November 2017

This month's newsletter topics
October Fun – What’s New in November – Community Building Tours – Help Us Collect Canned Food!  – Outside Play

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October Fun

 
October has gone by so fast. Thank you to everyone for helping us celebrate Halloween, our pajama party, breakfast for lunch.  It was a very festive week for all the children.  Be sure to look at all the pictures on  Facebook or Instagram, and if you have some photos, send them to us.

 This October we also enjoyed music from Tallulah’s Daddy and Chuck Cheesman.  It is great the students are able to play music, sing songs and dance with music teachers each week.

What’s New in November

Themes this month

  • Families
  • Thanksgiving
  • Community

This month we are excited to learn about our students, their families and the community we live in.  We will be talking to the class about being thankful, the importance of good friends, and family and community.  We will visit the many other programs that share our building as well as learn more out our city and state.  We will have several guided tours through our building and visit the music and art studios, the history room, and more during our tours.
This month we are also looking forward to a few new musical guests.  We will enjoy seeing Mr. Hoo and Trent Price this month. Our students love to have visiting artist and musicians, and we are looking forward to their visits.
 

Friday, Nov. 10 –

No School Veteran’s Day
Monday-Friday, Nov. 20-24  – 
NO SCHOOL – Thanksgiving vacation
Monday-Friday, Dec. 15-Jan. 1 –
NO SCHOOL – Winter vacation
 
 

Community Building Tours

Hands On is happy to share our building with the St. David’s community.  There are so many interesting things that are going on in this building.  During the next few weeks as we talk about community, we will also be taking tours and learning about the different groups that share our building.  Here are just a few of the other programs in the building:

Help Us Collect Canned Food!

Each November and December our school community works together with St. David’s, and other building partners, to collect cans of nonperishable food to donate.  Please bring in your cans of food during the last week of November and first week of December.  It will be really nice for the 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.
 

Outside Play

We love to play outside every day. Even when it is cold, it is nice to go outside to play. Please send a coat to school with your child each day. You can bring hats and mittens to leave for your child at school 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 just in case they need to change clothes during the day.

New Faces at Hands On

This year we are excited to add two new teachers to our team.  Teachers Desiree and Sarah will be joining Jennifer, Julie, Kathy and Serena.

Hi! Erg leuk om jullie te ontmoeten. That’s Dutch for “very nice to meet you”. I’m Desiree van Rossum, 25 years old and from the Netherlands. I moved to Portland two years ago and live here with my boyfriend and sweet Labrador. In the Netherlands I’ve worked as a teacher at different schools and at a gymnastic club teaching toddlers. I have met Jennifer through volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House in Portland. Maybe you have seen me last year at the graduation party or during the school week. I’m going to help at school for two days a week. Hope to see you soon!
– Desiree

My name is Sarah Niles and I am very excited to be working at Hands On Art and Play Preschool.  I have worked at YMCA Camp Collins for the past 6 summers, working with children between the ages of 4-16. Previous to that, I have a lot of experience babysitting other neighborhood children as well as family members, all of which were 6 or under. I just graduated from Western Oregon University with a degree in gerontology and a minor in health education. Aside from related experience/school, I have a twin brother and we are both 22 years old. I love dogs ,I have a yellow lab, and I love cooking and experimenting with recipes (or not following recipes at all). I am looking forward to meeting you!
-Sarah

Please feel free to call us at 503-239-8521  or email us with any questions you have, as always.