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Meet Ms. Courtney
Heidi Summers | January 30, 2012 | Comment
The Grove School of Plano is happy to announce that we have a new Strands teacher. When Ms. Lauren asked to teach our newest preschool class, we were nervous about finding just the right person to replace her in Strands. Who understands the necessary components of maintaining a compost pile? Who would be able to utilize the greenhouse? And most importantly, who would love and nurture our Grove children in just the right way?
Ms. Courtney has all of these qualities. As a Grove parent herself (her son is in pre-K), she knows exactly what parents are looking for in a preschool, and she has the motivation and passion to deliver it to our families. Ms. Courtney grew up in McKinney, Texas, and she graduated from UT Dallas. She has a degree in history with a Texas teaching certificate. In the past, Courtney has substituted in many different preschools and taught a variety of programs at the YMCA. She has also coached gymnastics and cheerleading.
Here is what Ms. Courtney says about being the Strands teacher, “I plan on fostering your child’s creativity and imagination through lessons and activities that are fun, interactive, and exciting. It has always been my philosophy that EVERY child is born with unique gifts and talents in the classroom. I am really looking forward to teaching Strands and sharing an educational and fun-filled time together.
Take a look at some of the activities Ms. Courtney has already led:
- Painting stars
- Playing with a parachute
- Measuring and weighing
- Planets revolving around the sun.
- Making music

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Healthy Eating, Happy Faces
Heidi Summers | January 11, 2012 | Comment
How do we get kids to eat their vegetables? This question has come up a number of times at our school. With a focus on “healthy mind, healthy body, and healthy planet”, we feel it’s important to create an environment where children eat heathy and enjoy the taste of foods such as fresh vegetables. A recent article I read about children and vegetables suggested that this may be more difficult than it sounds,because some studies suggest that children may have an actual gene that creates a bitter taste invegetables when they are eaten. As children grow, the bitterness subsides. Until this happens, we need to continue to encourage children to try a variety of foods and make the expereince of eating vegetables a positive one.
During our enrichment program, Ms. Courtney was able to do this. For her “cooking” class, she had the children create happy faces on wheat tortillas by using hummus and a variety of vegetables. Children were asked to spread the hummus out on the tortilla, and then they used the vegetables they selected to create eyes, hair, a mouth, and a nose. The children then folded their tortillas and ate them.
Even our youngest children enjoyed this activity. They created so many different kinds of faces. And, most surprising, they ate everything! Parents were surpised their children were willing to eat cucumbers, tomatoes, and even peas! At The Grove School, we want our children to develop healthy eating and lifestyles. We were all so pleased to see our efforts pay off in this activity.
Say Goodbye to Germs!
Today in Pre-K we did a fun activity with glitter. We covered markers with glue and then rolled them in glitter. The glitter was supposed to represent “germs”. We had the kids pick up the markers and write their names and pretend like there was nothing on the markers. This was fun for some and for others they REALLY did not want to touch these glittery markers! After they wrote their names we had them look at their hands and see all of the glitter that covered them. Then we talked about how this is just like germs except with germs you can’t actually see them! So if you cough in your hand, sneeze on your hand or use the restroom without washing your hands, those germs can spread to anything and everything that we touch. They thought this was so silly but it was a great way to really understand the concept of yucky germs and the importance of washing our hands frequently!





















