Category Archives: From the PTO

Good Food for a Good Cause

Looking for a quick meal between kids’ lessons or sports or need a fun lunch stop over the weekend or next Tuesday after early release? Come Support the 5th Graders and pick up some burritos and chips at Tango Mango any day between May 17th – May 24th.

Please present the attached flyer or just mention you are part of the Zervas community when making payment and Tango Mango will donate 20% (how great is that?) of all purchases made back to the 5th grade class of 2013. All funds raised will used to cover costs associated with the 5th grade graduation. Thank you for helping out.

Tango Mango is located at 1191 Center Street, Newton.

Do you blog?

Handy with WordPress or interested in learning? We’re looking for one or more Zervas parent volunteers to work on editing the ZMail weekly newsletters next year. Please contact Caroline at cwilsonsemail@gmail.com for more information.

Lost and Found

Please check the Lost and Found for your children’s belongings. The Lost and Found is located in the short hallway leading to the girls’ bathroom.

Co-Presidents’ Letter

Dear Zervas Families,

We can’t believe that its May already, and that we have less than two months left to school! We had a very busy April, and ended the month with Newton Serves, where dedicated Zervas parents and children helped spruce up the grounds around the school. Thank you to Ron Abel and Caroline Wilson for leading this effort, and to the many volunteers who came out to lend a hand.

We hope that many of you enjoyed walking to school last week as part of the Walk to School Day. There are so many benefits to walking to school, and we thank Joe Sypek for his efforts in raising awareness and coordinating this program for the last three years.

The Zervas Fair is coming up this weekend, Saturday May 11 from 11am – 2pm, and is a wonderful way for your children to spend a few hours (or more) participating in fun games both inside and outside of Zervas. Helen Haley and John Denninger have tirelessly led our Fair efforts year after year, and they need lots of volunteers to help run a successful fair. Please consider working a short, one hour shift at the fair – its fun and we can’t do it without you! Please see the sign up link in the next announcement, or else e-mail volunteer@zervaspto if you can help out.

And finally, your PTO is busy planning for next year and we need your help! There are several committee chairpersons and board members moving on, and we really need your help to keep doing what we do. Please contact either one of us at pto@zervaspto.org, or Amy Waksler at amywaksler@gmail.com if you are able to help out next year. We are happy to try to find the right fit, whatever your schedule and interests – so please reach out to us so we don’t have to beg!!!!

Hope to see you at the Fair!

-Joanne and Helen

The Fair cannot run without volunteer help

Zervas Fair Desperately Needs Volunteers!  We want to put on a fun, fantastic spring fair for the kids at Zervas, but we need your help to do it!  Right now, we only have 5% of the volunteer spots filled for the Zervas Fair.  We need to fill dozens more slots in order to put on the fair.  Please volunteer for an hour or two so we can make sure the fair is a success.  We welcome Zervas alumni to come back and volunteer so please encourage your middle and high school students to volunteer!

We’re using VolunteerSpot  to schedule volunteers for the Fair.

1. Click this link: http://vols.pt/kNoMSL or the button above to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot
2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot)
3. Sign up! Choose your spots – VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!
4. Enter your info! When you’re done signing up please make sure you enter your name (especially if it’s not obvious from you email) and a phone number so we know who you are and can call if we need to.

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you’re having trouble signing up or prefer not to use your email address, please email Helen Haley at haleyhe@gmail.com and she can sign you up manually.

Upcoming Events

Saturday, May 11, 11:00am – 2:00 pm, Zervas Fair
Monday, May 13, 7:00pm, PTO Executive Board meeting
Monday, May 27, Memorial Day – No School
Tuesday, May 28, 8:20 – 9:30 am, P.B.L.I. All-School Sharing
Wednesday, May 29, 6:30pm, Zervas School Council meeting
Monday, June 3 – Friday, June 7, Library Gift Book Sale
Tuesday, June 11, Color Day
Wednesday, June 12, 6:00pm, Family Picnic

Grounds look great!

A huge thank you to the many volunteers (too many to mention by name- but you know who you are) who came out on a gorgeous and otherwise very busy Sunday to weed and mulch, sweep and plant, paint and sift (and so much more) …. to enhance the beauty of the Zervas grounds. Special thanks to Ron Abel, our capable project leader and to the youth group People to People who chose our site to donate their time to.

Looking for a few good people

Love to be in the spotlight? Prefer to “work in the wings”? Whatever your proclivity, there’s a role waiting for you with the Zervas PTO.  If you have any questions about leadership opportunities with next year’s PTO,  please contact Amy Waksler at amywaksler@gmail.com or pto@zervaspto.org.

This Sunday is NewtonServes

NewtonSERVES is taking place this coming Sunday, April 28th. Please register for the Zervas project to help beautify our school grounds.

A quick and easy registration is requested and can be done at this link. Pre-registered participants will get a spiffy T-Shirt and coffee, water, and yummy snacks will be provided for all workers. ……even if you do not register but find out that you can make it at the last minute, please feel free to stop by Zervas and we’ll put you to work.

NOTE: All NewtonServes volunteers are invited any time between 3:30 – 4:15 to the Closing Celebration at the Newton City Hall War Memorial Auditorium for Ice Cream Sundaes as a thanks for all your hard work. Ice cream generously donated by Cabot’s Ice Cream.

For additional details, please see the website or contact Ron at abelwood@msn.com or Caroline at cwilsonsemail@gmail.com.

Poem in your Pocket Day

Dear Zervas families,

April is National Poetry Month! In the library and throughout the school, we are marking this occasion by celebrating Poem in Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 25. This is our third year participating in the event. Poem in Your Pocket Day encourages students all over the country to choose a poem to carry in their pocket for the day to share with classmates, reading buddies, teachers, and other school community members. Students can select a poem from a book in the library, in their classroom, at home, or they can write their own their own poem.

To get ready for Poem in Your Pocket Day, we have been working with students to learn all about poetry. Students have learned about haikus, acrostic poems, free verse poems, and book spine poems. They have been reading many different poems and thinking about what type of poem they might like to pick for Poem in Your Pocket Day. They have also been creating their own poems during library time and in their classrooms. You can read more about our previous celebrations here:

2012:
http://msbrodericksbookblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/today-was-best-best-best-best-day.html
2011:
http://msbrodericksbookblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/poem-in-your-pocket-day-success.html

Have a favorite poem? Carry it in your pocket on April 25!

Happy Poetry Month!