For your calendar:

March 2, Friday — Free Dress Day March 2, Friday — School Walk-a-thon to benefit the Wellness Team and Nutrition Program March 5, Monday — Dr. Myriam Met speaks on Mandarin immersion at Starr King March 5 – 9, Parent-Teacher conferences March 14, Wednesday — PTA meeting March 14 – 15, Wednesday – Thursday — Chinese Book Fair March 16, Friday — Furlough Day, no school March 16, Friday — StageWrite Fundraiser Party March 21, Wednesday — Math Standards Workshop: Kindergarten and 1st grade parents March 26—29, Monday—Thursday — Spring Break March 30, Friday — Cesar Chavez Day, no school

April 6, Friday — Furlough Day, no school April 17, Tuesday — 5th grade skating outing at Yerba Buena April 20, Friday — Track & Field Day at Kezar Stadium April 21, Saturday — Run for Recess fundraiser for Playworks at Stow Lake April 23, Monday — Staff Professional Development Day, no school April 28, Saturday — Spring Fling May 4, Friday — Free Dress Day May 9, Wednesday — StageWrite Show (de Young Museum) May 11, Friday — StageWrite Show (Brava Theatre, 24th St.) May 24, Thursday — 5th grade promotion May 25, Friday — Last day of school

Nutrition Walk-a-thon
The Student Wellness Walk-a-Thon will be this Friday, March 2. Please support Wellness Programs and your child’s health education by pledging flat donations for your child during their walk! Pledge envelopes were sent home with each child the week of 2/13.

Math Workshop: Academic Standards for K-1st Grade Parents
March 21, Wednesday, 8:40 a.m. in the cafeteria. Learn about math standards for your child’s grade level. Receive fun take home math games to support what you learn to help your child gain math momentum!

Mandarin Immersion Night
Monday, March 5, 5:30 – 7:00 at Starr King

Dr. Myriam Met will offer an educational night for parents, teachers and administrators. How fluent do students become in immersion programs? What can parents do to support their children in immersion programs?

Dr. Met is an international speaker and educator, is a renowned expert on language programs with an emphasis on Mandarin Immersion Programs. Met consults with districts all over the country to assist with implementing Mandarin and other Dual Language Immersion Programs. She presents annually at the Two-Way CABE (California Association for Bilingual Education) Conference. She is the former Director and Senior Researcher of the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. Her previous positions include supervisor of all language programs and bilingual education for major urban school districts, including responsibilities for designing, implementing, and supervising immersion programs.

Chinese Book Fair
Starr King will host a Chinese book fair Wednesday, March 14, and Thursday, March 15. Hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, and 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday. The book fair will be open during the PTA meeting Wednesday evening so come on down to shop and listen to the latest from your parent-teacher organization.

10% – 20% of the fair proceeds will go to the PTA. There will be a knowledgeable bookstore staff member to direct you to age- and grade-appropriate books, DVDs, games, and other materials for your child.

We still need volunteers for the fair. Please contact Claudia Assi at mclaudia_assis@yahoo.com (mclaudia_assis null@null yahoo NULL.com) if you can spare an hour or two March 14 or March 15.

PTA Meeting & News
March 14, Wednesday. 6:00 – 7:30 PM. Our next PTA Meeting will be Wednesday, March 14th and will feature guest speakers from Potrero Hill Recreation Center. Come and learn more about the services and programs offered at the Potrero Rec. Center. Childcare and dinner provided.

The meeting will also feature a Chinese Book Fair from the Little Monkey and Mouse Bookstore (http://www.littlemonkeyandmouse.com/) (http://www NULL.littlemonkeyandmouse NULL.com/), with at least 10% of sales going to the PTA!

StageWrite Fundraiser Party
Friday, March 16, 2012, 6:30-9:30pm
Astro Studios, 348 6th Street, San Francisco
Tickets: $50

StageWrite, Starr King’s theater writing program, invites you to its first annual fundraiser, a fabulous evening of bits, bites, booze and grooves. Proceeds from this event will support StageWrite’s literacy through theatre programs in San Francisco elementary schools. Save the date!

4th Annual Track and Field Program
Interest forms are going home this week so please sign your student up for track and field with MacCanDo and Playworks. Coach Rob MacDaniels of MacCanDo has years of track coaching experience and an approach that boosts young people’s confidence in themselves. All practices will be Mondays, 3/5-4/16 (no practice over Spring Break), on the school playground, with a culminating track meet at Kezar Stadium 4/20, 4-7pm. Only for students in 1st-5th grades. Participation in the on-site after school program not required. (Note: stay tuned for last minute changes during parent-teacher conference week 3/1). Direct questions to Nurse Mary or Coach DJ.

Run for Recess fundraiser for Playworks
Save the Date: 5k run for fun on Sat. April 21st. See the school website starrkingschool.net/fundraising/playworks/ for details and sign up sheets.

StageWrite Advanced Playwriting Show
This will feature plays by seven Starr King 5th graders. Dates are still tentative, but for calendar purposes should be in this time frame:
Wednesday May 9th @ de Young Museum
Friday May 11th 7pm @ Brava Theatre (24th Street)

SCHOOL NEWS

Tamale Sale Results
Ms. Evangeline gave the PTA a check for $240 last week, the SKPTA share of the Tamales Sale proceeds.

“Thank you, Ms. Evangeline, for all your help and work!!! Our bellies and our school appreciate it!” says treasurer Dee Lau.

But the tamale sale isn’t just about money. It’s also about self-sufficiency. One Starr King single parent, for example, recently lost an apartment due to a landlord’s bankruptcy. With no house and no phone, looking for a job was almost impossible. A Saturday helping Ms. Evangeline make tamales netted enough to get a cell phone, which made job applications possible.

A Video Tour of Starr King
Starr King’s name won’t quite be up in lights, but we’re joining the growing list of San Francisco schools that offer “virtual tours” on their websites. Kindergarten parent Seth Grant, a professional photographer and videographer, has been shooting footage of our school the past few weeks to create a short video tour for families interested in Starr King. The idea is to give potential families an easy way to get a sense of the school at home, and then entice them to come and take a tour. Students whose parents said no to images of their child being taken by the District (it was on a form that went home the first week of school) will not be included in the video. If you have questions, contact Beth at weise@well.com (weise null@null well NULL.com).

Uniforms
The principal is asking that we all get our kids back into uniforms. Lots of variations have shown up from jeans to shirts with ads printed on them and so on. It’s important to keep our focus as we enter into the final months of the school year, and uniforms help to remind us all that school requires just a bit more from each of us. Thanks for keeping your kids in line.

Rainbow, Good Life, Canyon Market & Goat Hill Pizza Scrip
If you shop at Rainbow, Good Life or Canyon Market or eat at Goal Hill Pizza, don’t forget to stock up on Starr King scrip! When you use scrip to pay for your groceries, Starr King earns 10% at no additional cost to you. Think of it as a prepaid grocery purchase with a nice commission to the school. You can buy scrip from Maureen Persico in multiples of $20 and $50. Make checks payable to STARR KING PTA. You can also send a SASE to Maureen Persico, 4026 Folsom St., SF 94110 with a check made out to Starr King PTA and a note specifying which grocery store scrip you want.

Compiled by Beth Weise, Starr King PTA Newsletter Chair. If you have items you’d like to have in an upcoming newsletter, please email me at weise@well.com (weise null@null well NULL.com) or call 452-0311. Deadline is Tuesday morning.