educational activities, trivia, art, native plants, high school student presentations and more. Elementary and middle school students should be accompanied by a parent/guardian and dress for the weather as there will be indoor and outdoor activities. Please RSVP here.

AAPS STEAM & CTE Expo

Come Join Mrs. Kipp Dohm and Mrs. Chappell for the AAPS STEAM and CTE Expo on Tuesday, May 14th from 6:00-7:30 pm in the Skyline Commons!

What is STEAM?
Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math

In AAPS, some of our STEAM offerings include engineering, computer science and biomedical, including all PLTW courses

What is CTE?
Career and Technology Education

In AAPS, our CTE programs are Automotive Technology, Business, Computer Science, Cosmetology, Culinary, Engineering, Health Science, and Homebuilding

What to Expect at the Expo:

Student work showcase Y5-12th Grades Hands-on, interactive STEAM Demonstrations, including our district robotics teams and CTE Programs, and Community Connections.

**See flier below for additional info.**

The Dicken Talent Show - Correction

Our Annual Dicken Talent Show will be held on Wednesday, May 29th @ 2:00. (The start time was listed as 1:30 in a prior newsletter).

Families are welcome!

The Character Effect

This week, students learned about the character strength of "Humility".

All the Best,

Heather

With many end-of-year field trips, and other opportunities to volunteer, we would like to remind all parents who want to volunteer to fill out the Parent Volunteer Form if you have not done so already this school year. Thank you for supporting our teachers and classrooms!

Happy Weekend Dolphins,

Thank you to all the families who have supported our Dicken teachers and staff this week during Teacher Appreciation Week. It was great to see so many kids with flowers, cards and special treats for the amazing Dicken staff this week. I'd like to especially thank our room parent coordinator, Anna Erickson, for spearheading the TAW events this week.

The PTO also reached out to local businesses who supported our Dicken Teachers this week. On Thursday, Great Harvest Bread Co donated 4 dozen cookies, and on Friday morning, Bakehouse 46 donated 4 dozen tasty donuts to our staff!

We also had many local businesses who donated items that the PTO was able to raffle off to Dicken staff for an extra special treat. Thank you to: The Ark, BeeQ Salon, Dominos, Drip House, The Encore, Hey Day Salon, Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, Holidays Restaurant, Oasis Hot Rub Gardens, Ricewood, Seva, Stray Hen Cafe, Sweet Heather Anne, University Flower Shop,

Here are a few ways that the Dicken PTO has used the funds we've raised this year to help our school this week:

• The PTO provided lunch today to all of the Dicken Teachers and Staff today from Stars Cafe! We hope they enjoyed the lunch and felt the love from the community.
• The PTO purchased healthy snacks and some special treats for staff lounge on Monday to kick off Teacher Appreciation Week.
• The PTO also paid the deposit for our Field Day activities! For those new to the school, Field Day is a great event the last week of school to celebrate the summer!
  
  

WE NEED YOU to join the PTO!

Next year's PTO board will be voted on and approved at our meeting next Thursday. We still have many openings and would love to get more people involved in our board. Without hospitality and fundraising chairs the activities and events that we are able to do as a community will be limited next year.

If you have any questions about these initiatives or how you can be more involved in the Dicken PTO please do not hesitate to reach out!

Have a great weekend,

Hallie

—Hallie Jewell, Dicken PTO President

dickenptopresident@gmail.com

Want to connect with other parents and caregivers outside of school?

Click here for the Dicken Elementary Parents Facebook group.

Find information about events, meeting minutes, and more on the PTO website at www.dickenpto.com

All PTO Meetings take place on the third Thursday of each month from 7 - 8:30 pm via Zoom.

All Dicken community members are welcome to attend PTO meetings.

Click here for the Zoom link.

Thursday, May 16

Thursday, June 20

More Helpful Links:

Dicken Student and Staff Directory

Dicken PTO Google Calendar

AAPS School Calendar

We have the following openings for the 2024-2025 PTO board. If you are interested in one of these positions or learning more, please reach out to Hallie at dickenptopresident@gmail.com. All PTO Board members are expected to attend (via Zoom) our monthly PTO meetings on the 3rd Thursday of the month.

President-Elect (1 opening):

The PTO President is responsible for overseeing the work of the officers and committees of the PTO to promote community, fundraising and volunteerism. The PTO President also creates meeting agendas and facilitates PTO board meetings. This position will shadow the current President for one full year before taking over for the 25/26 and 26/27 school years.

PTO Treasurer-Elect (1 opening):

Responsible for the financial accounting aspects of PTO. This position will shadow the current Treasurer for one full year before taking over for the 25/26 and 26/27 school years.

Secretary (1 opening):

A great role for a new Dicken Parent or one who wants to learn about the PTO Board! This involves attending all PTO meetings and taking minutes during the meeting. You also create the Dicken Directory at the beginning of the school year.

Hospitality (2 openings):

This is a great position for you if you love planning, hosting and spreading joy for all Dolphins! You will also get to meet a lot of people and develop a deeper understanding of (and relationship with) the Dicken community. You can expect a lot of activity in September-October leading up to the Pumpkin Patch and April-May leading up to the Ice Cream Social. For these beloved events, you can just follow the playbook or add your own unique spin! And you'll be massively supported by volunteers on the "day of." Other ongoing responsibilities include: regularly stocking the teachers' lounge snacks and occasionally organizing catering for staff luncheons. Historically, this position has been co-chaired by two parents.

Fundraising Chair/Co-chair (1 or 2 openings):

The fundraising chairperson is responsible for helping the PTO board reach our fundraising goals for the annual budget. The Fundraising chair oversee the Read-a-thon (and assist the Dash chair) which are the two major fundraising efforts for the year. The fundraising chair is also responsible to facilitating smaller fundraisers throughout the year, like Community Nights Out.

Save the date for this year's Dicken Ice Cream Social!

Friday, May 31

5:30 - 7:30 pm

The ice cream social is a well loved community event full of treats, games, and activities. It is the unofficial start to the end of the year celebrations! Our event organizers are seeking many volunteers to make this night a success. Click here to sign up to help!

Please do not park in the Runnymede lot after 3:30pm on Friday, May 31. As soon as pick up is over and the buses clear, we need to block off this space to start setting up the Ice Cream Social.

Meet up at Pretzel Bell outside of school hours to hang out with other grown ups in the Dicken community as the school year winds down. No RSVP required.

We will once again be hosting a wine pull at this event! If you'd like to donate, please purchase a $12-$20 bottle of wine and drop it off at either the Walker's house (1553 Covington Dr) or the Wright's house (1842 Harley Dr) by Friday, May 24th. At the event, attendees can pull a random bottle of wine for $10!

We have exciting news! Our Original Works Online Gallery will remain open through 5/11.

You can continue to place orders during this Late Order Phase of our program.

PLEASE NOTE:
Orders placed during this time period will arrive after the main order, no promised date.

Keep in mind, the products make great gifts for any time of the year!

Thanks so much for your support of our amazing art program!

How to order:

1. Visit the Original Works site.
2. Enter school code Dic
3. Search gallery using the teacher or title (provided on the order forms sent home in backpack mail: example: Dic012)
4. Order by clicking the image of the product you want to order.
5. Please note: you will need the 6-digit student code provided on the order form sent home in backpack mail.
6. All orders are processed and shipped to the school for distribution.

Garden Communications are moving to What’s App – join us!

All garden communications are being consolidated into one place. What’s App lets us make announcements, chat with the group or privately, and provides easy access to shared documents and links that get lost in emails or Facebook posts. Let’s all get connected. The Facebook group will be closing soon, so if you want to stay in the know please join our What’sApp chat.

Seedlings are making progress slooowly.

It’s been two weeks since some of our lower elementary students planted seeds at recess, and we have some very tiny tomato, broccoli, marigold and brussels sprouts seedlings for our garden. Hoping that another couple of weeks will get them a little stronger and ready to plant in the garden. If you want to watch some grow at home, let Anne know and we can arrange a pickup. All they need is a sunny window and a little water. This is a fun experiment, there is no pressure. We will plant the ones that make it and buy more seedlings as needed.

Recess Gardening – volunteers needed

We want to give students a chance to get in the garden at least once a week during lunch recesses from approximately 11:30 – 1:00. We need at least two volunteers to make this happen, one to stay in the garden and one to take groups to and from school. The more volunteers we have, the more students can participate. Interested students will sign up in the classroom, and teachers will do their best to make sure everyone gets a turn. If your student is interested, please be aware that they may get dirty on gardening days.

What’s Growing On

Our transplanted strawberries are doing well in their new home, and the garden club built them a protective cover so we may get some berries this year. Most beds are now weeded, and we are in the process of mixing in peat moss and compost. The exception is our big bed in the middle -- it still needs a lot of work before the soil will be ready for tomatoes, sunflowers and watermelon. Families are welcome to work in the garden at any time.

Join After School Garden Club!

We’ll meet every Tuesday through the end of the year. Join anytime and sign up here!

Teachers – come visit the garden

We’ve had a few classes come through the garden, and we get a lot done in a short time. Contact Anne to arrange a time!

Contact

Join our WhatsApp chat or email Anne at amcerickson@gmail.com.

Location and Time: Monday, June 10, 2024; all day (rain or shine)!

Grades 1st, 2nd and 5th in the morning

Grades Y5s, K, 1st, 3rd and 4th in the afternoon

If you like to have fun outside, then this day is for you! We need a LOT of volunteers to make this a great day for the kids!

Click here to sign up to help with Field Day.

Support our Fundraiser - Dicken Elementary PTO

Buy Mabel's Labels waterproof, durable labels to help reduce classroom mix-ups and keep your items coming home!

Use code: BTS10 for 10% off your purchase

Search Dicken Elementary PTO (Ann Arbor) on the Mabel's Labels website for a portion of your purchase to go directly toward our school!