End of May 2018

What a busy time of year!

Quick highlights:

As you know this Friday is our last field trip, to The North End of Boston.  We have many chaperones and beautiful weather predicted so it will be a great trip.  If you cannot join us, remember that this is a wonderful place to bring the family during the summer with it’s urban setting, rich culture and fantastic food!  

Chaperones will receive a packet of information by email and paper, so that you can read up on our route ahead of time.  Please watch for these items.

Next week we will have our Open House!  Please join us on Thursday, May 31 from 8:30 until 9 for a presentation by your children of the fantastic work they have been doing.  We are so proud of them!

Finally, we have been planting our summer crops into the gardens. The students are so very excited about seeing their seedlings grow and get stronger in our Greenhouse, and now they are ready for the big wide world in the HH Gardens.

Thanks to Steve Saveriano, Marcus’ grandfather, we have spring crops that are growing beautifully.  Students are learning about science, soil, weather, math (spacing of plants), and having fun getting a little “shower” to cool off :). Please let us know if you want to come and water with your child on the weekend, or adopt the gardens for a week this summer.

Thanks for all of your support this year.  We are truly enjoying this time of year when we have become a family that truly cares about each other and enjoys each other’s company.  This job is truly a gift and we almost don’t want the year to end!!!

See you next week!
Deborah & Julie

May 2018

First, thank you for the beautiful tulips that Ms. Pond and I received this morning for Teacher Appreciation Day!  Our room parent, Jessica Polizzotti surprised us with them this morning!

Thank you also for allowing your child to interview you about your job. They are so proud to share information about how you all contribute to your Community!  You will see the “fruits of this labor” when you come in for our Open House! It is on May 31 from 8:30 until 9:00 am. Siblings are welcome.

This week (and next) we want students to prepare items for a class “Yard Sale”.  Information was sent home Monday 5-7-18.

Our plants spent their first “overnight” in the Greenhouse last weekend!  We will be putting them into the ground during the week of May 20… if you’d like to join us please let me know asap and I’ll schedule it around your availability.  It’s a great lesson in math, science, the environment, and creative expression!

Speaking of creativity, students have begun writing their own Poetry!  It is really fun to see them look at things “through new eyes”.  If you find any children’s poetry at home or at the library, enjoy it together.  It builds fluency as well!

Thanks to a grant from the Wayland Public School Foundation, last Friday ​morning ​we welcomed a​uthor Grace Lin.  She talked about the importance of reading books that are mirrors of your own experience and windows into the lives of others. Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of more than a dozen children's books.

Grace developed a Community Bookstop at Sunnyside School to bring the topic of race into the home and beyond.  She is the inspiration for developing our very own Community Bookstop, which will be located in the main lobby.  It is a collection of books for students and parents to read together that features characters from different cultural and racial backgrounds. We believe that the more discussions that our whole community is having about race and cultural backgrounds, the better educated students will be about the world and those around them.  Grace will perform a ribbon cutting to open the Bookstop.  We expect books to be ready for circulation in about two weeks.

A permission form will be coming home this week for our trip to North End of Boston.  All chaperones are welcome to attend.  We will need you to check with the office about your CORI status this week.  

I think that’s it for now!  The end of the year gets so exciting!! Remember to breathe, stay mindful and enjoy this precious time with these delightful young children. :)

Deborah Niles & Julie Pond