Spruce Street Nursery School Newsletter

SPRING/SUMMER 2011VOLUME 15

observation of the metamorphosis of the butterflies or the supportive messages from a teacher all make an imprint on a child’s developing self and help each child to learn and become the person he or she ultimately will be. Seeing these long since flown-away alumni, I felt so proud and grateful to have been a part of those early, impressionable years.

BUTTERFLY, BUTTERFLY, FLY, FLY AWAY: TRADITIONS AT SPRUCE STREETThere was a child that went forth every day,And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became,And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the dayOr for many years or stretching cycles of years. – Walt Whitman

The above quote from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass reflects our belief that every experience in a child’s early life is formative. I was so pleased to discover that many of those early experiences—both the ones the children remember, as well as those long since forgotten—have positively impacted the extraordinary group of Spruce Alumni who came to our 15th Anniversary gathering in May! Without fail the children and teens were anxious to see old friends and teachers, had happy memories to share and actually knew who I was. (They were coached a bit, I think, but it still made me feel good!) They were a little shy, yet confident, kind, personable and articulate. The older children looked dotingly upon our current Sprucers with laughter, appreciation and just a hint of envy. The alumni came back to celebrate the days before homework and exams, when boys wore dresses and girls fire hats and the Quadro was huge! It reminded me that the greeting a child receives upon arrival at school or the sensation of climbing on the Quadro, the

At the party, parents and children wrote in a book that I will cherish forever. Some former students’ quotes from the book include:

What I remember about Spruce Street is FUNFly Away…so many special memories!!The teachers are very niceBack in the day when we had time to play “dress up”This is the real deal… I miss Spruce Street!

Beyond the perpetual longing for simpler days runs a true thread of appreciation for their preschool years together, for times shared and the community that expands and diffuses with the passing of the years

“He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself. He stayed inside for

more than two weeks. Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out

and... he was a beautiful butterfly!”. – Eric Carle

(The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

but still remains central to so many Spruce Street families’ lives.

To quote Maggie Magner, our amazing Music Specialist, who composed this new Spruce Street Song for this year’s Fly Away:Spruce Street is the place where we can learn and play,Exciting things are happening here every day,Friendships here are built to last,Time flies by here way too fast.Spruce Street is the place where we can have some fun,Music, art and journals playing in the sun,As we step out on our own,You will see how much we’ve grown.Spruce Street is the place that we can call our home.HOORAY!

I know that I speak for many when I say that these lyrics truly resonate.

Butterfly, butterfly, fly fly away…

Summer at SpruceJoin the Fun!!

Summer Camp at Spruce is just around the corner! While camp is great for Spruce students of all ages, it is a particularly good way for new families to ease into life at the school. Here’s what mom Alexandra Abbott had to say about her family’s fi rst experience at Spruce: “Camp was a perfect introduction for our incoming Acorn. Eleanor became familiar with the school, got to know her teachers and met some of her fellow classmates and peers. It was a fun summer experience and really helped with her transition in September. We can’t wait for more Spruce camp fun this summer!”

Heard on Spruce StreetThe Oaks were fully immersed this spring in an

extensive three week art unit, not only learning about great masters of art but also about their methods and works. We created mixed-up self-portraits like Picasso, “drew with scissors” like Matisse and practiced pointillism (with q-tips) just like Seurat! The highlight of the unit was painting on our backs, just like Michelangelo did with the Sistine Chapel... only we painted for fi ve minutes, not four years! We asked the Oaks what would they paint on the ceiling of their room if they could.

Beau - “a football fi eld”Cole - “a chimney”Cecilia - “unicorns and a Pegasus”Kaydie - “fl owers”

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Annual Fund Update - the Final Days!With just a few days left until the end of

Spruce’s Annual Fund, we are hoping to achieve an ambitious goal of 100% participation among current families, having just over 94% participation thus far. With this goal in mind, we hope you will consider a donation of $15 to honor Spruce Street’s 15th anniversary. Your $15 will not only help mark this momentous occasion but will enable us to reach our participation goal for the year. Gifts received by June 30th will count toward

this year’s drive. Donors names (not their giving levels) will be recognized in the Annual Report.The dollar tally of $154k is at an all-time high,

thanks not only to current parents, but to the generous support of many alumni families and grandparents. Thank you to all of the wonderful Spruce supporters who make it possible for Christie to maintain our high educational standards and nurturing environment for future Spruce children!

SAVE THE DATEMonday, July 11th

First Day of Summer Program

Friday, August 19thLast Day of Summer Program

Wednesday, September 7thOpen House for

New and Returning Families

Thursday, September 8thFirst Day of School

Exuma Book DriveThank you everyone for your generous

contributions to the Exuma book drive we held at SSNS in March and April. SSNS happily shipped fi ve large boxes of new and used books to Roker Point (as in Al Roker, he grew up there) Preschool and Elementary School in Exuma, Bahamas in April. The students were thrilled to have these additions to their library and send much gratitude!

LJ - “a black sky, for a space room”Mira - “butterfl ies”Olivia - “a big sun”Paige - “little tiny kittens”Sebi - “a whale”Tessa - “lots of little dogs”

Under the SeaSpruce Street Auction 2011

Once again, the Spruce Street Auction was an event to remember! Guests were transported to an undersea oasis where they enjoyed the company of past, present and future Spruce Street families and bid on spectacular packages generously donated by the community. The event was coordinated by the tremendous team of Elizabeth Brennan, Brooke Laughlin, Dana Lewis, Kelly Panayotou, Paige Sutphin and Courtney Winter. Many thanks to these extraordinary ladies and to all who contributed their time, talent and donations to make the evening such a success!

Spruce Friends from the Past 15 Years!

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Spruce Friends from the Past 15 Years!

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ALUMNI FAMILY TREE

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Send your Alumni Updates to sprucestreet@rcn.com

The Schumachers left Boston for a European adventure last summer. We used Belgium as our home base, and the girls went to an Internation-al school in Antwerp. They made a lot of friends and even learned a bit of Dutch. We traveled to Paris, London, Geneva, Munich, Budapest and

spent Thanks-giving in Florence and Venice with great friends. Lola ’10 is forev-er a Parisian, and Bella ’08 loved London with all the history and tradition. In Jan-

uary, we moved to Indianapolis, Indiana where Amy’s corporate HQ are located. Jim and Amy grew up there, so family is close by. Bella (8) starts 3rd grade this fall and Lola (5) will be in Kindergarten. We’ll be on the Vineyard this sum-mer and hope to see some of you! Spruce will al-ways have a special place in our hearts! New ad-dress: 8115 Spring Mill Rd, Indpls, IN 46260. Amy, Jim, Bella & Lola

Sarah ’02 and Emilie ’02 Gurnon finished the 20 mile “Walk for Hunger” in May. This was their eighth year participating! Sarah and Emilie are wrapping up a strong 8th grade year at Boston Trinity Academy where they ran Cross Country and did running club. This summer, they’ll travel with their family and take the long awaited annual trip to Wisconsin.

Elizabeth Lowrey and her girls have moved to 90 Pembroke Street in Boston with new stepfather, D a v i d Manfredi. A u s t i n C l a p p ’00 just f i n i s h e d her first year of boarding school at Rumsey Hall. Lida ’02 & Ellie ’03 Clapp both graduated to middle school at Buckingham Browne and Nichols. The girls are o! to Pony Farm for riding camp and will spend the summer in San Miguel, Mexico with their grandparents!

Gabby Guagliano, former Oak and Willow teach-er, went back into the corporate world and is currently sell-ing residential real estate. She recently married David Baron in Charleston, SC at Middleton Place Plantation, and they live together in Ja-maica Plain where Gabby finally has her own garden! She al-ways enjoys seeing Spruce students and fami-lies around the city, gguagliano@gmail.com.

Liam Duggan ’03 is in his last year (6th Grade) at Chestnut Hill School, loves all sports– especially basketball and baseball–and will be at-

tending St. Sebas-tian’s in Needham in the fall. Delia ’07 is finishing up 2nd Grade at Chest-nut Hill School and loves soccer and la-crosse. Both Liam

and Delia will be going to sleep away camp this summer in Maine - Camp Kieve for Liam’s fifth year and its sister camp, Wavus, for Delia’s first year.

Girls Book Club, from left: Delaney Callaghan ‘06, Margeaux Dowdle ‘05, Kate Wilson ‘05, Leyla Ewald ‘06. (Missing that day: Cecilia Velander ‘06.)

The Laird Family is living life out in the suburbs of Dover. The bus picks up Barre" ’04 (age 11) and Pete ’06 (age 9) and takes them to Chickering Elemen-tary School. Barre! loves school and plays lacrosse, soccer and the trumpet. When Pete is not running around the woods, he loves hockey, wrestling, fishing and kayaking. We are lucky to run into some of our old Spruce friends and reminisce about the magic of Spruce. We often look through our old class al-bums and think of you all.

Will Laughlin ’09 and Chandler Gilbane ’09 just finished Kinder-garten at The Park School. Here they are after the annual May Day performance.

Sam Alberti ‘01 just graduated 8th Grade at the Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) in Bei-jing, China. This is Sam’s fourth year in Beijing where he a"ends an international school with students from 57 countries! He especially en-joys volleyball, basketball, soccer, tennis and golf. He’s in the drama club and has performed sever-

al times this year. While he misses Boston, his friends and Red Sox games — he has enjoyed the chance to travel to places like North Korea! If anyone is pass-ing through Beijing, please email us, susan.alberti@verizon.net. We still have Sam’s bu"erfly wings from Fly Away!

Welcome Spruce Saplings (2010 - 2011)

Garre! Zug - 6/25/10

Zain Shaukat - 7/9/10

Luke Rowe - 8/26/10

Max Bridgen - 9/15/10

Lucy Bowers - 10/16/10

Jack Gerstner - 11/19/10

Olive Baird - 1/6/11

Josie Carson - 3/10/11

John Dickie - 3/13/11

Chase Eisenberg - 3/20/11

Nate Brennan - 4/21/11

Owen Jamal - 5/5/11

Nathan Havemeyer - 6/5/11

Spruce Street Nursery School 5 Avery Place Boston, MA 02111 617-482-5252

FLY AWAY2011

Beau: “No math homework!”

Cole: “I love art projects.”

Cecilia: “I like science projects best.”

Kaydie: “Painting.”

LJ: “Because you get to read books.”

Mira: “The teachers.”

Olivia: “I love music.”

Paige: “Playing with the magna-tiles.”

Sebi: “I like Spruce Street painting projects.”

Tessa: “Journals.”

Ryan: “Drop o!.”

Annabel: “The cubbies and the journals.”

Jack: “Playing with Ryan and Chase.”

Adnan: “Ge"ing a haircut.”

Celia: “Playing.”

Nellie: “Sorting the beans.”

Kate: “Seeing the caterpillar.”

Bu!erfly Goodbyes 2010-2011Teachers asked departing students what they love most about Spruce Street

Charlie: “The Legos.”

Tuck: “Projects.”

Hadley: “The house.”

Trey: “Madison.” (the mascot)

Corina: “Everything!”

Max: “Free play.”

Robbie: “Morning meeting.”

Anya: “The art projects we made.”

Gavin: “Playing with beads.”