**Just Released**

Saturday is going to be a BEAUTIFUL day! Perfect weather for outdoor games and watching an exciting game of football. Be sure to bring lawn chairs or a blanket to sit on. We’ll have lots of hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos and cheese, popcorn, cotton candy, and much more for sale at the concessions table. Be sure to check out the fun new spirit wear, too!

While we have lots of volunteers, but we can always use more.  If you can Jump In for an hour, please find Candi Helmlinger at the event or email info@mountainviewpto.org.

Here are some reminders:

Fall Festival: Come out on Saturday from 3-6 at MVES for the Fall Festival and Staff Football Game! It’s going to be an exciting family day with obstacle courses, moon bounces, face painting, games, prizes, hot dogs, hamburgers, and so much more. Be sure to cheer on our favorite teachers at MVES as they play a fun game of flag football. $5/person entry fee. Games and activities are free. Concessions, raffle tickets and spirit wear for sale. This event is sponsored by Harris Teeter.

Coin Competition:  We realize that there have been technical difficulties with the coin competition, so we’re extending this Grade Level competition until Thursday, October 6th. The grade that brings in the most spare change wins FREE popcorn on Popcorn Friday (Oct. 7th)! So dig through those drawers, peek under the couch cushions…that penny found may be the lucky penny that gives your grade the win!

Box Tops Competition: The Box Tops Competition is well under way. Remember to have all of your Box Tops in baggies labeled with the number of Box Tops and your teacher’s name. The class that wins this competition wins extra recess and a prize of their choice – MVES football, jump rope or frisbee!

Teacher PTO Membership Contest: The teacher with the highest percentage of families joining the PTO wins a $100 supply gift card. Support the PTO and your teacher by joining today! Contest officially ends on Friday, September 30, but we’ll extend this offer through the Fall Festival. It’s never to late to join and support the PTO!

Fall Fundraiser: help us avoid future wrapping paper sales! Support the Fall Fundraiser with a donation to the PTO (listed on your membership form, but can be sent in at any time). The recommended family donation is $50. All proceeds go to supporting MVES programs such as assemblies, scholastic newsletters, and much more. Every $10 donated to the PTO enters your family into the iPod Touch drawing!

PTO Events:
Saturday, 10/01                MVES FALL FESTIVAL & STAF FOOTBALL GAME, 3-6 PM at MVES
Monday, 10/03                 Capri Suns Competition Starts – bring in empty capri suns in ziplock bags labeled with quantity and teacher for a class prize!
Thursday, 10/06                Grade Level Coin Competition Ends
Friday, 10/07                      Popcorn Friday – bring in a quarter for a popcorn snack!

**Be sure to enter your email address at www.mountainviewpto.org for up-to-date event info and “like” us on Facebook!**

**Just Released**

Staff Football Teams have been selected and are ready to rumble!

Blue Team:

• Ms. Crowe (1st Grade)
• Ms. Haywood (1st Grade)
• Ms. Williams (Kindergarten)
• Ms. Swanson (5th Grade)
• Ms. Barton (Principal)
• Ms. McCampbell (4th Grade)

Gray Team:

• Ms. Sieg (3rd Grade)
• Ms. Brokopp (Special Education)
• Ms. Cerrone (Counselor)
• Ms. Terry (3rd Grade)
• Ms. Compel (Assistant Principal)
• Ms. Gasiorowski (3rd Grade)

Cheerleaders

• Ms. Cole (Counselor)
• Ms. Perrin (2nd Grade)
• Ms. Brewster (5th Grade)
• Ms. Stancato (Gifted Education)
• Ms. Vanyush (5th Grade)
• Ms. Lewis (Kindergarten)

Referees

• Yvonne Sortzi (PE Encore)
• Jim Proctor (PTO Parent)
• John Newman (PTO Parent)

Announcers

• Ms. Costello (2nd Grade)
• Mr. Skelton (Art Encore)

3-Legged Race

• Ms. Williams (Kindergarten)
• Ms. Cole (Counselor)
• Ms. Cerrone (Counselor)
• Ms. Joslin (Kindergarten)
• Ms. Kinkead (Kindergarten)
• Ms. Corry (Special Education)
• Ms. Brokopp (Special Education)

Here are some quick reminders:

• Wednesday, September 28th – PAJAMA DAY
• Thursday, September 29th – RED, WHITE, AND BLUE DAY: show your spirit for the USA! (coin competition ends today)
• Friday, September 30th – CRAZY HAIR DAY

Saturday, October 1st – FALL FESTIVAL AND FLAG FOOTBALL GAME AT MVES, 3-6 PM.$5 per person to attend. Sponsored by Harris Teeter – don’t forget to update your VIC card at www.harristeeter.com.

**JUST RELEASED**

The Fall Festival features lots of good, old fashioned family fun!

• Staff Flag Football Game
• Obstacle Moon Bounce
• 2 Moon Bounces
• Face Painting
• Hair Spray
• Temporary Paw Print Tattoos
• Clown tying balloons
• Bank Shot
• Harvest Toss
• Dino Dig
• Fish Pond
• Quarter Drop
• Ping Pong Bounce
• Putting Green
• Horse Shoe
• Cake Walk
• Musical Chairs
• Lucky Leis
• Raffles (round of golf at Piedmont, spirit wear basket, board games basket, football basket)
• MVES Playgrounds
• Spirit Wear Sales

What a cougarrific week of fun ahead!  Here are some quick reminders:

• Tuesday, September 27th – INSIDE OUT AND BACKWARDS DAY. Don’t forget to bring in your spare change for the coin competition.
• Wednesday, September 28th – PAJAMA DAY
• Thursday, September 29th – RED, WHITE, AND BLUE DAY: show your spirit for the USA! (coin competition ends today)
• Friday, September 30th – CRAZY HAIR DAY

Saturday, October 1st – FALL FESTIVAL AND FLAG FOOTBALL GAME AT MVES, 3-6 PM.$5 per person to attend. Sponsored by Harris Teeter – don’t forget to update your VIC card at www.harristeeter.com.

The PTO General Membership Meeting is this Tuesday, September 27th from 4 – 5 PM in the MVES teachers’ lounge.  Your volunteer board is looking forward to meeting with you and getting your input on upcoming events and activities.

Meeting Agenda

• Welcome by the PTO Board
• Financial Update
• Membership Update
• Volunteer Update
• September Recap – Plus/Delta
• October Activities
• November Activities
• Next PTO General Membership Meeting is Nov. 29th

PTO Membership Meetings are open to all PTO family members. Haven’t joined? You can join at the meeting! Click here to download the membership form.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away! According to Wikipedia:

“Johnny Appleseed (September 26, 1774 – March 18, 1845), born John Chapman, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. He became an American legend while still alive, largely because of his kind and generous ways, his great leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples.”

“He was raised on a small farm in Massachusetts. His favorite place was his father’s apple orchard, as he loved apples. Whenever settlers passed by, he heard of fertile soils, and that inspired him to plant apple seeds through the frontier.”

“The popular image of Johnny Appleseed had him spreading apple seeds randomly, everywhere he went. In fact, he planted nurseries rather than orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock, left the nurseries in the care of a neighbor who sold trees on shares, and returned every year or two to tend the nursery. Many of these nurseries were located in the Mohican area of north-central Ohio.”

“Johnny Appleseed dressed in the worst of the used clothing he received, giving away the better clothing in barter. However, contrary to popular belief, Johnny actually didn’t wear pots on his head or torn rags for clothing, although he did go barefoot in summers to save leather.”

“Johnny Appleseed is remembered in American popular culture by his traveling song or Swedenborgian hymn (“The Lord is good to me…”), which is today sung before meals in some American households.”

**JUST RELEASED**

The Fall Festival is this Saturday from 3-6 PM. It’s $5/person to enter which covers all moon bounces, obstacle course, face painting, paw tattoos, balloons, cake walk, and TONS of games and prizes. And the best attraction – the staff flag football game! Come cheer on our favorite teachers at MVES!

Also for sale: raffle tickets, hamburgers, hot dogs, popcorn, nachos and cheese, cotton candy, water, Gatorade, iced tea, lemonade and so much more!

This is a must attend event for the whole family!

What a cougarrific week of fun ahead!  Here are some quick reminders:

• Monday, September 26th – JERSEY DAY: show your spirit for your favorite team! Don’t forget to bring in your spare change for the coin competition.
• Tuesday, September 27th – INSIDE OUT AND BACKWARDS DAY
• Wednesday, September 28th – PAJAMA DAY
• Thursday, September 29th – RED, WHITE, AND BLUE DAY: show your spirit for the USA! (coin competition ends today)
• Friday, September 30th – CRAZY HAIR DAY

Saturday, October 1st – FALL FESTIVAL AND FLAG FOOTBALL GAME AT MVES, 3-6 PM. Sponsored by Harris Teeter – don’t forget to update your VIC card at www.harristeeter.com.

Time to get the whole family fit! According to www.fitnessday.com:

“The 15th annual Family Health & Fitness Day USA is a national health and fitness event for families, set for Saturday, September 24, 2011. (always on the last Saturday in September.) The event’s purpose is to promote family involvement in physical activity, one of the goals of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health.

Local organizations throughout the country will host family-related health and fitness events at schools, park districts, hospitals, YMCAs/YWCAs, malls, health clubs and other community locations.

Local family health and fitness activities will vary widely based on the organization hosting the event and the interests of local families. Activities will be noncompetitive and may include walking events, low-impact exercises, health screenings, open houses, games and health information workshops.”

According to www.brucevanpatter.com:

“Why have the holiday? All kids are creative; they’re born that way. But more than ever before, children are losing their innate ability to “think outside the box” at early ages. In schools, government standards have prompted teachers to focus on teaching skills and knowledge needed to pass tests. They hope that parents will be able to encourage children to explore and imagine. But parents, overwhelmed by the pace of their schedules, all too often don’t have time to sit down and help their kids write or draw or discover. They hope the school will pick up the slack.

Where do most kids go to feed their imaginations? That’s right. Television. Computer games. Videos. Though these provide entertainment, they do little to encourage kids to make up their own stories, their own games, generate their own ideas.

There are many reasons for this attrition of our children’s creativity. This holiday was created to help parents and teachers focus on the imaginations of kids.

What’s the history of the holiday? Keep Kids Creative Week was started in the fall of 2003. Two years ago, four newspapers in my state of Pennsylvania ran articles on the holiday. Teachers began to celebrate it in their classrooms. Since 2006, KKCW has been listed in Chase’s Calendar of Events, a high-profile, national directory of holidays and celebrations.

Who’s behind it? My name is Bruce Van Patter. I created this holiday to encourage kids. I’m an illustrator and author who specializes in inspiring kids to use their ideas. I’ve worked with nearly 100,000 school-age children and have lots of “field” experience, not only with creative writing but understanding what motivates kids. For two years I wrote an online column for a national parenting organization, providing activities for parents to do with their children.

How can families celebrate it? During National Keep Kids Creative Week, sit down with your kids or students and give them a chance to dream up a story. Help them brainstorm. Develop a main character together. Give them some paper and challenge them to come up with their own superhero, cool treehouse, or perfect pet.”

Happy Fall! Here’s a little science for you, courtesy of Wikipedia:

“An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal length.

At an equinox, the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator (i.e. declination 0) and ecliptic intersect. These points of intersection are called equinoctial points: classically, the vernal point and the autumnal point. By extension, the term equinox may denote an equinoctial point.

An equinox happens each year at two specific moments in time (rather than two whole days), when there is a location (the subsolar point) on the Earth’s equator, where the center of the Sun can be observed to be vertically overhead, occurring around March 20/21 and September 22/23 each year.

Although the word equinox is often understood to mean “equal [day and] night,” this is not strictly true. For most locations on earth, there are two distinct identifiable days per year when the length of day and night are closest to being equal; those days are referred to as the “equiluxes” to distinguish them from the equinoxes. Equinoxes are points in time, but equiluxes are days. By convention, equiluxes are the days where sunrise and sunset are closest to being exactly 12 hours apart.”

MVES Cougar Spirit Week starts this Monday!  Click here to print out an easy reminder of the fun, or see below.

COIN COMPETITION

The GRADE that brings in the most spare change by Thursday, September 29th, wins FREE POPCORN on Popcorn Friday (10/07) for each student in that grade! Contest runs Monday 9/26—Thursday 9/29. All proceeds go to support the MVES Encore Programs. Check out the water jugs in the lobby to see who’s winning. Will it be your grade?

COUGAR SPIRIT FUN

• Monday, September 26th – JERSEY DAY: show your spirit for your favorite team!

• Tuesday, September 27th – INSIDE OUT AND BACKWARDS DAY

• Wednesday, September 28th – PAJAMA DAY

• Thursday, September 29th – RED, WHITE, AND BLUE DAY: show your spirit for the USA! (coin competition ends today)

• Friday, September 30th – CRAZY HAIR DAY

• Saturday, October 1st – FALL FESTIVAL AND FLAG FOOTBALL GAME AT MVES, 3-6 PM (more info announced each day next week!)

FALL FESTIVAL AND FLAG FOOTBALL GAME

Come out on Saturday, October 1st from 3-6 for the MOST COUGARRIFIC fall festival ever seen at MVES! We have a bouncy obstacle course, moon bounces, games, prizes, face painting, paw tattoos, hamburgers, hot dogs, a cake walk, and the best staff flag football game you’ll ever see! Come cheer on our fabulous teachers as Team Blue and Team Gray muscle their way to the end zone!

The MVES Fall Festival is sponsored by Harris Teeter – be sure to update your VIC card at www.harristeeter.com.