November 23–25: Thanksgiving Recess- No School

December 6: GCNS Holiday Market

December 10: Last Maintenance for the Fall, 7-10am

December 21–January 2: Holiday Recess- No School

January 3: School Re-opens

Our first social function of the year, the Pot Luck Supper, was so much fun that most people didn’t want to go home! Hospitality chairs Lindsay Loos and Cynthia Donovan and their committee planned a first-rate evening. Our families had a great time catching up with friends and making new ones.

Our nursery school was re-incarnated into an adult space with a beautiful autumn touch.

A big round of applause to Kelly Mattice, and her amazing Auction/Raffle Committee team, who did an extraordinary job of putting together a tremendous list of packages with a beautiful presentation. Our spirited auctioneers, Blake and Alec Overby kept the bidding at a quick pace that added excitement and enthusiasm. The auction packages and raffles netted over $17,000! - a superb beginning toward our annual fundraising goal.

A very special thank you to Amy McGlynn, President, and Lindsy Hannan and Emily Kasel, VP’s of Fundraising, for their untiring guidance throughout the planning process. They supported both committees to make this event a spectacular success.

We collected over 300lbs of food and goods to support Long Island Cares! All items go directly to Long Islanders experiencing food insecurity. A sincere thank you to our sponsor Pantano’s Gourmet, to Maggie McHugh for handling all the logistics, and to everyone who donated to this worthwhile cause!

Thank you to all families who participated in the Miss Chocolate fundraiser. With your help, we raised almost $5,000 for our school!

Our top seller this year won a $75 Visa gift card.

Thank you to Lindsey Finneran and everyone who helped with distribution. Our fall fundraising efforts have been a resounding success—thank you for supporting our school!

Up next for socializing, fundraising and shopping is the GCNS Holiday Market on December 6th from 7-9:30.

Event tickets can be purchased here for $20 each—100% of the sales go directly to GCNS fundraising. All vendors are local Long Island businesses that the board carefully selected. You will find beautiful hostess gifts, baked goods, children’s clothing and gifts, women’s clothing, accessories and so much fun! We will have The Wrap Artist on site for professional wrapping, so you can cross those last-minute gifts off your list!

Doing some holiday shopping online through Amazon? Support GCNS with Amazon Smile at no cost to you. Smile donated over $500 to our school last year. Let's add more by linking your Amazon Smile account with GCNS as your designated charity.

Registration for the next school year is under way. Some classes are full! We have been giving many tours to families in the community. If you are planning to re-register, please contact the office ASAP. Let us know if you have any questions.

On November 29th , “The Traveling Wilderness Museum” also known as Tipi Ted, will come to our school.The “museum” offers in school programs on Native American life. Students will help build a tipi and learn about native lifestyles. The children will also complete an age-appropriate take-home craft and explore additional hands-on learning centers to round out the experience.

Please be sure to dress for the cold weather. We always go outside, even in a drizzle. Please make sure your child is dressed in layers with a jacket, hat, gloves/mittens, and on very cold days, snow pants and water-resistant boots. Please send in a pair of shoes and extra socks to wear when boots come off after playground time.

Children need to wear snow pants on cold days as well as snowy days. They should always have gloves/mittens in their pockets because the playground equipment feels cold!

Label your child’s outerwear—there are lots of black snow pants in the same size!

For those with extra clothes at school, please remember to update your child’s clothes for

the winter.

Here is a video that teaches how children can put their jackets on themselves!

Now that cold and flu season is upon us, a reminder that children need to be symptom free without medication for 48 hours before returning to school.

Children with strong coughs or messy runny noses may still be contagious and are susceptible

to more illness at school; they will be more comfortable resting at home.

Landon Hooper was born October 26, 2022 at 8lbs 5 oz and 21in long. Big brother Jackson in Pre-K East and alum big sister Riley are overjoyed!

The Campbell family welcomed Chloe Blake on October 6, 2022. She weighed 8.7lbs and was 20.5 inches long. Big sister Rylie in Nursery West is so excited!

We love to celebrate holidays at nursery school!

Holidays are times of anticipation and preparation, festive feelings, warmth, and family togetherness. We like to honor the traditions of all the children and families in our school as an important part of the connection between home and school.

The main ingredient for successful holiday activities in nursery school is the same as for all good early childhood curricula: we plan engaging activities that are developmentally appropriate and have meaning to the children. We continue to support the children’s developmental need for familiar, predictable routines during this busy, often over stimulating season.

For two-year-olds, we introduce simple songs and books in class before the holidays occur. At home, parents can continue the discussion after a holiday, when children’s experiences with their families are fresh in their minds.

Our three-year olds are ready for activities that reflect what their families do at home. They are sensory oriented and need opportunities to smell, touch, and listen to focus their attention and help them make meaningful connections to family celebrations. Our threes love holiday related books and songs.

Our four-year-olds are ready for conversation about holidays! Many will remember celebrations from last year and will want to help with decorations and preparations for this year’s upcoming holidays at home. Four-year-olds are able to understand simple information about the meaning of holidays. Songs and books are also favorites.

Art activities for all our children are open-ended and focus on the process of creating more than the final product. We provide materials in the colors of the season so children can explore all media. Many of these activities involve small motor skills, math, science, and social development (pincer grip, working together, sharing materials, and waiting for a turn).

With so many holidays coming close together, combined with the preparations, decorations, music and shopping, the children can become over-excited. At school, our recognition of holiday activities remains part of our familiar routine. It is our experience that is best not to make the holiday the entire focus of the curriculum for an extended time.

When you are looking for gifts for your children, look for unstructured materials upon which a child can impose his/her own patterns as he/she wishes and matures. For example, unit blocks (there is nothing more useful for creative play and learning); "manipulatives" whose pieces and shapes can be combined in many ways; stuffed animals and dolls—buy them as companions and comforters, not for fashionable outfits or mechanical tricks. Emphasize the benefits of "true toys" instead of passive toys that require little imagination.

Classic board games make learning fun while building academic and social skills. They have the added benefit of helping children develop attention and focus. For beginners, easy to play games are: Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Hi!Ho! Cherry-O, Shape and Color Bingo and Memory. Or, you can try some which are a little more advanced: Trouble, Sorry, Twister, Letter Bingo and Number Bingo.

Toys which develop fine motor skills are a great way to help your child meet this developmental need. Try wind-up toys, tops to spin, squeeze toys (in and out of the bathtub). pegs and pegboards, beads and lacing, MagnaDoodle and magnetic mazes.

What about what toys and weaponry which, to the child, are symbols of power and strength? Some war toys lead to aggression, violence and hostile play. Yet, eliminating them entirely may make them seem more desirable. At least you can avoid making aggression glamorous and set limits on what you will buy.

Gift Ideas (Below contains affiliate links, should you click and purchase an item via this link, GCNS may earn a small commission. GCNS recommends products we use ourselves and believe will be beneficial to you and to our community)

Manipulatives

Magnatiles

More Magnatiles!

Wedgits

Gears! Gears! Gears!

Dado Builders

Nature Blocks

Rainbow Stacker

Log Builders

Wooden Vehicles and Traffic Signs

Wooden Unit Blocks

Parquetry Blocks

Musical Instruments

Rhythm Sticks

Bells

More Bells!

Tambourine

Triangle

Fine Motor Skills

Beads and Lacing

Lacing Beads with Pattern Cards

Magnetic Maze

Pegs and Boards

Magnadoodle

Lacing and Tracing

Colored Pencils

Pads and Paper

Here is a song your children have been singing during this beautiful autumn season.

Five Little Leaves

5 little leaves all bright and gay

Dancing about on a tree one day

Wind came blowing through the town,

Oooooh

One little leaf came tumbling down,

Dat, dat, dat, dat, dat…

4 little leaves…

3 little leaves. . ..

2 little leaves . . .

1 little leaf …

A math and literacy (rhyming) experience while singing and playing!

Our three and four-year-old children will make Cranberry Relish to add to their family’s feast. Cranberry Relish is a Thanksgiving tradition at GCNS. Our students all take part, helping prepare the cranberries, apples and oranges and grinding them into small pieces. The children are fascinated by the old-fashioned grinder—a simple machine that they make work. It takes lots of muscle power to make relish! They are all excited to share the relish with their families on Thanksgiving.

Recipe

1 bag fresh cranberries

1 large apple

1 large orange

1/2-1 cup sugar (to taste)

Wash cranberries. Cut apple and orange in small pieces--leaving skin and rind on. In school, we use a manual grinder, but you can use a food processor. If using a manual grinder, add fruits in a few at a time to grind until you have used up all your fruit. If using a food processor, add fruits to the bowl and process altogether. When completed, mix in sugar. Cover and refrigerate. Can last for a few days to one week covered in the refrigerator. Serve at room temperature on Thanksgiving.

LuminoCity - Eisenhower Park

LuminoCity brings a world of magical light installations that come to life at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. This year’s theme, “Pure Magic” delivers state-of-the-art production that brings art, light, and color to life through remarkable displays.

Illuminate the Farm - Queens County Farm Museum

The NYC Winter Lantern Festival lights up the holiday season with over 1000 lights at the Queens Farm. Custom designed by Chinese artisans, these hand-crafted lanterns create a magical field of farm animals, fruits, vegetables, flowers, holiday delights and other surprises to Illuminate the Farm.

The Bronx Zoo Holiday Lights

The Bronx Zoo comes to life with holiday cheer as immersive light displays, custom-designed animal lanterns and animated light shows sparkle across the zoo. The outdoor celebration is complete with festive entertainment, seasonal treats and classic holiday music.

Magic of Lights - Jones Beach State Park

Magic of Lights is a dazzling, drive-through holiday lights experience featuring favorite holiday scenes and characters of the season using the latest LED technology and digital animations.

Breakfast with Santa - The Garden City Hotel

Celebrate the Christmas Season at the Hotel's annual Breakfast with Santa! A fun filled, family event.

The Nutcracker - The Tilles Center

The Nutcracker is one of the country's favorite Christmas events, and one of the most performed ballets in the world with productions taking place each Christmas in London, New York City and right here!

All parents are victims of the urge to nudge. Most of us send our children to nursery school to have friends and play amicably with others. When, on some participation day, our child seems more engrossed in individual activities than with his peers, the urge to nudge toward social play overcomes us.

First, remember that there is a progression in the development of play. The infant and toddler are accumulating a database. They are on a scientific voyage of discovery, investigating the properties of matter: gravity (things fall down), water (slips through fingers), and other such important concerns, as well as learning to manage their body and use their speech. Others on the same journey are good to have along, unless they get in the way. Play is parallel at two and three. As children become four, they join together in common projects in the block room or house area, or on the playground—learning to negotiate with each other for turf and to enjoy each other’s company.

Nevertheless, every child needs to remove himself from the group from time to time in order to pursue some individual project or problem—alone, and guarded from interference by another child or adult, and guarded from the “urge to nudge.” In play, the choice is the child’s.