Newsletters

March 2010

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:11:11 -0500

Notes from the Editor
Ellen Schapiro

The children were thrilled to have their dads, moms, grandpas and other special guests at school the other day. They loved being able to share their classroom, showing their guest what they like to do at school and introducing them to their friends.

The occasion was as simple as possible, and just perfect for this age. It was meaningful for them to do something nice for someone else. The children loved making a snack and creating a special occasion. Thank you very much for taking time out of the day to be with the children who absorbed special messages: the joy of sharing time together and the pleasure of doing nice things for someone else.

The Calendar

Fri., March 19: Last day before Spring Break
Mon., March 29: School resumes
Mon. & Tues., April 12 & 13: Photos
Thur. & Fri., April 15 & 16: Parent conferences. NO SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN

Valentine & Brownie

Valentine and Brownie need a home for the week of Spring break. If anyone is available and interested, please contact Ellen, Beth or Nuni. They are very lovable and easy pets to take care of and they come home with instructions, food and bedding.

Summer Camp 2010

Remember to register your child for Summer Camp 2010! Camp is for children ages 2 1/2 - 5 and runs from June 14 to July 23. We will have weekly themes with several special activities, including lots of outdoor play. If you've misplaced your registration form, or have any questions about Camp, please contact the Camp Director, Trish Cowan, at 314-680-3348 or tcowan@ethicalstl.org.

Spring Conferences

The spring conferences allow parents and teachers to look back on the year that is coming to a close and note the progress that each child has made in emotional, social, physical, and cognitive growth. As always, teachers spend considerable amounts of time observing the children, thinking about the meaning of the child’s behavior and writing a report. Parents are always interested to discover what their child is like at school and they enjoy the time spent talking to the teachers. The teachers will be in touch with you to schedule a conference time.

Congratulations

To Bonnie and Kevin on the birth of their son, Shea Rohan Wallace Archie on Feb. 25th, 2010. His older sister, Fiona, is in the 3 Day Green Room.

Science

Liz was here last week and talked about Backyard Wildlife. Pets and zoo animals need someone to take care of them, but wild animals take care of themselves. If you want wild animals to inhabit and raise families in your yard, they have to be able to find food, water and shelter. You might find squirrels, rabbits, insects and birds in your yard, and maybe even a toad or box turtle. What kinds of animals have you seen on your yard? Start a list and add new animals that you see. Remember: watch the animals and enjoy them but leave them alone. Peterson’s First Guides for Birds and Urban Wildlife will help you identify the critters in your yard and may lead to a life-long hobby.

Classroom Notes

Green Room
Christina Capstick, Mary Kenyon, Melinda Looby

The Green room has been buzzing with even more energy than usual as we welcome Spring! The children have been very excited to once again take advantage of our porch and playground. They love to dig in the sand, ride bikes, climb, and even just run in circles together, they are so happy to be outside! It is satisfying to see how their motor skills and cooperative play has improved even since last Fall.

February brought lots of fun holidays that the children really enjoyed celebrating. For President’s day, they made stovepipe hats and learned about President Lincoln. A plain black hat is hardly appropriate for preschool though, so we jazzed ours up with rainbow glitter! Many children in the 3-day class knew the name of our current president, but most in the 2-day room shouted an excited “I am!” when asked who the president is!

Chinese New Year opened the door to talking about other parts of the world and their food and customs. Each child made a paper mask of either a tiger or a dragon to start the theme. They enjoyed seeing pictures in books of children all around the world and noticing what is the same (smiles, friendship, etc) and different (clothes, buildings, food) in other parts of the world.

We’ve continued our international unit with many food projects. Many of the children love to help cook and they ALL love to taste! Our first international food was African rice bread. Some families in the 3-day class have shared recipes from around the world for us to try. If your child is in the 2-day class and you’d like to contribute a favorite recipe from another part of the world, we’d love to make it with the children!

Of course, our most recent cooking project was treats for Special Friend Day! This day is anxiously awaited by the children who really thrive on the one-on-one attention and love to share their favorite Green Room activities with one of their favorite people! We really appreciate all of you who took time out of your busy schedule to visit with us and get a taste of what your little ones do at school.

We wish you all a wonderful, restful Spring break and hope you have safe travels if you are planning a trip. We look forward to greeting the children once again when our break is over so we can have a great finish to a great year!

Blue Room
Jill Allen & Debbie Indeck

For show-and-share, we see lots of different toys that are special to your children. Some of them are quite complicated, with flashing lights, lots of noises and many moving parts. They are always a big hit with the class and its easy for us as adults to forget how much fun kids can have with something as simple as a big, cardboard box. In honor of President’s Day, we brought a large appliance box into the Blue Room and turned it into the White House. We painted it white of course, cut out windows, and even made columns and a pediment for the front. After that the kids took turns playing inside, and just like the real White House they needed tickets to get in, even if they were the president. Many of them know the name of our current president, although with lots of variations on how to pronounce it! We also made a large American flag to fly atop the White House and each child also made their own version to take home. Some closely resembled the real thing while others reflected the imagination and personality of it's creator. Its always fun to see how differently the kids interpret each project and put their own creative stamp on it.

Since the President is, after all, a community helper, we talked about some of the other people whose job it is to provide us with services and help keep us safe. You hopefully received a card in the mail with a drawing or note from your child. They helped us with their addresses, which many of them know by heart, and learned why we need to put a stamp on the front. After honing their cutting skills by cutting out their own fire hats, we talked about what to do in case of a fire or emergency, about when to call 911, and then the children all practiced “stop, drop, and roll.” We have had practice fire drills at school as well and hope you take the opportunity to review your own safety plans at home.

Every spring the Blue Room takes a field trip to the zoo. To prepare, we spend a week or two beforehand learning about different kinds of animals and how to classify them. Of course, there were fun activities to help us learn: we made biscuits and our own butter in honor of mammals, constructed a toilet paper roll snake for reptiles, decorated feathery bird hats, and folded green frog puppets on amphibian day. We practiced classifying by painting animal cutouts and displaying them on the wall. Some of the kids helped write signs for the different animal groups and we sorted them accordingly. We also completed an animal collage. The kids cut out pictures of different animals and then had to glue them in the right category. The Yellow Room helped out by letting us tour the cool zoo they made in their room, complete with knowledgeable and helpful zookeepers!

Finally, the day of the field trip arrived. We had beautiful weather and arrived just in time for our class. The children did a great job listening and following directions and we were so proud of them as they answered the docents’ questions and showed how much they already knew about animals. Afterwards, we made our way to the Herpetarium for a look at all the cool reptiles and amphibians. This is always one of the most popular spots for the Blue Room kids. It was a wonderful morning and we send a great big thank-you to all our drivers and chaperones, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Another big event recently was our second special person day. We baked delicious chocolate chip bars for snack and the children waited anxiously that day for their special guests to arrive. It means so much to them to share their school world with the people they love and we appreciate your making it a memorable morning for them. It’s great to have such wonderful and supportive families in our school!

Yellow Room
Beth McIntosh & Nuni Zimmerman

The recent weeks in the Yellow Room have been busy. The days are flying by and it is hard to believe that spring break is already upon us! There is always so much fun to have each morning at school and the enthusiasm of your children make every activity and project exciting for the teachers too. We love sharing our mornings with your creative and curious children!

Recently the Yellow Room children had the opportunity to explore the animal world. Your children came to school one morning to find almost all the shelves cleared of toys.... only blocks, art supplies, and our toy animals were available for play. We invited the children to create a zoo for our Yellow Room creatures. The children quickly got to work, making homes for all on our empty shelves. The next day when the children brought some of their own animals from home, their imaginative play was extended. Before long, signs were made, habitats- complete with trees and rivers- were developed and directional arrows were taped on the floor for smoothly moving crowds through the space. The blocks were used to pen in some of the more dangerous critters and the sensory table was filled to accommodate our water-dwelling wildlife. We had a large area for farm animals, a desert with sand, and and a North Pole region complete with ice (cubes) was developed. The only thing missing was tourists, but it didn't take long before the Blue Room and Green Room children were coming through our classroom for tours. Our students acted as keepers and animal experts as the groups passed through, and a fun time was had by all! In addition, your children enjoyed eating "snake snacks" (green pancakes in snake shapes), creating snake headbands, forming snakes out of old stockings and paint, making paintings of animal tracks, and creating pin-hole tracings of animals on black paper. Our animal unit culminated with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo where we took a class about "animal wrappers," those outside coverings (hair, scales, feathers etc.) that help us determine whether a creature is a mammal, bird, invertebrate, reptile or amphibian. In addition to the class we managed to have time for a snack and quick visits to the Children's Zoo and to see the penguins. Thank you to all the parents who drove and joined us on that beautiful day. We do appreciate your help and loved having you with us.

Currently, we are involved with the study of the human body. All the Yellow Room children had body tracings made and each child made sure to include (their version) of the skeleton and muscles that are in all our bodies. Not all the bodies made it home with a face, but we are glad that most do have a spine and at least some of their organs! In addition, a small doctors' office was set up in our room complete with stethoscopes, rubber gloves, doctor robes, slings, casts and models of the human heart and brain. We have never encountered so many 4 and 5 year-olds with such severe illnesses and terrible conditions. Miraculously, all the patients have recovered each day in time to join us for some enthusiastic physical activity during our outdoor time on the playground. We look forward to exploring the topics of nutrition and the five senses during this week with some cooking projects and scented paints.

We all had a wonderful time at our Special Visitor Play Day at school last week. We love the variety of moms, dads, grandparents, cousins, aunts, nannies, and friends that show up in our classroom for these fun days. Your children and their special friends painted at the easel and our project table, built with Lego and our blocks, feasted on pretend food from the house corner, and enjoyed plenty of good conversation. A special thank you goes out to Nora's dad, Kent, for reading a story to us all! Our morning ended sweetly with a snack prepared (with lots of love!) by your children. The "Happy Day Cake," strawberries, and whipped cream was a great treat to end such a lovely morning with so many friends.

We wish you all a very happy spring break, filled with fun, adventure and beautiful weather! We look forward to seeing you all again very soon.

February 2010

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:35:49 -0600

The Calendar
Wed. March 3rd: Parent Coffee at 9:00 in the downstairs library.
Thur. March 11: Parent/Special Visitor Play Together 11:00 a.m.-12 noon, Blue Room and 3 Day Green Room.
Fri., March 12: Parent/Special Visitor Play Together 11:00 a.m.-12 noon, Yellow Room and 2 Day Green Room.

PARENT/SPECIAL VISITOR PLAY DATE

Parent/Special Visitor Play Date is a day for the children and their parent or other favorite relative or adult friend to have a short time at school to simply enjoy one another’s company. It is a very “child-centered” time. They build or read or pretend or paint together and enjoy a snack that the children have made. The occasion enables the children to do something nice for someone they very much love, and it is always a special time for them all.

This year, the 3 Day Green Room and the Blue Room children will play on Thursday, March 11 and the 2 Day Green Room and the Yellow Room children will play on Friday, March 12. Each playtime will begin at 11:00 and end at 12:00.

Nothing
When children come home at the end of the day
The question they’re asked as they run out to play
Is “What did you do today?”
“Nothing. I did nothing today.” Perhaps nothing means that I played with blocks, or counted to ten or sorted some rocks.
Maybe I painted a picture of red and blue,
Or heard a story of a mouse that flew.
Maybe I watched gerbils eat today,
Or went outside on the swings to play.
Maybe today was the very first time that my scissors followed a very straight line.
Maybe I led a song from beginning to end,
Or played with a special brand-new friend.
When you’re in preschool
And when your heart has wings,
“Nothing” can mean so many things!
Author Unknown

“Nothing” is an all too common refrain children give to the question “What did you do today?” It can sometimes be difficult to elicit a response from your child when you ask such a general question. In order to get more details about your child’s day you can try asking questions that are open ended and not answered by an easy ‘yes’ or ‘no’, such as:

Who did you play with on the playground?
What did you play?
What was for snack today?
What was your favorite part of the day?

Some children love to expound on the intricacies of their day and others do not. Or maybe some children would rather wait and talk about their day over lunch or dinner or before bed and not right when they get in the car.

Congratulations

To Heather and Matthew on the birth of their daughter, Sadie. She was born on Jan. 18th, 2010. Her older brother, Owen, is in the Blue Room. To James and Diane on the birth of their daughter, Isabella. She was born on Feb. 5th, 2010. Her older brother, Joshua, is in the Blue Room. To Serina and Rich on the birth of their son, Gavin. He was born on Feb. 10th, 2010. His older sister, Emma, is in the Blue Room and his older brother, Roarke, is in the 2 Day Green Room.

The Nursery School Coffee Breaks
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Please join other parents for a few moments after carpool in the (rain room) library. We will have coffee, tea, and juice and a few treats. Younger siblings are welcome. Angela Strode will be the guest at this coffee. She has been a parent educator in the University City Parent’s as Teachers program for many years. She will discuss setting limits with children as well as answer parenting questions. If you have any questions about these programs, call Mary Nani Kenyon, Green Room teacher at 862-8628.

LAST CALL FOR 2010-2011 ENROLLMENT

Registration for next school year closes at the end of this month. Please send the enrollment form plus a check for $50 to the school office. If you need another form, just ask Ellen.

Science

This month Liz came and talked about food chains. Chains are meant to be strong. Their overall strength depends on the strength of each link. If we remove a link the chain is broken. Every living thing depends on the sun, the source for each food chain. Your lunch is made from dirt! For instance, if you have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the peanuts and grapes grow in the ground, and the bread is made of wheat. All of these plants need the sun to grow. Animals that eat other animals are called predators. Animals that are eaten by other animals are called prey. Animals that eat plants are called herbivores. A typical food chain in nature might look like this:

Sun-grass-grasshopper-spider-turkey-man.

News From The Board

There are openings for new board members on the Ethical Society Nursery School Board. Don’t be shy! If you, or someone you know, is interested, please call Georgette Bisson and let her know.

Classroom Notes

Green Room
Christina Capstick, Mary Kenyon, Melinda Looby

The green room has been a busy place this month. It has been very enjoyable for Mary, Christina and me to watch your children grow in confidence and independence. Friendships are forming and the children eagerly begin their day, excited to join in a variety of play activities. On any given morning, there are picnics at the beach, super heroes ready to take on the world, doctors tending to babies, maps drawn to guide them to the beach, block houses built, paintings and other art work created together as well as many other activities. All of these require negotiations with their peers and they are all growing in confidence with their ability to use their voice to work through their plan.

Every morning there is a daily activity at the round table. All of the children made bird feeders with bagels, cream cheese and birdseed. We discussed that during winter it is more difficult for birds to find food to eat. Some of the children chose to take their bird feeders home to feed the birds in their neighborhood while others chose to hang their feeders from the tree over our porch. To our surprise, some birds took advantage of our delicious green room treats and within a couple days, they were gone!

The children enjoyed preparing for pajama day. The three day class wrote and illustrated a bed time story about some green room horses. Each child contributed a line of the story. The following day they drew pictures to match the story. It has become a favorite choice at book time. The children have the story memorized and huddle together to read it. When their favorite line comes, they all say in unison, “And the witch said ouch!” Be sure to check it out next time you are in the green room!

Another big part of pajama day was discussing which pajamas each child was going to wear. They were all very excited when the day arrived. We enjoyed pancakes for snack. The two day children enjoyed hearing, for the first time, the story of the green room horses.
We celebrated a very important holiday, Ground Hogs Day, by making a ground hog to come out of hibernation in order to predict spring. We discussed that a ground hog can’t really predict spring. We read a story about the famous Phil and the children were excited to pop their ground hog out of the cup at the crucial point in the story. They also enjoyed looking for their own shadow on the playground.

After Ground Hogs Day, the Nursery School Postal Service set up shop in the green room. The children made a mailbox out of a block and enjoyed sending mail to their classmates. We addressed and “stamped” the envelopes and then placed them in the mailbox until they were delivered by the leader at the end of the morning. The children were very excited to receive mail and to announce to their friends “That’s from me!” Along with this we discussed with each class that on the days they are not at school there is another group of children who come to the green room. That has always been a difficult concept for the two groups to understand. We have shown each class the pictures that hang on the hooks and the names of the other class on the leader chart and the job chart. The two groups have been corresponding with letters and each group has “sent” a package of cookies they baked to the other class. The two day class backed oatmeal cookies and the three day class “mailed” some valentine cookies.

Valentine’s Day brought a lot of love to the green room. Each child prepared a Valentine for their family by placing painted handprints on a heart. They each thoughtfully chose a color for their heart as well as their hands. Some children were a little hesitant to get messy but decided after feeling a small dab of paint on their hands that is was OK while others were ready to dig in and make many handprints. A few opted to use a paintbrush. Mary, Christina and I enjoyed helping them write a note to each of you and hearing about their families. The three day class made valentine cookies which they enjoyed and also had enough to mail to the two day class. The day of our school celebration, the children enjoyed passing out their own Valentines to their classmates. They were also very excited and thankful to receive a bag full of treats.

As February winds down and we look forward to spring, we also look forward to getting back outside on the playground. Please remember to send hats and gloves, as we will begin going outside now that the snow has melted. Finally, we would like to thank you again for sharing your children with us. They are a joy!

Blue Room
Jill Allen & Debbie Indeck

During January the Blue Room went back in time, way back in time, to the age of the dinosaurs. One day, the children arrived at school to find that dinosaur books, puzzles, toys, posters, and games had taken over the room. This is always one of our most popular units and this year was no exception. Your eager and intelligent children soaked up everything we could tell them about dinosaurs and even helped the teachers with the pronunciation of some of the more difficult dino names!   They know the meaning of words such as extinct and paleontologist and can describe the differences between plant and meat-eaters.

As always, we reinforced the things we learned from books and discussions with a variety of hands-on projects. We mixed up a batch of play clay for the kids to use to make their own dinosaur fossils and we sponge-painted dino pictures. We had two messy papier-mâché projects. First, we covered a coffee can with strips of newspaper to make a volcano. The next day we used the rest of the papier-mâché to cover balloons to make dinosaur eggs, because dinosaurs were, after all, egg-laying reptiles. The sticky, slimy papier-mâché wasn’t to everyone’s liking but we were so proud that all the children participated in helping make their eggs. After the volcano and eggs dried they were painted and set aside. The class could barely contain themselves waiting for the day we would hatch the eggs and explode the volcano.

In the meantime, another popular project was our dinosaur dig. Pretending to be paleontologists, and using spoons rather than shovels and chisels, the children dug for bones in two tubs of frozen soil.   They cautiously scraped and dug through the dirt shouting excitedly as they unearthed the bones. They then cleaned the bones, carefully brushing off the dirt with old toothbrushes and tried to decide which part of the dinosaur they might have come from. Of course, they knew they weren’t real dinosaur bones but that didn’t dampen their enthusiasm one bit.

Finally, the big day arrived! We invited the Yellow Room to join us as we exploded the volcano, and many of them remembered it from last year. The kids all gathered around as we poured vinegar over baking soda to make the “lava” flow over the sides of the volcano. They shouted for us to do it over and over again and even reached in bravely to touch the not so hot lava. We talked about the theory that volcanoes may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and some of them already knew that another theory involved an asteroid hitting the earth. They really are very well informed! The other part of our big dino finale was hatching the eggs. They enthusiastically squished, stomped, sat on, and ripped their eggs apart to find the tiny dinosaur inside and were ecstatic to find that they actually got to take them home. Sometimes little things give the most joy.

Talking about the asteroid theory provided us with a nice segue into a week of space-themed projects. We sponge-painted a space mural, measured out a mini solar system to show how far away from the sun all the planets are, and talked about moon phases. The children all had fun creating their own constellations and it would have been wonderful to spend more time in outer space but we needed to prepare for several big celebrations in the Blue Room.
The first was Valentine’s Day and it was a nice switch from the ferociousness of the dinosaurs to this gentler holiday. Everyone got to practice their cutting skills when they cut hearts out of ice paintings they had done. Have them explain how they painted with an ice cube, and while you’re at it ask them how to make a heart out of a circle and a square! That’s just what we did when we baked a heart-shaped Valentine’s cake. The kids made valentine’s cards for their moms and decorated bags to collect their valentines in. We’re not sure which they enjoyed more, receiving cards from their friends of sharing the ones they brought. They loved dropping a card in each bag and were very careful not to miss anyone.

The second big celebration was the 100th day of school. Ever since the beginning of the year we have kept track of the number of days with our mystery number and we finally reached 100! To mark this propitious occasion we did lots of 100 related activities. We measured out and painted a one hundred inch snake and we laid one hundred blocks end to end to see how far they would stretch. The children had so much fun carrying the blocks and were astonished when our “block track” made it all the way to the kitchen. We counted out one hundred of lots of different treats and stirred them together to make our own trail mix. It gave us an opportunity to compare the items and talk about weight and volume. One hundred pretzels take up a lot more space than one hundred sesame seeds! It’s hard to believe that one hundred days have gone by and we are more than half way through the school year. We have so much more to do and learn and the Blue Room will continue to be a very busy place.

Yellow Room
Beth McIntosh & Nuni Zimmerman

This time of year can often leave us with a little bit of “cabin fever” when the days are too cold or icy to use our playground time outside.   Luckily the Yellow Room children always have the opportunity to use our porch for some fresh air or even a romp in the snow. That’s why it is a good idea to continue sending the boots, mittens and hats!

We celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday by making birthday cupcakes. We read a simplified story of his life and talked about his dream of being treated fairly. The very next day you might have heard that we had some “unfair” play going on in the Yellow Room! After reading the famous Dr. Seuss story of The Sneetches, we set up a star machine in our classroom.   Like the story, we gave the children the choice of going through the machine and getting a star on “thar belly” or not. If they chose to have a star then they were only allowed to play with other children (sneetches) who had stars on “thars”. We had quite a few discussions on what it feels like to be left out or feel different, but mostly it was just fun to run through the big box getting a star and then running through again to have the star removed.
Our classroom turned into an art gallery with the challenge of painting a realistic still life. Every child painted their very own rendition of a blue vase with orange and yellow flowers. We marveled at how different and uniquely individual each painting turned out even though we were all painting the exact same picture. We filled the rest of our classroom gallery with torn paper mosaics, melted crayon stained glass (wax paper), 3 dimensional sculpture and dried glue ornaments.

We want to give a big thank you to everyone for welcoming “Sunny, The Yellow Room Bear” into all of your homes with open arms. We know how hard it is to manage a family and then to be expected to entertain a Bear with such high demands can be overwhelming but we did not hear one complaint, even though we did hear that he kept many awake into the night with his giggling. Sunny went to ballet with Isabella and spent extra “snow days” at her house. Lihi invited Sunny to watch from the counter as she and her baby brother took a bubble bath. Sela introduced Sunny to Japanese food at dinner. Meredith took Sunny to look at books at Barnes & Noble.   Sunny had his very first White Castle hamburgers at Abby’s house. Dylan took Sunny on a weekend trip to Springfield, Missouri where his cousins live. Samuel took Sunny bowling. Annie gave Sunny a ride in her baby sister Mia’s baby stroller. Nora played with Sunny in a tent made out of chairs and a sheet.   Ellory took Sunny to the pet store where they picked out a real fish for Ellory and a toy fish tank for Sunny.   Austin took Sunny to his sister Madeleine’s basketball practice and they got to play ping pong. Dominic and Sunny played hide and seek at his house. Kassia took Sunny to her gymnastics class. Sunny attended a musical performance at COCA while visiting with Philip and his family. It was called Creole Kidz and Sunny caught the Mardi Gras beads that they threw into the audience! The journal that traveled back and forth to each home with Sunny is filled with wonderful stories and many photos that show the time and loving effort you put into this very special project.   He is one very lucky bear!

Groundhog Day found us playing with our shadows of course. We learned what a silhouette was and each child sat for a drawing of their very own silhouette.
Valentine week started with the grand opening of our classroom mail center.   A post office was set up with each child’s photo on a mail pouch.   All week the children put much thought into creating and delivering notes to their friends.   At the end of each morning we had “mail call” which gave the children time to retrieve and open their notes together on the rug.
We also decorated our Valentine Bags and dictated messages of love on a family Valentine card. Valentine morning was spent anxiously waiting for the moment when we could deliver everyone’s Valentines from home.

Some of the children have seen the Olympics being broadcast on television and our classroom has become quite a global village with flags from all over the world hanging from the ceiling. The children created their own unique United States flags using red, white and blue stripes and stars. We made red, white and blue play dough and found out how many connections we have all over the world. Beth has a daughter currently living in Costa Rica. Annie’s mom & Dad lived in Mexico.   Sela’s daddy was born and raised in Japan. Austin went on a cruise when he was 2 years old and visited Jamaica, Mexico, Haiti and St. Thomas. Lihi and Isabella both have family living in Israel and Isabella has visited both Israel and Italy. Abby has family in Vietnam, China and Thailand. Nora spent a month in Germany when she was 3 years old. Kassia has family in Thailand, England, France and Greece and she has visited all of those countries plus China, Spain and Canada. Samuel’s uncle Alex lives in South Korea. Phillip lived all last year in Germany. He went to school there and had his 4th birthday there. He has also traveled to Italy, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands and England. We have a big map of the world on our classroom wall where we have pinpointed the connections we have in many different countries.

Don’t forget to sign up for snack and remember that we now have 14 children in case you are sending individual portions.

Ask your child about all the “snakey” activities in our classroom this week! And look for a field
trip permission slip to come home soon for our zoo class that is scheduled on Friday, March 5th.

January 2010

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:13:02 -0600

Notes from the Editor
Ellen Schapiro
It does seem like a long time ago, but the school holiday party was a great success. There was good food, a chance to come together as a community and excited children. The singing was so much fun and I hope everyone left with the same warm feelings I did. Thank you so much to everyone who attended and a special thank you to all those who baked and brought the many delicious treats.
The Children’s Crisis Nursery appreciated the many gifts from the Ethical Society Nursery School community. They are always in need of many items and it is a great feeling to know that we have made a difference in a child’s life. A thank you note is posted on the office door.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Each year, the teachers and children talk about the great civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., We discuss his ideals and accomplishments. The children are able to grasp the concepts of fairness and peaceful solutions to conflicts. We talk about how each of us is different and special but we all strive to be treated equally. These discussions help them to understand Dr. King’s importance both historically and today.

The Calendar
• Thur. Jan. 28: Parent Coffee
• Thur. Feb. 11: 3 Day Green Room will celebrate Valentine’s Day
• Fri. Feb. 12: 2 Day Green Room, Blue Room & Yellow Room will celebrate Valentine’s Day
• Mon. Feb. 15: Presidents’ Day: SCHOOL IS CLOSED.
• Tues. Feb. 16: Green Room 2 day class will attend school. NO SCHOOL FOR THE 3 DAY CLASS.

Addition to the class lists
Phillip is back! Phillip was in the 3 day Green Room last year. His family has been living in Germany for the past 10 months. He is back and is now in the Yellow Room.

Snow Days
As you now know, when it is necessary to close school due to snow or ice, parents will be telephoned by one of the teachers. If this was a problem recently, please check with the teacher to make sure she has a working phone number. Ellen also sends out an email and posts it on KMOX.
It is reassuring to know that the upper section of the Ethical Society driveway is heated by an underground system that facilitates the melting of ice and snow.

The Nursery School Coffee Breaks
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Please join other parents for coffee after carpool in the (rain room) library. We will have coffee, tea, and juice and a few treats. Younger siblings are welcome. Mary Ann Snyder from Parents as Teachers (a former ESNS teacher and the previous director of First Congregational Preschool) will be there to talk about PAT. She will touch upon its history and then discuss the many ways it currently helps support parents. She will answer any questions you may have about PAT and she will have available some wonderful handouts.

Science
Liz came and talked about the white-tailed deer. The white tailed is important for the deer. Not only does it get its name from the tail, but the tail is raised to warn other deer of danger. Deer sleep on the ground even when it is covered with snow or ice and is very cold. A male deer is called a buck, the female a doe and the babies are called fawns. Only the male has antlers. They are made out of solid bone. They lose them every winter and grow a new rack each spring. Bucks fight other bucks with their antlers in order to win a doe. Fallen antlers are eaten by rodents for calcium and minerals. Deer eat acorns, twigs, fruit and leaves. They also eat poison ivy berries and other berries. They are vegetarians, or herbivores.

Classroom Notes
Green Room
Christina Capstick, Mary Kenyon, Melinda Looby
The Winter Break extended for the community with the additional days of weather related closures of school. We heard stories of attempts to play in the frosty scene. The Green Room will attempt outdoor play on the playground most days, unless it is significantly below freezing or too wet/icy. Boots will ensure a more pleasant experience and we always have additional gloves and hats.
Upon return your child replenished the class play dough with an awesome deep blue (aka, azul). Although this cooking project did not require clean hands, a real cooking project does. In the three day group, each child washed hands eagerly and participated in some way to make a tasty applesauce spice bread that we shared later in the morning.
In the absence of Robert's regular music, our class engaged in a bit of music performance time during story time at the end of the morning. Once again every child voluntarily participated in the three day class! The ABCs/Twinkle Twinkle was a favorite for many of the children but we also heard original compositions, the Spider-man theme song, and a lovely vocal, non lyrical, medley of Disney princess tunes. Your children are quite comfortable and confident and willing to try so many new and different experiences!
It was a pleasure to see so many of you at the Holiday Party. For many members of the school community, this is a valued and revered tradition that plays each year. Thank you for making it such a lovely time for making acquaintances and catching up with former students and extended families.
Recently we added a child sized representation of a steering wheel made of wood, used in conjunction with the blocks. It is one of the fascinating experiences the Green Room Teachers have is observing the addition of a novel toy or resource to the classroom and following the item as it is played with and fully integrated into the routine. The Green Room Two Day Class began using the chairs behind the "driver" to make a bus and travel to such places as Disney World. The Three Day Class had an airplane, train, and bus each travel to Minnesota, Missouri, and Montana while taking turns as the driver, engineer or pilot.
Soon each class will be talking about writing letters for communicating. We occasionally speak of the other section of the same class. The simplest way this comes up is when we speak of children who are at the school, in this same class on the days they are not there. In February we will initiate written communication between the two and three day classes.
Stay warm and a reminder that the Two Day Class attends class on the Tuesday after Presidents Day (Feb. 16th) and The Three Day Class will resume on Wednesday (Feb. 17th.)

Blue Room
Jill Allen & Debbie Indeck
Happy New Year! It has been fun to get back into our routine again.
Thanks to those who came to the Holiday Party way back in ’09! It was nice to see families and alums. Kids grow up so fast!
On our first day back to school, we updated our colored rice sign above the calendar. The new 2010 sign looks great. We made a new batch of (purple) play dough, wrote in our journals and made a snow-flake mural. We also made bagel bird feeders. Hopefully, they have been rescued from the backpacks by now! We also did some finger painting with chocolate pudding (mud) and whipped cream (snow). Yummy. I mean, a great tactile project to facilitate discussion about solids changing into liquids and making mud.
Never mind all of the roaring going on in the Blue Room right now. We have started the dinosaur unit! So exciting. Over the next 2 weeks, we will learn as much as we can about those “terrible lizards” that roamed the earth so long ago. I am pleased to share that we already have some classroom experts to help with dino facts. There is sand in the sensory table for a dinosaur landscape. The cars and animals have been replaced with all kinds of plastic dinosaurs, because, of course, there were no cars and modern animals around millions of years ago! Stay tuned to the next newsletter for more dino discussion.
We are going to try and get outside as much as possible over the winter months. Fresh air feels good. Layering clothing works best. Boots are great too.
Please come on up to the classroom. Watch out for dinos! Sign up for snacks while you are there. Your children love to pass out the cups when it is their turn to be snack host.
Again, welcome back and many wishes for a happy, healthy 2010!

Yellow Room
Beth McIntosh & Nuni Zimmerman
It feels great to be back at school after our long winter break! The Yellow Room children all seemed happy to see their friends again, and they got back to "work" without hesitation. 2010 has brought a new student to the Yellow Room, Phillip Mihalevich. Phillip is not truly new to our school, as he spent time in the Green Room last year before moving to Germany for many months. Now he is with our Ethical family again, and we are glad to have him. Your children have welcomed him into the fold, and it feels that he has always been with us. Welcome Phillip... we are happy you are here! Your children also may have mentioned Beth's absence during the first week of school. She was in Costa Rica for her son's wedding- a good place to be in this cold weather! In her place was Carol York, a much-loved substitute and former Green Room teacher. An appearance by Carol is always a happy surprise for your children and things went very smoothly while Beth was away. Welcome back Beth, and thank you Carol!
Though we have only been back in school for two weeks, our days have been busy and full of activity. Sunny, the Yellow Room Bear, is out and about! He will have a chance to spend the night in every child's
Though we have only been back in school for two weeks, our days have been busy and full of activity. Sunny, the Yellow Room Bear, is out and about! He will have a chance to spend the night in every child's home over the next few weeks, and you will have the opportunity to write of his time with you in his journal. Feel free to write, draw or include pictures in your portion. This is meant to be a fun project and what you do with the journal is completely up to you and your child. We don't want it to be work for you, though, so please feel free to make it as simple or elaborate as you wish. Each day at leader time we will read Sunny's journal. The children love this Yellow Room tradition and the "honor" of having Sunny in their care. They are very serious about this project, and we hope that you enjoy it as much as we do.
January also brings one of our favorite themes: fairy tales. We read different tales (often more than one) each day and while many of your children are familiar with these old stories, others have never heard them at all. No matter- all the children love hearing them again and again. They are fascinated by the fairy tales which are filled with a great variety of intrigue, witches, giants, candy, magic and sweet (and some not-so-sweet) children. We talk about the elements of a fairy tale- the "once upon a time" beginning, the "happily ever after" ending, and all the magic, good, and evil in-between.
Wanting to bring the stories to life, we made porridge ala "The Three Bears" for snack one morning. The porridge, of course, was not "too hot, " not "too cold," but "just right," and your children devoured their Wanting to bring the Wanting to bring the stories to life, we made porridge ala "The Three Bears" for snack one morning. The porridge, of course, was not "too hot, " not "too cold," but "just right," and your children devoured their bowls of oatmeal in short order. Happy to report that no chairs were smashed or beds tested, but some of us did wish we could enjoy a little nap after that warm and hearty snack. Another day we made "Little Pig" biscuits; unfortunately, the poor piggies were quickly gobbled up by all the Yellow Room wolves. Another day we made some very artistic gingerbread men from black playdough and beads. This week we look forward to cooking our own version of "stone soup." The teachers will be the hungry soldiers, providing the water (V-8 Juice) and stones (pasta) for the soup, your children will be the townspeople providing all other ingredients for our recipe. Details will be coming home soon....! Our fairy tale unit will culminate with "The Billy Goats Gruff." We will read the story, then your children will have the chance to act it out themselves. The children are encouraged to participate and few can resist the chance to walk across our "bridge," which actually will be one of our project tables set up with wooden blocks as steps. We love the enthusiasm with which children jump in to this project as they experience some of life's lessons... taking turns, waiting for their time to perform, sitting quietly in the audience, or coming to terms with the fact that they won't get to be the biggest billy goat in every performance.
At the end of last week we spent some time baking black and white birthday cupcakes and talking about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the upcoming holiday. We kept the conversation light, and we focused on all the positives that surrounded his existence. We have given your children some rare homework- to ask you what you know of MLK and his life. We are hoping that they will report something back to us at circle time this week. Your children absorb so much and we are always impressed by their comprehension and communication skills. As a tie-in to Martin Luther King, we will revisit the story of "The Sneetches" by Dr. Suess. We'll do a bit more acting, pretending, discussing and playing as we explore that great story. We are looking forward to many more conversations about friendship and fairness, kindness and caring.
We have enjoyed the cozy January mornings in the Yellow Room and hope that all the days feel warm and sunny to you too! We are looking forward to much more fun in the weeks to come.

October 2009

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:31:49 -0500

This newsletter can also be downloaded: 10-19-09.pdf

Notes from the Editor
Ellen Schapiro

The teachers take great pleasure in all that the children do. They carefully plan the week’s happenings, and then display the children’s artwork or send it home for you to enjoy. Often it is very difficult for you, though, to know what has happened at school, for a child’s typical reply is “nothing.” The teachers write up an account for the newsletter of what has taken place in each class so that you can share in their day.

Your support and involvement is important to the teachers and to your child. Next month is a time when teachers and parents come together to talk about your child’s interests, behavior and relationships at home and at school. Conferences are a time to share insights, thoughts, and information so that school can be a positive, successful experience. We want to hear from you about your child. After all, you know your child best. The teachers will share their observations about what your child likes to do at school, with whom they play, how they interact with teachers and their peers and how they have adjusted to the school routine after two months. It will be a conversation, a give and take of information with your child’s best interests in mind.

Fall conferences are held at Nursery School Thur. and Fri., November 12th and 13th. School will not be in session on those days. The teachers will contact all parents to make an appointment in a couple of weeks.

Thank you very much:
Sara, Andrea, Marcia, Jocelyn Fundoukos, Jen Jeffe, Bonnie, Jan, Katie, Clarissa who provided delicious treats for the evening Open House. Thank you also to all the parents who attended. The evening was wonderful and a chance to come together as a community to get to know each other.

The Calendar
• Thur. Oct. 22nd: Parent Coffee
• Thur. Oct 29th: Halloween for the Three Day children
• Fri. Oct. 30th: Halloween for the Yellow and Blue room and for the Two Day children.
• Wed. Nov. 11th: Book Fair at Borders 9:30 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
• Thur. Nov. 12 & Fri. Nov. 13: Conferences. School is closed.

There is Early Morning Care every morning, except Tuesday, from 8:30 until 9:00. The group will meet either on the playground or inside in the rain room.

The Green Room and Blue Room are switching outdoor play times starting Mon. Oct. 26th. The Blue Room will start the morning on the playground and the Green Room will end the morning on the playground.

The Nursery School Coffee Breaks
October 22, 2009 at 9:15

Please join other parents for a few moments after carpool in the (rain room) library. We will have coffee, tea, and juice and a few treats. Younger siblings are welcome. This Coffee Break will be about about our lending library. Come see all of the wonderful books we have to lend out. If you have any questions about these programs, call Mary Nani Kenyon, Green Room teacher at 862-8628.

Halloween
Halloween can be exciting and enjoyable for many children. After all, what is more fun than dressing up and pretending to be someone or something else. On the other hand, Halloween can be very frightening. Halloween upsets some children because they cannot differentiate between what is real and what is fantasy. The Nursery School does celebrate Halloween but the children do not wear costumes or makeup or masks of any kind. The teachers do not provide frightening activities for the children. The children will decorate the rooms and talk about pumpkins and prepare a snack and song. The children go “trick or treating,” visiting each other’s classrooms and the school office to sing a song and receive a treat. This fun time will take place on Thur., October 29th for the Three Day children and on Fri. October 30th for the Blue, Yellow and Two Day children.

Science
Liz McCane came to school to talk about Nocturnal Animals. Animals sleeping during the day and becoming active at night are called nocturnal animals. Animals that are active during the day are called diurnal animals. Nocturnal animals come out at night to find food. It is easier to hide in the dark. Nocturnal animals include bats, owls, toads, flying squirrels, foxes, skunks, raccoons and opossums. Few animals are strictly nocturnal, but flying squirrels are called “fairies of the night” because they are almost never seen during the day.

The Ethical Society Nursery School Book Fair
Will be held on Wednesday, November 11 from 9:30 – 7:00 p.m. at the Borders at Brentwood and 170.

The Book Fair is a fun and easy way to support our Nursery School. All you have to do is buy anything at Borders and our Nursery School will receive 20% of the profits! There are three ways you can shop: 1) buy a book from a classroom wish list and it will be donated with a book plate listing your name to your child's classroom; 2) buy any merchandise in the store or a gift certificate for your own use; 3) or buy a gift certificate ahead of time if you can't come. Any of the three options will mean money for our school. The classroom wish lists are also the major way in which we build our wonderful school library. Please see Ellen or Shana if you wish to buy a gift certificate ahead of time, and remember CHECK OUT AT THE REGISTER WITH THE BALLOONS! Hope to see you and all your friends and families there! Also, this is a great way to do some early Holiday shopping (think gift certificates for teachers, mail carriers, etc.)

This past month, we watched the caterpillars eat and grow. They finally got big enough to attach themselves to the lid of the aquarium or branches and hang in a “j”. They shed their skin and push it off and a green form underneath was left. A thin clear layer hardened around it and formed the chrysalis. There are many chrysalides now resting for 10 days and soon beautiful monarch butterflies will emerge.

Classroom Notes
Green Room
Christina Capstick, Mary Kenyon, Melinda Looby

Greetings from the Green Room Teachers. It was fantastic to meet many of you at open house. We look forward each year to Ellen's slideshow with nostalgic music and her inspiring words. It is a pleasure to spend time each week with your children. We enjoy learning more about how our students spend the rest of the week outside of school and the coming conference times are a great opportunity to get further acquainted. We appreciate the time you take out of your schedule to talk about your child.

The children in the Green Room are adapting to the class routines quite diligently. Although we currently begin our morning outside, beginning the last week of October we will end our morning outside and begin indoors. This allows the air to warm up just a bit from the earliest morning chill. Take care to dress or provide warm clothing as we spend time each day outside unless it is raining heavily or extremely cold, well below freezing. We do have a lrge collection of hats and mittens to choose from in the event your child does not have warm accessories.

The three day Green Room children have each been the leader once and the two day children will soon work through the chart. The time the leader has to address peers about their show and share at circle time is so important. It is a chance for the class to learn more about the leader and to engage in a genuine social exchange when the leader calls on three classmates for questions.

These developing social skills are put into effect regularly though our science and music classes. Listening to Robert or Liz when they are introducing a new song or wildlife facts allows them to later ask informed questions. The pattern of exchange is very similar in that there is a period of attention and a period of questions or singing of song. Liz met with us twice already and she talked about Fall and nocturnal animals. We soon will learn new holiday songs for our family holiday party.

Within our circle time and projects we have discussed several subjects including colors, senses and Fall. Colors involved mixing a number of combinations on the easel and learning names of colors in English, Spanish, and Japanese. We refer to these colors in the classroom variously in the three languages. We also utilize numbers one to ten in the same three languages.

Some of the projects completed while we referencing senses included smelling various spices and cooking and tasting carrot and apple cake. We used our feeling when using the hammers at the workbench and talked about how the goggles protect our sense of sight. Frankly our hearing was also fully engaged with two hammers in full action out on the porch as everyone had a turn.

A short hunt around the playground to collect fall items resulted in a rainbow of colors represented. We found red (rojo, aka) fruit from a dogwood, orange marigolds, yellow maple leaves, green (verde, midori) boxwood, blue (azul, awo) blossoms in the grass, and violet highlights on another blossom.

We welcome you to this new school year and invite you to participate generously in the classroom. Making pleasant early connections between home and school allows your children to feel secure in future educational environments. Sharing a favorite unique snack is a particularly nice way to connect home and school. Interestingly children are quite adventurous in their food choices during snack time at school. The children appreciate your snack contributions each day.

Blue Room
Jill Allen & Debbie Indeck

Welcome to the Blue Room. It is hard to believe that it is already October! The new school year has started off so smoothly. Upon arrival, the children hang their own backpacks and coats and wash their hands before entering the classroom. Thus far, we have been starting in the classroom with unstructured play for the first hour of the day. FROM NOW ON, THE BLUE ROOM CHILDREN WILL START THE DAY ON THE PLAYGROUND!!! As the colder weather arrives, our hardy Blue Roomers are better suited to start outside than the younger Green Room Children. This also gives us time to burn off some wiggly energy before entering the classroom. PLEASE DRESS YOUR CHILD APPROPRIATELY FOR THE WEATHER. We recommend layers and leaving a set of hat and gloves in your child’s backpack for use at school. Thank you!

We will still have our hour of classroom play at the end of the day. The block area is a popular place. Pirate ships, stages, zoos and car ramps are all the rage. The house corner dress up station is very busy. Imaginative teas and restaurant cafes pop up daily. Rhinoceros tea, anyone?? Many parents have seen paintings come home on a daily basis. The art table is covered with play dough, markers and tape and lately, cardboard tubes that get cut and transformed into telescopes. Many children love putting puzzles together. And there is always the project table.

We have a daily, teacher-led, project at the rectangle table. Every child is eager to participate. Our projects are based on our themes and we started with “All about me”. We recorded heights, painted our hands for a mural, made a hair color and eye color chart and, with the help of a mirror, drew self-portraits. Then, we fell into Blue! Our favorite color. We made blue collages, worked with tissue paper and starch and made yummy blueberry muffins. That was a fun, delicious week because, with our Apple theme, we made apple brownies two days later. The children love baking days and usually, everyone tries what s/he made.
After Apples, we visited the alphabet. The children figured out which letters they would need to stamp out their names. We took the first letter of our names and made an initial collage. Blue Room Publishing released an alphabet book. Each child selected at least one letter and worked with its sound to come up with words. Then, s/he decorated that letter page and we bound it into our book. We will visit the alphabet again at the end of the year; it’s a popular topic for this age group.

We tried our hands at cutting with scissors during our “Shapes” theme, making triangles. Hopefully, everyone has some child size scissors at home for more practice. Scissors can be so tricky to manipulate. We glued some squares for a square collage and did some circle stamping before we made swirl shapes out of pretzel dough. Yummy.
Currently, we are playing with vegetables and leaves. Ask your child who won the veggie roll race: Mr. Potato Head, Miss Eggplant, Mr. Zucchini or Mrs. Tomato. All of our participants ended up in our vegetable soup! Many children loved the veggie soup (tomato base, chopped veggies, alphabet noodles and a little bit of garlic, salt and pepper). Some even had 3 bowls!
Come look in the classroom at the lovely veggie stamps. See if you can tell which vegetables we used. The artwork is beautiful.
We are headed into Halloween. I know Ellen will cover this elsewhere in the newsletter but it is worth a reminder. We leave our costumes at home. Save those for Saturday. The Blue Room will be making pumpkin masks to use on our trick-or-treat visits to the other classrooms.

Thank you again to parents who chaperoned the Theis Pumpkin Patch field trip. We had a super fun time despite the cold weather. Keeping up with energetic 3 and 4 year olds in a pumpkin patch with mazes and tunnels can be challenging and our parents did a great job! Thank you for the support.
Please remember to sign up for snacks and check our monthly project and theme plans posted outside our classroom on the door. Happy Halloween!!

Yellow Room
Beth McIntosh & Nuni Zimmerman

The Yellow Room children and teachers have had a wonderful beginning to the school year! The children stay busy and involved with books, puzzles, blocks, play dough (yellow of course), paints, dress ups, board games and a variety of toys and art materials. The children also love to take advantage of the open space, fresh air and big sandbox that our porch has to offer. At any given moment at least four or five children can be seen outside in a game of chase or digging in the sand, negotiating with a friend for a larger shovel or better truck. Your children are enthusiastic and creative in their play and they stay active and productive all morning long. They are a pleasure to observe as they interact and move happily from one activity to the next. The children have settled in nicely to our daily routine and have adapted to our Yellow Room schedule with ease. Each day our leader is responsible for leading our line to the playground, music and science and changing the job chart, marking our calendar and leading our show and share time. Your children love to tell the class about a recent event in their life or show something special from home. Our first show & tell theme was the color yellow and we had everything from a yellow apple to a live bearded dragon that was yellow! Our second theme was anything from nature and we have enjoyed the colored leaves, shells, wasp nest and even a tarantula who decided to shed her skin overnight. Our next show & tell theme will be books from home. The books that the children choose to bring to school from home or the library always tell a lot about each individual child as they will take great interest in showing the pages and telling the story. We will read each book at story time later in the morning.

In addition to our play we present daily craft activities that go along with monthly themes. Our projects are posted on the calendar hanging on our classroom door if you would like to have a reference for conversation about school with your child. By the time the children get home, that sculpture or nature hike easily gets lost in thoughts of lunch or rest time. The month of September we explored color. The children mixed and experimented with changing colors. We started with the color yellow, of course. We worked with collage, built yellow paper chains, baked yellow corn bread, yellow play dough and yellow goop. The color purple led to a very long story staring Harold and his purple crayon. The children illustrated and dictated an elaborate and involved adventure that took Harold on our longest adventure ever. In a nutshell, Harold went on a long journey with a dog wearing a party hat. They came upon a mermaid, a BIG spider and a snake robot. Mr. Potato Head from the movie Toy Story made an appearance and invited everyone in to watch his movie and eat popcorn. They went through a purple snow storm and had to cross over a river before they finally made it back home. Many of you were able to read the 45ft. long scroll in our classroom during Open House. Our color theme has also involved painting and mixing colors with rolling marbles, making tire tracks with our matchbox cars and mixing different colors into shaving cream. We ended our theme by joining the Blue Room play dough with our own Yellow and now we have a lovely shade of green. There is a beautiful book about “little blue and little green” who play together against the wishes of their families and it ends with everyone coming together and blending into the color green. The children love the story and love their new play dough.

I am sure that the children have come home with all kinds of information about caterpillars, milkweed and the transformation that is taking place in the glass aquarium in our hallway. Soon we will have monarch butterflies and it is always quite a show as their wings unfurl and dry out. The children have watched the transformation of the tiny white egg on the back of a milkweed leaf, the growth into a big fat caterpillar, the shedding skin and evolving chrysalis and the final emergence of the beautiful butterfly. The children will participate in releasing them for their long journey to Mexico. We have also had a visit from Liz, our science specialist. She always comes with hands on specimens of snakes and frogs and skins and eggs, etc. Her recent visit was all about nocturnal animals of Missouri.

We had a cold and grey morning for our trip to Theis Pumpkin Farm. The rain held off and the children played freely on all the hay structures, explored the tunnels with flashlights, zipped down the zip line over and over again and got lost in the corn maze. There were live farm animals and a camel and a zebra. There were toy tractors, slides and swings made out of truck tires. There was a pirate ship and life sized spider webs to play on. We were taken on a wagon ride through the fields and the tractor driver pointed out the many vegetables and fruit trees that are grown there. Except for the lack of sunshine the day could not have been better. The children went home with their very own pumpkin. We will be carving jack o lanterns and roasting pumpkin seeds in the coming weeks.

October has begun and we will be watching the seasonal changes. We have gone into our school yard woods and collected things from nature. The children made tree pictures by gluing puzzle pieces to represent the colorful falling leaves. Our projects have been nature oriented for the beginning of the month and will evolve into Halloween activities as we near the holiday.

Thank you to all the parents who helped drive the children to the pumpkin farm and we were so glad to see so many of you who were able to attend the Open House. We always enjoy seeing and talking with you. We love getting to know your children and look forward to a great year with them. Thank you so much for sharing them with us.

September 2009

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:25:48 -0500

Notes from the Editor
Ellen Schapiro

(This newsletter can also be downloaded: 9-21-09 web.pdf)

I hope everyone had a restful and fun summer. Welcome to school! The first day of school is filled with excitement, nervous energy and promise. It is so comforting to come back to the warm and welcoming rooms of the Ethical Society Nursery School. The pleasure never diminishes for us, for each September brings a wonderful sense of new beginnings with unique, young children. The older children walk into the building with confidence as they move into a new classroom. The younger children come in more tentatively but, for the most part, ready to move into this new stage of their life. The rooms are filled with promise, the walls slowly fill with pictures, and the play and friendships begin.
What makes our school so outstanding are our teachers. They are warm and nurturing and have the interest of each child as their priority. This newsletter features a short biography of each of the staff members.
The newsletter will be sent home once a month and it provides relevant information to parents. It will include a calendar of upcoming events plus descriptions of what is happening in each of the classrooms.

Here’s to a happy and fulfilling year ahead!

Thank you very much

To: the members of the Nursery School Board who baked and brought delicious snacks for the coffees on the opening days of school.

The seventh annual Parent Workday was a huge success. We weeded, and cleaned up on the playground, hauled and smoothed sand in the sandboxes, installed stepping stones, cleaned blinds and shelving, washed windows, wiped down chairs and tables, hosed down sand toys and painted the Yellow Room shelves. Thank you to all the parents who gave time on a Sat. morning to help us spruce up and get ready for the school year to begin.

The Calendar

Thursday, Oct. 5th: Evening Open House for all parents (children not included) 7:30 p.m. in the downstairs Assembly Room. (See below.)

Open House for Parents

Parents are a vital component of any school. Clearly, they are the most important figures in their children’s lives, and thus they are of great importance to teachers. Parents are always welcome here! The staff would like parents to know more about what actually occurs at school, so we will be taking photos in the classrooms and on the playground, starring, of course, the children themselves and the teachers will welcome you into the classroom to have a look around. Evening Open House is on Monday, October 5 at 7:30 p.m. We will gather in the downstairs Assembly Room for conversation, a light snack and a look at slides. Afterwards, there will be a chance to visit the classroom and see what the children have been doing during the past month.

THE BOARD

The Board of Directors is the governing body of the Nursery School. The Board is responsible for the overall management of the Nursery School establishing school policy, formulating the budget, organizing fundraising activities, determining staff salaries and selecting the director. In the folders you received on the first day of school you will find a list of the Board of Directors for the 09-10 school year. If you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to contact them. They will be contacting you to bake goodies for special events or to help with the fundraising effort.

Music

Robert Bernstein is with us again for music this year. He will come twice a week, Tues. and Fri., and lead us in song and movement. We are very excited about having him with us.

Science

Liz McCane will be at Nursery School this year for science with the Blue, Yellow and 3 Day Green Room groups on the following dates:
September 16 – Fall Things
October 7 – Nocturnal Animals
November 11 – Wild Turkeys
December 9 - Hibernation
January 13 – White Tailed Deer
February 10 – Food Chain
March 10 – Backyard Wildlife
April 14 – Animal Babies
May 5 – Trees: Who Needs Them

This week Liz talked about Fall. The way to know that fall is approaching: cooler weather, shorter days, leaves change color and fall. Plants produce fruits and seeds in the fall, providing food for wildlife. Animals get ready for winter in a variety of ways. Some insects lay eggs in the fall before they die, while others overwinter as adults or larvae. Some animals migrate, while others are getting ready to hibernate. Pick out a tree that you can watch during the different seasons and observe how it changes with each season.

Extended Day

The Nursery School is devoted to the concept of play for young children. We strongly believe that children are able to make sense of their world when they freely interact with other children and are given a choice of interesting materials with which to play. The Extended Day program is truly an extension of the regular Nursery School program. The relaxed environment enables a child to have lunch and socialize with children who may or may not have been in their morning classes. Amanda Drummer will be the Mon. Extended Day teacher and teach Spanish to the children through games and song. Extended Day is open to Yellow Room, Blue Room and 3 Day Green Room (on Wed. only) children. Nikki Bierman, Amanda Drummer and Mary Kenyon are the extended day teachers.

Parents’ site

A yahoo group has been formed for all Ethical Society Nursery School Parents. Here is the link
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ethicalsocietynurseryschoolparents/ or you can email mtricia@triciamoyer.org and ask to join as well.
The group was formed as a place for ESNS parents to ask questions and get to know each other in an informal setting.
I am looking forward to getting to know all the new parents and reconnecting with previous parents.

Tricia Moyer
ESNS Board Secretary

WHAT’S UP!

Right now, Early Morning Drop-off is not in place. Please fill out the survey in you folder and let me know if there is interest. If you do arrive before 9:00 am, you are welcome to come on the playground with your child or read a book at the benches until the teachers are ready to have the children come upstairs to the classrooms and start their day. Thank you

Wish list

If you have any of the following items at home that you no longer use and would like to donate or if you would like to purchase an item off the wish list, the teachers would very much appreciate it.
* soft wood for hammering (pine)
* small ball pump
* cash register (Fisher Price style)

The Staff

The Ethical Society Nursery School staff is truly excellent, with warm, skilled, well-educated individuals who enjoy working with young children. The teachers are the single most important indicator of quality for any school. A note of introduction follows for each teacher.

Jill Allen (Blue Room) is starting her third year and has previously been a parent, the treasurer on the Board and a substitute teacher. She is the proud mother of three ESNS graduates, Sophie in 6th grade, Molly in 4th grade and Lucy in 1st grade at The College School. Jill graduated from Old Dominion University with a degree in art history. Most of her job experience has been in coaching swimming. She has worked with infants, grade school and high school athletes, Div I collegiate swimmers and adults swimming in masters programs or triathlon training. Jill also helped run a small local business for many years.

Robert Bernstein (Music) started teaching music at the nursery school in 2005. He has his BS in communications from Boston University. He has been a drummer and performer for over twenty-five years and a lover of music for even longer. In addition to his time at the nursery school, Robert is teaching Music Together classes in the St. Louis area. His son, Lucas, an alumna of ESNS started 1st grade this year and his daughter, Emily, just turned 1 this summer.

Nikki Bierman (Extended Day) Nikki Bierman is with us again this year as an Extended Day teacher. She is a nanny to two ESNS alumnae and happy to still be involved at the school. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-St. Louis with a degree in Social Work. Previous work experience includes four years with Missouri's Division of Youth Services working with at-risk adolescents in both community outreach/support and residential treatment programs.

Christina Capstick (2 Day Green Room)
Christina Capstick earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work at Missouri State University in 2001. While there, she completed a full-time internship as a School Social Worker at two elementary schools. After college, she was a daycare teacher until moving to St. Louis to pursue library work. She started at a children’s library in the St. Louis Public Library system. Christina was working at the Thomas Jefferson Library at the University of MO-St. Louis until leaving to be a stay-at-home mom to Zoe, age 3 (Blue Room), and Ava, age 1. This is her first year teaching at the Nursery School.

Debbie Indeck (Blue Room) is beginning her twelfth year this fall. She has a BA in art history from the University of Minnesota, and her preschool experience includes working as a substitute teacher at University United Methodist Preschool and teaching four and five year old children at Hamilton Preschool in Creve Coeur. Her three children are John, an attorney in New York, Joseph is working for Boeing in Huntsville Alabama and Kate is a freshman at Eckerd College in Florida.

Mary Kenyon (3 Day Green Room & Wed. Extended Day) is beginning her ninth year as a teacher at the nursery school. She has a BA in psychology and Women’s Studies from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She worked 4 years at City Corp Mortgage. Her 4 children, Tom, Grace (eleventh grade), Martha (tenth grade), and Sophia (seventh grade) are all alumnae of the school.

Melinda Looby (2 Day Green Room & 3 Day Green Room) Melinda begins her second year at the nursery school this year. She has been a nursery school parent, Board member and substitute teacher. She has a BS in Biology from Valparaiso University and a Masters in Social Work from Washington University. She has worked with children in foster care, with adolescents in residential placement and as a parent educator with Parents as Teachers. She has 5 children, Matthew (9th grade), Emily (7th grade), Andrew (5th grade), Thomas (3rd grade), and Daniel in kindergarten all alumnae of the nursery school and currently in the University City schools.

Liz McCane (Science) brings Nature on the Move to the school for the third year. She shares her knowledge and the wonders of nature with young children. We are very happy to have her with us.

Beth McIntosh (Yellow Room), is beginning her thirteenth year at the Nursery School. She taught second and third grade children at The College School for 11 years and kindergarten-sixth grade science for two years at Forsyth School. She taught two years, with preschool children at The College School. Beth holds a BA in child study and an MAT (Masters of Arts in Teaching) in science from Webster University. Her three children are Brendan, working in San Diego, Charlie, a sophomore at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Julia, a twelfth grader at Webster High School.

Amanda Nichols (Mon. Extended Day) taught Spanish during Mon. extended day last year and is going to be one of the extended day teachers and teach Spanish again this year. She is also teaching part-time at the new language immersion school. Her son, Isaiah is in the Blue Room.

Ellen Schapiro (Director) is beginning her eleventh year as director of the nursery school. Previously, she taught for two years in the Green Room and six years in the Yellow Room. She has worked with children in various programs over the years, including teaching French at Parkway North Junior High. Ellen has a BA in French and an MEd with an emphasis in Experiential Education from the University of Colorado. Her four children are Daniel, a photojournalist in Austin, TX, Emily, an Outward Bound instructor living and working in the world of sustainability in D.C., Evan, a senior at Kenyon College and Miriam, a twelfth grader at Ladue High School. They are all alumnae of the nursery school.

Nuni Zimmerman (Yellow Room) taught previously for four years in the Yellow Room, took a few years away, came back and taught extended day for a year and is beginning her second year in the Yellow Room. She graduated from Emory University with a BA in English. She has been a teacher assistant for all grades at Delmar-Harvard School and at Britanny Middle School in University City. She has three children; Henry, a tenth grader at Clayton High School, George, an eighth grader at Wydown Middle school and Oliver who is in first grade at New City School. They are all alumnae of the school.