October 2017 Newsletter

 

October 2017 Newsletter

Welcome to October!  What an exciting time our kids have had so far!  Our Marching Trojan Pride has had a wonderful season! Their last marching performance is this Friday at the football game. If you've not had a chance to see this year's show Oceana, come on out and support our marchers.  The concert bands are busy getting ready for our first concert!

Fall Concert

Our fall concert is next week already!  October 19th at 6:30pm!  The children should report at 6 to the band room for warm-ups.  The band kids have been spending the last few weeks preparing to show off the skills they've learned so far this year.  We are still in need of a couple of 6th grade and High School Parents who can sit with the kids while Mr. Blocker is directing. This will help us ensure that the children are sitting where they should with proper attention to the band currently playing on stage.  If you can help out, please let Mr. Blocker know.

Disney

The day is fast approaching for the marching band to march down Main Street USA!  There is a MANDITORY student, parent and chaperone meeting on October 16th at 7pm in the band room.
We are still in need of a couple large suitcases for the band to borrow to transport our uniforms. If you would consider letting us borrow one, please bring it to the band room on October 16th.

Fall Craft Fair

The craft show is coming up next month, November 11th and 12th.  The craft show is a huge success because of our parent and student volunteers.  Remember, every hour you, or your student works earns them money in their student accounts.  Adult Signups are now active!  You can follow this link https://goo.gl/forms/vhS61T1PvwHv13ys2 to sign up for your time slots.

We will be having craft show yard signs available at the concert. If you're willing to have one in your yard to advertise our craft show, please sign the form so we know where to pick up the signs from!

We are asking for a few donations for the craft fair this year. 

Baked goods for our Bake Sale.  You do not need to package these, our bake sale fairies will take care of this for you!  These can be dropped of Friday November 10th, or in the morning at the start of the craft show, 9am on Saturday and 11am on Sunday.

Soda.  We ask that each family donate one 12 pack of soda.  We split each grade up to cover all the varieties of soda we offer at the concessions stand.

Soda Type	Grade	Last Names Starting With
Orange Crush	6th Grade	A-G
Grape Crush	6th Grade	H-L
Mug Rootbeer	6th Grade	M-R
Dr. Pepper	6th Grade	S-Z
Diet Serra Mist	7th Grade	A-G
Mountain Dew	7th Grade	H-Z
Sierra Mist	8th Grade	ALL
Pepsi	High School	A-J
Diet Pepsi	High School	K-Z

Raffle Baskets!

We're trying something new this year.  We're going to create baskets for our raffles for each grade. The grade who has the most raffle tickets at the craft show will win a pizza party from the Boosters!  There will be boxes in the band room for the donations.  We ask that you have your item to the band room by November 4th in order give our basket makers time to put these together.

Basket Theme	Grade
Car Care	6th
Crafting the Night Away	7th
Family Game Night	8th
Dinner and a Movie	9th
Faimly Road Trip	10th
Death by Chocolate	11th
Baker's Basket	12th

Fundraisers Update

Our first dining out fundraiser at Q-BBQ was a great success! Thank you to everyone who came out and supported the bands!  We will be setting up more of these in the future.  If you have any suggestions of locations, let us know!

Carson Books will be coming home soon.  Each book is $5 and we will ask that each student aims to sell 5 books. Each book contains a ton of coupons including a $10 off any item coupon.  The band receives 100% profit, with a portion of each sale going into the student accounts.

Pep Band

The high school concert band will be performing pep music at a selection of basketball games starting November 3rd.  These are mandatory.  If there is a conflict, that needs to be worked out with Mr. Blocker in advance.  Call time for each is 5:45, the band will start performing at 6:30.  The uniform for these performances are the Highland Band Blue Polo and jeans. If your child does not have a polo, they will be fitted for one.

Performance dates: Friday November 3rd, Tuesday November 14th, Friday November 17th, Friday December 1st, Tuesday January 9th, Wednesday January 10th, Friday January 19th, Saturday January 20th, Friday January 26th and Saturday February 10th.  These are added to the Band Calendar.

On January 20th, we invite any alumni to come play with us!  If you know anyone who was a member of the Highland Bands, invite them to come out and play.  We have some instruments available if needed, just let us know!  We will have the music available for practicing sometime in December.  There will be a closed Facebook group for this event. Keep an eye out!

On February 10th, we invite the 7th and 8th graders to come play!

ALL Band Bowling Fun Night

On November 21st, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break starts we're hosting an ALL Band Bowling Fun Night at Plaza Lanes!  We'll be there from 7pm-10pm.  We will have some fun games for the kids.  A $10 fee will be collected closer to the event to cover shoes and dinner.  This is a great opportunity for the band kids to socialize outside of school!

Director's Comments

The marching season wrapped up last week with their final contest in Elkhart.  The marching band did very well this year, including two competitions that were a little challenging with the weather.

All students now have iPads and we have been using Google Classrooms to turn in video assignments.  These are going over very well and allow digital feedback.  The feedback has been sent to each student's account as well as the grade for the assignment. SmartMusic should be installed within the week and assignments will be coming there as well.  Check RDS for any missing assignments.  If you missed one, you can still submit it.