Green Day

Yesterday and today brought wee celebrations of green, gold, and all things Irish. We made our own homemade Irish Soda Breads at the top’o’ the morn! Both savory and sweet we did bake. Yum! All our friends were so very careful to wear green as to not get our gold treasure tickled out of us. Thank you lovely supportive parents who made our festivities possible! We may be persuaded to share our recipe, but do give us advanced notice due to the fact we have to trek to the end of our rainbow to find it (we hid it with our gold😉)….

Lucky Little Ones in the Younger Pod

Room 5 mixed it up with our cooking activity this week. We opted for a healthy recipe given to us by one of our wonderful families, with a celebratory twist. We made GREEN banana soft-serve “ice cream”! The ingredients were simple and healthy and our friends had a good time hopping up in Mrs. Erin’s arms to hold down the blender and watch the ingredients transform into a delicious treat!

The ingredients are simple and sweet: frozen bananas, hemp milk (to make it lactose and soy free), vanilla, and honey. We just added a few drops of green food color to make our treats fittingly festive!

Out on the patio the younger pod enjoyed St. Patrick’s themed activities like crafting shamrock crowns, free paint with tones of green, and of course- green goop in the sensory table! It was a wonderful way to spend the holiday together. We are some lucky folks!

In the Spirit of Spring!

Spring is a wonderful time in preschool. We can focus our lessons around the concept of new life and new beginnings as we watch the children in our beloved classrooms turn another year older and another year wiser! In Room 5 we have included touches of spring in every corner. Our sensory table has a St.Patrick’s Day-meets-Easter motif, we have papier-mached and hand-painted our own Easter eggs, and our brightly colored connector flowers have inspired some friends to show off their fine-motor, matching, and building skills during morning activities!

(click on the images in the mosaic for a closer look!)

While friends at the sensory table are practicing classification, size, ordering, cause and effect, and new vocabulary, their classmates at the egg painting table are learning beginning geometry, working on their motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and increasing their self-esteem through their artistic expression-of-self! Check back for many more snap-shots of our springtime fun in preschool. But, before we end this post- here is an encore of our waffle-creation-station because these little guys are just too sweet to fit into one post (the subjects and their treats)!

Our Waffle Creation Station!

Room 5 had a blast last week making nutritious and delicious choices at our morning waffle-creation-station! Students were given the choice to add as much or as little of the toppings on the table as they liked. We feasted on gluten-free waffles topped with cool-whip, blue berries, pineapple, candy-coated sunflower seeds, yogurt chips, bananas, and more! Each child took turns helping themselves to their desired toppings and then passed the bowl to the next friend at the table. Their use of shared space and shared materials was fantastic and they each made their own healthy choices for snack. Thanks to all the parents who chipped in and made this yummy activity possible!

Hearing Screenings March 15 & 16

We are offering free hearing screenings to our preschool students on March 15th and 16th. Hearing is critical to optimal speech development and we want to be sure none of our little ones slip through cracks due to undiagnosed hearing concerns. Click here for a fantastic article that outlines speech development and the expected speech milestones in early childhood.

While we hope all of our little ones will participate in the screening, we would especially encourage those who exhibit any of the following characteristics:

Mild or moderate speech delay
Often “ignores” or seems oblivious to verbal commands or external noises
Consistently asks to have things repeated
Has trouble following age-appropriate multi-step directions
Particularly sensitive to loud noises
Particularly sensitive to noises of high and/or low frequencies
Has difficulty with receptive language
Has trouble with comprehension (ie. Can’t retell or recall parts of an age-appropriate story)

Please be sure to fill out a permission form so your child can receive this free benefit.
Early detection and intervention is key to success during the preschool years.

All Aboard!!

We have been having a wonderful time in Room 3 studying transportation with an emphasis on trains. From reading books about trains, playing with Thomas and other train toys, to watching train clips on YouTube, we have been learning so much. As has become our tradition in Room 3, we added to our train knowledge and experiences by taking a ride on the Gold Line. It was a fantastic trip that included our local Sierra Madre Train Station, the beautiful Los Angeles Union Station, and culminated with a stop at Olivera Street, and the oldest house in LA. The kids were enthralled by the entire trip from the first ticket purchase to the last sound of the train’s warning bells on the station platform. We want to acknowledge and give a special thank you to all the parents who came along and made this trip possible, we couldn’t have done it without you.

To the Train!

At the beautiful Union Station Los Angeles.

Heading over to Olvera Street and the Avila Adobe.

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Lunch and heading back home.

It truly was a marvelous adventure and we can’t wait to see what we’ll do next!

Talking to Children About Anxiety

Many children face anxiety at some point or another. Let’s face it…we have ALL experienced some sort of anxiety from time to time. According to AnxietyBC, anxiety is actually a ‘good’ thing, as it helps us to prepare for danger, triggers our “flight-fight-freeze” response, and even stimulates a physical response in the form of increased energy to help us run away or fend off danger.

That said, children can often display heightened anxiety in situations that parents may perceive as ‘unwarranted’ (i.e. watching a “not scary” movie, loud noises, visiting new places, meeting new people, etc.).

Teaching children to recognize and understand anxiety is key to helping them work through and effectively manage their moments of worry.

Check out the following articles to help your child understand and recognize their own anxiety.

Talking to Your Child or Teen About Anxiety

9 Things Every Parent with an Anxious Child Should Try

If your child experiences unhealthy and/or overly persistent anxiety, be sure to see your pediatrician or family therapist. Persistent anxiety may be a sign that it is rooted in something deeper such as possible stress, side effects of medication, or nutritional reactions (i.e. consuming a triggering food such as gluten, artificial dyes, too much sugar, etc.).

March 2016 News & Calendar of Events

What a “Love-ly” February we had celebrating Valentine’s Day and God’s love for us! All of our classrooms enjoyed Valentine’s Parties, heart/love themed cooking experiences, creating heart-felt cards, and more! With spring and Easter just around the corner, March will be just as fun!

In the News:

RE-ENROLLMENT BEGINS MARCH 1! Please be on the lookout for your Online Re-Enrollment email from Betty St. Peter in the admissions department, which will be going out this week. Online re-enrollment is a breeze! Simply click on the link to your personalized enrollment package, update necessary information, and submit payment for the registration and facilities fees. Please be sure your enrollment package correlates to your DESIRED schedule of attendance. If it does not match, please inform us PRIOR to starting so we can fix the error.

New Applications for 2016-2017 – Did you know that your referrals are a primary source of new students? We are SO honored and we can’t thank you enough for the confidence and praise! Please spread the word that applications are now being accepted for next year. The younger pod is already on a waiting list, but there are just a few spaces left in Rooms 1, 2 and 3.

Summer Registration – Just a reminder that summer registration is under way. Reserve now, pay later… please submit by April 8^th to guarantee your spot and to have tuition billed to your statement.

Kinder Camp Registration – Please note that Kinder Camp requires a 1/3 deposit with your registration forms. The remaining 2/3 can be billed in 2 increments.

Drop offs – Want to make your drop-offs quicker, easier and less stressful? Did you know the parking lot is nearly EMPTY at 7:53am, but FULL by 8:02? Backing up your drop off by just a few minutes will allow you to get in and out quickly…AND you will still have time to swing through a Starbucks before your next destination! 😉

Mom’s Club Preschool Fair – PCS had the honor of hosting the Mom’s Club Preschool Fair on our campus on Saturday, February 6^th. Over 45 preschools and other vendors came to market their schools while preschool-seeking families enjoyed a one-stop-preschool-shop! Thanks to all who contributed to the fair by donating water and baked goods!

Calendar:

Saturday, March 5 – Jog-a-thon

Tuesday (15) & Wednesday (16) – Hearing Assessments (permission required)

Tuesday, March 22 – Association Meeting – Please plan to attend this important evening

Wednesday (23) & Thursday (24) – Classroom Easter Parties

Friday, March 25 – Good Friday – NO SCHOOL

March 28 – April 1 – Preschool is OPEN; PCS is closed for Spring Break

April 11 – 15 – Week of the Young Child – Details to follow

Friday, April 29 – Moonlight Magic; Golf Auction

Friday, May 6 – Open House @ 6:30 – MINIMUM Day

Saturday, May 28 – Preschool Family Year End Picnic

Thursday, June 2 – Preschool Promotion Ceremony (rising TK/K students)

Friday, June 3 – Last day of school

Monday, June 13 – Summer camp begins!

As always, keep current with the preschool blog! www.pasadenachristianschool.com and by reading the PCS Weekly!

Moonlight Magic

What could be more fun than going to preschool during the day? Going at night! Dressed in pajamas, the kids (and teachers!) played flashlight hide-and-seek, had a flashlight and bubble dance party, ate pizza, then enjoyed a popcorn and a movie! We hope the parents enjoyed their night on the town, but we are pretty sure our night in was WAY more fun!!!

Busy and Blessed in Room 5!

The friends in Room 5 have been hard at work as they grow more and more each day in their skills and abilities. Everyone’s success in potty training has skyrocketed in the past weeks! Their excitement and support of one another in their bathroom triumphs has done most of the work for us- these youngsters really know how to rally each other! We thank the Lord each day for blessing us with the happy and compassionate children who have bonded so well in this class. We owe it to their loving families that they care for themselves and others with such sincerity.

Our Valentine’s Day party was a sweet success!

And everyone remains very engaged honing their math, social/emotional, and fine motor skills in the dramatic play bakery!

KODAK Digital Still Camera

We are getting ready for March with a brand new feature in our sensory table…

Green sand! The class dyed their own sensory sand green with Mrs. Erin and poured it into the sensory table. They are having a blast using the sifting scoopers to pour and measure the sand, sort through the coins and gems, and practice those early math and science foundations!

We are also integrating Bible foundations through art and storytelling. While we read about Noah’s Ark and God’s Promise at circle time, we created several beautiful rainbow murals for our classroom! We used ordering and sequencing with the song “Make God’s Rainbow Bright” to memorize the colors of the rainbow in order. We worked on color matching and building listening skills as everyone collaborated to make each rainbow.

The blessings of the Lord just keep raining down upon us, showering our classroom with love and laughter each day. As the friends in Room 5 become just that- we are blessed to see the bonds begin to form between our happy classmates and know they will cherish these friendships forever. Thank you to all the parents who have helped out so much to make this month so spectacular for these little ones at school!

“For the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:16