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joy of learning | creativity | curiosity | self-empowerment
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This year, we are starting something new. It's called "New Food Friday". The idea is that, each Friday, someone (a parent, student, volunteer or teacher) will bring in a food for everyone to try. It will be something that most of the students probably have not tried before. This should be a really fun addition to our classroom, but it is also an important learning tool. Here are some of the benefits:
- Trying new foods expands their palates and helps them discover new flavors.
- This will encourage healthy choices. Eating healthy foods is something that we focus on during snack and lunch. This new program will show them how many interesting and healthy choices are out there just waiting to be eaten.
- We will integrate New Food Fridays, whenever possible, into other areas of learning such as science and social studies. For example, trying foods from other parts of the world will give them a deeper understanding of other cultures. And making homemade herb butter can be incorporated into a science lesson about liquids and solids.
- We are also working to improve language skills. After the students try each new food, they discuss it. They answer questions about why they did or did not like the food, and they learn how to describe it accurately.
For our first New Food Friday, we tried steamed shrimp dumplings. The dumplings were chosen because the younger students read The Funny Little Woman last week. Somewhat to my surprise, the dumplings were a BIG hit! Almost all of the students liked them. And they are excited about trying something new each Friday. For the first couple of weeks, the teachers will provide the new food. However, we will soon be asking parents and students to sign up for future weeks.
Check out our blog for more dumpling eating photos!
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On Saturday, September 17th, Elkin Creek Vineyard is hosting their 4th Annual Family Arts Day. It will be a great day for the whole family! This year's event features a concert from special guest, Billy Jonas. Billy will also be conducting a songwriting playshop! Family Yoga begins at 11:30 and the concert begins at 12:30. There will be lots of art activities to create and take home including journals.
The folks from the Yadkin Valley Community School will be helping kids make journals. When we were told that the theme of this year's Family Arts Day was "helping kids set intentions and that their thoughts are creative", we thought journal making would be the perfect project. Each child will decorate a journal that he or she can take the journal home to use for writing and drawing.
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Kids Count Pediatrics is hosting their 2nd Annual Writing Contest in October. I will send out more details as we get closer to the date. This is such a great opportunity for kids to express themselves and to listen to others. We encourage you to attend (whether your child enters or not). Kids of all ages can enter in the categories of fiction, non-fiction or poetry.
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We are so grateful to our 2016/2017 donors!
We are also very excited to collaborate with our generous partners:
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