Friday, December 14, 2012

The Brickton Weekly, December 13, 2012

Happy Hanukkah from the Brickton Community!
Getting to Know You: Each week this section will highlight one staff member and what inspired them to pursue working in a Montessori environment.
Marie Rodriguez, Toddler Teacher
When I was in grammar school, I had an amazing teacher who helped us enjoy all she taught, especially geography, which I still LOVE, because of her teaching.
Montessori strives to help the children enjoy their learning intrinsically. My first Montessori experience was in a Children’s House class. A six-year old boy quietly worked alone on the continent map of Africa and could locate and name all of the countries. A six-year old! I was hooked.

Volunteer Spotlight: The Book Fair and Food Drive Edition
The Scholastic Book Fair was a huge success again this year.  It would not have been possible with out the generous assistance of our many volunteers.  Thank you to Diane Grassi, Georgia Ferguson, Shashona Chau, Lori Plier, Tara Leinenweber, Kelly McDermott, Molly Arnoldt, Cheryl LaCost, and Agnes Guerra.  Your help is very appreciated!

Many thanks to the entire community for your participation in the annual food drive for the Salvation Army.  We were able to provide a generous supply of nourishing food for the holiday season and as always, the Salvation Army was thankful for the donations.

Winter Extracurricular Activities
The Winter Extracurricular session begins Monday, January 14th.  We have an all-new class this year: The Runaway Circus, which promotes self-confidence, teamwork, and lifelong physical activity through the joy of Circus! Please open this link to download the registration form with descriptions of all the great classes.  Please submit the form and your payment to the office.  If you have any questions, please contact Kelly.

Greeting Cards for the Troops
This month Brickton students sent 100 hand-made greeting cards to Governor Quinn to distribute during his annual visit to Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany.  The cards contained holiday greetings and well-wishes for armed forces members recovering from illness and injury, as well as medical and support personnel stationed there.  The children’s greetings are meant to affirm these heroes and let them know we are mindful of their sacrifices, and that our thoughts are with them during these holidays when they are serving us so far away from home.

Operation ChildFind
Operation ChildFind will come to Brickton right after the winter holiday, on Wednesday and Thursday, January 9 and 10.  Operation ChildFind is a team of early childhood experts that perform vision and hearing screening, check large and small motor development, assess speech and language use, and perform school readiness screening for children aged 2 through 6 years old, for our Toddler and Children's House students.  A part of the Chicago Public School system, Operation Childfind has been visiting Brickton each year since 1999.  Their free service is optional, and parent/guardian permission is required for each child to participate; permission forms have been placed in parent folders, so please complete and return yours to your directress.

Reminders:
Winter Break: The last day of school before Winter Break is Friday, December 21st.  School will resume Tuesday, January 8th.
Manna Orders Due.  Friday, December 14th, is the final Manna order date before the winter break.  Simplify holiday frenzy with Manna cards, and get help paying your Brickton tuition!  Card pick up will be Wednesday, December 19th.  The next Manna date will be Friday, January 11, 2013.
Middle School Holiday Babysitters: The Middle School Students are available at Brickton from 9am to 1 pm, Saturday, December 15th to babysit for $20 per child - including lunch. Children ages 3-12 are welcome.

Operation: Woodchips
We received a new supply of woodchips for our playground.  If you are free on Saturday from 9:00am – 12:00pm, please stop by to help spread the woodchips on the playground.  They are necessary for our children’s safety while playing at recess.  If you can volunteer some time, it will go a long way to helping the Brickton community.  Bring a shovel and some work gloves, we will provide the woodchips!

Donation to Open Books
If you have books laying around the house, you can donate them to Open Books.  It is writing and literacy building program as well as a book store.  The Elementary and Middle School classes here at Brickton have taken field trips to develop writing and literacy building skills.  If you would like to help the program by donating books for their literacy programs and book store, bring them to school, and our reading specialist, Liz, will get them to Open Books.
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