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Young Explorers Schools children have been busy creating exciting art forms with the vinyl sign pieces donated by SignAge. The colorful pictures and murals are so unique. Each child can be successful and enjoy creating their own art pieces.

In addition to the creating of the art work, children also have practice using scissors which enables them to develop their small motor skills. It is always rewarding to watch them spend time peeling the backing and feeling they have accomplished a major achievement.

Young Explorers Schools truly appreciate Sue and SignAge for supplying us with the vinyl. “Sticky Paper Art” is a big exciting and rewarding art experience for us!

Now that the weather has finally cooled down, it is beginning to feel more like fall. We are gearing up for a busy couple of months with Family Involvement Activities and the holidays. This is a fun time of year and the children will have lots to share with you about all the activities they are doing in their classrooms. Please check your child’s art folder regularly and visit the classroom to see a slight glimpse of what their busy days entail.

New Staff Members
Please help us welcome our new staff members. Ms. Monique is our new school age teacher and is closing with Ms. Shenise. She worked at a couple of childcare centers and was a nanny before coming to Young Explorers School. She is a trumpet player in a Mariachi Band and enjoys sports and being active. Ms. Vanessa is a volunteer who worked in a childcare center at Empire High School while she was attending school. She really enjoys helping out the teachers and doing activities with the children. She has loved children since she young and always knew she wanted to work in a childcare center.

Fall Carnival
Thank you to all of your who joined us at the carnival and those who helped bake or volunteer your time. The families who attended seemed to really enjoy themselves!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Our annual Thanksgiving dinner will be held on Friday, November 18th. We will begin serving dinner at 5:45 p.m. There is no cost to you, but we are asking that our families donate nonperishable food that we will take to the food bank the week of November 21st. There will be boxes in the office for the food. To prepare for the dinner the children will be busy from now until then making decorations and helping prepare side dishes for the meal. Please RSVP soon so that we have an idea of how much food to prepare.

Attendance
We need an estimate of how many children will be attending each day by 9:30 a.m. for staffing and meal preparation. If your child will be in after 9:30, please call and let us know. Also, we are required by Arizona Department of Health Services to keep an illness log. If your child is ill, please call and let us know.

When you bring your child in, please sign them in and then take them to their classroom. In the evenings, please pick up your child and then sign them out. Since we are part of the food program, we have to keep accurate records of how many meals that we serve to the children and the sign in sheets must match up to the meal service times. Thank you!

Holidays
The following days Young Explorers Schools will be closed on Thursday, November 24th and Friday, November 25th for Thanksgiving and Friday, December 23rd for Christmas for Holidays. Please mark your calendars and make arrangements for childcare on these days.

Warm Clothes
Please make sure your children are dressed for the weather because we will continue to play outside daily. It will be chilly in the mornings and evenings so please make sure your child has a jacket or sweatshirt daily. Make sure you swap out your child’s extra summer clothes for warm clothes to keep in their cubby in case of accidents. Please make sure your child has a blanket in their cubby for rest time as well.

Infant Room Coming Soon…
We will begin construction on our infant room and minor remodel and repairs to the school in the next few weeks. Your quality of care that your child receives will never be compromised and the safety and well being of your child will always be the top priority throughout the entire process. The blue prints will be available for your viewing if you are interested in seeing exactly what will be done. Any questions or concerns should be directed to Ms. Carri. We have a waiting list started as our spots will be limited due to licensing capacity. We do not have tuition prices available at this time.

Dramatic Play Centers
The teachers are frequently changing out the dramatic play centers in the classrooms to make them into restaurants, beauty shops, grocery stores, post offices, police station, etc. If you have any nonworking small appliances (i.e. hair dryers, toasters, coffee pots, adding machines, etc.), pots/pans, dishes, empty food containers (washed out, please), dress up clothes…we would love to have them. The children love having real items to play with.

Science Centers
We are also working on enhancing our science centers in the classrooms. Items like interesting rocks, cactus spines, empty beehives, leaves, metal to use with magnets, bugs…the list is endless and provide the children with new experiences to observe and discover new things.

Parking Lot
Please be considerate of each other and follow the arrows marked in the front parking lot. The south driveway is the entrance and the north is an exit. Please park to one side or the other so that there is room for multiple cars to park. It is a small area and tends to get pretty congested at times but if we all work together, hopefully things will go smoothly at drop off and pick up.

Where have all the pumpkins gone? Well at Young Explorers our pumpkins have gone on to the boil and smash detail. We are gearing up for our annual Thanksgiving Feast. The Thanksgiving Dinner will be served on Thursday, November 17, at 5:45 p.m. 6:45 p.m. This has been our tradition for over 38 years. Please make your reservations early so we can have a head count. The cost will be your donation of food or cash donations for the Community Food Bank.

CURRICULUM CORNER
Our jack-o-lanterns have been cooked and mashed into pulp. This week we will be baking pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies. We have “secret recipes” that we would be willing to share if you would like to have a copy. There are so many skills that children learn from cooking activities: measuring, eye –hand co-ordination, muscle building from stirring, reading recipes, math skills cups, half cups etc.) The most important skill of course is the tasting! We know children learn best with hands-on-experiences.

Our other Learning Themes will be centered on Thanksgiving past and present. Our songs, stories and of course cooking experiences will add to our sights, sounds and taste buds. Creating memories has been one of Young Explorers goals all these many years, we hope each of our families will be able to join us this special school event. Don’t miss it. Besides the food is delicious!

HOUSEKEEPING NEWS
Please be sure to have your child’s name on their coats and sweaters. You can only imagine how many size 4 sweatshirts there are! Since the weather is constantly changing for a while, we recommend you dress your child in layers since it may be cold in the morning and warm the rest of the day. This would assist us in the late afternoon in gathering up the right clothes for each child.

BOOK ORDERS
Suzanne Mohs is our school’s book ordering chair. We appreciated the orders for our October books. YES is able to add new books to our library. Suzanne will post the new orders. Watch for the signs. The checks must be made out to Scholastic Books or cash is also accepted. The children and staff enjoy seeing our new books and we do appreciate Suzanne assisting us with this. Consider books for holiday giving.

SPECIAL THANKS TO READING IS “FUNDAMENTAL”
Each child received a brand new book from Reading is “Fundamental” Our school was selected to participate with this wonderful literacy program. We are also blessed to have Mr. John read to our children every Wednesday morning. Make Way for Books is the sponsoring organization. The children and our staff enjoy Mr. John’s books, puppets, songs and even learning Spanish words too. Make Way for Books have donated beautiful books to our school. This has enabled us to have a “Check Out” books library. So if your child brings home a book, please take time to read it and be sure to return it soon. When your child returns the book, they will be able to get another book to take home.

YES CELEBRATES THE HOLIDAYS
Just a reminder of our YES school holidays for November and December. Young Explorers Schools will be open on Thursday, November 11. We will be closed November 24 and 25 for Thanksgiving. Our December holidays will be December 23 for Christmas Eve Day.

COMMUNITY FOOD BANK

Young Explorers Schools has always participated in our Tucson community. One of the highlights of the year is our food drive for Tucson Community Food Bank. This year this drive will be very critical since many of our families in Tucson are having great challenges. We will have boxes for your donations and you are encouraged to bring your donations in the week of November 14-22nd. Some of the children will be taking our donations down to the Community Food Bank on Tuesday, Nov. 22. Cash, canned foods and non-perishables are always appreciated. Do you know for each dollar the CMB gets $9.00 worth of food? So cash donations are very important too.

HAVE YOU TOLD YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT YES! LATELY?
YES is approaching our 41st birthday in January 2012. We are brainstorming how we can advertise our schools. I have contacted some of our parents who are willing to post flyers and notices on the bulletin boards at work. We have our website to get our name circulating there.

The best advertising is our own families who are willing to share their feelings regarding the care and education their child is receiving. We would like to encourage you to continue to refer us. Be sure to tell your referrals to let us know who gave them the referral we will then give you the referral credit of $25.00.

With Grateful Hearts,
Dr. Filomena Brooks

It’s Carnival time!  We will be drumming up enthusiasm and of course the children will be telling you all about it.  Our 25th Annual Young Explorers Schools Carnival will be Friday, July 30 at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at our 6207 E. Bellevue School.  I know our families who have been with us for a while know what I mean.  To our new families, this is a “a real big deal!”  This evening beats the playground at the local McDonald’s.  The evening will be a fun packed safe evening.  So plan now to join us.  We will have our traditional hot dogs and pizza slices.  The funds raised will be shared by both schools to buy something special for our classes and your children.

PRE-CARNIVAL TICKET PACKETS
To avoid long lines at the gate, we would encourage you to purchase the admission tickets during the pre-sale time.  Admission tickets purchased before the carnival will save you some money.  We will have tickets going on sale all day starting, Wednesday, July 28th through Friday, July 30 until noon.  No sales after noon since we will be with children and setting up the school grounds for the special events.  There will be free games but the Jumping Castle, a Train ride, food, and drinks will sell for 20 cents a ticket.  You will receive a list of games and prices later.  If you purchase your tickets early you will have more time to play.

DID WE HEAR, “HOW CAN I HELP?”  YES! YOU CAN AND HERE’S HOW:

• Help sell carnival admission tickets
• Volunteer to help at one of the food and game booths
• Be on the set up or clean up crews
• Bring friends and neighbors

WE WILL CLOSE BOTH SCHOOLS AT 5:30 P.M. ON CARNIVAL DAY.  THIS WILL PERMIT THE STAFF FROM BOTH SCHOOLS TIME TO GET THEIR PLACES FOR THE CARNIVAL.  ANY CHILD HERE AFTER 5:30 P.M. WILL BE CHARGED A LATE PICK UP FEE.

THE ANNUAL Y.E.S.! CARNIVAL

WHEN: FRIDAY, Oc.t 28

WHERE: 6207 E. BELLEVUE

TIME: 6:00 - 8:00 P.M.

TICKETS GO ON SALE:  WEDNESDAY, Oct. 26

TICKET GAMES AND ITEMS

• POPCORN 2 TICKETS
• HOT DOGS 4 TICKETS
• PUNCH 2 TICKETS
• ICE TEA 2 TICKETS
• COTTON CANDY 5 TICKETS
• PIZZA 5 TICKETS
• JUMPING CASTLE 5 TICKETS
• TRAIN RIDE 5 TICKETS

October is going to be a busy and fun month for us at Young Explorers. It is so nice to have the temperature changes which helps us all breath a sigh of relief.  Some how temperatures in the 90’s seem so refreshing. This reminds me to remind you as the cool mornings come and you start sending your child with sweaters, please remember to put your child’s first and last name on each item.

Friday, October 28, 2011 from 6:00 p.m.-8:0 0 p.m. will be the Fall Festival at Young Explorers.   This should be a wonderful evening.  The Festival includes food, face painting, cakewalk, jumping castle, train rides and a whole lot more.  The fun begins at 6:00 p.m. We will close our schools at 5:30 p.m. that day to have time for last minute setups.  We will post our volunteer charts.  Tickets will go on sale Tuesday, October 25.  Watch for details. Bring your friends and relatives to our fun family night.  Costumes would be fun too.

Monday, Oct. 31 will be our school’s Halloween Party.  The party starts at 9:30 a.m.   We have games, singing and stories.  Each child can wear a costume if you like. NO masks please.  They get lost and broken and the children can’t see safely. Be sure to bring their regular clothes since we will change them back to ordinary characters in time for lunch.

Thank you for attending our Pizza Party in September.  We were so pleased to have our families join us.  Our next family night will be our Thanksgiving Feast Dinner on Thursday, November 17th beginning at 5:45 p.m.  The children will be busy making some of the food for our dinner.  We use our Halloween pumpkins to make our pumpkin bread and cookies.  We will grind the cranberries for relish.  I better stop now because I am getting hungry.  More information will be coming on this wonderful YES! Tradition.  So circle the date now so you won’t miss.

As mentioned at our Pizza Party, we would like you to spread the word regarding our school.  We have openings in all areas.  Any students that enroll for our school you can get a $25.00 credit off your tuition.  This is a win-win situation for all of us.  We were so happy to have many new children and families join us this month.  Keep up the good work and spread the news.  YES! appreciates your enthusiastic response.

Our school has been selected by Reading Is Fundamental to participate in a free book distribution.  All of our preschool children will be receiving a free book next week.  Take time to read to them as often as you can.  Just 15 minutes per day will make the difference in your child’s educational development.  Did you know that Mr. John comes in every Wednesday morning to have a “special” reading time with our children?  He sometimes brings puppets, teaches songs, and helps our children learn Spanish words too.   We also have a check out library available for your children.  We ask that they sign out the books and be sure to let the teacher sign them back in.    Our children have enjoyed having the books go home!

Suzanne Mohs wanted me to thank each of our families for purchasing books from Firefly each month.  We are able to add to our school library resources with new books, educational games and puzzles.  Watch for the order blank and be sure to check out the quality books that would be great stocking stuffers and party favors too.

Thanks again for your wonderful support.  Fall is filled with so many exciting days and learning adventures.  We so enjoy singing songs and creating books. Hopefully you will be able to join us with the excitement in learning.

Truly each child and family is “Special at Young Explorers!”

Dr. Filomena Brooks
Educational Director
Young Explorers Schools