Lilliputian News January 2012
Happy New Year! We are slowly settling back into our school routines after the holiday break. Many thanks to all the families that were able to attend our Winter Holiday Celebration at the Gibson Center. We appreciated all the delicious refreshments that were contributed for our enjoyment after the show. It was very special to share our holiday enthusiasm with the senior members of our community and look forward to this event becoming a new tradition. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the families who gave us such lovely, creative and thoughtful gifts. The items that were given to us from the Wish List were much appreciated! In addition, another thank you goes out to everyone who has contributed to our Annual Appeal that was sent out before the holidays. There has been a good response and contributions continue to be accepted daily. We are very fortunate to have such a generous school community!
We are looking for plenty of volunteer help for our biggest fundraiser of the year, “Lilliputian’s Big Night”, scheduled for Friday, May 18th from 5:00-9:00pm at the 1785 Inn in North Conway. The first of our bi-weekly organizational meetings will take place Tuesday, January 31st (exact time and place to be determined). We look forward to all of our families participating in some way in this exciting event!
Please try to make sure that your children are dressed for the cold weather, with several layers being ideal. We are working very hard with the children to be able to dress themselves as much as possible to go outside and we encourage you to work with them at home as well to become independent! We hope that the days on our “Lilliputian Glacier” will be coming to an end with snow at last in the forecast. It has been very treacherous, but the children love to slide on our sleds and rubber disks down Mt. Lilliputian. When at last the snow does fall, we would like to remind everyone of some winter playground rules we practice with the children:
1. Keep snow shovels low to the ground.
2. Snowballs may only be thrown over the fence of the playground and never towards people.
We ask that you follow these guidelines when playing in the playground with your children after school so that we are all consistent in our message to have fun and play safely together! In the event of inclement weather please listen to WMWV 93.5 FM or check our school website for cancellations. We follow the decision made by the SAU 9 schools and will close or delay opening accordingly. Most delays are for 2 hours, in which case our school would open at 10:30, with all children being dismissed at 3:00pm instead of 1:00pm. After-care would still take place as scheduled. We do not generally follow the SAU 9 early release decisions. If the weather does deteriorate throughout during the school day, we simply ask that you pick up your children in a timely manner so that we can all return home safely.
Pajama Days planned for Wednesday, January 25th and Friday, January 27th
During the month of January, both of our classrooms will be discussing the ways that animals spend their winters in New England. Which animals hibernate, who is a “deep sleeper” and who leaves New Hampshire for sunshine and warmer temperatures? We thought it would be fun to discuss the many ways that we sleep by having a “Pajama Day” for the children when they could wear their pajamas to school for the day. We have chosen the dates of Wednesday, Jan. 25th and Friday, January 27th(Downstairs Classroom only!). We ask that those children who are assigned snack basket on these days to bring in cereal and milk to share for snack. Last year we had great discussions about the different ways we sleep at night( with or without stuffed animals, a nightlight, etc). Please remember that your child must still have enough layers to wear over their “PJ’s” as we will be playing outdoors as usual, weather permitting.
Enrollment for the 2012-2013 School Year Opens February 1st
Enrollment will open February 1st for our current students who will be returning to Lilliputian for the next school year. As families consider their child’s educational plans next year, we would like to encourage everyone to seriously consider our 5-day program, which offers the greatest educational benefits and consistency of scheduling. We ask that our current families make their enrollment decisions prior to February 15th, as we then open enrollment to siblings/alumni of Lilliputian students with open enrollment for outside students starting March 1st.
News from the “Downstairs” (Miss Emily & Miss Lucy’s Class)
During the month of December we spent a lot of time talking the ways we bring light into our world during the darkest days of the year, enjoying angel chimes and twinkly lights in our bathroom. We had great fun acting out The Gingerbread Man, as well as counting stars, learning the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates and enjoying singing a variety of holiday songs throughout the month.
With the arrival of the month of January, we begin to study the different families of vertebrates, with the first one being mammals. We examine the mammals that are unique to each of our seven continents, paying close attention to those mammals that live here in New Hampshire and the ways that they survive during our winter months. Thanks again to Tin Mountain for the use of their rubber animal tracks to help us learn about the special differences between animal feet and their walking patterns, as well as a set of animal skulls for us to examine and compare animal teeth based on the types of food they eat. Finally, we are also talking a lot about snowflakes; counting, rhyming and singing to encourage the snow to keep falling!
Miss Emily & Miss Lucy
News from the “Upstairs” (Miss Suzie’s Class)
During the month of January we have started to look at what happens to animals in winter. Do they migrate or are they deep-sleepers? How are they keeping warm? Already I have witnessed the children making dens in the snow and pretending to be skunks and squirrels, huddling close together to stay warm.
We are also beginning our study of the continent of Antarctica. We will take a close look at the different types of penguins that live in Antarctica such as Emperor, King and Gentoo Penguins as well as some seals. In the playground you might see them huddling like penguins and sitting on my feet like baby penguins do to keep warm.
We have so much fun learning!
Merci, Miss Suzie
After-care News from Miss Miriah
We have been enjoying a variety of activities in our after-school program over the past month. The children love to do all types of painting, from watercolor, to marble painting to finger painting. We also have some very enthusiastic bakers! But often the children just enjoy quietly working with soft music in the background, as well as telling me about their day at school. We are looking forward to the increasing daylight hours to come!
Miss Miriah
Thank You Corner:
We would like to send a special thank-you to the following people for their generosity over the past several weeks:
· Lori Kinsey: Lori, who is the Education Director at Tin Mountain Conservation Center, for loaning us a set of rubber animal tracks and skulls to use as we examined the animals of North America.
· Lilly Killourie and her family: for the donation of the book The Circus Ship in recognition of Lilly’s 4th birthday!
· Dale Hooper: for trimming the bottom of our entrance gate so that we could open and close it properly.
· Chris Chenoweth: for the awesome ice chipper to tackle our ever-changing playground ice sheet!
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, January 31stth:
“Lilliputian’s Big Night” Organizational Meeting, time to be announced
Monday, February 20th-Friday, February 24th:
No School, Winter Vacation
Wednesday, March 21stth:
Child Find Preschool Development Screening
Monday, April 16th –Friday, April 20th:
No School, Spring Vacation
Friday, May 18th:
“Lilliputian’s Big Night” from 5:00-9:00pm at the 1785 Inn in North Conway
Enjoy the snow!
Miss Suzie, Miss Emily, Miss Lucy & Miss Miriah