UPK PM - Future Paleontologists!
Winter finds us really in the thick of our classroom routine. The school year is going so fast, mostly because we’re so busy. We have plenty to do in school from cooking to dance to art projects and everything in between. Having so many choices means that the day flies by, and before you know it, it’s clean-up time. Next thing you know we’ll be heading into spring!
The fall and winter holidays have taught us about the joy of giving and sharing. At Thanksgiving we shared a special feast, full of goodies that we made ourselves. We studied the various holidays and made gifts for our families. We also talked about the importance of kindness and caring, both at the holidays and every day.
Our classroom affords us opportunities to share in many different ways. For example, we share food and stories at snack time, and we work together throughout the day on the various projects and activities that we do in school. It’s fun to be together, and we have all become very good friends.
We had a great time playing in the snow before it all melted away. We had some great snowball fights (all snowballs thrown at each other’s backs, and never above the waist). The teachers even got involved! We dug holes in the snow and went zipping down the slide at top speed. Maybe as winter continues we’ll have more opportunities like that. We hope so. To that end, please remember to dress your children for the weather. We like to go outside as much as possible, especially in the snow! Boots and snow pants are essential for snowy days!
We have turned into paleontologists for the next few weeks while we study dinosaurs! We’re having a great time in the classroom digging up dinosaur bones and creating our own fossils and dinosaur eggs. In the next few weeks we will be examining different species of dinosaurs more in depth. We’ll learn how big they were, what they ate, and how they protected themselves. We may even BECOME dinosaurs! But we promise that when we come home, we will not eat you. With this study in mind – please take advantage of your Cool Culture Cards and visit the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur exhibit. I went to visit it on Teacher Education Day!
In the spring, we will be studying the environment in depth. Our class will be examining how best to take care of Mother Earth in celebration of Earth Day. After all, she takes such good care of us, we must return the favor. Since we are such a creative bunch, we will find ways to reuse some of the things that would ordinarily be thrown away. Wait until you see what we come up with!
When you walk into our classroom it is very gratifying to see that everyone is busily interacting with one another. There are many things going on at the same time, and we move easily from one activity to the next. We have a lot of free choice in our classroom, along with many opportunities to explore and use our creativity. In all activities, socialization and communication is encouraged, and it’s great to see a group of strangers become a class of good friends. All of these interactions will lay the groundwork for future relationships. We have such a “warm and fuzzy” class.
Stay tuned for springtime fun!
Andrea, Alma, & Nicole
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
UPK Full Day - Cooking, Cooking, Cooking!
The UPK kids have been very busy this winter. We’ve been working on several themes. We started out with a trip to the pizza store. Not only did this offer a snack that all the children loved, it gave us an opportunity to put our trip on paper, and each of the children were able to draw their experience for our pizza book. These are the children’s first experiences with the symbolic representation of their ideas on paper...a precursor to writing and reading.
We made paper pizza in art, and we made real pizza from scratch. We’ve used the housekeeping area to open a pretend pizza shop and extend the development of language as well as developing social skills as they interact and take turns being customers and servers. All this while they’re having fun playing and making friends.
Making pizza dough led to yeast experiments and now we’ll be baking a lot of bread for our cooking activities in the ensuing months. Our house keeping area will also take turns being a bake shop. Be ready for our bakers to open a bake shop in a few months so that you can taste some of our wares.
Our loft was turned into a pond and we’re talking about snakes and turtles. Crictor has made an appearance and the children are all looking forward to his visit. Crictor is a way of using great children’s literature to spark imagination, grow language and bring stories to life. Having the children dictate a journal entry and draw a picture is another way for children to learn that they can put their ideas on paper for other people to see. Even the children, who were somewhat reluctant to come to the art table, were especially enthusiastic about making their snake and couldn’t wait for their turn. It’s another way themes help inspire skills. We will use themes where it helps us, but will also feel free to step off the path for other interesting learning and playing opportunities. Soon, we’ll be taking a look at fish.
Sandra, Aiden’s mom and a professional chef, came to our class and made vegetable soup. That’s why we asked all the children to send in a vegetable. The children enthusiastically helped with all the dicing and chopping and many of them loved the soup. We now have a class book circulating about this experience. We acted out Stone Soup and The Gigantic Turnip. We tried to sing AikenDrum using only vegetables.
On another note, teacher professional day gave me the opportunity to check out my cool culture card, and I went to visit the Brooklyn Children’s museum - only about 30 minutes away by car. I thought that it was a fabulous opportunity for our children to have a fun filled learning experience. In addition to a separate play area for little children, the entire museum had exhibits that were accessible to children and covered a range of multicultural, and science and social study experiences. Of course my favorites were the pond life area and the pizza shop, but there was much more too! There have some “classes” for kids to participate in, but you need to check the schedule to find out about what’s being offered.
I urge you all to take advantage of your cool culture cards! Museums offer opportunity for children to widen their experience, and grow their language. They increase children’s knowledge of the world as they increase their vocabulary. The children’s museums are great, but even the more adult oriented museums offer a wide and wonderful range of experience for children although you may have to shorten your time periods at those museums to match your child’s attention span. Then please add a picture to our cool culture bulletin board so that families can know to talk to you about the experience.
Stay warm!
Minia, Lucy, Kirsty, Jan, Jean, and Yasmin
The UPK kids have been very busy this winter. We’ve been working on several themes. We started out with a trip to the pizza store. Not only did this offer a snack that all the children loved, it gave us an opportunity to put our trip on paper, and each of the children were able to draw their experience for our pizza book. These are the children’s first experiences with the symbolic representation of their ideas on paper...a precursor to writing and reading.
We made paper pizza in art, and we made real pizza from scratch. We’ve used the housekeeping area to open a pretend pizza shop and extend the development of language as well as developing social skills as they interact and take turns being customers and servers. All this while they’re having fun playing and making friends.
Making pizza dough led to yeast experiments and now we’ll be baking a lot of bread for our cooking activities in the ensuing months. Our house keeping area will also take turns being a bake shop. Be ready for our bakers to open a bake shop in a few months so that you can taste some of our wares.
Our loft was turned into a pond and we’re talking about snakes and turtles. Crictor has made an appearance and the children are all looking forward to his visit. Crictor is a way of using great children’s literature to spark imagination, grow language and bring stories to life. Having the children dictate a journal entry and draw a picture is another way for children to learn that they can put their ideas on paper for other people to see. Even the children, who were somewhat reluctant to come to the art table, were especially enthusiastic about making their snake and couldn’t wait for their turn. It’s another way themes help inspire skills. We will use themes where it helps us, but will also feel free to step off the path for other interesting learning and playing opportunities. Soon, we’ll be taking a look at fish.
Sandra, Aiden’s mom and a professional chef, came to our class and made vegetable soup. That’s why we asked all the children to send in a vegetable. The children enthusiastically helped with all the dicing and chopping and many of them loved the soup. We now have a class book circulating about this experience. We acted out Stone Soup and The Gigantic Turnip. We tried to sing AikenDrum using only vegetables.
On another note, teacher professional day gave me the opportunity to check out my cool culture card, and I went to visit the Brooklyn Children’s museum - only about 30 minutes away by car. I thought that it was a fabulous opportunity for our children to have a fun filled learning experience. In addition to a separate play area for little children, the entire museum had exhibits that were accessible to children and covered a range of multicultural, and science and social study experiences. Of course my favorites were the pond life area and the pizza shop, but there was much more too! There have some “classes” for kids to participate in, but you need to check the schedule to find out about what’s being offered.
I urge you all to take advantage of your cool culture cards! Museums offer opportunity for children to widen their experience, and grow their language. They increase children’s knowledge of the world as they increase their vocabulary. The children’s museums are great, but even the more adult oriented museums offer a wide and wonderful range of experience for children although you may have to shorten your time periods at those museums to match your child’s attention span. Then please add a picture to our cool culture bulletin board so that families can know to talk to you about the experience.
Stay warm!
Minia, Lucy, Kirsty, Jan, Jean, and Yasmin
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
Director's Corner - Lisa Wenz
Here we are midpoint into another school year. Since our last newsletter we have welcomed several new families into our program and another teacher, Meg O’Connor who will be working in Little Hands 2 due to our growing enrollment. Meg is pretty familiar with our school and philosophies as she worked as a student teacher with us last year. The staff and I are so pleased to have her join us.
We’d also like to welcome Sophia Skye, a baby daughter to Elaine and Juan. Elaine will be returning to the afternoon three’s class on March 1. I’d like to thank Maria for providing such a seamless sense of continuity and as always wonderful activitiesand curriculum for the class while Elaine was on maternity leave.
This school year we were fortunate to be offered an opportunity to join Cool Culture. As most of you know, Cool Culture is a Non-Profit organization whose mission is to aid families of young children of all economic backgrounds to gain access to cultural institutions throughout NYC. They believe “Family visits to museums, botanical gardens, wildlife centers, and other cultural institutions provide young children with the kind of early learning experiences, such as language and literacy building, that are fundamental to school success. These visits also offer parents or guardians and their children the opportunity toexplore and learn together. Parent-child and guardian-child interactions that take place during cultural experiences foster young children's verbal literacy, vocabulary development, and critical thinking”.
Most of our families now have their Cool Culture Passes and can take advantage of many museums, nature centers and zoos in NYC and the boroughs for free. With this in mind, our teachers have spent their Teacher Education Day – and perhaps a few weekend visits at some of these institutions to support their curriculum and to help inform you about some of the wonderful exhibits available to you. Some of our teachers have included information in their newsletter articles, but a complete “synopsis” will be available in a guidebook we will keep on the shelf in the Big Room for families to use as a resource. We also hope that families will add to this guide by adding information about their visits to Cool Culture sites into the book.
My visit on Teacher Education Day was to the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn. What a wonderful place for young children and families to explore the history, types, construction, science and artistic dimensions of the NYC mass transit system. The New York Transit Museum is housed in a 1936 decommissioned, but still operational, subway station. It is extremely child friendly with much to touch and try out, both for our preschool children as well as elementary school age siblings.
Turnstiles dating back to the early 1900’s are available to move through, cabs of MTA busses are available to “drive”, and actual ticket booths are there to pretend in. Down one level are many subway cars some dating back to the early 1900’s actually sitting on track in the decommissioned station for children and families to wander through and explore, without the concern of movement, doors closing or the hustle and bustle of the normal subway ride.
For adults there is the history of the building of the subways, bridges and tunnels alongside child friendly displays allowing you and your child to come away with new knowledge or experiences, an interactive exhibit on how the new clean energy engines work and history on the artistic aspects of the subway stations tile designs. On the afternoon my husband and I visited, there was an mosaic tile art activity available for children, which was open ended and appropriate for all ages.program and cards will arrive in about two months.
If you do not have a card and have not filled out your application, talk to me immediately! The deadline is February 12th!
I’d like to thank all the families who came out on Parent Child Sunday to spend time with your child in school. It was great to see so many families giving the children the chance to show you their classrooms. Please also try to come in as “Parent of The Day” in our three year old and UPK classes. It can be a fun, enlightening experience for parents (or grandparents) to spend time with your child in the program. Do not feel you need to come with an activity, or that you need to stay all day. Visit, meet your child’s classmates, get a sense of the curriculum, and enjoy! For Little Hands families, having parents in the room sometimes begins separation issues for your child or another who is missing their families – so although it may be fine for some children we do not have “Parent of the Day” for this age group.
Finally, we are fundraising a bit more than usual this year. Although fundraising is always an integral part of our operating budget, this year, we are working to raise funds for new playground equipment for the Tire Park. This is a bigger expense than usual. We realize in these economic times, it is difficult to ask families for large donations on top of tuition, so we are trying to keep fundraising as pocket friendly as possible and create events that are “worth” it. So the Board, with a great deal of help from Sandra Nachtmann, has begun Coffee/Tea Fridays.
Each Friday, alternating mornings (8:00 – 9:30) and afternoons (3:00 – 4:30), coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and baked goods or more will be available for sale. All are available to go if you are on the run. So bypass your morning or afternoon coffee stop and grab your cup to go at the Nursery. The sign-up sheet for donating peanut/nut free baked goods is in the Big Room. We have been talking of including dinner type items at the afternoon events – such as containers of soup or perhaps a quiche, again – things “to go”. If this sounds like something you would like – let us know. Thanks to those who have been helping out with this or supporting this effort.
Looking forward to the rest of the school year!
Happy 2010!
Here we are midpoint into another school year. Since our last newsletter we have welcomed several new families into our program and another teacher, Meg O’Connor who will be working in Little Hands 2 due to our growing enrollment. Meg is pretty familiar with our school and philosophies as she worked as a student teacher with us last year. The staff and I are so pleased to have her join us.
We’d also like to welcome Sophia Skye, a baby daughter to Elaine and Juan. Elaine will be returning to the afternoon three’s class on March 1. I’d like to thank Maria for providing such a seamless sense of continuity and as always wonderful activitiesand curriculum for the class while Elaine was on maternity leave.
This school year we were fortunate to be offered an opportunity to join Cool Culture. As most of you know, Cool Culture is a Non-Profit organization whose mission is to aid families of young children of all economic backgrounds to gain access to cultural institutions throughout NYC. They believe “Family visits to museums, botanical gardens, wildlife centers, and other cultural institutions provide young children with the kind of early learning experiences, such as language and literacy building, that are fundamental to school success. These visits also offer parents or guardians and their children the opportunity toexplore and learn together. Parent-child and guardian-child interactions that take place during cultural experiences foster young children's verbal literacy, vocabulary development, and critical thinking”.
Most of our families now have their Cool Culture Passes and can take advantage of many museums, nature centers and zoos in NYC and the boroughs for free. With this in mind, our teachers have spent their Teacher Education Day – and perhaps a few weekend visits at some of these institutions to support their curriculum and to help inform you about some of the wonderful exhibits available to you. Some of our teachers have included information in their newsletter articles, but a complete “synopsis” will be available in a guidebook we will keep on the shelf in the Big Room for families to use as a resource. We also hope that families will add to this guide by adding information about their visits to Cool Culture sites into the book.
My visit on Teacher Education Day was to the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn. What a wonderful place for young children and families to explore the history, types, construction, science and artistic dimensions of the NYC mass transit system. The New York Transit Museum is housed in a 1936 decommissioned, but still operational, subway station. It is extremely child friendly with much to touch and try out, both for our preschool children as well as elementary school age siblings.
Turnstiles dating back to the early 1900’s are available to move through, cabs of MTA busses are available to “drive”, and actual ticket booths are there to pretend in. Down one level are many subway cars some dating back to the early 1900’s actually sitting on track in the decommissioned station for children and families to wander through and explore, without the concern of movement, doors closing or the hustle and bustle of the normal subway ride.
For adults there is the history of the building of the subways, bridges and tunnels alongside child friendly displays allowing you and your child to come away with new knowledge or experiences, an interactive exhibit on how the new clean energy engines work and history on the artistic aspects of the subway stations tile designs. On the afternoon my husband and I visited, there was an mosaic tile art activity available for children, which was open ended and appropriate for all ages.program and cards will arrive in about two months.
If you do not have a card and have not filled out your application, talk to me immediately! The deadline is February 12th!
I’d like to thank all the families who came out on Parent Child Sunday to spend time with your child in school. It was great to see so many families giving the children the chance to show you their classrooms. Please also try to come in as “Parent of The Day” in our three year old and UPK classes. It can be a fun, enlightening experience for parents (or grandparents) to spend time with your child in the program. Do not feel you need to come with an activity, or that you need to stay all day. Visit, meet your child’s classmates, get a sense of the curriculum, and enjoy! For Little Hands families, having parents in the room sometimes begins separation issues for your child or another who is missing their families – so although it may be fine for some children we do not have “Parent of the Day” for this age group.
Finally, we are fundraising a bit more than usual this year. Although fundraising is always an integral part of our operating budget, this year, we are working to raise funds for new playground equipment for the Tire Park. This is a bigger expense than usual. We realize in these economic times, it is difficult to ask families for large donations on top of tuition, so we are trying to keep fundraising as pocket friendly as possible and create events that are “worth” it. So the Board, with a great deal of help from Sandra Nachtmann, has begun Coffee/Tea Fridays.
Each Friday, alternating mornings (8:00 – 9:30) and afternoons (3:00 – 4:30), coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and baked goods or more will be available for sale. All are available to go if you are on the run. So bypass your morning or afternoon coffee stop and grab your cup to go at the Nursery. The sign-up sheet for donating peanut/nut free baked goods is in the Big Room. We have been talking of including dinner type items at the afternoon events – such as containers of soup or perhaps a quiche, again – things “to go”. If this sounds like something you would like – let us know. Thanks to those who have been helping out with this or supporting this effort.
Looking forward to the rest of the school year!
Happy 2010!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Barnes & Noble Bookfair
The Amalgamated Nursery School will be holding it's Annual Barnes and Noble Book Fair during the weekend of November 20 - 22. We hope you can help support the Nursery by simply doing some regular book buying or holiday shopping at a Barnes and Noble store near you. This is how it works:
Simply present the attached voucher at ANY Barnes and Noble Bookstore when you make a purchase during the weekend of November 20-22 and the Nursery will receive 15%of your purchase - at absolutely no cost to you.
During the weekend of November 20-22, there are some nice happenings planned at the 2614 Central Ave. Yonkers, NY Barnes and Noble store, sponsored both by the Nursery and Barnes and Noble Bookstore. Please see the attached flyer for details.
Please note that you can support our Nursey by shopping at ANY Barnes and Noble store - so please email the voucher to friends and family throughout the country to help with our fundraising effort.
Vouchers are good for books, music, magizines, gift items, basically anything purchased at the store and even a treat in the cafe . Online order do not count, but if you wish to order something that is not available at the store, you can do so at a store and pay during the weekend of the bookfair and your purchase will be included in our fundraising efforts.
Our aim this year is to help raise the funds to replace a well used, loved but worn piece of equipment in our "Tire Park".
Thanks for your continued support of our school!
With Many Thanks!!
Lisa
Simply present the attached voucher at ANY Barnes and Noble Bookstore when you make a purchase during the weekend of November 20-22 and the Nursery will receive 15%of your purchase - at absolutely no cost to you.
During the weekend of November 20-22, there are some nice happenings planned at the 2614 Central Ave. Yonkers, NY Barnes and Noble store, sponsored both by the Nursery and Barnes and Noble Bookstore. Please see the attached flyer for details.
Please note that you can support our Nursey by shopping at ANY Barnes and Noble store - so please email the voucher to friends and family throughout the country to help with our fundraising effort.
Vouchers are good for books, music, magizines, gift items, basically anything purchased at the store and even a treat in the cafe . Online order do not count, but if you wish to order something that is not available at the store, you can do so at a store and pay during the weekend of the bookfair and your purchase will be included in our fundraising efforts.
Our aim this year is to help raise the funds to replace a well used, loved but worn piece of equipment in our "Tire Park".
Thanks for your continued support of our school!
With Many Thanks!!
Lisa
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Halloween Party!
It’s that time of year again! The Amalgamated Nursery School is hosting its Annual Halloween Party on Sunday October 25, 2009 at Vladeck Hall, 74 Van Cortlandt Pk. South ( at the corner of Hillman Avenue), from 11AM – 3PM. There will be plenty of activities for the children to do and tasty goodies for all to enjoy. Come one, come all and don’t miss out on this fun filled event! Admission is $8.00 per child, which includes activities, adults accompanying children can attend free. If you need more information please contact Lisa Wenz at the Nursery 718 543-8688.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
From Our Chairperson
Welcome back to all of our returning families and to all of our new families WELCOME. We hope that everyone had a wonderful summer.
I would like to invite you all to our Pancake Brunch which was supposed to be held on September 20, 2009 but due to a scheduling issue it will now take place on
Sunday, October 4, 2009 from 11am to 1pm in Vladeck Hall located at 74 Van Cortlandt Park South, on the corner of Hillman Avenue. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
You will soon be receiving information about our first fundraising event. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at 646 316 5359.
Thank you.
Cooperatively yours,
Sharis Ingram
Chair
Executive Board
I would like to invite you all to our Pancake Brunch which was supposed to be held on September 20, 2009 but due to a scheduling issue it will now take place on
Sunday, October 4, 2009 from 11am to 1pm in Vladeck Hall located at 74 Van Cortlandt Park South, on the corner of Hillman Avenue. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
You will soon be receiving information about our first fundraising event. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at 646 316 5359.
Thank you.
Cooperatively yours,
Sharis Ingram
Chair
Executive Board
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The 2009-2010 school year is about to begin. Our school has been cleaned and put back to right by families during our August maintenance session, the teaching staff has returned and have been meeting, planning and setting up the classrooms and on Thursday evening the staff and families gathered together for our first general parent meeting. On Monday, September 14, the children arrive at school and another year gets underway. Welcome to our returning families and to those who are joining us for the first time. Our Welcome Pancake Brunch will be held on Sunday October 4 from 11 to 4. We hope you will join us at this event and spend some time with other families in our school community. Thank you for the opportunity to work with your children.
Lisa Wenz
Lisa Wenz
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