News
Parent Teacher Conferences - Spring Evaluations/Conferences will be scheduled for Monday, April 18th - Friday, April 29th. Conferences will be scheduled in the afternoon hours from 1-3pm in 15-minute increments. Grasshopper conferences will be scheduled in 30-minute increments. If you are not able to make it into school at this time, we strongly encourage you to sign-up for a Call-In conference. No Infant Room Conferences.
Re-Registration forms are due NOW - If you would like to continue at YCP for the upcoming Academic year, please indicate on the form. . The fee to guarantee your child’s spot must accompany all re-registration forms. Those who will be leaving us, must include a date as to your child's last day - we ask you to put down a specific day with the understanding that this might shift a day or two. It is more important to know if your child will be leaving before or after the Summer Session. Further information will be included on the form. Forms may be turned in to the Front Desk and payment may be made via check or online.
Family Style Eating - We have introduced this concept at lunch for our Bumble Bee, Ladybug, and Grasshopper Rooms. Children are now encouraged to:
- Serve themselves with child-size serving dishes, utensils, and small pitchers
- Try every item, even if for just one bite
- Practice manners – “Please,” “Thank You,” and “May I have some more?”
- Engage in peer-directed conversation
- Help to set the table
- Practice healthy habits like hand-washing, chewing with their mouths closed, properly using utensils, not touching shared foods
By empowering children during meals, we have found them to be more interested in the food being served. And after a few days of spills, we are happy to report that children are doing an excellent job of pouring, passing, and serving food and drinks all by themselves.
What do children learn when they sit down to eat:
- Cooperation and social skills - practicing patience, sharing and passing platters, taking turns and waiting, and using appropriate language and manners.
- Help to develop language skills by engaging in teacher and peer conversations - sharing the best and worst part of their day, discussing current events relevant to their age group, identifying different and recognized foods.
- Expands fine motor skills as children serve themselves, learn to hold flatware, and pour their own beverages.
- Learn mathematical skills, including spatial relationships and one-to-one correspondence - sorting and counting tableware and food items, setting the table, or placing the chairs.
- Deepens relationships and friendships in a relaxed atmosphere where children can focus on one another without outside distractions (particularly helpful for those children who might be “shy” in louder play settings.)
Events
Show & Tell is now listed in the Calendar portion of the website - click on the individual day to see what items your child needs to bring in.
April Monthly Activity Calendars and Lunch Menu are now posted online.
Teddy Bear Portraits are scheduled for Spring and Graduate portraits on May 10th and 11th.
Upcoming Opportunities at YCP
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) - We have the opportunity to have our Center become a pick-up site for Owl's Nest Farm's CSA. If enough families sign-up with YCP, the farm will drop shares of fruits and vegetables every (or every other) week directly into your child's cubby to take home.
Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA) is a produce subscription program where eaters pay in advance and get a share of the produce grown on the farm throughout the season. Put another way, a CSA is a relationship between eaters, farmers and the land in which everyone shares the risks and rewards of farming. By directly supporting a local farm, your family will get lots of delicious, nutritious, and local vegetables in return. Owl's Nest Farm's CSA season is 22 weeks, from late May through late October. There are two types of shares offered:
Full shares: pick up every week from late May to late October, for 22 shares total. $675 & Half shares: pick up every other week from late May to late October, for 11 shares total. $340
The farm aims to offer 8-10 items per week in the CSA share and to provide a wide variety of vegetables throughout the season. Shares at the beginning of the season are typically lighter than shares later in the summer. Each week, information about which vegetables are almost finished, which ones are at peak production, and what the farm thinks will be ready soon will be included. The farm is growing the following this 2016 season:
Spring: Arugula, beets, broccoli raab, bunching onions, carrots, chard, collards, cabbage, garlic scapes and scallions, kale, lettuce, peas, radishes, spicy mesclun mix, spinach, strawberries, tat soi, turnips, herbs, and seedlings.
Summer: Basil, beans, chard, chili peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, onions, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash.
Fall: Remaining summer crops, plus broccoli raab, napa cabbage, carrots, chard, collards, kale, lettuce, potatoes, radishes, spicy mesclun mix, spinach, sweet potatoes, tat soi, turnips, and winter squash.
Please email us by April 11th (next Monday!) if your family would like to participate in this opportunity. We need to have a minimum of ten (10) families participating to have the produce shares delivered to YCP.