CHOPPING BLOCK offers specials, great service throughout December

Remember, the Taylor School District's favorite restaurant, The Chopping Block, at the Career Center, is open periodically throughout December.

For the entire schedule, click here

Remember that seniors receive free coffee or tea, there is always a breakfast special (except on breakfast bar days) and birthday meals are free.

If you are hungry, The Chopping Block is the place to go!

DISTRICT OFFERS hints to keep your child in a learning mode over the holiday break

The holidays are coming up. Want to know some good ways to keep your child in a "learning mode" over the holiday break?

Try these hints from Nanette Kuhn of the Taylor School District:

1. Read several holiday stories together.

2. Bake cookies and other holiday treats with the entire family helping.

3. Write notes of cheer and thank-you notes for teachers, family, and friends.

4. Ask children to help you compare prices for gift shopping.

5. Encourage children to make a "wish list" of things they want. 

Insist that some of the items can't cost money.

6. Adopt a needy family and plan together how to provide them clothing, toys, food and holiday decorations.

7. Make homemade ornaments out of thread spools, shiny paper, ribbon, Styrofoam shapes, glitter, and spray paint.

8. Buy your child a small, live potted tree. Show her how to care for it.

9. As a family, choose and attend a concert or special holiday event.

10. Make musical memories. Have each family member select some favorite songs-and record them onto a family holiday CD.

11. Hold a "nostalgia night." Gather around, young and old. Share pictures and scrapbooks. Watch old movies. Talk about what it was like when each was young.

12. Allow your child to invite friends to come over and bring one toy or game to share.

13. Give small educational gifts like a funky ruler, calculator, or miniature magnifying glass.

14. Let your child help you plan a holiday trip and keep track of gas, mileage, and expenses.

15. Give your child "Me and You, Kid" coupons that she can use when she wants to spend time reading, playing, or working on a special project with you.

Reprinted from SchoolFamily.com  Copyright © 2013 Parent Institute

NUTRITION NUGGETS offers parents helpful hints

Recently, we discussed online newsletters that the Taylor School District makes available on a regular basis. Another helpful newsletter is "Nutrition Nuggets."

The newsletter discusses food and fitness for a healthy child. The November edition is currently still online at the district's website (click on parents and then online newsletters).

Among the helpful hints are nutrition label reading tips, road trip activities, healthy apps, pinpointing the right sport for your child, and even ordering the right meals for your children (not just ordering children's meals).

A healthy child is an attentive student -- take the first step toward helping your child in school by taking some tips from "Nutrition Nuggets."

The the complete November edition, click here

MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enjoys first snow

Let it snow!

McDowell Elementary School loves the first snow. To them it was awesome, snowy, best season ever, good for jumping, freezing toes, almost snowballs and just lots of fun!

SCHOOL FOUNDATION allocates grant money

The Taylor Public School Foundation for Educational Excellence gave out mini grants this year. They received 12 applications but with the amount of grant money allocated were only able to award six grants.

Congratulations to this year's recipients.

• Donna Cahalan - Randall, Randall Players $1,000
• Susan Peterson - Truman, Visual Arts Display $762
• Sharla Agemak - West, Formative Assessments In a Flash $383.38

• Joann Farmer - West, Marching Band Banner and Pole $700

• James Newsome - Randall, Songwriting across the curriculum $943.30

• Jacqueline Lancina - Career Center, Software for Plasma Cutter $1,195.


 The Foundation would like to thank all the applicants and hopefully the funding will be there again next year.

Don't forget, the Foundation accepts donations to go toward their mini grants, scholarships for the high school seniors and other projects throughout the Taylor schools that are not funded through the district.

You can contact them at TPSeducationalfoundation@gmail.com

RANDALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's PBIS is a whale of fun

Randall Elementary School’s November PBIS incentive was Bubble Gum and Games.

Everyone received a piece of bubble gum and was allowed to chew it in school.

Even the adults were excited about blowing bubbles in school. While chewing and blowing bubbles students were able to play board games in their classroom. 

MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL holding tryouts

Don't forget: McDowell Elementary School is holding basketball tryouts form 6-8 p.m. Monday, December 12.

CAREER CENTER in midst of mitten drive

The Career Center’s HOSA students are collecting mittens for the students at Myers Elementary School.  They will be going to every class on Thursday, December 19, to collect child-size mittens or donations.

If you would like to donate, you can send it in with a student or drop it off in the Career Center office. The class that collects the most mittens will be rewarded with a pizza party.

CHOPPING BLOCK offers cookies from heaven! Deadline to order is Monday

Monday (December 12) is the last day to order holiday cookies from the big cookie-makers around at the Chopping Block Restaurant in the Career Center.

Cookies will be made fresh the week of selection, with pickups on December 21 or 22. Miniature cookie boxes include sugar, peanut butter kiss, M&M, Macaroons, butterballs and thumbprints.

Two dozen for $6; four-dozen for $11. 

Call (313) 295-5757 Ext. 12107.

For a downloadable order form, click here

HOOVER MIDDLE SCHOOL describe school as helpful, amazing ... and loud!

Teachers asked students that are members of the School Improvement Team to write down words that they thought describe Hoover Middle School using the Word Cloud.  The larger print words were the most popular words used by the students.

EUREKA HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL benefits from coat drive

Thanks to the Taylor Rotary Club for their support of Taylor students through their annual coat drive. Pictured are students from Eureka Heights Elementary School with representatives from the club, Principal Stacie Hall, and Superintendent Ben Williams and Assistant Superintendent Mary Ann Cyr. Taylor’s deserving students are most appreciative of their new winter coats.

HOOVER MIDDLE SCHOOL posts video focusing on thanks

During this season of giving thanks, Hoover Middle School teachers and Principal Michelle Tocco and Assistant Principal Matt Hall each chose one or two students to say a very special "Thank You" for making their day bright, for being positive, for being a great academic student and caring for others.

Check outthis video clip that the teachers and administration put together. What a cool idea!

MYERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL students visit museum

Myers Elementary School fifth-grade students learned about the physics of roller coasters at the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum recently. Students designed and tested their own model roller coaster models, then explored the rest of the museum.

WEST MIDDLE SCHOOL students learn about volume

During the week of December 5 West Middle School seventh-grade science classes were learning about volume. Volume of regular objects is found by this equation: length x height x width. The unit of measurement for solid objects is centimeters cubed.  For a liquid, the unit of measurement is mL.

    

During a hands-on lab activity the students found the volume of a solid irregular object by using the method of water displacement. They put objects such as a screw, a nut, and or/a washer in a graduated cylinder, filled to a specific amount with water. Then they observed how much the water rose. The difference in these two measurements was the volume of the solid irregular object.

    

From our lab the students now know that volume and weight are very different. Also the greater the weight does not always mean the object will have a greater volume. This lab demonstrated one of our many science curriculum objectives.