NOVEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER

Dear Parents,

Wow! Time flies when you are having Fun! We have been busy exploring faces in a variety of ways – masks, sketches, painting, clay, playdough – who knew there were so many ways to look at your children’s beautiful faces?!?! It has been fun to watch children use the wall of faces to find their faces, their friend’s faces and then to try and match parts of the faces with the pictures on the wall…or to create a silly face out of different pieces! This has been such a delightful time of discovery as children have studied faces in depth. Thanks to everyone for being so quick to get us a set of your child’s clothing to make their doll/soft sculpture! They are coming along and soon you will see even more “children” at school, and we’re sure they will all seem somewhat familiar to you.

Studio Discovery Fridays has been all about CARDBOARD! Corrugated cardboard, to be more specific. Has your child pointed out corrugated cardboard to you at home or out in the world? We have loved exploring cardboard – what can you do with it? Will it hold water? How does it look inside, between those two brown flat sheets that look like paper? What does it feel like be inside of a box? How can we make it something everyone can play with? Check next week for the creation we’ve been working on for quite awhile using the drill and twine. Brought to you by your Corrugated Cardboard Construction Crew!

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      PLEASE be sure to read the newsletter carefully and mark your calendar for some exciting upcoming events ______________________________________________________________

SNOW DAYS

It’s that time of year again. Check Channel 9 News website when in doubt, or on the “Latest & Greatest” page on our website.  FnF will be listed on 9news.com for school closings or we will be listed as a “late start.” We will make the decision to close based on the safety of all – children, parents and community. If you have questions on snow days please call Janet (303-818-4842) or Jane (303-775-1531). We’ll do our best to keep you informed. Thank you.

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ANNUAL TREE OF THANKS – BY FRIENDS ‘n FUN FAMILIES –

We invite you to join us in creating a leaf to attach to the tree in our front yard. We will be sending home paper cut in the shape of leaves and a few fun things to embellish your leaf. We would like you to work with your family to think about whom in your family, friends, neighbors and/or people in the community you are grateful to and why. Then please write a short note of thanks explaining this on the leaf, let the children decorate it, and then cover it (front & back) with the contact paper. Make sure your child’d name is on the leaf! Teachers will have ribbon at school for you to use to tie the leaves onto a wire we will have affixed to the tree. We are in the hopes that you and your children will take time to read the collection of leaves of thanks on our tree. We also hope that the community of walker-bys in Lafayette might see and learn more about us as a community at Friends ‘n Fun.

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FAMILY TRADITIONS

The holiday season is upon us. It all began with Halloween (from the children’s perspective) and has rolled into Diwali, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Las Posadas, Christmas, multiple New Years’, and many other wonderful celebrations that honor special cultural and religious traditions. We join together with family and friends to enjoy this season.

We treasure all of the unique and distinctive differences and unifying similarities that make up our school community. This holiday season we would like to recognize all of our families.

On Saturday, Dec. 12th from 1:00-3:00 we have once again reserved the John M. Taylor Conference Center at Imagine! We would like to invite your family to join us to decorate a tree branch with photographs and small objects that represent special things about your family. We will provide an assortment of yarns, beads, wire, buttons, jewels, etc. – and a tree branch for each of you. You can bring photographs, small objects and your wonderful children. We will work together at Imagine! to create these beautiful branches. We will then bring them back to school to display for all to enjoy. The things you bring to embellish the branch should represent your family’s interests (biking, pets, skiing, etc.), as well as special celebrations.

We hope you can attend this gathering to get to know each other and share in an activity with your children to celebrate this special time of year. Drop by anytime between 1 and 3 and spend as much time as works for you that day.

We will post maps/directions to Imagine! on the bulletin board closer to the event date.

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FUNDRAISER

In December we will create note cards using your child’s artwork – easel paintings, watercolor paintings, self-portraits, collages, etc. Packages of your child’s note cards, with envelopes, will be available to you at $12.00 per package of 8. In the past families have sent them to grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. for holiday gifts. The money raised goes to help purchase art supplies at Friends ‘n Fun. Watch the parent bulletin board for additional details.

This is our ONLY fundraiser of the year and it typically brings us about $1000 for use in our supply budget. We hope you can support us and enjoy this celebration of your children’s efforts. Thank you for your continued support of our small program.

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Share-a-Gift

We are proud to be participating in Share-a-Gift again this year. Share-a-Gift is an annual, all-volunteer, non-profit toy collection and distribution holiday project encompassing the Boulder Valley school area. Last  year over 600 households (1600 boys and girls, ages birth to 14) received these community donations. To be successful, Share-a-Gift needs thousands of high quality, new and used toys, games, books, and puzzles. School collections are the biggest source of toys for Share-a-Gift. This collection allows children to meaningfully participate in gift giving by sharing their own gently used or new toys with less fortunate children in Boulder county. Toys may be dropped off in the Share-a-Gift box in our school beginning the Monday after Thanksgiving, November 30, through Wednesday, December 16th. Friends ‘n Fun families have been one of their biggest donors in the past. Let’s see what we can do to continue this tradition of giving!

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IMPORTANT DATES !!!!!!!!!!!

November 18 -19        Tree of Thanks leaves to be sent home on the 18th & 19th.  Return to us anytime from the 23rd on and help your child attach them to our tree so our neighborhood community can enjoy.

November 26-27         CLOSED for Thanksgiving Holiday

December 12              Friends ‘n Fun Family Traditions Workshop at Imagine! John M. Taylor Conference Center – 1665 Coal Creek Drive – Lafayette       1:00 – 3:00 pm

December 24 – Jan 2    CLOSED for Winter Holiday.  We will be closed from Thursday, Dec. 24th through Friday, January 1, 2015.  We will reopen on Monday, January 4, 2016.