Dear MPS Families,
First let me start off by thanking you all for your kindness on the event of my 60th birthday. It was so special to see that Sea of Purple and to receive your love and good wishes via all the beautiful flowers. You know how to make a girl feel special.
And then second, I am thanking you again for your patience with my recent absences due to illness. It has been 18 years since I last had the flu. And after last week, I hope it is at least another 18 before it happens again!
Now onto the happenings in the classroom. I know there are some classroom auction projects underway. Laura Radosta helped the 4’s class children with a special lampshade today. It is going to be adorable. A park scene with the playground populated by ‘fingerprint’ children. You will just have to see the lamp at the auction to really get the full effect.
And in Pre-k, Danielle Beyer is working with the kids on a couple of paintings that involve lovely color gradient backgrounds and their handprints. The canvases make me very happy when I look at them.
I haven’t heard what is happening for the 3’s class yet so stay tuned on that note.
You all should be well informed about our upcoming Special Person’s Tea Parties. These are fun and festive parties for the kids. Your child’s special person can be you, a grandparent, aunt/uncle, neighbor, sibling, family friend . . . someone who can attend and enjoy a simple party and share some of the joy of the school with them. If you find that you do not have anyone who can attend for your child please let me know. We will be their special guest if needed!
Valentine’s Day is this month. We do not officially celebrate it in the classroom although we will do some seasonally thematic art projects and there will be materials out that allow for card making. We keep it light and fun. And because we have the Special Person’s Teas – that serves as our “love fest” and then we do not do traditional parties during class time. That being said, you should know that lots of families still choose to make or buy Valentine’s to give out to classmates on or near February 14th (a Wednesday). This is not required, and is neither encouraged or discouraged. It is a personal family choice. If you had great intentions and you forget it is not the end of the world. You can give them out late or not at all and still have a clear conscience. Of all the things that require our attention and are worthy of stress, preschool Valentine’s don’t make the cut!
I do however have some requirements if you do choose to go down that road. If you do distribute Valentine’s of some sort, they should:
- Contain NO CANDY OF ANY KIND. Do not attach suckers, chocolate hearts, candy hearts, etc.
- There should be one for each member of their class.
- You should put the children’s names on them. When they get placed into cubbies, they often get looked at during class or disturbed and then they fall out on the ground. It is a lot easier for us to make sure everyone was included if there is an address (name) on the card laying on the ground.
It can get a little hectic in the cubby room with everyone trying to stuff cubbies at one time so maybe pace yourselves and wait if it seems busy.
I will be doing another environment shift in the classroom soon, putting away the rocks and crystals and the wrecking ball and bringing in our medical center dramatic play area. This is always a highly anticipated dramatic play event. Nothing like being treated by 3, 4 and 5 year old fledgling health care professionals. Beware if they want to give you a shot! They are NOT known for their gentle touch! And it seems as if they believe that a shot cures any and everything.
Thank you to all of you for pulling out the stops and hitting our auction procurement goals. I am pretty darn impressed with what has been brought in. The teams leading our efforts and planning for event night are working hard and it sounds like we are on track for another great event.
We are also well into enrollment for next year. The Open House went beautifully and tours are starting up this week. You may see small groups of prospective parents coming through with our Tour Coordinator over the next month to six weeks. Do your best to ignore it and to help the kids focus on what is happening in the classroom. We try to limit the number of individuals on any single tour and to keep the visitors from actually hanging out in the classroom. They tend to look in from the cubby room. I do try to step out and greet each group and answer a few questions without letting it become disruptive to our day. Josie is doing a great job managing this public process and in reality she handles most of the questions that get thrown at us.
Spring is not far off now. We will begin planting peas in our front gardens soon and doing some sprouting and planting in the classroom too. We will be really watching the development of buds on the trees outside and all the signs of new life as our earth begins to wake back up from winter dormancy. But it will continue to be cool and wet so please continue to make sure your kids outerwear matches the demands of the season. Also, like I mentioned at the last General Meeting, please double check the supply of spare clothes you keep in your child’s cubby and make sure that they still fit AND they are seasonally appropriate. The tank top and shorts you put in there back when it was 100* in September are no longer a good match for 50* and rainy!
That’s it for me for this month. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Warmly,
Teacher Marty