Eggshells and Appliances Needed!!!

Ok, so here is a strange request! We need empty eggshells and lots of 'em!! So the call goes out there to all great cooks, and egg-lovers - now would be a great time to eat up, and cook up! Break an egg, ladies and gentlemen!! The school will use these egg shells to allow the children the opportunity to first color them, then to smash them, and then to play in them. We have only a few weeks before we'd like to use these shells, so we are counting on your help!

You can learn a great deal by giving children the opportunity to create through CONstruction, but did you know you can learn an equal amount by allowing the opportunity to DEconstruct! That's right, Take Apart is just around the corner!!
And what are these? Examples of some wonderful things to donate to our "take apart" project coming up soon. Have a phone around the house that doesn't work anymore, an alarm clock, a cd player, a cell phone, a VCR, a rice cooker?? Well, bring them on over, because these are great things (often with many wonderful SCREWS) to let the kids investigate by taking them apart!!

Heifer Project Update!

I recieved another wonderful update on our on-going quest to collect enough quarters to buy an animal for the Heifer Project. This report comes to me from Katie -- friend of Ethan (M-F Class) and Ellis (Children's School Alumnus, 2006). Katie reports that she suggested to Ethan that he might want to give a look around his house for a quarter or two to bring to school and put into our wonderful clear quarter collector tubes. Well, Ethan may not have been "lit on fire" with this particular suggestion, but his older sister, Ellis, who was with us last year as a Pre-K student, remembered this project, and took on the role of lead quarter finder. She took Ethan with her from room to room looking in the "coin collection" places of the Andrews household, including her own collection of coins in her room. Through their enthusiastic efforts, Ellis and Ethan successfully collected $4.00 in quarters to bring to school to put in our quarter tubes!
Hooray for Ethan and Ellis Andrews, and to their support, Katie!! Tune in next week for more news on the project's success!

RED AND PINK EVERYWHERE!!

Many preparations were undertaken to make our week of Valentine's Day parties something special. In the Pre-3 classes decorating hearts was the order of the day, and how amazingly wonderful and individual they all turned out to be!! This bulletin board of hearts was in the Pre-3 classroom, which also serves as the snack room for Mrs. Jaques' MWF class, so these decorations were WIDELY appreciated!!

In the picture below, you can see the special care taken by Mrs. Banks' M-F students to decorate their snack room with hand-decorated table runners, and cupids, and Valentine napkins!!

Ms. Tierney's Pre-K class displayed a little more sophistication with their stunning tissue paper water color hearts, seen here decorating their name tags. Such delicate, and careful work by our sophisticated Pre-K friends!!

And here is a gift from Mrs. McArthur -- the Children's School Cafe, set up and decorated just especially for the occasion!! The table decoration even had a (battery-operated) candle in its centerpiece! How chic!! Thank you Mrs. McArthur for adding this lovely detail to our day!


What occasion at the Children's School would be complete if it did not involve play dough at some level?? Well, in this case, our friend Tyler in Mrs. Banks' M-F class, made us a whole plate of playdough hearts, arranged here so wonderfully, I could not help but take a picture of them to share with all of our friendly readers!! Thank you Tyler!!


And finally the piece de la resistance of Valentine's Day -- Fishing for Valentines!! Although I cannot show you pictures of my friends who did the actual fishing, I can show you their lovely assistants. And it will have to suffice for me to report to you that magic really does exist and if you are not a believer, you needed only see the faces of our friends who patiently waited for their turn to throw in their "hook" and see what bounty (of Valentine Love) they may recieve for their efforts! Thanks to all the loving parents who worked with our friends to share expressions of love and kindsness through the gift of a Valentine. Your efforts were so very much recieved with joy, excitement and event the smallest hint of delighted surprise!

Can you see the very tip of the fishing pole peeking up over the top of the barrier? Ms. Tierney has successfully loaded the fisherman's bag with Valentine "fish." She tugs on the line to signal it's time to haul in the load.




Mrs. Jaques was busy with her students at the opposite end of the school, here busily trying to load the fishing pole before the anxious and excited fisherman on the other side yanks back his or her bite!!

Heifer Project Update

Well, the Heifer Project with our friends at The Children's School is off to a strong start. In Mrs. Banks M-F class, our very thoughtful friend, Annie decided to take advantage of the gathering of family members at their Sunday Superbowl Party! With all those adults hanging around with change jingling in their pockets, Annie decided that would be a splendid time to take up a quarter collection on behalf of children around the world. She drew a picture of a goat (just like Beatrice!) and boldly requested her family members give up their quarters for the cause!! You go Annie!!

Dinos! Dinos! and more Dinos!

Look what we're doing at The Children's School!! We are visiting with our friends, the dinosaurs! This means that we are playing dinosaur games, digging for dinosaur bones, reading dinosaur books, singing dinosaur songs and telling dinosaur stories.





This is a dinosaur game created by Mrs. McArthur, and is great fun to play. Our friends in Mrs. Banks' M-F Class take turns playing this game, and then create their own versions!!







Here are 2 examples. What creativity by these children!!

For the archiologists in our midst there is the cornmeal and bones!! What fun to do a little diggin' around!


We even paint with our dinosaur bones!! This is an example of "bone-hopping" -- using the bones as stamps to create some name tags for our friends in the MWF class.




Using this felt board and a little imagination, the Stars Group in the M-F Class (with a little help from Mrs. Coleman and Ms. Tierney) came up with the following story:



"A long, long, long time ago, before there were people, there were giants that roamed the earth. There were purple mountains and a volcano. One day, T-Rex was out looking for coconuts to eat, when he meets Baby Stegasaurus. Baby Stegasaurus was looking for his mommy. T-Rex wants to help. So they go off looking for Mommy. When they find Mommy, she says "I love you!" When she sees T-Rex, she says "Thank you for helping." Pteradactyl flys over and sees a party going on. She flys down and says "I wanna join the party!" They offer her some coconuts. Terry (Pteryadactyl) says, "No thank you. Got any fish??" Trini Triceratops comes to the party and bends the tree down to get more coconuts. Al Apotasaurus comes by. They ask him to put his tail down. Brontasaurus helps the friends get up on Al's neck so thy can slide down. "Wheeeeee!!" But then it starts to rain. The dinos don't like rain, so they all go home. "Bye!!" The End."

Stay Tuned, Everyone! Valentine's Day, songs about mail, pink and red, and lots of hearts are next!!