Dear Parents:

What better time to foster family engagement then the start of a new school year?  

From the White House to our homes, we all recognize the need to prepare our children to be healthy, happy, well-educated citizens!  In 2010/2011, we hope to reach out to Browning parents & staff with our “Healthy Habits/Healthy Minds” theme to further strengthen the ties between school & community.  By promoting good eating habits & encouraging physical activity, we can help emphasize the important roles we all play in keeping our children healthy and ready to learn.

On behalf of the entire Browning Elementary family, the PTA would like to invite you to support our efforts in this initiative & to help supplement the classroom learning environment.   Without PTA fundraising dollars & our amazing volunteers, the opportunity for on-site learning experiences, field trips, playground equipment, supplemental learning materials, and, as in the past, Family Fun Events would not be possible.

Please check out our calendar of events & membership materials!  We look forward to working with you to support our students and staff in another “Browning the Best” year!

Browning PTA Team

Please view the attached document from Dr. Christine M. Johns, Superintendent of Utica Community Schools.

CFEP 2010-2011 Budget Update

WOW!   Lisa Larson, Cheryl Troppens, May Michelak did an amazingawesome job of organizing this year’s Browning the Best Fun Fair on June 4, 2010, from 6-9 PM.   Much to our delight, they earned >$5000 for the school from this family fun event!  Bless you ladies for your continued support!

We greatly appreciate all of the volunteers for these event!!!

Many thanks to Cindy Werbrouck for chairing/coordinating this family fun event!  As a result of her efforts, Browning earned >$700!  Great job Cindy!

Have a great summer!

Story: Several schools recognized for their green effort

Along with reading, writing and arithmetic, students are learning a whole new set of “The Three Rs” – and many of those students have been recognized for their efforts to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle to help the environment.

Four Warren Consolidated schools and 12 in the Utica Community Schools district were recognized by the Macomb County Board of Commissioners as official Michigan Green Schools on April 22, Earth Day. Schools met 10 criteria to achieve the status, including a variety of actions that result in energy savings and environmentally friendly activities.

Read more of this story, click on or type the URL below:
http://www.sourcenewspapers.com/articles/2010/04/30/news/doc4bd89ebe47f9c368117248.txt

HAPPY ADS!

Be a part of your 6^th grader’s memory book

Submit a Happy Ad to wish them Good Luck!All ads will be in the book, and the memories will last a lifetime. *Please keep your ad to 2-3 sentences to make room for everyone!

READING MAKES YOUR KNOWLEDGE GROW

 2010 Family Literacy Night – Sponsored by the Browning Elementary PTA

Thanks to everyone who participated in Browning’s Family Literacy Night on Thursday, March 11th for a celebration of reading! 

 Students enjoyed selecting books from the awesome “book garden” book exchange where families/students “planted” their gently used book and “picked” one to take home, wonderful book themed snacks, planting seeds in biodegradable pots, making their own sunflower reading charts, and listening to our guest readers & local author Noi Reineke.  3rd Grade families were entertained by their budding poets & commercial super-stars. 

In order to offer this FREE event, we needed a great planning team & volunteers.  Wow!  They were all amazing!  We greatly appreciate their time, creativity, & talents.  Without them,  Family Literacy Night would not have been possible. 

All proceeds from the Book Fair benefited the Browning Research Center.

Dear Parents:   Thank you to all the parents that contributed to our 2009/10 Balloon Launch Fundraiser for Browning’s PTA.  We had a successful event with 12 students receiving their balloon cards back and raising $5,091.20 to go towards our Browning Elementary children.  Some of our students received some really nice notes back with their returned balloon cards.    Our event was highlighted in the C & G Newspaper giving our event local press.

The PTA raffled an overnight stay to the Kalahari Resort.  Each student of Browning had their name in the drawing with a minimum donation of $20.00 with a $40.00 maximum per family.  The winner of the Kalahari stay is Austin Rasho.  Congratulations!  

Thank you for your generosity and for your support along the way.  We look forward to a rewarding, educational and fun year for our Browning Students.

2009/10 PTA Sponsored Event
Balloons Found/Calculated in Approximate Air Miles

Jeffrey             Pre-K/Room 2                         Sterling Heights, MI

(Mrs. Washburn found)            Less than 1

Bobby              Grade K                                   Sterling Heights, MI                  Less than 1

(Found by the church)

Casey               Pre-K/Room 2                         Sterling Heights, MI                  Less than 1

(near school)

Shawn              Grade 4/Room 12                    China Township, MI                 32 Air Miles *

Victoria G.       Grade 5                                    No City Given – Canada          Unknown

Milan                Grade K p.m.                           Simcoe, Ontario                       140 Air Miles

Samantha         Grade 2/Room 9                      Westfield, NY                          177 Air Miles

Parker              Grade 3/Room 24                    Buffalo, NY                              212 Air Miles

Logan N.          Grade 1/Room 16                    Dushore, PA                            349 Air Miles

Michael O.       Grade K                                   Udora, ON  (note)                   419 Air Miles

Madison           Grade 5/Room 16                    Chatham Twp., PA (note)         420 Air Miles

Jonathan           Grade 6/Room 24                    Wellsville, NY                          446 Air Miles

Did you know that: The distance between Wellsville, NY and Hartford, CT is 111 air miles WOW that balloon went far!

* Balloon that went in a totally different direction!

Please join us for Family Literacy Night on Thursday, March 11th from 6:30-8PM for a celebration of reading!  Research validates that children who read at home do better in school & are more likely to do succeed academically when their parents are involved in their school.  We hope to set the scene for a Family Literacy Night like no other for all!  

Theme of the evening will be “Reading Makes Your Knowledge Grow.”  We’ll be decorating with flower cut-outs, set up a “book garden” book exchange where families/students can “plant” their gently used book and “pick” one to take home, serve raw vegetables/dip & other fun book themed snacks, set up a station for students to decorate a garden pot & plant a seed, and make their own sunflower reading charts.  We’ll have a few guest readers & our wonderful 3rd Grade teachers are planning a Poet’s Corner & Commercial opportunity for their students & their families.

To make this family fun event a huge success, we needed a great planning team.  Many thanks to the following volunteers!  If you can assist with Family Literacy Night in any capacity, please contact Michelle Pugh at [email protected] or 566-2450.

• Jen Sornig & Carrie VanLuven – “Snack Masters” to brainstorm book-related refreshments, recruit volunteers to supply food, and oversee the refreshment table.
• Deb Beger and Kim Liepshutz – Book Swap Cops to recruit volunteers to collect gently read book, set up the book swap table, and help children choose books to take home.  To ensure every child goes home with at least one book, the Book Swap Cops will be seeking donations of used, age-appropriate books ahead of time. 
• Setup & Cleanup Captain still needed to recruit volunteers to help set up the evening’s activities and clean up at the end of the night.

THE WINNING NAME IS “PAWS”!

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS WHO NOMINATED THE WINNING NAME FOR OUR BROWNING BEAR MASCOT!

MRS PALMER
Evan Werbrouck

MRS BERNIER
Blake Steixner

MRS PAPASTAMATIS
Brooke Sasinowski

MRS ANDREWS
Evan deJesus

MRS AIELLO
Kelly Nichols
Maysa Terry
Andrew Morelli
Mitchell Paperd

MRS SLUSHER
Ireland Majewski
Gabrielle Alicea

MRS TOCCO
Danae Orsini