Updates: Week of April 19
PTO Update
DEADLINE this Wednesday: Build-Your-Own McKinley Dragon
Order and then build your own McKinley Dragon! Listen to the video message from Ms. Keeney! Your child will enjoy creating their very own stuffed animal and making a memory that will last forever. Each dragon is $26.50 and will come with its own McKinley face mask, stuffing and building instructions.
Two ways to order:
Place your order/s online here.
Download a flyer/order form and drop off your form with cash or a check at school.
Deadline for purchase is Wednesday, April 21. Pick up will be at the school from 5-7pm on Monday, May 17 to Wednesday, May 19. If you are unable to pick up or coordinate with friends or family to pick up for you at these times on those days, please contact us at mckinleypto@gmail.com to schedule a time for delivery.
Build-Your-Own McKinley Dragon and Bedtime Story Event
On Friday, May 21, 7:00pm, McKinley PTO will host a Zoom event for the students to build their dragon with McKinley teachers including Ms. Keeney and special guest, Mr. Howe, will read a bedtime story! NEW developments: Ms. Zar and Ms. Madeira will lead an art project and Mr. Ford will lead a song! Zoom information will be shared closer to the date of the event. Be sure to supply your email address at the time of your online purchase or on your form.
McKinley Garden Plant Sale
Add to your garden with plants lovingly grown by students and volunteers in our very own school garden!
Other species may be available upon request.
Please allow 7-10 days for orders. You'll be contacted via email when your order is ready for pick-up at McKinley. It will be a contactless pickup outside the garden gates behind the school.
For further info about orders please contact Colleen: colleenknoble@gmail.com
For further info about the plants please contact Jenn: jas750@comcast.net
Place your order/s here: https://my.cheddarup.com/c/2021-mckinley-garden-plant-sale
Food Collection Challenge (McKinley vs. Copper Beach)
Starting on Tuesday, April 6, McKinley and Copper Beech will go head-to-head in a food collection challenge. All food donations will go to Inter-Faith Food Cupboard and a list of items will be shared shortly in a joint announcement from both schools.
We have three ways to drop off donations:
McKinley vestibule
In-person students: bring donations to your classroom
A bin at 7953 Church Street, Rockledge
The school with the heaviest total food donation will be the winner and the principal of the "losing" school will have a bucket of ice water dumped on them! A video will be recorded and shared with all students.
Some items that they are looking for (and are heavy!) are the following:
Coffee (1 pound packages)
Peanut Butter AND Jelly
Common condiments (ONLY ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, salad dressing, mild salsa)
Canned Diced Tomatoes or Tomato Puree (plain types)
Canned Chili or SPAM or Ham
Rice (2 pound bags of brown or white)
Visit Inter-Faith Food Cupboard's site for other items they need: https://www.i-fha.org/what-we-do/food-cupboard/.
McKinley HEART Door Decorating Event 2021
Do you honestly love to decorate?
Are you excellent at making things interesting?
Are you aware of how many doors you have in your house?
How do you respect decorating space?
How many things can you tolerate being on your door?
Join the McKinley community as we show HEART in all we do by decorating a door in your home. You can focus on the Theme of Kindness or HEART! Choose a door in your house to decorate with the theme Kindness or HEART.
Directions:
Decorate the door.
Take a picture of your creation - feel free to get in the picture too.
Send the picture, your name, grade, and teacher to colleenmurphy@abington.k12.pa.us or barbaraschenk@abington.k12.pa.us by Thursday, April 22, 2021.
Submissions can be from individuals or families.
Your creation will be shared with the school community via slide show the following week. Some Examples:
Examples of HEART Doors from our McKinley teachers!
The PTO is Officially a Non-Profit Organization!
At the end of the last school year, the PTO became a non-profit organization. This means that you can now write off your PTO membership! We are also tax exempt so eventually purchasing things from our store will be less expensive and we will see a cost savings when making purchases for events.
PTO Website
The PTO website has been updated with the new board members, calendar events and a new feature: online payment of PTO dues! Be sure to check in regularly for updates. Later this year, we hope to make McKinley gear available in our online store as well.
Become a PTO Member
Paying your membership dues will help us make this year more fun during our virtual situation. Fundraising in the foreseeable future will be difficult so PTO membership dues will be our main source of fundraising. Funds collected through membership and fundraising events goes directly toward:
supporting our teachers
student events
various school clubs
Dues are being collected online and start at $10. If you have the ability, please consider paying more to help us maintain our typical membership contributions. Remember, dues are now tax deductible and they truly help the PTO plan activities for students and teachers!
McKinley Directory
Interested in connecting with classmates and their families? Classroom rosters are now available in the Directory, Membership Toolkit! If you don't have an account or need to update your account, directions are on our website at https://www.mckinleypto.org/directory-howto.
NEW! PTO Facebook Group
The PTO is gearing up for a different school year ahead and we have been busy working on different ways to support the parents, teachers and students as we all navigate this new way of schooling. The PTO has created a Facebook group to interact with families (look for McKinley Elementary School PTO) and to provide fun activities for students, parents and teachers. This will also be a hub to stay up to date on school information. Please be sure to read and adhere to the page rules. No talk of politics or beliefs. This page is for MCKINLEY FAMILIES to have fun! Anyone not in compliance will be removed from the group.
Weekly Updates
Typically, the PTO sends a weekly update. Since we're not sure what events and activities will look like in the coming months, we may not be reaching out every week. We will, however, send emails when there are updates!
If you have any questions, thoughts or ideas, do not hesitate to reach out to us directly at mckinleypto@gmail.com.