Set-up for those teaching will begin at 10:30am. Classes start at 11:00am, and conclude around 3:30p when French classes finish. Feel free to come for the whole time or just for the portion your family wants to participate in. Bring a lunch or participate in the community potluck! Full details, fees & RSVP information available for everything below.
If the weather is fair please bring winter clothing for your kids so they can play outside at the playground next door too!
Community Service Activities for February & March:
1) We will be collecting items for local animal shelters, and are working on arranging a field trip once the weather is warmer to the Elmore SPCA. A full "wish list" for supplies the shelter needs can be found on the Elmore SPCA website at: http://www.elmorespca.org/wishlist.html . A box will be available at the sign-in table for donations to be dropped off at. Please note that at this time the SPCA does NOT need donations of blankets or pet bedding.
2) Tables will be set up to make Valentine's cards in February & St Patrick's Day cards in March for local shut-ins and nursing home residents.
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Free Play Room: Waterbead play
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All day long…...
Valentine's Day Crafts & (optional) Card Exchange
** The Valentine’s Day Crafts will be set-up in the basement classrooms throughout the whole day for students to work on as time allows. **
Activities will include making Butterfly Pencil Valentines, Painted Heart Doily Buntings, Beaded Valentine's Mobiles, T-Shirt Necklaces, & Tissue Paper Heart Suncatchers, making Valentine's cards for local nursing home residents.
Samples of these projects (and the snow projects from this last week) can be seen on the co-op's Pinterest board at: http://www.pinterest.com/bradleypond/homeschooling-co-op-ideas/
Students who choose will also be able to exchange Valentine's with their friends. There will be a separate table set up for the card exchange. Students will be able to decorate a paper bag & label it with their name during class. At the end of class, students participating in the Valentine exchange will have the chance to put their Valentine's in each other's bags. Valentine's cards do NOT have to be handmade! Store bought ones are just fine. $1 Store near Price Chopper had a good selection. Students should come with about 25 Valentine's to share (based off our average attendance). We recommend that most of them just be signed by the student, but not addressed to anyone in particular. This makes handing them out much easier!
Teacher: Holly Warren
Fee: $2 per child, or a maximum of $5 per family.
RSVP: Holly Warren, hollyjwarren@gmail.com or Facebook Holly Warren
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11:00a - 12:00p
Preschool Class --
A Day With Dr Suess
We will read a favorite Dr. Suess book and do a craft relating to the author's books.
I will have a matching game and sensory tub with ABC's.
For anyone that has any Dr Suess Books, please bring them, particularly "The Fox In Sock" and "The Foot Book".
Fee: $1 per child
RSVP: Lynn Bushey, busheylm@gmail.com or Lynn Bushey on Facebook
Elementary --
Folktale Storyteller
This class will primarily be for elementary age kids (4’ish - 10’ish). Older & younger kids are welcome to participate though!
A retired elementary teacher and librarian, Mary Jo TenEyck grew up listening to personal and family stories from her father. That experience, combined with an early love of reading folk and fairy tales led to her passion for storytelling. She was fortunate to study under several master storytellers in the early nineteen eighties, and has enjoyed sharing stories both professionally and personally in her teaching career, and also in libraries and for community groups.
Mary Jo plans to share three folktales with the Plattsburgh Home-school Community and to involve her listeners in a few related activities if time allows. The stories come from Japan, the American Appalachian Mountain region, and Russia. Folktales typically feature repetition, opposites, strong characters and plot, and usually point towards a message or value that a culture holds. Often, the hero or heroine sets out to put right something that is out of balance either in the individual life or in the community. Similar themes and types are found all over the world. With universal themes, they are particularly fun to tell, and serve as wonderful models for story creation.
(Many thanks to Lizzie Girard for helping set this up! Mary Jo is Lizzie’s mom & we are super excited to welcome her to co-op this week.)
Teacher: Mary Jo TenEyck
Fee: FREE
RSVP: Holly Warren, hollyjwarren@gmail.com or Holly Warren on Facebook
Upper Elementary/Middle School --
Board games for older kids (ages 9+) will be set up in the board room for the morning session. Bring your favorite game to share!
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12:00p - 1:00p
Potluck or bag lunch period. If your family has special dietary needs (vegan, gluten free, etc), please consider bringing a dish to share that you family can also eat! Everyone, even families who choose to bring their own lunches, are encouraged to join in the community lunch time up in the Fellowship Hall.
If you’d like to participate in a potluck lunch please email Cathy Morin at woodchop2011@hotmail.com or on Facebook at Cathy Morin.
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12:45p - 1:00p
Children’s Chorus --
This class is open to all the children. The only requirements are they must be able to participate without distracting the other kids! We will continue practicing a number of songs to be sung at Meadowbrook, and possibly another local nursing home (suggestions, anyone?), sometime in April or May. This class will meet upstairs in the sanctuary.
Fee: $2.00. This is a one time fee to cover folders & print music for the children to use at practice, home & when we sing in public. If you paid this fee at last week's class please do NOT pay it again! We will take a few moments at the start of chorus to label each student's folder.
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1:00p - 2:30p
Upper Elementary/Middle School --
Ground Water & Drinking Water Quality
Chris Lafountain, Lab Director at Endyne in Plattsburgh, will be giving a presentation to the upper elementary & older kids on drinking water quality. She will have a Power Point presentation to illustrate a number of different tests that Endyne does on local drinking water, and why each one is important. She will also have hands-on displays that show what different water problems look like, as well as how their most common test -- Total coliform/e.coli. -- works.
Teacher: Chris Lafountain
Fee: FREE
RSVP: Holly Warren, hollyjwarren@gmail.com or Holly Warren on Facebook
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1:00p - 3:30p
Board Games --
Board games for the preschool & elementary age children will be set up in the preschool room downstairs. There will also be building blocks, basic art supplies, and other items to help keep our youngest co-op members entertained throughout the afternoon.
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2:00p - 3:30p
French classes will continue for the winter/spring semester, taught by Carole Dubois. It is not to late to sign-up, so please email Carole or come to co-op this week if you are interested. There will be two 45 min classes offered classes offered. One from 2:00 - 2:45 for younger kids (ages 5-8), and one from 2:45-3:30 for older kids (ages 9+). All classes will be offered at the beginner level, but two classes will allow Carole to offer more advanced projects for the older kids and keep a good student/teacher ratio.
The rate is $10 per lessons. She is willing to do a multiple child rate of 50% for second child. (If there's more in your family you can discuss with her.)
You can also contact her directly with other questions at her email: Duboiscarole8@aol.com
The North Country Homeschooling group seeks to provide homeschooling support and activities to those living in the Northern NY counties of Clinton, Essex, and Franklin. Activity information is available via email, blog, and Facebook. Homeschooling support is provided though Facebook and a variety of monthly support groups. The North Country Homeschooling Group is open to anyone who homeschools or who is thinking of homeschooling. There are no membership fees.