April | 2011 | Grove School

Silicon Valley of the East – Cary and The Grove School

Scott Andersen | April 28, 2011 | Comment

I get a daily email blast from THE CARY CITIZEN and today I read a story about the Cary-Raleigh area being the fastest growing area in the country. They were quoting an article from FORTUNE Magazine.

I was surprised by that. This area has grown by over 41% in the past decade. That is tremendous growth. I guess it was surprising to me because I wasn’t here ten years ago. However, I do know we get a lot of calls from families moving into the area.

A few other accolades have been bestowed upon us as well. The Miliken Institute has ranked Raleigh as the #7 city in creating and sustaining economic growth. In addition to that, Cary-based employer SAS, was named again this year as the best company in the nation to work for.

Another interesting point identified in the article was that Fortune magazine named Cary-Raleigh the Silicon Valley of the East. Our area has the largest research park in the country and a lot of technology-based jobs from a number of globe-spanning companies like Cisco and IBM.

As I look at how The Grove School of Cary fits into this mix, I am quite pleased. Our philosophy of “Healthy Mind, Healthy Body, Healthy Planet” is consistent with the commitment to quality that is evident in many facets of our community. Our utilization of technology as one of the many tools we use in the teaching and learning process is consistent with the high-tech focus in this region. We utilize smartboards, touch-screen computers, webcams, and Skype to not only facilitate learning, but also to help us with our administrative tasks like hiring, team meetings, training and marketing.

We are proud to be a part of the growth and growing positive reputation of this community.

The video below shows a Skype session between our school in Cary and our school in Plano. The video was shot in Cary, but you can see the students in Plano on the laptop by the teacher.

Composting with Red Wiggler WORMS

Miranda Laughlin | April 28, 2011 | Comment (1)

Two-year old students are amazed by the worm

In an effort to grow a successful garden, students at the Grove School had the opportunity to assist in creating a compost pile to create organic fertilizer. This beneficial fertilizer is the result of transforming food scraps and organic waste into nutrient rich compost using worms in a special contained environment.

One of the ways to do this is by using a worm composting bin. Yes, we actually want worms at our school!

Our Pre-Kindergarten class assisted a school volunteer, Mr. Nick, in creating a suitable home for the worms. After beginning with a layer of hay, students tore strips of newspaper and then soaked the paper in water to create a cool and moist environment for the worms.

Mr. Nick teaches the students about worm composting

Next, students spread their newspaper to create a bed for the worms. Then, Mr. Nick introduced the exciting new members of the Grove School and they now are holding their very own special class right there in our outdoor grove.

The best part of all that keeps in line with our hands-on approach to teaching and learning is that all students had the opportunity to hold the squiggly, wiggly worms. And yes, we all washed our hands afterward!

We’d love to show you our worms. Come take a look the next time you visit. Enjoy the photos below.

Keywords: composting, Grove School, outdoor grove, Plano, worms

Earth Day Celebration

Misti Johnson-Olthoff | April 25, 2011 | Comment

In Pre-K we have been focusing on our Earth and the importance of recycling and reusing objects. To help celebrate Earth Day we created original pieces of artwork using recycled materials brought to school from our homes! The kids thought it was interesting to see what each other brought – what was same, different, or just something that was “really cool!”

The children worked on their projects all morning and afternoon long during center time! The children had many opportunities to tear, cut up, poke holes, tie up, make knots, and problem solve on how to get their creations to actually stay together and then hang from the ceiling in our classroom!

At the conclusion of the activity each child was asked to study their artwork and to describe the following:

What is the name/title of your original artwork?
What items were used to create your Recycled Art Hanging Mobile?
How did you make your creation?
Why is it important to recycle?

I can tell you that the students thoroughly enjoyed participating in this Earth Day activity. However, please don’t tell them we also accomplished some of our learning objectives shown below:

Discussion and understanding of recycling, reusing, and our responsibility for taking care of the Earth
Creative thinking – Naming original artwork, creating artwork
Problem solving – How to make, how to hold together, teamwork, and sharing
Fine motor skills – cutting, poking, tearing, taping, typing, knotting
Cognitive – activity recall, identifying objects, and creative thinking
Teamwork & social-emotional – sharing/trading objects with friends, helping one another, problem solving with a friend, trial and error

Enjoy the photos below highlighting some of the student work.

Your trash can be a treasure!

Misti is a Pre-K teacher at The Grove School of Plano. She is an avid Kansas State fan. (We don't hold that against her!)

Keywords: Earth Day, Grove School, Plano, recycling

Learning in the Outdoor Grove

Scott Andersen | April 12, 2011 | Comment (1)

A class of PK students prepare the planter box for our spring plantings.

Now that the spring weather is settling in, I am reminded, and still amazed, at how much our students love to work (and play) in our outdoor grove.

We have a lot of activity going on in our grove. We are in the process of installing a sensory path and an edible garden and we also have many new plantings all around. One of our classes is monitoring rain fail, another is doing planting experiments with root plants, herbs and vegetables, and others are testing flowers.

The soaking beans begin to sprout.

Our greenhouse is full of sprouting flowers and veggies, our planter boxes have young plants in them, and our outdoor grove is undergoing a transformation into a sensory trail and an edible garden. It is wonderful to watch.

But what is more amazing is how our students are so engaged with all of it. They enjoy watching the progress of their plantings from seeds, to sprouts, to full-size plants.

Two-year old students put in the plants for one of the sensory garden elements in our outdoor grove.

Naturally, as shown in the first photo (above), the students love digging in the dirt. They also equally love learning about the life cycle of plants, what conditions makes them grow, or not, and how they can create the best conditions for growth.

Students work on turning over the compost in our bin.

The teachers then use the planting of the flowers and vegetables as a lesson to how we can take care of ourselves, each other and our surrounding environment.

I look forward to watching the work of our students as their flowers, herbs and vegetables grow and blossom. Of course, I also hope to eat some of it too!

Enjoy the photos below.

Keywords: Cary, Dr. Scott Andersen, early childhood education, garden, Grove School, outdoor grove, planting, spring

Special Summer Program for Students in K-2

Shelley Hill | April 11, 2011 | Comment

I am so pleased to announce that we are adding a special program this summer. In addition to our regular preschool summer program, we are also adding CAMP GROVE for students in grades K-2 .

Have your children SEE THE WORLD with us.

Here is some of the details about the camp:

* Camps will run from 9 am – 5 pm, Monday-Friday.
* 12 oneeweek sessions from June 6-August 26
* Students K through 2^nd grade are eligible.
* Each camp will feature a fun filled week of activities as students learn more about the world they live in.
* Sign up for one week, one month or all 12 weeks.
* The twelve weeks are grouped into 6 two-week sessions related to the biomes: water, arctic, desert, grasslands, safari and planet Earth.

The weeks are shown below.

June 6-10 Under the Sea
June 13-17 Water World
June 20-24 Polar Express
June 27-July 1 Keepin’ it Cool
July 5-8 Seein’ the Sahara
July 11-15 Get Your Kicks on Route 66
July 18-22 Scientific Explorations
July 25-29 Safari Adventures
Aug 1-5 Weather Watchers
Aug 8-12 A Camping We Will Go
Aug 15-19 Nature All Around Us
Aug 22-26 Exploring Our Universe

I am more excited than ever about this summer. I can’t wait. Sign up soon as space is limited!!

Give me a call if you have any questions: 972-618-3523.

Keywords: Grove School, Plano, Summer Program

Cute Chicks!

Carrie Fish | April 6, 2011 | Comment

A student takes his turn holding one of the baby chicks.

During the month of March, all of our classes were studying about the spring. Since we were learning about how new plants grow and baby animals are born in springtime, we decided to take on a very special project: hatching baby chicks from eggs! Thanks to Ms. Shelley and our local agricultural department, we were able to get two dozen fertilized eggs and an incubator with turners.

When the eggs arrived, the EPS class went down to Room 2 to set up the incubator and put the eggs inside. We had talked together some days ahead of time to know that we had to be careful and gentle with the eggs, and that we had to take good care of them so that the baby chicks could grow inside. This included checking on them every day, making sure that the incubator tray was full of water (to create humidity) and to look at the thermometer to see that the temperature was just right. It was very important to keep those baby chicks warm!

This was a great practice in responsibility and patience for all our students, as they eagerly waited for the chicks to hatch out of the eggs. While we waited, we watched video clips of how baby chickens hatch, so that we would know how the baby chicks break out of their shells, as well as what they would look like when they come out. We also read books about baby chicks, and how to care for them once their feathers are dry – that’s when they can come out of the incubator! We read about how they need a warm lamp to shine down on them, and how they have to have lots of food and water (just like our pets at home!).

Finally, after 21 days, our baby chicks started pipping and pecking through their shells on the last Tuesday of the month! We were very excited to see them coming through the eggs. We would have to wait until the next morning for them to fully hatch and dry in the incubator. When their feathers were fluffy, we put them in the brood box to start feeding and growing. In total, we had 19 chicks hatch out of 24 – there were a lot of little chickens running around in that brood box!

Every class took great care of the chicks for a full week after hatching: they spent time with them by holding them and

petting them, fed them and watered them. Some of the school families

even took them home to raise! We can’t wait to see how the baby chicks will grow and what they will look like when they are full-grown chickens. We’re very excited to help hatch some eggs next year as well!

Keywords: chickens, chicks, Grove School, Plano

Meet Ms. Miranda

Miranda Laughlin | April 5, 2011 | Comment

Hello! My name is Miranda Laughlin. I am the Strands Teacher here at The Grove School. I am a recent resident of the Dallas area having moved from Colorado in September of 2010. I graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado in 2009 with a Bachelors of Science in Human Development and Family Studies along with an Early Childhood Education Teaching License. During my time in Fort Collins, I had teaching positions with second grade, kindergarten, preschool and special needs early childhood education classrooms.

In August of 2010, my husband Derek and I were married and moved to Dallas, where he is working as an engineer and attending seminary to be a Biblical counselor. I most recently worked as the lead teacher of a toddler classroom before coming to be a part of The Grove School team!

My philosophy of education focuses on serving children in building their path to learning how to think rather than what to think. Children should be the author of their own education story, and I as an educator get to create environments and situations where they may observe, explore, create and form ideas about the world. It is a joy to be a part of children formulating questions, hypotheses and intelligent thoughts as the foundation for the remainder of their educational journey. I see myself as a life long learner and enjoy being taught from my students as much as they enjoy learning from their teachers. My motto: “I’m not a square, I’m a circle and I can roll with it!

Keywords: Grove School, Miranda, Plano, staff