Turtle Talk 01/24/2025
Watershed's Newsletter
Take a Plant, "Leaf" a Plant
Ms. Lauren has created a plant propagation station in the Watershed front doorway. Plant cuttings are growing in the window and available for anyone to adopt a plant cutting and take it home. Families are also welcome to leave their own plant cuttings for others to take. If you are looking for a new houseplant, check out Ms. Lauren's display!
Trex Plastic Recycling Program
Watershed participates in Trex's plastic recycling program. There are 2 tall white containers in the front lobby to collect plastic bags and plastic wrap. Each week, a Watershed volunteer collects the plastic, weighs it, takes a picture of it and drops it off at a local grocery store for recycling. Watershed logs our plastic donations each week. If we reach our goal of recycling 1,000 lbs. of plastic by the end of August, Watershed would receive a composite bench for our campus made out of plastic bags like the ones that we have been recycling. Please help us reach our goal and bring your clean, dry, and food-free plastic to recycle at school. Thank you!
Elevator Repairs
Safety Infrastructure Project
In the past week, new interior and exterior security cameras have been installed. The final step is connecting the video camera and door access systems to our network and BCPS security access. Once this is complete, we will distribute new key cards and launch a much-improved security system, enhancing the safety of the Watershed campus.
Join us for the February PTO Meeting!
Be sure to join us for the next PTO Meeting coming up on Tuesday, February 4th. We will be discussing upcoming events like the Repair Shop, Read-a-Thon, Spelling Bee, upcoming Restaurant Nights and more!
Join us at 7:00 PM for all the latest PTO news! meet.google.com/uvx-zqmz-rcd
Homework Club and Career Fair
Two new exciting initiatives are coming to Watershed and Ms. Rives has invited PTO members to come be a part of them!
The first opportunity is to volunteer to help with the Homework Club! Homework Club will be held weekly on Wednesdays (beginning February 5th) 2:15-3:15pm at the school. Homework Club volunteers will supervise middle school students as they work with younger students to help them build their math skills, engage in the activities, and help with their work. For more details and to sign up, please visit this link https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0845ABA823A7FCC52-54522206-homework#/
And the second opportunity is to be a part of a planning committee for the Career Fair that will be held during school on May 28th. Committee members will help with the planning and completion of delegated tasks. Work on this committee is scheduled to begin in mid-February. If you are interested in participating, please contact Ms. Rives at rhennessy@bcps.org.
BCPS Cyber Games
Watershed 6th and 7th grade students are invited to register and participate in the first BCPS Cyber Games held on Saturday, February 22, 2025 from 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. at Dumbarton Middle School. No experience is necessary to participate. 1-4 students can be in a team with a chance to win prizes. Each student must bring a computer with them to the Cyber Games. Watershed students may bring a computer from home or borrow a Watershed Chromebook for the Cyber Games.
- To register for BCPS Cyber Games and learn more information, please visit this website: https://bcpscybergames.ctfd.io/
- To borrow a computer from Watershed, please fill out this form: https://forms.office.com/r/pB49hprRhd
Repair Shop
Repair Time Slots Now Open!
Does your Watershed student have a favorite pair of jeans with a hole in the knee? A beloved toy that needs to be glued or reassembled? A hand-me-down bicycle with a rusty chain that needs to be cleaned and replaced? On Friday, February 7th, from 3:30 - 5:00 PM the Watershed PTO Repair Shop can help with that!
Sign-ups are now open for both repair volunteer slots and for Watershed students seeking repair help. As more repair volunteers sign up we will be able to add more repair slots.
At this time, you can:
→ Sign up to volunteer to work at a repair station. We need crafty volunteers with knowledge of textiles (patching clothes, replacing buttons); mechanically-minded volunteers who can help fix kids’ transportation (bike, skateboard, and scooter repairs), and handy volunteers who can help fix kids’ toys (gluing, cleaning, and upcycling). We hope these volunteers will also be able to bring tools and basic materials to help fix broken items.
We could really use more toy repair volunteers. Please reach out if we can help answer any questions.
→ Sign up to bring in an item in need of repair (please only one slot per family for now)
Cleaning Supply Drive
After the success of last year’s, the Hospitality Committee is bringing back the Cleaning Supply Drive to benefit the Watershed Staff. From February 10-14, you can donate hand sanitizer, tissues, and disinfecting wipes. Collection bins will be outside the main entrance throughout that week so you can drop off donations at your convenience. Over the next couple weeks, while you are out running errands, please consider picking up items to contribute. Thank you for your generosity!
Spelling Bee
The Annual Watershed PTO Spelling Bee is Back! It will be held in the evening on Thursday, February 27th, as a Scripps-registered event.
Students in grades 3-7 will take a spelling test in class between January 28th-31st. The top two students from each class will be invited to compete in the Spelling Bee on February 27th. Following the classroom tests, winning students from each class will be recognized and given materials to prepare for the school-wide bee. Classroom winners will be announced on February 5th during school!
Because it’s a Scripps-registered event the school winner will have a chance to represent Watershed at the Scripps regional competition on March 22nd!
More information and Word Study Lists should have come home in your student’s Tuesday folder on 1/14. If you did not receive these materials and would like them, please reach out to spellingbee@watershedpto.org.
Ledo Pizza January Restaurant Fundraising Event
Due to some not-so-great weather this past Monday, we postponed the Ledo Pizza Fundraising Event to Monday, January 27th. So be sure to join the Watershed PTO next Monday at Ledos in Owings Mills from 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM for our January Restaurant Fundraising Event. Mention the Watershed PTO when ordering and the PTO will receive 20% of your purchase. This offer is good for dine-in or carry-out.
9706 Groffs Mill Dr., Owings Mills, MD 21117
Read-A-Thon
Get Ready! Read-a-Thon is happening the week of March 3rd–7th during Read Across America Week! Students will have the chance to fundraise and log their reading hours, with exciting prizes up for grabs. Stay tuned for more details about the Read-A-Thon and a week filled with fun activities!
The Read-A-Thon committee is still looking for a few more volunteers to help plan activities and support the week’s events. If you're interested in getting involved, sign up here!
School Volunteer Opportunities and Raffle
There is still time to win a $10 gift card and make a positive impact on Watershed at the same time!
Sign up for a school volunteer opportunity through the SignUp Genius link below, and you'll be entered into a monthly raffle for a chance to win a gift card! The winner will be drawn at each PTO meeting. January’s winner will be announced at the February PTO meeting on February 4th. Each month's raffle is separate, so the more you sign up, the more chances you have to win! January entries are open now!
Let’s come together and make a difference in our school community—sign up today!
👉 https://tinyurl.com/Watershed-School-Volunteer
Just 2 more Committee Chairs Needed
There are only 2 committees that are still in need of Chairs. Help us fill these spots and sign up to chair one of the committees below and play a key role in shaping these events— We can’t do it without you!
Committees that still need chairs:
Election Committee Chairs (February 1st - April 1st) We are looking for a team of two people to prepare and run the upcoming elections. The committee is responsible for collecting nominations for each office and running the election on April 4. Per the PTO’s bylaws, in order for us to hold our elections as scheduled on April 1, the committee needs to be formed by the February 4 meeting.
Spring Dance Committee Chair (April 1st - May 23) Let the fun you had at the winter dance inspire you to lead the team that will prepare the spring dance! As the chair, the facilitating officer would work with you as you lead committee meetings, create a planning timeline, manage a committee budget, and complete a committee wrap-up summary.
If you are interested in leading any of these committees or want to learn more before committing, please send an email to president@watershedpto.org.
Parent/Caregiver Led Clubs
Looking for more after-school opportunities for your student? Do you have a really awesome idea for a club?
The PTO is currently looking for enthusiastic members of our community to lead some clubs. We’re excited to offer Parent/Caregiver Led Clubs for Watershed students, and we’d love for you to share your talents, skills, or hobbies! If you're interested in running an after-school club, please check out the details here. For any questions, feel free to
contact us at president@watershedpto.org.
LinkTree: One link for all our links!
Did you know that the Watershed PTO has a linktree? Visit https://linktr.ee/watershedpto to find an up to date list of all our links including the Fall Fest RSVP, Room Rep Contact Information, volunteer sign-ups, our Mabel’s Labels fundraiser, and more!