Hey y’all! Happy, happy New Year! I hope everyone had an incredible Winter Break with your sweet peas! The kids truly make the holidays absolutely magical! We all had such a great time at our Gingerbread Party! Thank you so much to all of our Gingerbread Elves, who helped us make 70 Gingerbread houses from scratch! We couldn’t have done it without you! And, a special “Thank You” to Mr. Drew, Lily’s (in our Owls) Dad. He was our “Secret Santa” for the day! He truly brought the special ingredient to each class on December 20th–not just the candy and icing to decorate the houses, but rather, the fantastical Santa element, which ignites the children’s imagination and the magic of the season! What fun!
In addition, I want to thank everyone for their contribution to our little Angels this year. You all helped make the holidays special, giving so very much of the items the kids needed and wished for. Just before the break, I took the van full of sacks of goodies to The Salvation Army on South Congress. The people who helped unload and sort the sacks were so grateful, and it was so cool to see what a difference our Lupine Lane Family can make in the lives of other people. There will be so many more opportunities going forward to do this. Picture the joy in the children’s eyes who were able to experience the magic of the holidays. Thank you for your contributions and for making the differences in young lives.
This year is sure to bring a lot to our Lupine Lane family! As the construction marches on in Rough Hollow, we have a new date for completion. Our contractors are pushing for a March 5th completion, which will actually serve us very well as a school since this will fall just before Spring Break (3/10-3/17). Our plan is to move things into the space gradually prior to the break and then have movers help us with the large items when school is on break. Then, we can finally set up Lupine Lane for good! After being mobile for so long in the beginning of the life of LL and then occupying several temporary spaces while we were busy getting our ducks in a row to complete something amazing and do so in a well-informed way, we are BEYOND THRILLED to finally set up our school and settle in, one last time in March! This Spring will definitely be a time of new beginnings, and we are so glad that you and your families are a part of this! We could not have done this without y’all!
I wanted to touch base on a few things as we begin this semester! First–After School Classes! We have a bevy of new classes! Please check out our Current Classes page that Ms. Kaleigh has updated. There, you can find more information and enroll. Also–check out this cool video of the Sportball Trial Day! Let the great times roll after school!
Second, this Friday, 1/17, we will welcome the incredible Liz Garton Scanlon for her second visit to Lupine Lane! She is a highly acclaimed children’s author and lives right here in Austin! We are so excited for her to come read some of her new books like Happy Birthday, Bunny and The Good Pie Party as well as our favorites like All The World and A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes! If you would like to send a book or two with your child, Liz is more than happy to sign them. You can find the books on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble.
On the note of special additions to the curriculum, we will be going to ZACH Scott Theatre to see Seussical at the end of March! We will send out more information this week about all of the exciting details! I saw Seussical as an adult when I lived in Colorado and it was such a fun, entertaining time for the kids and adults!
Third, we are going to be intertwining the Living Values element of our curriculum into each day just a bit further beginning this week. The linked website covers a great deal, and you can also purchase the exact book that we use at Lupine Lane. These lessons are incredible in the way they offer opportunities for the kids to fully grasp the definitions of the values through developmentally appropriate, hands-on, thoughtful lessons.
Although each class has been focusing on their value, we would like to begin to bring all of these values to light for the kids. To accomplish this, each teacher will develop a mini-presentation on each value that they will present to each class. Then, beginning on Tuesday, 1/21, we will begin to recognize people for exhibiting the values. We will have strips of paper in a space in each classroom and in common areas of the school. When a person, child or adult, manifests a Living Value and another person recognizes this, the person who recognizes it will write the person’s name, the Living Value and a short description of the wonderful deed done. Then, the person will bring the strip of paper and deposit it into the Living Values box in the main office. On Fridays, we will present each person with a Certificate, recognizing their positive deed. We will also make a Chain of Living Values to hang in our school with the strips of paper. Our goal is to create visual representations of all the wonderful things that people in our Lupine Lane Family do each and every day. We are so excited to begin. If your child brings a Living Values Certificate home one Friday, please celebrate with them and us!
I’m really looking forward to so many wonderful things this year and I’m so glad to have you all as a part of this! Onward we go, with big, huge smiles and lots of love!
-Lauren