To highlight the importance of membership growth, Washington State PTA recognizes local PTAs for enrolling more members than they did in the previous year. As PTAs achieve incremental increases in membership growth, they are recognized for each milestone they reach. As of May 31, 2019, the following Northshore PTAs/PTSAs have earned 2018-19 WSPTA Membership Growth Awards:

The 100% Staff Membership Award is presented to local PTAs that enroll at least as many school staff members as there are full-time certificated employees at the school. This award recognizes the value of teachers and school staff as stakeholders advocating for all children through PTA membership. The following Northshore PTAs/PTSAs earned a WSPTA 100% Staff Membership Award in 2018-2019:

🏆 100% Staff Membership

• East Ridge PTA
• Fernwood PTSA
• Kenmore Middle School PTSA
• Lockwood PTA
• Timbercrest Middle School PTSA
  

Northshore Council PTAs/PTSAs welcomed 8,079 members in 2018-2019. We look forward to 2019-2020 to be even stronger!

Many thanks to all of our amazing Northshore PTAs/PTSAs for continually striving for membership growth helping us to have an even more powerful voice for our children!

At the beginning of June, Frank Love Elementary PTA shared photos on their Facebook page of a newly-installed bottle cap mural. The mural, which overlooks the campus entrance, serves as a colorful welcome to all who visit the school. Northshore Council contacted FLE PTA to learn more about the project and how their PTA was involved.

The mural began as a 5th grade legacy project in 2017-18 in coordination with local artist, Stephanie Roman-Olvera. Parents, students, staff and community members collected and washed thousands of bottle caps which the artist used to create the colorful image. Then the 2018-19 5th Grade Class and Promotion Team partnered with Frank Love PTA, the artist, school administration and Northshore School District in order to bring the mural to completion. The PTA helped fund the mural project via its School Beautification budget.

Frank Love Elementary PTA co-President Sara Lennerblom describes the mural so well: "This community mural is [a] beautiful reflection of our FLE Community and we are thankful to the many hands that provided time, talents, and bottle caps to make this legacy gift to our school a reality. It will have a lasting imprint on our campus for years to come!"

It is so inspiring to hear stories about successful community-school partnerships such as this! Thank you so much, Frank Love Elementary PTA, for your part in making this beautiful mural happen and for sharing the story with Council!

Earlier this month, Arrowhead Elementary worked on a school-wide project called "Kindness Connects Us." The goal of the project was to celebrate acts of kindness that happen every day. Teachers and students worked together to nominate each other for kindness 'links' which were then connected to create chains in each classroom. On June 13th, a school assembly was held to combine all of the links-- creating a giant chain that gave a visible representation of how far their kind acts had reached. Arrowhead Elementary PTA provided Otter Pops and organized a group of parent volunteers to help pass those out and assist during a special celebratory all-school recess.

The Kindness Connects Us project was created by Arrowhead staff as a way to positively reinforce the ongoing work of Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS)-- the district-wide framework being used to improve school climate and provide integrated supports for improving social, emotional and academic outcomes for all students.  The result of collaboration by Arrowhead's MTSS/PBIS and Equity & Diversity teams, Kindness Connects Us worked to build on the theme of Kindness that the school had been focusing on throughout the year.  They also coordinated with Arrowhead PTA to help spread the word to families and organize the culminating celebration-- turning it into a wonderful opportunity for family and community engagement as well.

The project was kicked off by having each student create an "Identity Link" to show kindness to ourselves and to celebrate their individual and unique identities. Each class picked from one of three identity link options. Teacher Jessica-Lynn Tompkins (also a project organizer) described this first step, "The identity links are included in our kindness chain to ensure that everyone (staff and student) had a link right away and to symbolize that even though we are different, we are one community."  

For two weeks, teachers gave out kindness links that included the student's name and a place to mark if they were kind to themselves, to others, or to the school. Each class had a goal of 100 links. Students received links at recess, in their classrooms, and could even nominate peers for links during class meetings. Every student in school wrote messages of how to demonstrate kindness throughout their daily lives. Then they ended the project with an all-school assembly where they connected all of the links and enjoyed some music. Together, the links of paper formed a gigantic chain across the school’s campus! The day of celebration was capped off with a special all-school recess and sweet treats from Arrowhead PTA.

This Kindness Connects Us project involved the entire school community and offered an incredible visual reminder of the power of kindness and how kindness can connect us all.

Hollywood Hill PTA expanded the Art Docent program of their school to include an Artist in Residence program. For 2018-2019, the PTA partnered with Kevin Creekmore, owner of MoltenWorks and President of the Woodinville Arts Alliance, who helped students create some whimsical garden art using fused glass techniques.

Kudos to Hollywood Hill PTA for their work on enriching their docent program and for developing a wonderful bridge between school and community as well as between student work in the classroom and the work of a professional artist. It is a wonderful example of how a PTA can leverage community partnerships to help provide amazing experiences for students! #PTAProud

To learn more about Kevin and MoltenWorks, you can visit his website at www.moltenworksglass.com.  To learn more about the non-profit Woodinville Arts Alliance, go to www.woodinvilleartsalliance.com.

Check out some examples of the glass pieces  located throughout the Hollywood Hill campus in the photos below.

ArtSpring is an Art Festival designed for Northshore middle and high school students who are supported by the Functional Skills & Academics (FSA) program. This year's event was an experience in community and creativity as students, teachers, paras and peers from 7 Northshore Schools came together at Brightwater Center on May 2, 2019.  Students unloaded from their yellow buses and found their way into ArtSpring to participate in the art projects that were designed just for them: crayon rubbings, printmaking, watercolor hearts, sensory bags, jelly fish sculptures, and more! The kids loved sitting for caricatures and face painting and petting the gentle support dogs. And the teachers loved seeing their students having such a great time with their peer mentors and the artists. 
 
All students went home with wonderful art projects in their Safeway grocery bags. We thank Safeway & Albertson’s foundation for their support of ArtSpring through the Educator grant they awarded to Kenmore Middle School and the Northshore School District. We appreciate and acknowledge the importance of the grants received from Inglemoor High PTSA, Bothell High PTSA, Kenmore Middle PTSA, and Skyview Middle PTSA. We could not do it without the enthusiastic support communicated through these grants!
 
Look for  ArtSpring installations in your schools soon and get ready for more specially designed art events in the years to come embracing students of all abilities.

More information about ArtSpring can be found on NSD's website: www1.nsd.org/artspring

Below are some photos that capture the joy of art and community for our kids at ArtSpring!

The survey will close on Friday, May 17, 2019.

Woodin PTA, in partnership with Northshore Council PTSA, would like to invite you to this Parent Education Night for parents and guardians of elementary aged students (grades 3-5).:

Strong Start -
Talking with Your Child About Puberty

Tuesday, May 7, 2019 | 6:30 - 8pm

at Woodin Elementary
(12950 Northeast 195th Street Bothell, WA 98011)

Parents want to talk with their child about puberty, but may not be sure how to start or what to say. Educator Robin Wright will lead this seminar which provides parents with information and skills on how to start conversations, what to cover at each age, and how to answer tricky questions. The physical, emotional and social changes of puberty are also reviewed to help parents feel better prepared and know what to expect.

Please RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/parent-ed-night-strong-start-talking-with-your-child-about-puberty-tickets-59392759342

** Free Childcare is provided for all potty-trained children.**

Robin Wright - The Wright Conversations http://www.thewrightconversations.com/

When: Wednesday, January 30th, 2019 6:30PM
Where: Leota Middle School - 19301 168th Ave NE, Woodinville, WA
Tickets: FREE
Reservations: https://impactflow.com/event/presented-by-leota-ptsa-9673

The Leota Middle School PTSA and Northshore Council PTSA are thrilled to present SCREENAGERS: Growing Up in the Digital Age, a documentary that addresses the most pervasive parenting issue of our time head on—depicting teen struggles over social media, video games and internet addiction.

Are you watching kids scroll through life, with their rapid-fire thumbs and a six-second attention span? Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston saw that happening with her own kids and began a quest to uncover how it might impact their development. As with her other two award-winning documentaries on mental health, Ruston takes a deeply personal approach as she probes into the vulnerable corners of family life, including her own, to explore struggles over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. Through poignant, and unexpectedly funny stories, along with surprising insights from authors, psychologists, and brain scientists, SCREENAGERS reveals how tech time impacts kids’ development and also offers solutions on how adults can empower their kids to best navigate the digital world to find balance.

Middle School Gym Night is a FREE event just for Northshore School District middle school students! Middle schoolers can drop-in to shoot some hoops or play other fun games, hang with friends and enjoy a slice of pizza. Starting on January 7, 2019, the program will be offered on Monday nights from 5:00 - 6:15pm, during the school year (except holidays/breaks), at the Frank Love Elementary gym.

Canyon Park Middle School PTSA is partnering with local businessman Pete Anthony ("Uncle Peteza") to bring this exclusively-for-middle-schoolers program back.

If the program sounds familiar, it is! Back in the day, it was known as "Junior High Gym Night." This award winning program ran successfully for 20 years and served, on average, about 20-25 kids each Monday night that it was offered. Volunteers became mentors to the kids. Many of those kids would return when they were older to visit and check in. It gave them a place to hang out, have fun, a chance to be responsible and have a guaranteed meal. Pete worked out the logistics of the program. He had a detailed list of the rules that would be in place. The program used to be run in conjunction with Bothell Parks and Recreation, with help from Bothell Fire & EMS, but budget cuts and loss of employees forced them to cancel the program. Pete believes strongly in this program and CPMS PTSA is so happy to help him bring it back. Middle School Gym Night will work the same as it has in the past. 

Please consider advertising this program to your families and students. Organizers are not sure what to expect as the program gets up and running again. Mostly, it seemed that the program (in its past incarnation) was frequented by kids that were within walking distance of Frank Love, but it was always advertised to all kids. So, we'll see what happens!

If any families are interested in volunteering to help out at Middle School Gym Night, please visit the sign-up on the Canyon Park Middle School PTSA website: https://cpptsa.org/ways-to-help/volunteer-sign-ups/?sheet_id=146.

Questions? Contact Canyon Park Middle School PTSA Presidents, Jane Chiodo and Kerri Booth.