TOUCH POINTS An e-mail newsletter of the Unitarian Cooperative Preschool June 2006 Dates to remember: July 4th – Independence Day – School Closed July 12th – New Parent Orientation July 28th – Last Day of School July 31st – August 18th - Summer Session September 5th – First Day of School (School Year 2006/07) September 7th – Welcome Back Parent Orientation
Auction Success Thank you for all your active involvement in our Silent and Live Auction this spring. We made $16,000 and had fun at the same time. The event enables us to purchase a new phone system; have start-up monies for the classrooms in the fall; update and improve our website; begin active planning for needed play yard safety improvements and some creative design work. We will also use 10% of the $16,000 for our reserve in our budget. We will have an Auction next year, so keep that in mind. If you have ideas for our Auction or knowledge of fundraising, let us know. We appreciate your help. The school really needs this kind of fundraising to thrive and protect the school for the future. Work Party Thank You! Special thanks to Laurie Smith and Simon Garland, along with Jim Cage, Steve Self and Deborah Mori, who gave 150% effort to help organize and make the work party a huge success. It was the hottest day we have had in a long time and the pace never slowed down. Thank you to Donna Larsen who was our underwriter and to Jean-Pierre Martinez for the lovely pastries. Thank you for the great attitudes by all the parents, which made it a fun and productive day. More Changes to Come As many of you know, we had a playground inspector come to let us know of needed safety improvements that we should make to the yards. We will be getting a new drainage system that will promote the ability to keep our grounds softer and provide more of a cushion. The Church will help with the drains and we will be responsible for the rest of the improvements. My goal is to keep the play yards safe, but it is also important to keep them beautiful and have some challenge for the children. We are going to apply for a grant from Nowell and Associates in Mission Hills (landscape firm) to help with the design and placement of play equipment, gardens etc. We will see if we get the grant by January of 2007. All improvements will be in phases, beginning with the immediate safety concerns, some of which were handled at the work party. My next job is to have a professional handy-person make the improvements that must be done by a professional. I will keep you informed through this newsletter. Any questions you have, I will be happy to address. Patty Some Thoughts from the Board I am grateful to this board of parents who have really helped us to develop financial policies that will help and protect the program for years to come. I am grateful for their expertise. The Board also wanted to let you know that if you pay the full amount of tuition for the year in September you will receive a 2% discount. Another piece of financial information is that you can give to the Annual Fund (formerly the fall fundraiser) any time. Those funds go to support the staff benefits. We are not for instance, able to fully fund the health insurance for teachers, so monies donated can go to health insurance if the staff member chooses that option.  May 2006 The Reading Chair New is not necessarily better, especially when it comes to children's books. The basic human needs of children-for love and security-do not change even if their surroundings do. So it is always a treat when an out-of-print book, beloved by children decades ago, is reissued for new audiences today. The following titles are reissues of favorites that some of you may even remember. I Am a Bunny, by Ole Risom. Illus. by Richard Scarry. [1963] 2004. New York: Random House. 24 pp. ISBN 0-375-82778-1. Ages birth to 3. The Rooster Struts, by Richard Scarry. [1963] 2004. New York: Random House. 24 pp. ISBN 0-375-83006-5. Ages birth to 3. Richard Scarry's vivid illustrations come to life on the double-page spreads of these tall, slender, reissued board books. Scarry may have a reputation for cartoon-like illustrations, but in these books his art is warm, expressive, and precise. I Am a Bunny depicts the small animal's changing habits as one season turns into the next and the yearly cycle starts again. The Rooster Struts shows one or two animals per page and uses simple sentences to describe how each animal moves: "The duck waddles. The goose waggles." Word repetition, rhyme, and consistent pacing lend both books an element of poetry that will help young readers find predictability and reassurance in the language. The illustrations convey detail and suggest a sense of balance and order in the natural world. This is nonfiction-for-the-very-young at its best. The Happy Egg, by Ruth Krauss. Illus. by Crockett Johnson. [1967] 2005. New York: HarperCollins. 36 pp. ISBN 0-06-076005-2. Ages 2 to 7. From the eminent husband-and-wife team that brought us The Carrot Seed, this is a welcome reissue for the preschool set. Johnson's use of negative-or blank-space puts the spotlight on his two tiny characters: the little bird and the egg. His rudimentary two-color line drawings complement the humorous language Krauss uses to introduce a newborn egg. "It was just born. It was still an egg. It couldn't walk. It couldn't sing. It couldn't fly. It could just get sat on." And it does get sat on, "and sat on and sat on and sat on" until it is ready to hatch, walk, sing, fly, and sit on other eggs. Children will delight in the suspense of waiting for the chick to hatch and find satisfaction in the promise of the cycle of life. Mother, Mother, I Want Another, by Maria Polushkin Robbins. Illus. by Jon Goodell. [1978] 2005. New York: Knopf. 28 pp. ISBN 0-375-82588-6. Ages 2 to 7. The frustrating bedtime struggle for another kiss, another story, or another moment with a parent is familiar to all children. In this reissued story, conscientious Mrs. Mouse tries to please her child when he says, "I want another, Mother!" He wants another kiss, but she misunderstands him and looks for another mother to put him to bed. Of course, no other mother will do. Not Mrs. Duck or Mrs. Frog or Mrs. Pig or Mrs. Donkey. Children will find reassurance and fun in the book's repetitive structure as Mrs. Mouse brings home one mother after the next. The wordplay has just the right humor for preschoolers. They will love being a few steps ahead of Mrs. Mouse as she calls upon the entire village to help her baby get to sleep. Bruno Munari's Zoo, by Bruno Munari. [1963] 2005. San Francisco: Chronicle. 48 pp. ISBN 0-8118-4830-2. Ages 1 to 6. With imaginative descriptions, Munari gives personality to animals that many young readers will be meeting for the first time. "Some camels are more humpy than others. This one has a seat for you." Munari's playfulness and colorful illustrations are unique. Readers will feel that they are in the hands of an artist, not just a tour guide. "Munari is one of the most inventive picture book creators I know," says Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Nonfiction titles Museum ABC, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2002. New York: Little, Brown. 60 pp. ISBN 0-316-07170-6. All ages. Museum 123, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2004. New York: Little, Brown. 48 pp. ISBN 0-316-16044-X. All ages. Museum Shapes, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2005. New York: Little, Brown. 48 pp. ISBN 0-316-05698-7. All ages. These books from the Metropolitan Museum of Art do it all. Whether teaching the alphabet, numbers, or shapes, they enable children to find familiarity in fine art. In Museum ABC, "Z is for Zigzag." Readers will find this recognizable pattern in a Japanese woodblock print, an American watercolor, an African beaded apron, and an Egyptian tomb painting. By presenting art from a variety of cultures, based on common themes such as shapes or letters, young readers will look for similarities among cultures while noticing how different their art forms are. The Museum series will provide hours of browsing and careful examination for readers. Glossaries at the end give titles, artists, dates, and media for the artworks. As a follow-up activity to reading the books, one teacher bought postcard prints at a local museum and let her students arrange them according to themes they found on their own. The children loved it. These are coffee-table books for the young age set. They make excellent teacher appreciation gifts too. Seeds, by Ken Robbins. 2005. New York: Atheneum. 32 pp. ISBN 0-689-85041-7. Ages 5 to 8. "What you need to know about seeds is that they sprout. There's energy in every seed, and inside each seed another plant that wants to grow." These first two lines of Robbins's nonfiction page-turner will make young readers want to grow and travel with the seeds in the book. Robbins explains how varieties of seeds develop and disperse. Sticktight seeds cling to socks, blackberry seeds travel inside the bodies of birds, maple seeds drift in the wind, and coconuts float in the water. Any classroom of children who see Robbins's stunning photography and read his clear explanations will clamor to plant seeds of their own. Instructions are included for growing an avocado pit in water. Isabel Baker, MAT, MLS, is president of The Book Vine for Children, a national company dedicated to getting good books into the hands of preschool children and their teachers. Isabel has worked as a children's librarian and is currently a presenter on early literacy and book selection. From Angie Bunch (former parent)  PRESS RELEASE: June 6, 2006 CULTURE SHOCK SAN DIEGO is proud to present their first full-length hip hop dance story about a young man's journey through dance. "CHRISTOPHER, for the Love…", is dedicated to Christopher Braswell, a Culture Shock dancer and non-smoker who died at the age of 22 from lung cancer. This is a joyous celebration of his life as a street dancer, leader and friend. Thursday, June 15 - Sunday, June 18
Showtimes: Thu-Sun at 7pm and Sat. & Sun. matinees at 2pm.
At the Lyceum Theatre in Horton Plaza. Prices: $15.00 general admission, $12.00 students, military and seniors, $10.00 matinees.
Tickets available at Lyceum Box Office, 619.544.1000 and Culture Shock Dance Center, 619.299.2110. *This creation and production was made possible in part by funding received from the Dance: Creation to Performance Program, funded by the James Irvine Foundation and administered by Dance/USA.
** Sponsored in part by a grant from the Horton Plaza Theatre Foundation. Please contact Angie Bunch for more information at 619.743.1786, or
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Vons Pavilions Thank you for helping to make our 2005 10% back to school campaign a tremendous success. Vons and Pavilions, along with Safeway Inc., were able to contribute valuable funding to over thousand of schools across the country. Because of support from schools like you, we are pleased to announce that Vons and Pavilions will be offering 10% Back to Schools again in 2006. This year the program should have an even greater reach with over 3,000 selected items. Below are some key points about the program. · Vons and Pavilions, along with Safeway Inc., will contribute up to $10 million to schools · The program runs July 19th to September 5th, 2006 · Families shop and look for participating products marked with the yellow school bus. · Families save their reward certificate and turn them in to their school We urge you to let your families know about this wonderful opportunity. All school participation program information is available at · www.back2school.escrip.com · or by calling 1-877-561-8048 A partner in your community, Vons and Pavilions June Snack Calendar Th1 carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and dip F2 macaroni and cheese, juice M5 English muffins w/butter T6 apples and oranges W7 cous cous w/broccoli and cheese Th8 soybeans and crackers F9 tuna sandwiches M12 celery, raisins, cream cheese T13 bananas and graham crackers W14 bagels w/cream cheese Th15 cantaloupe and crackers F16 pasta w/parmesan cheese M19 cereal and milk T20 rolls w/ butter W21 applesauce and graham crackers Th22 chips and beans, juice F23 melon and pretzels M26 quesadillas. Juice T27 oranges, pretzels W28 soybeans, crackers Th29 yogurt, fruit F30 mini burritos, juice |
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