BRAVO VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Calling all parents! If you are looking for a fun and easy volunteer opportunity, this is it! Bravo is a classical music enrichment program run by parent volunteers. You present music selections in grades 1-4 about six times a year; training and supplies are provided. No musical background necessary. Please contact Deanna Olson at 651-603-1630 if you are interested. Please consider this great program- if we don’t have enough parents, this valuable program will not happen this year.

AMAZING COFFEE! Win-Win Fundraiser! Want a little “present” just for YOU in your kid’s backpack next week???  You get the coffee you love at a comparable price, and help the school raise money at the same time!  What could be better?

Last week was the start of the 2007-2008 Coffee Fund Raiser.  We will send home order forms with your children approximately every two weeks.  You can also find information from a link on the left of our home page. Orders are due back every other Thursday unless there is a pending holiday (see schedule on order form also on the web.)  Coffee is fresh roasted and sent home in your student’s backpack on the following Monday.

This fundraiser will help supplement the efforts of our 6^th graders to attend the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center trip (in lieu of candy bars).  Neighborhood roaster, White Rock Coffee, is supplying our coffee this year- YUM!  Please help the sixth graders by continuing to fulfill all your caffeine needs through us!

Price:   The retail prices of these high-quality coffees range from $12.75 to $11.00 per pound.  We are averaging the price to $11.50 per pound to make it easy.  Keep in mind that coffee purchased in the grocery store is usually packaged in 12 oz. bags, we are selling 16 oz. bags of Fair Trade/Organic coffee for only $11.50- what a bargain!

Blast Off to Kindergarten Saint Paul Public Schools, the City of Saint Paul, and the Saint Paul Public Library system have teamed up to create a new program. Blast Off to Kindergarten provides resources and supports to help families prepare their child for Kindergarten. Take a look for your own preschooler and/or share it with your neighbors. The website is www.blastofftok.org. You download their October newsletter at http://www.blastofftok.org/pdf/oct.pdf or check out the preview below.

Skills to Practice this Month

• Teach your child to follow spoken rules and directions. Upon entering kindergarten many children are able to sit for brief periods of time, about 15 minutes, and follow directions given out loud by a teacher.

Activities

• Help your child practice listening and following directions by playing “Follow the Leader” with your child. The first one to be the leader does a movement, a facial expression, or positions himself a certain way and everyone else copies the leader.

Books for Children

• Do Like a Duck Does by Judy Hindley
• If You’re Happy and You Know It by Jan Ormerod
• Hop Jump by Ellen Stoll Walsh
• No Laughing, No Smiling, No Giggling by James Stevenson

Books for Parents

• The Giant Encyclopedia of Preschool Activities for Four-Year-Olds edited by Kathy Charner and Maureen Murphy

Get Ready to Read- Skills to Practice this Month

• Place books and games everywhere in your home! Put waterproof books and foam letters in the bathroom for bath time. Help your child “write” a children’s cookbook and put it in the kitchen for her to use when you cook dinner. Put magnetic letters on the refrigerator door.

Be Healthy- Skills to Practice this Month

• See that your child has opportunities for many different types of physical activity. Upon entering kindergarten many children can run, jump, swing, and use balls. Most 4 and 5 year olds can kick a ball, throw

Horace Mann Halloween Party will be held on Friday, October 26, 2007 from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the Horace Mann Gymnasium. There will be a Haunted House, games, a Monster Walk and food. The money raised supports the 6^th grade week-long trip to Eagle Bluff Environmental Center in the spring. The trip is the culmination of a student’s 6^th grade year and career at Horace Mann.

Parents of 5^th and 6^th grade students are asked to volunteer for this event. Any questions, contact Sarah Goulet (651-690-0516 or goule009@umn.edu) or Lynne Lindholm (698-4945 or lsl@communicationmailing.com).

Attention all parents! Game prizes needed. Ideas: Small trinkets, pencils, small notebooks, individually pre-packaged snacks, candy, Little Debbie, or other snack cakes for the Monster Walk and games. Please drop off donated items in the office by Monday, October 22, 2007.

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