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Friday, February 10, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
Calendar
2/20 President’s Day – School closed, no childcare
2/21-2/24 Winter Break – School closed, childcare by prior registration
4/22 School Auction 2 pm
BE SURE THE SCHOOL AUCTION IS ON YOUR CALENDARS
April 22, 2006*
2:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Sequoyah Country Club
Tickets will be available for online purchase on March 10th.
*Please note the date change
PENNIES FOR PATIENTS
GLM’s elementary class is sponsoring a “Pennies for Patients” fundraising campaign. All monies raised are given to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to try and find a cure for these diseases. The elementary children showed a short Charlie Brown movie and did a presentation to some of the primary children about the drive. Families are encouraged to look under their sofa cushions, in their glove compartments, and anywhere spare change may be found. Collect what you can and put it in the special boxes located in each classroom. The class that raises the most money will be treated to a pizza party!
BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION
We are still collecting box tops from General Mills’ products; collection bins are in the offices the entries at Lake Park and the Brown Cottage, or just put them in an envelope in the office pockets in your classroom.
NANNY AVAILABLE
Prossy, our friend from Uganda via Washington, DC, has recently relocated to the East Bay and is looking for work. Part-time or full-time, live-in or live-out, she is an experienced nanny and mother of a grown son. Reliable, friendly, and responsible, she loves children. Rates are negotiable. Interested? Please email Kate Faust, mother of Margaret in Live Oak: katefaust@sbcglobal.net
SOUND OF THE WEEK Each Wednesday your child is encouraged, with your help, to find an object at home (preferably not a toy) that contains with the sound of the week. Put it in a labeled bag to share with your child’s class. The sound for next week is “T”, as in Toe, Terrier, and Tiger.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
CLASS NEWS
REDWOOD (ELEMENTARY)
The children have greatly enjoyed the warm weather. They are so excited that it has been difficult to have them return to the classroom after lunch. According to Michael, "It is burning up out here! We need to have popsicles, Ms. Rankins!"
The children are very excited about Valentine's Day. On Monday we will be decorating our Valentine's Day bags. On Tuesday our class will be having an all-class luncheon to celebrate the day. The children have decided on a menu of tacos, beans, and Spanish rice. On Monday afternoon some of the children will be taking a field trip to the grocery store to buy our ingredients.
This week Zoe and Nacalah made some very yummy zucchini bread!
The second years have been studying underground stems this week. They used their underground stem specimens to make our snack on Thursday: potato soup. It was really good.
The third years have begun to study mollusks. They are busy drawing and researching the body parts of the snail.
The fourth years are focusing on researching the various Native American tribes of California. They also shared the research on the Navajo (actual name is Dine) with the rest of the class.
The sixth years are completing their study of the 5 senses with their work on the tongue and nose.
Ms. Van Nest planted the rest of our daffodil bulbs this week. The children are delighted to see the bulbs sprouting all over the school. What a pretty spring we will have. We also planted some bulbs in peat pots for the children to take home and plant in their own gardens.
Don't forget Pennies for Patients kicked off this week. Please send your loose change to school!
JACARANDA
Welcome back to Wolfgang Ettenreich, Montessori intern from the AMI Training Center in Mountain View, who is giving many lessons to the children in the Jacaranda classroom during the next several weeks. We look forward to working with you in the classroom, Wolfgang.
Welcome back, too, to Mr. Keating, who with his children joined his wife, while she was working in Honolulu. While on Oahu, winter swells pulsed in with twenty-five to thirty-five foot waves on the North Shore. Impressive!
In advance of the Valentine's Day festivities, the Jacaranda teachers are asking for volunteers to help prepare food and beverage for a tea party next week. The children will need a volunteer to bring in home-baked cookies or tea sandwiches for twenty five total, and another volunteer to bring in sparkling apple cider for the same amount of children.
For Valentine's Day card exchange itself, the children are welcome to bring in cards, one each for everyone in the class, or twenty-five total. On the cards, write your child's name only! Imagine if all twenty five kids brought in twenty-five cards with each of their twenty-five friends' names written on them!? Do not forget that most of the children cannot read. They would then have to wait while these are sorted and distributed by the teachers and would not be able to participate in the most fun part of all: mailing them in other's bags. Also, we would really love it if you modeled being conscious of the real sentiment behind this day - love and caring. We do not understand what action heros like Spiderman have to do with love except that corporations know that your children love them and will probably persuade you to buy them.......smart marketing!!! Make cards with your child or pick them out yourself if you do not want to get into too much discussion about the store's selection.
Last week, Ms. Leck read "The Gas We Pass," or The Story of Farts, by Shinta Cho. This is academically defensible, of course, as the book illustrates and explains how and why ours and animals' bodies fart. We decided that we prefer to use the words "pass gas" at school. For such a potentially disruptive subject as this, talking openly and frankly can prove disarming. Try it with other subjects, too, at home!
Happy birthday to Garren who turned three on Friday and celebrated with the class. Thank you for the books, Garren!
JUNIPER
Valentine's Day is coming soon. A day to say: I was thinking about you! How are you! Hope you have a great day! The children have been making cards in the class and painting red hearts. Giving their cards or hearts to their friends, parents, teachers and grandparents is very special to them. Why not make a wonderful activity at home making cards to share on Feb. 14th, the day everyone will be giving kind thoughts to others. There are 24 children in the classroom. PLEASE SIGN SENDERS NAME ONLY OR JUST BLANK CARDS. If you would like to share a treat please see Ms. Koerber.
REMINDERS:
Check clothes bags (weekly) or when the child uses the clothes, please replace the next day.
Check your Parent’s Pocket daily.
Please bring in a new toothbrush, (It's time).
Please share your family culture with us. The children enjoy your time spent with them in the classroom.
"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love." -- Henry Drummond
"Help children learn to see problems as opportunities for learning. Help a child explore for herself what is happening, how she feels about it, what she is learning from it, and what ideas she has to solve the problem." -- from Positive Discipline for Preschoolers
GINKGO
The class is very busy getting really for Valentine's Day. Thank you to Ben Morgan's mom, Joanne, for coming in and helping the children make bags for the celebration on Tuesday. Also, thank you to Zacary Saliba's mom, Maria, for coming in and doing a special project with the children in preparation for Valentine's Day.
On Valentine's Day the children can bring cards to their friends, but we request that cards are not addressed to specific children.
There have been a lot of children and teachers out due to illness lately. This has not been a normal school week for children because either a teacher or close friend has been out sick every day. We have been talking to the children about illness and how important it is to wash hands our hands frequently. We hope to see everyone healthy and back at school next week.
We wish everyone a great weekend!
LIVE OAK
Here’s hoping all in your family are well. It has been quite a roller coaster this flu season and I for one will be very happy when it’s over.
The children are enjoying learning about birds…they are learning the names and classification of types of birds (wading, song, water, predator etc.) They are getting really good at looking at the characteristics and labeling them. We are also learning about Africa.
“Pennies for Patience” is a fundraising drive sponsored by our elementary class to help people with leukemia and lymphoma, and has begun. This is a really fun way for the children to learn about charity. We will be talking about it in class every week and would really love your support. If you are sending bills, please put them in an envelope with your family name written on it so we can create paper dollars to be hung around the school. The classroom that raises the most money is treated to a pizza party. I have been informed by our students that they want to win! I encourage you to give your children small jobs around the house so that they can earn money to donate to this awesome cause.
MAGNOLIA
What beautiful weather we have been having. The children and the teachers have all been enjoying the sun! Just a reminder to please label all clothing; the children take off their layers as the day warms up.
We will be passing out Valentines on Tuesday, Feb. 14th. Make sure your child brings 30 cards. Please, no super heroes or treats with nuts. We will also be having a special snack as well as making a festive craft project.
We will be working on our class auction projects in March. If you have a spare hour or two on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, please let Ms. Olivares know.
A big happy birthday to Mia Horvath. She turned 5 this week and shared some yummy oat cakes with us.
MULBERRY
Last week we celebrate Lunar New Year and learned about the red envelopes with lucky money in them to drive away evil spirits. Thank you to Marni Hunter for bringing them in! We also read two special books; “The Year of The Dog” and “D is For Dragon Dan”.
We celebrated Owens’ birthday and he gave the class two new books: “Cleo and Caspar” and “I Loove You So Much”. Thank you Owen!
This week, Kennedy from elementary came to our class and read “The Snowy Day”. The toddlers are in awe whenever an elementary child comes to visit, and get very excited when they do.
There have been lots of runny noses and coughs in the building so we are encouraging the children to wash their hands frequently. Please continue this practice at home.
We have been enjoying a song game outside:
Where is Chiara? Where is Marti?
Here they are, here they are.
How are you today, friend?
Very well, I thank you.
Run away, run away.
An excerpt from Infant and Toddler Magazine:
“The child has worked hard to learn to coordinate the muscles of his eyes and hands to be able to pick things up. Once this is accomplished, he has to figure out how to let go and rid himself of the object – just as he had to learn to attach to his mother and gradually let go of her. Through the repeated experience of letting go and dropping everything, he becomes aware that by involving his arm in the process he can make things fly through the air. Now he can coordinate grasping, holding, raising his arm, flexing his wrist and letting go with a forward thrust, with perfect timing and sometimes even with direction. What a wonderful coordination of the will, the mind, and the body. Play ball, find a safe place to toss soft objects, place a large container in a corner and toss beanbags, or set up a small basketball hoop: these are things you can do. As for indiscriminate tossing of objects, this too will pass once he has mastered the skill.
CAMELLIA
It has been a very busy week! We celebrated Lunar New Year and learned about the red envelope and lucky money. The lucky money in a red envelope brings good luck and drives away evil spirits. Thank you to Marni Hunter, Tyler's mom, for bringing in the envelopes and money! We read two great books this week: "The Year Of The Dog", by Oliver Chin, and "D is for Dragon Dance", by Ying Chang.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Year of the Dog so far. This Saturday, Feb. 11, there will be a Lunar New Year parade in San Francisco. If you have time please stop by and enjoy the music, dance, and food. Hope to see you there!
Thank you again to those who contributed to Sound of the Week. Remember, next week’s sound is "T", as in Tomato, Toothbrush, and Toothpaste.
Parents: there has been a lot of running noses and coughing, so please encourage your child to wash their hands frequently with soap at home. Please let the office know if you are going to be late, or your child is going to be absent.
Thank you!
Calendar
2/20 President’s Day – School closed, no childcare
2/21-2/24 Winter Break – School closed, childcare by prior registration
4/22 School Auction 2 pm
BE SURE THE SCHOOL AUCTION IS ON YOUR CALENDARS
April 22, 2006*
2:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Sequoyah Country Club
Tickets will be available for online purchase on March 10th.
*Please note the date change
PENNIES FOR PATIENTS
GLM’s elementary class is sponsoring a “Pennies for Patients” fundraising campaign. All monies raised are given to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to try and find a cure for these diseases. The elementary children showed a short Charlie Brown movie and did a presentation to some of the primary children about the drive. Families are encouraged to look under their sofa cushions, in their glove compartments, and anywhere spare change may be found. Collect what you can and put it in the special boxes located in each classroom. The class that raises the most money will be treated to a pizza party!
BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION
We are still collecting box tops from General Mills’ products; collection bins are in the offices the entries at Lake Park and the Brown Cottage, or just put them in an envelope in the office pockets in your classroom.
NANNY AVAILABLE
Prossy, our friend from Uganda via Washington, DC, has recently relocated to the East Bay and is looking for work. Part-time or full-time, live-in or live-out, she is an experienced nanny and mother of a grown son. Reliable, friendly, and responsible, she loves children. Rates are negotiable. Interested? Please email Kate Faust, mother of Margaret in Live Oak: katefaust@sbcglobal.net
SOUND OF THE WEEK Each Wednesday your child is encouraged, with your help, to find an object at home (preferably not a toy) that contains with the sound of the week. Put it in a labeled bag to share with your child’s class. The sound for next week is “T”, as in Toe, Terrier, and Tiger.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
CLASS NEWS
REDWOOD (ELEMENTARY)
The children have greatly enjoyed the warm weather. They are so excited that it has been difficult to have them return to the classroom after lunch. According to Michael, "It is burning up out here! We need to have popsicles, Ms. Rankins!"
The children are very excited about Valentine's Day. On Monday we will be decorating our Valentine's Day bags. On Tuesday our class will be having an all-class luncheon to celebrate the day. The children have decided on a menu of tacos, beans, and Spanish rice. On Monday afternoon some of the children will be taking a field trip to the grocery store to buy our ingredients.
This week Zoe and Nacalah made some very yummy zucchini bread!
The second years have been studying underground stems this week. They used their underground stem specimens to make our snack on Thursday: potato soup. It was really good.
The third years have begun to study mollusks. They are busy drawing and researching the body parts of the snail.
The fourth years are focusing on researching the various Native American tribes of California. They also shared the research on the Navajo (actual name is Dine) with the rest of the class.
The sixth years are completing their study of the 5 senses with their work on the tongue and nose.
Ms. Van Nest planted the rest of our daffodil bulbs this week. The children are delighted to see the bulbs sprouting all over the school. What a pretty spring we will have. We also planted some bulbs in peat pots for the children to take home and plant in their own gardens.
Don't forget Pennies for Patients kicked off this week. Please send your loose change to school!
JACARANDA
Welcome back to Wolfgang Ettenreich, Montessori intern from the AMI Training Center in Mountain View, who is giving many lessons to the children in the Jacaranda classroom during the next several weeks. We look forward to working with you in the classroom, Wolfgang.
Welcome back, too, to Mr. Keating, who with his children joined his wife, while she was working in Honolulu. While on Oahu, winter swells pulsed in with twenty-five to thirty-five foot waves on the North Shore. Impressive!
In advance of the Valentine's Day festivities, the Jacaranda teachers are asking for volunteers to help prepare food and beverage for a tea party next week. The children will need a volunteer to bring in home-baked cookies or tea sandwiches for twenty five total, and another volunteer to bring in sparkling apple cider for the same amount of children.
For Valentine's Day card exchange itself, the children are welcome to bring in cards, one each for everyone in the class, or twenty-five total. On the cards, write your child's name only! Imagine if all twenty five kids brought in twenty-five cards with each of their twenty-five friends' names written on them!? Do not forget that most of the children cannot read. They would then have to wait while these are sorted and distributed by the teachers and would not be able to participate in the most fun part of all: mailing them in other's bags. Also, we would really love it if you modeled being conscious of the real sentiment behind this day - love and caring. We do not understand what action heros like Spiderman have to do with love except that corporations know that your children love them and will probably persuade you to buy them.......smart marketing!!! Make cards with your child or pick them out yourself if you do not want to get into too much discussion about the store's selection.
Last week, Ms. Leck read "The Gas We Pass," or The Story of Farts, by Shinta Cho. This is academically defensible, of course, as the book illustrates and explains how and why ours and animals' bodies fart. We decided that we prefer to use the words "pass gas" at school. For such a potentially disruptive subject as this, talking openly and frankly can prove disarming. Try it with other subjects, too, at home!
Happy birthday to Garren who turned three on Friday and celebrated with the class. Thank you for the books, Garren!
JUNIPER
Valentine's Day is coming soon. A day to say: I was thinking about you! How are you! Hope you have a great day! The children have been making cards in the class and painting red hearts. Giving their cards or hearts to their friends, parents, teachers and grandparents is very special to them. Why not make a wonderful activity at home making cards to share on Feb. 14th, the day everyone will be giving kind thoughts to others. There are 24 children in the classroom. PLEASE SIGN SENDERS NAME ONLY OR JUST BLANK CARDS. If you would like to share a treat please see Ms. Koerber.
REMINDERS:
Check clothes bags (weekly) or when the child uses the clothes, please replace the next day.
Check your Parent’s Pocket daily.
Please bring in a new toothbrush, (It's time).
Please share your family culture with us. The children enjoy your time spent with them in the classroom.
"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love." -- Henry Drummond
"Help children learn to see problems as opportunities for learning. Help a child explore for herself what is happening, how she feels about it, what she is learning from it, and what ideas she has to solve the problem." -- from Positive Discipline for Preschoolers
GINKGO
The class is very busy getting really for Valentine's Day. Thank you to Ben Morgan's mom, Joanne, for coming in and helping the children make bags for the celebration on Tuesday. Also, thank you to Zacary Saliba's mom, Maria, for coming in and doing a special project with the children in preparation for Valentine's Day.
On Valentine's Day the children can bring cards to their friends, but we request that cards are not addressed to specific children.
There have been a lot of children and teachers out due to illness lately. This has not been a normal school week for children because either a teacher or close friend has been out sick every day. We have been talking to the children about illness and how important it is to wash hands our hands frequently. We hope to see everyone healthy and back at school next week.
We wish everyone a great weekend!
LIVE OAK
Here’s hoping all in your family are well. It has been quite a roller coaster this flu season and I for one will be very happy when it’s over.
The children are enjoying learning about birds…they are learning the names and classification of types of birds (wading, song, water, predator etc.) They are getting really good at looking at the characteristics and labeling them. We are also learning about Africa.
“Pennies for Patience” is a fundraising drive sponsored by our elementary class to help people with leukemia and lymphoma, and has begun. This is a really fun way for the children to learn about charity. We will be talking about it in class every week and would really love your support. If you are sending bills, please put them in an envelope with your family name written on it so we can create paper dollars to be hung around the school. The classroom that raises the most money is treated to a pizza party. I have been informed by our students that they want to win! I encourage you to give your children small jobs around the house so that they can earn money to donate to this awesome cause.
MAGNOLIA
What beautiful weather we have been having. The children and the teachers have all been enjoying the sun! Just a reminder to please label all clothing; the children take off their layers as the day warms up.
We will be passing out Valentines on Tuesday, Feb. 14th. Make sure your child brings 30 cards. Please, no super heroes or treats with nuts. We will also be having a special snack as well as making a festive craft project.
We will be working on our class auction projects in March. If you have a spare hour or two on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, please let Ms. Olivares know.
A big happy birthday to Mia Horvath. She turned 5 this week and shared some yummy oat cakes with us.
MULBERRY
Last week we celebrate Lunar New Year and learned about the red envelopes with lucky money in them to drive away evil spirits. Thank you to Marni Hunter for bringing them in! We also read two special books; “The Year of The Dog” and “D is For Dragon Dan”.
We celebrated Owens’ birthday and he gave the class two new books: “Cleo and Caspar” and “I Loove You So Much”. Thank you Owen!
This week, Kennedy from elementary came to our class and read “The Snowy Day”. The toddlers are in awe whenever an elementary child comes to visit, and get very excited when they do.
There have been lots of runny noses and coughs in the building so we are encouraging the children to wash their hands frequently. Please continue this practice at home.
We have been enjoying a song game outside:
Where is Chiara? Where is Marti?
Here they are, here they are.
How are you today, friend?
Very well, I thank you.
Run away, run away.
An excerpt from Infant and Toddler Magazine:
“The child has worked hard to learn to coordinate the muscles of his eyes and hands to be able to pick things up. Once this is accomplished, he has to figure out how to let go and rid himself of the object – just as he had to learn to attach to his mother and gradually let go of her. Through the repeated experience of letting go and dropping everything, he becomes aware that by involving his arm in the process he can make things fly through the air. Now he can coordinate grasping, holding, raising his arm, flexing his wrist and letting go with a forward thrust, with perfect timing and sometimes even with direction. What a wonderful coordination of the will, the mind, and the body. Play ball, find a safe place to toss soft objects, place a large container in a corner and toss beanbags, or set up a small basketball hoop: these are things you can do. As for indiscriminate tossing of objects, this too will pass once he has mastered the skill.
CAMELLIA
It has been a very busy week! We celebrated Lunar New Year and learned about the red envelope and lucky money. The lucky money in a red envelope brings good luck and drives away evil spirits. Thank you to Marni Hunter, Tyler's mom, for bringing in the envelopes and money! We read two great books this week: "The Year Of The Dog", by Oliver Chin, and "D is for Dragon Dance", by Ying Chang.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Year of the Dog so far. This Saturday, Feb. 11, there will be a Lunar New Year parade in San Francisco. If you have time please stop by and enjoy the music, dance, and food. Hope to see you there!
Thank you again to those who contributed to Sound of the Week. Remember, next week’s sound is "T", as in Tomato, Toothbrush, and Toothpaste.
Parents: there has been a lot of running noses and coughing, so please encourage your child to wash their hands frequently with soap at home. Please let the office know if you are going to be late, or your child is going to be absent.
Thank you!
