From Kathy’s Desk
February 2016
What a difference a year makes, huh? I’ve been doing a snowman club with the Barracudas throughout the month of January. We’ve made snowmen out of buttons, flameless candles, cookie dough, and fence posts. No snow to be had!! I’m sure many of you are plenty happy about that! Nevertheless, we have plenty to keep us busy at PEDP…
CURRICULUM
We spent the month of January “traveling” the globe. During February, our theme will be Old Hollywood. I am as curious as you are to see what kinds of projects come home this month! A star on the Walk of Fame? An Oscar? Stay tuned!
EARLY RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3RD!
The Minnows and Barracudas are planning a bowling field trip for those who attend this day. Make sure that you have communicated your child’s plans for the day and turned in your permission slip and payment ($18) if necessary. Sharks will be doing a special event at the Program.
FIELD TRIPS
The Explorers group will be heading to Nashoba Valley to go snow tubing on February 23rd.
CLASSES
The Ski/Snowboard program has two more sessions, February 2nd and 9th. The kids are doing great and really progressing quickly!
Registration for Kids Cooking Green for the Minnows (Grades K/1) IS STILL OPEN! This class will be held on Tuesday afternoons in March. Please note that registration for this class must be done online through Kids Cooking Green. The link is http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ebtmj7513e3ba210&llr=iw76p6iab
We are excited to be offering Tennis Lessons starting later this month! Information will be e-mailed out later today.
MUSICAL
All children in the musical should be practicing their lines/songs several times a week if not every day. We have a couple more rehearsals using scripts but then children will be expected to have memorized lines.
PARENT CONFERENCES
PEDP staff write progress reports for all students in the Program. We like to meet with parents to go over the reports. If you have not yet signed up for your conference, please e-mail or call us to do so or check the sign-up calendar next to the dismissal area.
PROGRAM CLOSURES
NO SCHOOL OR PEDP on Monday, February 15th in observance of Presidents’ Day.
WINTER VACATION PROGRAM
This program is scheduled for February 16-19, from 8:00 AM – 5:45 PM. There are tons of fun activities and field trips planned. THE DEADLINE TO SIGN UP IS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST!
PROMOTE POSITIVE BEHAVIOR AT HOME!
Many of your children’s teachers (both in school and at PEDP) use strategies from Responsive Classroom. You can use many of these strategies to help create a calm, supportive and encouraging environment at home as well. There is an upcoming workshop for parents that will talk about the following steps to creating a Responsive Home: Family Meeting, House Rules, Interactive Modeling, Positive Language, Logical Consequences, Choice, and Quiet Time. The workshop is being held TU 2/9 from 9:00 – 11:00 AM in Room 210 at The Education Center, 100 Walnut Street. See the flyer posted at the dismissal area for more details.
MINNOW MESSAGE from Kim Ryan, Minnows Coordinator
Early Minnows:
The Early Minnows have been traveling by bus, plane, car and train during our travel theme this month. They have also visited Africa, China, and have learned about the 50 states! In February we will head back to the 1930’s as we learn about Old Hollywood. The early minnows go outside everyday and need to have the proper outerwear to do so. Recently, several children had to stay inside because they didn’t have the proper clothing. Please make sure they bring a warm coat, hat, gloves or mittens, boots and snow pants, so they do not miss out on the fun outside!
Late Minnows:
We have been having some trouble lately with some of our friendships during the late Minnow time. There has been some exclusion, some arguing and some hurt feelings. We are taking some extra time to focus on healthy friendships and trying to help the Minnows work out their issues. Some of the topics we will be discussing are:
What is friendship?
What are some ways to make new friends?
What are the qualities of a good friend?
We have some activities planned around this topic such as “Qualities of a good friend” bingo, “Keeping Friends” word search and the Minnow teachers will be doing some role playing on “Sticky Situations”- peer pressure and disagreements. We hope by doing this we can at least start the conversation on how to be kind to one another and how to be a good friend.
Please remember we have instituted a No Toys From Home policy as they have been causing many problems in the Minnows lately. Feel free to contact me at kim@peirceedp.com
BARRACUDA BUZZ from Joanne Malouf, Barracudas Coordinator
The Barracudas are having a great time in the Greenhouse, our new home base. The Thursday group has been busy with their clubs. Laurie has been teaching her group some new board games and card games. The kids enjoyed Laurie’s Chinese Checkers so much that Kathy bought one for the Program. Rachel L.’s club has been using magazines to create collages. Each week they use a different type of magazine such as sports, home etc. Kathy mentioned her snowman club at the beginning of the newsletter. The Alpaca club, with me, has been doing a great job hand sewing their stuffed animal. They can’t wait to fill them with stuffing. We will be having another team building event in February. This will be an activity to help the Barracudas get to know each other even better and to work cooperatively with each other. Other events like this have been very successful. As always, you can reach me at joanne@peirceedp.com
SHARK TALES from Rachel Bastarache, Sharks Coordinator
The Sharks have been enjoying their new home in the Clubhouse. We have continued to decorate and make it our own space. This month we have been busy with our travel theme. We made our own travel tags, passport covers, and United State Map place-mates. It was great to talk with all the kids about the amazing places they have visited or hope to visit. Also this month, the kids did some yummy cooking with Miss Lenni.
In the month of February, the Sharks will be having a special event on the early release Wednesday. We will be celebrating the Chinese New Year! The staff have been busy planning this event and are all super excited! We have a craft, some games, music and even a special snack.
The Shark staff is looking forward to meeting with all of you during our parent conferences. This is a great time for all to check in and see how your child is doing. I would like to give a “Shout out” to all the Sharks! I’ve been very impressed with how well the children remember to bring all the right gear to be able to go outside.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns at rachel@peirceedp.com.
Enjoy the weekend!
Kathy
