Newark Cooperative Preschool  

16^th&17^th T-shirt Picture Day. Children wear

school shirt or a favorite T-shirt to school for

a group photo. Each child will receive a copy.

Jobs for the next school year are beginning to fill up! If you haven’t already, please call Shirley or Diane Roberts (Steven 4AM) to choose which job is best suited for your family. Remember that you do not automatically get the same job you are currently holding. Jobs are given on a first come, first served basis.

• Our "cutters": Trina Burns (Maria 4PM), Karen Zingale (Alyson 4AM), and Wendy Cooke (Saige 3AM)

Our total sale from Human-I-Tees was $1,870 – we received $90 in donations. The highest sales were made by Karen Peterson. Thank you so much. We will keep you posted on our total profits when we receive our check from Human-I-Tees. Our final Tupperware total was $180.00.

YEAH!! It's spring. Don't you just love all the blooming flowers and trees with the buds on them? I do and I make it a point to show my children the new buds and flowers. Please do so with your children too, this will help with the spring curriculum. I would like to thank all of the families for coming to the business meeting on Tuesday March 19^th. We have elected a new board for the 2002-2003 school year and they are as follows:
 

• President Marylee Dichiaro

• VP of Admissions Deserae Mace
• VP of Education George & Jennifer McClafferty
• Secretary Joyce DeCino
• Treasurer Krista & Alan Fleetwood
• 3AM Coordinating Parent Christine Wallace
• 4AM Coordinating Parent Colleen Tuozzolo

Neither AM class is full, therefore there are no children registered in PM sessions. The preschool advertised at the Nursing Mothers Parenting Conference in March. Please continue to tell friends, neighbors and family about our program. Deserae Mace (Colleen 3AM) can provide registration forms; call her at 731-7677.

Scott Vogel will visit the 3’s and the 4’s classes to talk about pet care.

As the school year winds down, we need your commitment to being here on time for start up and dismissal. I cannot begin to adequately express my thanks to Rod and Stacie Gerhart (Amanda 4AM) for the many hours they spent organizing our Human-I-Tees Fundraiser. To all of you who so diligently took orders, "Thank You." I know for many of you it was difficult to remain dedicated to fund raising because this is your last year at NCP. Your support will enable the Newark Cooperative Preschool to continue to offer one of the best preschool experiences in the area. Your support also proves that the cooperative aspect of our preschool can accomplish lofty goals because we all work together for the children.

If you have had a job that required keeping records (housekeeping, fundraising, hostess, holiday party, snacks, coordinating parent). Please write the directions for doing your job down. Include where you purchased supplies, if you posted a sign-up sheet what is included, how you contacted parents who volunteered to help, etc. Make it detailed so the person taking over the position next school year will know how to do the job. Give the file to Shirley.

End of the year conferences will be held May 28^th, 29^th, and 30^th. End of the year clean up will be Friday May 31^st. Since our families all cleaned during the school year, we will post a sign-up for any volunteers we can get to scrub the walls, chairs, and tables. It takes about 1½ hours to complete. Starting time will be 9:30a.m.

Happy Spring! This month we will continue to explore the different ways we can tell Spring is here. We will be watching our caterpillars turn into butterflies in our Garden Box.

The 4’s have been growing and maturing so much this spring. They are all cooperative in completing one and sometimes two projects. Their self help skills are wonderful, they are able to get their belongings into cubbies, hang up coats, pour water at snack time, put on a smock, write and/or identify their name (some are even beginning to identify friends names), and many are beginning to zip their own jackets. Please help me to build upon this foundation by teaching your child (please do not sing) their full name and address. This should include house number, street name, city, and state. When we discuss community helpers this will supplement our discussions about mail carriers and police officers. Please encourage your child to count, cut out coupons, select rhyming words and opposites and continue to read lots of books to him/her.

My special thanks to: George McClafferty (Charlotte 4PM) for repairing the sand box lid and the gate and for organizing the photographer’s visit.

Susan Brenneman for repairing the straps on the smocks and sewing a new set of

Time has flown by and it’s already spring. During April, we will continue talking about all the changes that take place during spring. We will watch our caterpillars turn into butterflies, talk about baby animals, and take a nature walk to see new growth around the school. We will also talk about good health. In March, we talked about eating well and we will build on that to discuss how sleep and exercise are important. We will talk about how doctors and nurses help us stay healthy and the importance of good dental care.

I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t enjoy a goofy story! The sound of my girls laughing, or any other children laughing, always brings a smile to my face!! These books are usually worn out before they are outgrown. My personal favorite in the "goofy" category is a book by Charlotte Pomerantz called The Piggie in the Puddle (PreK-2). It is a story of a pig family having trouble with the little sister’s determination to stay in the mud puddle. It isn’t the content that brings on the smiles but the choice of words, cadence and repetition that makes the story goofy. James Marshall’s illustrations are clean which adds to the charm of the book. Most recently we have been reading The Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine (Gr.2-6). This quick to read collection is loosely based on familiar fairy tales. The tales have been tweaked to make them funny. Author Robert Munsch writes some of the goofiest stories I’ve ever read! In his story Mud Puddle, the narrator, Jule Ann can’t step outdoors without a mud puddle jumping out to dirty her fresh clothes. He taps right into the nonsense kids like best. Other books that we have read repeatedly since they are so much fun are: Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel, Imogene’s Antlers by David Small, Morris the Moose stories by Bernard Wiseman, Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm by Jerdine Nolen, Martha Speaks (and other Martha stories) by Susan Meddaugh, Miss. Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard, The Napping House, Silly Sally, and King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood. So, indulge yourself by reading a silly story and enjoying the smiles and laughter.