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Kids learn through play, but what about the grown ups? The Grove School is a playground for everyone. Join the fun!
(Psst, you can move the colored circles with your mouse.)
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An AFTER picture - a student tends to the canteloupe and tomatoes.

Wow!  What a difference a few days make.  Upon return from our long weekend, our organic garden has grown by leaps and bounds.  I took a group of students outside today to help stake up the tomatoes.  I thought I would share a few before and after photos to highlight the growth.

The students were excited to see silk on the corn, flowers on the tomatoes, and our first yellow squash growing.  More importantly, they expressed anticipation of actually eating all of it.

Click to go to our EARLIER POSTS from the garden and see more photos.

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Students use their special loupes (magnifying glasses) to find insects in the garden.

During our Eco-Friends class time over the past few weeks, students were posed with the question, “What makes an insect and insect?”  Our students combined their prior knowledge with their immediate observations of similarities and differences to discover the unique characteristics of insects.

Our students were introduced to an insect’s three main body parts through a rendition of the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” entitled, “Head, Thorax, Abdomen.”  After observing toy insects, student participated in sorting a variety of different “bugs” using a Venn diagram on the SmartBoard.  Students were asked to label the bugs by moving them on the screen into a circles labeled “Insect” or “Not an Insect.”

The students drew and labeled the parts of the ant.

After sifting through scorpions, spiders and worms, students became comfortable with identifying insects through these characteristics: 1) Three Body Parts (head, thorax, abdomen),  2) Eyes, Mouth and Antennae, 3) An Exoskeleton.

While observing and describing pictures, drawings and toy insects helped us learn what to look for when we went outside. Students had the most fun going on an insect hunt in the garden.  Our classes identified flies, bumblebees, ants and beetles all living in our garden!

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A student finds the difference in the weight of food in the store.

One of our teachers recently added a housekeeping area called “The Good Food Market” in our morning enrichment classroom.  It’s a fun area of the classroom where our students get to role play as if they are shopping, cooking or running a store.

The market is now open for “business!”

One of the things that I like best about this new area is the fact that the market is a collaborative effort of both the teacher and the students.  The teacher began setting up the area over a period of days.  As she was so doing, the students gave her ideas on how to set it up.  Instead of just doing it all herself, the teacher used the time she had with them during the morning enrichment program to enlist them in the work.

The students helped cut out and paint the letters that go over the market. They also helped make the fruits and veggies that are being used as manipulatives in the market.

Students play in the market they helped create.

Once they made the produce from air dry clay and painted it, the teacher then placed the homemade produce in a “basket” and asked the students to paint still life renderings.  And they did a terrific job with them!

I know I prefer to work in an environment where I can influence my surroundings.  I can tell you that our students have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of creating their morning classroom environment.  They have a strong sense of ownership in their own work and they continue to learn that they can influence their surroundings in positive ways.

Take a look at all the photos below showing the students working on and playing in their new market.

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A student carefully attaches the propeller to her plane.

If you walk around our school on any given day and look into the classrooms and in our kitchen area, you will almost always find a stash of a variety of recycled materials. Whether it is content left over from our own uses or it is recycled stuff brought in by our families, we always seem to have a treasury of recycled material.

Ms. Tanya and her students put some of that material to good use by constructing airplanes using only those recycled products.

A Pre-K student holds up his original recycled airplane creation.

We love to provide opportunities for students to exercise their creativity and imagination. This fun project was another way to do just that.  There was no formula or template for students to follow.  They simply used the materials that were available to them and created recycled airplane masterpieces.

A local retailer, Trader Joes, coincidentally was hosting a competition for children to build the airplanes and some of our students entered their contest.  We have not yet heard the results.  We will be sure to share any good news about the contest here on our blog.

I hope you enjoy the photos below showing the students making their planes.

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Due to overwhelming demand, we are preparing to start our FOURTH session of our Mommy and Me! class.

Mommy and Me! is a 90-minute long program concentrating on the development of social skills through Music, Language, Physical Education and Art. The program provides interactive and imaginative experiences to enhance development for your child.  Each class will form its own chemistry as the parent and the child share a sense of togetherness with other parents and children.

This class will be for mom’s and their children ages 12-24 months.  The class is led by one of our Grove School teachers.

The classes will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 – 10:45.

** UPDATE April 2011 – A new session starts Monday, June 6.  A session is currently underway and ends May 28.  If you have interest in attending that last 6 or so weeks of that session, let us know.

Please give me a call at 467-6494 if you would like to enroll or  if you have any questions or comments.

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I am so pleased to announce that we are adding a special program this summer.  In addition to our regular preschool summer program, we are also adding CAMP GROVE for students in grades K-2 .

Have your children SEE THE WORLD with us.

Here is some of the details about the camp:

  • * Camps will run from 9 am – 5 pm, Monday-Friday.
  • * 12 oneeweek sessions from June 6-August 26
  • * Students K through 2nd grade are eligible.
  • * Each camp will feature a fun filled week of activities as students learn more about the world they live in.
  • * Sign up for one week, one month or all 12 weeks.
  • * The twelve weeks are grouped into 6 two-week sessions related to the biomes:  water, arctic, desert, grasslands, safari and planet Earth.

The weeks are shown below.

June 6-10   Under the Sea
June 13-17  Water World
June 20-24  Polar Express
June 27-July 1  Keepin’ it Cool
July 5-8  Seein’ the Sahara
July 11-15  Get Your Kicks on Route 66
July 18-22 Scientific Explorations
July 25-29  Safari Adventures
Aug 1-5  Weather Watchers
Aug 8-12  A Camping We Will Go
Aug 15-19  Nature All Around Us
Aug 22-26  Exploring Our Universe

I am more excited than ever about this summer.  I can’t wait.  Sign up soon as space is limited!!

Give me a call if you have any questions: 972-618-3523.

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Hello! My name is Miranda Laughlin. I am the Strands Teacher here at The Grove School. I am a recent resident of the Dallas area having moved from Colorado in September of 2010. I graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado in 2009 with a Bachelors of Science in Human Development and Family Studies along with an Early Childhood Education Teaching License. During my time in Fort Collins, I had teaching positions with second grade, kindergarten, preschool and special needs early childhood education classrooms.

In August of 2010, my husband Derek and I were married and moved to Dallas, where he is working as an engineer and attending seminary to be a Biblical counselor. I most recently worked as the lead teacher of a toddler classroom before coming to be a part of The Grove School team!

My philosophy of education focuses on serving children in building their path to learning how to think rather than what to think. Children should be the author of their own education story, and I as an educator get to create environments and situations where they may observe, explore, create and form ideas about the world. It is a joy to be a part of children formulating questions, hypotheses and intelligent thoughts as the foundation for the remainder of their educational journey. I see myself as a life long learner and enjoy being taught from my students as much as they enjoy learning from their teachers. My motto: “I’m not a square, I’m a circle and I can roll with it!

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Two students draw upside, using the underside of a table.

HOW DO YOU LIKE TO DRAW?

That simple question turned into a fun activity for students in Ms Katie’s and Ms. Shonda’s Early Preschool class at our school.  Students identified ways they liked to draw and took turns experiencing all the different methods.  They then voted by placing their picture underneath their favorite way to draw.  You can see by the chart (photo below) that they preferred drawing while upside down.

Enjoy the photos below.

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Students at The Grove School of Cary had a special night Feb. 17 when they invited their dads, grandfathers or another special man in their lives to participate in the Man in My Life event.  The students led their special guests in fun classroom activities.  Students read with their guest and also had a tower building contest where the teams used recycled products to build a tower as high as they could.

Enjoy the video montage below highlighting some of the night’s events.

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Two students watch the reaction of the water hitting the snow mix.

Both inside and outside the school building, the past few days at our school have had a very consistent theme: SNOW…and lots of it!

As you know, outside we have had sleet, ice, snow and treacherous roads. Inside the school building we have also had snow.  However in this case, it was not treacherous, but loads of fun!

The Outdoor Grove is covered in a thin layer of Texas snow.

Students in Ms. Opal’s and Ms. Mandy’s class made snow inside their classroom. It was a fun experiment that the children really enjoyed. They were able to add water to a special “snow mix” to make the fluffy white snow right in front of their eyes.

The photos show the students making, touching, and playing with the snow they made in their class.

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