We are only 16 days away from Grady’s Adults only Auction and Hoedown on March 3^rd! The Auction is from 6-10pm at the Christ the King Mary Martha Center.

Buy your tickets today at www.gradytigers.org/auction! Pre-sale tickets are only $25 per person and include delicious food and 2 drink tickets. The price will go up at the door - tickets will cost $30 per person and do not include any free drink tickets.

Raffle baskets will be available tonight at Conference Night, as well as February 26 – March 2^nd during drop off. Tickets are $1 each, 7 for $5 or 15 for $10. You can buy raffle tickets even if you can’t attend Auction Night – you do not need to be present to win the raffle.

Raffle items include: a birthday party at Altitudes, basket of coffees and teas, wine and dine basket with 6 bottles of wine, $75 gift card to Acropolis, gift card to Mini Donut Factory and cheese knives with a serving chalkboard.

At Auction Night, we will have fantastic auction items including a birthday party at The Prep, a beach house rental at Indian Shores, 10 pack of CycleBar classes, and private QB lessons from an NFL quarterback! We also have amazing baskets donated by our classes.

To see more auction/raffle items, please click here. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to mingle with other Grady parents at this fun, relaxed event.  We will have a DJ, great food, drinks and lots of great items to bid on to help raise funds to upgrade the technology at our school!

We can’t wait to see you there!

Thank you, Grady Parents, Teachers and Partners!   Thanks to all of you our PTA has just purchased, and Grady Elementary will soon receive, 37 laptops on a portable laptop cart! 

The idea of the laptop cart is to make it easier for our school to deliver the newest technology to our students.  The laptop cart will allow the computers to go from classroom to classroom, so that the computers can be utilized by more students during a single school day. 

The computers will be used to teach the i-Ready computer-based curriculum.  The i-Ready program is a research-based, classroom-proven program that helps educators effectively address the diverse needs of every student.  The award-winning products include reading, mathematics, intervention, language arts, test prep, special education, early childhood, and more.  The laptops will also be used to facilitate student testing because more and more tests are being given on computers. 

We applaud our parents, teachers and our Tiger Partners, especially the Agazzi Family which donated $3,000 to this project.  We are also grateful to the administration for suggesting this purchase.  We are all helping to bring state-of the-art educational tools to our school.

Thank you to everyone that attended our Unlock the Treasures of Reading Night yesterday! Special thanks to all of the guest readers from Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and the Grady staff that helped make the event possible!!

Here are some important upcoming dates to note:

• 1/22 – Spring Chorus Rehearsals commence for grades 3, 4 & 5. For additional information and to download a copy of the permission form, please click here: Grady Spring Chorus.
• 1/26 – There will be a special General Assembly PTA meeting on Friday, January 26th at 8am at the flagpole in front of the school. We want to amend the budget to add a $10,000 expense line item for technology. Thanks to the success of our Sponsorship program and Tiger Trek, we will be able to update technology at the school.
• 1/26 – Kindergarten Roundup at 8:30 am in the Media Center – Parents, Grandparents and children are welcome to attend the program for incoming Kindergartners.  Attendees will hear from School administrators and Grady Kindergarten teachers and will receive a tour of the Kindergarten classrooms. Please share this information with friends who have kids that are eligible to attend Kindergarten at Grady and encourage them to attend. No RSVP is necessary.
• 1/31 – Class Pictures
• 2/9 – Non-Student Day (Florida State Fair Day)
• 2/23 - Jump Rope for Heart & Field Day – Jump Rope For Heart is a fun field day that has kids jumping rope, running and jumping over hurdles and bouncing in a bounce house.  In addition to fun, students will learn about heart health and the importance of a good diet.  Jump Rope For Heart also has a fundraising component that raises money for the American Heart Association and raises money for athletic equipment for Grady Elementary.  You will be receiving detailed information about the program and how to fund raise shortly. If you have any questions about JRFH in the meantime, please email Ms. Murrell at [email protected].
• 3/3 – Grady’s adult only Auction Night at Christ the King. Click here to purchase tickets for our very fun Country themed auction night for only $25 per person, which includes 2 free drink tickets. Please note that tickets sold at the door will be $30 each and will not include any drink tickets. 

To donate items for the auction, please contact Julie Alexander at [email protected].

Yearbooks

Yearbooks are on sale! Make sure that you purchase your yearbook by March to insure that your child will have a yearbook for yearbook signing day. To buy a yearbook for your child, go to http://www.strawbridge.net/order-online/ and use online code: 112045.

5th grade ads are also on sale until January 31, 2018. To buy a yearbook ad for your child go to: https://gradytigers.org/fifth-grade-yearbook-ads. Please note that ads can only be purchased for 5th graders.

Barnes & Noble Family Reading Night

Thanks again to the families that participated in our Barnes & Noble Family Night of Reading in December. We raised $575.07 during the event, which will be used for our Teacher Appreciation Week.

Box Tops

Thank you to all of the families that submitted Box Tops in Fall. We raised $592.80, which is used for teacher mini grants, student supplies and classroom needs. 

Please help us make it another great box top year!  Clip and send in unexpired box tops in clear ziploc-style bags, with a maximum of 50 Box Tops per bag. Grady will receive 10 cents for every Box Top collected and submitted.  Please send in Box Tops between now and February 23, 2018.

Mini Grants

In January, the PTA approved $169 in teacher mini grants for ASD Special Education software that was previously purchased by Hillsborough County, but wasn’t renewed this year. So far, over $6,322.66 in teacher mini grants have been approved this school year.

Home & School Connection

Guidance Counselor, Ms. Nancy Harris, asks us to read the January Home & School Connection.

Thank you again for all of your support. It makes all the impactful things we do at Grady possible!

On Thursday, January 18th from 6:00-7:00pm is our annual Unlock the Treasures of Reading Night, also known as Grady Pirate Night. 

Parents and children are invited to this event.  Children will go to classrooms and enjoy stories read by pirates from local krewes.  Parents of students in grades 3-5 will go to the Media Center for the FSA Information Session and parents of students in grades K-2 will go to the cafeteria for a Reading Essentials Information Session. 

The kids will have a blast and they are invited to dress as pirates or wear pajamas. There will be free books, beads, juice and cookies. Please don’t miss this important event.