May 2016 newsletter

May 2016

calendar

April 30— Spring Fling, Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool, rain or shine, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

May 4, 5 and 6— Mother’s Visiting Days, 11:15 a.m.

May 9 to 13— Last week of Splendid Day and Peachtree Afterschool May 12 —Chapel, 9:20 a.m., Sanctuary, Five/Six and M-F Pre-K Classes May 13 —Chapel, 9:20 a.m., Sanctuary, MWF Pre-K, M-F and MWF Three-yearold Classes May 20— Last Day of School June 6 - 9— Vacation Bible School June 13 - 17— Camp Peaches - Week 1 June 20 - 24— Camp Peaches - Week 2 August 22 - Welcome Parties for MWF and WF classes, 9:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m., Welcome Center

Dear Parents, Recently, ten Peachtree faculty had the opportunity to attend the first initiative at The Lovett Learning Institute: The Brain Matters. Dr. Daniel Willingham an author and cognitive scientist at the University of Virginia was the keynote speaker. The focus was on academic, social and emotional aspects of learning including mindsets of the whole child. It is imperative that we use all the burgeoning brain research to inform and improve our practices in the classroom, home and everyday lives.

Dr. Willingham encouraged parents to use “boredom” time wisely. He defined this as a time when children are waiting – in the car, at an appointment, just before dinner, etc. He recommends that parents always have a bag with books, markers, stickers, and drawing paper. Because of increased screen times, more and more children have difficulty with handwriting and reading. Dr. Willingham strongly recommends that parents have ready resources for those “boredom” moments rather than reverting to screen time.

During the concluding remarks, all of the best educational practices were highlighted including Design Thinking, Tinker Lab, Dewey, Project Based Learning and the Reggio approach. It is an exciting time in education and Peachtree strives everyday to make sure that the work we do with children is research based and best practices.

So….while you are waiting next time…..have a bag with books, markers, stickers and drawing paper!

Miss Jane

August 23 - Welcome Parties for T/Th and M-F classes, 9:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m., Welcome Center August 24, 25 - First Days of School

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Parents, It is so hard to believe that another wonderful school year is coming to a close! The Preschool is blessed to have such loving, creative teachers, administrators and parent volunteers. It is truly a wonderful community, and one that gives our children such a strong foundation and celebrates each child and their uniqueness!

Thank you to the current Parents’ Council members and volunteers whose efforts made this school year such a success. The Parents’ Council appreciates everything the volunteers do to make the Preschool a special place for our children and families.

As the year wraps up, we have one more fantastic event - Spring Fling! This is a day of fun for our kids, and it is one that you don’t want to miss!! Special thanks to all of the parents volunteering during the event and on the planning committee! A big thank you to our Spring Fling Chairs Christina West and Stacey Noell. Great job ladies!

The 2016-2017 Parents’ Council is forming now, and there is still plenty of space for anyone interested in joining! Interested in getting involved in our great Preschool? Want more information on what the Parents’ Council does or would possibly like to serve next year? We’d love to talk!

Please contact Rebecca Blanchette at rblanchette23@gmail.com/646-417-2772. Thanks in advance!

The Parents’ Council

teacher appreciation The Teacher Appreciation Committee organized a wonderful Salad Bar Luncheon on April 13.

The committee provided a variety of yummy salads and sides for everyone to enjoy. The committee members contributed fruit, fresh salads with all of the toppings, as well as chicken salad, egg salad, rice, quinoa and pasta salads.

Thank you to the following people for their time and generosity: Kathryn Brown, Liz Jones, Melissa Gordon, Janett Park, Gina Teliho, Rebecca Blanchette, Andrea Clausen, Kristen Entrekin, Johanna Barnes, Natalie Albert, Lindsay Smithson, Jennifer Williams, Tricia Matthews, Trish Campbell and Morgan Smith.

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chapel The Closing Chapel services will be on Thursday, May 12, and Friday, May 13 at 9:20 a.m. in the Sanctuary.

The May chapel speaker will be Will Nichols.

Donations of deodorant for the City of Refuge are greatly appreciated. Children will bring their donations to Chapel and place in a wagon at the front of the Sanctuary.

may blessing May I be fair to others and make this world a better place.

If I see someone being treated unfairly, may I go to help them.

If I see someone in need, may I share with them what I have.

For I believe that You will bless me.

I believe that your goodness will shine on me like the morning sun.

Amen

Isaiah 58:6-8 Join the conversation via:

@PtreePresPreschool

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the outdoor clossroom with the hive room On October 23, 2015, The Hive classroom found a young bird on the ground in the outdoor classroom. His leg was severely injured and he could not walk or fly. It was the kind of injury a bird sustains when it flies into a window or other solid object.

The bird needed help.

The class located a small cardboard box. With the help of Miss Mary, who was working in the outdoor classroom that day with Miss Cathy, the children collected dry leaves to line the bottom of the box. They carefully moved the bird to the quiet, dark space in the box for a trip to a wildlife rehabilitator.

Most veterinarians are not trained or equipped to accept wild birds. Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation is a specialty requiring trained rehabilitators. In the metro-Atlanta area, one of the primary wildlife rehabilitation organizations is a not-for-profit in DeKalb County called AWARE. See: http://www.awarewildlife.org/ AWARE volunteer Sandie Shumate, DVM, took the injured bird and diagnosed a severely broken leg, significant weight loss, dehydration, and stress. Dr. Shumate provided food, water, antibiotics and a safe place for the bird to recover. The doctor also soon identified that the bird was an immature wood thrush. According to Dr. Shumate, “He is a sweet little bird who grew quite fond of the mourning dove and brown thrasher buddies in the aviary. He also loves blackberries!”

However, wood thrushes migrate to Mexico and Central America during the winter.

By the time the broken leg had healed and the bird was strong enough to be released, all the other birds had gone. Our little thrush spent the winter with Dr. Shumate.

“The wood thrush did beautifully! We released 3 birds a couple of weeks ago. He went with two cedar waxwings. Thanks so much for saving this little guy.”

Wood thrushes were plentiful in the past, but the destruction of their habitat both in the United States and in Mexico and Central America as well as decreases in their major food sources has resulted in a significant decline in populations. It is very unusual to see a wood thrush close up, and almost no one ever holds one. The students in The Hive classroom had a special experience in the garden last fall when they found the injured bird!

We all can enjoy the lovely song of the wood thrush this spring. A wood thrush has set up housekeeping in the wooded area behind the school. Listen carefully in the morning during drop off. This is what the song sounds like: https://www.audubon. org/field-guide/bird/wood-thrush We are collecting clean, used towels of any size in good condition for AWARE Wildlife Center. Towels are used for everything from bedding for animals to cleaning. According to AWARE, “We use lots of towels at AWARE, and it doesn't take long before they get holes in them and need to be replaced. We will take any towel as long as it does not have holes or is frayed.” . 4 .

sustainability WHAT IS THE DIRTY DOZEN AND CLEAN FIFTEEN? The Environmental Working Group (EWG) releases a yearly report that provides shoppers with a guide for pesticides in produce. EWG singles out produce with the highest pesticide loads for its Dirty Dozen list, as well as highlighting the produce that is least likely to hold pesticide residues in its Clean Fifteen list. These can be a great resource for deciding how to spend money at the grocery store. If you are trying to save on your bill, these lists will prioritize when you really need to buy organic versus conventionally grown produce.

The latest update reports that USDA tests found a total 146 different pesticides on thousands of fruit and vegetable samples examined in 2014. The pesticides persisted on fruits and vegetables tested by USDA - even when they were washed and, in some cases, peeled. Key findings include: Dirty Dozen • More than 98 percent of strawberry samples, peaches, nectarines, and apples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.

• The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other produce.

• A single grape sample and a sweet bell pepper sample contained 15 pesticides.

• Single samples of strawberries showed 17 different pesticides.

Clean Fifteen • Avocados were the cleanest: only 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides.

• Some 89 percent of pineapples, 81 percent of papayas, 78 percent of mangoes, 73 percent of kiwi and 62 percent of cantaloupes had no residues.

• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.

Visit this site: https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/index.php to see the full report, and additional details.

MAY DATES TO REMEMBER: This year the Preschool will recycle the green school bags. The school bags will be collected during carpool the last two days of school. All names and carpool numbers will be removed. The bags will be recycled into fabric for various uses.

Also, please bring in this year’s carpool hang tags to be recycled for next year. We will collect at carpool the last two days of school.

Enjoy life's simple pleasures!

Camp Peaches 2016

June 13-17 and June 20-24 9:15 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.

Registration for Camp Peaches www.peachtreepresbyterianpreschool.org

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Spring Fling is this weekend!

GAMES! PETTING ZOO! MOONWALKS! CHARACTERS! FOOD TRUCKS! BAKE SALE! April 30, 2016 10:00 – 2:00 (Rain or Shine) BUY YOUR BRACELETS ONLINE at www.peachtreepresbyterianpreschool.org Spring Fling is a parent run all volunteer event!

Don’t forget to sign up for your shift!

For more information, please contact Stacey Noell (staceywnoell@gmail.com) or Christina West (westcv@gmail.com).

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The Five/Six Classes - Even Chickens have Birthdays!

The Mosaic and Tapestry classrooms worked together to create a birthday celebration for the chickens. The daily life with animals gives children opportunities to care for another living being. We see children as role models, treating animals with kindness and compassion. We believe their actions are founded in a deeply rooted, automatic caring ethic.

“We are planning the chicken birthday party! It is next Tuesday! We are going to play hide the grapes. That’s kind of like an Easter Egg hunt for the chickens. Miss Cathy came in to help make a cake for the chickens. We made it out of cornmeal!”

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classroom spotlight The Coral Classroom offered the children images of several different shades of purple and challenged them to mix the color purple using red, blue and white. Many children were very engaged in this challenge and kept asking for different colors to add to create different shades. We believe giving the children time to figure out how to create color, rather than just instructing them how to create color, helps build problem solving skills as well as self confidence and fosters creativity.

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