Happy July!

July 2 - monthly staff meeting

July 9, 16, 23, 30 are weekly curriculum planning meetings

This month we have scheduled (date to be determined) a field trip to Cabrillo Beach Museum.

Happy May!

May 12 - PAL Meeting

Date to be determined for Mom's or Family Night.

Happy Holidays!

In December we will learn about the holidays different nationalities celebrate in winter. We will be busy preparing for our Winter program and making gifts for our families. Beatrice will be planning outside activities related to the curriculum themes. We are very excited to welcome Eugenia (Jeannie) and Armida to our team. Jeannie is our new afternoon teacher and Armida will be working with Karla on Side 1. We are all thankful that Beatrice is feeling better and able to plan and play games again! We are set to enjoy a great holiday season of sharing, caring and joy and looking forward to 2009. We think a pajama party on January 2nd will get the New Year off to a great start!

Thank you for everything and best wishes to all for a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and happy New Year!

Karla, Laura and Helena

Happy Holidays!

Please make a special effort to join us for a very special PAL meeting on Thursday, Dec. 5th at 4:30pm. Your thoughts, ideas and presence will be greatly appreciated!

During the month of December Little Aviators becomes a mini Santa’s Workshop as we play “Santa for a Senior”. We work with the Home Instead Senior Care program, which is based in Torrance and serves the frail and home bound elderly who are not living in care facilities, but may not have any family near by. We “adopt” 4 “grandparents” and each group creates a basket full of special gifts requested by our senior, plus any extras we can tuck in! The children will be working for weeks making greeting cards to add to the hundreds of baskets that Home Instead delivers each holiday season. Of all the gifts the seniors receive, they always say the cards from the children are what they appreciate the most. Of course the children will also be busy creating gifts for Moms and Dads and learning about holiday traditions around the world.

A representative from Home Instead will pick up our baskets at the Winter Program on Dec. 19th. Please plan to join us on Dec. 19th at 4:30 for an evening of song & dance, cookies and warm holiday fuzzies! Have a wonderful holiday season and best wishes to all for the New Year.

Sheila, Director

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! The holidays are upon us and 2008 is coming to a close. Where does the time go? I love Thanksgiving because it is a uniquely American holiday. I think it’s great that we, as a nation, set a day aside to be grateful for friends, family, time together and the incredible beauty and bounty of our country. I love our community service projects this time of year. On Friday, Nov. 14th, we will come together to share soup and bread made by the children and to make sandwiches for the homeless and hungry of our own city. You will be surprised how many sandwiches we can make in 30 minutes and how much fun it is!

Sheila, Director

Happy Fall!

We wish all our graduates and former families well in their new adventures. We welcome all our new families. Fall is such a wonderful season, full of sights, sounds and smells. The children have been playing in leaves, throwing footballs and bobbing for apples; all sure signs that the seasons are changing, even in Southern California. That means it’s pumpkin patch time!! Our visit to the pumpkin patch is one of our most popular events, so mark your calendar now for the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 28th and plan to join us at Cottone & Sons Pumpkin Patch at 6:00 pm.

Thanks to our lucrative yard sale in September, we will have Jumpbunch, a sports skills program, working with the children every Tuesday morning, for 6 weeks, beginning Oct. 21st. Thank you to our Board and all our families who supported the yard sale. Our next yard sale will be in the spring.

Little Aviators has a strong tradition of community service. In the fall, we host a mini-march for Cystic Fibrosis. The children create items to wear or carry for the march and on October 30th will parade through the lobby and around the flagpole and back, often cheered on by FAA employees who line the route in support. Please turn in your donations by Oct. 31st. The teacher with the highest participation will receive a cash prize, so turn those sponsorships in!

Our Halloween party will be on Oct. 31st. Please sign up to bring items for a special morning snack time. Children do not wear their costumes from home to the center, but may bring them for share time the following week if they would like.

This year we are also participating in a food drive for Salvation Army. The red barrel is near the entrance to the center. You may place your non-perishable food items in the barrel. Donations will be picked up by the Salvation Army at the end of the month.

Sheila, Director