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, 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