Raindrop Cooperative Preschool News and Events

Preschool Setup

2011-08-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

August 22nd, 10 AM at Raindrop Preschool

All families are invited to come help us setup the preschool for the coming year. Come see our additions to the preschool and help to set the tone for a great year.

October 2009 Newsletter

2009-10-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Raindrop Cooperative Preschool

October 2009

From the Teacher's Desk
It is hard to believe the month of September is already over. The month of October is filled with many new and exciting activities. Our preschoolers will be learning about bats, spiders and towards the end of the month we will begin our safety unit. Our 4/5 year olds will begin learning a new letter each week, while our 3/4 year olds will start off a little slower with some beginning writing exercises.

During snack we will be recording the different food groups we are eating on our Food Pyramid. So, remember to bring healthy balanced snacks to school. I will be sending home our first homework assignment, an All About Me poster. We will share a different poster each day during Closing Circle to get to know each other better.

Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th we will be having an in class party. Children may wear costumes, but please no weapons. On Friday, October 16th we will have our first field trip. The whole school is invited to go to Shaffner Farms Pumpkin Patch. We will meet at Shaffner Farms at 10:00 AM. The cost is $4.00 per student. Please have your money turned into me no later than Monday, October 12th. This is very important. Shaffner Farms has asked me to collect the money in advance. If you bring an extra child or purchase a pumpkin yourself, please pay for your items at the farm. We will be eating snack at the pumpkin patch, so please bring a brown bag snack for your child.

On Monday the 19th and Wednesday the 21st is Special Persons Night. Special Persons Night is when you child gets to bring a special person to class with him. The 3/4 class will have their Special Persons Night on Monday the 19th at 6:00 pm (no class in the morning). The 4/5 class will have their Special Persons Night Wednesday the 21st at 6:00 pm (no class in the afternoon). Each child needs to bring a hollowed out pumpkin, carving tools, and a special person. Snack parent please provide enough snack for each child and their special person.

October is my favorite month, so I am excited to get the activities started.
Thank you to everyone who has helped in making the beginning of the year start off so great. I am looking forward to many more wonderful months ahead. See you in class, Mrs. Lenss

Mark Your Calender!
October 8th & 9th- Drop Off for Aluminum Cans
October 10th & 11- Garage Sale
October 16th- Field Trip to Shaffners Farm
October 19th- 3/4 Special Persons Night
October 20th- Board Meeting 6pm
October 21- 4/5 Special Persons Night
October 27th- Family Night 6pm
October 30th- In-Class Party

October Birthdays October 5th- Noah Lampkey October 25th- Mija Hood

Comments from Co-Presidents Chris Hunt & Jeanne Ward

Word Of Mouth At Work! Thank you to Alicia Blundred for inviting several families to visit our school during the Open House. One new student joined our toddler program as a direct result of Alicia's word-of-mouth advertising about our program. We also had families stop by after seeing our school represented at Logger's Play Day and the Cosmopolis Festival in the Park and enrolled two new students as a direct result of the Open House. Additional thanks to those who brought food and children to enjoy the evening at school go out to the following families: Christel/Glowacki, Dawson, Hunt/Ward, Lenss, Sias, and Wilson.

Community and Communication at Raindrop
Part of our mission at Raindrop Cooperative Preschool is to help families connect with each other and form friendships that extend beyond the classroom walls. One way to meet other parents is to arrive at school about five minutes before class is over and catch up with each other in the hallway outside of class. Another way to meet and work with other families is to attend extra-curricular activities such as family-oriented special event nights like the open house and parent-oriented events like board meetings. If you have questions about our program but don't seem to have extra time for face to face contacts, you are always welcome to fill out a comment card located at the parent communication table or drop us a line at our program email address: raindropcoop@gmail.com.

More about Raindrop Cooperative Preschool's Learning Goals #1 & #2
Page 9 of the Raindrop Handbook outlines our school's learning goals for children and serves as a map for the daily routines and weekly curriculum activities. Raindrop's first goal is that children have a positive first experience with peers and school, and our second goal is that students learn the concept of friend and experience a group sense. When children enjoy their time at school and develop friendship connections with other students, both their social and academic skill development are enhanced.

One reason for this two-fold outcome is that when students feel a safe, happy sense of belonging at school, they can devote their energy and attention to learning the routines and concepts that are being presented through the instructional component of our program. Conversely, if students do not form friendships or do not feel that they belong at school, they must first spend their time and energy trying to meet their emotional need for belonging and will have less opportunities to learn and apply academic concepts.

With great dedication, Mrs. Lenss engages all students in learning activities, interpersonal interactions, and group games to ensure that students have a variety of positive experiences with their peers. This often helps students look forward to coming to school each day and makes participation in learning activities fun. As the first few weeks of school have passed by, you may have noticed such an attitude in your child. It is also possible that as the "new"ness of school days has worn off, a student may resist coming to school from time to time for various reasons.

At our house, sometimes it is hard to get ready for school because the timing is an interruption of a more concrete activity that is already happening. However, after we get past the rough spot of preparing for school and are walking through the classroom doors, I always find that our daughter is so quickly involved in what's happening at school that she hardly looks up to say goodbye when I leave.

Please take a moment this week to talk with your child about his or her feelings about school. If you are in the parent/toddler program and your child is just learning to talk, look for cues that show how your child feels about coming to the program with you. Is it hard to get you child out of the classroom at the end of the day? Even though his or her reluctance to leave can be frustrating at the moment, it's a positive sign that your child is enjoying time at school! Feel free to ask Mrs. Lenss how she views your child's adjustment to the program and share thoughts you may have about your child's feelings about school.

Fundraising
Starting on Oct 5th and ending on the 23rd of October we will be selling Papa Murphy Cards. These cards are going to be sold for $5.00 each with a $4.00 profit. We have a fundraising goal for the month of $800.00 for the month of October. We are asking each child to sell 8 cards. If everyone sells all 8 Cards/child we will reach our fundraising goal. We are also planning on having one more garage sale on Oct 10th in Hoquiam. If you have anything to doante we will still take donations. For donation drop off or any questions please contact Jeanne Ward at 532-6347or leave her a message at the school.

We will start our collection of supplies for making our holiday swags at the end of the month. We will need to have families donate the following items: Large holiday bows,holiday ribbon (it takes about 31/2 yards to make a ribbon),floral wire.There may be other items that we need and we will have a list on the communications board soon. Remember that it takes all of us working together to have a successful fundraiser and successful fundraisers are what keep our tuition cost low. Thanks, Michelle

Logger's Playday

2009-09-12T22:25:00.000-07:00

Our crew for the 2009 Hoquiam Logger's Play Day parade was great. The weather was perfect and the kids marched for the whole parade. We gave away free necklaces and distributed over 200 fliers promoting our preschool and our Open House next week. Thank you very much to all who attended, helped and to all those alumni who cheered us on. If you missed it, check us out at the Cosmopolis Festival in the Park (actually held at the grade school this year) tomorrow.

September Newsletter

2009-09-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

Click on the link above to read the September, 2009 newsletter from Raindrop Cooperative Preschool.

Garage Sale Success!

2009-09-08T07:08:00.001-07:00

The Garage Sale held the weekend of 9/4-9/6 generated $742 of fundraising revenue.

Friday, sale hours 10:00 am - 5:30 pm, raised $500
Saturday, sale hours 11:00 am - 5:30 pm raised $181 (with a 50% sale from 3pm on)
Sunday, sale hours Noon - 3:30 pm raised $61 (all items were $0.25)

Sale contributions came from several preschool families, including Wilson, Lenss, Jurasin, Dawson, and Ward/Hunt. I think someone is missing from this list, because we didn't ask people to leave their family name when dropping off items at the sale location.

Set-up volunteers represented the Dawson, Ward/Hunt, and Devine families.

Sale volunteers were Jeanne, Linda, & Patrick Ward, Ken Dawson, Athenna Schlobohn, Faith Devine, and Chris Hunt.

TO PUT OUR EFFORTS IN PERSPECTIVE:
$500 is over half of the $900 school-wide September fundraising goal and it is only four days into the month

$270 is the cost of one parent/toddler slot for the whole school year
$630 is the cost of one preschool slot for the whole school year

PLEASE NOTE: The primary application of funds raised is not toward new scholarships, but as a supplement to the monthly revenue paid by currently enrolled families. This supplement constitutes a partial scholarship that all families receive since our monthly tuition ($30 parent toddler & $70 preschool) only pays a portion of the full cost of running our program.

Ideally, Raindrop Preschool would end each fiscal year with a significant amount of funds dedicated toward funded scholarships to be awarded at the beginning of the next school year, or as needed. The 2008-2009 fiscal year ended with a scholarship surplus of approximately $630, however we must always hold funds in reserve until we can be assured of an adequate enrollment in respect to our minimum monthly program expenses of approximately $2000. As of 9/2/09, $560 has been awarded during the 2009-2010 school year as partial scholarships to two preschool families.

Way to start the year Raindrop families!

Jeanne Ward
Raindrop Cooperative Preschool Co-President (2009-2010)
www.raindropcoop.org

Everything's coming up pumpkin!

2009-08-15T17:01:00.001-07:00

Garden Progress

2009-07-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

As the thermometer hangs in the 90's the Raindrop Coop Garden in Hoquiam is doing well. In the foreground, blue potatoes for stamp blocks, growing or just eating. On the left in the background, our fall pumpkins are doing very well. Parents take turns watering the garden a few times each week.

Sprouts and Seeds started May 27th

2009-06-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

Greener Pastures: Tiny steps to reduce waste make a big difference

2009-01-25T00:25:00.000-08:00

The Raindrop Preschoolers & Toddlers have taken several steps to reduce the amount of classroom waste headed for the landfill including:

Using washable cups and beautiful handmade ceramic plates
Recycling paper scraps, old copies, etc.
Sending snack scraps to the worm bin
Sending emails and making phone calls in place of paper mail and photocopies when possible

Please post a comment and share green initiatives at Raindrop Coop that I have missed and add your own great ideas and at-home/work efforts.

Make free interactive digital books online!

2009-01-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

At CAST's Universal Design for Learning Bookbuilder website, anyone can make free online digital books/media presentations that include up to three animated characters with auto-generated text-to-voice functions. The presentations can include images, audio files, and formatted text and have pagination built in.

This tool was originally developed in support of reading comprehension and is often used to prompt readers to think critically about a text based on research-based comprehension strategies that are at the forefront of best practices in school-based reading instruction. However, it has many other uses, including documenting fieldtrips and making books more accessible to the visually impaired through text aloud features. Bookbuilder was designed and disseminated by the Center for Applied Special Technology.

Click on the post title to visit Bookbuilder, view sample books, and sign up for a free account. You can even download any of the books free of charge to use on your computer offline.

Check out The Fall Book of Colors for an example of how this technology can be used as a shared reading activity for younger children. Bookbuilder would also be a great way to help children design their own digital books and presentations. BTW- all of CAST's tools and websites are completely AD FREE!

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About CAST

CAST is a nonprofit research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through Universal Design for Learning.

Founded in 1984 as the Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST has earned international recognition for its innovative contributions to educational products, classroom practices, and policies. Its staff includes specialists in education research and policy, neuropsychology, clinical/school psychology, technology, engineering, curriculum development, K-12 professional development, and more.

Digging our hands in

2008-08-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had our first official board meeting of the year and I have to tell you, I'm ready to go. I hadn't seen our teacher since June so to talk with her again tonight was so exciting. I know my son is going to be even more thrilled come September 12th, his first day of class.

It was nice having a summer break from school work. Because being on the Board is being part of that proverbial 20% that does 80% of the work. However, I wouldn't have it any other way. This is my seventh year as a Co-op member and I used to be one of those parents who didn't serve on the Board nor understand what moved people to do so. But now I'm addicted: addicted to spending time with so many intelligent, motivated, and fun parents. I'm addicted to helping to actually run a school, rather than passively be served or instructed by policy.

Tonight we talked about our Open House, Orientation, Room Warming day, first day of school, three field trips, and our Harvest party. And this will all be taking place in the next couple of months! It's promising to be a busy start but well worth the effort.

The community garden is growing gangbusters

2008-08-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Raindrop Cooperative Preschool's plot at the Hoquiam Community Garden was spearheaded during the 2007-2008 school year by the Hogaboom family. The initial plantings of marigolds, pumpkin sprouts, and butternut squash starts were made by the students at the beginning of June 2008. The pumpkins were even grown from seed as part of a year end plant-life and gardening unit, and the marigolds have blossomed beautifully all summer long. Some additional herb starts (chives, mint, thyme, and oregano?) were donated by the Patterson family and the sunflowers have been grown by seed from a free packet left by another Community Garden participant. The Hunt, Hogaboom, Glowacki, and Patterson families have been frequent visitors and garden tenders over the summer.

Preschool teacher Mrs. Lenss plans several classroom visits to the garden plot during the Autumn months as part of an integrated curriculum theme. Please feel free to share your comments and aspirations regarding our tiny garden plot with other visitors to this site! Photos can be emailed to raindropcoop@gmail.com for inclusion in a digital scrapbook.