|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday, May 12, 2006
Friday, May 12, 2006
Calendar
5/17 All-school assembly – Chinese Acrobats 3 pm
5/24 Elementary Graduation 6:00 pm – Invitation only
5/24 Teacher Appreciation Lunch
5/29 Memorial Day – School closed, no childcare
5/30 Toddler transition meeting 4:30-6 pm
5/31 GLM Earth Day
6/2 End of Year all-school picnic at Lake Temescal
6/9 Last day of school!
ALL-SCHOOL ASSEMBLY – CHINESE ACROBATS
(please note corrected time & date: 3 pm, May 17)
On Wednesday, May 17, we have a performance by the fabulous Chinese Acrobats on the yard at 3 pm. This team of acrobats presents an amazing, fantastic, colorful program. The group consists of 3 or 4 acrobats and an interpreter who will enrich the assembly with facts about Chinese culture, customs and school life. This should be an unforgettable, breathtaking experience!
WINE & CHEESE TASTING AND AUCTION UPDATE
Thanks to all those who volunteered and attended the event! Special thanks to the following GLM families who made extraordinary contributions to the event and without whom this fundraiser would not have been possible:
Heidi Hudson
Diane & Avrum Spiegel
Teresa & Ces Butner
Marni & John Hunter
Celeste Grinage
Maya Chorengel & Arpad Molnar
Ted & Kristen Talley
Laura Lorenz
Sean & Mariana Harris
Lynne Wardell & David Manuel
D-B & Beverly Hudson (Kai Kendall's grandparents)
Marla Erojo & Michael Santero (GLM alum and future parents)
What a great afternoon it was!! We are busy calculating totals and distributing purchased items, and will have an update with the amount raised next week. Look for photos at the end of the year picnic!!
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 the sound of the week. Put it in a labeled bag to share with your child’s class. The sound for next week is “PL” as in PLiers, PLane, and PLum.
TEACHER APPRECIATION LUNCH
The Teacher Appreciation lunch will be Wednesday, May 24, 2006. Look for an email from your Room Parent with details.
END OF YEAR PICNIC - JUNE 2nd, 5 pm - 8 pm, AT LAKE TEMESCAL
This family style picnic is the perfect way to end the school year!!! Last year, a beautiful and warm afternoon had families leaving after dark - don't miss this community event.
How does it work? GLM will be providing the meat (and veggie dogs) - the rest will be potluck style, and sign up sheets will be forthcoming. Families will be asked to bring their own plates, cups, utensils and any wine, beer or other specialty beverage of your choice (in addition to your potluck contribution). Please remember, the teachers are not working during the picnic, and you will be entirely responsible for the care of your child(ren).
Calling all Dads!!! We need a barbeque crew from 4 pm - 7:00 pm. If you are interested, contact Chris Keusel, Live Oak Parent (chriskuesel@yahoo.com).
SUMMER MOTHER’S HELPER AVAILABLE
Tired of scrubbing your shower? Bored with sitting next to the shredder, feeding it secret documents? Not into kneeling in your yard, pulling weeds? Want to get a pedicure without your preschooler? Samantha Aima, 13 years old, is very responsible, a hard worker, and available this summer to do various household chores. Pay is negotiable. Please contact Mary Aima in the Brown Cottage if interested, 510-622-0258.
BOX TOPS COORDINATOR STILL NEEDED
This is a simple way to get your Parent Hours and bring in extra cash for the school. Please consider taking over this easy, flexible project.
· Encourage GLM families to cut out the Box Tops for Education coupons found on packages of General Mills cereals, Ziploc products, Betty Crocker and other food products from General Mills. And, NEW for 2006—Kimberly-Clark paper products such as Kleenex, Scott, Viva, and Cottonelle.
· Spread the word about the locations of coupon-collecting containers placed all around the GLM campus.
· Periodically collect the coupons, count them, and send them to General Mills. General Mills sends a check to our school twice a year! It’s CASH—not some kind of corporate scrip.
Additional, optional duties:
· Visit the classrooms and tell the kids about this way to raise money for our school. Visits could include showing the children pictures of the coupons, so they can make sure the coupons don’t end up in the recycling bin at home. Or perhaps, an art project such as a coupon collection envelope to stick on the refrigerator at home.
· Encourage use of the Box Tops for Education website (www.boxtops4education.com) as a starting point for online shopping, which would bring in additional money for our school.
· Boost the Box Tops Booster Club!
This volunteer job counts toward your Parent Participation Hours. The amount of time you put into it, and the scheduling of the hours, are very, very flexible.
Please contact Cindy Fressola for more information.
Email: Fressola@msn.com
+ + + + + + + + + + + + +
CLASS NEWS
REDWOOD (ELEMENTARY)
Last week the children enjoyed the Boxtales performance of “The Odyssey”. It was really neat to see the Cyclops. The children were mesmerized!
Our tabletop herb garden has sprouted! We have chives, oregano, marjoram, and many others growing on our snack table. It has been very exciting for the children. We also planted some mini hybrid calla lilies in the back of our building. The calla lilies, which have already bloomed, are purple and they are gorgeous. The children are eager to see if we will have any other colors from our hybrid plant.
Next week our class will be doing the standardized testing. The children are actually looking forward to the process as they have deemed it fun!
This week the children made their Mother's Day gifts. They look wonderful! They have been busy making the cards to accompany the presents.
Last week we celebrated Kennedy's 10th birthday! Happy, belated birthday to him. Thank you to his mother for coming and sharing some cute stories about Kennedy when he was a baby.
JACARANDA
Thank you for your ongoing support of the Sound of the Week. The chalk and chopsticks and many other "ch" objects continue to assist the children in associating the phonetic sound, with the letter of the alphabet, or "symbol".
This is the time of year when the children of the Jacaranda classroom and other classes throughout the school are in transition. The older children are thinking about their next classes and toddlers are in transition from the Brown Cottage. As their world changes at school, it is helpful to have an age-appropriate conversation about these changes at home, too.
The children continue their care of the corn, flowers and pumpkin vines that have been planted over the past several weeks. This is such an exciting time when the plants are growing so quickly and the changes are so easy to follow.
The names of the countries of Africa were added to the geography shelf this week and are available to the children who have had a lesson on the puzzle map of Africa.
Ms. Leck has a song about the planets of the solar system, and the children of the Jacaranda class enjoy singing "the planets of the sun, the planets of the sun" to a tune that everyone in the class is familiar with.
The afternoon children had a riveting conversation about bugs yesterday, including study of a desert hairy scorpion and a blood-sucking conenose.
JUNIPER
The Juniper children continue to enjoy visits from Angelina, an elementary student, and the wonderful stories she reads.
Ms. Yang's cousin, Christien, is spending the day today with Juniper class. She recently graduated from a university in Japan and will be spending a few weeks visiting the United States. Christien likes to do art with the children, and in the coming two weeks she will visit more and introduce some art activities related to Asian culture. We are looking forward to the fun things she will be doing with the children.
Elizabeth Knowlton came twice this week to read to the children. As always, they thoroughly enjoyed the stories that she shared with them. Thanks!
Reminder: please put sun block on your children each morning. We will re-apply it during the course of the day.
GINKGO
This week we opened up an outdoor classroom. It is located in our lunch area. This area has a lot of different activities; cloth washing, foot washing, checkers, flower arranging, printing, etc. The children work on the lunch tables, on the bench under the tree, or in the grass (on a rug). The weather has been so nice and it’s fun to work outside. We would like to thank Faye Owens for setting up our space for the outdoors.
The children have been busy working on Mother’s Day presents all week. It’s a surprise! We know you will love them.
The Ginkgo class started planting carrots on Tuesday. We can’t wait to see how our work turns out. We have two garden boxes that we are working in. In the second box, we are planning to plant radishes, another root vegetable.
Sound of the week:
This week’s sound of the week was “ch”. The children brought in a large number of items; Chopsticks, Chips, Chinese ninja, Chocolate. Another child brought a truck, pointing out the ending sound “ch” to the class (very nice, Gabriel Poon!). Children also thought of other words including church, cheese and chest.
Last Friday, May 5, was Cinco de Mayo. Marni Hunter, Campbell’s mom, came in and did a presentation for the children. She explained why this day is special in the Mexican culture. After the presentation, she brought in a snack of chips and salsa. After snack the children continued the celebration by coloring the Mexican flag and the words “Cinco de Mayo”.
LIVE OAK
For those of you who missed it we had a great Saturday working in the garden with the children. There was a terrific Live Oak turnout and I personally thank all of you. The garden is beautiful!!!!!!!!
The weather is certainly calling us outdoors this week. We have set up a great outside classroom in the mornings. Ms. Cebulski is giving many lessons on Australia. Mr. Boyer is in charge of the garden watering and ball games with the children on the upper yard. Ms. Basom is busy with miscellaneous lessons and Ms. MacDonald has decided to focus on reading skills for the rest of the year. We will try to be outdoors as much as possible while the weather is good; I heard the fog is coming in on Friday.
With the end of the year so close you might be wondering about fulfilling your volunteer hours. If you need some things to do I have a long list…feel free to come in during the day or email me and I might have some homework for you.
Happy Mothers Day!!!
MAGNOLIA
Happy Mother's day! The children have been working on a lovely surprise for the special moms in their lives. Make sure to check your child's backpack for the gift.
We had a wonderful Cinco de Mayo celebration last Friday. A huge thank you to Lisa Mueller for helping with the guacamole. Crossley Dellis and Bob Houser brought in some surprises for our pinata. Thank you to Meghan O'Leary and Matt Herreras for the tasty tacos, rice and Mexican sweet bread. Everything tasted so delicious!
Happy Birthday, Clementine Hecker! After taking 3 turns around the sun we all shared a bagel snack.
This week with Mr. Moody the children began learning the dance "La Raspa". This a traditional Mexican dance that involves shuffling and turning to the beat of the music. We will be practicing this dance throughout the month of May.
MULBERRY
A big thank you to Diane Spiegel and Marni Hunter for celebrating Cinco De Mayo with the children in the Brown Cottage. They started with a special snack of churros, chips, salsa, and guacamole, strawberries, and apple “margaritas”. They told us the story of Cinco De Mayo with music and maracas. What would a celebration be without art? The children then made their own maracas and colored pictures of the Mexican flag. For lunch we had burritos that Diane made for us!
This week the children have been working on a Mother’s Day secret project. You’ll have to wait till Sunday to find out what they made!
We've been playing with water a lot so remember to dress your child for warm weather and apply sunscreen. We will re-apply lotion during the day.
We have begun planning our Earth Day celebration. Our class will represent Africa. We plan to cook a rice dish and fried yams. We are also learning a song and will have an art project to share with the rest of the school.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms!
CAMELLIA
Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather we are having. It is a bit on the hot side, so please dress your child appropriately (lightweight clothing, short sleeves, etc.).
Thank you to all the parents and friends who came to the GLM work party. You did a wonderful job on the flower boxes, and a big thank you for planting strawberries!
Thank you to Diane Spiegel (Michael's mom) and Marni Hunter (Tyler's mom) for coming and doing a Cinco de Mayo celebration last Friday. We enjoyed many, many tasty treats (chips and dips, mangos, strawberries, apple juice, and churros)! All the children fell in love with the churros and chips and dip (so did Mr. Tien).
This week’s sound was "CH" and we had chips and chalk. Stella Cstillo (Ethan Feldstein’s mom) did it again; she made cherry cheese cake. Wow! Not only delicious, but a double "CH" sound! Next week’s sound, "PL", could be a real challenge in the food department.
Date to remember:
May 29 is Memorial Day - no school or childcare.
May 31 is GLM’s Earth Day. Each class will provide a snack, a song or dance and a craft from the continent they represent. Camellia and Mulberry will represent Africa. If you want more information please contact the Brown Cottage staff.
Calendar
5/17 All-school assembly – Chinese Acrobats 3 pm
5/24 Elementary Graduation 6:00 pm – Invitation only
5/24 Teacher Appreciation Lunch
5/29 Memorial Day – School closed, no childcare
5/30 Toddler transition meeting 4:30-6 pm
5/31 GLM Earth Day
6/2 End of Year all-school picnic at Lake Temescal
6/9 Last day of school!
ALL-SCHOOL ASSEMBLY – CHINESE ACROBATS
(please note corrected time & date: 3 pm, May 17)
On Wednesday, May 17, we have a performance by the fabulous Chinese Acrobats on the yard at 3 pm. This team of acrobats presents an amazing, fantastic, colorful program. The group consists of 3 or 4 acrobats and an interpreter who will enrich the assembly with facts about Chinese culture, customs and school life. This should be an unforgettable, breathtaking experience!
WINE & CHEESE TASTING AND AUCTION UPDATE
Thanks to all those who volunteered and attended the event! Special thanks to the following GLM families who made extraordinary contributions to the event and without whom this fundraiser would not have been possible:
Heidi Hudson
Diane & Avrum Spiegel
Teresa & Ces Butner
Marni & John Hunter
Celeste Grinage
Maya Chorengel & Arpad Molnar
Ted & Kristen Talley
Laura Lorenz
Sean & Mariana Harris
Lynne Wardell & David Manuel
D-B & Beverly Hudson (Kai Kendall's grandparents)
Marla Erojo & Michael Santero (GLM alum and future parents)
What a great afternoon it was!! We are busy calculating totals and distributing purchased items, and will have an update with the amount raised next week. Look for photos at the end of the year picnic!!
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 the sound of the week. Put it in a labeled bag to share with your child’s class. The sound for next week is “PL” as in PLiers, PLane, and PLum.
TEACHER APPRECIATION LUNCH
The Teacher Appreciation lunch will be Wednesday, May 24, 2006. Look for an email from your Room Parent with details.
END OF YEAR PICNIC - JUNE 2nd, 5 pm - 8 pm, AT LAKE TEMESCAL
This family style picnic is the perfect way to end the school year!!! Last year, a beautiful and warm afternoon had families leaving after dark - don't miss this community event.
How does it work? GLM will be providing the meat (and veggie dogs) - the rest will be potluck style, and sign up sheets will be forthcoming. Families will be asked to bring their own plates, cups, utensils and any wine, beer or other specialty beverage of your choice (in addition to your potluck contribution). Please remember, the teachers are not working during the picnic, and you will be entirely responsible for the care of your child(ren).
Calling all Dads!!! We need a barbeque crew from 4 pm - 7:00 pm. If you are interested, contact Chris Keusel, Live Oak Parent (chriskuesel@yahoo.com).
SUMMER MOTHER’S HELPER AVAILABLE
Tired of scrubbing your shower? Bored with sitting next to the shredder, feeding it secret documents? Not into kneeling in your yard, pulling weeds? Want to get a pedicure without your preschooler? Samantha Aima, 13 years old, is very responsible, a hard worker, and available this summer to do various household chores. Pay is negotiable. Please contact Mary Aima in the Brown Cottage if interested, 510-622-0258.
BOX TOPS COORDINATOR STILL NEEDED
This is a simple way to get your Parent Hours and bring in extra cash for the school. Please consider taking over this easy, flexible project.
· Encourage GLM families to cut out the Box Tops for Education coupons found on packages of General Mills cereals, Ziploc products, Betty Crocker and other food products from General Mills. And, NEW for 2006—Kimberly-Clark paper products such as Kleenex, Scott, Viva, and Cottonelle.
· Spread the word about the locations of coupon-collecting containers placed all around the GLM campus.
· Periodically collect the coupons, count them, and send them to General Mills. General Mills sends a check to our school twice a year! It’s CASH—not some kind of corporate scrip.
Additional, optional duties:
· Visit the classrooms and tell the kids about this way to raise money for our school. Visits could include showing the children pictures of the coupons, so they can make sure the coupons don’t end up in the recycling bin at home. Or perhaps, an art project such as a coupon collection envelope to stick on the refrigerator at home.
· Encourage use of the Box Tops for Education website (www.boxtops4education.com) as a starting point for online shopping, which would bring in additional money for our school.
· Boost the Box Tops Booster Club!
This volunteer job counts toward your Parent Participation Hours. The amount of time you put into it, and the scheduling of the hours, are very, very flexible.
Please contact Cindy Fressola for more information.
Email: Fressola@msn.com
+ + + + + + + + + + + + +
CLASS NEWS
REDWOOD (ELEMENTARY)
Last week the children enjoyed the Boxtales performance of “The Odyssey”. It was really neat to see the Cyclops. The children were mesmerized!
Our tabletop herb garden has sprouted! We have chives, oregano, marjoram, and many others growing on our snack table. It has been very exciting for the children. We also planted some mini hybrid calla lilies in the back of our building. The calla lilies, which have already bloomed, are purple and they are gorgeous. The children are eager to see if we will have any other colors from our hybrid plant.
Next week our class will be doing the standardized testing. The children are actually looking forward to the process as they have deemed it fun!
This week the children made their Mother's Day gifts. They look wonderful! They have been busy making the cards to accompany the presents.
Last week we celebrated Kennedy's 10th birthday! Happy, belated birthday to him. Thank you to his mother for coming and sharing some cute stories about Kennedy when he was a baby.
JACARANDA
Thank you for your ongoing support of the Sound of the Week. The chalk and chopsticks and many other "ch" objects continue to assist the children in associating the phonetic sound, with the letter of the alphabet, or "symbol".
This is the time of year when the children of the Jacaranda classroom and other classes throughout the school are in transition. The older children are thinking about their next classes and toddlers are in transition from the Brown Cottage. As their world changes at school, it is helpful to have an age-appropriate conversation about these changes at home, too.
The children continue their care of the corn, flowers and pumpkin vines that have been planted over the past several weeks. This is such an exciting time when the plants are growing so quickly and the changes are so easy to follow.
The names of the countries of Africa were added to the geography shelf this week and are available to the children who have had a lesson on the puzzle map of Africa.
Ms. Leck has a song about the planets of the solar system, and the children of the Jacaranda class enjoy singing "the planets of the sun, the planets of the sun" to a tune that everyone in the class is familiar with.
The afternoon children had a riveting conversation about bugs yesterday, including study of a desert hairy scorpion and a blood-sucking conenose.
JUNIPER
The Juniper children continue to enjoy visits from Angelina, an elementary student, and the wonderful stories she reads.
Ms. Yang's cousin, Christien, is spending the day today with Juniper class. She recently graduated from a university in Japan and will be spending a few weeks visiting the United States. Christien likes to do art with the children, and in the coming two weeks she will visit more and introduce some art activities related to Asian culture. We are looking forward to the fun things she will be doing with the children.
Elizabeth Knowlton came twice this week to read to the children. As always, they thoroughly enjoyed the stories that she shared with them. Thanks!
Reminder: please put sun block on your children each morning. We will re-apply it during the course of the day.
GINKGO
This week we opened up an outdoor classroom. It is located in our lunch area. This area has a lot of different activities; cloth washing, foot washing, checkers, flower arranging, printing, etc. The children work on the lunch tables, on the bench under the tree, or in the grass (on a rug). The weather has been so nice and it’s fun to work outside. We would like to thank Faye Owens for setting up our space for the outdoors.
The children have been busy working on Mother’s Day presents all week. It’s a surprise! We know you will love them.
The Ginkgo class started planting carrots on Tuesday. We can’t wait to see how our work turns out. We have two garden boxes that we are working in. In the second box, we are planning to plant radishes, another root vegetable.
Sound of the week:
This week’s sound of the week was “ch”. The children brought in a large number of items; Chopsticks, Chips, Chinese ninja, Chocolate. Another child brought a truck, pointing out the ending sound “ch” to the class (very nice, Gabriel Poon!). Children also thought of other words including church, cheese and chest.
Last Friday, May 5, was Cinco de Mayo. Marni Hunter, Campbell’s mom, came in and did a presentation for the children. She explained why this day is special in the Mexican culture. After the presentation, she brought in a snack of chips and salsa. After snack the children continued the celebration by coloring the Mexican flag and the words “Cinco de Mayo”.
LIVE OAK
For those of you who missed it we had a great Saturday working in the garden with the children. There was a terrific Live Oak turnout and I personally thank all of you. The garden is beautiful!!!!!!!!
The weather is certainly calling us outdoors this week. We have set up a great outside classroom in the mornings. Ms. Cebulski is giving many lessons on Australia. Mr. Boyer is in charge of the garden watering and ball games with the children on the upper yard. Ms. Basom is busy with miscellaneous lessons and Ms. MacDonald has decided to focus on reading skills for the rest of the year. We will try to be outdoors as much as possible while the weather is good; I heard the fog is coming in on Friday.
With the end of the year so close you might be wondering about fulfilling your volunteer hours. If you need some things to do I have a long list…feel free to come in during the day or email me and I might have some homework for you.
Happy Mothers Day!!!
MAGNOLIA
Happy Mother's day! The children have been working on a lovely surprise for the special moms in their lives. Make sure to check your child's backpack for the gift.
We had a wonderful Cinco de Mayo celebration last Friday. A huge thank you to Lisa Mueller for helping with the guacamole. Crossley Dellis and Bob Houser brought in some surprises for our pinata. Thank you to Meghan O'Leary and Matt Herreras for the tasty tacos, rice and Mexican sweet bread. Everything tasted so delicious!
Happy Birthday, Clementine Hecker! After taking 3 turns around the sun we all shared a bagel snack.
This week with Mr. Moody the children began learning the dance "La Raspa". This a traditional Mexican dance that involves shuffling and turning to the beat of the music. We will be practicing this dance throughout the month of May.
MULBERRY
A big thank you to Diane Spiegel and Marni Hunter for celebrating Cinco De Mayo with the children in the Brown Cottage. They started with a special snack of churros, chips, salsa, and guacamole, strawberries, and apple “margaritas”. They told us the story of Cinco De Mayo with music and maracas. What would a celebration be without art? The children then made their own maracas and colored pictures of the Mexican flag. For lunch we had burritos that Diane made for us!
This week the children have been working on a Mother’s Day secret project. You’ll have to wait till Sunday to find out what they made!
We've been playing with water a lot so remember to dress your child for warm weather and apply sunscreen. We will re-apply lotion during the day.
We have begun planning our Earth Day celebration. Our class will represent Africa. We plan to cook a rice dish and fried yams. We are also learning a song and will have an art project to share with the rest of the school.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms!
CAMELLIA
Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather we are having. It is a bit on the hot side, so please dress your child appropriately (lightweight clothing, short sleeves, etc.).
Thank you to all the parents and friends who came to the GLM work party. You did a wonderful job on the flower boxes, and a big thank you for planting strawberries!
Thank you to Diane Spiegel (Michael's mom) and Marni Hunter (Tyler's mom) for coming and doing a Cinco de Mayo celebration last Friday. We enjoyed many, many tasty treats (chips and dips, mangos, strawberries, apple juice, and churros)! All the children fell in love with the churros and chips and dip (so did Mr. Tien).
This week’s sound was "CH" and we had chips and chalk. Stella Cstillo (Ethan Feldstein’s mom) did it again; she made cherry cheese cake. Wow! Not only delicious, but a double "CH" sound! Next week’s sound, "PL", could be a real challenge in the food department.
Date to remember:
May 29 is Memorial Day - no school or childcare.
May 31 is GLM’s Earth Day. Each class will provide a snack, a song or dance and a craft from the continent they represent. Camellia and Mulberry will represent Africa. If you want more information please contact the Brown Cottage staff.
