Utopia Preschool

It's been an exciting past couple of months! We wanted to share with you a couple of the fun things we have been doing in class recently: Steamed Pumpkin Cake The week before Thanksgiving the children made a delicious steamed pumpkin cake! The children had been talking a lot about pumpkins after we had made pumpkin soup earlier in the month so we decided to test out a new recipe the teachers had discovered. Making the steamed pumpkin cake was not only a delicious activity, but was an activity that helped build math skills (measurement and counting), social skills (turn taking and cooperation), and fine motor skills. Here is the recipe if you would like to make the cake at home: Ingredients: 1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 Teaspoons baking soda 1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 Teaspoon salt 1/4 Teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 Cup butter, melted 2 Cups packed light brown sugar 3 Eggs, beaten 1 (15 ounce) cans solid-pac...

October 2012 We are one month into the school year and things are moving already! Utopia hosted our annual Welcome Party on October 4th.  New and returning families had an opportunity to meet and mingle amongst the staff and the children.  We had amazing food and a fabulous good time. Thank you to all those who attended! Studio- Enrollment is picking up and we are making use of our "Studio". The teachers and children use this space as on extension of our classroom. It is important to us that  we can provide opportunity for children's development to take place with smaller groups.  Thus far, the children have been creating watercolor paintings and experimenting gravity through the use of Theraputty (similar to silly putty). The putty is great, not only for their scientific investigations, but the development of fine motors skills as well.                         ...

   This Summer has been very exciting with many new changes! In July we welcomed a new teacher, Danielle Loughridge! She is working with us part-time in the Summer and will move to full-time in the fall. Danielle and Bridget have worked together at Presidio CDC and have been trained in the Reggio Approach.  Our first task this Summer was to re-arrange the classroom. Teachers did this the week after Graduation and on July 9th opened our "new" classroom to the children! This was very new for the children and families and we have received great positive feedback from everyone! We are very excited to debut our classroom in September to our returning children and families that have been away this Summer!

   Thank you to all our families for making Graduation 2012 such an amazing event!!! Our Graduation Celebration was a big success and we will remember all of our Graduates always. The children gave a remarkable performance in singing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and all their teachers and families are very proud of all their hard work this year. We had a great turn out and we truly appreciate everyone that was able to attend. We look forward to our upcoming year with our new friends and our returning children and families!

Thank you to Michael, Anna's dad, for building us our own sandbox! Michael was generous enough to build it, bring it to our yard, and fill it with sand for us. The children have truly enjoyed playing, building, and exploring in the sand. Also, thank you to all the parents who have donated new sand toys! A new addition to our Art Studio is a brand new light table! Many of the children have been able to go over to the art studio this week to explore this new table. In the pictures below I turned off the lights in the Art Studio and the children chose different materials to put on the light table. We have explained to the children that they have to be very careful with this table because it is fragile. Again, if you have not visited our Art Studio yet please feel free to ask a teacher to take you over! At the art table the children have been creating with clay! The children have been learning how to manipulate the clay over several weeks. They have been using different tools to create...

For the past two weeks the children have been working on water color paintings! Ivette (Andres' mom), while putting together our Move Night Cioppino basket, had the great idea of auctioning off the children's artwork at the Cioppino dinner. So we talked to the children about drawing and then painting something special which many people will see and be able to buy. So the children made their first one... Then the next day we revisited what they had made and then talked about what we could add or change. We did this over several days. Some children had 3,4, and even 5 drafts depending on how many days the child is at school a week. This activity gave a great opportunity for the children to revisit what they had created and then plan their next step. It was also interesting to listen to them give each other peer feedback. We would sit at at a table with 6-8 kids and talk about each child's painting, then the children would comment on what they liked about the painting and what...