Dear Parents,
We are still busy taking TRIPS via our imaginations in small group! We have been to: beaches, mountains, tree stores, zoos, the Antarctic. We have traveled by: car, helicopter, train, bus, airplane, and hot air balloon. Our journeys will continue for a bit – there are still ideas brewing, and locations to be explored.
In this newsletter we have some things happening that we want to let you know about, as well as reminders of when school will be closed in the upcoming months.
PLEASE be sure to read the newsletter carefully and mark your calendar for important dates.
Each year FnF celebrates THANKSGIVING by adorning our huge maple tree at the front of school. We call it our “TREE of THANKS.” We will send a paper leaf and supplies home for each of the children to decorate a leaf and write a reflection of who and what they are thankful for in their lives. We will then attach the leaves to wires wrapped around our tree for all to view and enjoy! Teachers will have those materials ready for you this week. Whenever you return them we will attach them to the tree. We leave them up for lots of weeks so don’t fret if we don’t have them by Thanksgiving!
FnF will be closed on Thursday November 25 and Friday November 26 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
It’s that time of year again. Our general rule of thumb is that if BVSD closes for weather, we likely will as well. We list closure or late start a few different places when that happens. Check these when in doubt:
www.friendsnfunchildrenscenter.com – FnF Website on “Latest & Greatest” page
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsnFunChildrensCenterInc/ – Facebook
http://www.9news.com – Channel 9 News (closings/late starts are listed on
website more quickly than TV streaming list)
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 or Jane. We’ll do our best to keep you informed. Thank you.
CELEBRATING HANUKKAH
For more than 25 years, our friend Bruce Kirschner has been helping us celebrate Hanukkah. He started when his boys attended FnF and reaches out each year to schedule a date to come celebrate with all of us here. Bruce will be joining us on Monday, September 29th. He will teach the kids how to play dreidel, talk about the menorah and light the candles, as well as read us one or two of our favorite children’s Hanukkah stories. We will get to eat latkes for our snack! We want to let you know that Bruce has been fully vaccinated and will complete the health check upon arrival. Last year we celebrated with Bruce virtually, so we are looking forward to the rousing good time that we always have with his return this year.
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 740 households (representing over 1900 children, ages birth to 14 in our community) received these donations. To be successful, Share-a-Gift needs thousands of high quality, NEW toys, games, books, and puzzles. School collections are the biggest source of toys for Share-a-Gift. Toys may be dropped off in the Share-a-Gift box on our front porch beginning Monday, November 22nd through Friday, December 10th. If you would like to offer a monetary donation for the organization to purchase new items from wholesale distributors, you can do that via: https://givebutter.com/SAG2021. 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!
FAMILY TRADITIONS
The holiday season is upon us. It all begins with Halloween (from the children’s perspective) and rolls 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.
We would like to invite your family to decorate a tree branch (provided by us!) with photographs and small objects that represent special things about your family. We will provided an assortment of yarns, beads, wire, buttons, jewels, etc., for each family. You can attach photographs, small objects, anything that represents what is important/traditional to your family. The things you use to embellish the branch should represent your family’s interests (biking, pets, skiing, baking, music, etc.), as well as special celebrations.
Branches and decorative goodies will be sent home the week of December 6th. Please return your branch when it is ready. They will hang in school for quite awhile, and we do not want to add “one more thing” to your To Do list.
Branches will be hung to be enjoyed by the children, and will be sent home in late January/early February.
IMPORTANT DATES !!!!!!!!!!!
Nov. 17 & 18 – Tree of Thanks leaves to be sent home. Return to us anytime from the 19th on.
Nov. 25-26 – CLOSED for Thanksgiving Holiday
Week of Dec. 6 – Tradition Branches sent home. Return to us anytime.
Dec. 24 – Jan 2nd 2021 – FnF CLOSED.
We will be closed from Friday, Dec. 24th
through Sunday, January 2nd.
We will reopen on Monday, January 3, 2021.
January 17 – FnF CLOSED in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
**Wishing you all a happy holiday season! Jane, Janet & Katey **