College Center Montessori School
Newsletter
October 2013
Dear Parents,
Where has the year gone?! It’s
October already!!! It seems like only
yesterday we were ushering in the new year – now we’re about ready to usher in
2014!
This October is a month of many happenings. It also ushers in the holiday season!! (Again, where has the time gone?)
Before we go the fun stuff, there are a couple major “housekeeping”
items that need to be addressed!
PLEASE Parents, bring your children to school on time. When your children are late to school, it is
disruptive and disrespectful to the rest of the class who come on time. It interrupts their learning time, and it is
not courteous or fair to the rest of the class – AND your child is missing the
day’s classroom instruction. You are
also teaching your child that it’s ok to be late and that your child’s
education is not important to you. The
children know when they are late and it is upsetting to their schedule when
they are not on time. Our teachers have
spent much time preparing to teach as well as many years teaching
children. They want and desire to give
your children the best education they can.
If your child is not here, your child’s teacher cannot teach him/her and
your child will not learn to his/her full potential.
We have another fund-raiser that takes very little, if any, extra time
to do. This one is Target. If you sign up for either of the red cards
(one is a charge card, the other is a debit card) and the school of your choice
– and College Center Montessori School is on their list – you save 5% at the
cash register, and our school receives 1% of what you buy from Target each time
you shop there.
School happenings for October include the following:
- Conference
month – Please, parents, take the time to come to school, sit down with
your child(ren)’s teacher and see all the things your “little people” are
learning! It’s all pretty
spectacular! There is a sign-up
calendar page on each classroom door.
Conferences for Rooms 120 and 130 are held from 3:00 – 3:30. Come see the good work your child is
doing in the classroom.
- Our
annual “nag” about your paperwork is happening right now – even as I’m
writing this letter! If you have
paperwork outstanding, PLEASE do all of us a favor and return it ASAP! Community Care Licensing (our licensing
agent) requires these papers to be in your child’s file, and if they are
not there, we can be fined. We want
our income to be used to the betterment of the school, not to the
betterment of the State Department of Social Services, so please – look in
the back seat, truck, under the seats – in your car, your spouse’s car, or
other “safe” places to locate the required paperwork! We do NOT want to have to send a “search
and rescued” to get our paperwork!
- Picture
day is October 11, 2013. Each child
will be photographed individually, and siblings can be photographed
together, as well. Fiesta
Photography will be starting the photo shoot at 9:00 a.m., so please be on
time. Late comers may not be
photographed, and you really do not want to miss this opportunity for good
quality and inexpensive professional portraits that make really good
gifts! (And you know how
grandparents are always clamoring for pictures of the absolutely most wonderful,
intelligent, gifted, and beautiful grand children in the whole world!)
- October
25, is the date for our Halloween celebration this year, the children will
be able to wear their costumes to school (please send clothing to change
into after our party). They will
parade through the classrooms and go out to the playground where they will
be given treats to take home after school.
For lunch, we will have our first Pizza Day of the school
year. You will be given a reminder
and order form later. *See the information printed below
where you will find the school Halloween costume guidelines!*
October 25 is our day
for costumes.
The children will not
be allowed to wear their costumes on October 31.
·
November 11 is
Veteran’s Day. There will be no school
or daycare on November 11. School will
be closed.
·
Our school Thanksgiving Feast will be on Wednesday,
November 27. There will be more
information concerning our feast later.
·
Thanksgiving break is November 28 and 29. There
is no school or daycare on November 28 and 29.
·
Our annual Secret Shopping days will be in early
December. You may bring your donations
any time after our Thanksgiving recess.
We also need parent volunteers to help the children with their shopping. Please see either Nikki or Ardeth in the
office if you are able/willing to help with this really fun event! You will enjoy your time watching and helping
the children as they choose treasures for their families.
·
December 23, 2013 – January 3, 2014 is our Winter
Break. Day Care will be provided
depending on need and availability. There is an additional charge for Winter
Break day care. This charge is NOT
included in your monthly tuition charge.
It is an additional charge if day care is used. More on this topic later.
Costumes:
The children may
wear costumes to school on October 25, no costumes on Wednesday or Thursday the 30 and 31, but there are serious
restrictions concerning the kinds of costumes that may be worn to school. (You may wish to send your child with a
change of clothing in case the costume is too restrictive or loose.)
ABSOLUTELY NO:
Super heroes (including Power Ranger, Ninja Turtles,
Spider Man, Bat Man, Pokemon, etc.)
Vampires
Ghosts
Skeletons
Witches
Monsters, etc.
Horror creatures
Anything that might depict violence
in ANY way
Children
who come to school wearing inappropriate costumes will be required to remove
them and wear regular clothes. This will
be strictly adhered to! If you have ANY questions, contact the
office staff before selecting your child’s costume.
Examples
of what may be worn:
Occupational costumes
Traditional Disney characters
Historic characters
Zoo animals
Circus animals
Clowns
Ethnic costumes
Art figures (painters, dancers,
musicians)
Story characters
Seasonal figures
We
want our students to have wholesome fun.
Fun can be achieved while avoiding the frightening, the violent,
or the bizarre.
For further information and
other suggestions, please refer to the following Halloween Idea page (orange
paper).
Halloween Ideas
Make
Make a costume for your child of his/her favorite animal. This can be very simple, using face paints or
paper mache’ masks, appropriately colored clothes and then a tail tacked on the
back of the pants or a set of ears glued onto a headband.
Dress
Dress your child up as
his/her favorite positive fairy-tale or story-book character such as The Cat in the Hat, the Lorax, Paddington
Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Madeline, etc.
Thrift
Visit thrift stores with your child to gather a collection of dress-up
clothes for year-round use, so that Halloween costumes can be formed from the
dress-up closet in a creative and economical way.
Borrow
Borrow from around the house to form costumes from
already owned garments – kids can trick-or-treat as mom, dad, or grandma, or as
a businesswoman, construction worker, nurse, depending on the closets of family
members. You may own the perfect hat,
gloves, or scarf for your child’s active imagination, and not even know it!
Think
Think of humorous,
imaginative, nonviolent characters like extraterrestrial creatures who’ve come
to make peace with Earthlings!
Why not Superheroes?
Many
people think that pretending to be a Superhero like He-Man or the Power Rangers
is okay because they are the “good guys.”
The problem is that all the currently popular Superheroes use violence
as part of solving problems. Before you
let your child pretend to be a Superhero, ask yourself to what extent violence
plays a part of the character. Does the
character use violence to solve problems or does he or she use peaceful,
nonviolent conflict resolution? Which
type of person would you want your child to use as a role model?
Remember, Be Creative and have fun with your child!
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