Boot Day by Mrs. Dignam

B oot Day was on the calendar. Despite the fact that the week prior was filled with days that were 70 degrees and sunny, our Boot Day forecast

was rain with a high of 42 degrees. We had always referred to Boot Day as a "rain or shine" event. Barring extreme cold, we all felt that one of the bene-fits was that if we were properly dressed, we could enjoy being outside re-gardless of the weather. That morning I'll admit I was doubtful. However, as soon as the children arrived, I knew it was true, because they were all ex-tremely excited to go out in the rain. The children were all prepared and bundled with boots and rain gear. Most of them actually bounded out the door into the cold. We didn't have to walk far to find a lavender plant. All of the children took a bit and crushed it in their fingers as they contemplated the scent. We then walked around the campus looking for signs of fall. There had been a frost, so we noted that some of the annual plants had shriveled due to the cold. We observed the

changing leaves, some were so bright they looked like flowers. Many students enjoyed pointing out the trees which all looked different due to the vari-ous colors of the leaves. Addi-tionally, some trees had already lost their leaves. The children admired the largest tree in the area, an evergreen. We stood under it and appre-ciated the shelter that it provided from the rain. We enjoyed the respite and looked for pinecones. The children carefully collected pinecones that would be used in the classroom. A few weeks prior, Mrs. Marvi had given all the teachers a curriculum to connect with nature, and one of the choices was to sing. We stood outside and sang in the rain. It was lovely. On our way back to school, there were pools of water on the patio. The green light was given for the children to splash in the puddles. Clearly, this was the highlight of Boot Day.

The Albrook Almanac November 2016

Published for the families and friends of The Albrook School, Basking Ridge, New Jersey

The Albrook School ● 361 Somerville Road ● Basking Ridge, NJ 07920 ● 908-580-0661 ● www.albrookschool.org

Upcoming Events

Friday, Dec. 16

Barnes & Noble Book Fair 3:30 –8:00pm

Monday, Dec. 19

Elementary Music Recital 10:15

Tuesday, December 20 Wednesday, December 21

Expanded Care students only

Tuesday, December 20 Through

Monday, January 2 Holiday Vacation

Tuesday, January 3

Classes Resume

Students from the Lower Elementary go on a nature walk.

“Teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in their lives.” – Thomas Berry

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APA Fall Harvest by Co-chair Mrs. Thompson

F all Harvest arrived on a chilly, wet October evening, but only warmth and good spirits

radiated from Albers Hall. This beloved seasonal tradition was again a success, filled to capacity as Albrook families came together to enjoy pumpkin carving, food, singing, and each oth-er's company. This year's school theme of "Mindfulness" was particularly evident during this community event. With the large crowd came an overall respect and awareness of the space and one's surroundings, rather than chaos. People happily made way for each other and children largely remained calm and well-behaved as they en-joyed themselves. At the self-serve craft table, even our youngest friends from Stepping Stones were particularly aware of leaving stickers, tattoos and coloring sheets for the rest of the children and returning glue sticks when they completed their craft, so that they'd be availa-ble for others. The sense of community was also strong, as families generously donated delicious dinner dishes to complement the classic pizza fare. Sweet treats and homemade cookies rounded out a tasty evening. Everyone came together (particularly some extra helpful fathers!) at the end of the night to clean up, break down the tables and chairs and return Albers Hall to its rightful state in record time so that the children could enjoy physical education the next morn-ing. The night was capped off with a sing-a-long led by Mrs. Marvi - an annual highlight made all the more special by this year's festive stage decora-tions. The children calmly filed on stage, then enthusiastically shared the seasonal songs they'd been practicing at school to end the night on a high note. What a wonderful way to celebrate the fall season!

Ice Skating at Mennen Arena

November 2016

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The Albrook Student Thanks-giving Food Drive 2016 by Ms. MacNeill

“No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted.” Aesop

T he Albrook School’s first Food Drive was held in November 1992 in support of the Interfaith

Food Pantry in Morristown. As the years passed, the demand on the food bank became greater and our school connected with the Somerset Food Bank. Through the years, we have had the pleasure of observing students exercise their little muscles with great pride, as they hauled, pulled and dragged boxes and bags filled with much needed food items. The teachers and staff here at Albrook once again witnessed the amazing generosity of our giving families as the front office began to fill with des-perately needed food items for the Food Bank. The food drive this year was yet again an over whelm-ing success. It is truly heartwarming to see our stu-dents immersed in the true gift of giving. The staff at the Somerset Food Bank stated, “Due to the recessionary times, there is a much greater demand of families in need, causing a larger de-mand on keeping the shelves stocked. It is only through the continuous support of people like the families at The Albrook School that enables us to address and serve the needs of these families.” Thank you! For helping make this year’s food drive a great success. Your generosity, action and giving spirit will make someone’s Thanksgiving a richer one! “Real Generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.” Frank Howard Clark

Peace Library by Mrs. Sinck

C ome explore the Albrook School Library and the Peace Library.

Our Peace Library was created in 2008 through Ms. Albers’ vision and inspiration. Our peace li-brary has grown over the years. Many families and Ms. Albers have been so gracious to donate books to this section of our li-brary. These books include any topic relating to peace such as: kindness, peace around the world, International Peace Day, conflict resolution, friendship, and emotions. There are many books available for all age levels. For example, you might enjoy, Can You Say Peace? or Sharing- How Kindness Grows for the preschool or Kindergarten level. Another example might be Old Turtle and the Broken Truth for the elementary level. With mindfulness as our school goal this year, our peace library is a wonderful way to incorporate that into our daily lives.

Our library is a peaceful environment for the children to explore. All afternoon preschool and elementary children visit the school

library once a week. But did you know that it is available for everyone to use? Parents are wel-come to come and explore our peace library as well as the par-enting section or check out addi-tional books of interest for your children.

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M indful attention centers on the conscious aware-ness of the present moment. Studies show that

when we focus our attention and control our breath, we can become better able to reduce stress and thus opti-mize learning capacity in the brain. Practicing mindfulness helps us monitor and become more aware of our feelings in order to better understand how to respond to the world reflectively rather than reflexively. Mindfulness supports areas of competency that include: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relation-ship skills, and responsive decision-making, all of which are developmentally critical for the 6-9 year old child. Re-search has shown that effective social skills, such as the ability to manage one’s emotions and get along with oth-ers, play an integral role in both academic and personal success. The elementary classes are implementing the MindUp Curriculum, developed by the Hawn Foundation. With this curriculum, the children are learning about the brain and how it functions and are gaining insight into their own minds and behaviors as well as those of the people around them. The lessons begin with an introduction to brain physiology: the parts of the brain and how each functions and interacts. “Core practice”, the habit of deep belly breathing and focused attention, helps the children become accustomed to centering their minds and calming their bodies. The remaining lessons serve to expand the children’s awareness of the connections between the brain and body and between internal feelings and actual experience. The children have participated in guided activities de-signed to bring greater self-awareness through sharpen-ing the senses by focusing on mindful listening, seeing, smelling, tasting, and movement. They will learn about perspective taking, choosing optimism, appreciating posi-tive experiences, expressing gratitude, performing acts of kindness, and taking action mindfully. Some of the high-lights of our mindfulness practices thus far include savor-ing a raisin with slow and deliberate attention, watching red and blue food coloring swirl together in a vessel of water, sitting silently with no other purpose than to listen.

We have also enjoyed experiencing nature for its own sake, as we have done during our Boot Day outings. We regularly use the apps Headspace and Insight Timer for guided meditation and visualization. The children look forward to our mindfulness practices with anticipation and receive them all with a positive attitude. Recommended reading: A Handful of Quiet, Happiness in Four Pebbles Thich Nhat Hanh Sitting Still Like a Frog, Mindfulness Exercises for Kids Eline Snel The Mindful Child Susan Kaiser Greenland Teach Breathe Learn, Mindfulness In and Out of the Class-room Meena Srinivasan 10 Mindful Minutes Goldie Hawn

Practicing Mindfulness in the Lower Elementary By Ms. Francese

November 2016

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Scouting by Mrs. Higgins, APA President

I am writing this article as the proud co-leader of Girl Scout Troop 60224.

Our Brownie troop has its roots at The Albrook School starting as a Daisy Troop two years ago when the girls were kindergartners. The original six mem-bers of the troop have stayed together the last two years and this year we happily added six more girls to our group. Our troop is still very rooted in the Albrook community. 10 of the 12 girls have connec-tions to our school. Four are current students - Cait-lin, Aria, Emma, and Alina. Five are Albrook alumnae - Abby, Beth, Maya, Siska, and Mia. One, Caroline, has a younger sister, Marcela, who is a PreK-2 stu-dent in the O'Keeffe classroom. We are currently earning a badge on Philanthropy and the last step was to take action in our communi-ty. To that end, the girls decided to host a food drive on Sunday, November 13 at the Stop & Shop in Bask-ing Ridge. The drive benefitted the food pantry at the Father English Center in Paterson. The girls were truly amazing. I was so impressed with how assertive they were as they went up to each and every cus-tomer as they walked in asking them to purchase food for their drive. The vast majority of the people were very generous which truly thrilled the girls. They were also forced to deal with some disappoint-ments as well, and they faced those with such poise and maturity. Regardless of your political beliefs, the past few weeks have been tumultuous with a lot of negativity dominating the headlines. The generosity that was displayed at the food drive really showed the best of our community and our country. Congratulations to Troop 60224 for making such a substantial differ-ence in the lives of many people. Thanksgiving will be even better this year for so many, thanks to their efforts.

Tasty Voting & the Book Fair

Will it be the Banana Berry Berry Blast or the US Sprinkle Swirl? That was the big question this November at The Albrook School. While the country was deciding who was going to be the 45th President of the United States, our children were holding an election of their own. The ele-mentary students first read Dr. Seuss' One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote. It was a great way to introduce the concept and practice of voting and the basic principles of democracy. Our youngest students read a Scholastic book titled Let's Vote On It! They learned that a vote is a fair way to make a choice for a group. Then the Upper Elementary students were split into groups of two and asked to collaborate to come up with a name for a special Albrook smoothie. Six "candidates" were chosen and sent to Lower Elementary where a primary election was held. The top two vote getters were put on a ballot for the Pre-school classrooms to decide a winner. Everyone was excit-ed to cast their vote and place it in the ballot box!

Please join us at the Book Fair on Friday, December 16th at Barnes & Noble in Bridgewater from 3:30pm to 8:00pm, where the winner will be announced. The winning drink will be for sale in the Café during our Albrook Book Fair. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Images from Around Albrook: JFLL Lego Group

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Halloween at Albrook