October 2011 Archives

This past Saturday, 175 students and their parents braved the weather and gathered at Hale Middle School to attend the Stow Parent Teacher Organization's first ever K-5 Halloween Dance.

The dance was a smashing success, with the help of DJ "Michael Pride" who provided two fun-filled hours of entertainment. A hula hoop contest and mummy wrapping contest were just two of the many activities enjoyed by our elementary school students. A visit from PC the Penguin helped to end the event on an extra exciting note.

Thank you to all of our fellow SPTO members for volunteering to help with the event. As always a huge thank you to the parents of our elementary students who came, volunteered and donated their time and money to make this event such a great time for the kids. Without the help of our school families, events like this would be impossible to pull off. Your help with this event is truly appreciated. We are looking forward to making this an annual event.

Courtney Cratty and Danielle Gregorie, Social Committee co-Chairs, social@stowpto.org

Every year the SPTO publishes a K-8 school directory so that families can communicate more easily with one another. One of the highlights of the directory is the inclusion of artwork submitted by students to support a theme. This year's theme was "stepping up." In this slideshow, all the submissions are shown. The winners are Gretchen Rein (Grade 2) and Maddie Saart (Grade 3). Runners up are Katarina Spasojevic (Kindergarten), Ashley Sweet (Grade 5), and Dylan Whalen (Grade 3). Thank you to all the students who make the directory a visual joy to read!

One element of the fourth grade curriculum is learning about the history of immigration in the United States. To complement that curriculum, the Stow PTO funded an in-school performance of "An American Journey" by the Revels Repertory Company. The 45-minute program was held yesterday in the Center School gym for the entire grade. Two children from each class participated in the performance, and spent the past several weeks learning songs and their lines.

The live performance of stories, songs, and dances told the journey of three Irish, Italian and Eastern European Jewish families to America in the early 1900s.

The single largest expenditure of the Stow PTO, approximately 40%, funds such arts and cultural enrichment programs. We fund two programs of this type per grade per year, plus all-school programs. For more information on these programs at Pompo and Center, please see our Arts & Cultural Enrichment page which includes dates for 2011-12 programs.

Thank you to the Revels for their visit to Stow!

Word on the street was that "PC Penguin" did not get to meet the morning kindergarten students in her (or his?) visit last month. PC had a wonderful visit at Pompo, which began with doing some work for Ms. Marashio. She then waddled throughout the school to greet all the kindergarten and first grade classrooms, with the most common comment being "That's a real person in there!" "PC" did have a tiny mishap and got a small boo boo on her beak. But, after a quick trip to Mrs. Linstrom's health room, her beak was as good as new. She bumped into a wonderful SPTO Mom and then it was off to visit more kids.

Song is "Penguins" by Lyle Lovett from his 1994 "I Love Everybody" album.

Related Post: School Spirit Comes to Pompo - 2011.09.09

Update: Thank you to everyone who came to this event. Please see our Halloween Dance & Party Slideshow.

Calling all Boos and Gouls...

The Stow PTO invites you to our first ever K-5 "Halloween Dance & Party"!

When: Saturday, October 29 from 2-4

Where: Hale School Gymnasium

Admission: $10 per child at door (online pre-registration deadline has passed)

Costumes are optional and for the safety of all children, we will not allow costume accessories that can potentially be harmful.

Snacks and beverages will be available for purchase in the cafeteria (at $1 per item).

For safety reasons, only Pompo and Center students will be allowed to this event. There will be no drop-offs. A responsible adult is required to be in attendance, and an adult may feel free to bring their own Pompo-Center children as well as children of friends who are also Pompo-Center students. No non-Pompo or Center siblings, please.

For further information, please contact the Social Committee chairs Courtney Cratty and Danielle Gregorie at social@stowpto.org

Please visit our page for Box Tops and other collections programs for the 2011-12 school year.

If you have questions about the Collections programs at Pompo-Center's SPTO, please feel free to contact coordinators Kathy O'Keefe or Krista Bracci at boxtops@stowpto.org