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Medfield Afterschool Program
Jump Start ~ Kindergarten ~ First Grade
October 2016 Newsletter
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Dear MAP Families,
Happy October!! What an exciting time of year it is for the children (and you too!). New schedules, teachers, friends, etc… We hope that your transition into MAP is going well and that everyone is settling in to the new routine! MAP is a busy place, especially at drop off & pick up times! If you have any questions or concerns and want to talk to me or a Teacher to get some feedback, we would be happy to make some time to talk. You can reach us by phone (508) 359-2165 or e-mail annette.map@comcast.net. Please be sure to let MAP know about absences, special pick-ups, or any changes to your child’s MAP schedule. You can always call, email, put a note in our communication notebook located next to the sign in/sign out notebook, or put a note in the container on top of the parent mailboxes.
E-mailing me is a great way to keep MAP informed. If you choose e-mail, please know that
I will always e-mail you right back
. However if you ever don’t get a reply e-mail and it is a time sensitive issue (absence, special pick up, etc…), please always follow up with a call to the program, as I am not always at my desk or in the office.
The MAP Family Handbook, Calendar, Newsletters, and lots of great information are all on our web site. It is a great resource for everything there is to know about MAP! We also send out a great deal of information via e-mail. If you haven’t received e-mails from MAP before, please e-mail me Annette.map@comcast.net and we'll add you to our list. For billing questions, please contact Gaye Shannon, our Executive Director at gayeshannon@verizon.net a or (508) 359-0003.
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter!
Sincerely, Annette
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Important Days @ MAP in October
Monday 10/3 – Special Sign Up Day - No School - MAP OPEN 8:00-6:00 for children who have previously signed up. Confirmations went out on 9/26. Children
need to come to MAP with a lunch! We’ll be having a Fall Festival!
Monday, 10/10 – Columbus Day – No school – MAP CLOSED
–
Have a great long weekend!
Wednesday 10/12 - Special Sign Up Day - No School - MAP OPEN 8:00-6:00 for children who have previously signed up. Confirmations went out on 9/26.
We’ll be having a Gross & Disgusting – Mad Science – Secret Lab Day!
Monday, 10/31—Happy Halloween! We can’t wait to see the children in their costumes… wait until you see ours!
Looking Ahead to
November @ MAP (*please note dates are out of order)
Thursday, 11/10 - School Conference Day
Tuesday, 11/15 -School Conference Day
Wednesday,11/23 – Early Release Day
What will happen @ MAP? On these days, if
it is your child's normal day to attend MAP, we will be expecting them (there is no Jump Start). There is no special sign up or extra charge for the extended coverage. If your child will not be coming, please make sure to notify MAP. Annette.map@comcast.net (508) 359-2165
- Jump Start - NO MAP
- AM K & PM MAP – Children will be released to MAP @ 11:40.
- AM MAP & PM K – Children have NO SCHOOL and may stay at MAP until 2:30 or their usual pick up time.
- 1st Grade & Full Day K have a half-day, and will be released to MAP @11:40.
- All children need to come to MAP with a lunch (and a toothbrush if you gave your permission)
Friday, 11/11 – Veteran’s Day - No School - MAP CLOSED!
Thursday, 11/24 & Friday, 11/25 -MAP is CLOSED
- Happy Thanksgiving!
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Mornings @ MAP for Jump Start & ½ Day Kindergarten:
September has been a fun, busy month! It has been great getting to know the kids. We started off the school year with getting to know you games and crafts. We did name games, a skittles question game, and a family shield craft. The kids also made their "faces" which is a MAP tradition and can be seen hanging up in the room. See if you can find your child's face! The next week we did "What I love about. . . .". We learned new board games in the MAP room, how to be a good friend, all about Medfield, and made an all about me book. Since the first day of Fall was on September 22, we did fun Fall things that week. We learned what happens when Fall comes: Leaves changing colors, the weather turning cooler, apple picking, and pumpkin carving are some of the fun things that we talked about. The kids learned interesting facts about sunflowers… Did you know the tallest sunflower was 30' tall? We learned about the life cycle of an apple and did an apple tasting. The kid’s favorite was the red apples! The last week in September was DIY/Building Week. We built towers out of cups and popsicle sticks. We found out through experimenting that the tower's base has to be bigger than the top for the tower to stand tall and not fall. They tried their hands at drawing spiders, ghosts, pumpkins, and bats. We made our own bubble solution and had fun with bubbles, and learned about how to make bridges strong enough so things can go on them without breaking.
October will be our month of science. The kids will become scientists and do many experiments and learn how things work. We will also be starting Alphabet activities. Each week we will focus on one letter to practice writing, and see what words start with that letter.
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Afternoons @ MAP for ½ Day Kindergarten & Jump Start:
We have had such a wonderful month getting to know each other and getting settled into our MAP routines! We started off with a week called Getting To Know You, during which we played all kinds of fun games to get to know each other. We learned about pets, siblings, vacations, hobbies, and favorite foods. We also focused our attention on learning each other’s names, as well as building the community and culture at MAP.
The theme for the next week was What I Love About…. We discussed what we love about Kindergarten, September, and MAP. We also shared what we love about our families, and we made a mini envelope house with a popsicle stick family to resemble our own. It was really fun to learn about the ways in which our families are similar, as well as the ways they differ! And we rounded out the week with “What I love about Medfield” to prepare us for Medfield Day. We made a snack and hit the road on our first walking field trip where we visited the Pfaff Center, checked out the progress on the Police and Fire Station, and walked by the Dale St School and playground.
Next was a week of Fall activities, and we rang in the new season in style! We observed all of the changes that happen in the fall, talked about what we wear, what we do, and what we eat in the fall. We focused on apples one day, and we learned how an apple tree grows, we did an apple taste test (Honeycrisp beat out Granny Smith and Golden Delicious), and we made apple donuts – yum! We played a MAP original game of tabletop football, and then learned how to draw a tough looking football player. And finally, we got up close and personal with some pumpkins – estimating, weighing, and measuring. We also made some beautiful watercolor pumpkins that will hopefully decorate your house this season!
The final week of September was DIY, which left it wide open for us to explore anything we were excited about! We kicked it off with a DIY photography day, and the children loved using their own MAP camera to capture some great shots. The next day was devoted to DIY instruments, and everyone made one or two instruments to add to our MAP band. We also thought The Little Engine That Could was appropriate for DIY week, and we had a lot of fun exploring different concepts with trains afterward.
It has been a very busy month, and we are really looking forward to diving into Science during the month of October!
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After School - Kindergarten & First Grade
MAP is off to a great start and the children are having fun! Outdoor play is a highlight for the children after spending many hours indoors. The weather has been beautiful and most of us are a bit thankful that the heat has subsided a bit. The “monkey bars” and “spider climber” are great and the children love the challenges of climbing and swinging from each one.
Some of the popular afternoon projects have included... Felicity the mermaid showed up via the IPad to invite the kids on a mermaid/ pirate scavenger hunt -She asked them to find her "Shell" phone, pirate coins, old black pirate bones, mermaid money, Fool's Gold and more! Fish ("o-fish-ally" first graders and kindergarteners), Fall Leaf Rubbings, Design your own PJs, Beadie Snakes, Rainbow Names, Metallic Leaf Printing, Fuse Beads, Rotini Sunflowers, and Friendship tree and handprints to name a few!
The gym is also a great outlet for the children after school as they enjoy playing Foxes and Hunters, Battleship, Pin Bombardment, Kick the Can and Batman and Robin . . . be sure to ask them about it. Looking forward to more sunny days and fun times spent with your children.
The room is always bustling with activity. Building with blocks and our giant tinker toys, games of battleship, taking care of the pets at the MAP Vet, and lots of attentions for our Guinea Pig Butterscotch! The recycle art tables are always busy! MAP welcomes the donation of paper that is blank on one side, paper tubes, and small boxes for creating.
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MAP Kids Paying It Forward
On Friday 9/30 the children participated in a variety of Pay It Forward activities. They made cupcakes for their families, cards and vases with paper flowers for the Thomas Upham House, Kindness Cups, photo frames for their families, and pumpkin muffins and cards of appreciation for the Medfield Police Department. Officer Manganello stopped by giving the children the opportunity to gift what they made and she even let the kids go in her police car!
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SESSION 1 CLUBS Have Begun!
We’ve started our first round of afternoon clubs! Clubs run each afternoon from 4 to 4:45/5, for about 6 weeks. We’ll send out club updates in our newsletters. Our second session of clubs will be offered the week of November 7th, and clubs will start the following week, 11/14. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
The Very Hungry MAP Children & Afternoon Snacks:We have found that even after having afternoon snack, the children are coming to us later in the day and letting us know that they are HUNGRY. So we have been allowing them to go into their backpacks & lunchboxes for leftovers. If this sounds like your child, you are welcome to pack them a healthy little something extra to have as a late afternoon snack at MAP. Thank you!
SPARE CLOTHES
Families are welcome to send in a spare set of clothes for your child to keep at MAP or in his or her backpack. It will help them to feel more comfortable if they have a spill/accident and can put on their own clothes. MAP has a small supply on hand for “just in case” as well. Thank you!
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