Dearest Families,
February ended with snow on the East Foothills and Santa Cruz mountains! It was a rare sight as we enjoyed the bay area’s winter wonderland! I love the sunshine though, so I am looking forward to that weather returning to us! We will start our garden again this month! The children, teachers, and I will plant herbs to taste and smell, veggies to eat and use for projects, and colorful flowers to look at and draw pictures of! This garden will give us more hands-on learning experiences to incorporate with our Links to Learning curriculum!
With the days getting longer and springtime just around the corner, we leap into March with a renewed sense of excitement! Starting the excitement, we will have two dress up days starting tomorrow, March 1st. Tomorrow’s dress up day will be Dr. Seuss’s “Lorax” Theme. The school has already bought mustaches for the children who want to wear them. Thursday’s theme will be “Cat in and Hat” or “Thing 1 and Thing 2”. We will also have our special visitor Thursday, March 2nd. Our dressed up special visitor (a.k.a. Mrs. Heather) will read to the children in celebration of Read Across America Month to close out this fun week!
Please be aware that the school is closed for Teacher In-Service Day this Friday, March 3rd. During our teacher in-service training day, all of our staff will receive ALICE training and certification. This ALICE training is a critical response training that is reviewed and revised annually based on real-life events. This training will teach our staff about two things: communication and awareness, and response strategies (lock-down evacuate, and counter). Our Spring Education security department will be conducting our training as part of our ongoing emergency preparedness. This is in addition to our fire drills, earthquake drills and lock-down drill schedule below. See below Safety Drills: Overview Info
Always fun activities coming our way…Scholastic Book Fair is coming next week, and Life Touch Professional Pictures are coming March 15th – 17th. See calendar below for specific classroom picture date. Our St. Patrick’s Day Pot-Luck celebration is coming up on Friday, March 17th at 3:00 pm for the student’s afternoon snack time. Please know that all events and celebrations that we hold here at Merryhill Preschool are open to parents joining us. We want to invite everyone to our events and celebrations. They are not mandatory though, so please do not feel obligated to come. We would love to have you join us, but if you cannot make it, we understand too. Hold on to your hats because April is jammed packed with thrills too. Check the calendar below for all the special events and celebrations we have in store.
“All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds we sow today.”
Warmest and Kindest Regards,
Heather Bilbro
Merryhill Preschool Principal
_______________________________________________________________
Important Note for future Kindergartners from Joan Sousae, Elementary Principal:
Hello future kindergarten families!
We are so excited that your child will be transitioning into elementary school this coming fall. Almost 70% of our Pre-K children enrolled in our Merryhill Kindergarten this year! I know many of you have already booked tours or have attended our Open House events already.
If you haven’t come by yet, we are offering personal onsite tours to all our families.
We have February tour dates available, so please be sure to schedule a private onsite tour by contacting Ms. Christine at christine.van@merryhillschool.com or call our front office team at 408-254-1282. We look forward to meeting each one of you!
Warm Regards,
Joan
________________________________________________
Important Note for Summer Camp on the Elementary Side:
Summer Camp registration is in full swing! Please head over to the Elementary Front Desk to pick up a Summer Camp registration for kindergarten through 5th grade. Anyone can join our Elementary School’s summer camp. They do not need to be enrolled here to join for the summer fun! As for our preschoolers registered for the new school year, you do not need to do anything about June onward. Since you registered for the new school year you are already locked in to start the new school year on June 12th.
__________________________________________________
Calendar of Events:
March 1st- Dress Up Day- Lorax from Dr. Seuss
March 2nd – Read Across America Day: Special visitor will read to the children @ 9:00 am. Dress up day- “Cat in the Hat” and “Thing 1 & Thing 2”
March 3rd – School Closed for Teacher In-Service Day
March 8th- Holi Celebration @ 3:00 pm (parents are invited)
March 6th – 10th – Scholastic Book Fair Event This Week!
March 12th – Daylight Saving time begins (move time ahead one hour)
March 13th – Pajama Day for ALL!!
March 15th – 17th – Lifetouch Pictures
March 15th Picture Day for- Infants, Toddlers and Beginners
March 16th Picture Day for- Intermediate A&B
March 17th Picture Day for- Pre-K A&B (this will be their Cap and Gown photos & regular individual pictures for Pre-K) We will provide the Cap and Gown.
March 17th – @ 3:00 pm St. Patrick’s Day Potluck Party (parents are invited)
March 18th – Open House 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
April 3rd – 7th – Week of the Young Child (special week of fun events and activities) (parents are invited)
April 6th – St Jude’s Charity: Trike-a-Thon 9:30 am – 11:30 am (parents are invited)
April 7th – @ 10:00 am Easter Egg Hunt at Merryhill School (parents are invited)
April 21st – @ 3:30 pm Earth Day Celebration (We will release our butterflies) (parents are invited)
May 1st – 5th – Teacher Appreciation Week! Teachers get spoiled ALL week!
May 25th – @ 3:30 pm Spring Show
May 29th – Memorial Day-School Closed
June 7th – Pre-K Graduation @ 3:30 pm
June 8th & June 9th – School Closed Teacher In-service Day!
June 12th – First Day of the new School Year 2023/2024
____________________________________________
Throughout the school year we conduct safety drills for different situations to help better prepare us in case of a real event. Please see the Safety Drill chart for all that we do to help keep our Merryhill community safe!
_____________________________________________
Amazing Athletes and Super Soccer Shots
Extra-Curricular Activities ARE HERE!!!
Amazing Athletes and Soccer Shot: To get more information go to www.amazingathletes.com/Southbay or you can reach the owner at nicolette@amazingathletes.com and by phone at 408-799-7014, ask for Nicolette.
These educational Sports Programs are amazing!
Super Soccer Shots registration link: https://registration.amazingathletes.com/events/super-soccer-stars-merryhill-preschool-san-jose
Amazing Athletes registration link: https://registration.amazingathletes.com/events/amazing-athletes-merryill-preschool-san-jose
________________________________________________________________________
From the Education Department
The World is Evolving and So Has Our Curriculum
Our goal has always been to provide a learning environment that fosters curiosity and creativity and prepares children for kindergarten and beyond. We evaluate our proprietary curriculum, Links to Learning, regularly to ensure that we continue delivering the program students need.
We know that the world is constantly evolving, and the skills children need today are different from what they were even a few years ago. Because of this, we’ve made the following important enhancements to our curriculum.
1. Children have more opportunities to practice social-emotional skills.
Social-emotional learning has always been a hallmark of our curriculum, as these skills are just as important as foundational academic skills. We want our students to be happy, thriving, and making friends. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve added even more hands-on activities for children to practice setting goals, problem solving, developing self-confidence, and sharing. As always, our teachers help children by modeling appropriate behaviors, giving effective praise, and providing verbal and visual cues.
2. Children participate in more hands-on activities to provoke questions and attitudes about themselves and others.
When children feel emotionally and physically safe, they are more likely to take on challenges and be more comfortable in their learning. We’ve always been steadfast in our commitment to designing classrooms and teaching strategies that support diversity, inclusion, and belonging. We’ve added even more items to help facilitate that learning, such as dolls with various skin tones, puzzles and games depicting various cultures, musical instruments from other countries, and culturally diverse dramatic play props.
3. We’ve enhanced skills throughout all subject areas to further prepare children for elementary school and beyond.
We’ve integrated even more opportunities during the day for your child to strengthen the muscles needed for writing across various subject areas. This includes activities to exercise fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination using safety scissors, tweezers, tongs, and paint brushes. We’ve also adapted a spiralized approach to our Spanish curriculum, meaning that teachers will introduce new vocabulary while reviewing the vocabulary learned in younger classrooms.
4. We’ve updated our family communication pieces.
We place a premium on making sure our families know what skills their child is working on, how they’re progressing, and what they’re loving most. In June 2023, we’ve included a QR code in our End of the Month folders so families can see digitally all the skills and goals their child achieved that month. Continuing the learning at home is now even easier with our refreshed Baby Sign Language poster, Spanish posters, and activity letters coming in June. Our Links 2 Home app and Family Reports will also be updated to give teachers space to showcase how each child is practicing social-emotional skills and the progress they are making.
_________________________________________________
Parent Referral Program:
If there’s one thing parents love to do, it’s talk about their children’s successes.
When friends ask you about your child’s experiences at Merryhill School, what type of success stories do you share? Do you mention the personal and educational discoveries your child is making thanks to our advanced curriculum? Do you talk about the new levels of self and social confidence your child has gained thanks to our encouraging atmosphere?
*For every new child you refer who enrolls at our school for three months, you’ll receive $1,000 credit toward one month of tuition for your child*.
It’s our way of saying thanks for doing what comes naturally – singing the praises of your child and sharing your experiences with the Merryhill School difference!!
March Newsletter
Dearest Families,
February ended with snow on the East Foothills and Santa Cruz mountains! It was a rare sight as we enjoyed the bay area’s winter wonderland! I love the sunshine though, so I am looking forward to that weather returning to us! We will start our garden again this month! The children, teachers, and I will plant herbs to taste and smell, veggies to eat and use for projects, and colorful flowers to look at and draw pictures of! This garden will give us more hands-on learning experiences to incorporate with our Links to Learning curriculum!
With the days getting longer and springtime just around the corner, we leap into March with a renewed sense of excitement! Starting the excitement, we will have two dress up days starting tomorrow, March 1st. Tomorrow’s dress up day will be Dr. Seuss’s “Lorax” Theme. The school has already bought mustaches for the children who want to wear them. Thursday’s theme will be “Cat in and Hat” or “Thing 1 and Thing 2”. We will also have our special visitor Thursday, March 2nd. Our dressed up special visitor (a.k.a. Mrs. Heather) will read to the children in celebration of Read Across America Month to close out this fun week!
Please be aware that the school is closed for Teacher In-Service Day this Friday, March 3rd. During our teacher in-service training day, all of our staff will receive ALICE training and certification. This ALICE training is a critical response training that is reviewed and revised annually based on real-life events. This training will teach our staff about two things: communication and awareness, and response strategies (lock-down evacuate, and counter). Our Spring Education security department will be conducting our training as part of our ongoing emergency preparedness. This is in addition to our fire drills, earthquake drills and lock-down drill schedule below. See below Safety Drills: Overview Info
Always fun activities coming our way…Scholastic Book Fair is coming next week, and Life Touch Professional Pictures are coming March 15th – 17th. See calendar below for specific classroom picture date. Our St. Patrick’s Day Pot-Luck celebration is coming up on Friday, March 17th at 3:00 pm for the student’s afternoon snack time. Please know that all events and celebrations that we hold here at Merryhill Preschool are open to parents joining us. We want to invite everyone to our events and celebrations. They are not mandatory though, so please do not feel obligated to come. We would love to have you join us, but if you cannot make it, we understand too. Hold on to your hats because April is jammed packed with thrills too. Check the calendar below for all the special events and celebrations we have in store.
“All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds we sow today.”
Warmest and Kindest Regards,
Heather Bilbro
Merryhill Preschool Principal
_______________________________________________________________
Important Note for future Kindergartners from Joan Sousae, Elementary Principal:
Hello future kindergarten families!
We are so excited that your child will be transitioning into elementary school this coming fall. Almost 70% of our Pre-K children enrolled in our Merryhill Kindergarten this year! I know many of you have already booked tours or have attended our Open House events already.
If you haven’t come by yet, we are offering personal onsite tours to all our families.
We have February tour dates available, so please be sure to schedule a private onsite tour by contacting Ms. Christine at christine.van@merryhillschool.com or call our front office team at 408-254-1282. We look forward to meeting each one of you!
Warm Regards,
Joan
________________________________________________
Important Note for Summer Camp on the Elementary Side:
Summer Camp registration is in full swing! Please head over to the Elementary Front Desk to pick up a Summer Camp registration for kindergarten through 5th grade. Anyone can join our Elementary School’s summer camp. They do not need to be enrolled here to join for the summer fun! As for our preschoolers registered for the new school year, you do not need to do anything about June onward. Since you registered for the new school year you are already locked in to start the new school year on June 12th.
__________________________________________________
Calendar of Events:
March 1st- Dress Up Day- Lorax from Dr. Seuss
March 2nd – Read Across America Day: Special visitor will read to the children @ 9:00 am. Dress up day- “Cat in the Hat” and “Thing 1 & Thing 2”
March 3rd – School Closed for Teacher In-Service Day
March 8th- Holi Celebration @ 3:00 pm (parents are invited)
March 6th – 10th – Scholastic Book Fair Event This Week!
March 12th – Daylight Saving time begins (move time ahead one hour)
March 13th – Pajama Day for ALL!!
March 15th – 17th – Lifetouch Pictures
March 15th Picture Day for- Infants, Toddlers and Beginners
March 16th Picture Day for- Intermediate A&B
March 17th Picture Day for- Pre-K A&B (this will be their Cap and Gown photos & regular individual pictures for Pre-K) We will provide the Cap and Gown.
March 17th – @ 3:00 pm St. Patrick’s Day Potluck Party (parents are invited)
March 18th – Open House 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
April 3rd – 7th – Week of the Young Child (special week of fun events and activities) (parents are invited)
April 6th – St Jude’s Charity: Trike-a-Thon 9:30 am – 11:30 am (parents are invited)
April 7th – @ 10:00 am Easter Egg Hunt at Merryhill School (parents are invited)
April 21st – @ 3:30 pm Earth Day Celebration (We will release our butterflies) (parents are invited)
May 1st – 5th – Teacher Appreciation Week! Teachers get spoiled ALL week!
May 25th – @ 3:30 pm Spring Show
May 29th – Memorial Day-School Closed
June 7th – Pre-K Graduation @ 3:30 pm
June 8th & June 9th – School Closed Teacher In-service Day!
June 12th – First Day of the new School Year 2023/2024
____________________________________________
Throughout the school year we conduct safety drills for different situations to help better prepare us in case of a real event. Please see the Safety Drill chart for all that we do to help keep our Merryhill community safe!
_____________________________________________
Amazing Athletes and Super Soccer Shots
Extra-Curricular Activities ARE HERE!!!
Amazing Athletes and Soccer Shot: To get more information go to www.amazingathletes.com/Southbay or you can reach the owner at nicolette@amazingathletes.com and by phone at 408-799-7014, ask for Nicolette.
These educational Sports Programs are amazing!
Super Soccer Shots registration link: https://registration.amazingathletes.com/events/super-soccer-stars-merryhill-preschool-san-jose
Amazing Athletes registration link: https://registration.amazingathletes.com/events/amazing-athletes-merryill-preschool-san-jose
________________________________________________________________________
From the Education Department
The World is Evolving and So Has Our Curriculum
Our goal has always been to provide a learning environment that fosters curiosity and creativity and prepares children for kindergarten and beyond. We evaluate our proprietary curriculum, Links to Learning, regularly to ensure that we continue delivering the program students need.
We know that the world is constantly evolving, and the skills children need today are different from what they were even a few years ago. Because of this, we’ve made the following important enhancements to our curriculum.
1. Children have more opportunities to practice social-emotional skills.
Social-emotional learning has always been a hallmark of our curriculum, as these skills are just as important as foundational academic skills. We want our students to be happy, thriving, and making friends. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve added even more hands-on activities for children to practice setting goals, problem solving, developing self-confidence, and sharing. As always, our teachers help children by modeling appropriate behaviors, giving effective praise, and providing verbal and visual cues.
2. Children participate in more hands-on activities to provoke questions and attitudes about themselves and others.
When children feel emotionally and physically safe, they are more likely to take on challenges and be more comfortable in their learning. We’ve always been steadfast in our commitment to designing classrooms and teaching strategies that support diversity, inclusion, and belonging. We’ve added even more items to help facilitate that learning, such as dolls with various skin tones, puzzles and games depicting various cultures, musical instruments from other countries, and culturally diverse dramatic play props.
3. We’ve enhanced skills throughout all subject areas to further prepare children for elementary school and beyond.
We’ve integrated even more opportunities during the day for your child to strengthen the muscles needed for writing across various subject areas. This includes activities to exercise fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination using safety scissors, tweezers, tongs, and paint brushes. We’ve also adapted a spiralized approach to our Spanish curriculum, meaning that teachers will introduce new vocabulary while reviewing the vocabulary learned in younger classrooms.
4. We’ve updated our family communication pieces.
We place a premium on making sure our families know what skills their child is working on, how they’re progressing, and what they’re loving most. In June 2023, we’ve included a QR code in our End of the Month folders so families can see digitally all the skills and goals their child achieved that month. Continuing the learning at home is now even easier with our refreshed Baby Sign Language poster, Spanish posters, and activity letters coming in June. Our Links 2 Home app and Family Reports will also be updated to give teachers space to showcase how each child is practicing social-emotional skills and the progress they are making.
_________________________________________________
Parent Referral Program:
If there’s one thing parents love to do, it’s talk about their children’s successes.
When friends ask you about your child’s experiences at Merryhill School, what type of success stories do you share? Do you mention the personal and educational discoveries your child is making thanks to our advanced curriculum? Do you talk about the new levels of self and social confidence your child has gained thanks to our encouraging atmosphere?
*For every new child you refer who enrolls at our school for three months, you’ll receive $1,000 credit toward one month of tuition for your child*.
It’s our way of saying thanks for doing what comes naturally – singing the praises of your child and sharing your experiences with the Merryhill School difference!!