The Connection Welcome Katelyn Dennis

Welcome Katelyn Dennis, our new Great Bay Kids' Company

Executive Director!

Katelyn graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelors

degree in Elementary Education and Music Performance. She

continued on to receive her Masters from Cambridge College in

Higher Education, Counseling.

Most recently Katelyn served as Executive Director to Nurture &

Nature Children's Center in Newfields for almost five years, where

she was introduced to the non-profit sector. Before her years in early childhood, Katelyn

worked as a Corporate trainer for an advertising company. After five years as a trainer,

she yearned to go back to her education roots and has truly found her passion in leading

early childhood organizations.

Katelyn resides in Southern Maine with her husband Larry, step son Louden and her two

girls Klaira & Everly.

On September 8th, the Exeter Center opened the

doors to its new center. We welcomed new staff

and new families to our agency as we moved

from five classrooms to ten. The growth allows

us to meet the growing need for early childhood

care and education in the Exeter area. With the

opening of the new building we are now able to

offer care to infants and young toddlers. The

Exeter Center now holds two infant rooms, two

young toddler, and

added an additional

toddler room. The sound of babies and little ones enjoying their

day resonates throughout the building when you walk in and it

just makes you smile.

Our Exeter Center was also the recipient of Epping Lowe’s

Heroes adoption program. We had 15 volunteers work on

extending fencing for a larger play area as well as planting new

shrubs and beautifying the front with seasonal planters. Thank

you to Lowes!

Inside this issue:

Open House at

GBKC

2

Ages and Stages

2

Great Bay Kids’ in

the Community

2

The Great Escape

3

Did you know...

4

Recipe 4

Calendar of Events

November 19, 2015

Exeter Ribbon Cutting

Ceremony ~3pm

March 26, 2016

Eggcellent Easter Egg

Hunt ~8:30-10:30am

April 12, 2016

Newmarket Children’s

Art Show ~ 6:30-

7:30pm

April 13, 2016

Pease Children’s Art

Show ~ 6:30-7:30pm

April 14, 2016

Exeter/Action Club

Children’s Art Show ~

6:30-7:30pm

Exeter Center Opens It’s Doors!

Great Bay Kids’ Company, Inc.

Fall 2015

Bi-Annual Newsletter

Issue 16

81 New Hampshire Ave Portsmouth, NH

03801

Quality, Licensed Child Care with an Educational Focus

Great Bay Kids’ Out in the Community!

Ages and Stages

Open House

The Connection Page 2

Great Bay Kids’ Company has

been busy this fall participating in

local community events! If you

were out and about you may have

seen representatives at the recent

Making Strides Walk in Exeter as

well as the Richie McFarland

Touch-a-Truck in Portsmouth.

Our Newmarket Center is currently

collecting food items for

Newmarket’s End 68 Hours of

Hunger program. Many children

don’t know where there next meal is

coming from when they leave

school on Friday and this program is

a solution for many of these

children by sending home food with

them for the weekend. We are a

collection site all year round

however, during the month of

November we are celebrating

In October each center opens their doors at night and invites families to

come and see what a typical day at Great Bay Kids’ Company is like.

Teachers welcome families into their classrooms to participate in activities

that are offered to their children throughout the day around the core

knowledge areas of Math, Literacy, Science and Social Studies integrated

into each interest area in the classroom, including: Art Area, Block Play,

Cooking, Discovery Area, Dramatic Play, Library Area, Music and

Movement, Outdoor Play, Sensory Table and Technology. Families

network with parents in the classroom and spend time with the teachers.

Open House is always a great success and a lot of fun for those that attend.

It is a great way to see what your children are doing when you leave them

in our care. We look forward to the event each and every year!

This October kicked off the Agency’s decision to

incorporate the Ages and Stages Questionnaire as

part of our assessment process. The Program

Development Committee comprised of teachers,

administration and board members met and

researched many different tools and decided that

ASQ was the most efficient and helpful tool. Ages &

Stages Questionnaires® (ASQ) provides reliable,

accurate developmental and social-emotional

screening for children between birth and age 6,

drawing on parents’ expert knowledge. The

questionnaires are filled out by families and teachers

and with both family and teacher feedback we will be

able to better meet the needs of the children in our care.

ASQ has been specifically designed to pinpoint

developmental progress—paving the way for

meaningful next steps in learning. ASQ is family

friendly, with fun learning activities. The ASQ system

includes fun, simple, and inexpensive learning activities

that teachers can use with kids during the day and

parents can use at home.

“being thankful” and have put an

emphasis on the food drive. It is

great to see GBKC out in the

communities that we serve and

helping others raise awareness for

their cause. Whether we are face

painting, providing activities or

collecting food for a worthy cause,

GBKC is there to support our local

agencies .

Our 6th Annual Great Escape

Fundraiser was held on Friday,

September 25th at the Rockingham

Ballroom. The event raised over

$10,000. It was a great night had by

all and we want to sincerely thank

our sponsors and local businesses

that helped to make our event a

success!

Gold Level Sponsor CP Management

Silver Level Sponsor DeStefano Architects

Georgetown Bank

Sulloway & Hollis

Bronze Level Sponsors D.F. Richard Energy

Donahue, Tucker &

Ciandella, Pllc.

Martini Northern

Chinburg Builders

Federal Savings Bank

Proulx Oil & Propane

Bob’s Clam Hut

Li Yuen’s Chinese Cuisine

Louis F. Clarizio, DDS PA

Optima Bank & Trust

Thank you to all of our

AUCTION ITEM DONORS:

Anneke Jans, Attitash/Wildcat

Mountain, Auto Sounds/EZ Bike,

Ava Anderson, Badger Balms,

Beach Pea, Blue Moon Evolution,

Café Nostimo, Ceres Bakery,

Charmingfare Farm, Children’s

Museum of New Hampshire,

Clean Home & Office, Common

Man Restaurants, Convenient

MD, Country View Restaurant,

Cymbidium Floral, LLC.,

DeStefano & Associates Inc.,

Diamond King Sports, Dicks

Sporting Goods, District,

Dunkin Donuts, Exeter

Jewelers, Fairfield Inn By

Marriott, Fitness Together, G

Willikers, Granite Steak &

Grill, Gundalow Company,

Gunstock Mountain Resort,

Hafner Winery, Hampton

Beach Casino, Hanlon

Longboards, Hilltop Fun

Center, Isles of Shoals

Steamship Company, Kelly

White/Silpada, Kume Japanese

Steak House, Las Olas

Taqueria, Lindt & Sprungli,

Living Mantras, Marc Fournier,

Martingale Wharf, Maryanne

LaPointe Creations, Music Hall,

Nadeau’s Subs, Nippo Lake

Golf Club, Northeast Lantern,

Philbrick’s Sports, Pickwick’s

Mercantile, Poco’s Bow Street

Cantina, Portsmouth Aikido,

Portsmouth Gas Light Co.,

Portsmouth Harbor Cruises,

Portsmouth Spa, Precision

BMW Repair, Prelude,

Quintessential Chiropractic,

Red Sox Organization, Redhook

Brewery, Rochester Country

Club, Rochester Opera House,

Rockingham Ballroom, Rodin +

Fields (Alizza), Runner’s Alley,

Seacoast Repertory Theatre,

Seacoast Science Center, Sig

Sauer, Silpada Earrings,

Strawberry Banke Museum,

Sullivan Tire, Terra Cotta Pasta

Company, The Rinks at Exeter,

The Rosa Restaurant, Top

Drawer Boutique, Valerie

Haggert/Avon, Windjammers

Restaurant.

The Great Escape

Quality, Licensed Child Care with an Educational Focus Page 3

Friends of Great Bay Kids’

No Bake Energy Bites

Ingredients: 1 cup rolled oats 1/2 cup crunch peanut butter

1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 1/3 cup honey 1/2 cup ground flax seed 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions: Combine oats, chocolate chips, flax seed, peanut butter, honey and vanilla extract together in a bowl; form into balls using your hands. Arrange energy bites on a baking sheet and freeze until set, about 1

hour.

Great Bay Kids’ Company, Inc.

Administrative Office

81 New Hampshire Avenue

Portsmouth, NH 03801

Phone: 603-772-9830

Fax: 603 772-4917

Email:

info@greatbaykids.org

www.GreatBayKids.org

NON PROFIT

ORGANIZATION

US POSTAGE

PAID

PORTSMOUTH NH 03801

PERMIT NO. 64

Great Bay Kids’ Company

81 New Hampshire Avenue

Portsmouth, NH 03801

Did you know ~ Great Bay Kids’ Company first opened their doors on

October 2, 1967 in Newmarket, NH. Since then we have grown

exponentially to include centers in Exeter, Portsmouth and after school

programs in Exeter and Newfields and currently offer care to over 500

families!