16^th 3’s Thanksgiving Feast

17^th 4’s Thanksgiving Feast

21^st Parent Meeting 7pm-babysitting provided in the classroom/$2.00 per child

20-22 Parent Conferences (NO SCHOOL)

23-24 THANKSGIVING (NO SCHOOL)

Parent conferences will be held November 20^th, 21^st, and 22^nd. The teachers will post sign up sheets on the classroom bulletin board. Please select a time which is convenient for you to spend 10-15 minutes discussing your child’s start for the 2000 school year. Several of you might want to schedule times close together in order to take turns watching the children in the outside play area.

Week of Nov. 1^st "Signs of Fall," Star of the week will begin for the 4’s

Week of Nov. 6^th "Native Americans"

Week of Nov. 13^th "Pilgrims travel to America" and "We Celebrate with a Feast!"

Week of Nov. 27^th Introduction to Holiday presentations

Please welcome the following new student and his parents to Newark Cooperative Preschool.

3 PM Alex Upreti     Carrie and Glen 453-183

Please add this name and number to your call list.

A special thanks to all preschool parents and families who helped with the playground clean up in late September. The playground looks great! The kids are having a wonderful time outdoors.

Special recognition to :

The Savino Family for organizing the event and for recruiting their neighbor,

Doug Salter for rototilling the play area on the evening before the clean up,

Mary Elizabeth’s grandparents, Bob & Eleanor Minnich, for helping,

Matt Cox (Evan 4PM) for shoveling, and

Norris Smith and Margaret Swift (Norris 4AM) for shoveling, raking and pushing wheel barrows.

The three special helpers did a great job: Mary Elizabeth Savino (4PM), her sister Isabella and

Please keep your child home if:

• Your child has run a fever in the last 24 hours or has a rash
• Your child has had vomiting or diarrhea within 24 hours
• Your child’s nose is running constantly and cannot keep it wiped
• Your child isn’t feeling well and you suspect they could be coming down with something contagious.

An important part of being in the classroom includes confidentiality concerning specific situations in the classroom. If you have concerns regarding anything that occurs during your time in the classroom, please speak to the teacher rather than other parents.

Please be prepared to serve as the helping parent on your scheduled dates. It is your responsibility to be in the classroom 15 minutes early. Special thanks to those of you who are willing to step in and cover so the door can open on time.

Please reinforce the following school rules at home.

• Keep arms, legs, hands and sleeves in your own space.
• Use words, rather than actions to express desires.
• Listen to the teacher at story time; practice this by reading to your child each evening.
• Slide down the sliding boards do not climb on top of the outer parts of the climber.

If there is a spill when you are helping, please use paper towels to wipe it up (never use the sponges on the tables) and then spray with the bacti-chem and wipe again. If you do not spray the spot will become sticky.

Parking Reminder: When exiting the parking area please do not exit via the church driveway to Main St. It makes it impossible for cars to enter. Exit via Kelway Plaza or the Antique store lot. Thank you

Thanks to:

Amy Hrycak (Ben PM) for being our insurance coordinator; Michelle Farina (Nicole 4PM) for taking care of Scholastic Book orders; Carol Bischoff (Derek 4AM) and Stacie Gerhart (Amanda 3AM) for organizing the pizza fund-raiser; Cindy Millison (Jamie 4PM) for organizing the CPR instruction sessions. Great Job!!!!

Cindy Millison (Jamie 4PM) VP of Education is putting together a substitute teacher list. If you are willing to be called to sub in your child’s class or for an entire day please call Cindy at 325-9211. A sub receives $20.00 per session.

Patti Walters (Ashley 3AM) is still trying to collect health forms. Each child needs the following document on file:

• Health form
• Emergency Treatment
• Child release
• TB test results for the helping parent

Please get your TB tests done immediately.

Each child receives important papers via the cubby, please be sure to check their backpack/book bag each day.

Thanks to all the parents who participated in our field trip to Ashland Nature Center. The 4’s are showing increased interest in printing their names. At school their name will always be written with a capital first letter and all remaining letters lower case. To keep learning consistent, I urge you to present your child’s name to him/her in the same way. For 3’s parents, it would be helpful for you to begin to teach your child this way. It is very difficult to teach them to "switch" if they have learned to print in all capital letters. Other activities you should be doing at home are:

• Sorting socks
• Setting the table
• Drying silverware
• Cutting anything: coupons or confetti (but let them cut)
• Read lots of stories and have them tell you what happened in the story
• Give them simple two and three step directions.

November is a great month. We will talk about our Fall weather. The Native Americans and the Pilgrims unit will end with a feast. For the 4’s classes this includes roast chicken (or turkey), cornbread, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hi! I think the 3’s are feeling more comfortable with our classroom, our schedule, and each other. Many thanks to all of you for helping your child see how much fun school can be, whether you are in the classroom with them or away for a little while. As you discuss the day at school with your children, you help them make sense of ideas that may be confusing or misinterpreted. And you give them a chance to practice their language and memory skills.

When the 4’s go to Ashland Nature Center, the question among 3’s parents is often, "When do the 3’s go on a field trip?" We will, but I want to make sure the children are ready for experiences outside of the classroom. Even riding in someone else'’ car can be troubling at this age, let alone visiting an unfamiliar place without a parent to hold onto. We will make some outings when I feel that it will be a good experience for the group. Thank you for your patience.

Many thanks to all who participated in Pet Day in October and to those who contributed to our Halloween festivities. Thank you to all who have made contributions to the preschool in the form of yogurt cups, special snacks, basketball sets, etc.!

With Thanksgiving approaching, the 3’s will be talking about the kinds of things for which they are thankful, as well as how and why people celebrate Thanksgiving. We will be preparing a small "feast" on Thursday, November 16^th, to which parents are welcome. The following week will be devoted to parent conferences; look for a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board.

Thanks again for your help and support. You don’t have to "save up" concerns, comments, or questions for fall parent conferences—feel free to speak to me after class or to phone me at 368-8314.

The Annual Halloween Parade will be Sunday October 29^th at 3:00pm. Our group will gather in the George Reed Park (across from Newark High School) at 2:30pm. . Look for the preschool banner. This is a family event, children participating in the parade with our group must be accompanied by an adult. This is a fun event for our preschool families and a fun way for our program to be visible in the community. This is an entirely voluntary activity. If you have a wagon to lend so the children can ride, please let us know. Siblings are welcome to join us.

Our Halloween parties will be held October 30^th and 31^st. At Halloween especially, what is fun for one child is scary for another. Therefore, children do not wear or bring costumes to school for the parties. The children will create costumes as part of our party. Each family is asked to donate 3 items which can be used for "dress up." Hats, scarves, ties, silky fabric shirts, nightgowns, slips, vests, and belts are popular. PLEASE DO NOT SEND IN SHORTS, PANTS, SHOES, OR STORE BOUGHT COSTUMES OR MASKS. We will encourage non-scary creativity, which will include face or hand painting with washable markers. Feel free to come and take pictures of our "parade around the play area" prior to refreshments. Times will be posted on the bulletin board.

NCP will be collecting pennies (any change really) to donate to New Ark United Church Housing Ministry Project. Drop your coins in our special jar and help needy families in the Newark area.

The annual Holiday Party will take place on Saturday December 9^th from 1:30-3:30 p.m. right here in New Ark United Church of Christ. The city of Newark granted permission to sponsor this one day event with more that 50 children in the building. Several weeks prior to the party the coordinator Michelle Toensing (Campbell 3PM) will post sign-up sheets for help setting up and cleaning up and refreshments. This is not a luncheon event therefore only light snacks will be required.

The children will have the opportunity to make crafts in the classroom area; enjoy refreshments in the social hall and visit with Santa. Michelle will distribute information via cubbies. Please return the appropriate portion indicating the number of children attending so Santa will have plenty of treat bags for the children.

The Holiday Shoppe is an opportunity for your child to buy gifts for family and friends for Christmas or Hanukkah. This is a time for us to reinforce the idea of giving. The children love to present their specially selected gifts to their family. Here’s how it works. You and your child decide who they would like to shop for gifts for the holidays. This can include pets. Please limit your list to 8. Any more than that takes too long on shopping day. Then you go to a dollar store and purchase the appropriate number of gifts to donate. For example, if your child is buying for Mom, Dad and dog; your donated items should include a Mom item, a Dad item and a dog item. You can also make items such as play-doh, decorate a can and add pencils or candy canes, trays of cookies are popular gifts for a man. On the day of the Holiday Shoppe, your child will go shopping. Each gift costs 50 cents. Your child will wrap the gifts with paper that they have decorated in school.

Please note the dates that the following items should be brought to school: 

Due: December 5^th – 3’s 

         December 6th - 4's

1) The donated gifts 

Holiday Shoppe dates are:  December 12^th – 3’s

                                        December 13^th – 4’s

Class representatives are:   3 AM – Beth Kosinski

3 PM – Mary Dichiaro

                                        4 AM – Jenny Cortes

                                        4 PM – Rachel Scott

We will also need two or three parents to help take the children shopping. The children love this activity. Two or three at a time leave the classroom to shop in the big hall. If you have questions, call your class representative or the coordinator.