Monday, June 29, 2009

GiggleBytes

GiggleBytes classes begin tomorrow! It's not too late to sign up for tomorrow's class or future classes. The sign up is at the front desk.

Classes are $8 each, and can be added to your monthly tuition. They will be held weekly on Tuesday mornings.

Splash Day

THANK YOU to all of our staff and families who helped out with Splash Day. It was a huge success and so much fun!


Volunteers:
Michael & Gabe Lopez
Shila Bruce
Roxanne Hill
Alisa DeLuna
Kimberly Ferree
Tina DeLauri
Michel Otto
Terrie & Milton McCaleb
Sabrina Wells
Vanessa Freeman
Melinda Calk
Bobby Leshikar
Maria & Daniel Bleier
Susan Johnson
Angie Bell
Mallory & Micah Grau
Sarah Johnson
Stacey Bell
Our families who donated items for our baskets


Thank you to Starbucks Coffee and Sonic Drive-in for their donations!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Splash Day...

is tomorrow!!! We hope to see you all there.

Splash Day
10am-2pm

Wristbands (unlimited play): $10 each
Tickets: 25 cents each
Food and Drinks will also be sold
(hot dogs, chips, sodas/water, Starbucks drinks, snowcones)


All proceeds benefit The Emerson Foundation.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Auction

The baskets for our Splash Day Auction are filling up, and we are so grateful for your support! We have begun selling the raffle tickets. If you are interested in a basket, you may purchase these tickets for $1 each. The drawing will be held on Saturday, but you do not have to be in attendance to win. All the proceeds will benefit The Emerson Foundation!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Hot Lunches Are Here!

Dear Emerson Academy Parents,


In an effort to better serve our families, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering hot, nutritious lunches from Lunch Direct!

Lunch Direct provides a convenient, web-based, lunch catering service for select pre-schools.

With Lunch Direct ordering is…

• Convenient: order from any location using a web browser. Check what you have ordered any time. Delete days not needed on-line (by midnight Tuesday, a week in advance).
• Simple: intuitive and easy-to-use; created with you in mind. We accept the most popular credit and debit cards [Visa, Master Card, Discover, and American Express]. You can review order history at any time, on-line
• Secure: no financial data is retained: transactions are processed using a secure connection.

The cost per meal is only $3.25. You can order either standard or vegetarian each day. The menus are published conveniently on-line, along with the potential allergens. We have just published our menus for July and August.

Orders must be placed by midnight Wednesday for following week delivery.

To sign up your child to receive these lunches, simply go online to www.lunchdirect.net. Use Emerson Academy’s registration key (100000) and your child’s classroom name to enroll. From here, you can select the days your child needs these lunches, what type of meal you would like to order, and pay via credit or debit card.



We are so excited to offer this service to our students! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Silent Auction Information

The Emerson Foundation Silent Auction

Saturday, June 27th

There will be a silent auction during our 1st Annual Starbucks Splash Day to benefit The Emerson Foundation! Each class will put together a family-oriented themed basket to be auctioned. Any family or staff that would like to contribute is asked to bring their donated items to their child’s classroom teacher by Thursday, June 25th. Below is a list of the classroom’s baskets and some ideas for donations. Have fun and be creative!

Monkeys Gardening Fun Basket – Gardening tools –gloves, pots, mini flags, windsocks, garden art, wind chimes, gardening books or magazines, gift card, etc.

Butterflies Cooking-Baking Fun BasketCookbooks for kids or adults, utensils, pans, aprons, hot pads, cake mix, icing, sprinkles, cupcake liners, birthday candles, spices, measuring cups and spoons, gift cards, etc.

Turtles Summer Fun Basket – Games, puzzles, books, bubbles, water toys, beach towels, sidewalk chalk, movies, movie tickets, bowling passes, gift cards, etc.

Pandas Family Fun Basket – Board games, puzzles, books, movies, play dough, gift card, movie tickets, bowling passes, etc.

Camp Emerson BBQ & Outdoor Fun Basket– Cookbooks, utensils, apron, hot pads, outdoor décor for BBQs, outdoor games, seasoning, sun block, sauces, long handle lighter, gift card, etc.

Infants Arts & Crafts Fun Basket – Arts & Crafts kits, coloring books, crayons, water colors, crafty scissors, markers, stencils, stickers, glitter glue, glue, construction paper, stamps and pads, memory book materials, craft books, gift cards, etc.

Parent's Night Out

Tomorrow is Parent's Night Out, 6-10pm. Take a night off. Sign up on the bulletin board today!


Donations will be take, and all proceeds will benefit The Emerson Founation.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Kinderdance!




Today was the first day of Kinderdance, and our kid had a blast! If you have not yet signed your child up to participate in these classes, it's not too late! Our next class will be on July 2nd!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

GiggleBytes

Today Emerson students participated in an introduction class for a new enrichment opportunity, GiggleBytes. The classes were very well received, and we would like to offer these classes to our students on a weekly basis!

The Gigglebytes program uses educational software to teach age-appropriate skills and concepts:

*colors
*shapes
*letter and number recognition

*patterning
*classification
*logical and critical thinking
*phonics
*auditory and visual discrimination
*and much more!

Classes will be held once a week at Emerson and are taught by degreed, trained teachers who have experience working with children of all ability levels. The kids would work with a qualified teacher in small groups of 3-5 students for 30-40 minutes sessions.

Classes cost $8 each, and you will never pay for a class your child does not attend!








If you are interested in the classes for your child, sign-up is at the front desk. We hope to begin the classes next week!





If you have any questions about the program or would like more information, feel free to contact Mallory at mgrau@emerson-academy.com

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Review Emerson

We need your help!

With the expansion of Emerson on the horizon, we would like to get the word out about our program. While we could buy banners and place ads, the best advertising is and will always be parents' reviews. So we are asking you to help us help our program and reach even more kiddos. Please take a few minutes to write a review about your experience with Emerson. It would be greatly appreciated!


Monday, June 15, 2009

KinderDance

Classes begin this Thursday! If you have not already sent your permission slip and payment in, please do so as soon as possible. We are very excited to be offering this for our kiddos, and we hope you take advantage of this opportunity! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. You can email me at mgrau@emerson-academy.com.




Thursday, June 11, 2009

Music and Movement Classes at Emerson!!!

Dear Parents,

This summer Emerson Academy is teaming up with Kinderdance® of Austin to provide our students with an enrichment opportunity! We will be offering classes taught by Kinderdance teachers every other Thursday, beginning on June 18th. They are taught by trained music and movement teachers, and will be held while your child is at Emerson (you don’t need to change anything!) The classes last 20 minutes and will cost $5 each ($30 for the summer). This can be paid separately or with you monthly tuition payment, and scholarships may be available if needed (see Mallory). Each class will have a scheduled time, so make sure your child is at Emerson at these times. Parents do not need to be present for the classes, but are welcome, as always, to check in.

Every other Thursday, June 18th – August 27th:
Butterflies - 9:30am
Turtles - 10:00am
Pandas - 10:30am
Camp Emerson - 11:00am

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. We hope you take advantage of this opportunity to build your child’s self-esteem, confidence, and gross motor skills through music and movement!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Camp Emerson's Water Fun





Logo Contest

Congratulations to Theresa Misenti, the winner of The Emerson Foundation logo contest! Her design will become to new logo for the foundation, and $100 will be given to the Foundation in her name. Thank you to all who participated!


Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Letter From the Director

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Summer is here and we're excited about some of the changes that are soon to come! As you may be aware, Emerson Academy has started a non-profit organization that is in the process of being granted 501(c)(3) status. The Emerson Foundation will support Emerson Academy's on-going effort to provide the highest quality of inclusive childcare and preschool in the area through scholarship funds, professional development grants, and funding for program expansion. We'd like to thank our board members for their volunteer efforts: Maria Bleier, Randy Deavers, John Bell, Susan Johnson and Sarah Daily. The Emerson Foundation is off to a great start with fund raising efforts, but we still need as much help as possible.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 27th for the 1st annual Starbucks Splash Day at Emerson Academy! The fundraising event will run from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm and will feature the following family fun: moon walks, sprinkler slides, carnival games, face painting, refreshments (hot dogs, popcorn, snow cones, etc ... ), and a silent auction. If you have any ideas or would like to volunteer to help in any way please let us know. Michael Grey (one of our moms) has graciously volunteered to organize Starbucks employees to volunteer for the event!

____________________________

This summer you may see some new faces around Emerson Academy. Our website is currently being updated, so you'll be able to read all of the bios soon.

*Ms. Terrie, from the Panda class, will be the lead teacher for Camp Emerson for the summer. In September she'll resume co-teaching with Ms. Kimberly, but in the meantime we'll have Sarah Young (a recent UT graduate) working with Kimberly. Sarah Young currently works part-time in our Monkey class and also uses her Nutrition knowledge to plan our snack menus.

*Jennifer Hammer will work with Ms. Terrie and the Camp Emerson children for the summer, and resume working part-time in the Fall while she finishes up her last year at UT.

*Jennifer Carpenter is new to our team and will be working in the Monkey class in the afternoons this summer.

*Laura Bernard, Melinda Calk, Jennifer Jenkins, and Amy McHenry will be helping out with the Frog class within the Panda and Turtle classes for the summer.

*Dora Perales, who currently works part-time with our infants, will be working full-time this summer as our administrative assistant.


Another big change that we are very excited about is that we have hired an Assistant Director. Our very own Mallory Grau will be working closely with Stacey and I as Assistant Director as we continue to improve our program. Mallory has worked with us for over a year in many capacities, from teacher to grant writer to fund raiser and volunteer. She has consistently gone above and beyond her assigned duties to better our program and help with launching on The Emerson Foundation. Please welcome Mallory to her new position!


Sincerely,
Sarah Johnson, M.Ed.