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
- Food and Cooking
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Oct1
No Comments
Sugar is a topic that inevitably comes up when parents are trying to make good health decisions about their children and it did last week in a parent coffee. Ind our discussion, I shared how we treat this issue.As a preschool, we are very mindful of the nutrition we provide our children. We serve organic fruits and vegetables and buy good quality food. In order to make an informed decision about what we serve and when, we have researched how the body responds to the food it takes in and what the implications are for our children’s health and well-being.
Here is what our research has shown. All food has to be broken down in the digestive system into a form that can be absorbed into the blood stream and utilized by the body. The different nutrients of sugar, carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins and minerals, are not all digested or absorbed into the blood stream at the same rate. A variety of those foods eaten at one sitting will provide hours of different nutritional benefit.
- Refined sugar such as cupcakes and dried fruit is broken down almost immediately and provides quick energy to the body. The quick energy can be a lift for children in the very short term and even help them to cope better. But when sugar is eaten without other foods or in big quantities, there comes a crash in energy and good spirits as the sugar quickly leaves the blood stream.
- Carbohydrates take longer to break down and the more complex the carbohydrate, the longer it takes and the more sustained energy it will provide. Carbohydrates consist largely of fruits and vegetables, bread, rice, beans, and pasta.
- Protein take the longest time to break down and is absorbed into the body as amino acids which are very sustaining.
Our daily snacks are created to provide two forms of carbohydrates and a protein. As a vegetarian school, we offer a fruit or vegetable carbohydrate, a complex carbohydrate such as whole wheat crackers, and a protein such as strong cheese or hummus. Our goal is to provide food that offers near-term, mid-range, and long-term nutritional benefit to our children.
Occasionally, we offer a small birthday treat or some ice cream that we make together that does contain refined sugar. Small is the key word. However, we are careful to offset the sugar effect that would occur if we only gave the children the cupcake on its own; we serve it after a full snack. With the other foods providing a steady stream of nutritional benefit and maintaining a healthy blood sugar level, the children are fine.
My mother was one of the parents who often said, “all things in moderation.” I agree with my mom but would add that in the case of sugar, “ in moderation and combination with healthy, sustaining food.” Then our kids can truly have their cake and eat it too.
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Sep23
No CommentsDear Parents,
We have strived to have organic produce at the preschool since the beginning. That effort just got a big boast. We are now getting a weekly delivery of farm-fresh and ripe organic fruits and a few veggies from a company in Eagle Rock named Auntie Em’s. Monday afternoon feels like Christmas as I open up the insulated containers to find beautiful food. In the last two weeks, we have received a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes, grapes, peaches, plums, nectarines, cucumbers, squash, watermelons, etc. The children have really enjoyed them.
We made an omelet this week in the Yellow Room using the little yellow tomatoes and basil from our garden. Everyone! ate the omelets. We used three eggs per omelet and added the tomatoes they halved and small torn pieces of basil.We also made delicious yogurt pops. We mixed plain yogurt with some small mixed berry yogurts and then added blueberries that I had cooked briefly in a little water. They were a big hit with the afternoon group on a warm day.
Cooking is a wonderful project that integrates math skills with measuring and counting , the chemistry and physics of science, gardening, tasting, and enjoyment. We will be doing lots more of it during the year in both rooms.
Have a great weekend.Tweet
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May6
No CommentsMay Newsletter
Posted in: Food and Cooking, Newsletter, Projects, The Garden
Dear Parents,
It was great to be back with all of the kids and their stories of bunnies, trips to San Diego, New York and the Bay Area as well as visiting relatives.We started fresh with making new playdough and mixing pastel spring colors for painting.
We also did a lot of harvesting both before the break and today. We have been so fortunate and our radishes, carrots, beets, lettuce, potatoes, blueberries, and peas did extremely well. Today’s harvest was the last of the carrots, the potatoes and the beets. The website will have lots of photos and the story of our garden and harvest after tonight. Next week, we will begin planting out tomato plants and get ready for the summer garden..Parent Coffees
Thursday, May 5th at 9 am in the office.Friday, May 20th at 9 am in the office
Stone Soup We are going to use the carrots and potatoes in a special soup that we are going to make on Monday and Tuesday of next week. We will be reading the book Called Stone Soup, an old folk story about three men who come into a village searching for food. At first the villagers hide all of their harvested vegetables, but once the men set up a pot over a fire and heat the water, they surprise the villagers. They say that they can make soup out of just stones. As they stir the stones, they comment that the soup will be good as it is but it would be much better if they only had a few carrots. One of the villagers runs off to bring a few from her home. And so it goes until the soup is filled with fragrant vegetables and the men are helping the villagers set the tables for a wonderful feast. that they all share.We will be making stone soup with our carrots and potatoes but we ask you to help your child bring ONE vegetable that is good for a soup. We love the wonderful mix that comes. On Monday and Tuesday, we will chop the vegetable, put it in the pot and cook the soup. We invite all noon pickup parents to come a few minutes early to join with us in a brief soup feast. Parents who pick up at 4 may also stay for a feast.Parent volunteers for cutting help on Monday and Tuesday needed- sign up sheet on the table. Thank you! Read More | Comments -
Mar27
1 CommentSnack and Cooking
Posted in: Food and Cooking, Weekly Snack Menu
COOKING WITH OUR CHILDRENChildren love to eat what they make. The children are going to be cooking twice this week. We will gather around the round table and take turns adding the ingredients step by step. Even the pickiest eaters enjoy mixing and stirring.
This week, we will make whole wheat waffles with fruit and bread pudding with a bit of raspberry jam. I suspect they will be big hits.
Snack Menu
March 28th- April 1st
Monday Morning
Apple slices, cheddar cheese, sandwich thins
Monday Afternoon
Pears, wheat thins, string cheese
Tuesday Morning
Sugar Snaps peas, cream cheese and crackers
Tuesday Afternoon
Apple slices, child made Waffles with butter and syrup Read More | CommentsTweet
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Feb28
No CommentsScience is an every day thing
Posted in: Food and Cooking, science, The Garden
Magnets, Cooking, Gardening, Color Mixing, Bugs and Magnifying Glasses. The last few weeks have been busy. Science spans a big range of activities at the preschool. As a play based and experiential program, we encourage children to first explore materials in an open-ended way. Trial and error, hypothesis and experiment. Observation and conclusions
Science exploration is filled with questions. “How many magnets can I put on this?” “What makes it fall down?”Then discoveries- “It’s too heavy!”
“What happens when I add the yellow to the green?
” What makes it swirl?”“Can I make it do it again?”
Our garden is growing really well and the children have harvested the first radishes. The peas are climbing up the trellises; the carrots are filling in the holes left by the radishes; the beets are growing big leaves; the Nappa cabbage is just starting up. We are hopeful that this year we will again have cabbage white caterpillars come to our plants. Then we will take up the plant and grow it and the caterpillars in the butterfly habitat.
Now we are creating an herb garden, planting different basils, marjoram, and chives. We will put them along the front sidewalk. It will add a lovely touch to the walk between the parking lot and the school door. We hope the neighbors will enjoy the addition as well.
Cooking is a the happiest of science projects. Whether it is learning that mixing ingredients can change the taste of everything or that making smoothies with frozen bananas shows how food can go from solid to liquid. it always a science project and fun to eat.
For children, the world around them has so much exciting going on; it is so fun to be a part of their explorations and discoveries.Tweet
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Dec23
No CommentsHolidays/ Learning About Traditions
Posted in: Family events, Food and Cooking, Holidays, Monthly Classroom Themes
The December holidays are upon us. Within our diverse community, there are a number of different traditions, religions, and cultural celebrations that are part of our families’ lives. We encourage families to come and share their holiday experiences with us. As teachers, our goal throughout the holiday season is for our children to learn more about their own families celebrations and traditions and to respect and appreciate the traditions and celebrations of others.
For Chanukah, a child’s mom and dad brought in all of the ingredients and helped the children to make potato latkes. They proved to be very popular at snack; applesauce on top of the latkes was the favorite but some of the children joined me and tried the sour cream.
They also took turns pretending to light the Menorah, carefully holding the shamus as though it was really lit and counting the nights.
The children who celebrate Chanukah told us about their own evening celebrations with their families. We put dreidels on the table; they were great fun even though they were hard to get spinning. Singing the Dreidel Song helped. It became one of the best known songs by the time we reached the winter sing.
One of our families comes from Sweden and on the 13th of December, the Swedes celebrate St. Lucia Day as a national holiday. At school, our Swedish mom brought special lussekatt (Lucia buns) and pepparkaka (gingerbread). She helped the children make the traditional crowns Staffan hats.
We also celebrated the Christmas holiday. We read great Christmas stories; my favorite is the Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. Parents helped us to decorate Christmas cookies and make baker’s dough ornaments.Throughout the last two weeks, we sang songs about Chanukah, Christmas, and Winter. By the time we reached the Winter sing, we were really good at Jingle Bells (with accompanying bells) and Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel. Deck the Halls was fun because when the Falalalalala part came, the children really sang with flair. The children requested Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman even though they didn’t know many of the words.
The culminating moment came when the parents and children came at 7 pm to the back of the classroom where the room was lit only with twinkle lights. They were greeted with appetizers and then we all sat together and sang. My favorite moment was when the children realized they were singing their songs and that they were being sung by everyone; they had become a part of a larger shared experience with their families and teachers. We culminated in laughter and singing as I tried to keep up with the singers while I turned the pages of the Twelve Days of Christmas.We finished with desserts made by the families. Hopefully everyone went home with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.
We wish everyone a very happy holiday season and joy with your own family.Tweet
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Nov20
No CommentsThanksgiving at CCP
Posted in: Family events, Food and Cooking, Upcoming Events, Weekly Happenings in the School
Thanksgiving at CCP is about celebrating with family, feasting, and giving thanks. We will use the family picture pages of every child that are on walls of the preschool to come to know about the grandmas, grandpas, aunts, and uncles with whom they will be celebrating the holidays. Over the next few days, parents and other family will join us in preparation of stuffing, carrots, yams, and pumpkin ice cream.On Wednesday, we will gather together to share the feast at long decorated tables. We will also read a wonderful book, Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes, illustrated by Doris Barrette. It gently goes through a Thanksgiving day with a family, noticing all of the simple but important things to be thankful for. As a group, we will recall some of the things that matter most to us. This is one of my favorite times of year. Tweet
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Nov14
No CommentsA Parent Involvement Preschool
Posted in: Family events, Food and Cooking, From the Director, literacy, Monthly Classroom Themes
I just left the Preschool Forum put on by the Silverlake MOMS club. It was a great gathering of preschools that serve the Silverlake, Los Feliz, and Atwater communities. The schools represented the range from true coop schools to schools where parents are minimally involved. It made me think. How would I characterize the active participation of parents in the life of our preschool?
The best way to describe our preschool is that we are a Parent Involvement School. Our parents come from diverse backgrounds and includes a number of working parents. We welcome the diversity that comes when our families represent a wide range of socio-economic, racial, ethnic, cultural, professional, and religious backgrounds. There is also considerable variability in the time that our parents have available to contribute their talents and efforts to the school.
We welcome family involvement in a variety of ways that meet the needs of our diverse population. Parents are encouraged to volunteer, be it regularly reading to children, bringing in a wonderful snack, sharing a skill or talent, or helping us with the parent/child special days we have each month.In addition, there are many other ways to be part of the school. Twice a month we have parent coffees at 9 am. where parents come together to discuss parenting concerns, challenges, and successes and to support each other with ideas and empathy.
We have regular parent potlucks in the early evening where parents share a collaboratively prepared meal and then, over dessert, discuss a topic of common interest. At our next gathering we will focus on limit setting, a very popular topic right now.
Every 4 to 5 weeks, we have special parent/child gatherings during the preschool morning. They range from the Teddy Bear Picnic to Green Day. Our recent Teddy bear Picnic brought to a close two weeks when the children brought their teddy bears, listened to bears stories, danced with them, sorted them by size and color, and created a bear story to add to the picture of them with their bear, just to name a few of the activities.
The picnic was typical of CCP parent/child gatherings. Parent volunteers helped the children make sandwiches and wash fruit for the picnic held at 11:20 am. A picnic area was readied in our other room with blankets, the food and a few surprise bears. As the remainder of the parents arrived, we all sat together for a reading of the Teddy Bear Picnic.Then it was time to march to the picnic, bears in arms. As the children settled in and the parents helped serve the food, I read the stories the children had written about the bears. This was the first time some of the children had heard their words shared with a group; they were thrilled with the laughter and happy responses. This was one of many literacy experiences where children connect their words and the words of other’s stories to the written word. Literacy should always be relevant.
The picnic ended with everyone around the parachute, tossing the bears up into the sky, watching them come down, and sending them back up again.
Parent/ child gatherings are shared events that relate to the curriculum in the school or the festivities of different cultures. We do not have child performances, rather, we invite everyone to partiicpate.We vary the time they are held, sometimes first thing in the morning, sometimes before lunch to allow for maximum particpation. They are always a wonderful chance for parents, teachers, and children to join to together and share a great experience.
In this mix of options, our parents have succeeded in forging bonds with their children’s experiences at preschool as well as in feeling part of close and supportive parent community. Everyone benefits when families have strong relationships with their children’s school.Tweet
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Oct27
No CommentsCurriculum,Teddy Bears & Learning
Posted in: Family events, Food and Cooking, Monthly Classroom Themes
The last two weeks have been filled with the fun of Teddy Bears brought from the children’s homes and lots of activities with them. There have been bear stories and story writing, bear food tasting, dancing with bears, bear hunts, sorting bears; it all ended this week in a parent/child teddy bear picnic.Our school is a developmental, play based program where children have blocks of time for free play of their choosing. As teachers, we develop curriculum that we feel children will enjoy and learn from as well as create curriculum that responds to their interests. Teddy Bears was our idea; it is a lovely and comforting way to start the new school year with many new children. Read More | CommentsTweet
