This week the preschoolers went to the infant and toddler rooms to read to them. The preschoolers have been very interested in the mystery readers that have been coming to preschool, and they wanted to be mystery readers for the infant and toddler children. We also have many preschoolers who will soon be a big brother or big sister! The preschoolers picked out a book from the classroom and took it over to share with the other children. We also had time when we were there to sing and play musical instruments! We had a lot of fun visiting the two classrooms!

–Brittany Niswander
GH-Stadium Head Preschool Teacher

To sign up to attend the April workshop series at Dhu Varren, as well as to sign up for child care, please use this Sign Up Genius link.

If you have any questions please email Beth.

Today, Rachel’s brother Steve came to visit Young Fives and Cottage Preschool. He brought with him a recipe for Ginger-Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, his Craftsman toolbox (with cooking tools), and some unique ingredients!

First he demonstrated how to make the chocolate on the stove, then he and the Young Fives and Cottage Preschool students measured and mixed the dry and wet ingredients for the cupcakes and portioned them out into muffin tins.

While the cupcakes baked, the students measured and mixed the ingredients for the frosting! After they finished with that, Chef Steve demonstrated his knife skills by cutting oranges, strawberries, and bananas (which we put on the top of the cupcakes!) faster than the kids thought they could!

During his cutting demonstration the children wondered who was older, Rachel or Steve? They guessed that Steve was older because he is taller, but were surprised to find out that Rachel was the big sister!

At the end of the knife demonstration, Chef Steve had a surprise for the students: he was going to caramelize the bananas! He sprinkled them with sugar and then carefully used his torch to burn the sugar!

We had a very exciting morning baking and then a fun afternoon decorating our cupcakes and, better yet, eating them!

–Rachel Holden

The series will run twice, at Oak Valley (OV) in March on Thursdays and at Dhu Varren (DV) in April on Tuesdays, 6:00-7:30 PM. See session topics below for specific dates.

TOPICS

Session 1: The Power of Empathy–Helping Children Deal with Feelings (OV: March 7, DV: April 9)
Session 2: Encouraging Cooperation–It’s easier than you think! (OV: March 14, DV: April 16)
Session 3: Alternatives to Punishment and Problem Solving (OV: March 21, DV: April 23)
Session 4: Encouraging Autonomy–Or how to capitalize on, “I do it myself!” (OV: March 28, DV April 30)

The group will be led by Beth MeLampy, Director of Curriculum for Gretchen’s House. The workshops/discussion groups will include homework, practical suggestions, on-the-spot problem solving, refrigerator reminders and lots of laughs!

Each evening will have a different focus, but will still be free-ranging based on the needs and interests of the group. The goal is to help you solidify your parenting philosophy and to add a few more skills to your bag of parenting tricks. We encourage families to attend all four workshops, as each one builds on the skills learned previously, but we’d still love to see you if you can’t make them all. Each workshop is designed to stand alone as well as to work with previous sessions. Each session after the first one will allow for time to discuss the previous week’s topic and how things are going, as well as to give families that attended last year a chance to come back and get follow up support. Light snacks will be provided for the adults.

CHILD CARE

Child Care will be available for Preschool Age and older children (babies in arms are welcome as well!). Pizza and a movie will be provided for the children. Gretchen’s House is dedicated to continuing these workshops, but is asking for voluntary $4.00 per child donations this year to help defray some of the cost. A donation box will be available in the childcare rooms on the night of the session. Be sure to include how many children you would like to attend the child care as well as the age of the children attending in the comments section when you rsvp to the Sign Up Genius links provided below.

SIGN-UP
To sign up to attend the March workshop series at Oak Valley, as well as to sign up for child care, please use this Sign-Up Genius link.

To sign up to attend the April workshop series at Dhu Varren, as well as to sign up for child care, please use this Sign Up Genius link.

If you have any questions please email Beth!

Hope to see you there!

–Beth MeLampy

Director of Curriculum
Gretchen’s House Child Care Centers

Hello Preschool Families!

Today we did something “really cool”… painting with our feet! The red group friends were really curious about what we were going to do when I gave them the directions to “Take off your shoes and socks and roll up your pants and your sleeves.” When I explained that we would be painting with our feet, the shouts of joy were loud!

We got right to work. Many of the preschoolers decided to paint with one foot at a time while others decided to use both feet at the same time. We found out that paint is quite slippery and that it can be cold at first. We walked all over the big sheet of paper on the floor and it wasn’t long until the entire paper was covered.

The next big step was to wash our feet. Each person got their own wet towel and went to work. It was hard to get all the paint off of our feet because the paint had gotten between our toes as well. Everyone now has multicolored feet (including Ms. Rosie)!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures while we were painting but please enjoy looking at the finished product. Our artwork is also hanging in the hallway for everyone to see and admire.

~Rosie

Babies have been a big interest in the preschool. Many of the preschoolers like to play with the baby dolls in the classroom and show interest in the babies when we’re on the playground together. Since many of the preschoolers have younger siblings or have a new sibling on the way, we thought it would be interesting and fun for them if we visited the Infant Room. The preschoolers chose some of their favorite stories to read to the infants. They sat with the babies and told them the stories based on what they saw happening in the pictures. Our classroom had a lot of fun visiting with the babies!

–Brittany Niswander

Hello Families,

We are busy and do big jobs in our classroom! You may have seen some of the activities at home that we are doing in the room. If you get the milk jug out of the fridge and your toddler is persistent and very excited to help with that job, it is because toddlers help the teachers at school get the milk and help carry it to and from the room.

We started saving our empty jugs and the toddlers help fill them to make them heavy. One jug we filled all the way to the top with crayons. Using our big muscles to push, pull and carry these jugs is keeping us very busy. We extended this play by tying string to boxes. After loading up the box with various things our toddlers are pulling them around the room.

Our bear blocks are another favorite for pushing and pulling. I have a lot of helpers when rearranging them into a new structure. Last week you may have noticed our ball pit that we created with the bear blocks. After a few days of jumping in and throwing the balls at the wall to watch fall back into the pit, the toddlers helped me clean up the ball pit. This was a big job and the toddlers chose to keep going until every ball was gone. The tall can that the balls go into had the toddlers thinking about how they could get those balls inside. Reaching from their tip toes worked, climbing onto the nearby bear block helped and tossing them up was also a success.

We have a busy room that likes busy work and it is so interesting to watch the toddlers be captivated by activities that we create from their interests.

–Stacey

–Admin

The toddlers have been practicing their balancing skills both inside and outside. Whether it is a teacher-made, child-made, or permanent structure, they are moving their bodies along objects or over them. Children can be seen holding hands to assist one another or tipping over on purpose and laughing together. While balancing on flat surfaces, the toddlers decide how to move their feet to continue on their way…side step, one in front of the other, etc… Balancing as they move up and down ramps requires that children control their speed if they want to stay on…not too fast and not too slow.

–Tiffany Badger

Friday August 10, 4-7 p.m. 2340 Oak Valley Drive.