FOCUS ON YOUTH
November 2020
CHABAD JEWISH CENTER OF NAPLES
Celebrating the season By Ettie Zaklos, Preschool of the Arts Founder & Director
D
espite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our little oasis at Preschool of the Arts continues to be a place of calm, joy and learning. In the first months of the school year, the children have settled into a warm and interactive environment, where they are exploring and thriving. Our staff have successfully incorporated all our new safety and health guidelines into every element of our program, ensuring safety and comfort for all. Even with masks and modifications to our program, the love, warmth and unparalleled care continues unabated. We are so proud that our preschool continues to be a strong foundation for our families, a place where they can rely on constant care, even within the unknowns to come. We are thrilled that, during this difficult time, we have maintained 100% enrollment capacity. This vote of confidence from our parents is deeply appreciated and we honor our responsibility for our community’s health as sacred. Our school places an emphasis on a strong home-school partnership. We are committed to enriching the lives of not only our children, but our families as well. That’s why, despite limitations, we hosted our first-ever virtual Curriculum Night on Zoom. We were honored to welcome Dr. Sherry Walling, an expert psychologist and speaker, to present ideas for how our parent body can best support themselves and their children through challenging times. The theme of the evening was “We Got This,” focusing on finding inner strength and vitality as we parent and educate young children through the unknown. Thankfully, we were able to recreate a large part of our annual parent evening on Zoom, with special take-home carriers filled with treats, a craft that parents decorated at home and many more special touches. Parents enjoyed personal virtual tours of their child’s classroom, with detailed explanations of each classroom center. It was exciting to see the high level of participation at this virtual school event, as parental involvement is essential to promoting the home-school
connection that is a pillar of our educational philosophy. Throughout the end of September and early weeks of October, Preschool of the Arts enjoyed celebrating the Jewish holiday season with students, marking special days and learning all about our beautiful traditions. Our children enjoyed apples and honey, blowed the Shofar and discussed saying sorry on Yom Kippur. The fun continued as we celebrated the joyous holiday of Sukkot. In our classrooms, teachers provided many opportunities for students to explore the different fall, construction and harvestinspired elements of Sukkot and discover the holiday for themselves. A handyman guided the children in using construction tools to build a real-life Sukkah, which they then decorated. Our little engineers practiced their budding STEM skills as they measured and hammered away! Our school community also enjoyed a delicious Spaghetti in the Sukkah event. It was lovely to sit and enjoy a yummy pasta and meatball lunch provided by Preschool of the Arts. Sitting outdoors in the Sukkah that the children had helped build and so beautifully decorated with their own artwork, and enjoying a fun holiday meal, made us all feel like we were one big happy family! These feelings of community will continue throughout the month of November and are underscored by the theme of the month: gratitude. While we teach gratitude every day at our preschool, the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in November really brings the message to the fore. It is the perfect mid-year opportunity to stop and remind ourselves of how blessed we are and express our heartfelt gratitude to our community. At Preschool of the Arts, we always celebrate in a grand fashion, with a schoolwide Thanksgiving performance. We are excited for our plans this year to conduct an in-person socially distanced event in Cambier Park. Our hope is to remind our community that even when we have to change our plans, when we stop and count our blessings, there is always reason to celebrate.
Federation Star
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www.chabadnaples.com / 239.262.4474
