Director Kitelet March 2026
Dear GCS Families,
We are so excited to welcome the arrival of spring with longer days, brighter sunshine, warmer weather, and more opportunities to take advantage of our outdoor playscape. The extra daylight brings flexibility to our days, as children love having more time outside to explore, and lighter layers make transitions and dressing much easier for children and teachers. And now that the ground has thawed, opening the climbers and hanging up the swings were greeted with much enthusiasm. Spring is a wonderful season of new growth, too; and we have just begun some classroom plantings, compost churning, and embracing the use of our indoor grow lights for future opportunities in our GCS Green- house and playground planters. The Kindergarten class will soon be trying their hand in “parenting” as they care for and incubate several fertilized chicken eggs with the hopes of having baby chicks later this spring. This is always a highlight for the Kindergarten children, as well as an exciting shared schoolwide event.
Curriculum Day
What an amazing Curriculum Day we had for staff training earlier this month. The day was jam packed, full of staff trainings and collaboration. We continued our exploration of this year’s literacy theme together, “Story Seeds”, dove deeper into Eureka Math, and welcomed our Occupational Therapy Consultant, Sue Lizotte, in for the day to refine our knowledge and skill in the Fine Motor Olympics Program. Special thanks to Samantha Wall and Luella Simikauskas, Co-Parent Reps on the Board of Directors, for coordinating a special GCS family playdate during our training day. It sounds like it was a popular event, and a good time was had by all. We appreciate the opportunity to grow and learn as a staff, as well as your support and understanding of how valuable these days are for our team.
Community Lecture
And speaking of our theme, save the date of Thursday, April 9th at 6:30 pm for a community and parent lecture entitled, “Little Readers & Literacy Rich Spaces”. It promises to be a fun and informative evening with great takeaways and tips for creating literacy opportunities in your home. To reserve space, please RSVP to events@groton communityschool.org with your name and number of attendees.
GCS Camp
Enrollment for GCS Camp 2026 is well underway. If you are interested and haven’t submitted your child’s Registration Form & payment, we suggest that you do so this week. Currently enrolled families will only be given priority until next Monday, when it is opened to past GCS campers and new GCS families. If you need a printed application, you may request it at the front desk.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to the Dougan family on the birth of their son (brother, Charlie, is in the MWF PM Blue Room).
Thank You!
Earlier this month, our AM classes enjoyed a special presentation by Jack Dalton, a Groton School student with a passion for conservation. Jack shared information about efforts to save orangutans and the book he wrote about them (at age 11)! We are grateful for his generous donations of book copies and stuffed orangutans for classrooms and our library. You can learn more about it on his website: www.kidconservationist.com.
We would like to give special thanks to Kindergarten mom & owner of Koukla Hair Salon, Yentl Burgos, for hosting the Kids Hairstyling Workshop earlier this month. Thank you to Kaitlyn Brokaw for organizing this event and to Lisa Stafford for her help that evening.
Another special thank you goes out to the McCann family for their donation of a wonderful wooden climbing structure for the children to use in the Community Room for inside play days.
Thank you to the TTh AM Blue Room Parents and families for our “Fun Friday” treats on Thursday during our Curriculum Day. We enjoyed delicious fruit, breakfast snacks, coffee & tea in between morning lessons of literacy, math, and fine motor development. And to our “Stock the Staff Room” volunteers: Sarah Cleary, Adriana Sanchez Correa, Danielle Jaffee, Bethany McGuiggan, Stephanie Scampini, Brittany Stelling, and Erica Tamlyn.
We’d also like to thank Diane Brine for her large donation of felt; to the Cleary family for grocery bags; to the McCann family for spare clothing; to Debbie Ross for music & movement items; to Jim Yett for old slides of GCS from the 1980’s; and to the West family for spare clothes, books & curriculum materials.
Until next time,
Linda Kosinski, GCS Director
Dates to REmember
Friday, April 3rd
Good Friday
No School
Week of April 6th
GCS Celebrates the
Week of the Young Child
Monday, April 6th
Animas Adventures
11 AM & 1 PM
Thursday, April 9th
Community Lecture
6:30 PM
Monday, April 13th
Board Meeting
7:30 PM
Week of April 20th
Spring Break
No School