Meet George Contos CEO

Newsletter Date 11/9/15

manhattanstaracademy.org

Fall Newsletter 2015

Inside this issue:

George Contos 1

Staff News 2

Classroom News 3

Classroom News 4

Event Photos 5

Good Health 6

Dates To Remember

11/11 Veteran’s Day

11/13 Shadow Box Theatre

11/17-MSA Parent Committee

9:30

11/18-20 Scholastic Book Fair

11/19 Thanksgiving Potluck classes

B,C,E

11/20 Thanksgiving Potluck

classes A and D

11/25 Turkey Trot

11/25 Collapsed Day 1pm

11/26-27 No School Thanksgiving

recess

It’s been just over a month since I became CEO of YAI. I'm very

excited about my new role and the bright future of the Manhattan

Star Academy (MSA), where every child has the opportunity to

shine and excel. In my former role as Chairman of the YAI Board of Trustees, I

had the privilege of meeting the terrific Principal Rae Eisdorfer

and the rest of MSA’s caring and experienced staff. As I toured

the beautiful new facility during the Spring Open House, I was

truly impressed by the spacious classrooms, bright colors, tactile

hallways, sensory gym, educational toys, and the wide array of

books available throughout. All of which were designed, implemented, and provided to

enhance the students’ overall experience and education. MSA’s mission is to provide its students with the highest quality and most comprehensive

developmentally-based programs that focus on the child’s needs as a whole. Each

student’s strengths and learning style are used as the foundation upon which our

curriculum is built. MSA was created in response to requests from parents who had difficulty finding a

quality, personalized educational experience for their children after they graduated from

our NYL preschools. I come from a long line of educators, and my priorities as CEO are clear: I intend to

listen to families and do my utmost to provide state-of-the-art, innovative educational

services to elementary school children. My commitment to families and to the growth,

development, and happiness of each and every child is unwavering.

Falling Into MSA

Dear Parents

I can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving already! MSA is thankful for

so many things Our school is growing and we now fill all five

classrooms on our main floor. We have almost doubled our en-

rollment and our staff as well. We have so many new faces in

our program. One special new face is YAI’s new CEO George

Contos. We are excited to learn more about him and his com-

mitment to the MSA community. HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all

our MSA families.

Rae Eisdorfer

manhattantaracademy.org

My name is Dr. Brooke

Guttenberg, Psy.D.,

and I am the school

psychologist at Man-

hattan Star Academy.

I am thrilled to be

joining the MSA fam-

ily! My experience in-

cludes working in both

school and clinical settings, with individuals of all ages. My role at

MSA includes fostering the social-emotional growth of each stu-

dent, and supporting the generalization of these skills. There are

many skills that you can practice with your child at home, and

incorporate into your daily routine. Engaging your child with open-

ended questions about their day or interests, exposes your child

to new topics of conversation, and helps them practice taking

turns.

Meet Dr. Brooke Guttenberg-Psychologist Tara Silber- Admissions & Family Services

Kevin McManaway- Clinical Coordinator Megan Fucci- Speech Pathologist

I hope you are all enjoying the nice Fall weather. We are excited

that our therapy department has grown this year. Allyson, Bari,

and Megan continue to be part of the therapeutic team. We

would like to welcome Sandra Kreniske-SLP, Emily Montefusco-

Liebert-SLP, Rebecca Pess-PT, Emily Perdios-SLP, Meredith

Schraner-OT, and Carmen Zepeda-OT. I am looking forward to

working with you this school year. Please continue to feel free to

contact me with any questions you may have at

Kevin.Mcmanaway@yai.org.

Kevin McManaway, SLP, Coordinator of Clinical

Services

CORE WORD LITERACY PROGRAM

In September MSA started a Core Word Literacy

curriculum. Core Words make up 80% of words used

by both developing children and adults. They can be

used in everyday situations. At home saying the

monthly core words during daily routines, highlighting

these words when reading to your child, and placing

the pictures of the words around your home will sup-

port your child’s use and understanding of the vo-

cabulary. So far we have seen a positive impact on

the student’s learning, communication, and writing.

November we will focus on EAT, LIKE and WHAT.

Please look out for Parent Suggestions on how to in-

corporate these words at home. If you have any

questions please feel free to reach out to your child-

’s teacher or speech pathologist.

The 2015-16 school year is off to an amazing start!

The MSA Parent Committee has welcomed new par-

ent participation this year and we are excited to col-

laborate for some wonderful events. Members of

the committee have started planning our first ever

MSA Benefit dinner which has just been set for the

evening of Tuesday, March 15th, 2016, so save the

date! More info to follow soon. Our MSA parent

workshops have also been well attended thus

far. Please join us for the next one, “Top 10 Devel-

opmental Disability Resources”, on 12/8 at

10am. The admissions process has just begun for

next school year and we are already receiving a lot of

interest and enthusiasm in our program. Prospective

families have been able to get a glimpse at all the

learning and growing happening at MSA during our

monthly open house tours and we are expecting to

add at least 2 new classrooms next year.

a master’s degree in Childhood Spe-

cial Education, and a bachelor’s de-

gree in Childhood Education from Ny-

ack College. Prior to coming to MSA,

I worked with students with a wide

variety of unique needs and challenges

in both New York City public schools

and at Harlem Prep Elementary Char-

ter School. I am passionate about

making connections with families and

supporting teachers to foster an edu-

cational community that brings out

the full potential of every child.

Jessica Sanchez

Educational Coordinator

Wow, we are already in the month of

November! I am so excited to be a

part of the Manhattan Star Academy

family - it has been wonderful getting

to know you and your child. I count

myself incredibly fortunate to be a

part of such a vivacious community

that is constantly striving to imple-

ment best practices in every way.

A bit of information about me: I hold

Jessica Sanchez-Educational Coordinator

manhattanstaracademy.org Page 3

Ms. Charlene’s Class A-Fall Fun

Apple Fun-The students learned that apples grow on trees, and that there are different types of apples. Red delicious,

granny smith, golden delicious, and Fuji apples were the apples we used in our taste test. The golden delicious apple was

the class favorite. The students took turns adding ingredients to make apple sauce. We read aloud 10 Apples on Top and

A Was Once an Apple Pie.

Pumpkin Fun-The students learned how pumpkins grow and they explored the inside of a pumpkin. We pulled, cleaned and

counted 50 seeds out of the pumpkin. The student’s favorite story was Pete the Cat-Five Little Pumpkins and after read-

ing, the students decorated their own pumpkins.

Class Picnic-We went on a class picnic and went pumpkin picking. The students enjoyed eating their lunches on a blanket

and took turns playing duck duck goose.

Charlene’s Class A

In October, Star B explored fall with many hands on activities. We counted, sorted, and explored leaves.

The students played and raked leaves during sensory play. They also identified what kinds of clothing to

wear when the weather begins to get colder in fall. The class learned fall songs about the weather and the

seasons changing. The class got to experience fall in the community when we went on a picnic at Riverside

Park. In addition to fall, students explored the letters A, M, P, and T through multisensory experiences, read alouds,

songs and crafts. Students wrote in sand, shaving cream, and with many other mediums. They also created crafts such as

Alligator A’s, T Trees, candy corn letter matches, and their very own letter books to share with their families!

Megan’s Class B

SO much has been in the works in

Class C during the first 2 months of

school! In September, we worked

class-wide on strengthening our rou-

tines, we learned how to use a leveled

library and began to develop good

reading habits, we dove into math and

phonics groups, and we practiced so-

cial skills by making our own identifi-

cation cards. Oh, and of course--we

celebrated being superheroes!

In October, we finished up assess-

ments in the classroom and fine-tuned

groups to ensure individualized in-

struction for all. We acted out mys-

teries and then journeyed through

the writing process to ultimately pub-

lish our own mystery books. We also

celebrated Fall and Halloween during

social skills blocks.

Kaitlin’s Class C

dents were excited to pick their own

mini pumpkins. The Halloween cele-

brations continued as we carved our

own Class E pumpkin. This ooey-gooey

activity was a fun sensory, social, and

art experience for all. The kids had a

blast partying and showing off their

costumes this Friday at the MSA Hal-

loween Party. We even had the excit-

ing opportunity to explore the New

York Historical Society’s

“Superheroes in Gotham” exhibit. We

flashed back into our September Su-

perhero unit through an engaging pro-

gram they created just for our stu-

dents!

Class E has been having a great time

learning about the changing season

and mysteries this month! Through

multi-sensory group and one-to-one

instruction and exploration, we have

been delving deep into learning about

fall colors, Halloween exploration, and

solving the mysteries of mysterious

missing classroom items using our

Core Words. We have been working

hard to become as independent as

possible. Our students have become

unpacking and packing superstars and

are working hard to learn their phone

numbers, tie their shoes, and brush

their teeth. We’ve had a fun-filled

few weeks of October!

We had so much fun at the MSA Fall

Picnic at Riverside Park! The stu-

Hope’s Class E

fall books, and doing fall projects.

The kids are becoming more and more

independent in the classroom, and we

continue to work on social and ADL

skills a lot. In science, we have been

learning about the 5 senses, and have

been using our senses to explore fall

items. We learned sense-related

words (sweet, sour, etc.) and have

been working on statements like “I

see…” and “I hear…” to expand on our

thoughts and elongate our sentences.

Next month, we will continue explor-

ing with our senses, and will talk

about Thanksgiving, family, and food.

We will also continue working on ex-

pressing our likes and dislikes- using

our CORE words as much as possi-

ble!

This month’s special events- including

the Halloween festivities and MSA

picnic- were lots of fun for all of us.

Thank you to all our great families for

helping to make them possible! We

are looking forward to more learning

and good times in the upcoming

months.

We’ve been work-

ing hard and hav-

ing lots of fun in

Star D! We have

been learning

about fall and all

the related sea-

sonal changes

(leaves changing,

pumpkins growing,

weather getting colder). We have in-

corporated this theme into our cur-

riculum across the content areas-

sorting and counting leaves, reading

Ellie’s Class D

All parents make sure you take advantage of our MSA Community Site. It’s your place to experience galleries, ac-

cess to forms, blog about past and upcoming events, and much more!

www.msacommunity.org

Phoebe-RN on Healthy Eating