The Nantucket
Lighthouse School
May 2009 Newsletter |
|
|
| Contact Us |
1 Rugged Road
Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554
www.nantucketlighthouseschool.org
|
Bulletin Board
|
Yearbooks 2009
Thanks to Cary Hazlegrove for our beautiful student and class pictures. She has also created an amazing Lighthouse Yearbook which will be available for purchase this week. Yearbooks are $35. Samples are available in the office. It features candids of the students, student art work, and photos by our very own P5 class. Come by and check it out!
Childcare Opportunities
NLS parent Sharlene Rudd is providing childcare: Part time, hours very
flexible, can drop off and pick up to and from school and to camps
and activities over summer. Also available for evening babysitting. Sharlene can be contacted by email sharlenerudd@yahoo.com.au
or ph 508 221 2500.
NLS Spanish
Teacher and parent Patricia Harding
is hosting a summer camp and has two open spots.
Hours are 9 - 4:00, $60/day.
Small group, lots of outdoor adventures, and Spanish language
instruction. Contact Patricia
directly at 508.280.1409 if interested.
Seeking Housing this Summer
Teacher Lizza Obremski is seeking housing this summer. She can move in right away, and stay
through end of August. Contact Lizza at school, or via email at elizabeth.obremski@
gmail.com.
NLS Facility Rental
We are renting our facility this
summer. Faculty, parents and
friends are welcome to rent. If you
are interested in making use of the building or parking
lot for your camp or small business this summer, please contact
Stacy Fusaro for availability, rates and insurance requirements.
Seeking Underwriting
We are trying
to bring award winning singer/songwriter Dan Zanes here this summer
for a community concert fundraiser to support the Capital Campaign. If you know of anyone who may be
interested in helping to underwrite the event, enabling us to offer 200 tickets for island children, please let Cheryl know. We have a limited amount of time to
raise the funds to make this possible.
Underwriters' names will appear on promotions for the event.
|
Morning Drop Off
With the sun rising earlier and earlier, children have been arriving in the classroom earlier and earlier. Because many teachers rely upon the morning time to prepare for the school day, we ask you and our Morning Greeters (and thank you Greeters for greeting!) to stem the tide until 8:25 a.m. Because there is no adult overseeing play outside, in the interest of safety, children should not be dropped off unsupervised.
Thank you for your understanding!
|
Nantucket Garden Festival
|
July 23 - 25, 2009
 The Nantucket Garden Festival, a three-day event featuring a preview party, workshops, exhibits, garden tours, dinner gala, and childrens program, will take place on the school grounds and at private island gardens. The event committee has been working diligently on this event, which will benefit the Capital Campaign, since last fall.
Gardening luminaries Holly Shimizu, David Wheeler, Verlyn Klinkenborg and many others have agreed to take part in the event. The available exhibit space has all but sold out. And we have already sold seats at some of the special events. Learn more about this event by visiting the Nantucket Garden Festival Web site. If you have a client or friend who might be interested in participating in this event, please give contact info to Stacy Fusaro. Invitations to the event will mail in June.
Special thanks to Connie Umberger, Mimi Beman, Syd Fee, Cary Hazlegrove, Lizbet Carroll Fuller, Mary Taaffe, Mary Casey, Robin Berglund, Suzanne Keller and Mike Schwed for their work on the event.
We will need volunteers to help with tent security, registration, and food service among other activities. If you are interested in contributing to the Capital Campaign by volunteering your time at this event, please contact Mary Casey.
|
|
|
|
|
| Upcoming Calendar Notes
May 22- Faculty Work Day- No School
May 25- Memorial Day- No School
June 1- End of Year ALL SCHOOL BBQ and End of Year Projects for Upper School
June 2- The Dragon King by theTanglewood Marionettes- Bennet Hall 3:30 (more information below)
June 3- Board Meeting
June 5- Small School Plays
June 9- Graduation
June 11 Lighthouse CARNIVAL 1-2:30
June 12- Last Day of School- 1/2 Day
June 15-17 Faculty Work Days |
Richard Lewis Visits Lighthouse School
|
 Founder/Director Touchstone Center for Children
Richard Lewis traveled to Nantucket from his New York City home and conducted both parent and educators workshops in addition to spending a day working with each Lighthouse Classroom. Richard is an educator, author, and musician but to children he is an enchanting weaver of dreamlike tales. Richard held each class spellbound as he created a peaceful and magical space in which to imaginatively explore the stories and secrets of shooting stars, trees, birds and everything else along the way. We thank Richard Lewis for sharing his wonderful and wise self and hope he will return again. |
The Small School spent the week leading up to Mother's Day busily preparing for the annual Mother's Day Café. Children wove paper placemats, made drawings or paintings of their moms, and wrote 'stories' about their mothers. Each person handcrafted a gift for his/her mother and practiced writing her name or the word 'Mom' on her card. They created flowers from egg cartons and buttons to make a nosegay. Children baked shortbread and sliced strawberries for Strawberry Shortcake. Finally, the day arrived and Small Schoolers scurried about finishing up assorted projects and setting long tables with each child setting his/her own mother's place. Everyone was given a waiter's apron and a pad as we practiced how to greet our special customers, how to seat them, and how to take an order and carefully deliver it. Excitement was running high (especially high, given the Full Moon!) but, once the café opened for service, every waiter was attentive and purposeful.
Mother's Day, like Christmas, gives us a wonderful opportunity to delve into the element of our curriculum having to do with Thankfulness and Generosity. We purposely, and literally, turn the tables on the little ones in order to them the experience of doing for someone else- and a very significant 'someone else.' We give children the opportunity to express their gratitude through purposeful 'work' (our projects) and playful imitation (the 'restaurant').
While we ask children to tell stories about their mothers, we do so knowing that this is a challenging task. For a young child, there is little separation experienced between self and other, and even less between self and mother. Children at this age are magical and yet very concrete thinkers. As such, young children are hard-pressed to describe their experiences and feelings because they just are. For instance, one mother remembered her child's last Mother's Day Café story:
I love her because I love her.
|
The Tanglewood Marionettes
|
The Dragon King
A Special Performance for Lighthouse School Families thanks to the Nantucket Arts Council!
On Tuesday, June 2, Lighthouse Families are invited to a special performance of the Tanglewood Marionette's The Dragon King. It will take place after school at 3:30 p.m. at Bennett Hall. Any contributions toward the rental of the hall are welcome. We thank the Nantucket Arts Council, the Nantucket Golf Club, and NAC's Evi Musser for making this performance possible.
A terrible drought has overtaken the land, and all the world has turned brown and lifeless. The Dragon King is ruler over all things water, and the people are beginning to wonder why he has not brought the life-giving rains in such a very long time.
An underwater fantasy based on Chinese folklore, Tanglewood Marionettes' latest production tells the tale of an intrepid Grandmother who journeys to the bottom of the sea to seek the Dragon King, and the answers to why he has forsaken the land above.
Colorful sea creatures, an exciting adventure, and a Dragon King that will knock your socks off! All this and more can be found in Tanglewood Marionettes' newest all-ages show.
-from the Tanglewood Marionettes Website
|
Cinco de Mayo Celebration
|
Lighthouse School Spanish Teacher Patricia Harding hosted a Cinco de Mayo celebration for the school with the assistance of her P5 students. Patricia instructs children in the Spanish language as well as well as introducing them to some of the customs and traditions of the Spanish people. Children happily celebrated Cinco de Mayo with homemade and customized tacos to mark the day. Gracias Senora Patricia for creating this festive celebration and thank you to Sandy Mitchell and P5 students for their work. Thanks also to parents for making this celebration possible by contributing toward the cost of the meal.
|
Welcome New Board Members
|
| Steven Blashfield has completed his term as Lighthouse School Board President and he and his family are moving to Virginia. Steven originally became involved with Lighthouse School when he designed our new school building and then joined our board and served on the Building Committee. Steven graciously assumed the presidency and has devoted many, many hours over the past several years to the development of the school. He has guided our board with his characteristic steadiness, patience and thoughtfulness and we will surely miss him. We are grateful to Steven for his contribution to Lighthouse School and we wish his family the very best as they embark upon new adventures. Good bye and thank you Blashfields!
We are happy to announce that Board members Connie Umberger and Patrick Hehir have agreed to be co-presidents of the Lighthouse School Board. We have more good news to share on the Board front. Long-time island resident and musician Caleb Cressman and former Mitchell's Book Corner owner Mimi Beman have agreed to join the ranks of Trustees for the School. Caleb joined our board this past winter. Already very active on the Nantucket Garden Festival committee, Mimi joined our board in May.
We are delighted and thankful to all board members, past and present. We know Connie, Patrick, Caleb and Mimi will all contribute a great deal in their new posts on the Nantucket Lighthouse School Board of Trustees. Welcome!
| |
|
 8 Painted Chairs
The Painted Chairs event features eight unique chairs painted by eight equally unique Nantucket artists raffled off at $10 a ticket,
to benefit the Nantucket Lighthouse School. Big thanks to MJ Levy Dickson, Julie Gifford, Lou Guarnaccia, Randy Hudson, David Lazarus, Robert McKee, Julija Mostykanova, and Gail Sharretts for their impressive contributions to this year's event.
We are asking each family to help us sell tickets for the 8 Painted Chairs event. Sales from the 8 Painted Chairs event will help us bridge the gap between what it costs to educate each child and what we charge in tuition. Details and tickets will be in your mail boxes this week.
View all 8 of these amazing chairs at 51 Main Street in the window or on the Nantucket Lighthouse School Web site. Chairs will also be on view at Randy Hudson's opening May 22 from 6 - 8 p.m. at the South Wharf Gallery and at the Nantucket Atheneum's Garden on Saturday for the Artists Association Side Walk Sale. Special thanks to Cary Hazlegrove for all of her work on this event, from securing the artists to photographing their chairs! Thanks also to Susan Lazarus for coordinating details for this event.
|
A New School Year with Familiar Faces
|
 As a school, we have been extraordinarily lucky to retain a talented and committed faculty on a very transitory island. We are delighted that almost all of our teachers will be returning next year. Hurray for Dina Warren, Monika Geerling, Erin Dancik, Alisa Allegrini, and Sandy Mitchell. Megan (Brown) Cronin will hopefully be making guest appearances at Lighthouse next year but she will be pursuing some new dreams in the coming year.Lizza Obremski has a new adventure planned, which you can read about below.
At Lighthouse School, we have been very fortunate to employ a talented, thoughtful, creative group of people dedicated to the philosophy and mission of our school as well as the families they work with. Lighthouse School wouldn't be what it is without the heads, hearts and hands of the wonderful women whom create 'school' every day and every year.
Lizza and Megan, we will surely miss you!
We will be adding a new Kinderclassroom and Small School's Kate Pelletier is excited to become a Kinderclass teacher. I will not have my own classroom next year in order to be able to work with teachers and classes throughout the school, develop All School projects, and to attend to administrative tasks. Who will teach Small School then? Why, Small School teachers Alicia Keller and Carole Watson are returning to Lighthouse! Carole left the classroom to have son Ethan and then baby Ava. Alicia took a year-long leave for a sailing adventure with her husband Carl. We are thrilled to have them back.
As far as class placement for next year, I will be working with teachers to make placements and to compose classes for the coming year. You will receive information regarding your child's teacher in June. If you have any questions regarding next year, please make sure to ask your child's teacher during parent/teacher conferences, which are now being scheduled.
The next few weeks will be exciting and busy ones.
How did the year fly by so quickly?
Lizbet Carroll Fuller
Director of Education
|
Lizza Obremski's Great Adventure
In February Lizza attended an International Teaching Recruitment Fair run by International School Services and was offered a job in Beirut, Lebanon. She will be teaching 4 and 5 year olds at the Wellspring Learning Community. The School is owned by a Lebanese woman and run by two American women. It is a bi-lingual school (Arabic and English) made up of 60 % Lebanese children and 40% international students. The school was founded only 3 years ago so it is still fairly small with approximately 10 children per class. (More information can be found at http://www.wellspring.edu.lb/s/696/index.aspx.)
Lizza grew up on Nantucket and feels the need to try her wings in the great off-island. However, she says she is going to miss us! "If I could take the Lighthouse School with me I would because it is the best school in the Universe." We are hoping to acquire some Lebanese penpals here at Lighthouse.
Bon Voyage Lizza! Best of luck- we will miss you! | |
|
|
