Shelley Hill | Grove School

A Peek at Plano

Shelley Hill | July 24, 2011 | Comment

I remember as a kid thinking that summer took forever to get over and I couldn’t wait to get back to school to see my friends. As an adult, it seems that it goes so fast that I blink and it is already the end of July. We have so much going on in our school , and I want to highlight happenings in each classroom.

Early Preschool is bursting at the seams!! We are anxiously anticipating our new classroom to open in August with some brand new little students. It is always so much fun to get the new little guys in our school because it makes us look at our big 2 year olds and think back to when they first started. Ms. Amber is our newest addition to our staff, and we are looking forward to having her here as well. She and Ms. Lindsay already have some great ideas about learning and exploring for their kiddos. They both have Early Childhood Education degrees and a wealth of knowledge, so we are looking forward to seeing what is going to come out of those classrooms.

In PreSchool, you can see how excited the kids are to learn more of everything. Ms. Carrie and Ms. Cristen have been working diligently to ensure that we are preparing these preschoolers for the big PreK room next year. The summer curriculum is booming with fun-filled things to do, and the students are really budding into preschool students. It is a big jump coming from the Early Preschool Room to the “big kid” class, but the kids have adjusted well.

PreKindergarten’s new teacher, Ms. Leah, is at the helm. This transition just happened on July 11^thand the students already have a routine and seem to be moving along well. Parent teacher conferences are scheduled next week, and Ms. Leah is excited to be moving forward and preparing for a great year. She has brought a new button reward system to reinforce positive behaviors in the classroom.

Summer Camp is always doing something creative and fun. Ms. Mandy has taken that program to a whole new level of fun and learning. Over the course of the last eight weeks the kids have explored different topics ranging from What’s Cooking to Scientific Experiments. There have been some fantastic projects coming out of that room. Each week the kids decorate a mural that goes with the theme of the week. Be sure to check those out in our hallways!

What Makes an Insect an Insect?

Shelley Hill | May 17, 2011 | Comment

Students use their special loupes (magnifying glasses) to find insects in the garden.

During our Eco-Friends class time over the past few weeks, students were posed with the question, “What makes an insect and insect?” Our students combined their prior knowledge with their immediate observations of similarities and differences to discover the unique characteristics of insects.

Our students were introduced to an insect’s three main body parts through a rendition of the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” entitled, “Head, Thorax, Abdomen.” After observing toy insects, student participated in sorting a variety of different “bugs” using a Venn diagram on the SmartBoard. Students were asked to label the bugs by moving them on the screen into a circles labeled “Insect” or “Not an Insect.”

The students drew and labeled the parts of the ant.

After sifting through scorpions, spiders and worms, students became comfortable with identifying insects through these characteristics: 1) Three Body Parts (head, thorax, abdomen), 2) Eyes, Mouth and Antennae, 3) An Exoskeleton.

While observing and describing pictures, drawings and toy insects helped us learn what to look for when we went outside. Students had the most fun going on an insect hunt in the garden. Our classes identified flies, bumblebees, ants and beetles all living in our garden!

Keywords: Eco Friends, Grove School, insects, Plano, strands

2011-2012 School Year Calendar for Plano

Shelley Hill | May 9, 2011 | Comment (1)

Our school year calendar for 2011-12 is now finalized. Bookmark this page so you can refer to it when needed.

AUGUST

5 PAC Meeting

22-26 Parent Teacher Conferences

31 Meet the Teacher and Culminating Event

SEPTEMBER

1-2 Teacher Professional Development Day ~ School Closed

5 Labor Day, Monday ~ School Closed

6 First Day of Fall Classes

9 PAC Meeting

27 Fall Pictures

OCTOBER

10-14 Fire Prevention Week Activities

14 PAC Meeting

27 Fall Festival

NOVEMBER

11 PAC Meeting

17 Grove School Family Feast of Thanks

23 Teacher Professional Development and In-Service Day ~ School Closed

24-25 Thanksgiving Holiday ~ School Closed

DECEMBER

9 PAC Meeting

12-16 Parent/Teacher Conferences

15 A Family Night of Giving

23-30 Grove School Winter Break ~ School Closed

JANUARY

13 PAC Meeting

18 Grove School Birthday Bash

FEBRUARY

11 PAC Meeting

20 Teacher Professional Development and In-Service Day ~ School Closed

23-24 Student Progress Reports Out

MARCH

9 PAC Meeting

29-30 Preschool Round-Up

APRIL

8 PAC Meeting

9-13 Week of the Young Child

20 Earth Day Celebration

26 Spring Pictures

MAY

13 PAC Meeting

15 “The Lady I Love” Night

7-11 The Grove School Teacher Appreciation Week

22-24 Parent/Teacher Conferences

25 Teacher Professional Development and In-Service Day ~ School Closed

28 Memorial Day, Monday ~ School Closed

JUNE

1 Pre K Promotion Celebration

4 The Grove School Summer Program Begins

10 PAC Meeting

14 Dad’s Challenge

JULY

1 Culminating Event

4 Independence Day ~ School Closed

8 PAC Meeting

Keywords: 2011-12, calendar

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

Reading and Writing in Pre-K

Shelley Hill | March 27, 2011 | Comment

Ms. Misty works with a student on his writing journal.

One of our goals is to make sure that everyone one of our graduates is more than ready for kindergarten and beyond. One of the things we do to achieve this goal is to spend a lot of time reading and writing. After all, from an academic point of view, there is nothing more important than literacy.

I walk in and out of our classrooms throughout the day. Recently I walked into Ms. Misty’s Pre-K class and found her students and her engaged in reading and writing activities. I took a few photos with my cell phone and have included them here.

One of the things I liked about this particular visit is that the students were genuinely engaged with their learning. You can see this in the photos.

Just thought I’d share with you.

Keywords: early childhood education, Grove School, literacy, Plano, reading, writing

We Have Lots of SNOW!

Shelley Hill | February 9, 2011 | Comment (1)

Two students watch the reaction of the water hitting the snow mix.

Both inside and outside the school building, the past few days at our school have had a very consistent theme: SNOW…and lots of it!

As you know, outside we have had sleet, ice, snow and treacherous roads. Inside the school building we have also had snow. However in this case, it was not treacherous, but loads of fun!

The Outdoor Grove is covered in a thin layer of Texas snow.

Students in Ms. Opal’s and Ms. Mandy’s class made snow inside their classroom. It was a fun experiment that the children really enjoyed. They were able to add water to a special “snow mix” to make the fluffy white snow right in front of their eyes.

The photos show the students making, touching, and playing with the snow they made in their class.

Keywords: Grove School, Plano, snow

Evidence of Learning – Making Crystals

Shelley Hill | January 25, 2011 | Comment

An Evidence of Learning Disply of Ms. Misty's Class Experiment

Learning is fun! And it is also a process.

One of the things that is challenging to do in the field of education is to show both the students and the parents that actual learning has occurred. Here at The Grove School we call that EVIDENCE OF LEARNING.

Typically in most educational settings the only evidence you see is the finished product. There is nothing wrong with finished products. However, evidence of learning goes beyond that. It shows the PROCESS the students went through during their learning.

The experiment was to try to make crystals with water and Epsom salt. The students performed the tasks individually.

The steps were measure the Epsom salt, pour in the water, mix it up, transfer it to another bowl for observation, let the water evaporate and then investigate the results.

The photo at right and the close-ups below, show the process the students followed during their experiment.

Keywords: evidence of learning, Grove School, Ms. Misty, Plano, pre-K

Celebrate Education Tour

Shelley Hill | January 24, 2011 | Comment (1)

As part of our enrollment efforts, I am thrilled to announce the CELEBRATE EDUCATION TOUR - A JOURNEY INTO LEARNING AND DISCOVERY.

These open to the public events are being held on the following three dates:

Feb. 8
Feb. 24
March 10

All three drop-in events run from 5-7p.

On Feb. 24, a dinner will be served at 6:15. Please call to let us know you are coming to the dinner. If you forget, come anyway!

Enjoy an opportunity to see The Grove School curriculum in full-swing as your children participate in learning experiences – The Grove School way!

This will be a great opportunity to help you chose a preschool for right now or for the fall. Now is the time to enroll!

Bring your whole family and your friends too.

We hope to see you there! Call me directly if you need any information or if you have any questions at 972-618-3523

Keywords: celebrate education, Grove School, open house, Plano

Sharing the Day with Families

Shelley Hill | January 17, 2011 | Comment

One of the most frequently asked questions by parents of children in school is “What did you do today?’. For older children especially, the answer is quite predictable: nothing. There is a cure for the I-DID-NOTHING ailment – great communication between parents and teachers. We address this in a variety of ways. We post daily information in and outside of our classrooms. We send some information home at the end of the day. We take pictures and videos. We also utilize email.

I am including below some actual emails sent to families from our teachers and am sharing some of the photos they have included with their emails.

The first email is from Ms. Misty, our Pre-K teacher:

Greetings Dads & Moms:

Eek! Attempting to get *caught up* on emails and photos!! I’ve enclosed a few photos of our Wild Things Soup from last Friday! The kids enjoyed making it but weren’t too thrilled to try it! J I actually ate a little of it – and it really wasn’t THAT bad – a little salty – but definitely not horrible. There wasn’t a middle ground as far as taste goes … it was either YES (and ate a bowl or two) or GROSS (and only studied, stirred, smelled, and refused to try!)

The ones who LOVED it have a photo enclosed – the ones who thought it was “TOO GROSS TO TRY” didn’t even want their picture taken!!! … except for M who wanted to put a little under the microscope! J

Enjoy!!

The next email to families is from Ms. Carrie in the Early Preschool Room:

Hi, Moms and Dads! How is your day going? We are having an awesome day here at school! Though it’s still a bit too cold outside to go and play, we’ve been so busy with so many fun activities that we haven’t even noticed!

This morning we did our Circle Time, and our friends have all of the hand gestures down really well! Next we’re going to start working on being able to sing all the words too. After we did our calendar, we read a book about Thomas the Train helping children on a school field trip. Everyone loved this book! We are really into Thomas the Train this month, and we talk a lot about him whenever we chat about steam engines and trains.

Next we had a quick snack and got ready to go to Strands with Ms. Sara. It was fun to practice going through tunnels, just like a train!

Today, Ms. Carrie and Ms. Sydney decided to let our friends work on their Car Parts project from earlier in the week since not everyone had a chance to do it yet. So we re-read “My Car” by Byron Barton, and talked about all the different parts a car has. Then we got to “assemble” our own car by identifying some different parts and pasting it on a car! Ms. Carrie is going to post our artwork on the black chalkboard by our cubbies later today…be sure to take a look sometime in the next few days! (Pictures of our activity are attached on this email and a few more emails to come.)

Then we all washed our hands and took out our lunches. We are all getting really good at opening our own containers and using utensils to eat. Everyone made sure to clean up their trash when they were done. Ms. Sydney is really helping all our friends to know what kind of trash can go in the black trash can (regular waste) and what kind of trash can go in the blue trash can (recyclables). After cleaning up, we changed diapers/went potty, washed hands and laid down for a nap. Most of us fell asleep right away – what a busy morning we’ve had!

This afternoon we are going to have snack and then go on to our enrichments. Today we have Kiddo Kinetics, SmartBoard learning with Ms. Sara, and Art with Mr. Kirby. It’s going to be a fun-filled afternoon too!

We hope that you’re having a good day too, Moms and Dads! We can’t wait to see you later today!

Love,

The EPS friends

Photos from both emails can be seen in the gallery below.

Keywords: Car Parts, Communication, Email, Plano, Where the Wild Things Are

Open House and Parade

Shelley Hill | December 9, 2010 | Comment

On Saturday, Dec. 11 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, we will be hosting an OPEN HOUSE at our school. We are doing so in conjunction with the Plano parade and thought this would be a great time to have folks drop in and learn about us. We hope everyone enjoys the parade along with us and we hope you will come by and say hello.