Dear Parents,
We did it! By working together, we (parents and teachers) have gotten Bellamy Manor School off to a wonderful start. I’m sure our first few days of school will go great! The most difficult time is drop off and pick up. Please remember our car line to unload your child will begin at 8:30 and end promptly end at 9:00. Any time outside of this window please park,walk & sign your child in. The same for pickup. Pickup will run from 11:40-12:00 if your child is registered for mornings only. Please never pass any car in our carline. We appreciate your understanding while we attempt to match children and cars in the safest way possible. By next week everything should be much smoother!
September promises to be a beautiful and exhilarating month. The teachers are just as excited and eager as the children and have planned their activities carefully. There are so many things to teach and ways to teach them. Many of the projects your child brings home will have served several purposes. Often, we are more interested in the process than in the product. The teachers’ goals are to teach the children to follow verbal directions, to locate top and bottom, and to move from left to right across the page. If you are ever distressed by what you perceive as a lack of creativity or too little “hands on” in a project, please don’t hesitate to call us or your child’s teacher. Remember -our goals are the same—a confident child with a positive self–image who loves learning and school.
As many of you now know, the standard response to “What did you do in school today?” Is “Nothing.” Often young children cannot separate the many different activities in which they participated. They remember their preschool hours as one when they “played.” Each classroom has a tremendous variety of teaching equipment so that the children are learning as they play. Most of them can remember snack time, but for all of them it is difficult to deliver a play-by-play to Mom or Dad on the way home. Our monthly newsletters are to inform the parents of what is happening so, you can more easily share in your child’s learning experience. Each teacher has prepared “units” for the children to study and learn. Art, music, snacks, and papers will reflect that specific units.
During this month, our two-year-old classes look at themselves in a unit we have named “It’s all about me”. They look closely at themselves from head to toe. They will learn how they relate to their environment by consciously exploring it. For many of these children this is their first experience away from home. We plan to make it a wonderful, fun, and positive one.
The two’s days are filled with many sensory experiences as they look at themselves and talk about their eyes, hair, muscles, etc. In addition to individualized papers and art projects, we have activity days. These are the times when the teacher works with each child on fine and gross motor skills such as how to do puzzles or lace a shoe. Although every day may not produce a craft or paper, be assured that their teacher works individually with each child on various activities.
Ms. Niki, Ms. Ashley and Ms. Kristina’s three-year-old’s will also begin in to settle into their daily school routine. Because apples, school, teachers, and September seem to go together, the threes begin the year with a quick look at apples. They will learn about Johnny Appleseed, eat, paint, and color apples. It is an extremely fun unit and gives the children a chance to experiment with many different mediums. This will be followed by an in- depth study of shapes and colors. The children will paint, cut, color and eat a variety of shapes and colors. The grand finale will be a Shape and Color Hunt. (Similar to an Easter Egg Hunt only we hunt paper shapes, not eggs).
The four-year-old classes devote September to the alphabet—sounds boring, but not the way they do it! This first month of letter and sound identification is an introduction for some and reinforcement or even a review for others. The four-year old’s parents should have received a detailed calendar of events for the month of September. If you did not, let us know. This kind of unit provides tremendous opportunities for music, poems, foods, and gross and fine motor experiences. Try to help your child remember bubble (B), glitter (G), and ice cream (I) day. The teacher’s will be assigning your child a day or days to bring in a special snack. Ms. Sara, Ms. Anna and Ms. Patrice appreciate it all the special snacks for the class this month!
Mrs. Sandra’s pre-kindergarten classes will also be doing a quick review of the alphabet and consonant sounds. One of the advantages of beginning the year with an alphabet overview is the opportunity it gives the teacher to assess fine motor skills and strengthen cutting and gluing abilities. They will also be sending home an ABC calendar and snack sheet for the month.
Mrs. Hobbs kindergarten class will spend most of September studying the history of transportation. The unit is divided into three areas—land, sea, and air. Of course, once we blast off into space, we have a wonderful astronaut party complete with “space” food! For those new to Bellamy, we might as well let you know now—we are definitely a party school. It’s one of our ways to keep learning a wonderful and memorable experience.
Our primary concern is always the total well-being of your child. If we all keep that as our goal, this year should be fantastic. Each year brings fresh new faces, many of whom we may not recognize. When you visit the school please come in the front door and introduce yourself. Until we are familiar with you, we will check your ID against the names given on the registration form. For security reasons the rear and side doors are kept locked, and we are naturally suspicious of strange faces peering in the windows. Remember—USE THE FRONT DOOR AND BRING IN YOUR ID.
You will see information come home the first week in regard to our annual fall fundraiser. You are under NO OBLIGATION at all. If you don’t wish to participate that’s okay! All money earned is used toward the purchase and upgrade of school equipment. We have been able to do this because of the terrific support we’ve received from our fund raisers.
Just a few more things……..
1) We will conquer carpool with your help and patience. Please have your carline pick up sign visible when picking up your child.. We can’t see through tinted glass so waving to us or holding your sign inside the window doesn’t work well.. A safety thought—DO NOT stop on Providence Road and wait to turn into the parking lot. Either drive around the block or pull into the center of the circle cars. Courtesy, consideration, and safety must be our main consideration. (It really does get better!)
2) We are a licensed facility and all children attending Bellamy Manor must have a shot record and birth certificate on hand before they can attend school. All children must have these documents in their file no later than September 22nd.
3) When packing your child’s lunch Monday through Thursday please remember we are a nut free facility. There’s an option to purchase lunch for your child on Fridays only for $5.00
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If you ever have any questions, concerns, or just want to chat about your child, please call!
Best,
Kristine Neronski
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