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When we made smoothies for snack!

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When the seniors in our classroom released he butterflies!

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TRUTH!

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CHEF OF THE WEEK: MICA

So Mica only talks with select peple, for select reasons, at select times. Therefore when she does speak with you, you are stunned at the feeling of incredible gratitude at the gift you have just been given! During the week, Mica ( the second youngest in our community) willingly, albeit grudgingly, prepared snack for her friends. On Thursday morning, with some pressure on the time available, she began work on her fruit salad. She had initially said she wanted to make a fruit platter but as she put her apron on, she said, "I changed my mind. I want to make a fruit salad."

So we started on her fruit salad because one does not try to change Mica's mind. One complies. She began with destemming the green grapes. Then she added the blueberries. "I don't like blueberries but my dad likes blueberries. He always buys blueberries," she stated. Then came the pineapple. "I like this," she said with the slightest hint of a smile. She diced the pineapple slices and when she was done, she emptied the container with juice into the bowl. "I like that," she stated again.

Then came the strawberries. She hulled them and then halved and quartered them. Through the process, she remained serious and focussed. She used the knife in an interesting way - almost as though she was subduing it. "Do you like strawberries?" I asked timidly. "Yes. Sometimes my mom makes smoothies that are pink," she revealed. "Maybe she puts strawberries in them," I offered tentatively. I got no response.

The bananas were peeled and sliced. "My mom likes bananas," Mica offered as a window to her life outside of school. Then she mixed up her salad so that evereything was evenly distributed. When her friends had the fruit salad at lunch time, many of them walked over to her to compliment and thank her. Initially Mica was at a bit of a loss as to how to handle her adoring fans. Eventually, she offered them a gracious tilt of her head and for some, even a "Thank you."

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CHEF OF THE WEEK : OLIVER

Oliver is quintessentially a 3-year old. He lives a wonder-filled life - every minute is a moment when his jaw drops and his eyes widen and a gasp emanates from the depth of his being. Every day, every minute! So making the fruit platter was FILLED with gasps, giggles, exclamations....

Oliver had been recently painting a lot with intention and focus and so creating an artwork with fruits was a logical next step. He pointed to the pineapple rings and said, "I want to start with those because I like them." I showed him how to cut the rings in half and then turn the halves so they looked like rainbows and cut them in half again. When it was his turn and he made the first cut, he squealed in delight and said, "It works, it works." I asked him what works and he said, "The sharp knife. It works." From then on the pineapple dicing went like a breeze. Then he began arranging them on a platter. One by one.

An older friend came by and offered his help and Oliver said "No thank you. I'm okay." He started on pulling the greens off the strawberries. After doing a few of them and when the monotony set in, he graciously outsourced the work to his eagerly waiting friend and focused on halving the strawberries. Then he placed those below the pineapple pieces.

Destemming the grapes filled Oliver with hilarity as many rollled off the table and onto the floor and then they had to be washed and brought back...so that took A LONG TIME !! Then began the process of placing them on the platter. Oliver picked one grape at a time and then rolled them onto the platter and found a spot for each grape. So that took A LONG TIME!

The remaining pinepple pieces came next as they were his favorite. And finally the blueberries. Oliver giggled non-stop as the blueberries found a home in the center of the platter. An older student came by and said, "Wow that looks like a fruit mandala." More giggles.

And finally when there was NO MORE SPACE for anything else, Oliver became VERY serious. "It's done, Ms Deepa. It's done." And indeed it was. Oliver's classmates just LOVED that they could pick what they wanted off the fruit platter and a few of them even apologized to Oliver for "destroying" his "fruit art".

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Truth!

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CHEF OF THE WEEK: FINNICK

If anyone can do multiple things at one time whilst keeping a steady flow of conversation, questions and answers, that would be Finn. He is always ready to do anything immediately upon being asked - for about 5 minutes before he is ready for something new. So keeping him engaged in completing the fruit salad once he began was tricky but oh so entertaining!!

It is always best to let him ask a question because before you could answer, he would have moved on to the next thing. The trick to keeping him engaged was to put away the salad for a few minutes after each fruit had been dealt with. So we started off with the grapes. He began like he always does, "Hey Ms Deepa, why are the grapes here?" I said it was because he had chosen them as an ingredient for his fruit salad. "Yeah, I love grapes. I have 3 legos at home. Do you want to come to my house?' Even before I could answer he had begun destemming the grapes. "That's a lot of grapes. Yeah. And I have lots of legos. Do you like legos?"

I decided to risk it and show him how to halve the grapes while he was talking. "Oh yeah. That's a sharp knife. Yeah. My dad has a sharp knife. Hey Ms Deepa, do you know my dad? He's Brian." And he goes on to describe the favorite colors of all his family members as he cuts the grapes in half. We put that away and sometime later we start on a halved cantaloupe. "Wow look at the seeds Ms Deepa." As he scooped the seeds out, he said, "Yeah, the seeds will grow into trees and grow and grow and then I will become big like my dad." The fruit was scooped out and the larger chunks cut down, alongside conversations about his dogs and our pet python Noodle. " Yeah my dog likes snakes. Not bears. Bears are not nice - they like honey. I have lots of honey at my house."

Once again when the melon was done, we took a break and returned later to peel and segment mandarin oranges and halve the segments. "Look Ms Deepa, they look like orange moons," he said pointing to the orange segments. "Do you like moons? They are white and in the sky." Even before I could respond, he points with his knife to the snack he had prepared for his classmates. He had halved mini bagels horizontally and placed them in a large bowl with cream cheese on the side. "I like those bread donuts."

Finally, the strawberries - "Look they are like hearts," he said when he halved the berries. "Larkin likes hearts. Yeah Larkin is my sister. Kieren is my brother. "

That done, the fruits were all tossed and Finnick just beamed when he saw his complete salad. The bowl went into the fridge and when a couple of hours later, it was served - it was cold, sweet and juicy. Nobody left even a morsel in their bowls and wished there had been enough for seconds.

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TRUTH!

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The final year students made a most delicious granola for our Parfait Station for our Bring Your Parent To Work Day Breakfast. They also boiled eggs and and made fruit platters!!

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Glimpses of Bring Your Parent to Work Day!

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Glimpses of Bring Your Parents to Work Day!

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CHEF OF THE WEEK : GIOVANNI

From the moment Gio walks into the classroom each day, he is bursting with energy. He is a person in a hurry because he has so much to say and so much to do...so the week that he was in charge of snack was all that AND SOME!!

He dashed in on Monday with the Sharing Bags laden with fruit and other groceries for the week. "Okay, okay, okay," he said, bouncing up and down on his toes, "I have to make snack, I have to make snack and then I have to go and play." Each morning he would make snack and then race to join his friends.

On Wednesday, he started on his fruit salad right after he had made snack for the day. Emptying the boxes of blueberries was a breeze and Gio laughed out in delight when half of them rolled off the table and onto the floor. He was down on his knees gathering them and they were rinsed twice before joining the other berries in the bowl. "Gio loves mangoes," he announced. "Yeah, mangoes are yummy. Dinosaurs love mango too," he said enthusiastically. He had brought in sliced fresh mangoes so he worked on dicing them.

He would speak non-stop for about 2 minutes and then cut for 2 minutes and then repeat the pattern. The conversation that morning ranged from the eating habits of dinosaurs to hippos and their snorting sounds to what he was going to play outdoors. He pulled the greens aprt from the strawberries and then sliced those. He dd not appreciate how sticky his fingers were getting and stopped a couple of times to wash his hands.

The next day, he asked for help to core a few apples. The first time he he helped push the corer dwn, he squealed happily when he saw the perfect formation of the slices , "It looks like an octopus," he giggled!! He sliced the apple and added tose in. He tossed his salad with uncharacteristically slow movements and shouted out, "I'm done." Gio goes home before lunch and so his friends could not compliment him on his fruit salad. One of them even said, "It's so sad when you can't compliment the chef on the same day." No doubt, Gio will be overwhelmed with compliments, come Monday!

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Litter collection, cloud watching, turtle watching, Spring Peeper listening, playing, rolling down hills, Creek watching......Earth Week shenanigans!

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Earth Day Fest at school!

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An afternoon well-spent! Hiding sunflower seeds for birds and chipmunks to be happily surprised, checking out the beehives, tasting some fresh honey...with Mr. Henry, our friend from the Adolescent classroom...what a wonderful Earth Day!i

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On our way to the woods to hide sunflower seeds so our bird and chipmunk friends would be happily surprised!