Feb. 1: General Membership meeting and speaker 7:30pm

Feb. 3: No School—Professional Development Day

Feb. 20–24: No School –Winter Recess

Mar. 3: Cabin Fever

Mar. 8: No School—Garden City Public School Parent/Teacher Conference Day

Tipi Ted visited the Nursery and Pre-K classes on Jan. 27. The children experienced a hands-on presentation about brown, black and polar bears, their habitats, food and the need for hibernation, adaptation, and migration in winter. The presentation makes our curriculum on animals in winter come to life.

We had a great turnout for holiday shopping at this year’s Holiday Market, which earned about $6,300 for our school! The vendors brought an array of one-of-a-kind and traditional items. Shoppers had a wonderful time socializing and checking off their holiday lists for those special gifts.

The committee, under the leadership of Emily Kasel, did a great job running a smooth event. The school was filled to capacity with vendors, and it looked beautiful. The entire evening was festive—shoppers and vendors were all pleased and singing the praises.

GCNS is extremely fortunate to have the support of such a generous school community. To date, over $28,500 has been donated by our families in the 2022-2023 school year.

Did you know that many corporations offer matching gift programs to support their employees' charities of choice? Corporate matching gift programs are a type of philanthropy in which companies financially match donations that their employees make to nonprofit organizations. Companies usually match donations at a 1:1 ratio, but some will match at a 2:1, 3:1, or even a 4:1 ratio!

If you have made a gift to GCNS this year or are planning to make a gift, please consider talking to your HR Department about your company's matching gift program. Together, we can maximize the impact of your donation!

Everyone should have received their bill for Spring tuition. It is due February 1st. Everyone was

charged $150 for fall maintenance; if you’ve attended one of the maintenance sessions, a credit has been applied. Please check your Jovial account for more information.

On February 3rd all the staff will visit other nursery school programs and complete training in First Aid. We will gather over lunch to share observations, reflect on our teaching practices, and plan for second semester.

Long before a child learns to form letters with a pencil or marker, she has taken many steps

toward learning to write. Children must have many opportunities to use their hands to do various things before they can successfully print letters.

Squeezing playdough, molding clay, using large and small legos, picking up beads, and playing with puzzles all prepare the fingers and hands for writing. Scribbling with markers and crayons, controlling a pencil for use with a stencil, using chalk on the sidewalk, and painting with fingers and brushes of various sizes are a few of the ways children practice for later writing.

We stock our classrooms with plenty of paper, paper clips, scissors, hole punchers, pencils,

markers, and crayons (crayons are deliberately broken to be small) and make sure that these

materials are available for children to use often. You may want to keep a basket of supplies handy at the kitchen table. Children may want to “write” notes to their friends or messages to

their parents or teachers.

As children experiment, developmental stages of writing become evident. Children move from

random scribbling to controlled scribbling, to random alphabet letters to writing their names.

Only with lots of opportunity to practice can children move through these stages.

If you child does not have the proper pencil grip, cannot purposefully manipulate a crayon or

simply shows no interest in learning to write, he or she probably is not ready yet. Take care not to push. Children enjoy learning a new skill only when they are really ready for it. Getting

ready is just as important as mastering the skill.

GCNS’s recipe is better than store bought! Try it! It stays fresh for months if stored in a

covered plastic container in the refrigerator.

1 cup flour

½ cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup water mixed with 2 tbsp. oil

1 tsp food coloring of your child’s choice

Mix all ingredients in pot over medium heat until a ball forms. Remove from heat and knead for

a few minutes. Keep in a tightly covered plastic container.

Have fun!

Love Grows

Use hand motions

Love grows one by one, two by two and three and four

Love grows round like a circle it comes back knocking at your front door.

Verse

One by one we can play in the sun

Two by two I will play with you

Three by three we can climb a tree

Four by four come and play some more.

Love grows, one by one, two by two

And three and four

Love grows round like a circle

It comes back knocking at your front door

It comes back knocking at your front door.

Create a small mountain around an empty can (use playdoh, clay, soil)

Fill can ½ to ¾ with white vinegar.

Add a few drops of red food coloring.

Add a spoonful of baking soda. Watch the lava flow!

The chemical reaction between the acid in vinegar and baking soda releases carbon dioxide!

Furry Bear by A.A. Milne in Now We Are Six

If I were a bear,

And a big bear too,

I shouldn’t much care

If it froze or snew;

I shouldn’t much mind

If it snowed or friz –

I’d be all fur-lined

With a coat like his!

For I’d have fur boots and a brown fur wrap,

And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap.

I’d have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws,

And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws.

With a big brown furry-down up to my head,

I’d sleep all the winter in a big fur bed.

Check the lobby for available books! We are sorting extra copies that need new homes.

There is no bad weather, only bad clothes!

The easiest policy for you to follow for cold weather is to dress your child for outdoor activity as a matter of course—warm clothes, snow pants, boots, hats and mittens! Participating parent as well! Unless it is bitter cold with an extreme wind chill, a blizzard or heavy rain, we will be outside. To quote our founding director, Coppie Short: “In allowing for cold weather outdoor time, we are guided not so much by numbers on the thermometer, but by those more accurate comfort indicators–the sun, the wind and the rain!”

The Sorrentino Family made a “how-to” video to help teach your child to put on their own jacket. Foster independent skills in your child and help us at the same time, as the children have to take their jackets off and put them back on during the day. The children are becoming very proficient at taking off their winter layers!

Key Points to Remember:

• Sleeves must NOT be inside out

• Hood/top of jacket needs to be at your feet

• Flip the coat over your body

Caroline Mary Finneran was born January 21 at 3:32am. Big sister Olivia in Nursery West is very excited!

Poppy’s brother Frankie (Francis Xavier) was born on January 4, 2023 (8 pounds 9 oz). She is so excited to have a little brother!

The winter is a wonderful time to curl up with a good book. One of the best readiness tools we

have for children of all ages is reading together—hundreds of books—but real books, not iPads or electric stories which are more like videos. From board books, to simple repetitive and rhyming stories, to fairy tales and chapter books—good literature is timeless.

The library is an exciting destination for young children. Let them choose books. Set aside time each day to read with your child. Quickly, your child will learn the magic books hold, and you will snuggle together through hundreds of stories.

The recent frigid weather raised questions for all of us about children out-of-doors in cold

weather, so we asked two pediatricians for opinions. Both made the point that parents in

Maine and Minnesota (not to mention Canada or Alaska) can have no such questions. As long as children are warmly dressed and active, short periods of outdoors even in very cold air can do no harm. Heat loss during exposure to the cold is more of an issue if one is inactive, which cannot be said of our children! To quote an article from the American Academy of Pediatrics, “like adults, children produce metabolic heat at sufficient ratios during exercise in cold air to compensate for the heat lost to the environment. (Suitable) clothes help prevent excessive loss of body heat. In fact, even on very cold days, metabolic heat often exceeds heat loss and results in heat storage.”

On bright cold days the children benefit from their outdoor time. They come in rosy, relaxed

and ready for the indoor curriculum. (Sometimes they would like to stay out longer than adults

wish!)

In allowing for cold weather outdoor time, we are guided not so much by numbers on the

thermometer, but by those more accurate comfort indicators—the sun, the wind and the rain!

The easiest policy for you to follow for cold weather is to dress your child for outdoor activity as a matter of course—warm clothes, snow pants, boots, hats and mittens! Participating parent as well!