Hogarth Country Day School

Established 1980

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Announcements, Pictures &  Links

This is the page for parents of students attending Hogarth to check for information and special announcements from the director, Andrea Murphy.

Click here for 2008-2009 Special Calendar Dates at a Glance.

Click here to read our policies, including our snow day policy.

Click here to read a book about Hogarth.

Click here for our Reference Page.

Click here for the 2008-2009 Photo Album.

PLEASE NOTE:  The Daily Blog is no longer available to the general public.  If you are a Hogarth Parent, please email Andrea for more information.

What's the Buzz? (The Buzz section includes Buzz for the entire year.  You'll notice Buzz information gets older as you scroll down.)

Current News

• November 28, 2008 – Registration for the 2009-2010 academic year opens to parents of children currently enrolled in Hogarth on December 1st. Please let me know if you are planning for your child to return next fall, or if you are planning to enroll a sibling. Registration for families new to Hogarth School opens Monday, December 15th.

• Our Christmas Party schedule is as follows: EK and PK children will have their parties on Tuesday, December 16th, or Wednesday, December 17th if Tuesday is a snow day. The CPG children will have their party on Thursday, December 18th, or Friday, December 19th if Thursday is a snow day. The children will draw names to choose a Christmas Card Buddy, and exchange Christmas cards with their Christmas Card Buddies at the party. Look for your child's Christmas Card Buddy's name in his or her backpack the week of December 1st.

• Please add a pair of warm slippers to your child's backpack. Your little one will need a pair of slippers for days s/he wears boots to school this winter. Make sure the slippers have soles, and completely cover your child's foot. No slipper socks, open toes, sling backs or giant novelty slippers, please. If your child does not regularly bring a back pack to school, plan to send in a pair of slippers for him or her to keep at Hogarth until spring.

• November 10, 2008  –   EK and PK children will meet for class at the Leddy Center on Wednesday morning, November 12th from 8:45 until 11:15 where they will attend Peter Pan. 

• EK and PK children voted in our mock election on November 4th. You can see the results here on this sample ballot. 

• October 12, 2008 –  I will present the program Women of Granite: 25 New Hampshire Women You Should Know with The Write Sisters at the Epping Historical Society on Thursday evening, November 6th at 7 o'clock. The Write Sisters learned about a number of interesting women while researching and writing Women of Granite. Many of these women were unknown to them at the start of the project, and are unknown to the public in general. Come learn who these women are, why they've faded from the public consciousness, and why you should know about them.  

• September 7, 2008 – Women of Granite: 25 New Hampshire Women You Should Know, the book I co-authored with The Write Sisters, has been selected by the New Hampshire Center for the Book to represent the state of New Hampshire at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. later this month. 

Last Year's News

• June 16, 2008 –   I know it's not officially summer yet, but you sure can't tell that from my beautiful, new garden! Thank you SO much to the 2008 PK Parents for the gorgeous flower garden you folks put together for me. I will certainly be enjoying this garden for years and years to come, and thinking of your children each spring when the flowers bloom anew.  

  

• The last day of school for all children is Wednesday, June 4th.  Morning children will enjoy a waffle breakfast, and afternoon children will feast on a pizza lunch.

• Thursday, May 29th I participated in a panel discussion at the Kensington Public Library with my fellow Write Sisters on our new book Women of Granite: 25 New Hampshire Women You Should Know.

• Thursday, May 22nd I presented a workshop with my fellow Write Sisters at the New Hampshire Library Association's Spring Conference entitled Women of Granite: 25 New Hampshire Women You Should Know based on our book of the same name.

• Parent Conference Day is Thursday, May 15th.

• Spring Vacation is the week of April 28th.

• Flat Stanley is on his way home! Click here for information.

• I’m crossing my fingers in the hopes we’re through with snow days, and am finalizing our make-up schedule.  Click here to see how many days we’ve missed, how many we’ve already made up, and which extra days your little one is invited to attend school to make up the rest.  By the time we’re done, your child will have had the opportunity to attend every single solitary day of class originally scheduled. Because I always factor three snow days into my tuition schedule, you’ll all be coming out ahead in the end. I hope this takes the sting out of the inconvenience I know some of you experienced this winter.  Never let it be said that we don’t try our best at Hogarth! (Please note that I am not changing my policy about not making up snow days.  My snow policy is fair and fine for typical winters.  Winter 2008 was anything but typical!)  

• Mary Doane is scheduled to present her final Project Nature program for the 2007-2008 academic year on Tuesday, April 8^th. 

• We will celebrate The Week of the Young Child on April 14th, 15th, and 16th by Room Weaving.  Your child needs a ball of yarn with which to weave.  Feel free to send it into school in a labeled bag whenever it's ready.  (No skeins of yarn, please.  It has to be rolled into a ball in order for your child to weave.)

• Morning EK and afternoon PK will have their 100 Book Parties on Monday, March 31st.

• The Epping School District is conducting its annual Child Find Screening on Saturday, March 8th.  Click here for more information.

• The school pictures taken by Cathy Brown from Expressions Photography should be arriving in early March.

• Mary Doane's afternoon PK Project Nature program has been rescheduled for Tuesday, March 4th.

• Project Nature's Mary Doane is visiting with the afternoon PK children on Tuesday, January 29th and with the morning EK children on Tuesday, February 5th.

• Wednesday, January 2nd -- NO MORNING EK CLASS -- Because of snowy road conditions and local public school delays, there is no EK class.  Our PK class will meet as scheduled from noon to 2:30 this afternoon.

• Thursday, December 20th -- NO SCHOOL -- Because of today's snowstorm, our bonus day is canceled.  Another bonus day will be scheduled in the spring.

• Monday, December 17th -- NO SCHOOL -- The town of Raymond has delayed their school opening, which closes Hogarth for the day.  We'll have our Christmas parties tomorrow, December 18th.

• Our Christmas parties are scheduled for Monday, December 17th.  If the 17th is a snow day, we'll have the parties on the 18th.

• Representatives from Exeter Hospital will conduct a free hearing screening here at Hogarth on Tuesday, December 11th.

• My New Hampshire state licensing specialist came by on October 12th for an unannounced licensing visit.  She reviewed my records and inspected my facility, and I'm thrilled to report that I passed my inspection without any violations.  That's zero, folks!  It's not often one gets happy over receiving a "zero" on a test.  The state's representative was most impressed with my methods of keeping records, and she thought this website was fantastic.  She also loved the posters on the classroom ceiling.  Hurray for Hogarth! 

• October 9, 2007 -- Mrs. Lamparelli and I attended a 3-hour Professional Development workshop entitled New Hampshire Early Learning Guildelines (NHELG) presented by Rockingham Community Action Child Care Services. According to the introduction to the NHELG, "The Guidelines address learning and development appropriate for children from birth to entrance into kindergarten. The NHELG are rooted in widely accepted theories of child development and current research."  You can read the actual NHELG by clicking here.

• I will be collecting work samples and taking student inventories the weeks of October 9th and October 15th. You will not see many (if any) work papers coming home during that timeframe.   

• We'll be celebrating Halloween in both classes on Tuesday, October 30th. We will be having a fruit salad topped with scoops of sherbet in each class. I need several people from each class to send in fruit for the salad on October 29th.  I need one person to take all the fruit home and prepare the salad for the party.  I need another person to send in a carton of sherbet on the 30th, as well.  I'll have a snack sign-up sheet posted on the door.  If you would like to help with the party snack, please sign up for a specific item.  Thank you! 

• September 20, 2007 -- I attended a 2-hour professional development workshop entitled Observation and Assessment presented by Rockingham Community Action Child Care Services.

• September 11, 2007 -- I attended a 3-hour professional development workshop on child growth and development sponsored by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.  

• I've booked three visits with Mary Doane!  She'll present Clever Tortoise, her first Project Nature program of the year, on Tuesday September 25th.  

• I spent the weekend of September 7th participating in the first Writers' Asylum at Poland Springs in Maine.  This retreat for professional children's writers focused on the business end of writing for children.  We were a small group of 11, which allowed us to accomplish so much.  I picked up lots of great tips and ideas, and enjoyed talking shop with this talented group of award-winning authors who are also teachers, librarians, professors and editors.

• I'm launching my children's author web site! Visit www.andreamurphy.com to read about my writing life.

• August 16, 2007 -- Mrs. Lamparelli and I attended a 2-hour Professional Development Workshop presented by the UNH Cooperative Extension entitled How to Turn Good Play into GREAT Play.  If you'd like to view the video portion of this workshop, click here and scan down until you find the Play workshop.  I think you'll find it fascinating.

• August 9, 2007 -- Mrs. Lamparelli and I were recertified in CPR and First Aid during a 3-hour workshop in Portsmouth.

• I've booked New Hampshire author Diane Mayr to visit with both classes on Monday, November 5th.  She'll be reading her latest picture book Run, Turkey, Run!   Diane is a wonderful writer, and Run, Turkey, Run! is the perfect Thanksgiving story for the preschool set.

• June 14, 2007 -- I attended a workshop presented by Dr. Deborah Abelman entitled Children with Challenging Behaviors:  Developing and Communicating an Inclusive Environment.

Click here for interesting links.

Pictures from the 2006-2007 Academic Year

We worked those fine motor muscles making mosaics!

Spring is finally here!  As we wait for the snow to melt and the mud to dry up so we can get back on the playground, we're managing to have lots of fun inside.  See for yourself.

On January 2nd, the children enjoyed a special Toy Sharing Day.  

On December 5th, Miss Mary from Project Nature presented Stranger in the Woods.  We had fun singing and moving.

Miss Mary drew a mystery picture on the door.  It was part of a snowman!  We helped finish it.

Miss Mary read us a wonderful story called Stranger in the Woods.  The stranger was a snowman!

A snowstorm blew into the classroom! 

After the storm, we became the characters in the book.  Some of us were trees.  Some of us were animals.  Some of us were snowmen.

We sculpted snowmen from clay.  Miss Mary brought whole cloves for us to use as buttons.  They smelled great!

Miss Mary taught us a song we could sing and sign.  

Thanks, Miss Mary!  We'll see you again in April.

With just a little imagination, chairs become a minivan and plates become steering wheels!

Pals at Playtime!

Miss Mary Doane's visit on September 26th started with singing and movement activities.  Children who have experienced past programs remembered her signature song There's a Big, Beautiful Planet in the Sky.  Children new to Project Nature learned the song in short order, and soon everybody was singing and moving with Miss Mary.

Next thing I knew, the children and Miss Mary had all fallen asleep.  The room was filled with snoring, until everybody awakened.  The strange thing was, they awakened as animals.  This happened over and over as the classroom filled with snakes, elephants, turtles -- you name it!

When the children finally returned from their jungle adventure, it was time for a story.  Morning children enjoyed reading Tricky Tortoise, while the afternoon children rooted for little turtle to find a place to live in A Home for Little Turtle.

All the while, there was a scritch-scratching sound coming from the block area.  What could be in those boxes resting under a drop-cloth?  Three turtles, that's what!  Most of the morning children were eager to touch the first turtle's shell.  The afternoon children were happy just to look.  (I guess the brave factor increases as we age.)  After a little spritz of water to highlight the 13 beautiful scales on her shell, the turtle was ready for her close-up encounters.

Kid's At Work!

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© 2008 by Andrea E. Murphy