This month's newsletter topics

Winter Holidays – Circle Time News – Afternoon Enrichment Classes-Help Us Collect Canned Food – Outside Play- Snow Days 

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December – Winter Holidays

 
Throughout December we are talking and learning about holidays. We will share stories about how each of us celebrates with our family, and we’ll learn about holidays around the world. We are helping our students learn that there are many people in our world and many different beliefs and holiday celebrations. Even though holidays have different names and meanings, most are celebrated with a gathering of friends and family, special foods, and sometimes gift giving.
We will learn the names of several winter holidays and then play games, sing songs and do cooking projects to learn more about them. If you have a tradition, song, or cooking project you would like to share with our students, we would love to hear from you.
Hands On will be closed from December 21-January 1 for winter vacation. Our first day back to school will be Monday, January 4th.
 

Circle Time News

Each day during circle time our students come together to sing songs, and talk about what we will be doing in class that day. Then we do our circle time work. Each day students have a different job; sometimes 2 children share a job. Our jobs are: bell ringer, calendar pal, alphabet pal, number pal, weather pal, line leaders, and teacher’s helper. Ask your child what their job was each day and see if they can tell you about it.
This month our number pals are enjoying something special. We are learning about coins and how to count them. The complexities of the problems depend on the age group of the children. For example, the youngest children may count the coins and begin learning to identify them. The older children are learning the value of each coin. Our math problems could be something like, “How many coins do you have on your tray? What kind of coins are they? How much are those coins worth? We have candy canes for sale for 2 cents each, how many will you be able to buy? “ This project is no doubt very exciting, and on the last day of class the children will be able to actually “buy” their mini candy cane!
 

Talk About Trees

Last month we enjoyed our visits with Teacher Joan and the Talk About Trees program.  We learned about the life cycle of trees.  Joan has been a wonderful addition to our outside program each month.  The children have fun exploring the trees and plants on our school property, and they remember so much from each month.  We have checked on a little Dogwood tree every time Joan visits and noticed that first it had many leaves, the next month it had seed pods, then the following month nothing at all!  It is really fun to ask the students what is different about the tree and have them take the time to really notice the subtle changes it is going through month after month.

 

Help us collect items for our community!

Each November and December our school works together with St. David’s, and other building partners, to collect food or products that can help our community. This year St. David’s is collecting items for their Little Red Wagon to help the homeless in our community. Please bring in your items during first two weeks of December.  It will be really nice for our students to see that even a small contribution, added to other small contributions, can turn into a great big contribution.  It is also a great way for our students to help our local community.
Items for the Red Wagon:
Toothbrushes and toothpaste
Socks and hats for the winter
Individually wrapped food items
Or
Non-perishable food for food bank
 

Outside Play

We love to play outside every day and we do so even when it is cold. Each class will start and end on the playground, even during the winter.  We may spend less time outside but please send a coat to school with your child each day and remember hats and mittens too. Please add your children’s names so we can help them find their things. It is also a great idea to leave extra clothes in your child’s cubby in case they need to change clothes during the day.

Snow Days

We have always followed Portland Public Schools’ decisions regarding snow days, (ie-  if PPS was closed or opening late due to weather, Hands On was closed). This year is a little different, and we will have to make the call on our own.  If Hands On closes because of weather, we will let you know as soon as possible by sending an email, updating our phone message and website.  If we have to close we will close for the whole school day, both morning and afternoon.  You will be offered make up days for each day Hands On is closed due to weather.

 

Teacher Feature

Hands On is lucky to have wonderful, talented and dedicated teachers!  Our teachers bring so much to our classroom, and school community, but they also do amazing things outside of the classroom!  This month we will learn more about Teacher Andrew!

Teacher Andrew

I do a lot of projects outside of school. My main hobbies are cooking and writing, and a couple years ago I published a cookbook that put those interests together! It is called The Myrtlewood Cookbook: Pacific Northwest Home Cooking. You can look at it with that link. If you want to support me directly and get a signed copy ; ) let me know soon so I can get more from the publisher.

More food stuff: I have been doing a supper club/pop-up restaurant project for 10 years called Secret Restaurant Portland. It is more of an art project than a business, but it has been a wonderful way to create social situations, grow in my cooking, and write/put together images about it. Obviously closed during the pandemic, but someday! Parents from my preschool classrooms have definitely been guests in the past, and for now the site makes good reading and looking. 

More books stuff: I run a small press publishing company called Two Plum Press. I edit, design, and print the books in my spare time. The content is quite varied, but of special interest to you all might be “The Collected Plays of Portland Preschoolers 2010-2015” which is an anthology of plays written by 3-5 year olds in my drama classes from the schools I taught before Hands On. It is the runaway best seller (in it’s 4th printing) and makes great coffee table reading, even just amongst adults. If you’re interested in any of these for the Holidays and want to skip shipping, just send me a note. 

Music/design stuff: I have designed and curated a series of music compilation tapes for my friend Joshua’s record label! Surely most of you don’t still have tape players and listen to cassettes, but believe it or not there is a revival of them happening out there! The series highlights under appreciated 2000s indie music, mostly, so far. Either way, they are nice to look at and listen to and you can hear them here. This label also released an album of my music, but you can poke around for that if you’re really interested- ha! 

Just design stuff: I do all the graphic design for my friend Brita’s Herbal Wellness company, Cordial Waters. Her teas in particular might make great Holiday gifts, and the handsome jar/labels are courtesy of me! A hot tip: the teas are all available at a lower price point from People’s Food Co-Op, along with some of the wellness/beauty products too. 

Lastly, you’ve all seen it before, but Teacher Andrew Reads In A Canoe just reached 100 stories/videos! That’s hours and hours and hours of healthy screen time. If you haven’t visited in a while, go scope the latest stories or revisit some classics.

Thanks for your interest! I love teaching your kiddos! 

School Calendar

Monday, November 30th
First day of winter session
Monday-Friday, Dec. 21-Jan. 1 
NO SCHOOL – Winter vacation. School starts again January 4th.
Monday, January 18th
No School -Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Monday, February  15th
No School -President’s Day
Friday, February 26th
Last day of winter session

COVID Questions

As COVID cases rise in our community we wanted to share with you some extra steps we are taking to keep everyone safe this winter.  We will stay outside for part of the day, but we will also be inside.  When we are inside all students and teachers will wear masks, and we will open our windows in the circle time and art areas.  We have also been using an air purifier in the Lego area.  Children will continue to spread out during lunch/snack and keep our voices down. Some days the kids ask for the quiet timer, so we eat in quiet while we earn a puff ball towards a party, and another new thing we are doing is listening to books and stories on tape while eating.
Our students are great about wearing their masks.  We will encourage all children to wear masks inside and outside this winter.  We have noticed that some masks stay on better than others.  The fabric masks that have string or cords that go over the ears seem to stay put better than the ones made of jersey.  It is a good idea to pack an extra mask for your child, but don’t worry, we will always have extras if needed, and face shields as an extra layer of protection for the kids that have a hard time keeping masks over both their mouth and nose.
Thank you to everyone for helping us all stay healthy this winter!