Hands for Newsletter

 The Medical Center Nursery School 

Volume 16, Issue 5
  

February 2016
  
In This Issue
From the Office

 
Fort Lee apartment buildings turned to gold at sunrise


February 1 st amazingly marked the mid-point of the year.   It does not seem possible that we have experienced more than five months of the school year. This month has had its ups and downs as far as the weather goes, but with the one massive snow storm and one weekend with record-breaking low temperatures the rest of the winter has been unusually mild. Nonetheless, we are certain that most people are ready for warmer weather.  Obviously we still have March to get through, but at least we have the Jazz Festival to look forward to.

Teacher/Parent Conferences ended two weeks ago.   We hope that you found them informative and helpful.

Most of the body of this newsletter is dedicated to the upcoming Jazz Festival, a series of events that has become a much-loved enhancement of our yearly program.  Many of our participants have been coming to the school for several years or more and are quite familiar to our older students. We welcome them back eagerly.  We also have enjoyed our volunteers from the parent body and other friends and family members who have shared their skills in the classes.  Please feel free to talk to Louise or Susan if you are interested in volunteering at this year's festival.  The final Jazzy Fairy Tales concert on March 16th at 5:30 PM is open to the entire MCNS community and will be followed by a pizza bash. This event has proven to be the highlight of the festival.   We hope you will join in the fun.
   
2016 - 2017 enrollment contracts for children returning to the school were placed in cubbies earlier this week.  Signed contracts and the first tuition installments are due by Friday, March 4th.  Notices to newly-applying families also were sent out at the beginning of the week.  As has been done a few times in the past, the Parents Association is hosting an evening reception for newly accepted parents and those with children currently enrolled. This event will take place on Tuesday, March 1st at 5:30 PM.  We hope that you will be able to join us to share your experiences with potential new families before they have to respond to the school by March 4th.  Attendance sign-up sheets have been posted in the lobby.  RSVP! 

As you are aware, Columbia facilities has added stanchions and stanchion tape in the building lobby.   This is designed to help improve building security.   As a result we issued small ID cards to all families and have created a list of enrolled children which is kept at the information desk.  You may or may not be asked to display a card to the desk staff; but you should be prepared to do so to gain entry into the building.  Obviously those of you with Medical Center ID's can use them instead of the MCNS cards. Thank you so much for your cooperation.


Howard & Linda

2016 Jazz Festival


MCNS is happy to announce that its seventh annual Jazz Festival beginning on March 2 and continuing through March 16th will be co-sponsored this year with grants from the Jazz Educators Network (JEN)! Featured again this year are Justin Hines, an extraordinary and much loved percussionist who has been an MCNS favorite for many years; Max Pollack, the inimitable tap dancer, whose unique melding of Afro-Cuban music and dance that he calls Rhumbatap has been delighting our children for the past several years; and saxophonist Darmon Meader, renowned founder of New York Voices, whose trio has been a big hit with the children for the last two years. Once again Louise will both lead off and close the Festival accompanied by her husband, jazz pianist Mark Kross. The children are already learning about the science of sound with Dr. Terry and hearing stories about jazz musicians and Taking the A Train with Susan and Louise.
 
Many people express surprise that a nursery school would even hold a jazz festival. Isn't jazz a sophisticated style of music more closely associated with nightclubs than with early childhood education? In point of fact, we have discovered that jazz is an extremely effective way to bring music into children's lives. Why is this so?  Young children learn best through play and jazz is a play-centered approach to music.  Jazz is imaginative, danceable, spontaneous, creative, multicultural and playful. Jazz is both personal and social. It helps foster language development, math and social skills. Jazz is a developmentally appropriate learning style for young children. Not to mention that jazz is joyful and lots of fun!
 
For those of you who are not aware of the history of jazz at MCNS, here is a brief summary. Seventeen years ago Louise Rogers' son Alex was a four-year-old child in Susan Milligan's class. Susan, as was her custom, extended an invitation to the parents of the children in the class to come in and share a favorite activity with the children. Parents shared a variety of activities from cooking to science experiments to favorite stories. Alex's parents, both jazz musicians, offered something a little different. They asked if they could introduce the children to jazz!
 
The children responded so positively to jazz that Susan asked Louise if she could help her learn how to incorporate jazz into the curriculum. They began with some drumming and recorded music and collected children's jazzy picture books such as Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka and Max found Two Sticks by Brian Pinckney. Eventually Louise became the MCNS music specialist bringing jazz to all of the children in our school!
 
Susan and Louise began to collaborate on a regular basis. They discovered that by combining jazz and storytelling together they had a powerful teaching tool. They presented their curriculum ideas at early childhood education and jazz educators' conferences. They wrote jazzy stories and music, which Louise recorded. Eventually the stories and music were incorporated into three books for teachers, Jazzy Fairy Tales I and II and Jazz Mosaic.
 
MCNS is always looking for ways to connect our community with what we do in our classroom, so when Louise conceived the idea of a musical celebration that would include the entire MCNS community everyone was excited by her idea. And so the Jazz Festival was born.
 
A perennial highlight of the Festival is the inclusion of the parent volunteers who share their love of jazz in their children's classrooms. We hope that many of you will want to join in and become a part of the Jazz Festival. If you play an instrument, are a dancer or an artist, have favorite jazz recordings to share, want to read a book or poems or even want to juggle to jazz music as a father did in the past, please let us know. You can leave your name in the office, talk to Louise Rogers or your child's classroom teacher, or send an email to Susan (susan.milligan00@gmail.com). We will be happy to help you find a convenient time on the schedule so that you can join in the fun! Mark Kross is available to play piano for anyone who needs/wants it. He can play a jazzy background while you read a book or a poem, for example. If you play an instrument or sing, he'd be happy to accompany you. And Louise is always available to help as well. Don't hesitate to ask.
 
Susan Milligan

Jazz Educators Network/Herb Alpert Foundation Grants Support Jazz Festival


MCNS is thrilled to announce that our MCNS Jazz Festival has received funding this year from the Jazz Educators Network (JEN) JAZZ2U program with the help of a generous donation from the Herb Alpert Foundation.  This program is intended to advance the presentation of jazz to young and diverse audiences. As stated on their website:

"Herb Alpert has often said that one of the greatest satisfactions of his success has been the opportunity to give back and serve others. Feeling that he had been "blessed beyond his dreams", the establishment of The Herb Alpert Foundation in the late 1980's provided the formal means to provide funding to select charitable organizations and institutions. From the start, the Foundation sought to identify programs that were creatively conceived and run, and considered the full spectrum of program types, from small grassroots community efforts to programs operating on a national level.                                                      

One of the joys of his music-making, Mr. Alpert has said, is the opportunity to bring uplifting and joyous music to his audiences - he often sees it as a way to bring more light into peoples' lives. Likewise, in his philanthropy, Mr. Alpert and his wife Lani Hall support areas which they believe have great potential for bringing young people the tools and wisdom to develop their potential and lead positive, fulfilling lives, filled with compassion and love.

Herb Alpert began his lifelong passion for music the first time he picked up a trumpet during an elementary school music class. The many ways in which music subsequently impacted his life led Mr. Alpert to focus a great deal of his philanthropic support on the arts and art education.
 
JEN is a global non-profit organization that seeks to advance jazz education, promote performance and develop new audiences. JEN was founded in 2008 and now has over 1,500 members in 23 countries, every USA state and 7 Canadian provinces.
 
Susan and Louise have presented workshops on their work with jazz and the children of MCNS at JEN annual conferences, which serve teachers, researchers, students, artists and music industry partners.


Susan Milligan 
Jazz Reading List


Following is a list of excellent jazz books for young children:

BEBOP EXPRESS by H. L. Panahi.  HarperCollins.
 
BEN'S TRUMPET by Rachel Isadora.  G.P Putnam's Sons.
 
BRING ON THAT BEAT by Rachel Isadora. G.P. Putnam's Sons.
 
CHARLIE PARKER PLAYED BEBOP by Margaret Mahy.  Penguin Books.
 
CROCODILE BEAT by Gail Jorgensen.  Aladdin Paperbacks.
 
DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY by Bobbi McFerrin.  Welcome Books.
 
DUKE ELLINGTON by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney.  Scholastic Inc.
 
ELLA FITZGERALD: THE TALE OF A VOCAL VIRTUOSA by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney. Hyperion.

HIP CAT by Jonathan London.  Chronicle Books.
 
JAZZ BABY by Carole Boston Weatherford.  Lee and Low Books.
 
JAZZ BABY by Lisa Wheeler.  Harcourt, Inc.
 
JAZZ BABIES by David Davis.  Pelican Publishing Company.
 
THE JAZZ FLY (1 and 2) by Matthew Golub. Tortuga Press (includes CD).
 
JAZZ PORTRAITS: THE LIVES AND MUSIC OF THE JAZZ MASTERS by Leo Lyons and Don Perlo.  Quill William Morrow.
 
THE JAZZY ALPHABET  by Sherry Shahan.  Philomel Books.
 
I SEE THE RHYTHM by Toyomi Igus.  Children's Book Press.
 
IF I ONLY HAD A HORN: YOUNG LOUIS ARMSTRONG by Roxanne Orgill.  Houghton Mifflin.
 
LOOKIN' FOR BIRD IN THE BIG CITY by Robert Burleigh.  Harcourt.
 
MAX FOUND TWO STICKS by Brian Pinckney.  Aladdin.
 
MUSIC OVER MANHATTAN  by Jack E. Davis.  Yearling.
 
ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHICAGO: THE STORY OF BENNY GOODMAN by Jonah Winter.  Hyperion Books.
 
THE PENGUIN QUARTET by Peter Arrhenius.  Carolrhoda Books.
 
THIS JAZZ MAN by Karen Ehrhardt.  Harcourt Children's Books.
 
RAP -A- TAP- TAP: HERE'S BOJANGLES - THINK OF THAT! by Leo and Diane Dillon. Blue Sky Press
 
RUM-A-TUM-TUM  by Angela Shelf Medearis.  Holiday House.
 
THE SOUND THAT JAZZ MAKES  by Carole Boston Weatherford.  Walker and Company.
 
THUMP THUMP RAT-A-TAT-TAT by Gene Bael.  Harper Collins.
 
WHO BOP? by Jonathan London. Harper Collins.
 
WILLIE JEROME  by Alice Kaye Duncan.  MacMillan.
 
 
Susan Milligan 

Events & School Closings

 

Please note the following dates of important events and school closings in March and April 2016: 

 

Reception for newly-accepted and current parents
Mar 1 at 5:30
Jazz Festival begins - Opening Concert
Mar 2
SCHOOL CLOSED FOR CHILDREN - Staff Development Day
Mar 4
Daylight Saving Time begins - Move clocks ahead one hour.
Mar 13
Jazz Festival ends - Final Concert
Mar 16 at 5:30
St. Patrick' s Day
Mar 17
Last day for the Half Day Sessions before Spring Vacation
Mar 18 
School open for Full Day Session (Half Day available by arrangement)
Mar 21-Mar 23
SCHOOL CLOSED - Spring Holiday
Mar 24-Mar 29
School open for Full Day Session - (Half Day available by arrangement)
Mar 30-Apr 1
All Sessions resume regular schedules
Apr 4
Birthdays


 

The following members of the MCNS community celebrated birthdays in February: 

Joann Chisolm - February 2
Gio Lee - February 11
Eva Berlin-Lustig - February 13
Alice  Battistini - February 15    

Happy BirthdatALL!
 

The Medical Center Nursery School 
Phone: 212.304.7040
Fax:  212.544.4243
Email: mcns@mcns.org
Web: www.mcns.org 
     MCNS NEWS Writers and Editors 
Howard Johnson
Susan Milligan
Terence Milligan
Liege Motta
Photo Editor    Pat Shelton