Dear Parents,
We have had such a lovely beginning to our school year!
The children’s book, HELLO, MY NAME IS RUBY, by Philip C. Stead started us all off as we explored the concept of Making Connections. Ruby’s sweet nature inspired us to get to know each other and make new friends. We looked at the way things we liked to play and do brought us together as we started connecting at school. Some of us made puppets of the story characters, illustrated back drops and performed the story to an eager audience. Some of us listed favorites such as foods, colors, sports and animals and discovered we had favorites in common with others at school. To culminate making connections with friends and people we each made a self puppet that we “connected” together with hot glue and displayed on our wall accompanied by the children’s comments and reflections on how we connect as people.
That was just the beginning! The small groups then began looking at creating connections with toys, puzzles and objects. Including a 65 foot paper chain! We looked at “connectors” such as glue, tape, string, wire and staples. We are now finishing up by exploring the way all kinds of things in the world are connected to each other by how they relate………pirates and pirate ships; socks, shoes and feet; sand, water, sea shells and stones; etc……….We will be completing our Making Connections Study in the next couple of weeks as we wrap up some projects.
Our next journey will invite us to “climb aboard” as we explore TRAINS!!
Studio Discovery Fridays have been all about BALANCE! Katey and Kara will be finishing up this fun and exciting topic of exploration just in time to begin a new topic as our transition to Trains begins. That topic will be revealed soon!!
____________________________________________________________
PLEASE be sure to read the newsletter carefully and mark your calendar for some exciting upcoming events
______________________________________________________________
Halloween Celebrations
Mon. Oct. 30 & Tues. Oct. 31 We Will be celebrating Halloween in Friends ‘n Fun style. We want to celebrate one of the kids favorite holidays, and we do it in a way that everyone has fun and feels safe. Costumes can be scary and confusing to some children, so we ask that you keep your child’s costume at home and not bring them to school. We will have some special games and activities planned for these two days and there will be special snacks provided by some families.
It is definitely a fun day, and we want it to be safe, fun and enjoyable for everyone.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
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 leaves and a few fun things to embellish them with. We would like you to work with your child and 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 walkers by in Lafayette might see and learn more about us as a community at Friends ‘n Fun.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
SNOW DAYS
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.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
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.
On Saturday, Nov.18th 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.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
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.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
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 27th, through Wednesday, December 13th. 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!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
IMPORTANT DATES !!!!!!!!!!!
Nov. 16-17 – Tree of Thanks leaves to be sent home. Return to us anytime from the 21st on, and help your child attach them to our tree so our neighborhood community can enjoy.
Nov. 18 – FnF Family Traditions Workshop – Imagine! John M. Taylor Conference Center 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Nov. 23-24 – CLOSED for Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec. 25 – Dec.29 and Jan 1st 2018 – FnF Closed.
We will be closed from Monday, Dec. 25th
through Friday, Dec. 29th and Monday
January 1st. We will reopen on Tuesday January 2, 2018.