DECEMBER 2008 NEWSLETTER      I don’t know where our year is going...time is passing too quickly!!  Thank you so much for all your help this year!!  Your support of our fundraiser was great!   Thank you for your patience with the backorders—we did the best we were able to do!  Thank you also to the parents who helped with the orders-Mr. & Mrs. Kile, Mrs. McDowell and Mrs. Parkison—we really appreciated the help!  And talk about help—thank you so much to everyone for all they did to help with our Operation Christmas Child project!  On Fri. (11/21) we delivered 50 boxes stuffed with all kinds of fun things!!  Once again, very special thanks goes to Mrs. Hunt for all the work she did to recruit financial support to help cover some shipping and to Mr. Crouch for his assistance at Ontario Systems!!  Thank you to the parents (and the N.W. Dollar Tree) for your donations of gifts as well as money to help make Christmas much better for 50 children!   We put a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, washcloth, coloring book, comb and at least one box of crayons in each and every box!!  There are so many people who deserve a special thank you for making all of this possible!  So THANK YOU!  You are incredible!!
    Also thank you for spending time reading with your children and for ordering books from Scholastic!!  We have already gotten ourselves some fun books as well as collecting points that we can use on other things!  Anytime you have misplaced that Scholastic newspaper, you can connect to the Scholastic web page to look at the book clubs, via our Newsletter page.  Book orders will be due immediately this month so that I can get them ordered and back before Christmas Break—no grace days this month!  If you want to order surprises, just mark your order accordingly!
Thank you in advance to our mystery visitors this month who are coming in for “gift of reading day”!!  The kids will have so much fun with this!!  Be sure to ask your children who visited and what they read!!
    We will be having a Christmas present exchange at our parties.  We limit the cost of the present to $2.00 and ask that the present simply be marked by "girl" or "boy", with a tag saying who the present is from.  Therefore, if you have a girl you would send in a girl present etc.  You may start sending them in, the week before the party.  If you have signed up for this party, the class mother will be contacting you.
     In the past, as teachers, we have asked for something different at Christmas time.  Rather than you spending money on us for gifts, we would ask that maybe your gift could be directed toward something that the kids could benefit from.  Once again, we have been creating our own "Wish Fund".  We have been able to get so many fun things for the children such as Ranger Rick subscriptions, a large bug house -- just to name a few.   Our hamster “Boo” is totally supported by this fund—if you have not met her, please stop in to do that!  The children really enjoy her and it teaches them a little respect for living things  So please don't buy us anything--just mark any gift towards our "Wish Fund" and we would be grateful!!  Click here to read that note
     Please notice our vacation schedule this month and be reminded about listening to the radio for weather conditions that affect our school schedule. That station is WLBC 104.1 FM.  We also are listed on some of the TV Stations. Your pre-school handbook or our web page (http://ccpsmuncie.com) under Special Notices should be able to answer questions you might have.  Please click here to read our concerns about the winter!
     It seems hard to believe that there is only one month left to this year!!  This is the month of giving and what better time to give a gift of YOUR TIME!    These children don't need nice cars, lots and lots of toys…they need your love and attention! Please give them the time to dress on their own, to learn to tie shoes, to be read to, to follow your directions.  Doing everything FOR them is not necessarily helping them.  These children are only yours for a very short time--will you have regrets later that you missed these days and didn't spend enough time together??? Please give this some thought--you can never re-live these days in your child's life!!  Also, please take the time to discipline them consistently by following through with what you expect!!  Be firm, be fair and be consistent!  Being consistent helps your child make sense of his world.  Both (time and discipline) will pay off in huge rewards of responsible children.  Your children should be your biggest investment in the future!  Enough of my thoughts….
WEE ONES NEWS
    Thank you to the special moms who cooked "extras" for our Thanksgiving feast!  We know the children enjoyed it and they were so very well behaved!  Thank you for all the baking and time you contributed to our special day!  I would like to remind you to include your child in everyday household tasks.  Helping at home increases a child's sense of achievement, self-esteem and responsibility.  A child of 3 or 4 can feed the pet, help sort laundry and straighten up things.  Being accepted as a work partner is a positive boost to a child's self esteem.  Remember not to expect perfection in their small efforts and it certainly is easier just to do it yourself, but you deprive your child of learning, and the chance to feel useful.
    We are participating in "Read for 2009" again this year, but ask that you do it at home and let us know what you read together.  We have already sent the form home!  We'll also be sending home our advent calendars we are making and hope the children have fun with them.  We will be singing new songs this month and listening to the Christmas story.

PRE - K NEWS
    Thank you to the special moms who cooked "extras" for our Thanksgiving feast!  We know the children enjoyed it and they were so very well behaved!  Thank you for all the baking and time you contributed to our special day!  I would like to remind you to include your child in everyday household tasks.  Helping at home increases a child's sense of achievement, self-esteem and responsibility.  A child of 4 or 5 can feed the pet, help sort laundry and straighten up things.  Being accepted as a work partner is a positive boost to a child's self esteem.  Remember not to expect perfection in their small efforts and it certainly is easier just to do it yourself, but you deprive your child of learning, and the chance to feel useful.
     We will be celebrating "Read for 2009" ..the children absolutely love when you visit!  We have already sent the form home!  We'll also be sending home our advent calendars we are making and hope the children have fun with them.  We will be singing new songs this month and listening to the Christmas story.