The School Day | Grove School

Alphabet Soup

Cristen Blackwell | February 3, 2012 | Comment

During our literacy small group, each child had the opportunity to make Alphabet Soup! Winter is the perfect time for a hot bowl of soup, so we stirred some up in a sensory tub. We partially filled the tub with water and letters in the alphabet. The consonant were blue and the vowels were red. We pretended the vowels were our vegetables, and the consonants were the noodles. I provided spoons, ladles, and a large strainer spoon. Each child served themselves a spoonful of soup. In each serving, the child named each letter in their bowl. For a challenge, I asked the sounds of each letter too! We loved our Alphabet Soup!!

Meet Ms. Kaitlin

Lorrie Schelkle | February 2, 2012 | Comment

Ms. Kaitlin was born in Dallas, Texas and moved to Cary when she was 9 years old. Most of her childhood days were spent going to baseball games, running around outside and having the biggest imagination!
Throughout high school, she worked at the local YMCA in several summer camps and after school programs. Out of all the ages she worked with, she loved working with the 3-5 year old groups! Ms. Kaitlin has had a multitude of experience with kids from 2 months – 12 years old in all types of educational settings. She attended Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina and graduated with a K-6 Elementary Education degree. When she wasn’t studying, she spent time swimming, hiking and enjoying the beautiful scenery that surrounded her! When Ms. Kaitlin is not working with children she enjoys crafting, going to see movies and has recently taken up running. Ms. Kaitlin hopes to run her first 5k within the next couple of months!

Ms. Kaitlin says, “I love all of the children I have met here at The Grove School. They definitely brighten my days and further my passion for teaching! One of the reasons why I was interested in teaching at The Grove School was that it provides a blossoming environment for children to be children while learning at the same time! I wish this kind of school was around when I was in preschool!”

A Letter From Strands

Courtney Ruetz | February 2, 2012 | Comment

: The children have been able to see the seeds they planted grow.

: Hanging plants in the greenhouse are blossoming.

: Our compost pile is growing as we add items every week.

: This is what the compost pile looked like in November, We have come a long way!

: Our onion plants are growing. I wonder if the kids will really eat these!

: Look at our bean sprouts!

Hello Grove Families! Let me start off my saying what a blast I have been having with your kiddos in Strands. We have started such a wonderful adventure together. We are learning and growing every day! I wanted to update everyone on the progress that we have been making in the green house, garden and compost bin at the Grove. One of my first tasks as the new Strands teacher was getting the Green House organized and ready to go. With lots of help from my “mini gardeners” we have accomplished that and so much more. We began planting seeds in the greenhouse on January 16th. We have been monitoring our seedlings every week and watering them every day. We have also been busy getting our compost bin in order. Our compost bin needs various levels of vegetation that are rich in Carbon and Nitrogen, along with layers of organic garden soil. Items that are rich in Carbon include: Straw, newspaper, corn cob/husks, leaves, and shrub prunings. Items that are rich in Nitrogen include: Fruit/veggie scraps, coffee grounds, tea grounds, and lawn/garden weeds. We do not add any items that have dairy or starches such as cheese and pasta however. Below you can also track the progress that we have made on our compost pile! If you would like to contribute to the school’s compost bin please contact me. I would like to get it full soon! We have also added organic potting soil to our garden boxes to get them ready for spring planting. I would like to stress that everything that we use in the garden is certified 100% organic. From the seeds we use to the soil in which they grow. It is very important to me that we grow and encourage organic gardening at the Grove. Again, it has been such a pleasure teaching all of your bright and gifted children in Strands. I look forward to meeting new faces that I have not had the opportunity to meet yet soon!

Ms. Courtney is the Strands teacher in Plano, TX.

Preschool Pansy Project

Lorrie Schelkle | February 1, 2012 | Comment (1)

After planting, caring and growing our pansy garden all fall, our preschool classroom ended the three month project by crafting sun catchers. We picked our pansy flowers, dried them using a flower press, and placed them in a collage with materials from our classroom art studio. Now we’ll be able to enjoy the beauty of our pansy garden all winter long!

Meet Ms. Courtney

Heidi Summers | January 30, 2012 | Comment

The Grove School of Plano is happy to announce that we have a new Strands teacher. When Ms. Lauren asked to teach our newest preschool class, we were nervous about finding just the right person to replace her in Strands. Who understands the necessary components of maintaining a compost pile? Who would be able to utilize the greenhouse? And most importantly, who would love and nurture our Grove children in just the right way?

Ms. Courtney has all of these qualities. As a Grove parent herself (her son is in pre-K), she knows exactly what parents are looking for in a preschool, and she has the motivation and passion to deliver it to our families. Ms. Courtney grew up in McKinney, Texas, and she graduated from UT Dallas. She has a degree in history with a Texas teaching certificate. In the past, Courtney has substituted in many different preschools and taught a variety of programs at the YMCA. She has also coached gymnastics and cheerleading.

Here is what Ms. Courtney says about being the Strands teacher, “I plan on fostering your child’s creativity and imagination through lessons and activities that are fun, interactive, and exciting. It has always been my philosophy that EVERY child is born with unique gifts and talents in the classroom. I am really looking forward to teaching Strands and sharing an educational and fun-filled time together.

Take a look at some of the activities Ms. Courtney has already led:

: Painting stars

: Playing with a parachute

: Measuring and weighing

: Planets revolving around the sun.

: Making music

Healthy Eating, Happy Faces

Heidi Summers | January 11, 2012 | Comment

How do we get kids to eat their vegetables? This question has come up a number of times at our school. With a focus on “healthy mind, healthy body, and healthy planet”, we feel it’s important to create an environment where children eat heathy and enjoy the taste of foods such as fresh vegetables. A recent article I read about children and vegetables suggested that this may be more difficult than it sounds,because some studies suggest that children may have an actual gene that creates a bitter taste invegetables when they are eaten. As children grow, the bitterness subsides. Until this happens, we need to continue to encourage children to try a variety of foods and make the expereince of eating vegetables a positive one.

During our enrichment program, Ms. Courtney was able to do this. For her “cooking” class, she had the children create happy faces on wheat tortillas by using hummus and a variety of vegetables. Children were asked to spread the hummus out on the tortilla, and then they used the vegetables they selected to create eyes, hair, a mouth, and a nose. The children then folded their tortillas and ate them.

Even our youngest children enjoyed this activity. They created so many different kinds of faces. And, most surprising, they ate everything! Parents were surpised their children were willing to eat cucumbers, tomatoes, and even peas! At The Grove School, we want our children to develop healthy eating and lifestyles. We were all so pleased to see our efforts pay off in this activity.

Say Good-Bye to Germs

Leah Hull | January 5, 2012 | Comment

Say Goodbye to Germs!

Today in Pre-K we did a fun activity with glitter. We covered markers with glue and then rolled them in glitter. The glitter was supposed to represent “germs”. We had the kids pick up the markers and write their names and pretend like there was nothing on the markers. This was fun for some and for others they REALLY did not want to touch these glittery markers! After they wrote their names we had them look at their hands and see all of the glitter that covered them. Then we talked about how this is just like germs except with germs you can’t actually see them! So if you cough in your hand, sneeze on your hand or use the restroom without washing your hands, those germs can spread to anything and everything that we touch. They thought this was so silly but it was a great way to really understand the concept of yucky germs and the importance of washing our hands frequently!

Leah Hull teaches pre-K at The Grove School of Plano.

Magnetic Fish

Lindsay Anderson | December 2, 2011 | Comment

The Early Preschool class has so much fun learning our letters. During “F” week, we learned how to distinguish the letter “F” from other letters of the alphabet. The help with this, I placed magnetic strips on the backs of several letters on fish shapes. The students were then asked to go “fishing” and catch letters. Once a fish was caught, students were asked if they found the letter “F or a different letter. If they found a different letter, they threw it back in the pond. This continued until all of the letter “F”s were caught..

PreK Learns Their Phone Numbers

Leah Hull | December 1, 2011 | Comment

In Pre-K we are starting to learn our phone numbers. We have talked about many different reasons why it is a good idea to learn a home phone number or a phone number for mom or dad. Some great responses were, “We need to know our phone number so that we can call it” and “We need to know our phone number in case we get lost”. So, we’ve started practicing our phone number with a fun little jingle. They kids smile from ear to ear as they sing and point to each number.

Each child has been given a paper cell phone with their name and phone number written on the back of it. One activity we decided would be fun was to have each child cut out the numbers in their phone number and put the numbers back in the right order. This was challenging but they did great! Once they glued their number back in the right order they got to use their cell phone to practicing dialing the phone number and having a pretend conversation with mom or dad. Once they dialed their phone number successfully they had to write the number on their paper. They loved this and felt like such big kids! We will continue practicing these phone numbers and hopefully be able to dial on a real telephone in the near future!

Leah Hull teaches pre-K at The Grove School of Plano.

The Grove School Gives Back to the Community

Heidi Summers | November 29, 2011 | Comment

At The Grove School, we actively promote “giving back” to our community. In November we did this through collecting food for the local food pantry. One of our gracious parents put out a donation box that was filled within a week. The food pantry workers were so excited to see all the goodies we had collected.

For December we put out a “donation station” to collect food and toys for a local children’s home. This home provides respite care to foster children who need emergency housing. Once again, the parents have been eager to collect and donate supplies to children who are in need.

In addition to our collection boxes, The Grove School seeks to give back to the community by supporting local public schools. In October we help to sponsor an elementary school carnival. This was a great way to build a relationship with the families who live in our neighborhood, as well as a way to meet perspective families looking for our preschool.

These community activities were not created byGroveSchoolstaff. Our PAC (parent advisory committee) discussed what organizations they would like support, and a decision was reached by the parents of our school who we would help this holiday season.

With all of the preschools a family has to choose from, why pick The Grove School? I believe we are one of the few schools in Plano that seeks to impact the lives of children who don’t even attend our school. We strive to teach our children the importance of activism, outreach, and service to others – values that are taught first at home, and reinforced through our school programs. This is what I love about The Grove!

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