Dear Parents,
We did it! By working together, we (parents and teachers) have succeeded in getting Greenbrier Manor School off to a wonderful start. Now you all know what your child’s classroom looks like and you had the opportunity to meet your child’s teacher through our Open House. I am sure our first fewdays of school will go well. Drop off and pick up arean especially challenging time. Your patience allows us to follow all procedures without error. Thank you so much! The Manor Schools will NOT be providing a regular lunch service this year. All students whoare with us after 11:45am will need to bring a lunchfrom home. The children will have an option to buy pizza lunch for $5.00 every Friday. You will be invoiced through Brightwheel for lunch fees.
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 oral 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 do not hesitate to callyour child’s teacher or me. Remember, our goals arethe 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 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 blow-by-blow to Mom 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. Art, music,snacks, and papers will reflect that specific unit.
During this month, our two-year-old classes look at themselves in a unit we have named “It’s All About Me” (of course it is). 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 makeit a wonderful, fun, and positive one. Their days arefilled with many sensory experiences as they look at themselves and talk about their eyes, hair, muscles, etc… We have updated the curriculum. In addition to individualized papers and art projects we have included 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 your teacher works individually with each child on various activities.
The three-year old’s settle into the routine of school very nicely. Because apples, school,teachers, and September seem to go together, thethrees 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 in a variety of shapes and colors. The grand finale will be a Shape and Color Hunt. (Like an Easter egg hunt only we hunt paper shapes, not eggs).
The four-year-old classes devote September to the alphabet—Sound boring? —Not the way they do it! This first month of letter and sound identification is an introduction for some and reinforcement or evena review for others. The four-year-old parents shouldhave 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 snack signup sheet will come home the first day of school, if
you would like to send in a treat, please let your teacher know. All treats will need to be store bought to avoid germs and cross-contamination. Please remember we are a nut free school. Brittney, Kelly, and Cindi have some outstanding ideas and would appreciate the help. Michelle’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 alphabetoverview is the opportunity it gives the teacher toassess fine motor skills and strengthen cutting and gluing abilities.
The kindergarten classes spend most of September studying the history of transportation.The unit is divided into three areas—land, sea, andair. Toward the end of the month, you should lookfor a transportation book that your child has worked on all month! Our kindergarteners will also make stop signs and rubber band-propelled boats…it’s a very busy month!
I want to thank each of you for being so pleasant and cooperative. As this month progresses, we will be observing the children closely to see that they are properly placed both socially and academically. Our primary concern is always the total wellbeing 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 to the front door andintroduce yourself. Until we are familiar with you, wewill check your ID against the names given on the registration form. For security reasons, the doors are locked and we are naturally suspicious of strange faces peering in the windows. Remember—USE THE FRONT DOOR AND BRING IN YOUR ID.
During the first week of school, you will receive a packet regarding Greenbrier Manor School’s September fundraiser (due back October 2nd ). We never like distributing this right at the beginning of the school year, but because of the seasonal aspect of gift-wrapping paper, we have little choice. You are under NO OBLIGATION whatsoever. If you do notwish to participate that is okay, although obviouslywe would appreciate your support. All money earned is used toward the purchase and upgrading of school equipment. We have been able to do this because of the terrific support we have received from our fundraisers. The grand prize this year is one month’s free tuition for the top seller of gift-wrap in all four schools. Each school will also offer 50% off onemonth’s tuition for one child in the family selling themost amount of gift-wrap in that school.
Introducing Brightwheelfor Manor SchoolPayments
We will be using Brightwheel for all invoices (tuition, reader purchase/rental charges, workbook charges, lunch fees, etc). We think you will find thissystem provides a simple, efficient way to pay. You should have already set up your account and September’s tuition invoices have been sent.
A Few More Items to Cover:
If you ever have any questions, concerns, or justwant to chat about your child, please call us. I can usually be reached at 757-548-9292.
Sincerely, Jackie
LITTLE THINGS MEAN ALOT
DATES TO REMEMBER
September 5 – October 2Charleston WrapFundraiser
October 4 & 5Individual Pictures
October 9Columbus Day/School Closed forHoliday
November 7Conference Day (school open for all-day students only)
November 10Veteran’s Day/School Closed forHoliday
November 23– 24Thanksgiving/School Closedfor Holiday
December 18 – January 1Winter Break/SchoolClosed
January 2School resumes