The Garden School Tattler

I don’t know if any of the children told you, but we had an evacuation yesterday. Miss Molly smelled gas and called the gas company and they told us to evacuate the building. We quickly bundled the children into their coats and took them across the street. The fire truck came whirling down the road to the children’s delight and they checked the place out. It seems that someone put a little too much gas smell in the lines a station up from us and caused that awful gas smell outside OUR building and the buildings around us. We were very grateful it was a nothing deal. I’m glad Molly was on her toes.

We practiced the play a little yesterday to get a feel for who will play who. It was really cute.

We tried soybeans yesterday. Some of the kids really liked them. They are a cross between peas and lima beans.

We are sending a letter home today about our summer program. Please give us feedback. It’s important to us to know what you like and don’t like. And if you’ve spent a summer with us, please let us know which field trips your children liked best. This always helps.

We were able to play outdoors yesterday, and we will do it again today. It’s a blessing for the kids to go outdoors and shake off some of the cabin fever. Our usual schedule is to let them go out before and after lunch, so they have been missing a lot of outdoor time this winter.

Thanks for all the kudos about the playroom. It’s working out very well. Getting circle time out of the playroom allows us to have more play room and a quieter place for music and circle time. Trying to get the children’s attention when there are so many distractions is tough. Now Miss Amy can play the piano and sing with the children which is so nice for us.

Happy Leap Year!

Independence by Judy Lyden

Independence is a key word for very young children, and adults can determine just how well a child is developing or maturing by a child’s desire for independence. The whole project from crawling to the final launch into adulthood is the desire and the actuality of doing all by themselves.

The biggest snag in a child’s desire for independence is the parent, and that begins early with the play pen, walkers and toys that limit a child’s movement. Now agreed, there are times when a crawling infant needs to be confined, but many children are confined most of their waking hours in contrivances like swings, walkers, and infant seats that only mimic movement. Crawling, after all, is a dirty business, and keeping baby clean is the primary job of parents, right?

Crawling is crucial for discovery and for the side to side motion that will later promote reading. Parents who retard a child’s active crawling are not promoting the idea of independence from the very beginning. Children are washable and so are clothes, but the loss of discovery does not equal out in the end – the loss is a loss forever.

Walking is another early childhood independence factor. Children who are carried constantly or who sit in strollers year after year are not being given the opportunity to go and see, and those missed years of discovery will take a toll on the child’s personality. Infantalizing children creates monsters. “I want; go get; give me; do for me,” are the cries of children who have never done it by themselves. Then suddenly, they won’t want to.

Take a “do it for me” child anywhere, and the response is a constant stream of tears, constant badgering, constant work for the parent. Children will howl, scream, cry or just sulk because mom or dad is not doing it for them, not carrying them, not involved with every second of their lives, every movement, every visit to the toilet, every apple that needs to be sliced, diced, pealed with the sugar spots removed, and then begged to eat the prepared apple even holding it for the three year old to take a bite.

And then there is school. The infant child starts preschool and the world looks really really big. Mom is not there to give me a toy, to tell me I need to go to the bathroom, to fight my battles, to play for me, to make friends for me, to carry me from one thing to another. No matter how much a parent encourages at this point, the child is sure to be lost because the discovery of crawling and walking and doing what he or she can do from infancy has been done for him or her, and now, the platform that should have been created that amounts to steps down to the public pool are not there, and the child has to jump from a very very high place, and it’s just a nightmare.

What are some of the signals that a child is being held back by a loving adult?

Tattling. Children who tattle are looking for an adult to solve their problems. Tattling amounts to reporting the behavior of another child to make an adult to take over and subdue the offending situation because little Mr. or Miss Dependent can’t solve his or her problems. Incessant tattlers, tattlers who disrupt their parents more than a couple of times a day are showing signs of deep dependence.

Chronic tears. Children who cry all day are children who are emotionally lost. Bursting into tears for the slightest thing that’s gone wrong is a terrible way to spend a day. Tears are a call to rescue, and at the preschool age, they should be saved for real hurt. When a child bursts into tears because they are told to do something or not to do something, is a sign that they can’t direct themselves.

Crying without tears or tantrums. Children who are angry are children who cry without tears. Anger is going to be a big part of a child’s life who is not becoming independent. He or she is angry and frustrated because he or she is not growing up and a child knows it. A child wants desperately to do it all by himself, but on one hand, he doesn’t have to because mommy or daddy will do it for him. On the other hand, he doesn’t think he can, so he cries.

The Spoiled Child. The spoiled child has come to believe she doesn’t have to. She doesn’t have to so she won’t. Not me, not now, not ever because my mother or father will. The rules, after all, don’t apply to me. They are for all the children around me, but I don’t have to. Then, when Miss Dependence is dumped into the public arena, she crumbles because her safety zone is gone.

Most children want to be independent from their parents because that’s what they are supposed to do. By the end of the first year, most children understand that they are different and separate human entities from their parents and that is a good thing. So children who are allowed, begin to explore the world on their terms. When parents interfere with this, alter it, and repress the desire to explore, a child will see the displeasure in the parent and come to believe that independence is a bad thing.

The tragedy is that well intended parents are failing at early childhood out of the best possible motives. They are controlling the outcome of their children’s lives to make those lives picture perfect, but lives aren’t picture perfect. We learn from our OWN failings, from falling down, from getting in trouble – not someone else’s.

Let kids fall down; let them stretch; let them get dirty; let them fail once in a while; let them get in trouble without racing to their defense; let them figure out their own problems and solve them themselves because that’s what they are supposed to do, and that’s what they really want to do. It’s called growing up.

More About Art

While reading a respectable article from a respectable publication I came across this list of dos and don’ts. I read the list nodding my head, because I had read this again and again and heard this list of guidelines for years as the “proper and only way to foster art, blah, blah, blah.ad nauseam ad infinitum.

As an educator and someone who has worked in the trenches – not just the field – but with the actual lives of children for over a quarter of a century, my smile turned up once again at the list. First you read it – then we’ll talk.

The following guidelines for teachers will foster creativity in the young child.

1. Avoid patterns, ditto outlines, and coloring books. Allow children opportunities to experiment with art materials and media. Unstructured and “raw materials” allows the chance for creative expression.

2. Art allows children to develop positive views of themselves. Praise the child for working with the art supplies. Emphasize, “You can.” Discourage the use of models and patterns.

3. Praise the child’s work. Communicate that you value uniqueness, diversity, and difference.

4. Comment on design, shape, and color. Avoid making the child tell you “what” the picture is about. This is especially true for younger children as they may not know.

5. Show how to use the art materials provided. Avoid doing the work for them or editing their work.

6. Relate to parents that in art, the process is more important than the product.

7. Provide opportunities for children to view works of art. Take a field trip to the library or local museum. Display great art in the classroom.



My argument with any of this list is that it narrows the experience of art just like the warnings about what not to do. By discarding pre-pictured supplies like coloring books, which children love, you are actually limiting some children’s desire to create. There are some children who learn to color well by using pre-pictured supplies. Then, with coloring well in hand, they can branch out to do other things and be very very pleased with the product. At the same time, unstructured raw materials can be very frustrating to children who are not lead through their use. Many children will not make the connections between a raw material and making anything at all, and art will become the hated thing to do. A comfort zone in art is important to develop because then the craft of art is allowed to elevate into “art.”


Allowing a child to talk about his work is always a good thing. Asking a child about his work says, “I care about you.” If a child doesn’t know, you might tell him what you see. This always brings a smile and hug. When a teacher takes the time to really look at a child’s work, there is a bond that stays and stays. Teaching and doing take a lot of trust, and trust is made through communication.


One of the most cherished things we do at the GS is “directed drawing.” We show a child how to draw things in his or her world. The children love this. They make all kinds of things that they would have had to wait years to learn to draw, and the children love the outcome – namely the product. Children love to do, but they are human and the product is very important to them. They want to know they have achieved and that they have accomplished something they set out to do. The process is not always a delight. One of those not so delightful mediums is paper mache.


Art can’t be limited by the intentions of PC themes and “age appropriate” agendas. It’s a natural wonder and something that happens when it is least expected. It’s a discovery that exercises the mind and the body. Instead of do this and don’t do that for art how about “Just do it.”




Salt – The New Villain

From Food Navigator

Comment: I thought this was really interesting. I wonder what all this stuff would taste like W/O salt? Can you imagine buying some of those ready to eat frozen dinners sans salt? Double yuck! How about saltless chips and saltless soup – that’s all soup is – watered down salt. Read on McDuff!

The great salt debate – not just black and white

By Chris Jones
2/22/2008-

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to remove salt from the list of foods it categorizes as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS), but taking salt out of food is not as easy as it might seem, ingredients firm DSM told FoodNavigator-USA.com.

The FDA has launched a public consultation on whether to remove salt’s GRAS status following repeated petitions from interest groups highlighting the alleged danger of salt consumption.

The results of that consultation – and the FDA’s final decision – will not be known until later this year, but this has not stopped the issue from hitting the headlines.

A recent article in USA Today highlighted the massive increase in salt intake among Americans as a result, mainly, of excessive consumption of process foods, in which salt is widely used as a flavor enhancer, a texturizer and a preservative.

“If salt were taken off the GRAS list, manufacturers could be subject to limitations on the quantity used in the production of food,” the paper noted, adding that the FDA held a hearing on the issue last November.

In a response to the USA Today article, DSM Food Specialities, a Dutch company, issued a statement underlining the complexity of the salt issue – and some of the solutions it could bring.

“Ingredient suppliers must develop new technologies that help food manufacturers find innovative solutions to the challenge of reducing the sodium content of processed foods,” said Peter Kempe, president of DSM Food Specialties USA, the American subsidiary of the Dutch group, in a statement issued last week.

“We know the food industry takes this issue very seriously and we partner regularly with major food manufacturers to help them achieve their internal sodium reduction targets.”

But Hanneke Veldhuis, business manager at DSM Food Specialities in the Netherlands, told this website that finding alternatives to salt was far more complicated than it might at first seem.

“Salt has many functions in food, not just adding to the taste, and it is hard to find one single product that reproduces all the functionalities in the same way,” she said.

“We have a yeast extract product that is popular as a salt replacer in many products, but the taste is not always 100 per cent the same.”

She stressed that salt could not be taken out of every product in the same way without having major effects on taste and texture.

“You cannot, for example, cut salt levels in bread than by more than around 50 per cent without having an impact on the baking process.”

Veldhuis stressed that while a company such as DSM, which has a long history of experience in fermentation, yeasts and extracts, was able to create alternatives to salt, it did not feel it had a role to play in the salt debate.

“That will be up to the US regulators to decide,” she stressed.

“What is certainly true is that replacing salt in many foodstuffs will be a hell of a challenge for food companies, and it will cost them a lot.”

Ultimately, this cost issue may well sway the FDA, especially in the light of the raft of contradictory science on the pros and cons of salt in foods, and since many food companies are already taking voluntary action to cut salt levels.

“We are working with many companies the world over on salt replacement ingredients,” said Veldhuis.

“There is a feeling that gradually reducing salt levels in many products, ahead of any statutory requirement to do so, no matter how far away that might be, is the best way to win consumer acceptance.”

DSM has two main yeast extract products that it markets as salt replacers: the new Maxarite brand, which is used mainly in cheeses, breads and tortillas, and the more established Maxarome, which is widely used in soups, sauces and meat products.

But neither of these can do everything that salt does. “When it comes to preserving food, especially meats, yeast extracts can only be part of the solution to replacing salt,” said Lindhuis, who stressed that there were other ingredients that offered salt replacement.

“We are certainly seeing huge interest in our products from the food industry, in the US, Europe and especially Asia, where the high levels of salt in the diet mean that people are at higher risk,” she said.

“This is a market that will continue to grow, whatever the legislators decide.”

The FDA is not expected to remove salt’s GRAS status at the present time, but with pressure from health advocates and consumer groups to at least tackle the salt-related health issues, the likelihood of some form of restriction on salt use, in the long term, must remain high.

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The Garden School Tattler

Change, change, and more change! It’s been a great changing week. Personally, I love change. I love that growth that change can bring. I also love the challenges that changes can test us with. It’s a good time for change; it’s lent.

The children, who have not been able to be out because of ice and freezing temps, have had a lot of fun with all our changes. Some of them have helped with the changes and that helps them grow up thinking that they are a part of the changes.

There are always new rules with change and if teachers keep rules simple, and the children see the result of the new rules making play even more fun, then we’ve all learned something.

The hardest part of the changes has been with teachers who find change difficult. Some people respond to change well and some don’t. But change is the growth spurt to life. Without constant good change, life just seems to dwindle away. When life begins to depend on the status quo, there is no place to go up. At the same time, constant change means a lot of hard work. But as I see it, hard work is the key to living well. The harder you work, the more life will bring to you.

It’s been a very hard working, hard changing time in my own personal life these days. I find the loss of my mother a bit hard to realize with all the implications of losing a life. The adjustment, the thinking, the feel of that loss has been really hard, and of course one thinks about one’s own mortality. Saying goodbye for the last time was hard. Being in a room and watching someone take a final breath was hard, especially when that someone is your mother. I’ve tried to squeeze Miss Molly’s Robbie as often as I can because I think squeezing a small child is a great remedy to sadness. It helps with the separation.

Miss Amy has noticed some real changes in her life as well. She is happily teaching music and singing some happy songs as she has moved all the music equipment into her room and into a nice arrangement for playing, singing and learning. It sure has been a great week for UP!

Miss Kelly is not freezing in the cold room anymore. She loves the sunshine that pours into her room and is enjoying the warmth and privacy a K-1 room should have. She even kept some of the plants!!!

Mr. Tom has moved into the kitchen a little. I bought him a juicer and have put him in charge of ice cream. He’s going to take over afternoon snack creations. He is contemplating the garden and is going to build a compost bin. We are going to move the strawberry bed and put in a few new things. It’s all very exciting and very child involving, because his first comment was, “I can get the kids out in the garden to work; they will love that.”

Parents will see more changes out in the playroom with new play areas and new configurations. What I’m looking for is the ability to make changes in play spaces asap as we add new things and rest some older things. That’s the goal. So that in the morning, the toys can be rotated for new and creative play. We have lots of toys stored that never seem to come out. By leaving play spaces open and toys in roll-able crates, we can change, change, change and the children can play, play, play!

And school work? Any little breather or recess actually helps schoolwork solidify. Children don’t forget what they have really learned. With new experiences like moving and change, they seem to see what they have learned in new lights with new angles and new ideas.

Next week we begin play practice. Another time for up. This is the fun play, and with the new playroom, we have a lot of new ideas about producing it.

There’s a storm nearing us. We may be calling again today.

The Garden School Tattler

As you can see, we’ve been moving furniture and toys and creating what we hope is a more friendly play environment. It’s been a whole school effort. After class in the morning, we’ve gone about moving things around and cleaning, and the kids seemed to be really enjoying the whole process finding things they – we – didn’t know we had and kind of rediscovering old-new stuff.

With more students, the idea of making some favorite places bigger and some not so favorite places smaller really makes sense. One idea we had was to switch classrooms so that our group activities can be in a quieter atmosphere. We are moving circle time which includes music to Miss Kelly’s room. This should allow us to have more play space in the main room. We have duplicated some building and open play space for a long time, and we would like to have one of each permanently, so this might just be the ticket.

We’ve already got a new and separate puzzle and game area that used to be science. Now science is more visible and able to be taken to a classroom to really use along with the geography and history books.

We have moved the library and plan to buy some children’s easy chairs. There are two at Target which are really cute…

Today we have Officer Jim coming with his dog to tell stories to the kids. It should be fun. The news media is tagging along – We’ll put a note on the parent board so you can watch it later on TV.

Yesterday Kyto’s family came to say farewell. They are moving back to Japan. There was a gift exchange and some address exchanges and some hugs and tears. We have always loved our Japanese students. I still keep in touch with Isumi’s family.

Lots to do — so little time…

Art

Comment: Here’s a really good comprehensive article about early childhood art.

Art in Early Childhood: Curriculum Connections

Jill Englebright Fox, Ph.D.

Stacey Berry, M.Ed.

Art has traditionally been an important part of early childhood programs. Friedrich Froebel, the father of kindergarten, believed that young children should be involved in both making their own art and enjoying the art of others. To Froebel, art activities were important, not because they allowed teachers to recognize children with unusual abilities, but because they encouraged each child’s “full and all-sided development” (Froebel, 1826). More than a century later, early childhood teachers are still concerned with the “all-sided” development of each child. Our curriculum includes activities that will help children develop their cognitive, social, and motor abilities. As Froebel recognized, making art and enjoying the art of other people and cultures are very important to the development of the whole child. The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of art in young children’s learning and development and to describe elements of an art program within a developmentally appropriate early childhood curriculum.

Art and Socio-Emotional Development
Young children feel a sense of emotional satisfaction when they are involved in making art, whether they are modeling with clay, drawing with crayons, or making a collage from recycled scraps. This satisfaction comes from the control children have over the materials they use and the autonomy they have in the decisions they make (Schirrmacher, 1998; Seefeldt, 1993). Deciding what they will make and what materials they will use may be the first opportunity children have to make independent choices and decisions.

Making art also builds children’s self-esteem by giving them opportunities to express what they are thinking and feeling (Klein, 1991; Sautter, 1994). Sautter (1994) stated that when children participate in art activities with classmates, the feedback they give to each other builds self-esteem by helping them learn to accept criticism and praise from others. Small group art activities also help children practice important social skills like taking turns, sharing, and negotiating for materials.

Art and Cognitive Development
For very young children, making art is a sensory exploration activity. They enjoy the feeling of a crayon moving across paper and seeing a blob of colored paint grow larger. Kamii and DeVries (1993) suggested that exploring materials is very important because it is through exploration that children build a knowledge of the objects in the world around them.

Activities centering around making art also require children to make decisions and conduct self-evaluations. Klein (1991) described four decisions that child artists make. First, they decide what they will portray in their art—a person, a tree, a dragon. Second, they choose the media they will use, the arrangement of objects in their work, and the perspective viewers will take. Children decide next how quickly or how slowly they will finish their project, and finally, how they will evaluate their creation. Most often, children evaluate their artwork by thinking about what they like and what other people tell them is pleasing (Feeney & Moravcik, 1987).

As children grow and develop, their art-making activities move beyond exploring with their senses and begin to involve the use of symbols. Children begin to represent real objects, events, and feelings in their artwork. Drawing, in particular, becomes an activity that allows them to symbolize what they know and feel. It is a needed outlet for children whose vocabulary, written or verbal, may be limited (de la Roche, 1996). This early use of symbols in artwork is very important because it provides a foundation for children’s later use of words to symbolize objects and actions in formal writing.

Art and Motor Development
While making art, young children develop control of large and small muscle groups (Koster, 1997). The large arm movements required for painting or drawing at an easel or on large paper on the floor build coordination and strength. The smaller movements of fingers, hands, and wrists required to cut with scissors, model clay, or draw or paint on smaller surfaces develop fine motor dexterity and control. With repeated opportunities for practice, young children gain confidence in their use of tools for making art and later for writing.

Making art also helps children develop eye-hand coordination (Koster, 1997). As children decide how to make parts fit together into a whole, where to place objects, and what details to include, they learn to coordinate what they see with the movements of their hands and fingers. This eye-hand coordination is essential for many activities, including forming letters and spacing words in formal writing.

Art Experiences in Classrooms for Young Children
Although art activities help children develop in many areas, teachers must recognize that art also has value in and of itself. Fostering the development of children’s aesthetic sense and engaging children in creative experiences should be the objectives of an early childhood art program.

Activities that involve children in both making and enjoying art are essential if programs are to meet the needs of the whole child. The challenge for early childhood teachers is to provide these activities in an art program that is developmentally appropriate and that can be integrated throughout the curriculum. Such a program should include:

  • using reproductions to expose children to masterpiece art
  • taking field trips to local museums to provide opportunities for art appreciation
  • providing access to a classroom art center in which children choose their own topics and media
  • displaying children’s artwork in a classroom gallery
  • involving families in the art program.

To integrate an art program into a developmentally appropriate curriculum, adults must recognize that children express their ideas through art, just as they do in writing. Creative teachers find ways to support children’s learning across the curriculum through activities in which children make art and enjoy the art of others. The following elements form the basis of an art program to be integrated into a developmentally appropriate curriculum for young children.

Using Masterpiece Reproductions
Posters and smaller reproductions of masterpiece art can be purchased at most art museums or through teacher supply catalogs. Less expensive reproductions can be obtained from calendars, stationery, magazines, and newspapers. Teachers can use these reproductions in many ways to support children’s learning throughout the classroom and curriculum.

Reproductions may be used on signs to designate learning centers or label parts of the classroom. For example, Jacob Lawrence’s Builders #1might be displayed in the woodworking center, or Jean Simeon Chardin’s Soap Bubbles could be hung over the water table. Reproductions could be used to indicate gender on the restroom door or where children line up to go outside. Reproductions could also be used on bulletin boards to accompany displays related to thematic units. The work of Piet Mondrian might be used to illustrate a focus on primary colors or shapes, that of Claude Monet might accompany a unit on spring, while the works of Maurice Utrillo might go with a study of communities. Masterpiece art would not, in either learning centers or group discussions, replace the use of real objects or photographs as visual aids, but would provide children with another way of seeing and thinking about the concepts they are learning. Reproductions help children to make the connection “between reality and art—someone’s interpretation of reality” (Dighe, Calomiris, & Van Zutphen, 1998, p. 5).

Museum Field Trips
Taking young children to an art museum can be a challenging experience for any adult. Museums are designed for grown-ups who engage in thoughtful reflection, not for active children who want to point and exclaim. With a little preparation, however, a museum field trip can be an enjoyable experience for all.

Many museums schedule special times for children’s tours and family visits. During these times, the museum staff and other patrons expect children to visit, and special tours and support personnel will be available. If the children will not be participating in a tour planned specifically for them, it is important that the teacher select a few key items on which to focus during the visit. Artwork done by artists featured in the classroom or portraying objects related to thematic units will be of interest to the children. They will have a context for thinking about and discussing what they see. Because the attention span of young children is short, museum field trips should not be lengthy. Thirty minutes is probably long enough for children to view the pieces pre-selected by the teacher without getting tired or frustrated in the museum setting. Other exhibits can be saved for future field trips.

Classroom Art Center
The art center should provide opportunities for child-centered activities. Although teachers might suggest themes, too much direction or assistance interferes with the creative process. Adult models for children to follow are also frustrating because most children do not have the fine motor and visual perceptual skills to replicate adult efforts. Instead, teachers can encourage children to design and complete their own projects by recognizing that the same themes may be repeated many times as children explore ideas and practice skills.

Open-ended materials such as paint, crayons, markers, scissors, glue, clay, and assorted paper support child-centered activities. Although having too many choices can be overwhelming for young children, making a selection from two or three options at a time is an excellent way for children to practice decision-making. Lowenfeld and Brittain (1975) also “cautioned” teachers not to change materials or introduce new materials into the center too often. Children need time to practice and develop skills with materials if they are to use them to express their ideas and feelings.

Finally, it should be noted that the creative process takes time. Although some children will complete their artwork within a short time, others will need large blocks of time to design and make their projects. The design of the art center and the class schedule should encourage children to return to a project and work until they decide it is completed (Edwards & Nabors, 1993).

Displaying Children’s Art in a Classroom Gallery
A classroom gallery exhibiting children’s art highlights the work for the children themselves and for classroom visitors. A large bulletin board or wall space provides a backdrop for the gallery. Children should take the responsibility for mounting their work and selecting its placement in the gallery. Labels, including a title for the work, name of the artist, medium, and year of creation, can be dictated and will provide a meaningful experience with print. Children can also serve as curators and lecturers, giving tours of the gallery to classroom visitors.

Involving Families in the Art Program
Keeping families involved in the life of the classroom is an important responsibility for early childhood teachers. Sharing with families the role of art in the curriculum and the activities in which their children are participating will encourage their support of the program and of their children’s learning. Family involvement can be encouraged in several ways. Inviting families to participate in museum field trips and classroom art activities provides the opportunity for shared experiences and discussion between children and their parents.

Teachers may also suggest at-home art projects for children and parents to participate in together. These projects should always be optional and teachers should provide any special materials that might be needed in a packet which includes explanations and directions for the project. Brand (1996) suggested linking art projects with book themes as a way of encouraging parents with differing skill levels to feel comfortable in working with their children at home. For example, after reading Lucy’s Picture(1995) by Nicola Moon, children and parents might work together to create a collage depicting activities they would like to participate in together from materials found at home and/or supplied by the teacher.

“Artists’ knapsacks” for children’s use at home are another way to involve families in classroom art activities. Four to five knapsacks, each featuring one medium such as paint and paper or modeling clay, can be available for children to check out and share with their families. Although the general purpose of the knapsacks should be shared with parents, specific directions for each knapsack need not be provided. The goal of the knapsacks is to encourage the same creative use of materials at home as in the classroom.

Conclusion
Through the art activities described in this article, young children will develop abilities and skills that have application in many other areas of the curriculum. Most importantly, however, children will also develop an appreciation for the art of other people and cultures, and the confidence to express their own thoughts and feelings through art. Far from creating individual prodigies, this integration of making and enjoying art in the early childhood classroom will result in the “all-sided development” of the children participating.

Jill Englebright Fox, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of early childhood education at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

Stacey Berry, M.Ed., is a kindergarten teacher at Mary Munford Model School in Richmond, Virginia.

The Garden School Tattler

This week is President’s Week at school. The public Schools are out tomorrow and we welcome any of our student’s siblings to visit.

We will be looking at Abraham Lincoln and George Washington this week. We hope the children find this interesting.

We are also encouraging children to run for School President and make a speech to the school at Circle Time. It should be short and have some energy and pep. We will then have a ticket vote. On Wednesday, every child will get a ticket and be able to place his or her ticket on the table with the runner’s photograph.

Next week we will begin practicing for our St. Patrick’s Day play. This does not disturb class time. Children will be given lines to learn. It is easier to do the play if parents help with lines. After viewing the last play on video, things will be different this time. Prepare yourselves for Shakespeare!

Please continue to send your child in winter gear. We will be going out as much as we can this week.

If you are reading this, please send your child’s favorite snack suggestion to the comments. This helps us with choosing good things for our children to snack on.

Blogger

I really like Blogger. I like the whole process of writing and publishing articles and posting notes and stories about the children. I don’t have as much time as I would like to do this, and lately with the death process, I’ve been away from it a lot because other things needed my attention.

Blogger makes the whole process easy. It’s very simple to use. I am thinking of starting a family blog that would be closed to non-family members. That’s doable. There would be a password. I think a family blog would be a terrific idea for my family because it would be a much easier way to keep in touch than letter writing or email. One shot hits the whole group. I have fifty first cousins who are married with kids, and keeping in touch with 25% of them would be a nightmare. I wish I had done this before my mother died. It would have been fun for her to be able to look at pictures of her relatives rather than trying to remember.

To start a blog you go to Blogger.com and the Dashboard just pops up and you start by naming your blog and going through the directions. It’s easy, changeable and you can delete it or part of it any time you want.

If you carry the thought through, hundreds of people could belong to your blog. Safety? You never use a last name or an address and never name a child. I don’t have those safety fears other people do because I think it’s a lot of hype, but for those who are frightened, it could still work. And with a password, only family members who are invited could view the blog.

Why do this? Because it increases family fun and closeness in a world where we lose contact so easily.

Lately, I’ve been using Classmates a lot to track down members of my old class some 37 years ago, and I’ve had a ball doing it. I’ve revived several friendships already, and it’s just fun learning about other people’s lives – I mean what happened to them over the years? I suppose I care about people and want to share, so this kind of thing is important to me.

I find the blog site for school very useful for getting messages across to parents and grandparents who can view pictures of grandkids at play. It’s great for the people who take the time to look at it. My school blog has gone through many changes over the years and right now, aside from not enough posted, I think there is the right mix.

So today I’ll start the process. If anyone wants to know about this, ask me at school or send a question here.

Judy

A bit of Trauma for Today

Dog Pack Attacks Gator In Florida

At times nature can be cruel,

but there is also a raw beauty,

and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.

The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators,

normally considered the “apex predator”,

can still fall victim to implemented

‘team work’ strategy,

made possible due to the tight knit social structure and

“survival of the pack mentality” bred into the canines.

See the remarkable photograph below

courtesy of Nature Magazine.

Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator

preventing it from breathing,

while another dog has a hold on the tail to keep it from thrashing.

The third dog attacks the soft underbelly of the gator.