From the Principal’s Office
We are on the downside of 2018 with just a few weeks left to the year. The year brought lots of new faces and many challenges and successes to the children and school. We appreciate all of the support our families have given us during the year and we look forward to spending 2019 with you!
Thank you to all the families who brought donations for The Center for Hope food drive. We collected over 500 food items that the pre-k children delivered right before Thanksgiving. The Center for Hope was very appreciative of the donations, and the children learned the importance of sharing with others. We were thrilled to see all the parents, grandparents and other guests who were able to join us for our Thanksgiving Feast! The food was all delicious, and the children enjoyed having guests join them for lunch. We were a little concerned about where to have the serving line since we no longer have an empty classroom, but everything went very smoothly. We hope you enjoyed spending your lunch with us!
Winter came in early this year with snow way before we were ready for it! Since the other seasons have been so unpredictable this year, we really don’t know what to expect the winter to bring. In the event of inclement weather, school closings will be announced on WJBC1230am, WBWN104.5fm and WBNQ101.5fm. We will also send a notification on Links2Home and update the school’s website. The decision to close the school will be made by 6:00am; if we are able to make it the night before we will, but usually have to wait to see how the weather plays out.
With birthdays and holiday parties coming up, we wanted to put out a reminder that Chesterbrook Academy is a peanut/nut free school. We ask that you adhere to this policy when bringing in treats/snacks to the classrooms. We also ask that your child not come in eating food that has peanuts or nuts in it. We do have children enrolled who are allergic and could have a reaction through an accidental physical transfer. We appreciate you following through on this policy so we don’t experience a medical emergency that could have been prevented.
We wish all of our families and staff a very happy holiday season! We hope yours is filled with family and fun!
Until next month, Vikki & Shawna
Dates
December
December 5 – Links to Learning folders returned
December 21 – Classroom Holiday parties @ 3:00
December 21 – Winter begins
December 24 – Christmas Eve ~ school closing @ 12:00
December 25 – Christmas Day ~ school closed
December 28 – Links to Learning folders distributed
December 31 – New Year’s Eve ~ school closing @ 3:00
January 1 – New Year’s Day ~ school closed
January 4 – Links to Learning folders returned
Open House
January 26
10:00am-1:00pm
For Parents and Teachers
Winter weather has arrived and that means snow, ice and ice melt! We ask that anyone entering the infant room slip on shoe covers or slip off their shoes before going into the classroom. We have the mats in the entry and hall to catch the snow, water and ice melt from shoes, but shoes don’t get completely dry before going into the room. The babies are all over the floor, so we don’t want them crawling through and sitting in whatever gets tracked into the classroom. We have a bench with shoe covers in it outside the classroom for this purpose. We appreciate your help in keeping the classroom floor as clean as we can.
For Parents
The children go outside daily weather permitting, even during the winter. We monitor the wind chill factor and precipitation when making the decision to allow the children to go outside. Please have your child dressed appropriately and prepared for the possibility of outside play. Extra hats and gloves/mittens can be left in the cubbies in the event they are forgotten at home or in the car. Routine outside play is encouraged by DCFS and helps the children focus by getting the wiggles out.
We ask that your child be symptom free for 24 hours before returning after an illness. It is acceptable for a child to return prior to the 24 hours if he/she has a release from the doctor saying it is okay to return. This policy is in place to help prevent the spread of illnesses between the children and to help keep the teachers healthy. We appreciate your help in this matter.
The classrooms will have Holiday parties on December 21st at 3:00. Each classroom has a signup sheet for parents to volunteer as a room parent or to bring in treats for the children. Please see the classroom teacher if you have any questions about the party.
2018 statements will be available after the first of the year. Parents can access their year-end statement through ALMA when needed and not have to ask to have it printed or emailed. ALMA can be accessed through the school’s website, www.williamsburg.chesterbrookacademy.com. The link can be found under “For Parents – My account”; the user name is firstname.lastname and the email is the email on file. If you have any problems setting up your account, let us know.
Reminders
The school will close at noon on December 24th and will be closed on December 25th for Christmas. We will close at 3:00 on December 31st and will be closed on January 1st for New Year’s Eve.
Please be sure you are reminding your child to wash hands on arrival or helping him/her to wash their hands. This is a practice we encourage to help reduce the spread of germs. In large group settings, it can be really hard to keep everyone healthy; washing hands on arrival is an easy way to help.
If you plan to use your vacation credit during the holidays, please send one of us an email or drop off a note at the front desk prior to the week you want the credit applied to.
Please be sure to bring in a change of clothes for your child’s cubby if you haven’t already. The children prefer to change into their own clothes when they have an accident, so please check to see if there is one available for them.
Weather related school closings will be announced on WJBC1230am, WBWN104.5fm and WBNQ101.5fm and will be posted on their respective websites. The decision to close will be made by 6:00am.
Information for Consumer Product Safety Recalls: Website – http://www.cpsc.gov/en/recalls or Mobile app – RECALLS.GOV
Coming Up…
Our next Professional Development Day is scheduled for February 18th. The school will be closed that day so the teachers can participate in workshops and trainings. We know this is a couple of months away but we wanted to get the date in front of you so you can make child care arrangements for the day. We will provide more reminders as we get closer to the date.
The next Parent Reports will be distributed March 1. This is prior to kindergarten registrations at the public schools, so parents will know how their child is doing before they register. We will offer Parent/Teacher conferences during the week of March 4th for any parents who would like to discuss their child’s progress.
Open House
January 26
10:00am-1:00pm
School Highlights
INFANTS 1: During the month of December, the Infant 1 class will be celebrating the beginning of winter! We will read The Mitten by Jan Brett and pretend to bundle up for the cold winter weather. Then we will explore real snow in a sensory tub as well as use white puffy paint to create a snowy scene.
INFANT 2:
TODDLER 1:
TODDLER 2:
BEGINNER 1:
BEGINNER 2:
INTERMEDIATE 1: November flew by in the Intermediate 1 classroom! We learned about El Día de los Muertos and practiced pinching a clothespin to add marigolds to a tombstone. While reading Career Day, we discussed our favorite community helpers and their need for sleep and exercise so they can do their jobs well. We got to make butter using whipping cream while learning about Thanksgiving and almost all of us liked it when we tried it! We spent the last week of November reading about our bodies and singing “Cabeza, Cuerpo, Piernas, Pies” (Head, Body, Legs, Feet) each day. We are excited to see what we will learn in December!
INTERMEDIATE 2:
PRE-K 1: I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday with their family and friends. December is always an exciting month for the kids with learning about Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. The class will be reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for the first week in December to review letter sounds and recognizing letters. The second and third week we will be reading the book, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and MooselToe. They will have fun doing activities and learning about the Christmas holiday by using items they see during this month around the community. They will have fun creating their own town using construction paper and paint and how they see their town during the holidays. Also, the class will also do some hands-on activities by learning how to wrap presents in the sensory table and doing an experiment with water and ice. The last week the class will read the book, The Gingerbread Boy. They will learn about the characters in the book and do activities to focus on the sequence of the story.
PRE-K 2: Happy December everyone! We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! This month we have lots of exciting units and activities planned. The first week of December we will be doing our zoo unit. We are so excited to learn about different zoo animals! We will be focusing on the book called, My School’s a Zoo. We will also be turning our dramatic play center into our own classroom zoo. For the second week in December, we will be focusing on the book called Career Day. We will be talking about what we want to be when we grow up and we will learn about many community helper jobs. For the third week in December, we will be learning about the Winter season. We will be focusing on the book called There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow. We will create our own pretend snow and go sledding. For our final week in December, we will be learning about different holidays and family traditions. We will talk about Christmas as well as Hanukkah. We will read the books called, The Night Before Christmas and The Eight Nights of Hanukkah. We are looking forward to exploring our own personal family traditions and sharing them with our friends. As the weather has become colder, our clothing attire is beginning to change. Please be sure to switch your child’s extra change of clothes from summer clothing to winter clothing. Also, we will go outdoors if it feels like 32 degrees or higher, so be sure your children come to school with their winter coats, hats and gloves We will also be having a Winter holiday program at the end of the month, so be sure to keep your eye out for our classroom holiday party signup sheet. If you would like to bring an item to share, it would be greatly appreciated. We are really looking forward to singing our holiday songs to our family and friends. If you have any questions or concerns, please be sure to see Ms. Debbie or me at any time. I hope everyone has a fantastic month of December!
From the Education Department
December, 2018
|
Topics: Citizens of the World
Family traditions are a staple for the holiday season. Your family might light a menorah for Hanukkah, decorate a Christmas tree, or participate in some other meaningful activity each year during the holidays. These traditions provide comfort and security, reinforce family values, and leave lasting memories. If you’re looking to[.....]
Read More »
December Newsletter
From the Principal’s Office
We are on the downside of 2018 with just a few weeks left to the year. The year brought lots of new faces and many challenges and successes to the children and school. We appreciate all of the support our families have given us during the year and we look forward to spending 2019 with you!
Thank you to all the families who brought donations for The Center for Hope food drive. We collected over 500 food items that the pre-k children delivered right before Thanksgiving. The Center for Hope was very appreciative of the donations, and the children learned the importance of sharing with others. We were thrilled to see all the parents, grandparents and other guests who were able to join us for our Thanksgiving Feast! The food was all delicious, and the children enjoyed having guests join them for lunch. We were a little concerned about where to have the serving line since we no longer have an empty classroom, but everything went very smoothly. We hope you enjoyed spending your lunch with us!
Winter came in early this year with snow way before we were ready for it! Since the other seasons have been so unpredictable this year, we really don’t know what to expect the winter to bring. In the event of inclement weather, school closings will be announced on WJBC1230am, WBWN104.5fm and WBNQ101.5fm. We will also send a notification on Links2Home and update the school’s website. The decision to close the school will be made by 6:00am; if we are able to make it the night before we will, but usually have to wait to see how the weather plays out.
With birthdays and holiday parties coming up, we wanted to put out a reminder that Chesterbrook Academy is a peanut/nut free school. We ask that you adhere to this policy when bringing in treats/snacks to the classrooms. We also ask that your child not come in eating food that has peanuts or nuts in it. We do have children enrolled who are allergic and could have a reaction through an accidental physical transfer. We appreciate you following through on this policy so we don’t experience a medical emergency that could have been prevented.
We wish all of our families and staff a very happy holiday season! We hope yours is filled with family and fun!
Until next month, Vikki & Shawna
Dates
December
December 5 – Links to Learning folders returned
December 21 – Classroom Holiday parties @ 3:00
December 21 – Winter begins
December 24 – Christmas Eve ~ school closing @ 12:00
December 25 – Christmas Day ~ school closed
December 28 – Links to Learning folders distributed
December 31 – New Year’s Eve ~ school closing @ 3:00
January 1 – New Year’s Day ~ school closed
January 4 – Links to Learning folders returned
Open House
January 26
10:00am-1:00pm
For Parents and Teachers
Winter weather has arrived and that means snow, ice and ice melt! We ask that anyone entering the infant room slip on shoe covers or slip off their shoes before going into the classroom. We have the mats in the entry and hall to catch the snow, water and ice melt from shoes, but shoes don’t get completely dry before going into the room. The babies are all over the floor, so we don’t want them crawling through and sitting in whatever gets tracked into the classroom. We have a bench with shoe covers in it outside the classroom for this purpose. We appreciate your help in keeping the classroom floor as clean as we can.
For Parents
The children go outside daily weather permitting, even during the winter. We monitor the wind chill factor and precipitation when making the decision to allow the children to go outside. Please have your child dressed appropriately and prepared for the possibility of outside play. Extra hats and gloves/mittens can be left in the cubbies in the event they are forgotten at home or in the car. Routine outside play is encouraged by DCFS and helps the children focus by getting the wiggles out.
We ask that your child be symptom free for 24 hours before returning after an illness. It is acceptable for a child to return prior to the 24 hours if he/she has a release from the doctor saying it is okay to return. This policy is in place to help prevent the spread of illnesses between the children and to help keep the teachers healthy. We appreciate your help in this matter.
The classrooms will have Holiday parties on December 21st at 3:00. Each classroom has a signup sheet for parents to volunteer as a room parent or to bring in treats for the children. Please see the classroom teacher if you have any questions about the party.
2018 statements will be available after the first of the year. Parents can access their year-end statement through ALMA when needed and not have to ask to have it printed or emailed. ALMA can be accessed through the school’s website, www.williamsburg.chesterbrookacademy.com. The link can be found under “For Parents – My account”; the user name is firstname.lastname and the email is the email on file. If you have any problems setting up your account, let us know.
Reminders
The school will close at noon on December 24th and will be closed on December 25th for Christmas. We will close at 3:00 on December 31st and will be closed on January 1st for New Year’s Eve.
Please be sure you are reminding your child to wash hands on arrival or helping him/her to wash their hands. This is a practice we encourage to help reduce the spread of germs. In large group settings, it can be really hard to keep everyone healthy; washing hands on arrival is an easy way to help.
If you plan to use your vacation credit during the holidays, please send one of us an email or drop off a note at the front desk prior to the week you want the credit applied to.
Please be sure to bring in a change of clothes for your child’s cubby if you haven’t already. The children prefer to change into their own clothes when they have an accident, so please check to see if there is one available for them.
Weather related school closings will be announced on WJBC1230am, WBWN104.5fm and WBNQ101.5fm and will be posted on their respective websites. The decision to close will be made by 6:00am.
Information for Consumer Product Safety Recalls: Website – http://www.cpsc.gov/en/recalls or Mobile app – RECALLS.GOV
Coming Up…
Our next Professional Development Day is scheduled for February 18th. The school will be closed that day so the teachers can participate in workshops and trainings. We know this is a couple of months away but we wanted to get the date in front of you so you can make child care arrangements for the day. We will provide more reminders as we get closer to the date.
The next Parent Reports will be distributed March 1. This is prior to kindergarten registrations at the public schools, so parents will know how their child is doing before they register. We will offer Parent/Teacher conferences during the week of March 4th for any parents who would like to discuss their child’s progress.
Open House
January 26
10:00am-1:00pm
School Highlights
INFANTS 1: During the month of December, the Infant 1 class will be celebrating the beginning of winter! We will read The Mitten by Jan Brett and pretend to bundle up for the cold winter weather. Then we will explore real snow in a sensory tub as well as use white puffy paint to create a snowy scene.
INFANT 2:
TODDLER 1:
TODDLER 2:
BEGINNER 1:
BEGINNER 2:
INTERMEDIATE 1: November flew by in the Intermediate 1 classroom! We learned about El Día de los Muertos and practiced pinching a clothespin to add marigolds to a tombstone. While reading Career Day, we discussed our favorite community helpers and their need for sleep and exercise so they can do their jobs well. We got to make butter using whipping cream while learning about Thanksgiving and almost all of us liked it when we tried it! We spent the last week of November reading about our bodies and singing “Cabeza, Cuerpo, Piernas, Pies” (Head, Body, Legs, Feet) each day. We are excited to see what we will learn in December!
INTERMEDIATE 2:
PRE-K 1: I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday with their family and friends. December is always an exciting month for the kids with learning about Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. The class will be reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for the first week in December to review letter sounds and recognizing letters. The second and third week we will be reading the book, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and MooselToe. They will have fun doing activities and learning about the Christmas holiday by using items they see during this month around the community. They will have fun creating their own town using construction paper and paint and how they see their town during the holidays. Also, the class will also do some hands-on activities by learning how to wrap presents in the sensory table and doing an experiment with water and ice. The last week the class will read the book, The Gingerbread Boy. They will learn about the characters in the book and do activities to focus on the sequence of the story.
PRE-K 2: Happy December everyone! We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! This month we have lots of exciting units and activities planned. The first week of December we will be doing our zoo unit. We are so excited to learn about different zoo animals! We will be focusing on the book called, My School’s a Zoo. We will also be turning our dramatic play center into our own classroom zoo. For the second week in December, we will be focusing on the book called Career Day. We will be talking about what we want to be when we grow up and we will learn about many community helper jobs. For the third week in December, we will be learning about the Winter season. We will be focusing on the book called There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow. We will create our own pretend snow and go sledding. For our final week in December, we will be learning about different holidays and family traditions. We will talk about Christmas as well as Hanukkah. We will read the books called, The Night Before Christmas and The Eight Nights of Hanukkah. We are looking forward to exploring our own personal family traditions and sharing them with our friends. As the weather has become colder, our clothing attire is beginning to change. Please be sure to switch your child’s extra change of clothes from summer clothing to winter clothing. Also, we will go outdoors if it feels like 32 degrees or higher, so be sure your children come to school with their winter coats, hats and gloves We will also be having a Winter holiday program at the end of the month, so be sure to keep your eye out for our classroom holiday party signup sheet. If you would like to bring an item to share, it would be greatly appreciated. We are really looking forward to singing our holiday songs to our family and friends. If you have any questions or concerns, please be sure to see Ms. Debbie or me at any time. I hope everyone has a fantastic month of December!
From the Education Department
5 Holiday Traditions to Start with Your Family
Read More »