WHEN: Wednesday Nov. 17th – Sunday, Nov. 21st

• Wed. 11/17- Sun. 11/19 – Classroom visits to the outdoor Book Fair
• Wed. 11/17, 7-8:10pm – Zoom Pajama Party Read Aloud
• NEW!! Special hot cocoa kits available for presale now. Enjoy them during the PJ read aloud and support the 5th grade class!
• Sun. 11/21, 1-4pm – Family event with outdoor Book Fair shopping and more! 
• Outdoor (in person!) and online (in pj’s!) shopping options
• Premiere of the M-R 2021/2022 school bookmark! (Contest winners will be announced during the fair)
  

What can you do today? 

• Sign up to volunteer in your child’s class or as a cashier at the outdoor fair during school hours, or at the Sunday family event!
  
• Preorder your delicious hot cocoa kit – only $6!
• Check out the detailed Book Fair Information flyer that was sent home last week.

We cannot wait to celebrate Mason-Rice’s love for literacy this November!

Purchase hot cocoa kits for the zoom pajama party read aloud! Kits are $6 and include hot cocoa, marshmallows, candy canes, a Dr. Seuss bookmark and eraser, and stickers. Proceeds will support 5th grade graduation activities and 10% of all sales will be donated to charity. Kits will be available for pickup or delivery prior to the event – details to follow. 

 

WHEN:
Monday 11/15, 2:50-4pm (Gr. 3-5)
Tuesday 11/30, 2:50-4pm (Gr. 1-3, with parent/guardian)

WHERE:
Mason-Rice Playground

Have you noticed trash on our playground? Want to help keep our environment clean? Join the M-R Green Team to clean up our playground while having fun! M-R Green Team parents Wendy Sheu and Yvonne Chen are launching a series of after-school outdoor sessions twice a month. Every session will run from 2:50-4pm and comprise of a Mason-Rice campus cleanup and a hands-on activity and/or environmental art project. This program is geared towards M-R students who care about the environment and are interested in making our community greener.

Join us! Find additional details and sign up HERE to join our November session(s). Limited space, first-come first-served!

When: Jan. 20-30, 2022

Mark your calendars! 

 

After last year’s pandemic hiatus, the Mason-Rice Online Auction is coming back!

 

We look forward to featuring all the great things you remember: restaurant gift cards, birthday party packages, camps, family activities, our beloved Mason-Rice-only social events, and much much more!

 

For families new to our auction experience, we know that you’ll love participating in this event that brings our community together.

 

Stay tuned for more details!

 

Thanks to parent donations to the PTO, the Mason Rice Creative Arts & Sciences committee was able to host storyteller Kemp Harris, who visited the kindergarten classes outdoors on Monday, November 8. Mr. Harris sang “Let ‘Em In,” then told a story about Anansi, the trickster spider. In this story, Anansi uses cunning to get all the world’s stories from Nyame, the sky god. The children laughed frequently at the funny tricks that Anansi played on the other characters in the story. Mr. Harris also told a story about Ricardo, a boy who has trouble going to sleep without his teddy bear, and a story about Ducky, a duck who is having trouble learning how to quack. There were a lot of humorous and interactive elements to Mr. Harris’s performance! The kids seemed enthralled and were excited to show Mr. Harris how well they could line up when the hour was over.

This past week, our music teacher, Ms. McIntosh, shared a recording with some of the older grade parents. Her former student teacher, Ms. Guisinger, taught the students to play Shenandoah on ukuleles as part of an Appalachian folk music unit. The students played superbly and enjoyed learning to play the ukuleles, which were funded by our PTO! This is just another example of how your support has a direct impact on our childrens’ learning — so, thank you!

Listen to the students play Shenandoah here!

Thank you to all who have kindly signed up to fulfill a child’s Wish List for the Gift of Giving. As of Wednesday night, ALL Wish Lists have been taken!

To support families in our M-R community, and to round out our 85 wish lists, we have added Star Market/Target/Visa gift cards to our Sign-Up HERE. For those who haven’t had a chance to sign up for Gift of Giving, please consider choosing this important option. Gift cards should be dropped off by Sunday, December 5th to Jay Wood, 26 Park Lane, right around the corner from Mason-Rice. Be sure to write your name on the sign-up sheet in the large plastic bin on the porch.

We are also accepting new unwrapped toys, crafts, and art supplies that can be used to supplement wish lists as needed. These items can also be left on the front porch at 26 Park Lane by Sunday, December 5th.

Feel free to reach out to Michele Niepel or Jay Wood with any questions.

THANK YOU to the Mason-Rice community for supporting the Fall Food Truck Series and the Fall Tea School Days promotion! Collectively you helped raise over $630 for the PTO! While several teams are busy planning perennial fundraising events, smaller fundraisers like these help close the gap for the Annual Fund and also help build connectedness around the school. As an added bonus, the Shoes & Home Goods Drive and the Gift of Giving teams were able to build on the Food Truck events to help increase community engagement and outreach to support those programs as well. Stay tuned for more exciting events to come!

Your usual shopping can support PTO-funded activities (such as teacher classroom allowances, appreciation lunches, and curriculum-enhancing programming for all our students). Last year, the Mason-Rice community shopped with our partners and raised nearly $1500 while participation in our Spring '21 Restaurant Series raised an additional $1100! 

Note that these programs/partnerships, below, run year-round!

Enjoy 20% off Minted cards & gifts with promo code [see e-mailed PTO Notes]. 15% of each order will be donated back to the PTO.