A Message from the Principal:
We are going to start March out with a celebration of Dr. Seuss. We have special themed activities scheduled for the week. Monday- Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, wear your pajamas to school today to celebrate. Tuesday – “The Foot Book” wear your craziest socks to school today. Wednesday – “Wacky Wednesday” let’s get wacky, wear your wackiest outfit today. Thursday – “Green Eggs and Ham” wear green and finally Friday – “The Cat in the Hat” wear your red and white stripes. Help us celebrate this fun week to support early childhood literacy.
It is early bird registration time for 2015-2016 school year! To reserve your spot please fill out a new fee schedule and turn it in along with the registration fee. From now until March 27th half off registration fee, take advantage of this savings and get registered right away! This fee can be automatically withdrawn if you are set up for ACH, let Heidi or Sue know if you would like your fee taken out automatically.
Summer camp registration will also be coming out sometime this month so please keep an eye out for that in your child’s cubby.
Lifetouch will be at our school on March 9th for Infant III, Beginners, Pre-K and March 10th for Infant I & II, Toddlers and Intermediate for spring picture day. The photographers will take individual, sibling, class and Pre-K graduation pictures. Pictures will be taken throughout the morning and we will finish before nap time. We will send home photo preference pages prior to picture day, you can select a background if you would like to let the photographers know if you have any special requests. Please return these to your child’s teacher prior to picture day. If you do not return your preference page the photographers will choose a background for your child. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Parent statements for 2014 are available. You can send us an email or give us a call requesting your statement. We can print the statement for you, we ask that you allow a day for us to get it back to you. We do not provide the information over the phone.
Please make sure to use caution and walk slowly through our parking lot and on the sidewalks. We have a company that comes in and salts and plows, but sometimes with the cold there will still be slick spots. Also, please do not park in the handicapped spaces unless you have a handicapped sticker.
Please keep in mind our illness policy that a child needs to be symptom free for 24 hours without medication when making the decision to bring your child to school after being sick. We understand it can be hard to take time off work when your child is recuperating but we are looking out for the best interests of all the children and the teachers. If you aren’t sure if it is okay for your child to return please give us a call and we will guide you the best we can. Thank you for your help with this as we try to keep all of the children at Chesterbrook healthy during the cold months.
Just in case we have some bad weather this month, school closings will be announced on WCIA channel 3, Wixy 100.3, 94.5, 92.5, 99.1 and 97.9. School closings will be announced as soon as possible but no later than 6:30am. We will also update the school’s voicemail and website as soon as possible. We will send an email announcement if we have to close due to weather conditions. We always try to stay open, but will keep everyone’s safety as our number one priority. Our parking lot and walkways can get slick when they are wet or have snow on them. Please use extra caution when driving or walking in the school parking lot. We have a company that plows, shovels, and salts, but there can still be slick spots.
March 23-27 is Unit 4 schools spring break, please let us know if your child will be attending Chesterbrook during that week, so we can plan accordingly with teachers.
Happy March,
Heidi and Sue
March Calendar of Events
- 2 – Dr. Seuss’s Birthday – wear your pajamas to school today to celebrate
- 3 – “The Foot Book” – wear your craziest socks to school today
- 4 – “Wacky Wednesday” – Lets’ get crazy, wear your wackiest outfit today
- 5 – “Green Eggs and Ham” – wear green today
- 6 – “The Cat in the Hat” – wear your red and white stripes to school today
- 8 – Daylight Saving Time Begins – Don’t forget to spring forward
- 9 – Picture day for Infant III, Beginners and Pre-K
- 10 – Picture day for Infant I & I, Toddlers and Intermediate
- 17 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day – Don’t forget to wear your green today
- 20 – First Day of Spring
- 23-27 – Unit 4 schools spring break
- 27 – Links to Learning folders and Parent Reports go home
From the Education Department
Developing Confident Future Readers
March is National Reading Month, so it is a great time to reinforce how important it is to expose children to books from an early age. We engage all of our students in language and literacy activities every day throughout the school year.
Research has shown that reading aloud to children has a profound influence on their speech development and listening skills. Reading allows children to experience the wondrous world depicted in books, and thrive on the interaction with adults.
Below are age appropriate activities that we implement in our classrooms to get children excited about reading, as well as recommended books to read with your child at home.
INFANTS – Linking sensory and reading experiences
In the classroom: We introduce language and literacy beginning with our infants, by consistently speaking, reading and singing to them. Teachers choose interactive books with bright colors, different textures and pop-up designs to help stimulate infants’ growing sensory awareness.
Books to read at home: Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt, Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings by Matthew Van Fleet and Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont
TODDLERS – Rhyme and repetition
In the classroom: Toddlers enjoy hearing the same books read over and over again, because they are able join in as the stories become more familiar. Teachers read books with rhyme and repetition, such as Goodnight Moon, and vary their voice each time they tell the story. The change in tone gives children a chance to hear different sounds, and encourages them to practice making the sounds themselves.
Books to read at home: All Fall Down by Helen Oxenbury, Where is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox and Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
BEGINNERS – Engaging the imagination
In the classroom: Around age two, children begin to develop a love for the world of imagination. It’s important to engage children’s imaginations and encourage them to participate in shared reading experiences. A picture walk motivates children to rely on pictorial clues to decipher the story’s plot and make predictions. Before reading the story, the teacher and student flip through the book, and the child is encouraged to make predictions about the characters and plot. The teacher then reads the book aloud with the student. When finished, the child is asked to relate his predictions to the actual outcome of the story. For example, “Now that you know what happened, why was the elephant wearing a tutu?” or “What would you have done if you were the elephant?”
Books to read at home: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff, Corduroy by Don Freeman or Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
INTERMEDIATES – Exploring the wider world
In the classroom: As our Intermediates are introduced to the Citizens of the World component of our curriculum, they read about different places, cultures and traditions in books. Books help children understand and enjoy learning about the diversity of human experience. During circle time for example, we may read a story about children living in another country, in a different type of house and wearing different types of clothes. Afterward, the teacher connects the story back to what the children know by asking, “What does your house look like?” and “Who lives in your house with you?”
Books to read at home: Abuela by Arthur Dorros, So Much by Trish Cooke and On Mother’s Lap by Ann Scott
PRE-K/PRE-K 2 – Nonfiction Adventures
In the classroom: Children are naturally fascinated by the lives of real people and the world around them. Our teachers cultivate this fascination by exposing students to nonfiction books. For example, the class may read both a fiction and nonfiction book about animals. Afterward, they are encouraged to compare and contrast the two books and discuss what was accurate in the fiction book.
Books to read at home: Stellaluna by Janell Cannon (fiction) and Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies (non-fiction)
By experiencing a literacy-rich environment, both at school and at home, we instill a love of reading and provide the foundation for our students to become successful, confident readers in elementary school and beyond.
– Lauren Starnes, PhD- Director of Early Childhood Ed
For Parents & Teachers
Please make sure that you are checking your child’s cubby each day. You may find notes and reminders there as well. Also, this would be a good time to check the change of clothes in your child’s cubby. The clothes may be to small now or may not be appropriate for the weather at this time. Please be sure that your child is prepared for outdoor play each day. We make the decision based on weather conditions through out the day. Even if the classes do not go out in the morning, they may go out in the afternoon. So please make sure your child has a winter coat, hat, gloves, etc.
Please call the school if your child will not be in attendance for the day or if your child will be late so the teachers have an idea of how many to count on for the day. Parents of school agers… If your child will not be riding the bus after school, please contact us no later than 1pm.
Become a Chesterbrook Academy ambassador. Refer a friend, coworker or neighbor to Chesterbrook Academy for enrollment and you can earn a free week of tuition. There is no limit to the number of free weeks you can earn. If you would like more information on becoming an ambassador please stop by the office.
Just a reminder…tuition is due every Friday for the up coming week. Payments received after 12pm Monday will receive a $25 late fee. We accept personal checks and money orders. You may also sign up for the automatic payment program, which allows us to automatically collect weekly tuition from your bank account. The program is simple to sign up and safe to use. Stop by the front desk for more information and authorization forms.
Please, please, please be sure you are signing your child in each day when you drop off and out when you pick up! The state considers the sign in/sign out sheets to be legal documents so it is very important that whoever drops off and picks up writes down the time and initial/sign for the current day. The sheets are in the classrooms, so it is easier for the teachers to monitor that sign in and outs are occurring. We appreciate your help with this state requirement.
When there are changes in your contact information, please stop by the front desk to update your info. We need to keep up-to-date information of cell and work phone numbers for parents and emergency contacts on file in case of an emergency.
Coming Up
The Week of the Young Child will be coming up in April, please keep an eye out for the flyer that says what fun activities we have planned so that your child does not miss out.
March News
A Message from the Principal:
We are going to start March out with a celebration of Dr. Seuss. We have special themed activities scheduled for the week. Monday- Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, wear your pajamas to school today to celebrate. Tuesday – “The Foot Book” wear your craziest socks to school today. Wednesday – “Wacky Wednesday” let’s get wacky, wear your wackiest outfit today. Thursday – “Green Eggs and Ham” wear green and finally Friday – “The Cat in the Hat” wear your red and white stripes. Help us celebrate this fun week to support early childhood literacy.
It is early bird registration time for 2015-2016 school year! To reserve your spot please fill out a new fee schedule and turn it in along with the registration fee. From now until March 27th half off registration fee, take advantage of this savings and get registered right away! This fee can be automatically withdrawn if you are set up for ACH, let Heidi or Sue know if you would like your fee taken out automatically.
Summer camp registration will also be coming out sometime this month so please keep an eye out for that in your child’s cubby.
Lifetouch will be at our school on March 9th for Infant III, Beginners, Pre-K and March 10th for Infant I & II, Toddlers and Intermediate for spring picture day. The photographers will take individual, sibling, class and Pre-K graduation pictures. Pictures will be taken throughout the morning and we will finish before nap time. We will send home photo preference pages prior to picture day, you can select a background if you would like to let the photographers know if you have any special requests. Please return these to your child’s teacher prior to picture day. If you do not return your preference page the photographers will choose a background for your child. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Parent statements for 2014 are available. You can send us an email or give us a call requesting your statement. We can print the statement for you, we ask that you allow a day for us to get it back to you. We do not provide the information over the phone.
Please make sure to use caution and walk slowly through our parking lot and on the sidewalks. We have a company that comes in and salts and plows, but sometimes with the cold there will still be slick spots. Also, please do not park in the handicapped spaces unless you have a handicapped sticker.
Please keep in mind our illness policy that a child needs to be symptom free for 24 hours without medication when making the decision to bring your child to school after being sick. We understand it can be hard to take time off work when your child is recuperating but we are looking out for the best interests of all the children and the teachers. If you aren’t sure if it is okay for your child to return please give us a call and we will guide you the best we can. Thank you for your help with this as we try to keep all of the children at Chesterbrook healthy during the cold months.
Just in case we have some bad weather this month, school closings will be announced on WCIA channel 3, Wixy 100.3, 94.5, 92.5, 99.1 and 97.9. School closings will be announced as soon as possible but no later than 6:30am. We will also update the school’s voicemail and website as soon as possible. We will send an email announcement if we have to close due to weather conditions. We always try to stay open, but will keep everyone’s safety as our number one priority. Our parking lot and walkways can get slick when they are wet or have snow on them. Please use extra caution when driving or walking in the school parking lot. We have a company that plows, shovels, and salts, but there can still be slick spots.
March 23-27 is Unit 4 schools spring break, please let us know if your child will be attending Chesterbrook during that week, so we can plan accordingly with teachers.
Happy March,
Heidi and Sue
March Calendar of Events
From the Education Department
Developing Confident Future Readers
March is National Reading Month, so it is a great time to reinforce how important it is to expose children to books from an early age. We engage all of our students in language and literacy activities every day throughout the school year.
Research has shown that reading aloud to children has a profound influence on their speech development and listening skills. Reading allows children to experience the wondrous world depicted in books, and thrive on the interaction with adults.
Below are age appropriate activities that we implement in our classrooms to get children excited about reading, as well as recommended books to read with your child at home.
INFANTS – Linking sensory and reading experiences
In the classroom: We introduce language and literacy beginning with our infants, by consistently speaking, reading and singing to them. Teachers choose interactive books with bright colors, different textures and pop-up designs to help stimulate infants’ growing sensory awareness.
Books to read at home: Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt, Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings by Matthew Van Fleet and Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont
TODDLERS – Rhyme and repetition
In the classroom: Toddlers enjoy hearing the same books read over and over again, because they are able join in as the stories become more familiar. Teachers read books with rhyme and repetition, such as Goodnight Moon, and vary their voice each time they tell the story. The change in tone gives children a chance to hear different sounds, and encourages them to practice making the sounds themselves.
Books to read at home: All Fall Down by Helen Oxenbury, Where is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox and Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
BEGINNERS – Engaging the imagination
In the classroom: Around age two, children begin to develop a love for the world of imagination. It’s important to engage children’s imaginations and encourage them to participate in shared reading experiences. A picture walk motivates children to rely on pictorial clues to decipher the story’s plot and make predictions. Before reading the story, the teacher and student flip through the book, and the child is encouraged to make predictions about the characters and plot. The teacher then reads the book aloud with the student. When finished, the child is asked to relate his predictions to the actual outcome of the story. For example, “Now that you know what happened, why was the elephant wearing a tutu?” or “What would you have done if you were the elephant?”
Books to read at home: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff, Corduroy by Don Freeman or Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
INTERMEDIATES – Exploring the wider world
In the classroom: As our Intermediates are introduced to the Citizens of the World component of our curriculum, they read about different places, cultures and traditions in books. Books help children understand and enjoy learning about the diversity of human experience. During circle time for example, we may read a story about children living in another country, in a different type of house and wearing different types of clothes. Afterward, the teacher connects the story back to what the children know by asking, “What does your house look like?” and “Who lives in your house with you?”
Books to read at home: Abuela by Arthur Dorros, So Much by Trish Cooke and On Mother’s Lap by Ann Scott
PRE-K/PRE-K 2 – Nonfiction Adventures
In the classroom: Children are naturally fascinated by the lives of real people and the world around them. Our teachers cultivate this fascination by exposing students to nonfiction books. For example, the class may read both a fiction and nonfiction book about animals. Afterward, they are encouraged to compare and contrast the two books and discuss what was accurate in the fiction book.
Books to read at home: Stellaluna by Janell Cannon (fiction) and Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies (non-fiction)
By experiencing a literacy-rich environment, both at school and at home, we instill a love of reading and provide the foundation for our students to become successful, confident readers in elementary school and beyond.
– Lauren Starnes, PhD- Director of Early Childhood Ed
For Parents & Teachers
Please make sure that you are checking your child’s cubby each day. You may find notes and reminders there as well. Also, this would be a good time to check the change of clothes in your child’s cubby. The clothes may be to small now or may not be appropriate for the weather at this time. Please be sure that your child is prepared for outdoor play each day. We make the decision based on weather conditions through out the day. Even if the classes do not go out in the morning, they may go out in the afternoon. So please make sure your child has a winter coat, hat, gloves, etc.
Please call the school if your child will not be in attendance for the day or if your child will be late so the teachers have an idea of how many to count on for the day. Parents of school agers… If your child will not be riding the bus after school, please contact us no later than 1pm.
Become a Chesterbrook Academy ambassador. Refer a friend, coworker or neighbor to Chesterbrook Academy for enrollment and you can earn a free week of tuition. There is no limit to the number of free weeks you can earn. If you would like more information on becoming an ambassador please stop by the office.
Just a reminder…tuition is due every Friday for the up coming week. Payments received after 12pm Monday will receive a $25 late fee. We accept personal checks and money orders. You may also sign up for the automatic payment program, which allows us to automatically collect weekly tuition from your bank account. The program is simple to sign up and safe to use. Stop by the front desk for more information and authorization forms.
Please, please, please be sure you are signing your child in each day when you drop off and out when you pick up! The state considers the sign in/sign out sheets to be legal documents so it is very important that whoever drops off and picks up writes down the time and initial/sign for the current day. The sheets are in the classrooms, so it is easier for the teachers to monitor that sign in and outs are occurring. We appreciate your help with this state requirement.
When there are changes in your contact information, please stop by the front desk to update your info. We need to keep up-to-date information of cell and work phone numbers for parents and emergency contacts on file in case of an emergency.
Coming Up
The Week of the Young Child will be coming up in April, please keep an eye out for the flyer that says what fun activities we have planned so that your child does not miss out.