December 2008 School Wide News

Last month in school wide meeting we took time to discuss the concept of gratitude. The children’s “grateful hearts’’ are displayed on the bulletin board in the front hall along with the poem we recite each day at lunchtime. This month, as we enter the season of giving, we will be exploring the idea of generosity and celebrating the joys of giving by making “giving hands” to add to the hearts. As a tangible sign of our understanding of these abstract ideas, each class will be collecting contributions for a holiday food basket that will be donated to the Hopkinton Food Bank. See your child’s teacher for details.

Our annual Holiday Tea (grades K-7) celebration is just around the corner. This evening of Holiday songs and skits will take place at St. Andrew’s Parish Hall starting a 6:00 pm on Friday, December 12th. A reminder that this year the event will not be an extended day, so all students will be dismissed or go to after-school care at 1:30, as on a regular Friday. If you are in need of after-school care just for that day, please speak to Lisa in the office.

Preschool Holiday Tea will take place on Tuesday, December 16th from 10:30—12:00. After the concert children will return to their classrooms for lunch. Monday, Wednesday, Friday preschoolers are welcome to come with their families to join in the celebration

The few flurries we’ve had recently are a timely reminder that snow season is soon upon us. Please be sure to check the Snow Day Cancellation and delay policy on our website.

The Mt. Sunapee Winter Sports Program for the upper school students (grades 1-7) is scheduled to begin January 5th. Information went home last week. Please let us know whether your child will be renting skis this year. Forms and payment are due back to the office December 2nd fittings for those needing rentals will take place here at school on Thursday, December 4th.

Given the response to our Nordic Ski survey, we will not be offering Nordic skiing this year. We will, however, be offering a Winter Sports Program here at school as part of our after school program. In addition to a winter sports program, we have a number of new after school offerings for our winter/spring semester. More information on our after school program will be sent home later this week.

Our first Preschool Parent Teacher Forum met on November 18th. We had a great turn-out and discussed ideas for adjusting class configurations and classrooms for next year. Minutes from this meeting are attached.

The Safety Committee met on November14th. Sara Duval, Jodi Burnham, and Laura Brancato attended. We have plans to install a lock and buzzer system in the front entrance. This will provide even more security for the building during the school day. We will inform you soon with details about times and procedures for before and after school drop off and pick up.

A big thank you to Kate Vattes for hosting the Lia Sophia Jewelry sale for our annual fund drive. If you wanted to purchase something but were unable to make the sale, catalogues are still available in the front office.

Barefoot Books are back! Lisa Whipps is sponsoring a Barefoot Book sale for the month of December. This is a great way to make a dent on some holiday shopping and support our school. Information and catalogues came home last week. All proceeds will go towards the purchase of books for the school’s library.

You should have received a copy of our new strategic plan and annual fund letter. As you may know, annual giving comprises over twenty percent of the school’s operating budget each year. If you would like to donate online, we are now set up to receive contributions electronically on our website at http://www.hopkinind.org/.

Michelle Leuci (our school photographer this year) has reopened the school’s online photo gallery for those wishing to order more photos for the holidays. It will be available online (http://www.blogger.com/www.michelleleuci.com) from Friday, December 5th to Friday, December 12th. The password will remain the same.

SAVE THE DATE! Our annual auction will be held on March 21st at the Concord Audubon Society. Plans are already underway for this fun(d) raising evening! If you would like to be involved in the planning please see Kate Vattes, Jennifer Frizzell, or Christine Haydinger.

A reminder that school will be closed for winter vacation from Monday, December 22nd through Friday January 2nd.