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Lower School Newsletter Archive

Fall 2006

Fall 2006 Newsletter
From Mary Ellen Kenny, Lower School Head


Greetings! It was wonderful to see so many of you at last month's Lower School Curriculum Night. We hope it provided you with insight and formed a foundation for a meaningful dialogue with your child's teacher about his/her experiences at PDS. A deliberate flow of communication will continue throughout the year. The fall conference is the perfect opportunity to look at work samples, understand how your child approaches learning and to ask questions about his/her progress. In addition, you will receive seasonal newsletters from me that provide an overview of the rich experiences currently engaging the interest of lower school students. Teachers will also keep you informed with newsletters of their own or with publications generated by the children. We hope these efforts will spark meaningful conversations between you and your child and will help you feel connected to life at PDS.

Autumn brings a special vitality to the lower school. The children's abundant energy is inspiring and creates a notable sense of purpose. They are now comfortable in their surroundings, new friendships are beginning to blossom and students and teachers are fully immersed in exciting learning experiences. To a great extent, our curriculum is formed around questions. Teachers use their understanding of child development to identify the big compelling questions that interest children. They encourage children to raise new, often unexpected questions as a vital part of the learning process. Broad topics that focus on the relationship between people and their environment provide the framework for our explorations and interdisciplinary studies. This year some questions our students are investigating include:

Children address these and many other questions in a variety of ways. They hypothesize and conduct research to see if their notions are well formulated. They examine artifacts, create models, read, write, discuss, compare, sketch, paint and draw conclusions based on a wide array of experiences. Following is a sample of activities in which children in the lower school are engaged:


Pre-K The children have been getting to know one another and have made charts and graphs that record what they have noticed about height, eye color, gender and preferences of ice cream flavors! They are learning to make transitions during the school day and are becoming familiar with new classroom routines. Venturing beyond the classroom is also important. Our youngest students went to the legendary "climbing tree" at Vassar College and also visited a local apple orchard with their 3-4 reading buddies. These exciting adventures are reflected in their lively drawings, paintings and stories.

K The children are in the process of writing books about themselves. Baby pictures were shared and lots of weighing and measuring is going on to compare "then and now." The kindergarteners recently completed a math investigation of patterns which culminated in a Pattern Museum. Frequent visits to Sprout Creek Farm will continue through the fall. The farmers and animals are new friends who will help the children learn about farm life and will add another dimension to the kindergarteners' investigation of the season.

1-2 The year began with the excitement of observing a caterpillar form a chrysalis and emerge about 10 days later as a beautiful butterfly. The children learned about the life cycle of the monarch and the long journey that makes their story so remarkable. They have also been learning about the Ice Age and how the Shawangunk Ridge was formed. Recent trips to Minnewaska and Mohonk have helped students create a model of the ridge with shale and conglomerate. They constructed their own "Paleo cave" for rich, dramatic play experiences and with the help of their parents began building a wigwam to bring to life their study of Native Americans. They can also be heard singing inspired songs such as Geology Soup and Mystery Mammal.

3-4 Before launching a study of a faraway place such as Ghana, an introduction to global geography is necessary. Students will be investigating world maps and learning about the continents and oceans as they begin to find out more about the Ashanti people. Closer to home, a recent exploration of schoolyard ecology sparked an interest in spiders. The children are learning fundamental research skills as they gather and synthesize information about spiders. The Anansi stories of West Africa provide the perfect literary counterpoint to this investigation. Finally, we all need to thank the 3-4 students for getting the recycling program at PDS up and running again! Kudos to Ellen DeLong for inspiring the effort.

Faculty News

This fall members of the lower school faculty are taking full advantage professional development opportunities provided by PDS.

Over the summer Sue Parise (3-4) participated in the Hudson Valley Writer's Project. She recently took part in an all-day follow-up to the work begun at the Summer Institute. Sue is responsible for presenting aspects of her work to other local teachers this fall at the Mid-Hudson Teachers Center.

Dorothy Toman (pre-k) will attend The Beginning Teacher's Institute in Rensselaerville, NY. The three-day conference is sponsored by the NewYork State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS).

Pat Hennberger (drama) and Lynn Fordin (1-2) will travel to the Village Community School in NYC to attend a NYSAIS conference focused on diversity, entitled Gender Expression, Sexuality and Family Diversity in Pre-K, Elementary and Middle School.

Lynn Fordin and I will participate in the 12th Annual Multicultural Conference at SUNY New Paltz in early November. The title of the conference is Opening Minds, Closing the Gap: Fostering Achievement and Equity for All.

In mid-November Nan Moran (pre-k) will go to Seattle to attend a three-day diversity conference sponsored by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). Ileana Hernandez Carafas and Li Pipman Denaut will travel with Nan representing the middle and upper school divisions respectively.

Sarah Feldman (librarian) is attending the annual school and public librarain's conference: Fall into Books on October 26, where she will attend workshops including: Introducing Biographies as a Literary Genre and Teen Heroes in Literature.

Our school nurse, Deb Rorabeck, will be leaving PDS at the end of the month to pursue a longtime dream of working with her best friend to operate a small business. They will open a bead shop at the Water Street Market in New Paltz in mid-November. In addition to selling interesting wares, Deb will offer classes to inspire budding jewelers in the region. We will all miss Deb a great deal but wish her well on her next big adventure. We are currently searching for a qualified nurse to join our school community and will let you know as soon as the position has been filled.

From the Health Office: Healthy Snacks and Lunches

As a working Mom, I always tried to come up with healthy snacks and lunches for my children that they would eat and were easy to prepare. Children need to eat every three hours in order for their blood sugar levels to be stabilized and for them to work effectively. They also need to eat between 5 and 13 servings of fruit and vegetables for optimum health. Snack time is the perfect chance to provide some of these foods. Apple slices, raisins, grapes, dried fruit, applesauce or fruit cocktail are easy choices. Vegetable sticks with a low-fat dip are usually a hit, as is pita bread with hummus or bean dip. Other healthy snack ideas include light string cheese (fun to pull apart), granola bars, yogurt or rice cakes.

We are lucky to have The Balancing Act prepare our lunches because they are designed to be healthy. Talk with your child about the choices they are making for lunch and make sure you are not repeating the meal at dinner. If your child brings a lunch from home, plan the meal together. A child who has helped plan the lunch, is more apt to eat it.

Ideally, a lunch should be about half fruits and vegetables, a source of protein and some source of grain. Pre-packaged lunches, while easy, are high in sodium and fat and are best avoided. A website I found that has good ideas for snack and lunch is FamilyFun.com. .

One last word, breakfast is the most important meal of the day - start your child off with a good one. You'll both have a better day because of it! Deb

Vassar Connection

A group of Vassar students involved in fund raising for UNICEF contacted me to ask if they could visit our school and invite children to participate in the well-known program "Trick- or-Treat for UNICEF." The children collect small amounts of money in a clearly labeled collection box as they go trick or treating. The money collected is then donated to UNICEF. We thought it would be a wonderful joint project. The Vassar students will meet 1-2 and 3-4 classes on Friday, October 27. Participation in the program is strictly voluntary and more detailed information will follow.

Important Dates

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