New Playground Equipment!

Tiebreaker's new playground equipment has arrived and it's in the process of being installed. Last fall on election day, the students voted for the new playground equipment they wanted. These pictures show the equipment they chose in that vote, on that historic day.

The zip line that you see here in the foreground won hands down. If you click on the picture, you can get a closer look. We're hoping to get a big tire set in the ground and partially buried so the little ones can reach it.

Our entire fundraising income for the 2008-09 school year went towards putting in this new playground equipment. This equipment cost nearly $20,000 and the Tiebreaker PTO covered half of that cost. We hope this makes you feel better about all that cookie dough you bought last year, because cookie dough is our biggest fundraiser each year.

The kids have been breaking in the equipment that's installed so far and they love it. All of it will be ready for the kids to enjoy when they come back to school in August, and we are so excited.

The next time you're at Tiebreaker, we hope you'll take a peek at our new playground.

AR - Accelerated Reading Program

Tiebreaker PTO runs and supports a successful Accelerated Reading Program. The AR program was implemented to encourage students to read more, because it has been scientifically proven that the only way to become a better reader is to read, and Tiebreaker students read.

Our AR program has an individual reward component, with students earning prizes all year long as they accumulate AR points, and a classroom competition which encourages classrooms to compete against each other.

During the 2008-09 school year, our students read so much that we gave out more AR prizes than we ever have before! We think that makes our AR program pretty successful.

The AR program requires multiple volunteers to be successful. Generally it takes two people to head the program. These committee heads keep track of the points and keep the PTO room stocked with prizes for the students. They also assign and distribute class prizes and maintain a progress display in the hallway.

In addition to the committee heads, the program requires two volunteers from each grade level to assign individual prizes once a week, with the two people alternating weeks.

The AR program is a fun way for parents and grandparents to help out at the school, and it encourages their students to become better readers.