COOL CULTURE: A How to Guide…
There is so much to choose from with your Cool Culture passes. Here are some suggestions to make your visits successful with your young child.
1. Pick a museum or institution that is very child friendly for your first few visits. Although MOMA or the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers wonderful experiences for a child, they may require a bit more restraint than a young child has. Choose a museum were touching and hands on experiences are encouraged like the Hall of Science or Children’s Museum of the Arts.
2. Pick a site that may have a theme or exhibit related to a special interest of your child. But also visit places to spark an interest - but be aware that this may or may not be as successful.
3. Go at a time when your child is rested. There are so many sights, sounds and things to do – a child needs their energy to engage and participate comfortably.
4. Don’t plan long visits! The beauty of the Cool Culture card is free admission – gone are the constraints of “getting your money’s worth” out of the visit. Depending on your child and the institution itself – that may only be 45 minutes.
5. Bring a snack or lunch and take a break. I noted that the NYC Transit Museum had tables where families could stop grab a bite (brought from home) and return to the exhibits for more. You can do this especially at the outdoor programs like Wave Hill or the Botanical Gardens. Often special picnicking areas are available.
6. If you have visited the site before make up a scavenger hunt or eye spy game to help children focus attention. (You will even be able to include these in our binder so that other families can use your ideas for their children!)
7. Bring a sketch pad for older preschool children – they may want to draw what they see.
8. If for some reason the visit was unsuccessful – please don’t give up – try another site or return on another day.
9. You should be receiving E-Family Times – a newsletter to keep you updated about events, by email if you provided an email on your application. If you do not, visit www.coolculture.org to sign up. The Cool Culture website has wonderful information – browse a bit.
10. Visit each program’s web site for information before you go. Get a sense of the place, travel information, special exhibits, etc. Please note Cool Culture is for free general admission. Although some special exhibits or activities may be free, others may have additional charges. You may want to call ahead to find out.
If you have visited a site, please fill out one of our Cool Culture Forms and put it in the guidebook we are compiling in the Big Room. Or if someone has been there before you, sign in on the page – so families can contact each other about their experiences. Blank forms are in the Cool Culture Guidebook in the Big Room.
Also, please bring back a brochure from your visit and place it in the guidebook. Feel free to post photo of you and your child at the site on our Cool Culture bulletin board!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
COFFEE IN THE KITCHEN
JANUARY & FEBRUARY COFFEE IN THE KITCHEN
On Fridays we are selling coffee, tea, hot chocolate and baked goods in the kitchen.
Jan 8, 22, Feb 5, 26 8:00am-9:30am
Jan 15, 29, Feb 12 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Please be sure to stop in and support our newest fundraiser. Also, feel free to sign up to donate
nut free/peanut free baked goods . Sign up sheets are in the big room.
Coffee/tea/hot chocolate $1.00
Baked goods $1.00
In a hurry? Bring your travel mug and take your coffee to go!
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
Little Hands 3 - Finger painting and Muffins!
The winter months have been fantastic!!!! The children have grown and explored within the classroom as well as outside. We took walks through the community, played in the snow, and made snow angels. Thanks to my husband who works for the Department of Sanitation, the children were able to see up close and personal how a garbage truck "eats the garbage". Some were very quick to notice that it has two steering wheels as they sat inside to take a picture.
With the snow upon us, the children created a winter wonderland mural in our classroom, as well as played with "snow" (kosher salt) in our water table. During our walk to play in the snow the first day some waddled their way out, struggling to stay on their feet. We had so much fun and much laughter.
The children are enjoying much more the "messier" art activities. Finger painting is by far their most exciting activity of the day. Often times the children will use their fingers at the easel rather than the paint brush. The texture between their tiny fingers is stimulating and fascinating to them they can't wait to get their hands dirty.
Of course, we can't forget to mention snack time, the most enjoyable part of the day! By far we could never seem to make enough banana muffins. Yummy! Following is the recipe to make Banana muffins at home. Enjoy.
Banana Muffins
3 Cups of Flour
1 Cup brown sugar
2-4 Ripe Bananas
1 tsp of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 sticks of butter
Mix all together and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.
We would also like to welcome some new classmates: Amanda Vasquez, Valentina Perez-Merio, and Gabriel Martinez. We all welcome you to our Little Hands III class!
Luz, Jean, and Lynn
The winter months have been fantastic!!!! The children have grown and explored within the classroom as well as outside. We took walks through the community, played in the snow, and made snow angels. Thanks to my husband who works for the Department of Sanitation, the children were able to see up close and personal how a garbage truck "eats the garbage". Some were very quick to notice that it has two steering wheels as they sat inside to take a picture.
With the snow upon us, the children created a winter wonderland mural in our classroom, as well as played with "snow" (kosher salt) in our water table. During our walk to play in the snow the first day some waddled their way out, struggling to stay on their feet. We had so much fun and much laughter.
The children are enjoying much more the "messier" art activities. Finger painting is by far their most exciting activity of the day. Often times the children will use their fingers at the easel rather than the paint brush. The texture between their tiny fingers is stimulating and fascinating to them they can't wait to get their hands dirty.
Of course, we can't forget to mention snack time, the most enjoyable part of the day! By far we could never seem to make enough banana muffins. Yummy! Following is the recipe to make Banana muffins at home. Enjoy.
Banana Muffins
3 Cups of Flour
1 Cup brown sugar
2-4 Ripe Bananas
1 tsp of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 sticks of butter
Mix all together and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.
We would also like to welcome some new classmates: Amanda Vasquez, Valentina Perez-Merio, and Gabriel Martinez. We all welcome you to our Little Hands III class!
Luz, Jean, and Lynn
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
Little Hands 2 - Books, Snacks, and Sand!
The Little Hands 2 class began as a small group of 4 children and has recently grown to a bustling group of 10. In December we welcomed Zoe and Dylan and now in January, Gabriel, Ava, Mary and Paz have joined the class. With our growing numbers we also welcome another teacher, Meg O’Connor to our group.
Back in October, our original group of students began their first school experience. It may only be for a short time each week, but the children became accustomed to saying goodbye to their loved ones for the short time and to stretch out into a community that is beyond their family and is “theirs” alone.
They have learned routines, have refined their self help skills and have established the beginnings of classroom community. Through the activities provided, they are developing language, expressing themselves both verbally and through the arts. They are learning to hear another person’s opinion, to take some risks and try new things, to move beyond their egocentric selves and join in their first small way, society.
For our newer families, let me tell you about the routine of our mornings. For the first hour in school, we have “work time”. The children are free to move about and select the activities they wish to work at, be it the easel, an art activity, puzzles, blocks building, writing/drawing, home life area, texture table or play dough. Their interests guide them and children begin to see that their decisions have value. For this group of children dramatic play with “dress-up” is very popular, as are collage type art activities. Following “work time” we have an organized clean-up where all children participate in the clean-up and care of their classroom which is a community building activity. Children feel a sense of care and responsibility for their classroom and the materials it contains.
Following “clean-up” we wash hands and have snack. The children sit down together comfortably and have a bite to eat and a bit of conversation, before moving on to circle where we sing our sock song and a few other favorites before our daily story.
Two favorite story time books have been:
Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin
A Hat for Minerva Louise
Following story, the children get dressed for outdoors and we head out to the Tire Park for some very important big muscle building through climbing, running and jumping. This group is also very fond of using the sand toys in the park.
We do go out in the snow, so please be sure your child has snow gear (snow pants, boots, mittens and a hat) if there is snow on the ground.
As the year continues we may move into some thematic units of “study”. Last year my Little Hands class did a study of rooms in a home. We studied the bedroom, bathroom and laundry room, changing our dramatic play area into these rooms and enjoying some stories, music and art related to these rooms. It was great fun and we will probably test the children’s interests with this. If it sparks interest we will give it a go!
Looking forward to more fun times to come!
Lisa, Jean, and Meg
The Little Hands 2 class began as a small group of 4 children and has recently grown to a bustling group of 10. In December we welcomed Zoe and Dylan and now in January, Gabriel, Ava, Mary and Paz have joined the class. With our growing numbers we also welcome another teacher, Meg O’Connor to our group.
Back in October, our original group of students began their first school experience. It may only be for a short time each week, but the children became accustomed to saying goodbye to their loved ones for the short time and to stretch out into a community that is beyond their family and is “theirs” alone.
They have learned routines, have refined their self help skills and have established the beginnings of classroom community. Through the activities provided, they are developing language, expressing themselves both verbally and through the arts. They are learning to hear another person’s opinion, to take some risks and try new things, to move beyond their egocentric selves and join in their first small way, society.
For our newer families, let me tell you about the routine of our mornings. For the first hour in school, we have “work time”. The children are free to move about and select the activities they wish to work at, be it the easel, an art activity, puzzles, blocks building, writing/drawing, home life area, texture table or play dough. Their interests guide them and children begin to see that their decisions have value. For this group of children dramatic play with “dress-up” is very popular, as are collage type art activities. Following “work time” we have an organized clean-up where all children participate in the clean-up and care of their classroom which is a community building activity. Children feel a sense of care and responsibility for their classroom and the materials it contains.
Following “clean-up” we wash hands and have snack. The children sit down together comfortably and have a bite to eat and a bit of conversation, before moving on to circle where we sing our sock song and a few other favorites before our daily story.
Two favorite story time books have been:
Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin
A Hat for Minerva Louise
Following story, the children get dressed for outdoors and we head out to the Tire Park for some very important big muscle building through climbing, running and jumping. This group is also very fond of using the sand toys in the park.
We do go out in the snow, so please be sure your child has snow gear (snow pants, boots, mittens and a hat) if there is snow on the ground.
As the year continues we may move into some thematic units of “study”. Last year my Little Hands class did a study of rooms in a home. We studied the bedroom, bathroom and laundry room, changing our dramatic play area into these rooms and enjoying some stories, music and art related to these rooms. It was great fun and we will probably test the children’s interests with this. If it sparks interest we will give it a go!
Looking forward to more fun times to come!
Lisa, Jean, and Meg
BARNES & NOBLE FUNDRAISER
Money, Money, Money!
Did you know that the Amalgamated Nursery School raised more than $800 at the Barnes and Noble book fair?
That’s right, more than $800!
During the weekend of November 20th – 22nd, Amalgamated Nursery School held a book fair at the Barnes and Noble on Central Avenue in Yonkers, New York. During those three days, any time a customer mentioned the name of our school during their check out, Barnes and Noble donated a portion of their profit to our school! Even people who purchased items at other Barnes and Noble stores or over the telephone simply had to mention the name of our school to participate in our fundraiser.
We thank all of you who made purchases during this weekend, those of you who asked others to mention our school at the check out, and those of you who were able to participate in the read-aloud and art activities on that Saturday.
We have already signed up to hold another such fundraiser at the same time and place next fall!
We hope to see you there!
Did you know that the Amalgamated Nursery School raised more than $800 at the Barnes and Noble book fair?
That’s right, more than $800!
During the weekend of November 20th – 22nd, Amalgamated Nursery School held a book fair at the Barnes and Noble on Central Avenue in Yonkers, New York. During those three days, any time a customer mentioned the name of our school during their check out, Barnes and Noble donated a portion of their profit to our school! Even people who purchased items at other Barnes and Noble stores or over the telephone simply had to mention the name of our school to participate in our fundraiser.
We thank all of you who made purchases during this weekend, those of you who asked others to mention our school at the check out, and those of you who were able to participate in the read-aloud and art activities on that Saturday.
We have already signed up to hold another such fundraiser at the same time and place next fall!
We hope to see you there!
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
3's PM - Shapes and Stories!
In the afternoon our focus has been shapes. We got really good at identifying shapes all around us. We started this unit by making our chef’s hat to be used in housekeeping and every time we cook. We made sugar cookies and used basic shapes to cut them out. They made pretend cookies with play dough as well as at the art table. Children collaged, stamped, and painted different shapes. Mouse Shapes became one of their favorite books. We made boats using rectangular soap and a triangle for the sail and acted out the story Who Sank the Boat? These were some of the books we read: City Shapes, Shape Capers, Mr. Cookie Baker, and Round Like a Ball among others.
We are in the process of putting together our own shape book which will be circulating soon. During the frigid temperatures we read A Snowy Day and brought some snow into the classroom and made a chart with our predictions. Some children thought that it would be a good idea to place the snow ball in the refrigerator to keep it from melting. Others suggested placing it in water while some thought we should place it in the freezer. We also kept track of the changes we noticed among the snowballs.
In January we are in the process of culminating our shape unit and start a new one on bears. Children will learn where they live, what they like to eat and about hibernation. We are very excited about this unit because there are plenty of books to read and activities to do including cooking bear snacks, singing and eventually sharing a teddy bear from home.
We hope many of you come and visit as parent of the day and see how your child spend the day with their friends at school.
Maria, Jan, and Yasmin
In the afternoon our focus has been shapes. We got really good at identifying shapes all around us. We started this unit by making our chef’s hat to be used in housekeeping and every time we cook. We made sugar cookies and used basic shapes to cut them out. They made pretend cookies with play dough as well as at the art table. Children collaged, stamped, and painted different shapes. Mouse Shapes became one of their favorite books. We made boats using rectangular soap and a triangle for the sail and acted out the story Who Sank the Boat? These were some of the books we read: City Shapes, Shape Capers, Mr. Cookie Baker, and Round Like a Ball among others.
We are in the process of putting together our own shape book which will be circulating soon. During the frigid temperatures we read A Snowy Day and brought some snow into the classroom and made a chart with our predictions. Some children thought that it would be a good idea to place the snow ball in the refrigerator to keep it from melting. Others suggested placing it in water while some thought we should place it in the freezer. We also kept track of the changes we noticed among the snowballs.
In January we are in the process of culminating our shape unit and start a new one on bears. Children will learn where they live, what they like to eat and about hibernation. We are very excited about this unit because there are plenty of books to read and activities to do including cooking bear snacks, singing and eventually sharing a teddy bear from home.
We hope many of you come and visit as parent of the day and see how your child spend the day with their friends at school.
Maria, Jan, and Yasmin
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
Room 2 - 3's AM - Many Celebrations!
Happy New Year and Happy Winter! Welcome back to a new year in Room Two. The children enjoyed the fall season. We watched as the leaves turned beautiful shades of red, yellow, and gold and then fell from the trees. Our class tree followed the same pattern. Apples were replaced by beautiful leaves the children painted with water color which have since fallen and sent home.
During the fall we learned about pumpkins, life on a farm, and celebrated Thanksgiving. We also learned how other people celebrate the holiday season. We learned about Hanukkah, the First Day of Winter, Christmas, and Kwanza. The children especially enjoyed singing the songs related to these holidays.
We started our preparations for Thanksgiving by reading books about families. We learned that families come in many different shapes, colors, and sizes. Each child glued their family pictures to make a collage and they are on display in our classroom. We looked at pictures of real turkeys, sang turkey songs and had our own Thanksgiving feast. Our menu consisted of pumpkin corn bread, corn on the cob, and cranberry orange relish. At the art table each child made his/her own turkey.
The true meaning of Thanksgiving was demonstrated when we brought the cans of food you donated to the collection center in Vladeck Hall. Also in November we welcomed our new friend Darius into our class.The farm unit was enjoyed by everyone. Children had the opportunity to see and try to milk a cow (squeezing a disposable glove field with milk) as we learned where milk comes from. During our holiday vacation when planning for months ahead we felt that it would be better to continue this unit during spring when we could visit the farm animals at Stew Leonard’s and hatch our own chicks. The children acted out the story Mrs. Wishy Washy. It was a great opportunity to put into practice waiting for a turn to be the main character or one of the animals in the story. Everyone enjoyed it saying the lines and washing the animals. They enjoyed the books: Farmer Will, Big Red Barn, When the Rooster Crowed, The Grumpy Morning, My Barn, and many more.
The holiday season was a very exciting time for all of us. We sang songs for Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas and visited Minia’s class for our annual holiday celebration. Our contribution for the party was thumb print cookies. The children were very proud of the holiday gifts they made for their families. We hope you will enjoy it for years to come. We gave the potatoes latkes a twist by making them with Yucca root instead, they were crispy and delicious.
In January have been exploring the winter season. Included are the environmental changes that take place, freezing, melting, and how animals adapt. Hibernation and migration are being discussed. A book that got us started was When It Starts to Snow. We will be reenacting the story The Mitten by Alvin Tresstle and the Tree Snow Bears by Jan Brett. We also talked about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.January will end with a unit about our senses where our children will have an opportunity to explore food with different tastes, make art with different texture and become more aware of the many sounds that surround us every day. Celebrating Chinese New Year is a fun activity in housekeeping. This year it falls on February 14th. We will have a busy start during this month since Valentine’s Day is loved by everyone. Just a reminder, there is no candy allowed - only cards. We will get a unit on transportation starting in the beginning of February.
The children have formed friendships and are getting along very well. They are starting to use language to express their feelings with one another. They enjoy coming to the writing table and the art table. Some are starting to write their names and almost everyone can recognize them as well. The weather chart is a very popular activity during circle time. A few children participate daily to check the weather, tell the class what the weather is like and count how many sunny, rainy, cloudy, windy, or snowy days we have had so far in the month.
Everyone is enjoying school-time dance with Mary. It has been changed to Wednesdays, so please try to send your child with comfortable clothing on that day. Also, there has been a change in our cooking day. We are cooking on Thursdays in the morning and Tuesdays in the afternoon.
The parent of the day program will start soon, please try to find a day (or even an hour) to spend with us in our classroom. The children enjoy having their parents visiting the classroom. There will be a schedule for you to sign in and a note will be sent home letting you know when it is going to start. We miss having Vicki in our classroom. The children really enjoyed her presence. Thank you, Vicky, for volunteering your time. We look forward to having you back in our classroom soon.
We would like to welcome our new friend who joined our afternoon class in January. His name is Gabriel and his sister, Sofia, attends Minia’s pre-k class.
We hope you had a good holiday season and wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
Maria, Alma, Jean, Nicole, and Jan
Happy New Year and Happy Winter! Welcome back to a new year in Room Two. The children enjoyed the fall season. We watched as the leaves turned beautiful shades of red, yellow, and gold and then fell from the trees. Our class tree followed the same pattern. Apples were replaced by beautiful leaves the children painted with water color which have since fallen and sent home.
During the fall we learned about pumpkins, life on a farm, and celebrated Thanksgiving. We also learned how other people celebrate the holiday season. We learned about Hanukkah, the First Day of Winter, Christmas, and Kwanza. The children especially enjoyed singing the songs related to these holidays.
We started our preparations for Thanksgiving by reading books about families. We learned that families come in many different shapes, colors, and sizes. Each child glued their family pictures to make a collage and they are on display in our classroom. We looked at pictures of real turkeys, sang turkey songs and had our own Thanksgiving feast. Our menu consisted of pumpkin corn bread, corn on the cob, and cranberry orange relish. At the art table each child made his/her own turkey.
The true meaning of Thanksgiving was demonstrated when we brought the cans of food you donated to the collection center in Vladeck Hall. Also in November we welcomed our new friend Darius into our class.The farm unit was enjoyed by everyone. Children had the opportunity to see and try to milk a cow (squeezing a disposable glove field with milk) as we learned where milk comes from. During our holiday vacation when planning for months ahead we felt that it would be better to continue this unit during spring when we could visit the farm animals at Stew Leonard’s and hatch our own chicks. The children acted out the story Mrs. Wishy Washy. It was a great opportunity to put into practice waiting for a turn to be the main character or one of the animals in the story. Everyone enjoyed it saying the lines and washing the animals. They enjoyed the books: Farmer Will, Big Red Barn, When the Rooster Crowed, The Grumpy Morning, My Barn, and many more.
The holiday season was a very exciting time for all of us. We sang songs for Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas and visited Minia’s class for our annual holiday celebration. Our contribution for the party was thumb print cookies. The children were very proud of the holiday gifts they made for their families. We hope you will enjoy it for years to come. We gave the potatoes latkes a twist by making them with Yucca root instead, they were crispy and delicious.
In January have been exploring the winter season. Included are the environmental changes that take place, freezing, melting, and how animals adapt. Hibernation and migration are being discussed. A book that got us started was When It Starts to Snow. We will be reenacting the story The Mitten by Alvin Tresstle and the Tree Snow Bears by Jan Brett. We also talked about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.January will end with a unit about our senses where our children will have an opportunity to explore food with different tastes, make art with different texture and become more aware of the many sounds that surround us every day. Celebrating Chinese New Year is a fun activity in housekeeping. This year it falls on February 14th. We will have a busy start during this month since Valentine’s Day is loved by everyone. Just a reminder, there is no candy allowed - only cards. We will get a unit on transportation starting in the beginning of February.
The children have formed friendships and are getting along very well. They are starting to use language to express their feelings with one another. They enjoy coming to the writing table and the art table. Some are starting to write their names and almost everyone can recognize them as well. The weather chart is a very popular activity during circle time. A few children participate daily to check the weather, tell the class what the weather is like and count how many sunny, rainy, cloudy, windy, or snowy days we have had so far in the month.
Everyone is enjoying school-time dance with Mary. It has been changed to Wednesdays, so please try to send your child with comfortable clothing on that day. Also, there has been a change in our cooking day. We are cooking on Thursdays in the morning and Tuesdays in the afternoon.
The parent of the day program will start soon, please try to find a day (or even an hour) to spend with us in our classroom. The children enjoy having their parents visiting the classroom. There will be a schedule for you to sign in and a note will be sent home letting you know when it is going to start. We miss having Vicki in our classroom. The children really enjoyed her presence. Thank you, Vicky, for volunteering your time. We look forward to having you back in our classroom soon.
We would like to welcome our new friend who joined our afternoon class in January. His name is Gabriel and his sister, Sofia, attends Minia’s pre-k class.
We hope you had a good holiday season and wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
Maria, Alma, Jean, Nicole, and Jan
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
UPK PM - Future Paleontologists!
Winter finds us really in the thick of our classroom routine. The school year is going so fast, mostly because we’re so busy. We have plenty to do in school from cooking to dance to art projects and everything in between. Having so many choices means that the day flies by, and before you know it, it’s clean-up time. Next thing you know we’ll be heading into spring!
The fall and winter holidays have taught us about the joy of giving and sharing. At Thanksgiving we shared a special feast, full of goodies that we made ourselves. We studied the various holidays and made gifts for our families. We also talked about the importance of kindness and caring, both at the holidays and every day.
Our classroom affords us opportunities to share in many different ways. For example, we share food and stories at snack time, and we work together throughout the day on the various projects and activities that we do in school. It’s fun to be together, and we have all become very good friends.
We had a great time playing in the snow before it all melted away. We had some great snowball fights (all snowballs thrown at each other’s backs, and never above the waist). The teachers even got involved! We dug holes in the snow and went zipping down the slide at top speed. Maybe as winter continues we’ll have more opportunities like that. We hope so. To that end, please remember to dress your children for the weather. We like to go outside as much as possible, especially in the snow! Boots and snow pants are essential for snowy days!
We have turned into paleontologists for the next few weeks while we study dinosaurs! We’re having a great time in the classroom digging up dinosaur bones and creating our own fossils and dinosaur eggs. In the next few weeks we will be examining different species of dinosaurs more in depth. We’ll learn how big they were, what they ate, and how they protected themselves. We may even BECOME dinosaurs! But we promise that when we come home, we will not eat you. With this study in mind – please take advantage of your Cool Culture Cards and visit the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur exhibit. I went to visit it on Teacher Education Day!
In the spring, we will be studying the environment in depth. Our class will be examining how best to take care of Mother Earth in celebration of Earth Day. After all, she takes such good care of us, we must return the favor. Since we are such a creative bunch, we will find ways to reuse some of the things that would ordinarily be thrown away. Wait until you see what we come up with!
When you walk into our classroom it is very gratifying to see that everyone is busily interacting with one another. There are many things going on at the same time, and we move easily from one activity to the next. We have a lot of free choice in our classroom, along with many opportunities to explore and use our creativity. In all activities, socialization and communication is encouraged, and it’s great to see a group of strangers become a class of good friends. All of these interactions will lay the groundwork for future relationships. We have such a “warm and fuzzy” class.
Stay tuned for springtime fun!
Andrea, Alma, & Nicole
Winter finds us really in the thick of our classroom routine. The school year is going so fast, mostly because we’re so busy. We have plenty to do in school from cooking to dance to art projects and everything in between. Having so many choices means that the day flies by, and before you know it, it’s clean-up time. Next thing you know we’ll be heading into spring!
The fall and winter holidays have taught us about the joy of giving and sharing. At Thanksgiving we shared a special feast, full of goodies that we made ourselves. We studied the various holidays and made gifts for our families. We also talked about the importance of kindness and caring, both at the holidays and every day.
Our classroom affords us opportunities to share in many different ways. For example, we share food and stories at snack time, and we work together throughout the day on the various projects and activities that we do in school. It’s fun to be together, and we have all become very good friends.
We had a great time playing in the snow before it all melted away. We had some great snowball fights (all snowballs thrown at each other’s backs, and never above the waist). The teachers even got involved! We dug holes in the snow and went zipping down the slide at top speed. Maybe as winter continues we’ll have more opportunities like that. We hope so. To that end, please remember to dress your children for the weather. We like to go outside as much as possible, especially in the snow! Boots and snow pants are essential for snowy days!
We have turned into paleontologists for the next few weeks while we study dinosaurs! We’re having a great time in the classroom digging up dinosaur bones and creating our own fossils and dinosaur eggs. In the next few weeks we will be examining different species of dinosaurs more in depth. We’ll learn how big they were, what they ate, and how they protected themselves. We may even BECOME dinosaurs! But we promise that when we come home, we will not eat you. With this study in mind – please take advantage of your Cool Culture Cards and visit the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur exhibit. I went to visit it on Teacher Education Day!
In the spring, we will be studying the environment in depth. Our class will be examining how best to take care of Mother Earth in celebration of Earth Day. After all, she takes such good care of us, we must return the favor. Since we are such a creative bunch, we will find ways to reuse some of the things that would ordinarily be thrown away. Wait until you see what we come up with!
When you walk into our classroom it is very gratifying to see that everyone is busily interacting with one another. There are many things going on at the same time, and we move easily from one activity to the next. We have a lot of free choice in our classroom, along with many opportunities to explore and use our creativity. In all activities, socialization and communication is encouraged, and it’s great to see a group of strangers become a class of good friends. All of these interactions will lay the groundwork for future relationships. We have such a “warm and fuzzy” class.
Stay tuned for springtime fun!
Andrea, Alma, & Nicole
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
UPK Full Day - Cooking, Cooking, Cooking!
The UPK kids have been very busy this winter. We’ve been working on several themes. We started out with a trip to the pizza store. Not only did this offer a snack that all the children loved, it gave us an opportunity to put our trip on paper, and each of the children were able to draw their experience for our pizza book. These are the children’s first experiences with the symbolic representation of their ideas on paper...a precursor to writing and reading.
We made paper pizza in art, and we made real pizza from scratch. We’ve used the housekeeping area to open a pretend pizza shop and extend the development of language as well as developing social skills as they interact and take turns being customers and servers. All this while they’re having fun playing and making friends.
Making pizza dough led to yeast experiments and now we’ll be baking a lot of bread for our cooking activities in the ensuing months. Our house keeping area will also take turns being a bake shop. Be ready for our bakers to open a bake shop in a few months so that you can taste some of our wares.
Our loft was turned into a pond and we’re talking about snakes and turtles. Crictor has made an appearance and the children are all looking forward to his visit. Crictor is a way of using great children’s literature to spark imagination, grow language and bring stories to life. Having the children dictate a journal entry and draw a picture is another way for children to learn that they can put their ideas on paper for other people to see. Even the children, who were somewhat reluctant to come to the art table, were especially enthusiastic about making their snake and couldn’t wait for their turn. It’s another way themes help inspire skills. We will use themes where it helps us, but will also feel free to step off the path for other interesting learning and playing opportunities. Soon, we’ll be taking a look at fish.
Sandra, Aiden’s mom and a professional chef, came to our class and made vegetable soup. That’s why we asked all the children to send in a vegetable. The children enthusiastically helped with all the dicing and chopping and many of them loved the soup. We now have a class book circulating about this experience. We acted out Stone Soup and The Gigantic Turnip. We tried to sing AikenDrum using only vegetables.
On another note, teacher professional day gave me the opportunity to check out my cool culture card, and I went to visit the Brooklyn Children’s museum - only about 30 minutes away by car. I thought that it was a fabulous opportunity for our children to have a fun filled learning experience. In addition to a separate play area for little children, the entire museum had exhibits that were accessible to children and covered a range of multicultural, and science and social study experiences. Of course my favorites were the pond life area and the pizza shop, but there was much more too! There have some “classes” for kids to participate in, but you need to check the schedule to find out about what’s being offered.
I urge you all to take advantage of your cool culture cards! Museums offer opportunity for children to widen their experience, and grow their language. They increase children’s knowledge of the world as they increase their vocabulary. The children’s museums are great, but even the more adult oriented museums offer a wide and wonderful range of experience for children although you may have to shorten your time periods at those museums to match your child’s attention span. Then please add a picture to our cool culture bulletin board so that families can know to talk to you about the experience.
Stay warm!
Minia, Lucy, Kirsty, Jan, Jean, and Yasmin
The UPK kids have been very busy this winter. We’ve been working on several themes. We started out with a trip to the pizza store. Not only did this offer a snack that all the children loved, it gave us an opportunity to put our trip on paper, and each of the children were able to draw their experience for our pizza book. These are the children’s first experiences with the symbolic representation of their ideas on paper...a precursor to writing and reading.
We made paper pizza in art, and we made real pizza from scratch. We’ve used the housekeeping area to open a pretend pizza shop and extend the development of language as well as developing social skills as they interact and take turns being customers and servers. All this while they’re having fun playing and making friends.
Making pizza dough led to yeast experiments and now we’ll be baking a lot of bread for our cooking activities in the ensuing months. Our house keeping area will also take turns being a bake shop. Be ready for our bakers to open a bake shop in a few months so that you can taste some of our wares.
Our loft was turned into a pond and we’re talking about snakes and turtles. Crictor has made an appearance and the children are all looking forward to his visit. Crictor is a way of using great children’s literature to spark imagination, grow language and bring stories to life. Having the children dictate a journal entry and draw a picture is another way for children to learn that they can put their ideas on paper for other people to see. Even the children, who were somewhat reluctant to come to the art table, were especially enthusiastic about making their snake and couldn’t wait for their turn. It’s another way themes help inspire skills. We will use themes where it helps us, but will also feel free to step off the path for other interesting learning and playing opportunities. Soon, we’ll be taking a look at fish.
Sandra, Aiden’s mom and a professional chef, came to our class and made vegetable soup. That’s why we asked all the children to send in a vegetable. The children enthusiastically helped with all the dicing and chopping and many of them loved the soup. We now have a class book circulating about this experience. We acted out Stone Soup and The Gigantic Turnip. We tried to sing AikenDrum using only vegetables.
On another note, teacher professional day gave me the opportunity to check out my cool culture card, and I went to visit the Brooklyn Children’s museum - only about 30 minutes away by car. I thought that it was a fabulous opportunity for our children to have a fun filled learning experience. In addition to a separate play area for little children, the entire museum had exhibits that were accessible to children and covered a range of multicultural, and science and social study experiences. Of course my favorites were the pond life area and the pizza shop, but there was much more too! There have some “classes” for kids to participate in, but you need to check the schedule to find out about what’s being offered.
I urge you all to take advantage of your cool culture cards! Museums offer opportunity for children to widen their experience, and grow their language. They increase children’s knowledge of the world as they increase their vocabulary. The children’s museums are great, but even the more adult oriented museums offer a wide and wonderful range of experience for children although you may have to shorten your time periods at those museums to match your child’s attention span. Then please add a picture to our cool culture bulletin board so that families can know to talk to you about the experience.
Stay warm!
Minia, Lucy, Kirsty, Jan, Jean, and Yasmin
NURSERY RHYMES NEWSLETTER - FEB 2010
Director's Corner - Lisa Wenz
Here we are midpoint into another school year. Since our last newsletter we have welcomed several new families into our program and another teacher, Meg O’Connor who will be working in Little Hands 2 due to our growing enrollment. Meg is pretty familiar with our school and philosophies as she worked as a student teacher with us last year. The staff and I are so pleased to have her join us.
We’d also like to welcome Sophia Skye, a baby daughter to Elaine and Juan. Elaine will be returning to the afternoon three’s class on March 1. I’d like to thank Maria for providing such a seamless sense of continuity and as always wonderful activitiesand curriculum for the class while Elaine was on maternity leave.
This school year we were fortunate to be offered an opportunity to join Cool Culture. As most of you know, Cool Culture is a Non-Profit organization whose mission is to aid families of young children of all economic backgrounds to gain access to cultural institutions throughout NYC. They believe “Family visits to museums, botanical gardens, wildlife centers, and other cultural institutions provide young children with the kind of early learning experiences, such as language and literacy building, that are fundamental to school success. These visits also offer parents or guardians and their children the opportunity toexplore and learn together. Parent-child and guardian-child interactions that take place during cultural experiences foster young children's verbal literacy, vocabulary development, and critical thinking”.
Most of our families now have their Cool Culture Passes and can take advantage of many museums, nature centers and zoos in NYC and the boroughs for free. With this in mind, our teachers have spent their Teacher Education Day – and perhaps a few weekend visits at some of these institutions to support their curriculum and to help inform you about some of the wonderful exhibits available to you. Some of our teachers have included information in their newsletter articles, but a complete “synopsis” will be available in a guidebook we will keep on the shelf in the Big Room for families to use as a resource. We also hope that families will add to this guide by adding information about their visits to Cool Culture sites into the book.
My visit on Teacher Education Day was to the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn. What a wonderful place for young children and families to explore the history, types, construction, science and artistic dimensions of the NYC mass transit system. The New York Transit Museum is housed in a 1936 decommissioned, but still operational, subway station. It is extremely child friendly with much to touch and try out, both for our preschool children as well as elementary school age siblings.
Turnstiles dating back to the early 1900’s are available to move through, cabs of MTA busses are available to “drive”, and actual ticket booths are there to pretend in. Down one level are many subway cars some dating back to the early 1900’s actually sitting on track in the decommissioned station for children and families to wander through and explore, without the concern of movement, doors closing or the hustle and bustle of the normal subway ride.
For adults there is the history of the building of the subways, bridges and tunnels alongside child friendly displays allowing you and your child to come away with new knowledge or experiences, an interactive exhibit on how the new clean energy engines work and history on the artistic aspects of the subway stations tile designs. On the afternoon my husband and I visited, there was an mosaic tile art activity available for children, which was open ended and appropriate for all ages.program and cards will arrive in about two months.
If you do not have a card and have not filled out your application, talk to me immediately! The deadline is February 12th!
I’d like to thank all the families who came out on Parent Child Sunday to spend time with your child in school. It was great to see so many families giving the children the chance to show you their classrooms. Please also try to come in as “Parent of The Day” in our three year old and UPK classes. It can be a fun, enlightening experience for parents (or grandparents) to spend time with your child in the program. Do not feel you need to come with an activity, or that you need to stay all day. Visit, meet your child’s classmates, get a sense of the curriculum, and enjoy! For Little Hands families, having parents in the room sometimes begins separation issues for your child or another who is missing their families – so although it may be fine for some children we do not have “Parent of the Day” for this age group.
Finally, we are fundraising a bit more than usual this year. Although fundraising is always an integral part of our operating budget, this year, we are working to raise funds for new playground equipment for the Tire Park. This is a bigger expense than usual. We realize in these economic times, it is difficult to ask families for large donations on top of tuition, so we are trying to keep fundraising as pocket friendly as possible and create events that are “worth” it. So the Board, with a great deal of help from Sandra Nachtmann, has begun Coffee/Tea Fridays.
Each Friday, alternating mornings (8:00 – 9:30) and afternoons (3:00 – 4:30), coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and baked goods or more will be available for sale. All are available to go if you are on the run. So bypass your morning or afternoon coffee stop and grab your cup to go at the Nursery. The sign-up sheet for donating peanut/nut free baked goods is in the Big Room. We have been talking of including dinner type items at the afternoon events – such as containers of soup or perhaps a quiche, again – things “to go”. If this sounds like something you would like – let us know. Thanks to those who have been helping out with this or supporting this effort.
Looking forward to the rest of the school year!
Happy 2010!
Here we are midpoint into another school year. Since our last newsletter we have welcomed several new families into our program and another teacher, Meg O’Connor who will be working in Little Hands 2 due to our growing enrollment. Meg is pretty familiar with our school and philosophies as she worked as a student teacher with us last year. The staff and I are so pleased to have her join us.
We’d also like to welcome Sophia Skye, a baby daughter to Elaine and Juan. Elaine will be returning to the afternoon three’s class on March 1. I’d like to thank Maria for providing such a seamless sense of continuity and as always wonderful activitiesand curriculum for the class while Elaine was on maternity leave.
This school year we were fortunate to be offered an opportunity to join Cool Culture. As most of you know, Cool Culture is a Non-Profit organization whose mission is to aid families of young children of all economic backgrounds to gain access to cultural institutions throughout NYC. They believe “Family visits to museums, botanical gardens, wildlife centers, and other cultural institutions provide young children with the kind of early learning experiences, such as language and literacy building, that are fundamental to school success. These visits also offer parents or guardians and their children the opportunity toexplore and learn together. Parent-child and guardian-child interactions that take place during cultural experiences foster young children's verbal literacy, vocabulary development, and critical thinking”.
Most of our families now have their Cool Culture Passes and can take advantage of many museums, nature centers and zoos in NYC and the boroughs for free. With this in mind, our teachers have spent their Teacher Education Day – and perhaps a few weekend visits at some of these institutions to support their curriculum and to help inform you about some of the wonderful exhibits available to you. Some of our teachers have included information in their newsletter articles, but a complete “synopsis” will be available in a guidebook we will keep on the shelf in the Big Room for families to use as a resource. We also hope that families will add to this guide by adding information about their visits to Cool Culture sites into the book.
My visit on Teacher Education Day was to the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn. What a wonderful place for young children and families to explore the history, types, construction, science and artistic dimensions of the NYC mass transit system. The New York Transit Museum is housed in a 1936 decommissioned, but still operational, subway station. It is extremely child friendly with much to touch and try out, both for our preschool children as well as elementary school age siblings.
Turnstiles dating back to the early 1900’s are available to move through, cabs of MTA busses are available to “drive”, and actual ticket booths are there to pretend in. Down one level are many subway cars some dating back to the early 1900’s actually sitting on track in the decommissioned station for children and families to wander through and explore, without the concern of movement, doors closing or the hustle and bustle of the normal subway ride.
For adults there is the history of the building of the subways, bridges and tunnels alongside child friendly displays allowing you and your child to come away with new knowledge or experiences, an interactive exhibit on how the new clean energy engines work and history on the artistic aspects of the subway stations tile designs. On the afternoon my husband and I visited, there was an mosaic tile art activity available for children, which was open ended and appropriate for all ages.program and cards will arrive in about two months.
If you do not have a card and have not filled out your application, talk to me immediately! The deadline is February 12th!
I’d like to thank all the families who came out on Parent Child Sunday to spend time with your child in school. It was great to see so many families giving the children the chance to show you their classrooms. Please also try to come in as “Parent of The Day” in our three year old and UPK classes. It can be a fun, enlightening experience for parents (or grandparents) to spend time with your child in the program. Do not feel you need to come with an activity, or that you need to stay all day. Visit, meet your child’s classmates, get a sense of the curriculum, and enjoy! For Little Hands families, having parents in the room sometimes begins separation issues for your child or another who is missing their families – so although it may be fine for some children we do not have “Parent of the Day” for this age group.
Finally, we are fundraising a bit more than usual this year. Although fundraising is always an integral part of our operating budget, this year, we are working to raise funds for new playground equipment for the Tire Park. This is a bigger expense than usual. We realize in these economic times, it is difficult to ask families for large donations on top of tuition, so we are trying to keep fundraising as pocket friendly as possible and create events that are “worth” it. So the Board, with a great deal of help from Sandra Nachtmann, has begun Coffee/Tea Fridays.
Each Friday, alternating mornings (8:00 – 9:30) and afternoons (3:00 – 4:30), coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and baked goods or more will be available for sale. All are available to go if you are on the run. So bypass your morning or afternoon coffee stop and grab your cup to go at the Nursery. The sign-up sheet for donating peanut/nut free baked goods is in the Big Room. We have been talking of including dinner type items at the afternoon events – such as containers of soup or perhaps a quiche, again – things “to go”. If this sounds like something you would like – let us know. Thanks to those who have been helping out with this or supporting this effort.
Looking forward to the rest of the school year!
Happy 2010!
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