The Learningden Preschool

March, 2010

Learningden Art Show

The children are busy preparing projects for our Art Show to take place in April. The theme for all of the art projects this year is Make Our World Greener! All of the material used in the projects are recycled and donated by parents at the school and the community. We are hoping to display the work in a public place and we will have a reception Friday at the event. You will have the chance to donate money for the work but all of the work will go home after the show. The children will be working on individual as well as collaborative pieces which will be displayed with documentation and photos of the children. It is a really exciting way of showing parents and the community what can be done with material that otherwise is thrown away.

Gardening and Green Care program update

Our Gardening and Green Care program is in full swing! We have hired a gardening teacher Ms. Liana and she will be in charge of all aspects of creating a magical and purposeful garden with the children. She will be here 2.5 hours a week and her sole responsibility will be to create and document what the childen are doing in the garden. She will also have a space in the newsletter every month as well as on the blog to talk about what is being done in the outdoor classroom. We warmly welcome Liana to The Learningden family!

The green care program is also going really well and we have promoted Ms.Cassidy to Green Care Manager. She will be making sure that we are doing the very best for the children at the school as well as helping to communicate aspects of the program to the families.

Parent Workshop

This month's parent workshop will focus on helping parents to choose cleaners and toys that are the safest possible for their children. Every classroom will have a display of a different theme which will add to the safety of your home. Some of the displays include hand soaps, nutrition, cleaning products, toys, lead and radon testing information and much more. We are hoping to have a representative from the green care for children program to be on hand to answer questions and explain how all of these things can make such a difference in your home. We will have lead kits available free of charge. We hope that you will be able to make it to this fun interactive informative night. Child care and Pizza will be provided for children. Please let us know in advance if your child will be there. Please ask Karin or Erika if you want additional information.

Documentation Walls

Look forward in the coming month to the hallways being transformed into a documentation gallery. We are working very hard at communicating to the families what the children do. The documentation walls will serve as a place for families as well as the children to see what is happening and what the children are working on.

This aspect of the program will allow the children to be able to go back and revisit their work because when it is taken off the wall it will then go into a collection of books about the children's work and projects. We have always done documentation but this will be a constant running journal of the children's day to day experiences, and by displaying it in the hallway we will have a more collaborative dialogue with the parents.

We hope that you will enjoy this and it will be easier to talk with the children at home about what they are doing in the classroom.

We have a parent volunteer who will be helping with changing out the documentation as well as creating beautiful displays to show the children's work. Please make sure that you stop and look at these walls when they are done.

One of the walls will be set aside for our outdoor classroom information. The first set of documentation for this will be about the Children’s bug city which has really been a month long outdoor creation which has taken many different forms and the children continue to want to revisit and expand on their ideas and knowledge. It has been a great experience and the children showed an extraordinary amount of teamwork and attention to details for their age.

Blue Dolphins

February was an exciting month for the Blue Dolphins. We spotlighted a child per day and ended the theme with spotlighting the teachers in the classroom. The children came up with the idea that the unit was not complete without knowing something about the teachers.

This month we will be working in our earth day preparations by doing more recycled art projects both collaboratively as well as individual projects, in preparation for our art show taking place in April. This year marks the 40th anniversary of earth day so we will continue to build upon the projects that were started in February with the donated items from families and the community.

We will also be exploring with the children what they would like to do next with the meeting that we have during group time at the beginning of the month as well as from the documentation that we gather from the children's conversations during the month.

Parents please continue to bring in donated items as you have them. The Blue dolphins are really looking forward to making robots with the tin cans but as of right now we have not received enough to do the project in the classroom. Last Friday the children made Lanterns. Though the month the children have mad paper flowers out of magazines, as well as sandals made from cereal boxes. We have lots of fun activities planned and look forward to sharing them in April, during our art show.

Purple Sharks

The purple sharks this month will be working on art projects for our earth day art show as well as focusing more on conservation and making the world a better place for all of us. We will be teaching the children more about recycling, using natural materials, sustainability, and cleaning up our environments to stay healthy.

The classroom has already begun construction of a forest for them to camp and we will continue building on that this month.

As a part of this month we are also trying to plan a field trip to the watershed.

Rainbow Fish

This month in the Rainbow Fish room they will continue to look after the seedlings in the garden that we planted. The Rainbow Fish are great at watering and checking to see if anything new has sprouted.

The Rainbow Fish will also continue to create works of art using different mediums. We started to introduce canvas, paper, watercolor, collage and cardboard. The children used Pastels, paint, water color, magazine scraps and glue to create their work. The Rainbow fish have also been using scissors to cut and make their art work. So far we have had great luck in their abilities, and we will continue to let them use scissors in the classroom.

The Rainbow Fish have also really enjoyed their specialty classes. Dance and music really get them going and Shevon has been doing P.E with them which they also really love.

This month we will also focus on projects for the Art show in April.

Please check the art work to go home table to make sure you take home your child’s work.. The Rainbow fish are starting to transition to wanting to use the potty, so if your child is ready and you would like us to continue the process at school please bring extra underwear and clothes for your child. Also please let June know if your child is coming in underwear.

Green Turtles

The Green turtles are going to be busy this month getting to know their new friends, and exploring the butterfly tree in their group time area.

We are looking for a platform to put the dramatic play area on so that the children can climb and have different levels in the classroom. If you have something that would fit this need we will gladly take it from you. The children will be practicing using paint brushes this month, with glue and paint. Look forward to many pieces of art coming home.

Ms. Hilary, will be leaving in the middle of the month to finish school and will be back at the end of May for summer and beyond. Ms. Karin, Ms. Erika and Ms. Gabriella will be in that class to fill in so the children will not have to get adjusted to a new teacher for such a short period of time. We look forward to the chance to work with your children, in the classroom.

Wish List

Plants for the Garden
Tin Cans
Recycled Art Materials
Garden Tools - Kids
Organic Soil
Natural Materials for Projects - Sticks, Leaves, Rocks, etc.

Thanks to all Parents who contributed to our wish list last month! It is greatly appreciated.

Other News

• The Learningden Preschool is completely funded by your tuition and to make sure that the school is successful for years to come we ask that you pay tuition by the due date of every month. Because this is so important to the school we are going to start enforcing a $40.00 late payment fee for tuition received after the 5th. If you are having a hard time and need extra time we need to know before the 5th. We also accept credit card payments, as well as automatic payments for tuition, please ask Erika for more information. Non- payment may result in your family needing to find alternative care arrangements until past due is paid.

Past Newsletters:
October '09
November '09
December '09
January '10
February '10