Evelyn Kiggins!

¡¡Hola Familias!!

*** While working to change the preschool into a licensed daycare, I found the amazing and ever-so-talented Evelyn Kiggins to take over my position as lead teacher for the 2011/12 school year. I have since returned as lead teacher.  

We are experiencing some very exciting changes here at El Gato con Botas!! We have a new teacher for the remainder of the year!! Evelyn Kiggins is taking over for me! She is a fluent, native Spanish speaker who's parents are from Cuba! So exciting! Besides tons of experience working with kids and also having a natural, easy-going approach with children, she is an artist and her husband is a musician!! The second she walked into the classroom, the kids gravitated toward her. I am just so happy to have found her and I know she will bring amazing things to our school!!

Evelyn and Xan. The blur is from my new Lensbaby!

¡Cosquillas!

Halloween 2011

What a day, what a day!!!

I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves, but here is a little bit about what we did:  We started the day with our regular open play time. We always have a craft every morning, on Halloween it was potato stamps and Halloween stamps. We also have a magnet table where there are all kinds of magnets, robots made out of tin cans that the kids can build, and pipe cleaners inside a jar of water the kids can move with magnets.

At snack time, we all shared a snack! We had some yummy apples with cinnamon, some apple mouths with almond teeth, a vegetable platter, and I made homemade pumpkin soup from scratch! (And the kids actually ate it!!)

Later, after outside playtime, we had our Halloween party. We played with "moco" (gak), had a beanbag toss game, made pumpkin spider votives and had a table to make recycled Halloween monsters. WOOOOOOO!

At the end of the day, we had a special treat - frozen ghosts!! (frozen bananas on a stick coated in shredded coconut. Another big hit! All in all, it was quite a day. Muy muy divertido!!

¡Al Cole! School Starts September 12th!!

What FUN we had this summer!!!

We spent a lot of time playing inside, playing outside, playing in the water table and the sand table, and then making big huge mud pies. We created, we painted, we made gigantic, monster bubbles, and we sang songs. We danced and wiggled and jiggled and could hardly sit still. Oh yes, we had some good times together. I´m so happy I had the chance to meet these wonderful kiddos! So lovely!! Such enthusiasm! Such sweet hearts.

And now, it´s ready to get going!! School starts September 12th!! WAHOO! My in-laws are here at the moment, helping us with some pretty big projects including a new sand box!!  I'm busy planning and playing and working on the parent handbook (admittedly not nearly as fun as playing in the sandbox will be, but someone's got to do it!)

If you are planning on sending your child to El Gato con Botas, please make sure to contact me ASAP to request a registration form and to let me know which days of the week you would like your child to come, so I can get the schedule all worked out. We still have some space left, so let me know soon! We'd love to have you!

As always, please contact me if you have any questions at all! I am always down for a good chat! Sarah: 473-0445.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Postponed. Progress Made.

Hello all!  Yes, you may have already guessed, I am not as far as I wanted to be by this point. Therefore, I am postponing the open house, and the grand opening of the preschool. : ( Boo!

The open house is now scheduled for Saturday June 4th. The summer program has morphed a bit as well. Instead of two months of "summer school", I will be opening up on Monday, June 27th, and will be offereing 5 weeks of summer camp-like programs with some very exciting themes including La Playa, El Circo, and Fiestas!  I will give more details about the camps soon, but here is a quick run down:

• Children may choose one week to come, and attend every day, just like a standard summer camp, or they may come a couple days a week for a month, as they would during the regular school year. The choice is yours.
• I will open registration up during the open house for both the summer program and for the school year.
• During the summer, El Gato con Botas will be open from Monday to Friday.
• Keep checking back. I will continue to update with details.

In other news...

Last Saturday I had a work party to set up the play structure and clear out some blackberry bushes from the property. I want to send out a huge huge THANK YOU to all of you who helped out!!! Thank you to my lil brother, Geoff Bunch for helping me all week long! I am going to miss you so much! Come back soon. Your nieces adore you and so do I.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank my mom, Diane Jurgensen and step dad, Roy Jurgensen for constantly helping me out and supporting me throughout this very challenging time. You have no idea how much I appreciate it! Thank you to Jenny and Marty Mickelson for helping me out nearly every single day. You two are incredible. Thank you for recruiting Ed and Tony (I don't know thier last names, but these two AMAZED me. I was awed by their generosity and willingness to help) And thank you SO SO MUCH to all of my friends who came and helped and who make my life so much better by being a part of it: Hailey and Mike Thompson, Jesse and Elicia Johnson, Claudia Campbell and Melody Zavis. Anyway, thank you all!  You all rocked my world and my heart. I can not tell you how much it meant to me.

Schedule / Your Opinions - El Gato con Botas Spanish Immersion Preschool, Vashon Island

Hi All!

I just wanted to keep everyone up to date on the progress of El Gato con Botas.


OPEN HOUSE
I am planning an Open House for the end of May... sometime between the time we get the play structure up and the fence in! We are busy busy busy!!! I'm thinking of doing it on Friday, May 20th in the afternoon/evening. All of my weekends in May are booked up, otherwise I´d aim for the weekend.

SCHEDULE CHANGES - OPINIONS PLEASE!!!
I am also playing with the idea of running the preschool until 1pm instead of 12. This will obviously change the tuition and would mean that children would need to bring a sack lunch to school, but it would give us more time for art projects and more outdoor discovery time.  Any thoughts about this? I´d love to hear what you all think. Please leave me your input in the comments area below, or contact me directly:
(206) 473 0445
sarahbunch77@gmail.com

I will keep you all updated.

The other change I have already made is that I will not be opening up on Mondays. We are members of The Vashon Maury Cooperative Preschool, and I just love it soooo much, that I can´t imagine Bella not being a part of it.


Keep the calls and ideas coming! I love hearing from you.

Summer Program Plans

Hello everyone, and welcome to El Gato con Botas, Spanish Immersion Preschool!!!  We are ECSTATIC  to be here.

At the moment I am working on getting the preschool space all set up,  the back yard all landscaped and beautiful with a new play structure, and getting all my ducks in a row! If all goes according to plan, I will be offering a summer program starting in June. This program will be an introduction to the preschool, to Spanish, and to me and is really meant for those children who are interested in carrying on with the program next year.  Like the yearly program, we will spend our time together engaged in self-guided play, music,arts and crafts projects, puppet shows and outdoor free play as well as some organized games and other activities - all in Spanish.  Summer is a great time to do this because we can take advantage of the sun (I hope!!!) The summer program will run just like the yearly program. It is not a summer camp, so the hours, tuition, and all that other jazz will be exactly the same.

I will be opening registration up around the middle of May, and it will go on a first come, first serve basis. Spaces are very limited, as I already have my daughters in the class, and will only be taking five more each day, so keep that in mind. I will post the details here when I have them! : )

I am very excited to get to know all of you, and really hope this program will be a success. I promise I will give it all I have, and I'm confident I have a lot to give.  Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you!
Sarah