Farewell and Hello

The school year is quickly coming to an end as we head into the summer. This time of year is always marked by a lot of changes and transitions as some children move on to other schools and we welcome new families into our community. Children move up to new classrooms and teachers get ready for a new group of children. In June we will be saying farewell to Colin and Lilli Glynn, Liam and Ethan Gustave, Annie Miller and Adeline Waterhouse. At the end of August Rachael Jordan, Liam Sayer, Nicole Jacquette, Lilia Reichstein, Joey Castello, Andrew Borror, Collin Krasnai, Alice Phillips, and Tyler Hasson will be off to their new schools. We wish all of the children good luck as they embark on their new adventures.

The "End of the year picnic" was well attended and the food was once again delicious. Our little graduates were very excited about the special albums they received from T. Rachel and T. Christy. The albums were filled with pictures from their time at Oak Lane. 

Over the summer four new children will be starting at Oak Lane and then continue the coming school year. Brooke Sidorsky started in the infant classroom last week. She is 3 months old and of course adored by everybody. In July, Owen Gasiewski and Zachary Krawchuk will start in the Older Toddler classroom and remain in that classroom for the 09-10 school year. And in August, Rachael's brother, James Jordan, will join us. Please join us in welcoming the new children and their parents.

And The Total Is.... 

As this year is coming to an end, I'd like to share with you how much money we have raised with the various fundraisers throughout the year. Considering the economic challenges that everybody has been faced with, we have done well. So, a big thank you goes out to all the Oak Lane parents and especially Meghan Sayer, Lori Gustave and Tess Way for their creative ideas and help throughout the year with the numerous fundraisers.  

Parent Fundraisers
Candle Sale: $232
Fall Photo Shoot: $131.74
Holiday Show CD's: $120
Isaac's Fundraiser: $247.46
Stadium Grille Fundraiser $165.50
Morning Meeting Book Sale: $116.20
Total: $1012.90

Annual Giving
We have raised a total of $3485 this school year but we have not reached our goal of $4500 yet. Fortunately, there is still time. So far,  $1155 of the total were raised by 15 Oak Lane parents, which means 47% of parents have participated. Please consider making a donation today if you haven't already done so. 

Look for our full Annual Giving Report in your mailbox in July.

 Maternity Leave

As my due date (July 31) seems to be approaching rather rapidly, I am busy making sure everything is in place for my maternity leave. I will be at Oak Lane all of this week and then plan on returning in July until the baby comes. T. Margaret will be in charge during my absence. The best ways to get in touch with T. Margaret throughout the day is via phone or talking to her in person. Her hours are 7:30 - 4. Please note that she will not be checking e-mails. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me this week.

 Summer Essentials!

• Apply sunscreen on your child before coming to school in the morning. We will reapply for the afternoon outdoor playtime if you leave clearly labeled sunscreen in your child's cubby.  
• Bring a filled and labeled water bottleto school each day and place it in your child's cubby. We will use them for outdoor playtime. Please do not leave it in the lunchbox.
• Bring a bathing suit and towel in a plastic bag. On some days we will be playing in the sprinkler and the water tables. We will send the items home at the end of the week to be washed.
• No flip-flops or dress shoes! Crocs with a back strap, sandals and sneakers are all good choices. The general rule of thumb is that if your child can run in the shoes, they are acceptable.

Monday, June 29 - Friday, July 3 -
OLDC closed
July 6 - August 28-
OLDC closes at 5:30 pm
Friday, Sept. 4 -
OLDC closed -Inservice Day
Monday, Sept. 7 -
OLDC closed - Labor Day

Fruit for Snack:Rebecca Rakes
Washing the slipcovers: The Jacquette's
Bubbles: The Winter's
Marker's:Alison Reichstein

We would also like to send out a big thank you to the Brooks' for their generous donation of  a new radio to the Older Toddler classroom and to the Potter's for donating an exer-saucer to the infant classroom.

September '08 doesn't seem that long ago, but the months gone by have brought a lot of changes in the Infant and Young Toddler class. Charlotte is now walking (sometimes running) and Eric and Liam are training for crawling marathons. Chloe and Will are chatting together like the good buddies they are and Kai and Frederika are trying to get a few words in, too. They have all been enjoying our "Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed" song with puppets.

We were sad to say good bye to Liam who's last day was Friday. But at the same time are happy to say hello to 3 month old Brooke who has been with us for a week now. We wish Liam and his big brother Ethan the best in their new school. Soon Chloe, William, Kai and Frederika will be graduating to the next class. That leaves Ainsley, Charlotte and Eric as the senior members of this class.

We wish everyone a happy summer!

 T. Sheila and T. Savannah

Thank you to all the parents for the beautiful photo album of the children and for the generous gift. It's been a great year. The children have made so much progress in their development. They have made new friends and learned a lot about working and playing together.

The past few weeks we have been busy making paper plate animals. The children loved creating the different animals using crayons, paintbrushes and dot-dot paint. Then we glued on popsicle sticks and turned them into little puppets. Some of the children also enjoyed making paper mache dinosaur eggs with the preschoolers and then painting them. And the children put a lot of love and hard work into the Mother's and Father's Day presents we made in May and June.

In the morning, we  have been starting Morning Meeting off with music. All the children like this activity as they get to sing along, dance, play instruments and use the shaker eggs. For our morning and afternoon outside playtime, we have spending a lot of time on the Lower School playground. All the different play equipment is always a special treat for the children.

We hope that everyone has a safe and happy summer. Thank you for a wonderful school year.

T. Margaret and T. Jean

As we come to a close of another year at Oak Lane we would like to let everyone know how much we have enjoyed this year's group of children. We have seen them grow and blossom into fine young children that will do extremely well wherever their future takes them. 

We have completed the alphabet and are currently learning about outer space. Thanks to all the parents that dropped off cardboard we were able to built two rocket ships and also cut out all the planets of the solar system. The children had a lot of fun painting the rocket ships and planets and were very proud of their work when it was displayed.

We have enjoyed studying ocean life, the jungle and dinosaurs. During ocean week we made crabs, sharks and octopuses, which turned our classroom into a tropical location. Palm trees gave it a finishing touch. Dinosaur week was loads of fun. We traced the children and turned their silhouettes into giant dinosaurs. The children loved coloring their dinosaurs. We also read every book about dinosaurs we could get our hands on. One day we painted a huge Diplodocus, which has been on display at the day care.

We would like to thank all of the parents for the generous end of the year gift. We appreciate your thoughtfulness. Have a great summer!

T. Rachel and T. Christy