NURSERY RHYMES - NOV 2010 - Director's Corner

Another school year begins at the Nursery! Hello again to our returning children and families and a warm welcome to our new students and families. The school year has gotten off to a smooth start with staff and children returning to classrooms that were well tended to by families who attended our first maintenance session in late August.

We are thankful that our staff has remained the same this year, although some assistant teachers are working in different classrooms. This year our teaching teams are:

Little Hands 2: Lisa Wenz, Jean Rogers and Meg O’Connor

Little Hands 3: Luz Frade, Jean Rogers and Lynn Jones
Threes AM: Maria Gentilella, Alma Jean-Louis and Nicole Roth

Threes PM: Elaine Toro and Meg O’Connor

UPK Full Day: Minia Sas, Janet Collins, Lucy Kallenberg, Kirsty Lorenzo , Jean Rogers. (Yasmin Mohammed and Nicole Roth join the team a few hours a week.)

UPK PM: Andrea Ilardi, Alma Jean-Louis and Yasmin Mohammed

Mary Copeland is our Music and Movement Specialist.

Jay Etheridge is our after school Maintenance Worker.

One wonderful new addition to our school is the new piece of playground equipment in the Tire Park. The long standing wooden structure that brought many years of joy to many children was becoming unsafe and it was time to say goodbye. The new climber includes a double slide, two different levels of a “rock climbing” surface, a cargo climber and dramatic play areas.

The teachers worked together to plan a piece of equipment that would be safe enough for our youngest Little Hands students, but offer some excitement and challenges for the oldest UPK children. Judging by the enthusiasm of the children –we did our job!

We would all like to thank the families who helped fundraise, as well as the families who continue to fundraise, for this major improvement. We should also acknowledge and thank David and Ruth Levine, who made a substantial donation towards this new equipment. We also must thank JCAC and the Amalgamated Housing service workers and garden staff who installed the equipment and a new fence. A new layer of sand was also spread to maintain a soft surface for the children.

Just as the new year gets underway, it quickly becomes time for families to think about Kindergarten for UPK children. On October 20th we held a Kindergarten Options night where families were able to get information about some of our local schools. I can’t stress enough that families need to be pro active and gather as much information as you can about the schools in our area. There are opportunities for a quality Kindergarten program and beyond for your child. Become informed, visit the schools, choose a school that meets your philosophical framework of education and choose a few back-up
options as many of the schools admissions are based on a lottery. Whenever I come across information I try to pass it on to families – but the best method is by e-mail. If you are not getting emails from school, please let me know so that I can try to correct that or get the information to you in paper form.

Cool Culture cards have now been distributed. These cards will allow unlimited free visits for your family to a great many cultural institutions in NYC and the other boroughs. Families who began our program after the first day of school will have a chance to apply for the card in the spring.

I’ll end with a few reminders:

Please keep your phone numbers up to date so that we may contact you in an emergency.

Please provide us with an email address, we are trying to keep families as well informed as possible and email is the most efficient, cost effective method. If you are not receiving emails from school we either have an incorrect address or do not have your address.

Please put your child’s name on all their outerwear. As the weather is changing new coats and jackets may be unfamiliar to us and your child. We want to be sure your child is dressed in their clothing and goes home with all of it. Also think snow and have snow pants, boots and mittens ready. We do go out in the snow.

Lisa

Have a wonderful fall season and Thanksgiving!!