PTA Take Your Family to School Week is an opportunity to connect family members to their children's school experiences. This year the WLES PTA is inviting parents and guardians into our school in an effort to continue to build lasting family/school partnerships. Wednesday night we will be holding a Building Healthy Families Night from 7:00-8:15 p.m. in the All Purpose Room. Join us for a night of good health and fun! All students MUST be accompanied by an adult 18 years or older in order to attend. We are also inviting parents to Eat & Run with their children this week! Bring your lunch and eat with your child in the cafeteria, and then run with them at recess. The weather should cooperate this week so that all classes will be able to have outdoor recess. Please refer to the schedule below for when your child's class will hold Eat & Run this week:

Tue., Feb. 10
11:00 lunch/11:30 recess: Auth, Flickinger, Galluppi, Najafi, Sardesai
11:30 lunch/12:00 recess: Fagnano, Harrigan, Malik
12:00 lunch/12:30 recess: Barnes, Bauman, Bruce

Wed., Feb. 11
11:30 lunch/12:00 recess: Elias, Quick, Tung
12:00 lunch/12:30 recess: Merritt, Muehl
12:15 lunch/12:45 recess: Burr, Cook, Hartz, Miller, Keating, Pringle

Thu., Feb. 12
11:45 lunch/12:15 recess: Brelsford, Burgess, M. Hinsvark, Williams
12:00 lunch/12:30 recess: Novak, Sentfle, Wilson
11:00 recess/1:00 lunch: Cokinos, Fry, K. Hinsvark, Scott

If you have any questions regarding this schedule, please contact PTA President, Denise Ackerman, at denise1165@gmail.com.

Friday, February 13 is Waters Landing Elementary Night at the Seneca Valley Girls' and Boys' Varsity basketball games. Seneca Valley will be playing Wheaton High School. A special section will be designated for our school - we will be sitting across from the Seneca Valley bench and Waters Landing will be recognized with banners and an announcement at the beginning of the game and at the half. The cheerleaders and poms will also be in this section, and the band is sometimes located here as well. All Waters Landing students who attend wearing their school spirit wear (or anything that says "Waters Landing Elementary School") will get in for free. The prices for all others are: $5 for an adult, $3 for any student between 12-18 years of age, and $1 for all other students. The cheerleaders will be positioned nearby to lead the children in cheering. The girls' varsity game begins at 5:15 p.m., with the boys' varsity game immediately following (around 7:00 p.m.). Please try to arrive at the gym no later than 5:00 (earlier if you can!). This is a great opportunity to support our local athletes! We hope to see you there!

The nurse's office continues to have a need for donated clothing items. Accidents happen at school all the time - food is spilled, clothes get muddy at recess, art projects with paint can go astray, and many more possibilities exist every day which make a change of clothing necessary. If you are cleaning out your closets and find some articles of clothing that can be donated to the nurse's office, it would be greatly appreciated. Any size clothing (appropriate for children in grades Kindergarten through 5th Grade) would be accepted. The best items would be sweatpants or stretchy pants, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. The nurse's office is also in constant need of NEW underpants, sizes 4-8. Please remember that if your child arrives home with a change of clothing that was supplied by the nurse's office, PLEASE wash the clothing and return the items to school with your child. Underpants are NOT to be returned. You can contact Beth Glad in the nurse's office with any donations or questions. Thank you for your help.

Parents are encouraged to help improve services to students and families by telling MCPS what they think about their children's schools. The information will be collected and shared with principals, central office staff and school improvement teams. Parents' answers are completely confidential. A few minutes of your time will help improve services for all families. Please complete the school survey today!

Homework Hotline Live! is back for its 23rd season on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., starting October 15, 2008. The ITV flagship program provides K-12 students one-on-one homework help when they call the hotline number at 301-279-3234 (Voice/TTY).

Homework Hotline Live! (HHL) is a service of MCPS Instructional TV and is broadcast from the Carver Educational Services Center studio in Rockville. During the program, MCPS teachers take calls from students live on-the-air and assist them with homework problems, while additional teachers answer calls in the phone room. Students serve as part of the technical crew and are trained by Instructional TV staff.

By calling, a student will be connected to a teacher who can provide assistance in most academic subjects from kindergarten through 12th grade. Mathematics questions are the most frequent, and there will typically be a certified math instructor on staff during each show. Cable TV viewers will be able to watch the program live as they work with on-air teachers who help them formulate answers. Students and families can use this service even if they do not subscribe to cable television.

In addition to direct instruction, each program includes various learning experiences such as current events summaries and video clips. The show also features fun trivia and prizes for answering challenging "brainteaser" questions given by MCPS students. So join the fun, and get homework done with Homework Hotline Live! The channel numbers are: Comcast - Ch. 33; Verizon - Ch. 35; RCN - Ch. 88. For more information please visit the Homework Hotline Live! web site.

Most families struggle with busy schedules and it's hard to find time in the morning to write a check, search for lunch money or monitor your child's meal history and balance. myLunchMoney.com is now being offered as a convenience for interested families. myLunchMoney.com allows parents to make prepayments to their child's cafeteria account via the Internet with a credit/debit card. By creating a secure online account, parents can manage their child's meal account easily and conveniently. There is a $1.95 convenience fee for each payment made. All fees will be displayed at the time of payment. However, there is no cost to set up an account and check your child's spending history or receive low balance notifications. The Division of Food and Nutrition Services and the school do not receive any income from providing this service. For more information, please visit their web site, www.mylunchmoney.com, or read their brochure.

La mayoría de las familias luchan con sus horarios atareados y es difícil tomar tiempo por la mañana para escribir un cheque, buscar dinero para el almuerzo o revisar el historial y el balance de comidas de su hijo/a. myLunchMoney.com es un servicio nuevo que se ofrece para la conveniencia de familias interesadas. myLunchMoney.com permite que los padres hagan prepagos a la cuenta de la cafetería de sus hijos usando el Internet y una tarjeta de crédito/débito. Al crear una cuenta segura en línea, los padres pueden manejar la cuenta de comidas de sus hijos fácil y convenientemente. Por cada pago que se haga, hay que pagar una suma de $1.95. Todas las cuotas aparecen en el momento de pagar. Sin embargo, no se incurre ningún costo al establecer una cuenta o al revisar el historial de gastos de su hijo/a o al recibir una notificación de balance bajo. Division of Food and Nutrition Services y la escuela no reciben ningún ingreso por proveer este servicio. Visita a www.mylunchmoney.com. Preguntas Frecuentes

Mr. Poole is looking for volunteers to help out for an hour or so at lunch and recess times. Extra hands are always needed at lunch to help students open drinks, pass out condiments, etc. At recess, volunteers can assist in escorting students to the restroom, and generally help to keep track of everyone. If you can help out in any way, please contact Mr. Poole.

Are you looking for tips to take the hassle out of homework? Do you want to hear from experts about keeping your child safe on the Internet? These topics and more will be discussed in workshops to be offered this fall through the MCPS Parent Academy. The workshops are free and held at locations throughout the county. Interpreters and childcare are provided. For registration and schedule information, visit the Department of Communications' Division of Family and Community Partnerships website, or by calling DFCP at 301-279-3100. The schedule of classes offered through December of 2008 is currently available online. Some of the classes offered this year include Special Education: The IEP Process; What's for Dinner? Quick and Nutritious Meals for Busy Families; Helping Your Child Get Ready for the Maryland School Assessment (MSA); Communicating with Your Child's Teacher; and Power of Positive Discipline.

The MCPS Call Center has changed its name to the ASK MCPS Telephone Information Center. If you have a question about the school system, call 301-309-MCPS (- 6277) between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Answers are provided in English and Spanish. You also can get information by sending an e-mail to AskMCPS@mcpsmd.org, or by stopping in to the offices of the Department of Communications' Division of Family and Community Partnerships (DFCP) weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Also look for ASK MCPS events throughout the year held at DFCP and in neighborhood locations.

Elementary School Parent Guides for the school year are available on-line at the MCPS web site. These guides will give you an overview of each grade level program and explain what your child will be learning in reading and language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies during this school year. In addition, you will also find information on ways of gathering evidence of what students learn, how parents can help, and curriculum resources for parents (many of these on-line resources have been added to our web site - please visit "Curriculum Help" for more information). The information in these guides will assist you in providing support for your child throughout the school year. The guides are available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format in the following languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, French, and Vietnamese. The Parent Guides can be accessed through the following link: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/elementary/parentguides.shtm