Dear Parents,Happy New Year! We are glad to be back with everyone. The year started very well and the kids settled in very well.
CalendarMonday, Jan 16th- School closed in observation of Martin Luther King DayWednesday, Jan 18th at 9 am- Green Room Parent CoffeeTuesday, Feb. 7th at 6:30 pm- Green Room parent potluck dinner.Thursday, Feb. 23rd, 6:30 pm- Yellow Room parent potluck dinnerFamily transitionsWe are delighted to be welcoming three more families into the Green Room over the next two months.( names removed for web posting) Please introduce yourselves. Then our classroom and the school will be full. Hooray!Parent PotlucksWe will be having the Green Room first parents potluck on Tuesday night, the 7th of February and the Yellow Room’s potluck will be on February 23rd.. It is a chance for parents to gather together and enjoy an evening of community and conversation. Please arrange babysitting now so you can join us for this fun evening. There will be a sign-up sheet at the front table for food and beverages. If someone would like to help decorate the tables in the afternoon, please let me know.Tuition PaymentI want to review the tuition procedures as there were a few questions.A few days before the end of the month, you will receive an invoice for the next month tuition. It will give a summary of current charges ( tuition, after and morning care, etc) and any past due amount. These charges are due at the first of the month. Afterschool and morning charges will be computed to the 25th of the previous month and added to the bill. The remaining days of previous month’s afterschool and morning charges will appear on your next month’s bill.Late payments per the contract arrangements will incur a $20 late penalty on the 10th. If you know your payment will be delayed, please talk to Deborah to make arrangements.CurriculumWe have some exciting things going on this month. In the Yellow Room, four families will be helping us celebrated “chinese” New Year the way that their countries have adapted it.During the week of Jan. 23rd, we will have costumes and discussion about new year’s in Tibet; we will be making dumpling soup with two Korean parents; we will be making also be making paper dragons, as this will be the year of the dragon. We will decorate the room with traditional red paper cut into festive designs.We will also be making Stone Soup as we cook from the book of that name. Every child will bring a vegetable to add to the vegetable broth on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 17th and 18th. We will throw in some barley and herbs and enjoy a feast together with parents at going home time.We look forward to a wonderful month together.Warm regards,Deborah, Ty, Aracely, Maya, Marilyn, Esme, Mye, and Allison
- Curriculum
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Oct1
1 CommentTalking about Death with Children
Posted in: Child Development, Curriculum, From the Director, Parenting, science, The Garden
There are important emotional topics that naturally occur in the life of young children. At school, we call them “tender topics”. They can include the birth of a new baby, moving, starting school, separations, and Death.Last week at the morning coffee, the question was “How do I talk to my child about death?”. At school, we talk about death regularly, usually in the context of life cycle. For example, in the garden, we plant seeds, watch them grow, enjoy the harvest or the flowers, and then see how the seed pods develop before the plants wither and die. Last week, we pulled out the dead tomato vines, depleted cilantro, and shriveled squash plant out of the ground. They are making way for the fall crop of vegetables and flowers who will repeat the cycle.
Death recently came to the Yellow Room in a different, but not uncommon way. A child’s cat died. While I talked about coping strategies with the family, we also got our favorite books that talk about death. Mister Roger’s Tender Topic Series includes When a Pet Dies, a really caring and thoughtful discussion of death and the child’s feelings about it. We also read The Tenth Good Thing About Barney. In it, a little boy has a cat die and he goes through the feelings and questions that come with that experience. In an intimate way, the boy and his family address his feelings, the goodbye process, mourning, and his memories.
We also discussed the cat’s death at morning meeting, the way we do with many things important to the children’s life. The child told the story of her cat, shared pictures, and talked about how they said their goodbyes as a family. The other children then shared their experiences. They told stories of wrapping an animal in a scarf, of funerals, of singing a goodbye song, of markers and flowers. Some talked about heaven. We listened and supported. The shared stories and feelings help all of the children to cope with loss and to develop coping strategies and increased awareness of one of life’s significant events.
In the life of the school, there will be fish, lizards, spiders, frogs, and other creatures to mourn. We will bury them in our garden where they will have their last job of helping making our garden grow, just like Barney. We will talk about feelings and realities. We will help them learn that death and sleep are not the same. It is a process.
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Jan23
No Comments
In giving parent tours these last few weeks and in considering the wonderful pool of applicants we are developing, I was revisiting the importance of diversity in our preschool and the many ways it is achieved. One of the reasons I chose the Los Feliz, Silverlake, Larchmont, and Hollywood area is that it has a diverse population. I have also chosen a staff that reflects our diverse community. I believe children learn from what they live with in the normal course of their daily lives. They learn that there are many different ways for families to love, raise, and support children. Families with diverse family structures, faiths, backgrounds, races, ethnicities, economic means, and careers all raise healthy, interesting children.
I believe that it is through living and sharing together that we all really come to internalize tolerance, appreciation, honoring and supporting the people in our own world. Children also naturally develop a view that gives them the opportunity to comfortably explore the rich range of people and possibilities. From this base, children will go on in their world to benefit from the richness of people they will come to know.
As a staff, we believe diversity goes well beyond race and ethnicity although those are the easiest to identify quickly. As we put together a classroom group, we think of diversity quite broadly. We are interested in a mix of racial and ethnic backgrounds and I am delighted that our preschool has developed significant diversity using those criteria.The children themselves always represent diversity and we value a group that is varied. Some are outgoing, some more quiet; some are more visual learners, some auditory learner, some kinesthetic learners. While they generally enjoy the many offerings of a preschool program, they have a a great range of interests and talents. Some go right to the puzzles while another is off to the blocks. Some love a big group to play with where others like one good play friend. In a mixed age grouping, children reflect their different developmental stages.
We also look for diversity in other ways. We welcome families with a variety of family structures; families with mom and dad, with a single parent,with same sex parents, with step families, with adopted children, with grandparents as the primary caretakers. There are so many ways to successfully raise children today; each family is striving towards being the best parents they can be.
We value a range of backgrounds in the family’s work life; lawyers, journalists, artists, engineers, chefs and entertainment industry people all enrich the school with their different experiences, talents, and perspectives.
Especially at the holidays, we celebrate the diversity of beliefs our families have. We celebrate Christmas and Chanukah, St. Lucia Day, and Cinco de Mayo. We discuss the secular and the religious and the philosophical.
We love learning about everyone’s different talents, be it cooking, music, gardening, art, or storytelling. Children have different talents and interests; the more they see that all people come with a variety of talents and interests, the better. It also help us to learn what each child cares about. Our curriculum incorporates the children’s emergent interests into the classroom activities and invited visitors.
We encourage families to invite grandparents into the school to be part of the school activities and programs. As a society, we benefit when people of all ages join together to enrich children’s life. We have grandparents as volunteers as well as participants in our family /child gatherings. At our Thanksgiving feast, grandparents thoughts joined with the parents’ and children’s about what they were most thankful for, offering a wonderful range of perspectives.We encourage families with a range of economic means to join our school. Since we offer 3, 4, and 5 mornings as well as 1 to 5 afternoons, we hope that families can find a home with us. We also offer partial scholarships to families in need. We recognize that these are particularly different times and want to ensure that the diversity offered by families different life experiences are incorporated in the school.
Our preschool has benefitted from the wonderful range of children and their families that are with us each day. We are grateful to them for making our days so interesting.Tweet
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Sep19
No CommentsSaying Goodbye/ Saying Hello
Posted in: Curriculum, From the Director
We have reached the end of our first year and it has been an exciting one. We have grown from a few students to a fuller class.The end of the first year also means that we said goodbye to our first kindergarten bound children. It is a bittersweet time for us.
We have lived with our class for 11 months and loved seeing them and their parents every morning. They have become interwoven into our lives and the lives of their classmates. The whole group knows who loves rocks and crystals, who hates loud noises, and who notices every new book that enters the room. We have rejoiced in new found skills, growing friendships, and new experiences, and we have supported each other through the major life disruptions of divorce, death of loved ones, and moves. Classrooms are living organisms. They reflect the personalities and life experiences of the children and teachers in them; no two classes,or, for that matter, days are alike.
It was so clear the prekindergartners were ready to go on. The difference in them from last September is amazing. They are comfortable in themselves and confident now. As I watched them move easily around the room making good choices, playing well with their friends, creating complex buildings or puzzles, and striding out to the yard without a look back for us, the phrase that came to mind is “They own the room”. They feel competent, self-assured, and masterful. They have conquered preschool and are ready to move on. We have worked for this time, helping them to become makers and keepers of friendships, problem solvers, independent thinkers, choice makers, team members of a school community, and cognitively ready.
So we celebrate their success and let them go to their new adventures, even though we will miss them as part of the school. Word received back from their first week is positive as they find their way into a wide variety of kindergarten experiences.
So it is time for us to say hello to a new group. We are welcoming 14 more new children and their families into the school. We love seeing new kids starting school; there is such excitement as they explore and try things out. We have been preparing the room and yard for this day. We make the classroom and the yard inviting and clear so children can easily see their choices and can be independent in getting started. Moms and dads have their white chairs to sit in and be there in support of their children’s first days. Snack includes familiar foods. Group time has songs and fingerplays they know along with name songs to further the introduction process.
The other exciting thing for us as teachers is to know that we have these children for two years. In that time, we will come to know them as we did our departing kindergartners. We will learn what they love and fear, what makes them happy and sad, help them form new friendships, some of whom may last a very long time. And we will learn from them. Their interests, be it bugs, planets, or trucks, will become our interests and we will learn together about these new things. As a Reggio-Emilia school with an emergent curriculum, both the children and the teachers bring ideas to be classroom experience.
As we stand at the end of the first week, it is wonderful to know that great things lie ahead.Tweet
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Aug5
No CommentsPreschool Outdoor “Construction Zone”
Posted in: Curriculum, From the Director, Monthly Classroom Themes, Projects
Life in the Construction Zone
Life in “construction zone” of our preschool is an ever changing place. There are a wonderful array of building materials andtools to choose, Sawhorse and big 2’ 6” by 3’ 6”, sheets of translucent plastic are fabulous for the creation of a house or a small city. Add towels and food and a whole village comes alive.
Moving boxes were perfect for the “burning” buildings the kids created after the fireman came to visit us.
The smaller ones morphed into a long train that “traveled” from one grandparent’s house to another. Everyone took a job, conductor, ticket taker, passenger. We add the train song , “A train is a comin’, Oh yeah” as it chugged along. Many days were spent hopping in their own train car and going on another trip.
Trains haven’t been the only use for boxes. We looked over one day and noticed that two empty boxes were wiggling and some eyes were peeking out. The two box children ended up playing for a long time, sometimes tilting back their housing for some direct conversation.
A few months ago we added a set of grid builders that interconnect to make different shapes . They have mirrors, holes for shapes to fit through, windows, and holes to crawl through. At first, they were used as paths and streets for the big vehicles but lately they have seen more use as home builders. Their advantage is that you can create connections between building.Our construction area has a full work table, filled with hammers, pliers, and screwdrivers and hard hats, yellow vests, and tool belts. The children enjoy putting together and taking apart not only the pretend buildings but also many things in the yard. Construction zone is one of the many areas of the preschool yard that provides children many opportunities to create and play out their great ideas.Tweet
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Aug5
No CommentsScience in our Preschool
Posted in: Curriculum, Food and Cooking, Monthly Classroom Themes, science, The Garden
The weather has continued to be gray and damp in the morning and our garden, it turns out, is feeling the effects of it. One of the children asked, “Why are the leaves getting all white?” A fellow gardening mom suspected powdery mildew but none of us really knew. So it was time for a trip to the Sunset Nursery in Los Feliz to learn what was causing our trouble. The weather turns out to be the culprit; it allows the growth of powdery mildew because the plants are getting too much mositure and not enough heat from the sun.
Children observing the world around them, asking questions, creating hypotheses, and learning more is science in action in our preschool. Conversations about science are a daily occurrence. The garden is a regular source. But of course there are many other opportunities, both created by us and by nature and events, to learn about biology, physics, chemistry, and the physical world.The children began the year with an interest in bugs. First the scream, BUG, then some run away, but all return. Out come the magnifying glasses or the cups to hold the subjects, briefly.
The dead ones get put in petri dishes and are saved for viewing under the big magnifying glass.
Rocks have been another fascination. We have developed a good collection of rocks, crystals, and “gems” to look at, sort, and look up in our books. Using resources to learn more is a natural part of our investigations, be it the local nursery, a book, or a visiting expert ( see article on crystals).Our spring was filled with butterflies and silkworms ( see earlier articles).
Here we are launching the last of the cabbage white butterflies, that came from the caterpillars we found on our cabbage plants. Very big eaters, those cabbage whites.
This summer we have been talking about the children’s trips to the beach. Ty created a pretend beach, complete with towels, sun glasses, stuffed marine life, hats, sandals, and shells. The shells were so beautiful to look at and everyone tried to hear the ocean in them. The science table offered a chance to explore a little further and match them to the ones in the book.
Water has been another summer science investigation. Turkey basters pushing the water through tubes to learn about force or tubes held up high to learn how gravity works are very popular right now. Color experiments, tornadoes and fountains in a bottle, oceans in a bottle, and bubble blowing give children lots of ways to consider the physics of water.
Cooking is another wonderful way we explore how the state of something can be changed, be it juicing lemons and making lemonade or creating popsicles from our juice.In a experiential school, children learn by exploring and doing, asking questions, and learning more from the resources available. As teachers, it is a most exciting way to be with children, supporting and facilitating them as science discoveries become a natural part of daily life.Tweet
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Jul23
No CommentsWater Play, Rainbows, & Curriculum
Posted in: Curriculum, Monthly Classroom Themes, Projects, science
How we take children’s interests and build our curriculum around them.
The warm weather has come and water play is in full swing. From the hose in the 8 tons of sand sandbox to the colored bottles on the science table, water is providing our children with hours of great fun and many valuable lessons. Our preschool curriculum often develops around what is relevant and interesting to children; two things that are especially interesting right now are water and rainbows and their colors.
Below, you can get a glimpse of how we follow through with children’s ideas ; hopefully it will offer you some insight into how we integrate children’s interests into our curriculum over the areas of:
- science,
- art,
- literacy,
- fine motor activities,
- sensory activities.
Rainbow interest began, in part, when we read Hawaii is a Rainbow by Stephanie Feeney, a beautiful book about Hawaii and its fabulous colors. Here are some of the exciting things that happened after that.
The children made bottles of water to have all of the colors of the rainbow. We put them in the window with pictures of real rainbows.
- We got out the eyedroppers ( good small motor activity) to create rainbows and color designs on paper towels.
- That led to experimenting with the eyedroppers on different paper, including waxed paper, to see what happened.
- We layered tissue paper to create colors and see how colors changed.
- Out came the computer so we could look at many different pictures of rainbows and talked about how they are made. We looked for the their pattern of color with a question in mind, “Do they always go red, orange, yellow, green, blue violet.” Yes! I showed the children the picture I took last Thanksgiving of a double rainbow that had a double thickness of the colors. Amazing!
- We read a poem about rainbows.
My heart leaps when I behold
A rainbow in the sky
William Wordsworth
On the “pretend you are at the beach day”, one of the children discovered that if you wear sunglasses with red lenses, the color of things around you change color. Everyone had to try that out.- So we added the new colored paddles with red, yellow, and blue color gels for exploring how the things in the classroom look and if they change color.
- Outside, we set out watercolor, tempura paint, and spray bottles filled with water and colored paint for art exploration.
- Colored water was set out for experimenting and mixing; could new
colors be created. - The water table was filled with colored water, tubes, and funnels. It was great fun to watch as the color water passed through the tubes and then mixed with the other color.
- We talked about the physics of force and pressure as the water was pushed by the turkey basters through the tubes and funneled into bottles.
- We used big water bottles with special connectors to create both fountain and tornado effects. Over and over the bottles were turned upside down to see the water create the vortex or send a fountain up the tube.
- A third bottle was made mixing mineral oil, water, and food coloring; they gave it a good shake and watched the oil and water combine, then separate.
- Someone asked what it would be like to mix food coloring with sand or salt, so we tried it out to see what happens. The colors weren’t as clear as expected; the white salt did better than the beige sand.
- Using glue bottles and paper, the children made designs and sprinkled on the new colored sand and salt.
- One day, the inside tables were filled with children making flubber in a rainbow of colors. They stretched and pulled them into different shapes.
Our water and color exploration will continue along side other curriculum ideas. Gravity looks like the next area of interest as the children were trying out a rain gutter in the big sandbox and tilting it to see what happens. Ramps for the cars and trucks will likely be very popular. Sinking and floating are also likely to be of interest when we introduce them. We will make a chart of what sinks and what floats just the way we did when we figured about what was attracted to magnets and what wasn’t.
And so it goes in preschool as one idea leads to the next. There is always something interesting to explore and to write and read about and to create in art.
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Jun19
No CommentsDramatic Play- Life in Action
Posted in: Child Development, Curriculum, Weekly Happenings in the School
Our school has a large area set aside for a house area, dramatic play, and dress up. It is in use every day in many different ways. Dramatic play is central to children’s healthy development and learning during the preschool years. In the house and dramatic play rea, children are able to set aside reality for a time and pretend to be someone or something different from themselves. They make up situations and actions that go along with the various roles they choose.When our children engage in dramatic play, they deepen their understanding of the world and develop skills that will serve them throughout their lives. They recreate life experiences and try to cope with their life circumstances, fears, desires, and interests by acting out roles and situations. As they play though their feeling, ideas, and worries, they begin to develop a feeling of empowerment rather than a feeling of being at the mercy of the world around them.
This was the case one day recently. One of our children arrived at the preschool and went right over to the suitcase. (We had learned earlier that her family was beginning to pack up for a move across town.)
As she started to pick out the clothes she would put in the suitcase for a move, two of her friends joined her. Over the next half hour, there was lots of discussion-What would need to go and what would need to stay. Would they need to take food? What should the babies travel in? Step by step, the food, dishes, and baby things were packed up and added to the luggage.The car was packed, the trip across town began, and all of the belongings were carried to the new home ( the reading and drawing area ).
Once they arrived, the unpacking began. One friend put the food and dishes on shelves and while another prepared a meal . The babies were fed and cared for.As the child played through this move, she began to feel a sense of control over her new situation and began to talk about how she was looking forward to having a room of her own. In the next few days, the girls played moving several times, each time adding something new to the play and making more peace with the experience.
Dramatic play has been helpful to our children this year in coping with illness of family members and doctor’s check ups, with the deaths of relatives and pets, and with the disruption of divorce. We will continue to add the props necessary to keep it relevant to our children’s lives so that they may problem solve aspects of their daily life through play.Tweet
