02

May
2025

May 2025

Current School Year, Newsletters

May

Themes this Month

  • Garden and Insects
  • Community Helpers and Safety
  • Carnival and Graduation

Graduation and Carnival

Wow! Is it really the last month of school? Our students have grown so much this year.  We have 42 children attending Hands On this year.  We have lots of fun things planned for May. From gardening projects, more sleepovers with the piglets and finishing up the school year with our own carnival and graduation parties.

Last Day Of School Carnival and Graduation, Friday May 23rd 
Our carnival starts at 11 AM, and all students are welcome to join us at 11 AM. Even if you do not attend school on a Friday, or you are an afternoon student, your child will still join us at 11 AM for the carnival.  Carnival is kids only!
Then at noon, families and grown-ups will arrive and gather in the parking lot for an all school celebration and a graduation ceremony for children attending kindergarten next fall.  All children, siblings as well, will be invited to enjoy popsicles and stay and play on the playground after the ceremony.  Stay and play as long as you like, some families like to bring a picnic lunch.
There will be no afternoon preschool on Friday, May 23rd.  Children that attend in the afternoon on Friday will join us in the morning class if they would like to, or at 11 AM.

In April we enjoyed many guests! We danced to music with Teacher Brittany and with Ben! We enjoyed our nature walk with Talk About Tress, and loved our special visit from our book buddies from The Portland Forest School!

Our students loved school spirit week and show and tell! Dressings up each day, and showing their friends some special things they brought from home, it was delightful!  Our little pigs have been having grand adventures too!  The students are always so proud and happy when it is their turn!  We were able to share our piglet adventures and do show and tell as one big group.  Then we spent time in our smaller circles.

One Circle Time activity that we’ve been doing in the Garden Circle –  We read seven different versions of Laura Numeroff stories (such as “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “If You Give a Dog a Donut,” and “If You Give a Pig a Party”).
We learned about “circle stories” and predicted how each story would end after hearing the phrase “and chances are…”
We voted on which story we each liked best.  We talked about how all opinions are valid and that you can still be friends with someone even if your opinions differ.
We divided into three small groups. Each group wrote their own collaborative story of “If You Give a Dinosaur Some Meat.”
We also did partner scarf dancing, keeping the scarves off the floor cooperatively and worked together to shuffle a mouse across the scarves without it touching the floor.
In the Honey Bee room we continued learning our letters using fun games and activities. We worked together to make a mural of the plant life cycle, planted seeds watered them and watched them grow!

Yearbooks

In a few weeks we will be ordering yearbooks, every child that attended Hands On during the school year will be included in the yearbook.  Our yearbook is our only fundraiser and we use the funds to keep up the playground.  This year we are hoping to raise money for cedar chips and new sand for the sandbox, that will really freshen up the playground! Yearbooks will include graduation and be available to pick up during the summer.  They are $30 each, examples of yearbooks from the past are on shelf by drop-in calendar, if you would like to see one.  If you want to order a yearbook, please email Jennifer before the last day of school, May 23rd.

Dates to Remember

Friday, May 23rd  – Last day of school, kids only carnival at 11 AM for all students, noon popsicle party for everyone and graduation for children going to kindergarten. 

There are 12 weeks of summer camps.  Each camp is Monday through Thursday, 9 AM to 1 PM. Children may attend 2 or 4 days a week.

May 27,28,29- Snow Day Make Up Camp. You need to register for this if your child is attending. We missed 2 days due to snow so if your child attends on a Thursday or Friday they will get make up days credit towards this camp.

There are 12 weeks of summer camps.  Each camp is Monday through Thursday, 9 AM to 1 PM. Children may attend 2 or 4 days a week.

August 14th, last day of camp

No school or camp, August 15th to September 1nd

September 2nd, Enrolled families and children visit the classroom, 10 AM to noon.

September 3rd, school year begins

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