Summer, 2016
Dear Parent/Guardian,
I love lupines! In my favorite children’s story, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, Miss Rumphius is a librarian who tries to do something to make the world more beautiful. She travels to faraway places and eventually lives by the sea (in a place that seems like Rhode Island) but wants to do something grand. She eventually sows lupine seeds everywhere and the world is changed with the sea of color the lupines create.) Most of the teachers and staff know that I LOVE Miss Rumphius. And so, last June, one of our teachers gave me some lupine plants from her garden. I brought that big green bucket of earth and plants home from Rhode Island in the trunk of my little MINI Cooper and transplanted them that night to our little city garden in Beantown. A few days later, I came home from school and noticed that all of the plants were in full bloom ~ a rainbow of colors. It made my day!
The teachers and I are so excited for the 2016-17 school year and wish that we could welcome each family with a bunch of lupines. We are eager for your partnership. Please consider volunteering in our school community this year. Research shows that our school will be a more effective if parents are involved; with that on our hearts, we invite you to participate in our early learning community in big and little ways. Please call Miss Kathy at Captain Hunt School or Miss Michele at MI Robertson Elementary to receive information about volunteering during this year. We are excited to work with you! This is going to be a big year.
In both Preschool and Kindergarten, we hope to help your child to feel safe in our classroom communities with routines and rituals that we establish to guide your child’s day. The Kindergarten teachers will quickly work to help the Kindergartners to learn all of their letters and sounds and then, by the end of the year hopefully, be reading fluently and be able to identify 100 sight words. The Preschool teachers will work to help the students to identify their names as a symbol and then, by the end of the year, work to learn as many letters and sounds as possible. In Math, the students at both schools will be Sorting, Classifying, Patterning, Adding, Subtracting and learning Numeracy skills ~ even using ’10 frames’ in Kindergarten. The teachers and I know that we will work as hard as we can to help your child; ultimately, your child’s success depends on our partnership with you. Thank you in advance for your help on this ‘beginning of your child’s schooling’ journey. Preschool and Kindergarten today and tomorrow, Brown University, Providence College, URI or Rhode Island College!
The afternoon that I found the sea of lupines in our little patch of city green, I was so ‘tickled pink’ that I immediately shared my joy with my husband. He started to laugh. Unbeknownst to me, he had gone to the garden shop while I was at school and bought lupine plants in full bloom. He had added the rainbow of flowers to the plants that I was given. When I went back outside and looked closer, I realized that the plants that I was gifted were still there and the buds were just emerging but the plants in full bloom were a little bit different. Nevertheless, they were all beautiful and had blended into a sea of color. The teachers & staff know that I especially love Miss Rumphius because, to me, the flowers are a metaphor for each unique child in the world. We look forward to meeting your amazing gift as well as your family at our Family Barbecue from 4-6pm on Tuesday, August 30th at Captain Hunt School or 4-6pm on Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at MI Robertson Elementary. We may not have bunches of lupines for each family but we promise to have yummy hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, watermelon and ice cream for your entire family. We hope to see you there!
Happy School!
Warmly,
Beth Tanner, MS Ed
Principa