Mother’s Day Thanks
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was quoted as saying: “Motherhood is the most important of all professions – requiring more knowledge than any other department in human affairs.”

We are deeply grateful to all the mothering knowledge and its practical application that has been devoted to our school in endless variety and richness – as evidenced especially at our Gala Saturday night.

We trust you had only the best on your well deserved day!

Auction Incredible Success!
1.  Saturday night’s art auction was wonderful with great attendance, good socializing and several new fundraising additions that worked very well.  A big thank you to all of you who came out in support!  And thank you to all of the volunteers whose efforts contributed to making this year’s event so successful.  There was spectacular art, awesome raffle baskets, delicious, abundant food and refreshments and lots of wonderful smiles all night long.  It is events such as this one that show our true Montessori spirit!  Neil Fogel, our auctioneer for the past 7 years, commented on what an incredible community we have.  He does auctions all around the country and always looks forward to coming back to us because it is such a positive, working together community that makes for a wonderful atmosphere – he loves being a part of it!  We will be tallying up the dollar totals today – it sure felt like we did better than last year.   Heart-felt thanks to all who participated and supported the effort!

2.  Kid’s Art:  If you weren’t able to be with us your child’s matted, ready for framing work of art is available in the office.  Please send in a donation ($10 minimum) and we will send it home.  Or, you can stop in at the office for Harborside art or the Dix Hills campus for their art.

3. Bear Number 9: Did you purchase Bear #9?  If so, contact the office – we have your teddy bear.

4.  Unclaimed raffle baskets:  It was a long night and some of you needed to leave before the raffle winners were announced.  We have a number of unclaimed raffles.  The basket numbers with the winning number are listed below.  The baskets are at Harborside campus – please claim them ASAP. Camp Alvernia is having their major Open House event this coming weekend and all our leftovers need to be cleared out of the garage.  Any unclaimed baskets will be awarded to new winners after tomorrow.  The following raffles go to the holders of the raffle numbers listed after them.  If you hold those numbers please give the office a call to arrange to pick them up. Also, if you have an empty raffle basket we’d like to recycle it with new goodies next year – please drop it off at the school. Here are the raffle basket numbers and the winning raffle tickets:

Basket #3 Blue Ticket 68993              Basket #47 Blue Ticket 23372
Basket # 14 Blue Ticket 23119           Basket #51 Blue Ticket 23435
Basket #15 Blue Ticket 23121            Basket #52 Blue Ticket 23431
Basket #24 White Ticket 65774       Basket #71 Purple Ticket 804854
Basket #28 White Ticket 66993        Basket #72 White Ticket 66898
Basket #31 White Ticket 65571        Basket #95 Blue Ticket 23151
Basket #35 Blue Ticket 23238           Basket #128 Blue Ticket 23455
Basket #46 White Ticket 65517        Basket #135 Blue Ticket 23407

Read to Succeed Great Adventure Tickets
The tickets to Great Adventure for those who read more than 600 minutes during Read to Succeed are in.  We will send them home this week – look for the ticket in your child’s backpack.

Printable May 14 Parent News

Final Auction update:
Our auction is almost here! At the auction, there are a lot of different activities going on at the auction in addition to the live art auction and amazing food, including…

We have raffles! It looks like we will have 120 plus baskets to raffle off this year- ranging from theater tickets and gift cards to restaurants, amazing craft and toy baskets, the new American Girl doll of 2012-McKenna and fantastic Lego baskets, home decor items, wine and more! Tickets can be purchased ahead of time through the office or at the event.  We will beposting the list of raffles on the website later this week for you to see the incredible offerings or stop in the garage and take a peek.

Raffles are sold by the sheet:
1 Sheet (25 tickets)  -$30
2 Sheets (50 tickets) -$50 (Savings $10)
3 Sheets (75 tickets) – $70 (savings $20)
5 Sheets (125 tickets) – $100 (savings $50)

We also have items up for silent auction, in which you bid on the item you want to purchase. Our silent auction items will include summer camps of all types – art, sports, and more, in addition to 4 Disney Hopper Passes, Mets Tickets, Homemade Soup for a Year, tutoring, car detailing and more!

Thanks to Amy Schwing and Peticular Pet in Huntington, we will have an adorable Teddy Bear Puppy up for silent auction as well! The puppy will be with us at the event for a short time to say hello and will come with a bed, bowl, treats, a gift card to Peticular Pet for food and more to get you on your way to pet ownership!

And NEW THIS YEAR we have 25 adorable 10″ plush golden panda bears. You can purchase a bear for $25 which gives you a chance to win one of two special prizes: a new Nook Tablet with cover or a $100 gift card to Honu in Huntington. Doors open at 6pm, so be sure to get to the auction early to get your bear!

Tickets to the Art Auction & Gala this Saturday can be purchased in the office or at the door! We hope to see you there!

If you cannot attend, you can still be part of the fun!!  I will gladly put raffle tickets in the baskets of your choosing the night of the event and bid on silent auctions for you! You can do this through the office or contact me at kpuglisi@gmail.com.

Your child’s art work has been matted – ready for framing.  They will be on display at our event.  If you are not able to make it to our Gala next Saturday but would like to be sure your child’s art work isn’t bought by someone else you can purchase their work of art in advance by sending in a note to the office with a donation to the school ($10 minimum to cover the cost of materials).

Thank you for supporting our school!

Food Drive Thanks:
Sally Stark at the Northport-East Northport Food Pantry and her all-volunteer crew were deeply appreciative of our efforts to help those families in need in our area.  We all recognize that it takes many helping hands to fulfill the mission of the food pantry.  Sally was greatly impressed by the involvement of our students in this mission.  Last week alone, the food pantry fed approximately 177 families in our area.  Thank you for your support!

Tulip Festival Thanks:
What a day we had thanks to the Pancari family and all the other parents and kids who helped as many as 500 children get a start on Spring planting with our Marigold activity.  The park was packed with families; before 3pm all 500 of the marigold seedlings we had brought were gone.  A good feel Montessori experience for the whole community; thanks to all involved!

Days of  Elementary Fun and Cooperation are upon us!
Spring brings new energy and life to everything – including your children.  In an effort to channel this energy in positive ways the elementary kids have Fun & Cooperation activity from now until the end of the year.  On Thursday  – the day after the 4th graders finish their Earthkeepers program -  we will be dividing into teams – each team having kids from every grade.  Besides having sport and academic challenges, whatever they do above and beyond normal work helps them to earn points for their team – this includes additional helpful chores done at home.  This year the kids will have a weekly tally sheet on which they can indicate what they have done at home.  Parents will need to initial for verification.  Once the sheet is turned in teachers will award points accordingly.

By the final day of school all teams have amassed thousands of points and we’ve all had a good time learning the value of putting out some extraordinary efforts in support of the team!

Printable May 7 Parent News

Annual Gala Parents & Friends Night Out
The countdown continues…Just 2 weeks to go!

Action items:

Those contributing family baskets should bring them to school no later this Friday, May 4^th.

We are adding an additional wrapping session from 9am – 12noon for this Friday.

At our PTA meeting  this Tuesday night, May 1st   we will be working out details of who can cover which areas for a portion of the evening – lots of volunteers gives many people the good feeling of helping out without missing out on the fun of the evening.   Volunteers Needed for Saturday May 12th:

1. From 2PM – 5PM we need people who can help pick up food donations from various merchants (anyone with a refrigerator truck for the Ben & Jerry’s donation?).  Also people who can help decorate and set up the room at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.

2. Beginning at 3PM we will need a crew to help unload the truck delivering the art from the Marlin Gallery.  Meet at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.

3. From 5:45 till about 7:30PM we need people at the front door to accept admissions, hand out programs, assign bid numbers, sell raffle tickets.

4. We need a few volunteers to help with food which will be available from shortly after 6PM.

5. Cashiers are needed to receive money from Marlin and Kids art sales.

6. At the end of the evening people are needed to help with clean-up.

Huntington Tulip Festival
The Huntington Tulip Festival is Sunday, May 6th from 11am-4pm at Heckscher Park in Huntington Village.  LOL will have a table set up with marigolds for planting.  We always have many families that stop by and ask about our program.  If you’d like to come by and help, please email or call the office.  It’s always a great day!

Printable April 30 Parent News

Earth Day 2012
It felt like you could almost hear the Earth breathe a sigh of relief with the rain yesterday.  If you had outdoor plans we hope you were able to do them on Saturday (my son and I rode bikes on the Greenbelt Trail from Cold Spring Harbor to Jones Beach – what a glorious workout!  Long Island has some beautifully green, and some very arduously up and down stretches.  My grandson (age 3) rode on the back of my son’s bike for the southern half of the trip and particularly enjoyed counting the swans on the lake at Sunrise Highway.

As the link to a recently published newspaper article points out, Earth Day has gotten a bit faded recently for a variety of reasons; a recommended way to spruce it up is to deal with it at the local community level.  Much of the dire news presented by the media makes the problem feel so overwhelming to the individual.  This is how we have been doing it at school with a variety of projects and discussions with the kids on what we can do as individuals.  We had planned on posting some of our work along the driveway to the classrooms but with the weather being what it is we have decided to put it up in the Blue Room.  We’ll keep it up for a few days before sending the individual projects home.  We hope you’ll stop by at pick up or drop off time to take a look…

Click here to access the article recently published in The Christian Science Monitor.

Northport Food Pantry Food Drive is going on now
Hunger doesn’t stop after the holidays.  There are hungry kids on Long Island everyday.  Having a food drive now is every bit as important as at Thanksgiving.  We have one more week to go – your support is appreciated.

LivingHuntington.com reminder
Many of our LOL Family members participate in the LivingHuntington.com Deal of the Day and LOL benefits from any deal you sign-up for, so check it out today!

Stop and Shop A+ Bucks – Thank you!
Thank you to the 24 families that participated in the Stop and Shop A+ Buck program – we raised $312.80!  More than double last year.  The top money-raising school is a small private school in Staten Island – they raised over $22,000.00.  How did they raise so much?  Sheer numbers – they had 2,700 participants.  Imagine if all of our families participated!  Look for information on next year’s program in the summer mailing.

Gala Parents Night Out – last 3 weeks to put it all together…
Thanks to all who have already so generously contributed to our Gala Parents Night Out & Art Auction event!  We sincerely appreciate the donations, family baskets, ticket orders, etc. that we have received so far.  But…there is still more to be done.  So, we’d ask that you consider the following:

Buy tickets early – this is the last week to take advantage of the April ticket offer - buy 2 and get every other ticket at 50% off.  You can buy your raffle tickets at the same time.

Donate a new item (that you may have at home but never plan to use) for our raffle baskets or a bottle of wine or a new game.

Items needed for baskets in progress include: outdoor water play and summer fun, women’s lotions, bath and pampering items, cooking supplies including utensils, appliances, unexpired food, etc., gardening supplies, men’s items, scrapbook accessories, Dora/Princess themed items, baseball theme, new household cleaning supplies, kids books, wine related accessories…

Contribute a family basket – remember the class with the highest participation percentage wins an ice cream party in June.  You can even deliver the basket contents to us and we’ll do the wrapping.  All baskets need to be in by Monday, May 7th.

Help assemble baskets at one of our basket making sessions our final sessions are this morning from 9 – 12, next Tuesday, May1st in the evening, and Monday, May 7th from 9am – 12.

All ads for the Gala Journal need to be in by the end of this week.

We can assure you that once the “work” is done, the evening is really a great time to socialize and have a fabulous night out.  We hope you’ll join us on Saturday, May 12^th!

Printable April 23 Parent News

Huntington Tulip Festival
On Sunday, May 6th we will be participating in the Huntington Tulip Festival at Heckscher Park.  Even though the tulip blossoms are apt to be long gone by then, it’s a wonderful family event and we encourage you to attend.  As in the past, LOL Montessori will have a booth set up with kids planting marigold seedlings in cups and decorating them.  This service to the kids in the community is being staffed by parents in our Montessori family working in 2 hour shifts.  Barbara Pancari and her family are coordinating this activity.  If you are able to help out please give  Barbara a call in the school office.

Northport Food Pantry Food Drive
Today started our food drive benefiting the Northport Food Pantry.  Please send in your donations of non-perishable food items.  Thank you!

Gala Parents Night Out – last 4 weeks to put it all together…
Welcome back – time to put together details for our GALA PARENTS NIGHT OUT…

1. Please join us tomorrow night at our PTA meeting (7:30pm at Harborside) to finalize the schedule and organize the details for our Gala event.

2. Tickets at special sale price during the month of April only: During the month of April only, for every 2 admissions paid for at the regular price, you can get 2 additional admissions for half price.

3. Family Baskets:  As was done last year, the class having the highest percent of participation of family baskets will get an ice cream social at the end of the year.

4. Kids Art:  Every child enrolled will be doing an art project in the weeks to come that will be professionally matted for framing.  These will be on display at the Event and available for purchase with a donation to the school.

Raffles Galore Update
The raffles being donated by both families and community merchants are really extraordinary!  We are incredibly grateful for all the effort that is being expended by so many people to make this happen.  We know there are going to be many happy winners May 22^nd.  The full pricing list for raffles is as follows:

1 SHEET (25 TICKETS) – $30
2 SHEETS (50 TICKETS) – $50 (savings $10)
3 SHEETS (75 TICKETS) – $70 (savings $20)
5 SHEETS (125 TICKETS) – $100 (savings $50)

Annual Gala Parents Night Out

Action items:

1. Jenine, Keri, and the event committee have been doing a fantastic job soliciting lots of wonderful donations from local merchants for our Raffles and Silent Auction.  We are beginning to receive  some wonderful family baskets.  Many more are in the works.  We need all donations by Monday May 7^th.  In addition to basket donations, we are looking for donations of gift cards, movie tickets, sporting event tickets, anything you would like to receive as a gift will do!  See a letter from Jenine Saccente, a veteran Art Auction volunteer for more suggestions.

2. During drop off and pick up times later this week we will have several parent volunteers available to accept your donations, sell the advanced purchase raffle tickets (see order form under the LOL Parent News Attachments) and schedule volunteers for various raffle basket assembly sessions.

3. At our PTA meeting May 1st  we will be working out details of who can cover which areas for a portion of the evening – lots of volunteers gives many people the good feeling of helping out without missing out on the fun of the evening.  We will also be assembling the raffle baskets.  If evenings don’t work for you, we also have times during the day and on a weekend.  Any time you could contribute to this activity is appreciated.

4. Food:  There will be lots of delicious food donated by local merchants.  But, we know that many of our parents have some incredible recipes of their own.  If you have a dish you’d like to prepare and donate that would be most welcome.  Please call or email Carolyn Rice, our Art Auction food coordinator, in the LOL office.

5. Deadline for advertising for the Auction program/journal is this Thursday, April 19th.

6. Send in your ticket reservations as soon as possible.  The ticket can be used for as many people are coming from one family.    Please fill out and return the bottom portion indicating the kinds of art you are interested in and the number of people attending.  One ticket can be used for each family.  Paying in advance will save you waiting on line the night of the auction – it’s also $5 less: $15 advance, $20 at the door.  The committee to select the Art at the Marlin Gallery in Deer Park is going soon and needs to know your specific interests so they will know what to select.  If you need more tickets for friends and/or relatives, please let us know.  Remember, for the month of April we are having our half price sale – buy 2 admissions at $15 each and you can add as many more to your party as you need for half price each ($7.50).

Printable April 16 Parent News

Harborside for next year is full…
Most years we are very busy during January and February with prospective parents visiting with the plan of enrolling their children for the coming school year.  After February, the calls slow to a trickle.  This year that has not been the case.  There have been interviews and new enrollments going on all through March and April shows no signs of let up.  This is particularly true at the elementary level.  We’ve had some excellent candidates coming to us looking for enrollment in September.  With the addition of a new Lower Elementary classroom this past Fall we expected to take at least a couple of years before reaching capacity.  That doesn’t appear to be the case.  If you have not yet turned in an application for your child for next year but have been intending to do so, get it in as soon as possible so we can at least get it to the top of the waiting list.  Otherwise it is unlikely we will be able to place your child.  At this point in time this is also true for kindergarten and preschool at Harborside.  At Dix Hills we still have a few openings at the early childhood class, but we would encourage you to submit your applications ASAP to ensure placement.

Annual Gala Parents Night Out  With  Art Auction, Raffles Galore & delicious food…The countdown continues…
Right now it feels like we have lots of time to pull it all together.  When we come back from vacation, Monday, April 16th, there will be less than a month to go with lots to do.  Please note in the Dates to Remember we have added 3 raffle basket assembly dates during the day – while your children are in class.  The dates are a great time for those not into putting baskets together to get the ingredients you have chosen for a basket into the office so they can be put together by our creative expert raffle basket assemblers.  Whether you put the basket together yourself or just send it in to be arranged and properly “basketed” your child will get credit in our class family basket competition.  Remember, the class that has the highest percentage of participation in submitting Family Baskets wins an ice cream social!

Harborside Ancillary
There is still room in our Chess class, which starts on April 20 and runs through June 1 for grades 1-6.  Pre-school legos also has openings which is on Mondays at 1:15.  Call the office if you’d like to join these activities. Drama, this week, will be held on Tuesday, not Thursday.   Food, Facts and Fun will not meet this week.

Pre-school Pick up
Last week a notice went home about the 12 noon pick-up procedures.  We would like to be sure that everyone is aware of our concerns.  When you pick up your pre-schooler, please do not linger and use the field in the front of Camp Alvernia or the playground in front of Kinder Club.  Thank you.

3 o’clock Dismissal
Recently, we have had some confusion regarding students being picked up early or picked up instead of taking the bus.  If you plan on picking up your child early or if your child is not taking the bus, please email or call the office before 12 noon.  If we do not speak to you directly, we will contact you confirming the information.  If you do not receive confirmation from us, please be sure to call again.  Thank you.

Printable April 2 Parent News

Annual Gala Parents Night Out  With  Art Auction, Raffles Galore & delicious food…

The countdown continues…
Your child will be coming home today with a Ticket to our Gala Art Auction on Saturday, May 12th.  The ticket can be used for as many people as are coming from one family.    Please fill out and return the bottom portion indicating the types of art that interest you.  The committee that selects the Art from the Marlin Gallery in Deer Park will consider your art genre selections in choosing pieces for the auction.  We will also post an extra sign-up sheet under the LOL Parent News Attachments for the auction -  just in case.   Paying in advance will save you waiting on line the night of the auction – it’s also $5 less per person: $15 advance, $20 at the door.  From now, through the end of April only we are having a special ticket sale: for every 2 tickets purchased at the $15 price you can get 2 additional tickets at half price ($7.50 each).   If you need more tickets for friends and/or relatives, please let us know.

Our raffles come in strips of 25, all with the same number, which make it much easier for you when numbers are pulled at the end.  To purchase raffles in advance they are $30 for a strip of 25 and $50 for 50.  Your tickets will be placed in an envelope and be at the door when you check in.  See the Parent News Attachments for a raffle order form.

Family Baskets – this Tuesday, March 27th we will be having a PTA meeting focused on putting together raffle baskets.  If you have an idea for a family basket but making it into a gift wrapped raffle basket is just not your thing we would encourage you to get the items you want included and send it to school in a bag with your name on it.   Our talented and incredibly creative Raffle Basket parent volunteers will transform it into an irresistibly attractive basket during the PTA meeting.  And that will be one more item you can scratch off your “to do” list.

Bus Transportation Deadline Reminder
Remember bus transportation forms are due this Friday to your local school district!  Be sure to have them in on time.  Late bus registrations are generally denied.

What to do with your Elementary child during Spring break…
Pulitzer & Panetta Creative Studio in Huntington will be having activity throughout the vacation.  Your Elementary child will be coming home with a flyer today for you to consider…

Printable March 23 Parent News

Gala Parents Night Out – Time to be thinking about:
1. Family Baskets – next Tuesday, March 27th we are having a PTA meeting focused on putting together raffle baskets.  If you have an idea for a family basket but making it into a gift wrapped  raffle basket is just not your thing we would encourage you to get the items you want included and send it to school in a bag with your name on it.   Our talented and incredibly creative Raffle Basket parent volunteers will transform it into an irresistibly attractive basket during the PTA meeting.  And that will be one more item you can scratch off your “to do” list.

2. Game Tower and Wine Basket donations – bring in your donations of board games, puzzles and crafts for our fantastic game tower raffle.  We will also have a wine basket raffle – so send in your wine donations please.

3. Don’t have enough for a basket, but have some new items that you’d like to donate?  We’ll take them!  We will add and combine various items to make baskets!

Northport-East Northport Food Pantry
Sally Stark, director of the food pantry, is thrilled to know that LOL will be donating food to this all-volunteer organization.  Please bring your non-perishable items to LOL from  April 16 through April 27.

Ancillary Classes are starting
Today, Monday, Science class is starting.  Tomorrow, Tuesday, Pre-school Spanish, Food Facts and Fun and Tennis are starting.  Wednesday, March 21st, Pre-school Art and Concoctions begin.  Thursday starts Yoga and Drama.  The new Lego class starts next Monday, March 26th.  The next Chess session starts April 20th.

What to do with your child during the Summer…
The options are endless – something to fit every budget.  If you are looking for a great day camp experience certainly Camp Alvernia would be at the top of our list.

From time to time we get information on other options.  This week your children will be coming home with a flyer on Destination Science.  We have no first-hand experience with the program and our sending home the flyer should not be interpreted as a recommendation.  We are just passing along the information – you can check it out if interested.

Printable March 19 Parent News