Dear Parents,
Wow! Time flies when you are having Fun! We have been busy exploring houses and home in so many exciting ways – building with blocks and magna tiles; playing with doll houses and furniture; drawing and painting; building with wood and cardboard; pretending to be at “home” with dress up clothes, food and dishes; and playing in kid sized cardboard houses. We have talked about the people who live in our homes with us and the love that is shared with each other there!
We are nearing the end of the Home and Houses study and after interviewing the children about what they might be interested in next, NIGHTTIME kept coming up SO……. NIGHTTIME it is! Teachers are excited about all of the twists and turns this focus can take, from dreams and pajama days to the science of night and day and nocturnal creatures that scurry about while everyone else is sleeping. Stay tuned to how this new area of study evolves!
Studio Discovery Fridays have been all about SOUND! Katey and Kara have been working with the children to identify different indoor, outdoor and recorded sounds. They have explored new vocabulary as they engaged in creating a Cacophony of sound as well as pleasing the ear with a beautiful Euphony! We visited the sound garden outside of the Center for Musical Arts and then made sound gardens of our own. Currently we are investigating sound and vibration.
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PLEASE be sure to read the newsletter carefully and mark your calendar for some exciting upcoming events ______________________________________________________________
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. Check Channel 9 News website when in doubt, or on the “Latest & Greatest” page on our website: www.friendsnfunchildrenscenter.com 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 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, Dec. 10th 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.
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 28th, through Wednesday, December 14th. 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. 24-25 – CLOSED for Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec. 10 – FnF Family Traditions Workshop –
Imagine! John M. Taylor Conference Center
1665 Coal Creek Drive, Lafayette
1:00 – 3:00 PM
Dec. 26 – Dec.30 – FnF Closed. We will be closed from Monday,
Dec. 26th through Friday, Dec. 30th. We will reopen on
Monday, January 2, 2017.