Dear Common Ground Community,

We have a jam packed Newsletter to share with you! Make sure to subscribe to get the Newsletter delivered to your email inbox, as well as our share through Brightwheel!

Halloween Success

A BIG thank you to all of our staff and volunteers that made our Trunk-or-Treat a magical one for our kiddos! We were rewarded with wonderful weather and it was a treat to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes! Mark your calendars for next year’s Trunk-or-Treat on Friday, October 25, 2024.

Teacher Bonus Drive

It’s time for our Winter Teacher Bonus Drive.

Twice a year we ask for donations from you to give our staff a bonus as a show of your appreciation for their hard work. Common Ground matches, 100% of the funds donated by parents, plus the cost of the taxes for these bonuses, so that you know every dollar donated goes to our teachers. We budget based on an average donation per family of between $300 and $500, twice per year. If we ever receive an excess to the budgeted amount, those funds will continue to be allocated to staff appreciation year round.

During our spring fundraising round, parent donations fell short by 50% of the budgeted amount, but we were able to cover the difference with excess CARES grant funds. This year, however, the amount of the bonuses awarded will be directly correlated with the donations received from families.

Donations made to this fund are tax deductible and may qualify for donation matching from your company.

Please see this page for how to make your pledge: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/teacher-bonus-fund

As a reminder, teachers are not allowed to accept gifts directly from families, other than homemade or home baked items.

Meet JiJi the Penguin!

We are excited to announce that we have begun rolling out STMath with our preschoolers!

You can learn more about STMath here: https://www.stmath.com/how?hsCtaTracking=17ac1579-3838-4668-90cb-9ce4576ac329%7C5c60d7ba-408d-4e43-b1c7-821a20ef9932

Preschoolers will be doing 30-50 minutes per week of JiJi here at the center. 30-50 minutes per week is plenty for this age group.

However, once kids know their passwords, you can have your kids sign in here using their picture password: https://play.stmath.com/raft/id/2.1.3/#/student-sign-in-options Please limit game play at home to 15 minute sessions at a time.

Thanksgiving Boxes

One more week left in our Thanksgiving Box Drive!

Each year Common Ground pledges to donate Thanksgiving food boxes to support Cornerstones. Please see our blog post about this event, and make sure you sign up!

• https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2022/10/25/thanksgiving-boxes-n6m7d

• Sign Up Here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0F4FACA723ABFF2-45180570-thanksgiving#/

Our kids have such a great time decorating and packing the boxes, and learning about giving back! Thank you for supporting our community at large!

Save the Date for the Hot Chocolate Playdate

Saturday, December 2nd, join us for a playdate on the playground with hot chocolate from 10-11:30am. Come mingle with other parents and let your kids play!

Sign up to help us plan for the hot chocolate: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0F4FACA723ABFF2-45725986-hotchocolate

Vacationing? Let us know!

As we get closer to the holidays, we like to be able to accommodate as many staff requests for time off as we can. Please let us know if you plan to be out by filling out our attendance form.

Thank you so much for reading our Newsletter and being a part of our community!

love,

The CG Team

P.S. make sure to check out all of our upcoming events below!