Fall Phone Calls, Firefighters, our Fix-up and More!

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Director's Newsletter October 2017

Dear Families,

Happy fall, although the weather feels like spring and on some days, even summer! Having extended time outside while the sun is shining is always a welcomed time, especially when there are piles of leaves to rake up and jump into. While the school year seems like it just started such a short time ago, classrooms have settled in nicely and children are comfortable and busy laughing, playing, and learning. Patty Barr has been making weekly visits to each classroom to sing, dance, and foster young children’s physical coordination and strength. Our Occupational Therapy Consultant, Sue Lizotte, made her first visit last week to observe, share her insights and curriculum suggestions, and also facilitate a sensory development workshop for staff during lunch. And finally, our Speech and Language Consultant Sarah Belcher, also made her initial consultations for the year. We are so fortunate to have these warm and experienced specialists to enhance our professional and knowledgeable teaching staff.

FALL PHONE CALLS
I hope you enjoyed connecting with your child’s teacher and talking about their adjustments, successes and goals via fall phone conference calls. Having strong connections between home and school is something that we continually strive for as it is such a vital component to a successful school year. As always, please reach out to your child’s teacher or myself should you have any concerns or questions throughout the school year.

CELEBRATING PEACE
We had a wonderfully, heartwarming re-dedication of our GCS Peace Pole earlier this month with music, culture, and a ”play” put on by our own Kindergarteners. Thank you to many of you who were able to celebrate with us and help to spread kindness, caring, and compassion throughout our community. Classes will continue to visit the Peace Pole throughout the year, but we will again visit as a school community later next spring during the Week of the Young Child.

GROTON FIRE/EMS
With Fire Prevention Week falling during the month of October, we are very grateful for the Groton Fire Department Firefighters and EMTs for visiting with our classrooms. We are so appreciative of their time and efforts to calm fears and educate young children on the importance of fire and safety needs. It was especially exciting for us here at GCS as two of our own GCS alumni were part of the crew that came to visit. The children were excited to climb in both a fire truck and an ambulance, see some of the equipment that is used, and watch a firefighter dress in their gear. Please be sure to thank these community helpers if you see them!

HOME TOUR
Our Home Tour Committee and Board of Directors are busy, busy, busy… pulling together all the necessary tasks to showcase our 13th annual Groton Community Home Tour. Save the date of Saturday, November 18th for fun, home touring, and shopping. It is heartwarming to come together as a community for an exciting day while also raising necessary funds for the school’s breakeven budget. There are so many ways you can be part of this fabulous event from purchasing tickets and touring the homes, to donating to our chance table, baking for our bake sale, or even volunteering time on the day of. Please see our website or any of us at the front desk for more information. The lobby will transform into a sea of fabulous chance items very soon.

FALL FIX-UP APPRECIATION
Many thanks to the many hands that helped out at our Fall Fix-Up on Saturday. Thank you to Jeremy Chapman & Dan Quinn (coordinators), Kate Ferriola, Jen Burke, Scott Winroth, Jenn Halloran, Bill Rochefort, Johnny Horvath & Ashley Barron (Lawrence Academy students), Brie & Evan Weider, Heather Spinney-Laidlaw, Jim Ramsay, Lisa Stafford, Deb Penney, Aron Bellorado, Mike Burgess, Pete Burgess, Connor Burgess, Jake Oliveira, Joseph Burgess, Ed Hand, Chris Catanese, Trevor Phipps, Pat Crouse, Hongwei Li, Karl Noone, Liz Siracusa, and Chris Snow.

A special thanks to Justin Ducharme of Westford Earth Materials for the donation & installation of stone dust.

We would also like to thank the following for providing snacks & beverages for the volunteers: Denielle Babey, Jamie Christerson, Michelle Coffey, Laura Cummings, Rebecca Freeman, Donna Haggerty, Aga Krajewska, Elizabeth Ly, Raquel Majeski, Mairead Orpen, & Geunhyo Park.

THANK YOU!
We’d like to thank the following families for their contributions to GCS: The Chan family for staff snacks, the Chapman family for Annie’s snacks, The Currao family for clothing, the Noone family for sand toys & trucks, the Quinn-Miller family for toys & games, Nancy Ruthaford for containers, the Till family for puzzles, and to Stan & Georgia Zaborowski for books. We’d also like to thank Heather Wilson for decorating our displays for the Home Tour.

Linda Kosinski, Director

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