Enjoy.
~Donna

“To my son, three and a half years old.
The R train is my son’s favorite subway line.”

The R Train

R dear one
is for Road
our train is leaving
taking us to The Garden…

My lovely child
the Garden Road station
will be our next stop
where wisdom, knowledge and nature are one
and extraordinary things happen…

The place is ready
hands of many origins
are waiting
with songs and dances
with ribbons and magic…

My dear one
you are now three and half years old
this is my gift to you

2002

Our elementary school students have an ongoing intergenerational exchange with the residents at the Seabury at Fieldhome assisted living residence, made possible by our CSE (Community Supported Education) coordinator, Lowry Reinauer.

It is a very rich and endearing relationship that has been fostered since last year’s Street Games event where the children and residents teamed up to create a group mural about street games.

Making Hearts for Soldiers

The children just recently participated in a community program, “Hearts for Soldiers” with the residents. The Seabury at Fieldhome created the program to let the soldiers know that they are “always in our hearts”.  The children along with residents, and other community members, created paper hearts for our soldiers overseas as well as for the veterans at the VA Hospital in Montrose.

The Garden Road elementary students decorated hearts in art class at school and also teamed up with the residents for a lively heart decorating afternoon.  Some of the residents were veterans themselves and shared their stories and experiences with the children.

"Dear Friends" this photo really captures the beautiful bond the children and the elders are fostering

Garden Road Students participated in an Official Presentation of the Hearts For Soldiers at The Seabury at Fieldhome on Friday, Feburary 3rd.  It was very moving to listen to some of our veterans speak and how significant it was for them to receive these hearts of gratitude for the service they have given to our country.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

Belle leads the children in some african dancing

This week, guest educator Belle Ritter, took Garden Road students through a tour of Black History through dance, rhythm and music.

Getting into the rhythm...

She captivated the children (mixed ages 3-8) for an entire hour of high energy and fun; moving them through the ages of black history from its roots in African culture to the contemporary culture of today.

The children had the opportunity to listen and touch some African percussion instruments and to really get them in the spirit, Belle brought some fun costumes for the children to try on.

Our local community is teeming with incredibly talented artists like Belle. With our developing model of Community Supported Education (CSE), programs like this one allows local artists to share their natural genius and inspire the children through hands-on experiential learning.

Miss Belle contages everyone to dance!

and for some contemporary... woop woop!

There is nothing like learning from someone who LOVES what they do.

Thank you Miss Belle!

Here is a glimpse into a month in the life of our K-2 student’s (a.k.a. “Champions of a New Day”) at the Garden Road written by Terese:

Since returning from our holiday break we have had a short venture into Games and then dove right into Math, Planets and Time.

Our Games lump is always an adventure.  The skills that go along with playing games are so useful;  Following rules, waiting your turn, winning or losing the game, this is a wonderful opportunity to hone in on social skills, reasoning, working as a team and simply being a good sport.

As you probably have figured out The Garden Road is based on a non competitive school environment.  So, in light of that, learning how to play for the sole purpose of having fun and learning new skills is the main focus of our lump.  However, we do not live in a world that supports this attitude.  We held a few interesting discussions about how “it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game”.  Perhaps this would be some advise that our Presidential nominees could use?  (oops I digress…)

It was an interesting and valuable struggle.  We ended with my favorite: The Ungame, which was conceived in the 60′s and has no winning or losing, just playing and learning.

For the last two weeks, the k-1 has been heavily ensconced in Math!  There is so much that is available under this one title; time, measurement, history, numbers, symbols, and more.  So far we have learned about the history of clocks, calendars, measurement in inches and feet and also using anything we can find to measure distance and height.  We are continuing to learn how to count by 10s, 5s and 2s.

Parent Tom Bai, a clock designer explains Ante Meridian and Post Meridian

Last week we had a special visit from one of our dads, Tom Bai, who is a designer. He showed us the intriguing clocks that he has designed.  He explained A.M and P.M. and how it relates to the planet spinning around the sun!  We then were shown how to make our own perpetual calendar.  Thank You Tom!!!!!!

Field Trip to The Hudson River Museum Planetarium

The Second Graders are deep in space learning about the planets.  At the beginning of the lump one of our parents organized a field trip to the Hudson River Museum where we watched an awesome film in their Planetarium followed by a craft project with one of the docents from the museum.  Since then, they have chosen a specific planet and they are compiling all of their research in preparation for a presentation to their younger peers at the end of the week.

On Friday Brenda Bai  joined us to introduce the beginning of the Chinese New year.  She showed the children how to make traditional Chinese lanterns. Brenda also organized a visit from Kwan’s Kung Fu studio in Peekskill who performed the traditional Lion Dance for the whole school and community members.

The man on the left is named Luke. He is 100 years old. Luke was an architect who designed naval ships during World War Two...

The day did not end there. That afternoon we set out for visit to the Seabury Assisted Living Facility at Field Home in Cortlandt.  The staff at the Field Home asked us to do a joint venture with them in making Hearts for Soldiers. The children have been working on making hearts with the intention of using them to welcome home the men and women who are returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.  Lowry Reinauer, one of our moms and CSE Coordinator who works at the Field Home, headed up the project with help
from Diane during Art class.  Thank you ladies!

On another “note” Liz Nolf is back to teach music on Wednesdays!  Yay!

Last week they worked on a cool song about planets and then we played music together in rhythm and harmony….

Stay tuned for more Community Supported Education adventures!

K-2 Students make Chinese Lanterns

We are really blessed to have such wonderful parents participating in our school. At the Garden Road CSE (Community Supported Education), parents play an integral role in enriching the education process for our children.

For the past two weeks, the Garden Road preschoolers have been immersed in the study of China and its food, its language, its songs, its culture and its art as part of their World Cultures studies. One of our CSE moms came in and taught them how to make Chinese dumplings and also how to count and say hello. On top of that, she got all the grades involved by organizing an amazing visit from Kwan’s Kung Fu Studio in Peekskill who came and performed

Students feed the Lion!

The Lion Dance for everyone. The Lion Dance is a traditional Chinese dance in which good luck is summoned and bad spirits are driven away. It was quite a memorable experience for all and a nice way to bring in the Chinese New Year.

This is just one example of how our CSE parents initiate curriculum enrichment and make our children’s school experience exciting and diverse.

With Community Supported Education, everyone has something to offer. Teachers, parents and children collaborate and learn from each other for the benefit of all.

Here are a few pictures of some of projects done by the preschoolers in their  immersion of the Chinese Culture. Enjoy!

Paint and Collage Chinese Flag

Chinese Jump Rope!

Today the Garden Road had a very special guest, Rev. Claire Woodley-Aitchison (Mother Claire) from St. Mary’s Church on Rte 6.
Mother Claire told us the some REAL stories about St. Nicholas. The children were absolutely riveted by the stories which they helped to act out!
I think the pictures tell it best. Enjoy! Many heartfelt thanks to Mother Claire for such a wonderful, theatrical experience!

It gives us great pleasure to watch the children learn, and grow. It seems
that each day they are together the Owls get closer. They are playing
together, working together, and learning together.

The Owls watched each other closely the last full week we were together as
we worked on the lump “careful. “The children had to work together to
build a tower out of the cardboard bricks, being “careful” not to let it
fall. They sometimes held their breath as their classmates took turns
placing the bricks on top of each other. They also offered encouragement
or suggestions, when someone was trying to decide where to put their
brick. They also had to be careful taking turns holding, and passing a
“very special “glass figure of Ms. Donna’s. They really took their time
handing it off so as not to drop and break it.
We discussed that while it is important to be careful in our actions, it
is also important to be careful with our words as well. We acted out some
different scenarios and talked about how words can hurt. The Owls seemed
to really enjoy this lesson. Check them out in action!

Regards,
Donna and Diane