Grand Friends Celebration 2009

We hope that all grandparents and special friends will join us for our Annual Grand Friends Day Celebration on Friday, October 9. This is your opportunity to experience the magic of Breakwater!

This year there will also be a special Dinner for Grand Friends on October 8 at The Woodlands Club in Falmouth, compliments of Grand Friends Co-Chairs Peg and Steve Griswold and Maddy Corson. Dinner will be followed by a private concert featuring Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer Paul Sullivan. We are also looking forward to our very own Stephanie Hayward performing with him!

To RSVP via email, please email Lori Dana.

Enrichment Program Survey

We'd like your feedback on our expanded Enrichment Programs. Tell us what you like, what you don't like, and help shape the classes for the next session! Click here to fill out our short survey.

Welcome

Please send out a Breakwater Welcome to our newest family! Sofia is joining Mari's preschool class and we look forward to welcoming her and her grandparents Carla and Christopher Stenberg to the Breakwater Community. Be sure to say hello when you see them.

Breakwater School Outdoor Adventure Program

"In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace."
- Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

Now more than ever children rely on electronics and toys to pass their time, losing touch with the natural world around them. At Breakwater we devote time to build this love of the outdoors that is inside every child, knowing that nature inspires curiosity and creativity. Our Outdoor Adventure Program provides experiences to help students develop confidence and learn how to cooperate in group situations while building this love of the natural world. Outdoor adventures provide a time for students to reflect and appreciate the world around them.

This year, we have a new member of our Outdoor Adventure Team. Lorie Dana (Wyatt and Chelsea's Mom) will be joining us on every full day Wednesday off-campus trip. She has a great deal of experience leading trips in the backcountry and was a facilitator at USM’s High Ropes Course at Wolf Neck State Park. Lorie has also worked as an instructor for Outward Bound’s Hurricane Island School in their semester program for High School students, college orientation programs for NYU and Yale, and many corporate, professional development programs.

We are looking forward to some great hikes in the mountains and experiences on challenge courses, similar to last year. We are also exploring some new offerings, including kayaking on the New Meadows River with Seaspray Kayak Guide Service, and cross-country skiing. We are excited to help our students develop a passion for healthy, active living in the great outdoors!

~ Alex Johnston, Outdoor Adventure

Family Handbook & Directory...Coming Soon!

Soon you will receive the new Breakwater Family Handbook and 2009-10 Directory. This is the first year we are providing a Handbook with our policies, and we'd like to highlight the following two policies:

Field Trips - Driver Responsibilities
If you plan on driving on a field trip, you must be 24 years of age or older and hold a valid driver’s license, drive an inspected vehicle, and have current insurance. Drivers must fill out the Parent Driver Form which is located in the front office. Drivers will be required to provide a copy of current insurance and driver’s license to be filed with the front office before driving for any field trip.

Volunteer Confidentiality
Parents must sign and abide by the Breakwater Confidentiality Agreement available from the classroom teacher while volunteering at Breakwater School, this includes classroom volunteers and field trip chaperones.

Photo Galleries

Click here to view our latest photos from this fall.

And don't forget to become a fan of Breakwater on Facebook.

Do you see a photo on the web or in a photo gallery you would like an electronic copy of? If you do, please email Meredith Jones and she will be happy to email them your way.

Questions about Breakwater's Facebook Fan Page? Contact Meredith by email or by calling 772-4295 x236.

Community News

Congratulations to Dragon and Noah in Kindergarten! Last year, some chickens were hatched in Mrs. Littlefield's Kindergarten class. The class raised the chickens for about a month before Noah took them home. Noah brought Dragon, one of the chickens, to the Common Ground Fair last weekend, where Dragon won three ribbons -- one for Best Barnyard Rooster, one for Showmanship and best of all, he received the People's Choice Championship Award for being voted Best Bird from among all the poultry. Congratulations to Noah and Dragon!

The Big Time Vaudeville Show with our own Michael Trautman is about to begin it's 2009-2010 season. To kick off the season, they will be performing at Merriconeag Waldorf School in Freeport on October 24. You won't want to miss it! Stay tuned for more information about upcoming shows.

Alumni Spotlight: Best Friends

Sam Spicer and Annie Howland met each other at Breakwater and became friends while playing Capture the Flag. Now in their Junior year, Annie at Yarmouth High and Sam at Cape Elizabeth, both work during the summer in Breakwater's Creative Arts program, where I caught up with them in July. They have maintained a lively and committed friendship since graduating from Breakwater in 2004 and credit the School with helping them develop a strong sense of who they are as individuals.  "It was safe for us to be the little oddballs we were," said Annie, "I was crazy into art and didn't like running around. Breakwater said, 'That's okay'."

"Breakwater is such a safe place," Sam agreed. "You could be a kid. I could just be who I was and everyone was very supportive, including the teachers." Sam credits Sari Lindauer (then the elementary science teacher) with inspiring his abiding interest in the natural world.  Both Sam and Annie are active in the arts and name Kelly McConnell as a strong influence saying, "Arts programs seem to be a dying thing in many schools, but not at Breakwater!"

Friendship, and learning to be a good friend, says Dr. George Everly, author of The Resilient Child:Seven Essential Lessons for Your Child's Happiness and Success, is important to a child's healthy development. Attention to students' social and emotional development and well-being has always been a cornerstone of Breakwater's approach to learning.

"It was cool at Breakwater to be excited about learning and to be smart, Annie remembered, "A lot of former Breakwater students have awesome discussion and oration skills. I remember giving a good off-the-cuff presentation in history class and my teacher asking me 'How did you do that?'  When I said I'd gone to Breakwater, he said, 'Oh, that explains it!' Annie believes she is the student she is today because of Breakwater. "I have a ridiculous work ethic now and I got a good start with that at Breakwater."

As we sat together that sunny July morning, I was struck by the depth and sensitivity of Annie's and Sam's friendship. Clearly they knew one another well and valued each other's talents and opinions. Their friendship has grown, deepened, and endured, they say partly because of the things they learned at Breakwater about acceptance, tolerance, and valuing each person's individuality. They offered this advice for Breakwater students:

"Continue the Breakwater ethic - be who you are! It's really cool to be smart - be yourself. Challenge yourself."

"Friends you'll meet in other schools don't always understand that we all have different strengths - you need to explain it to them. Find people who share your interests, people you can bounce ideas off, people who will point out flaws in your thinking and help you elaborate."

As we heard their young campers returning, Annie and Sam got up to leave, laughing about their many heated debates and discussions.  "Our latest argument," said these two good friends, "Is about Karl Marx and Utopia."

~  Cheryl Hart, Middle School Division Director

News Briefs

School Picture Day
Say Cheese! Don't forget school picture day is this Wednesday, October 7 (rain date is October 21).

Class Potluck Childcare
Breakwater is providing childcare during Class Potlucks, with the exception of the Preschool Potluck on November 6. To learn more or reserve a spot, email Courtney Cook.

Kids Kreations are Back!
Kids Kreations uses your child's artwork to create fun gifts. This is a great way to showcase their works of art for yourself or for others with gifts such as: mousepads, ornaments, memopads, and water bottles. Please visit the display in the Main Lobby to see a full list of all the items available.

Kelly McConnell and Erin Leon-Obrien will be helping children in Kindergarten through Grade 8 create some special artwork. These pieces of art and Kids Kreations packages will make their way home starting Friday, October 16. There will also be spare packages at the table in the main lobby by the Kids Kreations display. Preschoolers have already received their packages. All packages are due in the drop box by Monday, November 2 - No Exceptions.

Potlucks…Grand Friends Day Activities…Parent Conferences…Fabulous fall events at Breakwater abound like a plentiful harvest! In light of what we have been hearing from families about their busy schedules, we have decided to encourage everyone to enjoy their harvest supper at home this year. The Harvest Dinner scheduled for Friday October 30 has been canceled . If you have questions or are interested in being part of a group to plan a harvest event for next year (perhaps reviving some old traditions or creating some new ones), please contact Lori Dana. In the meantime, we hope you will join us for a cup of coffee and annual (brief) Halloween parade on the morning of October 30 beginning at 8:00 am.

Adult Yoga at Breakwater
Monday mornings, join us in the Jessie Auditorium for Yoga! Yoga with instructor Joe Appel takes place from 6:30 - 7:45 am. Each class is $10 and drop-ins are welcomed and encouraged. Be sure to bring your own mat and wear comfortable clothes. Questions? Call Courtney Cook at 772-4295 x226.

Community Chorus is Back
Community Chorus is starting Friday, October 16 from 8:00 - 8:20 am in the Music Room. EVERYONE is invited - parents, students, teachers, siblings, cousins, grandparents, etc.

Kijal Literacy Project

The Middle School students are planning a bottle, coin, and book drive to send English language books to a school in Malaysia where former Breakwater student, and Fulbright Scholar, Ruth Scarpino (class of 1996) teaches. These projects will be launched this week and will run through Friday, October 16:

Book collection- children's and young adult books for ages 10-19.  Book donation boxes will be outside the library by Wednesday, Oct. 7. Thank you for any books you no longer need.

Local Foods Lunch - Next Wednesday, Oct. 14 a group of middle schoolers will be offering a lunch to teachers and Aftercare participants for $5.00 per meal. Sign-up for this offering will be in the front hall by Wednesday of this week. Sign-up helps students plan the proper amount of food to purchase for making soup, salad and rolls.

Breakfast in the Jessie Building - Next Friday, Oct. 16 from 7:45-8:30 a.m. middle school students will be offering breakfast for $5.00 . They will have a sign-up on the bulletin board outside the office by this Wednesday. Please sign up and fill out a menu so students know what quantities of food to purchase and prepare. Offerings include: Pancakes, eggs, toast, bacon and sausage.

Change/coin Drive - We will be collecting change/coins to help offset the cost of shipping books to Kijal. Collection bottles will be located in the foyer outside the main office and in the entry of the Jessie building.

Bottle Drive - The bottle drive organizers ask that you bring in a small bag of bottles for their bottle drive. Please place them in the large bottle collection box in the vestibule in the Capisic St. entrance of the brick building.  Jim Kingsley has donated the box for the next two weeks and offered a donation of $25 from the bottle fund.  Thank you Jim!

Please contact the Middle School if you have any questions.

Kudos

A grand thank you to Brenda Orser for refreshing all the planters around campus and adding a beautiful touch of fall color. 

Special thanks to Lori and Todd Dana and Gwyneth and Jamie Arrison for hosting the Kindergarten and Grades 1/2 potlucks respectively.

Thank you to everyone -- parents and students -- who helped out on our Parent Work Days, including: Jeremy Bruce (grade 4) and Cindy Czajkowski,  Kristin Schardt and Tobias Lodish (preschool), Matthew (grade 3) and Dan Hogenauer, Julie Cekleniak, Rowan (grade 6), Alexandra and Sam May, Ben (grade 3) and Norma Fratoni, Luke Lockwood (grade 7), Amy and Hal Ford (grade 6), Denali Dieumegard (grade 1), Olivia Juve (grade 1), Patrick Gailus (grade 1), Duncan Green (grade 1), Scott Frank, Jim Reese, Micah Craft and Ian Smith.

Another thank you to Norma Fratoni for painting the classroom for the new Toddler Program.