Don't forget! School closes at 3:00pm on Tuesday, December 24th. Pick-ups after 3:00 will be subject to the same late fees that normally apply, $25 for every 15 minutes.
The Goddard School will be closed from Wednesday, December 25th through Wednesday, January 1st. We will re-open on Thursday, January 2nd for normal operating hours.

During the month of December we are learning about Holidays Around the World. If your family has a special holiday celebration that you would like to share with our children, please talk to your child's teacher or to the office about coming in for a visit. Everyone is welcome!

We collected about 75 coats for our winter clothing drive last month! They have been donated to the Crossroads Crisis Intervention Center, who will be giving them out to shelters and to homeless people on the streets. Thank you so much for everyone's generous donations, and thank you also to Abbie Gray (Sidney in Get Set's mom), who helped coordinate the clothing drive for us.

Several parents have asked about the tuition discount for early payment. Please note that the discount is not available every month; however, it will be implemented for the month of December off of January's tuition, since this is the time of year when people can most use a few extra dollars! Details of the discount will go out later in the month.

During December we will again be working with the Crossroads Programs, Inc., a non-profit, social service agency in Mt. Holly that works to end child abuse, neglect, abandonment, and homelessness. Their Crisis Intervention Center provides emergency shelter, food, clothing, and services for homeless youth between the ages of 10 and 18 years.

We will be providing a holiday wish list of gifts, clothes, and other items that the Center has requested for their children. A box will be set up near the office for donations. If you would like to help, please turn in unwrapped gifts by Friday, December 20th. Thanks!

We would like to officially welcome our afternoon assistant, Miss Lauren, and our newest baby, Emily C., to our class. Welcome! If you haven't had a chance, check out the new decorations in our classroom! We are transitioning out of fall and into winter. During the month of December we are making special presents for our wonderful parents. We also plan to use different textured items to make holiday crafts. We will fingerpaint, glue, tear tissue paper, smear whipped cream, etc. Have a great holiday!

Desiree, Gerri, Faith & Vivienne

Toddler 1 welcomes Jake R. and Katherine K. to our class from First Steps. This month we would also like to welcome everyone to our Winter Wonderland! During December we will be making lots of holiday art while learning about different holidays of the world. Also, we will be focusing on our new letters, J, K, and L.

Tara & Sue

This month we will learn about Hanukkah and play the dreidel game. We will explore Kwanzaa and what each candle represents, and will sing special songs for Christmas. Our toddlers will learn about sharing and giving as we make special gifts to give our parents for the holiday season. In addition, we will be making a bulletin board filled with creative winter wonderland projects! We will have a winter break holiday party - we'll let you know when we set a date!

Niki, Terri, & Stephanie

Get Set is very excited to welcome Miss Andrea to the Get Set class! She will be joining us the second week of December. We will be getting into the holiday spirit with a tree-decorating party, playing the dreidel game, and lighting the Kwanzaa candles (not real ones, of course). We will also be learning about the letters of the month: J, K, and L, and about the coming of the new season: winter! We hope all our Get Set families have a happy holiday season!

Kristin, Shari, Dani, & Melissa

On December 9th we will be welcoming our new teacher, Miss Erin Maxwell! We are very excited to have her join our class. We have been working hard getting our classroom ready for the holidays. Throughout December we will be learning about how different countries celebrate the holiday season. The month will be filled with fun art activities, songs, and special snacks. We will also be making holiday presents for our very special parents. Happy holidays!

Andrea, Maureen, & Stephanie D.

Preschool 2 is going to have some busy litle elves working hard this month! We have lots of fun holiday activities planned for December. We will start off the month learning about Hanukkah. We will try potato latkes and go on a gilt hunt. During the second week we will focus on Kwanzaa. We will learn what the holiday is about and make some Kwanzaa crafts. During the third week we will focus on Christmas. Throughout the month we will also be learning about other cultures' holiday celebrations. We would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays!

Kim and Megan

We will travel to three different lands this month: Israel to celebrate Hanukkah, then Kenya to spend Kwanzaa with our friends, and last we'll go to Spain for Christmas. We will celebrate with cooking sensations and design unique gifts from each country. We will be busy preparing our room with beautiful decorations to make our celebrations even more festive. We will spread holiday cheer all through our journeys! Happy Holidays!!!

Barbara, Valerie, & Sherry

It's that time again, and Pre-K 2 has an exciting month ahead! We have lots of holidays to celebrate and lessons to be learned. Look for creative projects to be sent home along with work on the letters I, J, K, and L. We will study many countries and cultures this month, and follow many different traditions to help us learn about them. Happy Holidays to all our friends and family from Pre-K 2!

Barbara and Valerie

We have been getting to know our new teacher, Miss Kelly, who just joined us at the end of November. We're so glad she's here! This month in Kindergarten we will study different holidays from around the globe. We will continue our academics and reading our chapter books, and we'll conduct many fun science experiments. We look forward to a nice vacation at the end of the month and hopefully some snow in the future!

Rachel

Tyler K. - Toddler 2
Deanna G. - Pre-K 1

And our newest teachers...
Miss Kelly - welcome to Kindergarten!
Miss Erin - welcome to Preschool 1!