PTA PRESIDENT’S REPORT · fce ours : a.m. to 3:4 p.m. Principal Mr. John Simard Student Liaison...

250 Foerster Street San Francisco, CA 94112-1341 Phone 415.469.4746 Fax 415.334.3569 Website www.sunnysidek5.org Office Hours 8:20 a.m. to 3:40 p.m.

Principal Mr. John Simard Student Liaison Ms. Ruby Bell PTA President Leah Tarlen, [email protected] PTA Email [email protected] PTA Yahoo! Group SunnysidePTA

PTA PRESIDENT’S REPORT~ by Leah Tarlen

The countdown to summer break has begun. Now that STAR tests are over and summer is upon us, it’s great to see the students relaxing a bit. May is a big month for performances. The 4th grade students did a dance performance on May 3, using the front steps outside the auditorium as their stage. The 2nd graders had a dance performance on May 16. Several classes from grades 1 through 5 will be performing original opera pieces that they created as part of Sunnyside’s partnership with the San Francisco Opera.

Spring has been a busy period for grants. Three grants came in for our garden program—one from Whole Foods, one from Jamba Juice, and one from the Ashbury Children’s Foundation—which were submitted by Amy Kashiwabara and Rachel Fudge. Jennifer Waits wrote a successful grant to Art4More that will support art supplies and an update on the ArtCart curriculum for next school year. These grants total $5,500! Jennifer Waits also submitted a proposal to Target to support our Opera Program for next school year. I submitted a second proposal to Target to support literacy, and Gill Hirst and Jennifer Helton submitted a proposal to the Glen Park Festival to support our school-wide subscrip-tion to Brainpop. Fingers are crossed that our luck with grant writing will hold out. Not a grant, but equally lucrative was last fall’s shopping day at Fresh and Easy, organized by Susie Mui Shonk. Thanks to all the shoppers and volunteers who represented our school, we earned over $750.

April saw the close of our Walk and Roll Wednesday program, which culminated in a full day of bipedal activities. The morning began with Bike to School Day, in which students were encouraged to ride to school. A few dozen students and their parents met at Sunnyside Park to roll to school together. Once at Sunnyside, prizes were passed out to cyclists (and scooterists) and we held a Walk and Roll Wednesday raffle drawing. Thanks goes to Leah Plack, Amy Kashiwabara, Mandi Moore, Julie Kessler, Kerri Spruston, and Andi Gleeson for helping with the morning activities. The day continued after school with a Bike Rodeo co-pre-sented with Y-bikes that included a bicycle obstacle course and freedom from training wheels class. This was the first time we organized this type of after school event. Special

thanks to Adrienne Johnson and Leah Plack for coordinating the Bike Rodeo, and to the aftercare staff at the Y and Ex-CEL for collaborating on the logistics so that their students could participate. We look forward to more inclusive events like this next year.

Speaking of events, the Glen Park Festival on April 28 was as fun as ever. Sunnyside held a beauty booth, selling glitter tattoos, hair tinsel, and hair feathers. We also sold baked goods, drinks, and SpringFest raffle tickets. It was a fun way to promote Sunnyside while making a little money, and es-pecially satisfying to see all our students arriving to school the following day with glittery faces and hair. For several years, the Glen Park Festival has given grants to Sunnyside, which have supported various programs ranging from our paid lunch monitors, to our math and garden programs. Par-ticipating in the festival as a vendor is a neighborly way to show gratitude for their support. Special thanks to Susanna Upton who organized the booth and to Robert Contreras and his business partner, Tony, who donated beauty supplies and their time to make our booth so unique. Thank you to Jerry Tighe, Teri Gardella, Trish Rudden, Beth Zonderman, Rori Reber, Allan Stewart, and Amy Kashiwabara, as well as all their children (Renee, Fabiana, Alanna, Keira, Zoe, Poppy, Isabella, Victoria, Adrienne, and Kai) for staffing the booth.

The week of May 6 was Teacher Appreciation Week. We thanked all our amazing teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrative staff who work with our children daily. On Monday, May 6, the PTA hosted a Staff Appreciation lunch in the library with quiche, salad, and dessert. Thank you to Kelly Forde and Robert Contreras who organized the food, Amy Kashiwabara and Rhiana Maidenberg who helped with set up, and all the many parents who brought desserts.

In the spirit of staff appreciation, this issue of the PTA News-letter shines a spotlight on Sunnyside staff members mov-ing on to new adventures: 2nd grade teacher Kit Bell, and our outstanding school secretary, Thelma Mendoza.

This is my last column of my term as PTA President. I want to thank EVERYONE for making it such a gratifying job. It’s been a true honor to serve and to watch all the incredible

PTA Times May 22, 2013

PTA Times | May 22, 2013 |

FAREWELL, MRS. KIT BELL~ By Leah Tarlen, PTA President

In the spirit of staff appreciation, I want to give a warm thank you to 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Kit Bell, who retires at the end of this school year. Mrs. Bell has been an educa-tor for 30 years, 13 of which have been at Sunnyside. After studying art and music at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she was inspired to pursue primary education as a career after volunteering at her children’s preschool and elemen-tary school. Her career began as a teaching assistant in SF Headstart. She later taught as a paraprofessional and child development teacher at Moscone Elementary and Las Americas Children Center. At Sunnyside, Mrs. Bell has taught 4/5 and 3/4 split classes and her favorite, second grade. We have these thoughts and well wishes from Mrs. Bell as she says goodbye.

“It has been such a privilege and pleasure working with the students, families and educators here at Sunnyside. What I will always cherish and will miss the most is seeing those sweet smiles, bright eyes, and the sparks of eager imagination on the faces of my students each day. I learn from my students and my colleagues everyday and will continue to study and learn as I move on to new adventures!

I look forward to spending time with my wonderful grandchildren, Kaili, Kawelo and little Kainoa.

I encourage all of you to read, read, read and hope you find health and happiness in whatever and wherever life leads you. I will miss you!”

Mrs. Bell was a really cool teacher. She taught us about nickels, dimes, and quarters by showing us a song online. Then, we answered her questions about money when she pointed at a coin. Ms. Bell was a remarkable teacher. She taught us many amazing things and always made our day. One of the field trips I remember was the end of the year trip to the zoo. It was really, really cool. I feel very bittersweet about her retirement. I’m really sad because I’ll miss her but I’m also really glad and proud that she’s getting her retirement. I’ll miss you, Ms. Bell! Michelle Kang, 5th Grade, Room 112

Dear Mrs. Bell, Thank you for helping me with problems, work, and every-thing else. Also I remember when you gave prizes and I got a stuffed animal that was a dog. I loved it and I still do. Love, Elaine Martinez, 5th Grade, Room 112

transformations of our school. I am especially thankful to see the role of PTA President pass into the competent hands of Jennifer Helton who will begin her term in July.

Jennifer has a solid background in education. She is a former professor of history at Cañada College in Redwood City where she taught all areas and periods of U.S. and European History. She is currently working on a book based on original research on voting rights in the American West in the 19th century.

For the past two years, Jennifer has been Chair of the PTA’s Academic Support Committee. The committee has done a tre-mendous job of working with our faculty and hired contractors to strengthen our math enrichment and garden-based life science programs as well as rounding out other academic areas. Our math enrichment program is like no other in San Francisco, providing our children the opportunity to learn and apply complex math skills to real-life situations. The

Academic Support Committee also ran our 5th grade History Day program and organized an overnight history field trip for 5th graders aboard the Balclutha. It was our first overnight for 5th graders, and one we look forward to repeating.

Jennifer will be working next year with a team of new and continuing PTA board members. Please join me in welcoming new PTA Board members Jessica Wollack-Cohen as Secre-tary, Andi Gleeson as Vice President, Rhiana Maidenberg as Treasurer, Anne Slade Jacobs and Beth Zonderman as Com-munications Co-Chairs, Kara Whiston Reynolds as Academic Support Chair, Lark Graham as Health and Wellness Chair, Amy Kashiwabara and Kerri Spruston as Community Events Co-Chairs, and Louise Faith as Sustainability Chair.

Best wishes to everyone. Have a wonderful summer break, and see you next year.

~ Leah Tarlen, outgoing PTA President


5TH GRADERS EXPERIENCE 1906 MARITIME LIFE

Every year our fifth graders embark on a big adventure to mark the end of elementa-ry school. This year they “set sail” on a living history experience on board the Balclutha, a tall ship in the SF Maritime National Histori-cal Park. In reality the ship stayed securely docked at the Hyde Street Pier over night, but on board our students traveled back in time to live as sailors in 1906.

The Balclutha is fully restored to its original condition with few modern conveniences beside the addition of fire extin-guishers. There is no electricity, running water, or bathroom. The ship’s crew is made of actor-educators who stay in character for the duration of the trip, dressing, acting, and speaking according to the period. They are a salty bunch, not polite and gentle like the modern Sunnyside community. Parent volunteers (“Tall Sailors,” in the Balclutha parlance) were present only for safety and were not permitted to inter-act with the students. The ship’s crew of docents lead the students in a recreation of events immediately following the Great Quake of 1906:

San Francisco has been destroyed and Balclutha’s

captain sees this as an opportunity. He’ll sail to

Oregon to bring back lumber to rebuild the city; he’ll

be rich! Unfortunately, most of his crew abandoned

ship to fight fires or be with family. Undeterred, the

captain enlisted a new crew of lads off the street.

They’re willing but untrained and undisciplined. He’ll

have to whip them into shape!

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As they learned the life of a sailor, Sunnyside students developed self confidence and a sense of responsibility for themselves and their shipmates. Students were divided into crews of 5 members with a student crew leader, or “Mate” who took orders from the ship crew. Each crew had to work as a team to figure out how to get their jobs done. Crews worked very hard and relied on each other the whole time. They completed complicated jobs like preparing all the food, launching and rowing the dory (row boat), and rigging the Bo-sun’s Chair. After spending many hours rigging the Bosun’s Chair, the crew hauled Tall Sailor Ms. Peters up the mast and would not let her down until she met their demands! They successfully negotiated a pizza party and extra PE.

As the lads worked, they were held to strict rules of behavior: no talking, no playing, don’t put hands in pockets, always call a rope a “line,” always address the captain as “Sir,” answer the captain with a loud “Aye Aye, Sir!” and above all, work hard! Anyone disobeying would be reprimanded and pun-ished with tasks like washing dishes.

After a hard day’s labor, the lads would have liked to relax and cut loose in their quarters, but they were required to be silent. Of course, 28 chatty fifth graders don’t stay quiet for long. The entire group, including those who had been asleep, were reprimanded harshly. They were punished by having to walk the length of the pier carrying an enormous, heavy rope. After the third such late night punishment, even the rowdiest lads de-cided they would rather sleep than have to carry the rope again.

Ask your fifth grade student or friend about their experience on the trip, and don’t forget to thank Ms. Peters and Ms. Hilmoe for their extensive preparation. Age of Sail field trip (and History Day) would not be possible without the immense support of Jennifer Helton, Chair of the Academic Support Committee and PTA President-elect for next year. The trip was funded through the generous support of the Sunnyside community. Fifth Grade parent Robert Contreras ran a fundraiser at his business, Partners for Hair, and many Sunnyside families participated. A Go Fund Me campaign to support the trip raised nearly $700. The PTA and fifth grade parents contributed the rest. Thanks to everyone who made this expe-rience possible for our kids!

Nautical terms: “Avast!”

“Private Word”

“Port / Starboard / Stern / Bow”

“Line”

“All hands on deck”

Student Impressions

Carlos Zuniga, Mate of Deckhand crew Favorite thing: Going on the row boat. “It was funny how the oars are so big. I could barely carry them.”

Akil Sohan, Deckhand “It was funny when the captain and first mate yelled at me. He told me to put my hat in my mouth because I kept talk-ing. [It] was funny at first, but then I got sick of washing dishes [as punishment].”

“It was fun working with the crew to pull the row boat up and to help the mate lead the crew. I learned that row boats and oars are heavy!”

Ashley Franco, Galley Crew “We cooked for everyone. We made corn bread, stew, ap-ple sauce cake, hot cocoa. There were written instructions to prepare food. We followed them and then the cook, Mr. Well Done, put it all in the oven. We learned cooperation and team work. It was really hard and my feet hurt a lot from standing. And we didn’t get any sleep.”

“My advice is be quiet, stand straight, don’t walk over the rope, don’t talk too much. Sleep! Don’t laugh. Don’t call the captain ‘Captain’ call him ‘Sir.’”


HISTORY DAY COMPETITION 2013: “TURNING POINTS”As you read in the December issue of the PTA Newsletter, our fifth graders were completing their projects for the nationwide History Day competition. They spent several months research-ing an historical topic and creating a presentation. The theme of this year was “Turning Points.” On March 9, their hard work culminated in the city-wide competition. Students presented their boards to a panel of judges, who examined them to test their knowledge of history.

They refined and developed their presentations based on the SF judges’ critiques and leveled up to the state-wide competition in Sacramento on April 27. Al-though none placed at the state level, we are extremely proud of them and their teachers.

The PTA roving reporter inter-viewed all these young scholars in the final days before their trip to Sacramento. They spoke about their favorite aspects of the experience and offered ad-vice to next year’s participants.

We are extremely pleased that five of our students were selected as finalists.

Jo’vonne Gallow of Ms. Hilmoe’s Class placed second in the citywide competition, with her

individual project on the role of women during WWII. Serena Collins and Gemma Bouck of Ms. Hilmoe’s Class won first place for group

projects for their research on life onboard the Titanic; and Pinar Ashkar and Michelle Kang

of Ms. Peters’s class won second place for their project on the 1906 earthquake.

Jo’Vonne Gallow Women During WWII

Jo’Vonne observed that all US presidents have been men, our leadership is dominated by men, and women typically earn less than men. She wanted to study the roots of this trend and chose to examine the period of WWII. Women went to work in the factories, were empowered, and showed their strength and value. She learned about the context of the period and women’s changing roles in work and society. Jo’Vonne thanks her older sister for contributing ideas, and her mom for assistance with logistics and production.

Jo’Vonne’s advice to future competitors: “Be confident and do your best in the interview. Be yourself. Don’t try to be someone who you are not.”

“You learn a lot through the process, both information about your topic and how to do a research project. You’ll need those skills in middle school.”

Serena Collins and Gemma Bouk Life On Board the Titanic

Gemma and Serena were interested in learning about life on board the Titanic before the ship wreck. They were helped by Serena’s mom, who helped the girls with the production of their boards and ensuring that their presentation looked polished and professional. They won the city-wide competi-tion for group projects and revised for the state-wide compe-tition based on the judges’ critiques.

Serena’s favorite part of the experience: “I enjoyed col-lecting interesting facts, learning the factors– beside the iceberg– that lead to the sinking of the ship. For example: one of the smoke stacks was only a design feature, and life boats were removed to make more room for First Class.”

Serena’s advice for future participants: “Try your best, keep believing that you can do it. Don’t be afraid of the judges when they question you. Make sure you know every-thing about your topic.”


Gemma’s favorite part of the process: “I enjoyed the event where I got to see everyone else’s boards. We had half an hour to view the show and learn about other people’s topics.”

Gemma’s advice: “Put lots of effort into it. Work hard from the very beginning. Don’t be slow or you’ll have to rush later. Have fun.”

Pinar Ashkar and Michelle Kang The Great Catastrophe of 1906

Pinar and Michelle enjoyed working as a team. Sometimes they disagreed, but always worked it out. They found that scheduling work sessions outside of school hours could be challenging, so they often worked through recess.

“Ms. Helton gave us advice and really helped, taught us, and we really want to thank her. Our parents gave us encouragement and support.” Michelle’s mom helped to maintain production values and make sure their project was neatly presented.

Their advice to future participants: “Always pay attention to instructions, do your best, follow directions, keep notes, never wait to the last minute, never lose your confidence because it keeps you strong. Believe that you can do this. Don’t say ‘Like’ when you talk to the judges. Relax and be confident. It’s hard but also it’s fun, and you’ll feel really proud of yourself.”

GOOD BYE, THELMA MENDOZAWe sadly say goodbye to our rock star Office Secretary who is moving on. Thelma has been at Sunnyside for only two years but in that time has become an invaluable member of the school. She is incredibly organized and has created sys-tems that make the daily administration of school function much more smoothly. She is always patient, kind and caring to our children. For the summer, she will work in City Hall’s

Office of Small Business and then will focus on applying to graduate school. She plans to pursue her interest in public sector management by earning her MPA (Master’s of Public Administration). If Ms. Mendoza brings the enthusiasm and adroitness she exhibited at Sunnyside to the broader public sector, we all win! Best of luck to you, Thelma. You will be missed.

TECHNOLOGY UPDATEIts been an exciting year for technology. After last year’s big push to install school-wide wifi, this year we’ve rolled out some exciting programs:

The iPad cart was purchased at the beginning of the school year via a Donor’s Choose project. This was done at the same time as Sunnyside’s Emergency Fund, demonstrating how strongly our parents feel about technology. Once we added some headphones, the cart was a huge success in K-2. Part of the week the cart is kept together so that an entire class can use iPads. At other times it is split, enabling iPad project centers in multiple classrooms. One of the most fun uses of the cart was for the Stop Motion 101 Craft Night in April.

The Laptop Cart is now running, spending most of it’s time between the grade 3-5 classes. It is also used heavily by Dr. D to teach Scratch programming to the second through fifth grades as part of our Math Enrichment program.


We’ve also added a Mini Computer Lab in room 204 (Ms. Pollock’s 4th grade) and have further equipment awaiting installation for rooms 112 (Ms. Peters, 5th grade) and 110 (Ms. Noonan-Sessa, 4th grade). Next year we will continue to expand the use of iPads, refresh some of our older com-puters and generally make sure everything keeps running. Please consider joining the technology committee if you can– email [email protected]. Keep the donations of Macs, dual-core PCs, and LCDs coming!

ART COMMITTEE UPDATES ~ by Jennifer Waits

It’s been an amazing year for the arts at Sunnyside, with our students participating in a breadth of artistic projects, in-cluding dance, visual art, poetry, opera, instrumental music, and vocal music. A number of Sunnyside students had their artwork on display at the SF Mint, SF Public Library and the Asian Art Museum and some of our dancers performed at the Asian Art Museum this school year. Sunnyside 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade poets also read their poems to the entire Sunnyside community at the start of many school days dur-ing poetry month in April.

We hope that you were able to visit the Sunnyside Art Show at SpringFest. It’s always a treat to see all of the incred-ible art work created by Sunnyside students. This year we also had on display the completed chairs from the “Chairs and Change” project. Thanks to a grant from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, Sunnyside students undertook a project to transform cast-off chairs into works of art and the results were amazing.

Ms. Jackie, our vocal music teacher, has spent the past few months working on the Sunnyside Sings! CD. Featuring songs sung by Sunnyside kindergartners, first graders, sec-ond graders, and third graders; this CD is a lovely reminder of our students’ time with Ms. Jackie this year. Jackie’s daughter (a Sunnyside alum and a professional artist) created the beautiful artwork for the CD. Thanks to every-one who made a donation to the arts at Sunnyside, either through the CD project or through the annual Sunnyside Grandparents and Friends Campaign. Not only did your dona-tions help make the CD project possible, but they are also ensuring that we can have a robust arts program next year.

We had our final Family Craft Night of the year on April 11th in the Sunnyside Cafeteria. More than 90 kids and adults explored Stop Motion Animation 101. Thanks to our friends from the SF Opera Education Department and to Bull’s Eye Studio-SF for participating in our first multi-media craft night. Also, thanks to SCRAP (Scrounger’s Center for Reusable Art

Parts, 801 Toland, SF) for providing many recycled items for free or for very low cost. Families were able to create sets, props and creatures using recycled materials; sing at the piano with opera teacher Scott; create opera props; learn about character creation and story boards from Mette and Diane from Bull’s Eye; and get some hands-on experience doing Stop Motion using iPads from the Sunnyside iPad cart. We are gradually uploading some of the stop motion anima-tions to a special YouTube page: www.youtube.com/user/CraftNight2013.

We began a partnership with the San Francisco Opera ARIA Network in January and students from five classrooms in 1st, 2nd and 5th grades are hard at work on their own mini operas (to be performed on May 23). We hope to be able to continue this program in 2013-2014 with nearly twice as many par-ticipating classrooms, so stay tuned for news on that!

Thanks to Mr. Flanagan, Mrs. Tucker, Linda Long, Julie Kes-sler, Beth Zonderman, Susie Mui-Shonk, Jo Kreiter, Seoni Llanes, Karen Zuercher, and Jeni Clancy for your work on art committee projects this year! Special thanks to Ms. Jackie for donating her time in order to spearhead the Sunnyside

Sings! CD project.

Please contact Jennifer Waits at [email protected] if you’d like to join the Art Committee or can help on any of these projects.

3RD GRADE DANCE!

A spectacular performance by Ms. Lee’s Room 206 stu-dents. Thank you, Jo Kreiter, for weaving each student’s natural rhythm into a unifying theme of a simple solution to pollution: reduce, refuse, reuse, repair, and recycle.


SPRINGFESTThank you! Thank you! Thank you to everyone who made SpringFest possible. The numbers are still coming in but, all in all, everyone had a great time. We got to know each other and our neighbors over great music, performances, and food. What a wonderful way to end the year. A huge thank you goes to the following people for making this event happen.

Lopa Pal, Ruby Bell, Armen Dilanchian (TRU), Matt Don-ner, Steven Flanagan, Rhonda Felzmann, Kelly Forde, Vega Freeman and Giuseppe Manna, Rachel Fudge, Andi Gleeson, Elena Ingerman, Pauline McGovern, Thelma Mendoza, Mandi Moore, Marsha Nichols, Kate Noonan-Sessa, Ritu Patel, Rori Reber, Duane Robinson, Karie Rubin, John Simard, Eric Stern-berg, Leah Tarlen, Mike Turnbull, Wendy Turner, Susanna Up-ton, Jennifer Waits, Fiid Williams, Jonathan Wilson, Katharine Yousefi, Adel Vardell, Debbie Zimmerman, Beth Zonderman.

GIRLS ON THE RUNCongratulations to all the Sunnyside Girls on the Run (GOTR) team mem-bers who took part in a 5K run around Golden Gate Park on May 11. The girls have completed a 10-week after-school running program and worked

hard to build their stamina! If anyone would be interested in helping coach a 3rd to 5th grade GOTR girls team in September, please contact [email protected] (Sustain-ability Co-chair).

GOTR Sunnyside Team: Alex Faith, Isabel Goins-Riley, So-phia Ravner, Cathleen Sowa, Renee Solina, Ella Shonk, Ava Vukic, Daniela Manzanares, Riley Brown, Chloe Tucker

SOCCER UPDATEDid you know Sunnyside had five soccer teams this year? The legendary Eagles team has re-formed this year as a mixed K team and the mixed 1st grade Lightnings are in their second season. Both play San Francisco Micro-soccer. The mixed 2nd grade Ball Hogs (aka The Highlighters) are the newest team playing with the Stonestown Y Soccer program. Big thanks to the Stonestown Y for donating youth sports registration to SpringFest!

Representing 3rd grade boys, we have the Sunnyside Ups who recently got to visit the San Jose Earthquakes youth soccer parade. And finally, the 3rd and 4th grade girls’ team–

the Sunnyside Rays–advanced all the way to the Champion-ship game of the Viking League.

Many thanks to all the parent volunteers, coaches, team managers and drivers :-)

I Love BaconA Poetry Month Submission by Gabriella Linke, Grade 4

Bacon is a beautiful sight It smells yummy when it first comes out of the oven My heart belongs to bacon It is crisp and sweet There are many kinds of bacon You could have turkey bacon or regular bacon to me it doesn’t matter because I love bacon. My dream is to eat bacon for the rest of my life.

Mark Your Calendar

Note Change! May 31: Last Day of School - FULL DAY

Previously, the district scheduled early dismissal and half day of furlough. It has now announced that due to improved budgeting, school will release at normal time

on the last day of school.

PTA PRESIDENT’S REPORT · fce ours : a.m. to 3:4 p.m. Principal Mr. John Simard Student Liaison...

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