Dates subject to change.

Recess Runners Mileage Club – Run laps at lunch to earn prizes. Begins February 1, 2012
Running Club – Held after where kids experience running, obstacle courses, and Olympic events. Spring session begins January 25, 2012

KHTS News production – Broadcast monthly in all classrooms

Del Mar Heights Open House – April 5, 2012

We are still $1.55 million away from reaching our goal of $2 million and are far below our goal of 100% family participation. Furthermore, both our dollars raised and participation rate are 50% behind levels at the same point in last year’s campaign. The $1.17 million given to the District last year from the DMSEF funded 13.0 full-time equivalent ESC positions across all eight district schools. Our current fundraising would only fund 4.0 positions for the 2012-2013 school year. Please contribute the suggested amount, or any amount that you are comfortable with, to support the wonderful ESC programs in all of our 8 schools for the upcoming school year.

If you have a child in one of our schools, then you have a reason to contribute as our amazing ESC programs will not exist in their current forms without your contributions. Please give what you can to help ensure that all of our children can continue to receive specialized instruction in Science, Music, Art, Technology and PE. A contribution of $800 per child is ultimately needed to keep our programs complete. Our deadline to raise the necessary funds to support a full ESC program in all 8 of our schools is April 30th. We cannot do this without the support and contributions of all DMUSD families.

Thank you in advance for your support of the DMSEF and our fantastic ESC programs.

Year Round Clubs facilitated by ESC Teachers:

SCIENCE
• Zoo Crew -Scott Phillips, Science Teacher
Science Fair -Scott Phillips, Science Teacher
MUSIC
• Weekly Leadership Meetings -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Monthly Rep Student Council Meetings (and Elections Assembly) -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Chorus -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Fall rehearsals for 5 & 6 grades -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Winter rehearsals for 3 & 4 grades -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Science Field Day Coaching -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Math 24 Club -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Continental Math League Contests -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Wordmaster Challenge -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• National Geographic Bee -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Classroom Bee in January -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• Schoolwide Bee in February -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
• ALEKS Online Math Enrichment – Available to all 4, 5 & 6 grade students -Cinda Peck, Music Teacher
ART
• Art Club for all grades. -Nicole Nelson, Art Teacher
• Highlands Shopping Center Holiday Card Contest November -Nicole Nelson, Art Teacher
TECHNOLOGY
◦ 6th Grade Robotics Club -Janet Wolfertz, Technology Teacher
• KCDM Broadcast -Janet Wolfertz, Technology Teacher
• 2 Producer’s Clubs -Janet Wolfertz, Technology Teacher
• Science Field Day Coaching -Janet Wolfertz, Technology Teacher
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
• K – 6th Grade Mileage Club -Janel Wells, Physical Education
• Lunch Recess Intramural -Janel Wells, Physical Education

We hope that you are all enjoying a wonderful winter break full of friends, family, and fun!! With the New Year approaching we wanted to remind you that it isn’t too late to make your contribution to the DMSEF’s Annual ESC Campaign count for the 2011 tax year. Simply go to www.delmarkids.org to contribute online.

Remember that many companies have programs in which they will “match” the charitable contributions made by their employees. Check with your company’s Human Resources department and find out if they offer gift matching. They can provide you with a matching gift form to send along with your contribution and the DMSEF office will ensure that it gets properly processed. We’ve already received over $60,000 in matching contributions so far this school year so please take advantage of this wonderful program.

Click here to view companies that have corporate matching programs.

So far in the 2011-12 ESC Campaign, we have raised over $350,000, with 18% of all District families participating. We know that we will need $800 for every child enrolled in our schools to fund a complete ESC program. Please contribute the suggested amount, or any amount that you are comfortable with, to support the wonderful ESC programs in all of our 8 schools for the upcoming school year.

Thank you for your support of the DMSEF and Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Congratulations to Desiree Gutierrez (Ashley Falls – PE), Cinda Peck (Carmel Del Mar – Music), Sam Ung (Sycamore Ridge – Science) and Uma Krishnan (Torrey Hills – Science) for being honored as November/December Employees of the Month by the Del Mar Union School District. These collective honors mean that four ESC teachers were selected as employees of the month, only further validating the strength of our outstanding ESC program across all eight schools.

DMSEF Launches New Website!

You may have noticed a new website at delmarkids.org! Based on initial feedback, the community values a site that allows us to effectively update our campaign progress as well as communicate ESC happenings at each of the individual school sites. One visit to our new and improved site and you will certainly see the difference. Many changes and improvements are still on the way so check back often. If you haven’t visited our site lately, take a look around at www.delmarkkids.org where you’ll find school-specific ESC calendars, a list of matching corporate partners and updates to our Annual ESC Campaign’s progress.

The Foundation Board would like to thank Branden Belford for her tireless hours in making our new site a reality. We’d also like to thank Azzembly who provided their services at no cost to develop our new website. Azzembly is a fundraising platform that provides online tools for parents and our community to maximize their contributions to their schools. Like many of the parents of the Del Mar Foundation who have donated their time and money to improve their children’s education, Azzembly has dedicated their resources to the same cause. In fact, Azzembly was developed by parents in our community looking for ways to stretch our donated dollars.

Still Time for 2011 End-of-Year Deductible Contributions

If you have not yet contributed to the DMSEF this year, please consider a December contribution that will also serve as a 100% deductible amount for your 2011 tax year. Our current campaign targets a 100% participation rate across the District so why not contribute now and get an almost instant benefit in return. Of course, the best benefit you get from contributing is ensuring that our award-winning ESC programs stay fully-staffed for the coming year. If you would like to contribute by year-end, simply go to http://www.delmarkids.org/contribute-now/ where you can easily and safely contribute on-line.

Through November 30th, we have had 15% of all families with children in the District contribute a total of $276,000 toward our Annual ESC Campaign. A big ‘Thank You’ to all of those families that have contributed as we continue to focus on getting 100% participation across our eight schools. If you have a child in one of our schools, then you have a reason to contribute as our amazing ESC programs will not exist in their current forms without your contributions. Please give what you can to help ensure that all of our children can continue to receive specialized instruction in Science, Music, Art, Technology and PE. A contribution of $800 per child is ultimately needed to keep our programs complete.

There is still plenty of time to take advantage of the 100% deductibility of your contribution for the 2011 tax year. Simply mail, call or go on-line to make your contribution before December 31st, and you will receive confirmation of your contribution for tax purposes in plenty of time for tax season.

Aztec Football Re-Cap

The Foundation had over 100 people take advantage of our early-bird football promotion during which each contribution of $400 yielded two free tickets to the Boise State-SDSU football game on N,ovember 19th. Everyone who attended had a great time so we will certainly be looking to repeat this offer during basketball season if at all possible. A big thanks to the Aztecs ticket office for working with us in helping to make this promotion a success.

Current Learning in the Technology Lab
Kindergarten- Mouse control, Pixie for drawing and typing names, using razkids.com for reading practice.
First Grade- Using Pixie for creating student passports, drawings of plants with labels, and razkids.com for reading practice.
Other Primary Web sites used: www.starfall.com, McMillan-McGraw Hill Math, Dance Mat Typing.
Second Grade- Using Pixie to create booklets on the seed and plant cycle, writing sentences and illustrating the booklets.
Third Grade- Keyboarding, using Pixie to create images of landforms. Soon to be beginning Kumeyaay PowerPoints.
Fourth Grade- Keyboarding, using Frames to create animations of solving a math problem, using PowerPoint to create interactive quizzes about Interdependence.
Fifth Grade- Keyboarding, using Frames to create animations of Cellular Respiration, animated to student created song lyrics, using Prezi.com to create presentations about Regions.
Sixth Grade- Using Frames to create animations of Plate Tectonics, Sea Floor Spreading, etc, using Google Earth to learn about Topographic Maps.
Other Upper Grade activities include using Google Apps for Education to write, edit, share, collaborate, create spreadsheets, documents, and presentations.