ECOLECLAIRE FONTAINE FEBRUARY 2019
A MONTH OF LOVE
Featuring
KINDNESS DETECTIVES
2019 / Volume 3 / Issue 6
CO N T EN T S Febr uar y 2019
A Month of Kindness
p2 p3 p4 p6 p8 p10 p12 p14 p16 p17 p18
Contents Calendar Bir thdays Detecting Kindness DĂŠjeuner Ă l'Ecole The Pr aying Mantis Mr Steve's Machines Mathematics Welcome Babies! Summer Camp Adver tise with the Community
CA L EN D A R Ecole Claire Fontaine
Campusesclose at 5pm on Fridays
Sun, 10 Mar Daylight Savings Time Turn your clocks your forward Thu, 14 Mar Mar ch Bir thday Celebr ations 12:30pm CC / 1pm - AK Children only Fr i. 15 Mar Fête de la Fr ancophonie et le Concour s des 10 mots & Potluck 5 - 6:30pm Abbot Kinney Campus, all invited
UPCOMING Apr il 15- 19 Spr ing Recess May 9 WAVE Awar ds May 6- 10 Par ent Teacher Confer ences, AK May 13 - 16 Par ent Teacher Confer ences, CC June 14 Gr aduation, AK June 20 Gr aduation, CC July 8 - Aug 9 Summer Camp
BI RT H D AYS
Ella
Luca
Pippa
Golda
Mila
Vishaan
Février 4 ECOLE CLAIRE FONTAINE
Audr ey
Mars
Vivienne Shay
Luna
Yumi 5 ECOLE CLAIRE FONTAINE
SWEET DEEDS Enlisting the Kindness Detectives
"Calling
all Kindness Detectives! Can you tell me the most spectacular acts of kindness you see?" In meditation class dur ing Febr uar y, unofficially dubbed the Month of Kindness, the children are lear ning breathing and mindfulness. As Kindness Detectives, each time a student sees another committing a kind deed for a child or the school they note the act on a cut out leaf. It could be a dr awing, or a word they know how to wr ite, or a teacher could help them wr ite down their ideas. How many leaves can the class collect in a month? At Ecole Claire Fontaine the number of good deeds is boundless. 6 ECOLE CLAIRE FONTAINE
Kindness Detectives are watching you: water ing the garden, asking if their fr iend is okay, holding hands, giving a hug, cleaning up the classroom after a project, welcoming a new student, giving eye contact and singing beautifully. It is in this same spir it that we celebr ate "No One Eats Alone Day" dur ing the month of kindness. Teaching the simplicity of inclusivity while the social br ain is developing can make a wondrous difference in the world. Par ticularly at this point in histor y it behooves us all to ensure people who may be mar ginalized or excluded are welcomed at our tables.
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THE LUNCH DĂŠjeuner the Ecole Claire Fontaine Way
Two long tables are lined with white
Connecting to where their food plates. ?We?re setting up the tables!? comes from, and the resources used in calls out a child. ?Oh, I want to set up its production, aides in an awareness the tables too!? another chir ps before of sustainability that will last a tur ning on her heels toward the sink lifetime. to pull up her sleeves, wash her hands In gardening classes students grow and get to the work of laying out lunch leafy greens and beans, taste herbs for ever yone. and happily enjoy unpacking the Triumph! Dur ing meal times, the produce boxes delivered from the children are committed to taking what far mer 's market. they need, and eating what they take. Prepar ation for lunch involves Food waste dur ing lunchtime is pounds of produce, many washed down to just 1/2 cup for all Abbot hands and children showing their Kinney Campus students, including gr atitude. table scr aps. Once seated, and before the tr ays of This equals fewer emissions of greenhouse gases and less water consumption. 8 ECOLE CLAIRE FONTAINE
vegetables are placed on the tables ready for self- ser vice, the children sing to the chefs...
Chanson du Déjeuner Il est temps de Déjeuner Je suis prêt à tout manger Sur la table tout est servis Je vous dis bon appétit! Merci!
The Lunch Song It is lunchtime We are ready to eat everything On the table everything is served I say to you all "bon appétit! " Thank you! 9 ECOLE CLAIRE FONTAINE
WHERE WILD THINGS GROW Winter Plants Beget Food for the Praying Mantis
After
r ainy days cozily spent indoor s, the children are enthusiastically reinhabiting the garden. ?They are digging holes ever ywhere!? a keen obser ver notes. In a green and white net, patiently waiting, are two little egg sacs, hanging just so. Two times per week their net is misted; the eggs cr ave humidity without being wet themselves. When they hatch, between 3 and 10 weeks, up to 300 tiny bugs will appear. Two to four millimeter s, a Pr aying Mantis seems so tiny at bir th. How could it grow to become the wild beast of the garden eating all the other insects? "We are placing compost made r ight here at school in the cor ner s of the 10 ECOLE CLAIRE FONTAINE
garden," Teacher Emilie points out. What used to be fr uit peels and winter plants in their senescence per iod break down in bins, eventually becoming a r ich addition to the soil. This open invitation to bugs will soon host the food source to sate the vor acious appetite of the Pr aying Mantis that can grow up to 6 inches. ?These look like gr asshopper s!? the children call out while per using an insect book. Teacher Emilie explains, ?When the eggs hatch, we will keep two tiny couples to obser ve. The other s will quickly go out to the garden before they tur n to one another for food.? Ask your wild ones about the insect that appear s to be bowing in pr ayer.
Hear ye, hear ye!
To mitigate illness dur ing puddle jumping season, remember to wash your hands frequently. Please keep your hair dr y in the mor nings before school & at night before bed; the garden gets chilly. Some of us soothe an ear ache by wr apping a slightly cooked onion in a tea towel and placing it just so. Dress war mly, breathe the fresh air and laugh as much as you can. Happiness is a potent vitamin.
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FANTASTICAL MACHINES For the Love of Happiness
M r.
Steve is the inventor of machines that are par t ar t installation, inter active exper ience and a petite ver sion of what you might find out on the Playa. ?They are inter active? you push a button and something happens,? says Mr. Steve, creator of the Ecole Claire Fontaine bir thday exper ience. ?I considered myself an ar tist and fir st made a dr awing machine as an ar t project. When I took the machine to the beach, all of these kids came around and they loved it.? Step right up to experience the creations of this inventor extraordinaire! Each month for the ECF bir thdays celebr ation, Mr. Steve presents a machine, br inging r adiance to the faces of the children. ?When I star ted it was purely mechanical and then I went into the electronics and now they are more inter active.? Working in a modest Mar Vista studio, Mr. Steve explains his process. ?I get a small idea and then I sit with it for a while. It sor t of grows and then I tr y it.? 12 ECOLE CLAIRE FONTAINE
One design allows the children to play a piano by pushing three buttons. ?To actuate the piano easily, the idea of a wheel came up. I could just roll a wheel across it. I think, well kids might like this. I think like one so that?s probably why I?m good at it.? From his earliest year s Mr. Steve was a builder. ?My dad was kind of a tinkerer. He would make me a go- car t out of scr ap wood ever y summer, a pushcar t with steer ing. I worked on it with him and I grew up in that environment, in a workshop in the gar age.? His fir st creation, a mechanical dr awing machine, was made from bicycle par ts. ?I like reusing mater ials from toys. I bought a claw online and it was unusable even at full power - it will never work. I modified that claw, fabr icated it from the toy. I also like using recycled mater ials and some sur plus.? Harkening back to his childhood, Mr. Steve is consider ing offer ing a class in go- car t building. If you are lucky, you can catch him at a Far mer ?s Markets or bir thday par ty around town.
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MATHEMATICS Quantifying Kindness
L
" et us have this experience together Let?s make math fun and joyful!" Teacher Mar ina's Mathematics class is about number s, connection and inter action; with this the children become obser vant of the minutiae to the infinite. The class is based on five pr inciples. Each session includes a question. The children need time to str uggle. Teacher Mar ina says she is not always the answer key, but does always say ?yes? to student suggestions. And finally there is play, which is the highest for m of magic for discover y.
?Un, deux, trois, quatre!? We count using number s and words, with the objects before us: Une pomme plus
deux pommes ĂŠquivaut Ă trois pommes. The children take this same concrete object, or another recycled or found in the garden, to explore and recognize color s, shapes and sizes. ?Math is the connector for the reality of life,? she notes. They discover relationships: position, direction and distance. ?The art of math comes alive when it is accessible through hands- on activities that engage the imagination and physical senses.? Classes begin with a song using ar ms, bodies, hands and heads to create geometr ical greetings. ?This warms up our spirits, we giggle and prepare our brain to relax and receive the universal language of MA- THE- MA- TIQUES.?
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Welcome
we are over joyed to welcome two new babies to our school family: Lucien has a new brother, Manou. Gabr iella and Oliver have a baby sister, Natalie. We can't wait to meet you!
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Join us on Mar ch 1st for the Venice Ar t Cr awl & Abbot Kinney 1st Fr iday, Ecole Claire Fontaine presents Playing With
Clay, a Cer amic Ar t Exhibition 6?8:30pm, featur ing the work of cer amicists Bettina Kleeman, Sandr a Zebi, John Fukuda, Svetlana Durel and Chr istina Ross, along with glowing samples of our children's work and a dr um circle led by Sandr a Sandia. ECF @Abbot Kinney & Westminster
Ecole Claire Fontaine is an Ar t, Language & Nature school for young children near the ocean in Venice, Califor nia 19 ECOLE CLAIRE FONTAINE
Kindly, ©EcoleClaireFontaine2019