TORBANK. INCLEMENT WEATHER As Winter continues,

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1 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2013 TORBANK GET INVOLVED The 2012/2013 Torbank Executive Board is preparing a slate for next year. If you are interested in serving on the Executive Board please call Sarah Karp-Pierce. If you need descriptions for these positions, please see Gayle Aprile. PARKING When parking, please pull in all the way to the railroad ties. Please make sure there is enough room for a car to pass behind your vehicle. Please make sure your car is only occupying one space as well. During pick-up time parking is limited and there are no extra spaces. Try to be mindful as we need every inch of space to open our doors to get little ones in big coats up, in and buckled while avoiding car dings. Your cooperation is appreciated. INCLEMENT WEATHER As Winter continues, the chances of school closings become more apparent. We follow the lead of the Ossining Public Schools. if they are on a two hour delay, we will be closed. You will be receiving notification from Alert Now in addition to an . Please be sure to listen to the radio as well. SICK?? Please stay at home! If your child is sick, the staff and the other parents would appreciate it if you would keep him/her out of school until they are well again. Your child benefits from at home rest and the children at school do not run the risk of exposure and spreading the illness to the others. Your cooperation is appreciated. YEARBOOK PHOTOS Deadline is approaching. If you have any photos you would like to contribute to the yearbook please send them as soon as possible. An envelope will be hanging outside each of the classrooms for your convenience. Be sure to put your name on the back, so that they may be returned to you at the end of the year. Please send to amyossining@yahoo.com VALENTINE S DAY Looking ahead a little bit... We will have Valentine s Day parties in school. The children enjoy exchanging cards at the party so please have your child bring one card for each child in their class. But please Do NOT address the envelopes to any particular child. Be sure to have your child s name signed on the cards. They could be original designs or preprinted ones let your child have fun with it! Please NO gifts or goodie bags. Class parents and teachers will handle this. Teachers will let you know how many cards are needed for each day and when days will be celebrated, or please check the calendar. SAVE THE DATE Mom s Night out March 15, 2013 Our biggest event of the year is coming up so mark your calendars! Torbank Moms, alumni and friends are welcome but women only! The night includes cocktails, appetizers and a silent auction. We are also looking for donations for auction any unwanted new items or baskets, please leave them outside of Gayle s office.

2 PAGE 2 SCHOLASTIC This year scholastic orders can be placed online at User Name: Torbank Password: cluborders ENROLLMENT OPEN Please see your child s teacher for an application. The Board tries very hard to keep Torbank s tuition as reasonable as possible. There will be NO increase in tuition for next year!! 25% discount for a second child! 10% discount for 2 s going into 3 s 25% discount for 3 s going into 4 s (must enroll 5 days) Applications must be in by March 1, 2013 along with the $75 application fee and one month security deposit in order to receive discounted tuition! 5 day program $4,500/yr (10 installments of $450) 4 day program $4,000/yr (10 installments of $400) 3 day program $3,500/yr (10 installments of $350) 2 day program $2,800/yr (10 installments of $280) FUNDRAISING Mom s night out is coming up on March 15th. Looking for someone to re-gift some of those holiday gifts donate them to Torbank! More information to come soon but it s a great time to spend with friends and catch up. Hope to see you all there!

3 PAGE 3 TEACHER TALKS Welcome 2013 we wish everyone a very happy and healthy new year! We will begin the month of January slowly, as it will take us a few days to get back into our school routines. We will play a few favorite games and take out some new ones, along with some bigger floor puzzles. Our main focus this month will be winter birds. We will learn about birds that live through the winter months and we ll talk about why some birds stay in colder climates, while others move to warmer weather. Our new big word in class will be migration. We will research several local birds and we hope to see some of those very same birds flying in the sky at Torbank. Each child will create a large winter bird project which will require a lot of painting, so let us know if you would like to come in to lend a hand once we get started. We will also be involved with snow snowmen, snowflakes, and hopefully, we ll be able to bring some snow into the classroom. This will lead to discussions of water in the form of ice, snow, mist, etc. and may lead to a few exciting scientific experiments, too! Our work with upper and lower case letters will become a greater focus in the next few weeks. We have many fun games to play as a whole class, with a small group and individually to help us build on this skill. Please remember to dress your child appropriately for the winter weather. When there is snow on the ground, please have your child come to school with both snow boots and regular shoes for the classroom. We hope to spend lots of time playing outside in the snow! Elissa, Gael and Sarah Happy New Year! We started January talking about the new year We will learn about the calendar, the months, days of the week, etc. We will talk about the season, winter the cold and how we stay warm, the animals and how they stay warm. We will read and tell the story of The Mitten. It is a wonderful story about animals finding a lost mitten and getting inside to stay warm. We will make our own mittens with the animals inside. We will practice sewing, cutting and coloring. January is also our space month. We will learn about the planets in our solar systems. We will make alien space helmets and wear them on our trip to outer space in our rocket. Miss Cathy, Miss Mary and Miss Daria As we wind down from a very busy holiday season, we will have a little down time to re-focus on fundamentals. Can you imagine a month without a holiday to prepare for? In January, we will do several winter themed art projects, incorporating colors and shapes. In addition, we plan to make bird feeders out of pinecones for our winter friends. We will also have color weeks, during this time each week we will learn about a color. The children will wear something that has the color of the week on it, and we will have snacks that color (Schedule to follow) We will have fun learning our colors. We will start to learn new songs and Nursery Rhymes this month. We will continue to go outside to play, so please remember to pack hats and mittens. Please do not send in snowsuits, and gloves, as they take too long to pun on. We wish you all a happy and healthy 2013! Miss Suzanne and Miss Amanda

4 PAGE 4 TEACHER TALKS February is here, and that only means one thing Valentine s Day! We will be doing lots of projects with hearts we ll practice our cutting skills, make heart mobiles, and learn how to write using a rebus (pictures in place of words). We will also learn about our hearts and how they work in our bodies. We will talk about friendships and families and about the reasons we love one another. The children will make and send Valentine cards using the US Postal Service, so we will talk about how the post office works and how a letter gets to our homes. We will set up a working post office in the classroom, which is always a fun experience. This activity will also lend itself to learning our addresses and to lots of writing practice. Our Valentine s Day celebration will take place in the classroom on February 14th. The children can bring in Valentine cards to distribute, as we will be making special holders in which to collect them. After Valentine s Day, our main focus will be dinosaurs. We ll create a three dimensional dinosaur world after learning how their world was different from our world today. There will be many different dinosaurs to play with in the sand table and we ll incorporate dinosaurs into other areas of learning, as well. We will begin our first round of SHOW & TELL this month. You will receive a schedule and instructions shortly. This is a fun activity for the children and a great opportunity for us to learn new things about each other. Finally, we will have a chance to learn about dental health from a real dentist Dr. Steve (my dad) will stop by for a visit. As always, please let us know if you d like to spend a morning with us! Elissa, Gael and Sarah February is the month of love. We will sing songs of love and talk about families and all the people we love. We will make many crafts for Valentines Day and of course have a Valentines Day party. We will also talk about sending mail and start learning our home addresses. Thanks for sending in all the recycle items and for all your support. Miss Cathy, Miss Mary and Miss Daria February is a short, but busy month. For Ground Hog day, we will make a paper bag puppet of a ground hog and hope he brings us an early spring. We will continue with our colors and shapes, with hearts being the shape of the month and a focus on red, pink and purple. For our Valentine s Day project, we will make a cardholder for the cards the children will receive from classmates. Finally, we will make a beautiful heart sun catcher and kissing fish out of all hearts. Our Valentine s Day party will be held on Wednesday February 13th and Thursday February 14th. Please send in a Valentine card for each child in your child s class, signed with your child s name, but not addressed to any specific child. We will then help them mail the cards by walking around and putting one in each cardholder. Hopefully, the weather will continue to cooperate so we can go outdoors. In any event, please continue to send the children to school with hats and mittens.

5 January 2013 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Lunch Bunch Lunch Bunch Lunch Bunch Lunch Bunch Board Meeting Lunch Bunch Lunch Bunch Lunch Bunch Lunch Bunch Lunch Bunch

6 February 2013 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Valentine s Day Parties for M/W/F 2 s and 3 s Valentine s Day Parties for 4 s and T/Th 2 s and 3 s School Closed School Closed