November 9 2015 Newsletter

November 2015

Calendar

November 2—Priority Registration for 2016-2017 begins

November 2, 3, and 4 - The great candy collection. Be sure to bring in your candy during morning carpool for the troops November 5—Prospective Parent Tour, 9:30 a.m., Welcome Center at the Family Commons November 6— Parents’ Council Meeting, 9:15 a.m., Studio Annex November 16—Prospective Parent Tour, 9:30 a.m., Welcome Center at the Family Commons November 17 and 18—Recycle Days during carpool November 18—Last Day of Fall Splendid Day November 19—Chapel Service, 9:20 a.m., Sanctuary, Five/Six and M-F Pre-K Classes November 20—Chapel Service, 9:20 a.m., Sanctuary, MWF Pre-K, M-F and MWF Threeyear-old Classes November 23-27—Thanksgiving Holiday - No School for Students November 30—Winter Splendid Day begins

Dear Parents, As we are giving tours at Peachtree to visitors including parents and educators, we are often asked about the panels in the hallways. Why does Peachtree make learning visible? We are a school that values and researches the processes of thinking and learning of teachers and children.

According to Carlina Rinaldi, ...“teachers teach better if they observe children’s learning processes.” Teachers can best do this by documenting the work and making visible the experiences. This opens the door to conversations and dialogue about the experience among children and adults. Peachtree is a place where all (children, families, educators) are involved.

Additionally, by documenting the work of the children, one can appreciate their knowledge, skills and understanding of life.

Children are wonderful learners, searching for meaning of life as they explore, question and discover the world around them.

Stop by the Preschool and discover all the beautiful, innovative and hard work of the children!

Miss Jane

December 2—Prospective Parent Tour, 9:30 a.m., Welcome Center at the Family Commons December 2, 3—Toy Drive December 4— Parents’ Council Meeting, 9:15 a.m., Studio Annex December 14, 15 and 16— All classes dismiss at 12:15 p.m.

December 16—Family Chapel Service, 11:00 a.m., Sanctuary, MWF Pre-K, M-F and MWF Three-year-old classes December 17—Family Chapel Service, 11:00 a.m., Sanctuary, Five/Six and M-F Pre-K classes December 18 to January 5— Christmas Holiday - No School

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Hello Parents!

We hope you are enjoying this beautiful time of year with your family. With Halloween behind us and anticipation building for Thanksgiving and then Christmas, this is a busy, fun time for children and parents alike!

Need to get rid of extra Halloween candy? Peachtree is teaming up with Family Dentistry, Georgia Academy of General Dentistry and Green Queen: Nontoxic Services to collect candy donations during morning carpool on November 2, 3 and 4 to send to the troops.

Parents’ Council has also been busy this Fall with many activities! We hope you all enjoyed the parent parties! Each one was a fun night for parents to get to know one another in a relaxed, kid-free setting! Thank you so much to our party hosts Amy and Trey Clayton, Lindsey and Ryan Schoultz, Carla and Jeff Geiger, and Julie and Tucker Greene.

Thank you also to Dana Gillis, Trenton Chasteen, and their volunteers for organizing the individual picture sessions for the children. Photographs should be available around Thanksgiving with time for re-orders for Christmas.

Throughout the school year, the Preschool holds prospective parent tours which are led by the Preschool administration and parent volunteers. I encourage you to let your neighbors or friends know about these tours if they are interested in the Preschool, as they are great opportunities to see first-hand what an amazing program we have at Peachtree! Thank you to Natalie Albert, Emily Fournier and Julie Greene for helping with the October tours.

Five/Six and Pre-K students were screened by Prevent Blindness Georgia during October. Thank you to Natalie Albert for her help with the screenings!

As always, Parents’ Council is open to new ideas and faces! If you’d like to become more involved in Parents’ Council, we’d love to hear from you! Please contact Rebecca Blanchette, Parents’ Council Chair, at 646-417-2772 or rblanchette23@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Rebecca www.peachtreepresbyterianpreschool.org

peachtree pride

The Parents’ Council offers Peachtree Pride wear. These adorable T-shirts are available in youth sizes XS-L in either pink or blue for $10. Car magnets are also available for $5. Shop online at www.peachtreepresbyterianpreschool.org or contact Whitney Mulwee at whitney.mulwee@gmail.com to order your Peachtree Pride wear or magnet. . 2 .

chapel

Registration for Winter Splendid Day is now available.

The November chapel speaker will be William Givens, Peachtree parent and Senior Pastor at Buckhead Baptist Church.

The services will be in the Sanctuary at 9:20 a.m. on Thursday, November 19, and Friday, November 20.

The winter session is November 30, 2015, to March 2, 2016. Join in the fun of having lunch at school with various indoor and outdoor activities that offer a rich extension of the morning program. Splendid Day meets Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until 1:15 p.m.

Each month, students are encouraged to participate in an outreach project by bringing toiletry items for the City of Refuge. November’s item is a bar of soap.

Winter Splendid Day begins November 30, 2015

Register now www.peachtreepresbyterianpreschool.org

november blessing The annual Toy Drive will be December 2 and 3. Tell your children to be on the lookout for Elves during the morning and afternoon carpool. The Elves will be collecting NEW unwrapped toys to be donated the City of Refuge.

Thank you God for all that grows, Thank you for the sky’s rainbows, Thank you for the stars that shine, Thank you for these friends of mine, Thank you for the moon and sun, Thank you God for all you’ve done!

Amen

Teacher Appreciation The teachers and staff enjoyed a delicious breakfast on October 15 . A very special thank you to Mims Bledsoe with Safro’s for donating a delicious variety of casseroles including Sausage Egg Strata, Spinach Egg Strata and Bread Pudding. Safro’s is located across the street from Pie Shop, its sister store, and offers breakfast, main dish, and sides all made fresh and frozen ready to heat when you need them. They have several gluten-free and vegetarian options, and casseroles come in both small and large sizes. They are great for beach trips, host gifts, new babies and any night you want an easy dinner solution! www.safroscarryout.com Thank you to the following people for their contributions to this event: Kathryn Brown, Johanna Barnes, Natalie Albert, Trish Campbell, Rebecca Blanchette, Marci Ehrlich, Melissa Gordon, Gina Teliho, Andrea Claussen, Liz Jones and Liza Smith.

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halloween parades

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BCM food drive

sustainability

The Outreach Committee would like to thank all of those who contributed to the food drive this past month. Over 100 bags of food were delivered to Buckhead Christian Ministry! Special thanks to the parents who helped collect, load and/or stock the donations.

Tip of the Month

Springtime in the City March 18, 2016

7-11 p.m.

The Biltmore Ballrooms The Springtime in the City committee is already fast at work planning this fabulous nighttime auction which benefits the Adaptive Learning Center and Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool. Sponsorship opportunities are now available. Please contact Jacqui Carlyle at jacquicarlyle@me.com or Jennifer Champion at jenchamp7@gmail.com with any questions.

November 17 and 18 - Do you have any hard to recycle items you’d like to get out of your house - cans of old paint, electronics and household chemicals? Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool is partnering with CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) to keep hazardous materials out of our air, water, soil and homes. Please look at the following items and see what you can bring to be recycled. Morning carpool workers will help get items out of your car for transport.

• batteries • books • carpet chemicals/pesticides • electronics • expired medications • fat/oil/grease • paint latex/oil • light bulbs • mattresses • musical instruments • plastic bags/wrap • shoes and clothes • sports equipment • tires Be sure to visit their web site, livethrive.org/charm, to understand which items require a small handling fee to be recycled, i.e, tires, paint, mattresses, etc. Many items, such as printer cartridges, batteries and light bulbs require no fee to be recycled. Be sure to bring an envelope with your fees included if you have applicable items. . 5 .

professional development Educator Exchange Day

Because of the amount of interest in schools using the Reggio approach, Project Infinity schools developed a way to interact with interested educators from the community. On October 8, Peachtree welcomed 35 visitors for an afternoon that included environment tours and staff presentations. Sandy Polly and Patty Randall presented work from The Blossom Room and The Green Meadow Room. Jane Montgomery developed a presentation about the ongoing work that Peachtree is doing to engage families and community.

The group visited eleven classrooms, studio spaces and the outdoor classroom for open conversations with Peachtree educators.

Project Infinity Whole Project Day

On Friday, October 16, the Peachtree staff joined educators from the seven Project Infinity Schools for a day of professional development in Greenville, South Carolina. This was the first gathering of the new school year, and the educators had a full program of presentations and discussions, sharing of work and reflecting on the first thirty days of the school year.

Schools in Project Infinity are Grant Park Cooperative Preschool, Greenville First Baptist Infant Toddler Program, Greenville First Baptist Kindergarten, Saint Anne’s Day School and The Nest Nursery School.

The day opened with Margie Cooper sharing a video of Carlina Rinaldi receiving the Lego 2015 Award in Denmark from the Lego Foundation. Carlina is the current president of Reggio Children in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Throughout her 44-year-career, Rinaldi has advocated for the principles of respect, responsibility, community and childhood. She passionately believes in child-centered learning based on the interests of children themselves in an enriching environment supporting exploration and discovery.

Additionally teams shared presentations from each school on the first thirty days of school, inspiring teachers to experiment, think and reflect on innovative work for classrooms. Over 170 educators in Project Infinity came together for a full day of professional development and learning, helping to build community as educators shared experiences that contribute to the mission of each school.

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beyond preschool On October 23 and 24, Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool hosted a North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) initiative, Beyond Preschool: Connecting with Reggio Emlia’s Values and Principles. This was designed for elementary school teachers and administrators as well as university professors. Eighty people attended from 26 different schools, 18 states and four countries. The presenters were Amelia Gambetti (Reggio Children) and Harold Gothson, (Reggio Emilia Intitutet in Stockholm). Additionally Jerry Bates and Jennifer Kesslisng, Riverfield Country Day School in Tulsa, presented the professional development model used in their school.

The group toured the Outdoor Classroom, Five/Six classrooms and Art Studio for dialogue and exchange of the Peachtree environment. Attending from Peachtree were Ali Malone, Grant Troutman, Jane Montgomery, Patty Randall and Candice Purcell.

chickens have come to peachtree!

Peachtree is excited about the recent addition of three chickens to the Outdoor Classroom. In a partnership with CityChick, there is now a White Sultan, a Barred Rock and a Rhode Island Red. The hens (girls) are friendly, and the children enjoy holding and feeding them. Currently they are laying about one egg each day which is exciting for the children to discover! The girls like to eat grapes, watermelon, strawberries as well as an organic, non–GMO chicken feed.

During the morning, the girls “free range” scratching about for worms and insects. The children like to observe the chickens as they wander the Outdoor Classroom. The entire school participated in the name selection process, and we hope to announce the names soon. The addition of the chickens provides many opportunities to support the children’s experiences in science, literacy(story writing), numeracy and caring for others.

The chickens live in a nice secure coop with an area to roam freely. The coop includes a quiet nesting area so that they can lay eggs. They are securely locked away at the end of the day to guard them against predators such as hawks and raccoons.

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2016-2017 Priority Registration Begins

Prospective Parent Tours - Tell a Friend

Registration for the 2016-2017 school year will begin on November 2 for both current students and those who will be new to the program. Applications and the accompanying registration fee of $120 per child may be submitted online at www.peachtreepresbyterianpreschool.org/admission.

Tours of the Preschool give prospective parents an opportunity to visit the school and learn about the Preschool’s philosophy, while seeing students participating in class activities.

Tours meet in the Welcome Center at the Family Commons at 9:30 a.m.

Please invite any interested friends to attend a tour.

Returning students and their siblings are guaranteed placement for the new school year if applications are received by noon on January 15, 2016. For new families, admission priorities are as follows: *active members of Peachtree Presbyterian Church *families from the community For those applying by January 15, 2016, enrollment status will be conveyed via email and via by letter on February 1, 2016. After January 15, 2016, admission will continue on a space available basis.

Upcoming Tour Dates: Thursday, November 5 Monday, November 16 Wednesday, December 2 Please visit us online for more dates: www.peachtreepresbyterianpreschool.org

exploration and discovery in the small studio

“It’s so cozy in here!” - Florrie, 2yrs (The Red Room)

One of our school-wide intentions is to deepen our understanding of the value of play in young children’s daily life.

Children build and develop strong relationships through play with peers, teachers, and families. This year The Small Studio, room 1222, has been transformed into an environment welcoming Toddler and Two-year-old classes. The children are offered rich materials to encourage group play and foster relationships.

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