O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 107:1 - NRSV

Dear Preschool Families,

Thank you so much for donating food items for the Fort Mill Care Center to provide a Thanksgiving meal for Fort Mill families. Unity donated almost 1300 pounds of food to the Care Center. Your donations are greatly appreciated. During our October Chapel time with our Associate Pastor Molly, the children had the opportunity to place the donations in our gathering area as you can see from the pictures below.

Although November seems to be the start of holiday stress, I hope you find some time to

contemplate your blessings and find gratitude in your daily life. Unity Preschool is especially grateful that you share your delightful children with us and we look forward to enjoying many Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions with them in the coming weeks. From our Unity Preschool family to yours, we wish you a safe and blessed Thanksgiving holiday.

Blessings,

Ms. Linda

Director - Unity Preschool

P.S. Please remember our "No School" days this month: Thanksgiving week - November 20 - 23 and mark your calendar for our Christmas Program on Wednesday, December 20th.

Our Spirit day for November will be Thursday, November 16! We will be celebrating with a delicious Thanksgiving Feast in our classrooms. Mr. and Mrs. Ronnie Dunn, two of our Preschool VIPs ("Volunteers Impacting Preschool"), will be helping us in the kitchen along with our Preschool Board members, Ms. Carol and Ms. Miranda. If you are interested in providing either an item or a monetary donation to help cover our costs, please use the sign-up genius link below.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D49AEAB28A02-45061760-unity

Next Spirit Day is December 21: PJ Day - We will ALL (yes, Staff too) wear our pajamas and enjoy some Christmas fun. This is our last school day before the Christmas holiday.

Below are some pics from our Halloween Celebration Spirit Day in October.

Please wear BROWN next Thursday, November 9.

Our December color day is RED DAY on Thursday, December 14.

This year we have four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas so we thought we would revive one of our former Unity Preschool traditions, a Christmas program. We will be doing "Christmas in the Barn" so please mark your calendar for Wednesday, December 20 at 11:30 in the Sanctuary. More details to follow, but everyone is welcome to enjoy some Christmas spirit with us. The children will return to school the next day (December 21) which is pajama day - a fun and exciting way to end the school year before our long Christmas break.

This month we are featuring one of our Three's teams: Ms. Becca and Ms. Jen who teach the Monkey Class.

Ms. Becca Haltiwanger is in her fourth year at Unity Preschool. She is currently our Lead Teacher in our Three’s (Monkey) class and works with Ms. Jen. Ms. Becca is a former second-grade teacher, turned stay-at-home mom, until rejoining the teaching world here at Unity!

Ms. Becca and her husband, Jeremy, have three children: Skylar (Fort Mill Middle School) and Reece and Hattie (Fort Mill Elementary School). All three children are Unity Preschool graduates! Ms. Becca and her family are actively involved in the ministry of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill.

Here are a few of Ms. Becca’s favorites:

Favorite Foods: Mexican and dark chocolate

Favorite Music: Country and Contemporary Christian

Favorite Book: “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers. This book shows God’s redeeming love and His grace towards us in a powerful way.

Favorite Movie: “Steel Magnolias”

Favorite Activities: Reading any chance I get, spending time with family, soaking up the sun, shopping, and getting manicures!

Ms. Jen is in her fourth year at Unity Preschool. She was the Two's Assistant the last two years and a Three’s Assistant previously. She subbed at Unity prior to being a permanent teacher.

Ms. Jen and her husband, Chad, have two children. Layla, who is an eighth grader at Forest Creek Middle School, and Nolan, who is a fifth grader at Doby’s Bridge Elementary. Her son Nolan is a Unity Preschool Graduate. Ms. Jen attended the University of Wisconsin Whitewater where she met her husband, Chad. She transferred to the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee where she graduated. She has many years of experience working with children and was a former medical assistant for a Pediatrician. Ms. Jen spends most of her weekends during the school year at the soccer fields cheering on both her children!

Below are some of Ms. Jen's favorites:

Favorite Foods: Mexican and Italian

Favorite Music: Pop and Christian

Favorite Book: Where the Crawdads Sing

Favorite Sports Team: Green Bay Packers and Charlotte FC

Favorite Activities: Trips with her family, especially visiting her two happy places….Disney and HHI! Biking, hiking, and anything outdoors. Watching her kids play sports!

Unity Preschool has a VIP (Volunteers Impacting Preschool) program where members of Unity volunteer to help at the preschool. Some of our VIPS help in the Four's classroom each week during Center Time. Others help us with various projects including laminating, cutting, die cutting, etc. These are very special folks who make our jobs easier.

Two of our special VIPS are Ronnie and Doris Dunn, long-time Unity members. Doris is an organization queen and helps me brainstorm various ways to maximize our storage space in the preschool. She also helps with various special projects that we have. Ronnie has been our Feast Chef for several years. We are grateful for these special Unity Preschool Helpers.

We are so excited that we had ALL of our students in school on Tuesday of this week:)! Please remember, however, that we anticipate an increase in children's respiratory illnesses this time of year, including flu, RSV, and COVID. While we understand that runny noses and slight coughs are common this time of year, please keep your child home if they have the following:

*Extreme Congestion: If your child is having a hard time eating and/or sleeping due to a stuffed-up nose or has yellow or green mucus requiring frequest wiping.

*Chronic Coughing: If your child is coughing frequently and or the coughing is causing your child to gag.

*Fever (99 and above)

*Diarrhea

*Vomiting

Unity Preschool follows the 24-hour rule. Please do not send your child to Preschool until they are symptom-free without medication for 24 hours. Masking a fever with Tylenol in the morning is not permitted. If your child has a fever and it breaks at 9 pm at night, your child should remain home the next day. If your child throws up at preschool and is sent home, they should not attend preschool the next day. If you are on the fence about whether your child should attend, err on the side of caution and please keep them home. They will likely enjoy spending the day more with you and it will help keep all of our students healthy.

Thank you for supporting Unity Preschool with your book orders. We were able to choose several books for our Preschool Library after our September order. Holiday flyers will be sent home next week. We ask that orders be placed by Friday, November 24 so that we will receive them in time before we break for Christmas.

We had a great response to our Book Fairy campaign from our preschool families and friends and Unity congregation members! We had enough donations to purchase 10 books for each child this year, so watch for a book coming home in backpacks each month and for your child's birthday.

Some of you have asked for gift ideas for your child's teachers for the Christmas holiday. We have "Favorite Things" lists available for you. Simply send us an e-mail (preschoolatunity@gmail.com) and we will include a list in your child's folder. Holiday gifts are very much appreciated by our hard-working Staff, but are certainly not expected.

Just a reminder that we are closed for Thanksgiving week - November 20 - 23.

*Cooler Weather: Unless it is raining or really cold, we try to spend some time outdoors every day. Please send warm coats (labeled with your child's name) to school with your children so they can enjoy the outdoor time. You may also want to send fall/winter back-up clothes that we will happily change out if your child currently has shorts/t-shirts in their bag.

*Fall Back: Remember to set your clocks back an hour this weekend. Enjoy the extra hour of sleep:)!

*Tuition: Our next tuition withdrawal date will be Friday, December 1.

*Newsletter Update: Our next and final Newsletter for 2023 will be Thursday, December 7

Front Row - Left to Right by teaching pairs:

Ms. Maureen and Ms. Kellie (Fours - Fish)

Ms. Elizabeth and Ms. Sarah (Fours - Owls)

Back Row - Left to Right by teaching pairs:

Ms. Carolyn (Librarian/Thursday Helper/First Call Sub)

Ms. Danielle and Ms. Kristen (Twos - Bees)

Ms. Becca and Ms. Jen (Threes - Monkeys)

Ms. Brandi and Ms. Laura (Threes- Frogs)

Ms. Linda (Director)

Unity Preschool does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, and other school-administered programs.

Email: preschoolatunity@gmail.com
Website: https://www.preschoolatunity.com/
Location: 303 Tom Hall Street, Fort Mill, SC, USA
Phone: 803-396-8454