September 2010

 

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September Calendar

Dear Parents,                                                                                                                           

            Welcome to another wonderful school year at ABC! The “Teacher Work Day” we had was so much fun for the entire staff. We managed to get everything done! The school is glowing and we introduced so many new toys and activities that the children are thrilled! It always makes our job so much easier once we have the school organized and ready to go for fall. The cubbies are in alphabetical order and the hooks in the coat closet are all labeled with names. Please remember to label all items brought to school so that things do not get lost or misplaced.

            Our summer theme days are over, and we are happy that the children had so much fun with all of them. Although it is sad to see theme days go, the staff is ready to teach their new small groups and get busy with our structured academic program once again.

            I feel so fortunate to have such an amazing group of teachers again this year. The staff at ABC is full of love, knowledge, patience, and passion for what they do. It is easy to see why the children thrive under their care at ABC. Our graduating class is off to impress their Kindergarten teachers with how much knowledge and confidence they exude. Once again we are going to have a very large graduating class next year, but we also have about forty children aged two and three years old to balance out our program. So, we are off to another great start at ABC!                                                                                                                      

Our Units This Month

September 1-3              Back to School

September 7-10            Safety

September 13-17          All About Me    

September 20-24          Community Helpers

September 27-30          Community Helpers

                                                                                                                                                                                            

Other Dates to Remember:

Monday, September 6th            ABC Closed for Labor Day

Friday, September 17th             Book Orders Due

Wednesday, September 22nd        Parent Party 7:00-9:00pm (Parents Only)

September 21st & 22nd            School Pictures (All children invited to attend)

  

                     Book Orders                            

Scholastic book order forms are here again. Look for them attached to the back of every newsletter. There is a wonderful assortment of children’s books at great prices. Please take a look. Ordering books through Scholastic gives ABC free books by earning points…the more points, the more free books!  The book orders are due by the second week of each month. Please drop your order forms and checks (only), made out to Scholastic, in the envelope in the hallway. Thanks!

   Share Days    

Share Days will be on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday of each week. Share Days are held during our second circle time and will give your child an opportunity to share a special item brought from home.  All Share Items are to be labeled and placed in the red bucket in the front room by the coat closet. Please make sure the item is placed in the bucket promptly after entering the school.  Super hero items, costumes, and toy weapons are not allowed at ABC.  Please check the Share Day list on the wall above the art folders to see when your child’s share day will occur. 

                                                                                                        

Our Enrichment Classes             

Our enrichment classes continue this year with “Flying Angels” on Mondays. This is a fun gymnastics class complete with mats, bars, hula hoops, and challenging balance beams.  We had a delightful experience with Steve Sassone, the owner of Flying Angels last year, and look forward to welcoming his class for another year at ABC. Needless to say, all of the children that took his class loved it! He is charismatic, funny, and perfect for children this age. Please make sure you sign up for his fun class on Mondays.

We are always very excited to welcome back our Spanish class on Tuesdays. Senora Joanna adores children and they love all the activities she brings for them to do while they are actively learning to speak Spanish. I am always so impressed by her students and how much they learn each year under her care. Joanna must have six students enrolled this year to continue this valuable class. Please sign up if you are interested in your child participating in Spanish class once a week on Tuesdays.

Jamaica’s Jamaroo Kids will teach Yoga, Music, and Dance classes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively. Not only was Jamaica a teacher at ABC for seven years, she has so much love, expertise, and energy that the children flock to her when she arrives at school. Shelly teaches the Yoga class on Wednesdays and she brings blue mats for each child. The children adore her fun activities on their special mat. Jamaica teaches the Music class on Thursdays and she has a strong following of children that adore her special music abilities. Hillary teaches Dance on Fridays and the children have so much fun with their new dance routines.

We are adding a wonderful new addition to our enrichment classes for children that are fulltime or in our afternoon program. Mama Azia’s Cultural Creative Music and Dance Class will now be offered on Monday and Thursday afternoons at ABC. Mama Azia taught her fun class at ABC all summer and the children loved it. I know your child will enjoy this enriched class with its varied music and instruments for all the children to participate with. You can always come back to ABC to take this class, even if your child does not attend on these class days.

I hope your children are able to take a few of these outstanding classes! All classes are held in the front room for a half hour during our hour long outside recess.  Attached to this newsletter you will find flyers/registration forms for each of these fun classes. You can also pick up class forms above the cubbies. The payments for these classes should be made directly to the classes themselves. There are envelopes in the hallway for payments and registration forms.

Our afternoon music class taught by Miss Meri will not continue this year as she will now be teaching 2nd grade fulltime at the Waldorf School in Marin. She is thrilled to have found a fulltime teaching position, but regrets that she won’t be working with the ABC children anymore. She sends her love and well wishes to all.

As of September the classes are as follows:

10:30-11:30am:                                          3:30-4:00pm

Monday-           “Flying Angles” Gymnastics/Steve                      Monday-           Mama Azia’s Music and Dance Class

Tuesday-          Spanish/Senora Joanna                                     Thursdays-        Mama Azia’s Music and Dance Class

Wednesday-     Yoga / Jamaroo/Shelly

Thursday-          Music / Jamaroo/Jamaica

Friday-              Dance / Jamaroo/Hillary and Katie

                                                                       

Emergency Kits

Once again we want to update all the emergency bags at ABC. We like to have a special bag for each child should an emergency happen. We are asking you to place water, a snack, maybe a comforting picture and perhaps a small blanket in these “care packages”. Thankfully we have NEVER had to use any of them, but we still like to keep them onsite at ABC. If you do not have a current emergency kit you will find an empty Zip-lock bag with your child’s name on it in your cubby. Please fill it promptly. Thanks!               

                                                                   

Monthly Newsletter and School Calendar

We are happy to announce that the ABC school calendars and monthly newsletters are now online! Our website address is abcacademypreschool.com.  Please visit us there and check it out. If you would like to contact the school via email, our email address is abcacademypreschool@yahoo.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

Parent Get Together

Each year Carolyn likes to host a Parent Get-Together at her home in Fairfax. This year we will have this event on Wednesday, September 22nd from 7:00pm until 9:00pm. Carolyn hosts this party so that all our parents can meet each other. This evening is for parents only! We hope that you will be able to join us for an evening of fun and laughter where new friends are always made. Hors d’oeuvres will be served at this party. We will be ordering our food from Comforts. We are requesting that you bring beer or wine. Please look for a drink sign-up sheet above the cubbies.  Carolyn will provide water and soft drinks. We would like to get an idea of how many people plan to attend. Please take a few seconds to sign your name to the parent party list above the cubbies if you can make it. It is greatly appreciated! We look forward to seeing you there!  We encourage our staff to attend this event, so please do not ask them to baby-sit. Thanks!

Directions to Carolyn’s house are attached to this newsletter. Carpooling is favored as parking can sometimes be a bit challenging.

                                               

Snack Calendar

Please remember to sign up  to bring a snack to ABC at least four times during the year. We depend on your support with this very important issue. We have a snack calendar posted by the front door for the morning preschool families and for the afternoon preschool families. We appreciate your help.   

          

                                                                                                       

 

Small Groups

       As of August 23rd, our small groups have begun! The first two weeks of small group we assess each child to make sure they are in the proper group. We want to guarantee that they are properly placed by age and ability. Please remember that if you have any questions about your child’s small group, you may always speak with your small group teacher or Lauren Shaw. By mid September we will post the small groups in the hallway on the cork board.

 

The small groups are as follows:                   

Rachel              Pre-K Rabbits in the front room

Racheal             Pre-K Rhinos in the middle room

Melissa             Mice in the office (3 yrs.)

Emily               Elephants in the back room (3yrs.)

Bernadette           Seals in the back room ( 2yrs.)

            Jenny and Sammy will be helping each group during our small group time. Work folders will go home at the end of each month. Please look by the cubbies to find your child’s small group folder.

 

ABC School Portraits  

Mark your calendars! CamFoto will be coming to ABC on September 21st  and September 22nd  to take your child’s portrait. Pictures will be taken in the back office with a teacher present at all times. The pictures will be taken from 9am until 11am each day. All children are encouraged to come to school on picture days to have their photo taken.  Ray Raisedana, the photographer, will be taking three photos of each child. You may want to dress your child up for these pictures so you can use them as holiday gifts. You may bring a change of clothes for your child once their photo has been taken. The school will be gifting each family a “class picture” during the holiday season.  Please keep an eye out for more information to come including order forms and posters.        

                                                Emergency Contact Information 

Please remember each year to update your emergency contact information at ABC. It is so important for us to be able to get in touch with you if anything were to happen to your child while in our care. If your child has been a student here for a year or two, perhaps your information has changed. The better informed we are, the more efficient we can be. Thanks for your help with this delicate matter.

                                                

                                    Roster Updates

Please note that in our ABC 2010-2011 Roster there has been several changes. Charlie Vantress has moved. His new information is: 39 Curtis Ave., San Rafael, 94901. The family phone number is 259-7211.  Tessa Miller has changed schools, to be with her best friend. Piper Kelly is not going to be attending ABC this fall a well. Please take these two children off of the ABC Roster in your home. Thank you.

                                                            Our Darling Nina

Although we have had Nina substituting at ABC as often as possible, she has secured a management position with J. Crew in Palo Alto. She will be moving to San Francisco soon so that her commute is not so far. We are so happy that she made the jump into her chosen profession, and that they immediately promoted her to manager of their biggest store in the Bay Area. We will miss her soooooooooooo much, but she is thrilled with this new development and we wish her well in her new career.

                                                                        Fun Fact

For all of you who saw Toy Story 3, it has been brought to our attention that the “bad baby” voice used in the film is our very own Woody!!!  Woody’s mom, Gabby, told the staff at ABC, and we are all so excited for their family. I thought you would enjoy this fun fact. We think it is adorable!

 

                                                                        Hot Lunch

Our parents have loved our Hot Lunch days on Thursday and Fridays at ABC. We have had such success with our lunches that some parents have asked if we could provide Hot Lunch on other days as well. We are taking a survey of parents to see what the interest is. We can provide a Hot Lunch on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday if this is something that parents want.

Please put a note in Carolyn and Laurens Office cubby with your wishes, and we will keep you posted about the outcome. Thanks!

                                                                        And Finally…..

Each year at ABC we recruit a band of parents that want to participate in the Teacher Appreciation Lunches. What this job entails is calling families on the roster once a month to donate one item to a teacher luncheon for the staff. We usually have this lunch on the second Wednesday of each month. We currently have 61 children using ABC, so if three or four families participate each month, it will be easy and not a burden.

Hopefully we can have this fun event happen again at ABC this year. This has been an ongoing tradition for the past five years and the staff loves the special acknowledgement each month. Thank you.

 

A big “Thank You” for the generous gifts & donations from:

Charlie B.          -           White nectarines from his garden

Aidan                -           Bagels, cream cheese and coffee for teachers

Ben & Sarah      -           Vegetables and sunflowers from their garden              

Lara                  -           Homemade Jam                                              

Amaya              -           Extra clothes for ABC

James              -           Brownies and tea bags for staff

Lindsey             -           Movies

Miles & Sarah    -           Extra shorts for ABC     

 

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Last modified: 07/15/08