7/30/2019 OHU Bridgeport II Child Development Center newsletter - April 2013

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Bridgeport Child Development Center II • A program 514 W. 31st Street, Chicago, IL 60616

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YOUR TRUSTED PARTNER IN EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION

ConneCt with us

onehopechilddevelopment.org facebook.com/1hopeunited twitter.com/1hopechildcare

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O verall HealtH • exercise • NutritiON • eNvirONmeNtal sust

Making quick home-cooked mealsis easy with advance planning

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Hurried parents often turn to pre-prepared mealsto feed their families. Processed foods can containunhealthy levels of salt, fat, and other chemicalingredients. As an alternative, it can be just as easyand less expensive to make healthy meals at homefrom whole foods. It also is a fun way to get chil-dren involved in helping to plan and prepare meals.

Here are some ideas for cooking quick,healthy meals:

• Plan meals in advance and shop for a week’s

worth of meals at the same time.• Stock up on common recipe ingredients such

as milk; juice; shredded and sliced cheese;whole-grain pasta; bread; canned tomatoesand tomato paste; brown rice; eggs (look foreggs enriched with omega-3); beef, chicken orvegetable broth; olive oil; fresh and frozen fruitand vegetables; canned or dried beans; bone-less chicken; and condiments such as mustard,ketchup, mayonnaise and soy sauce.

• Speed up the weeknight cooking process bypre-cutting vegetables and putting them in therefrigerator. Then you can quickly add them toany dish.

• Try using a slow cooker so you can assemblethe recipe in the morning and have it readyby dinner.

• Many slow cooker recipes caraw and stored in your freezeetables and cut up meat, beaand add seasoning to a freezair out so it stacks neatly in ythe morning, empty the contefreezer bags into your slow ccome home that evening, a dcooked meal will await you.

•  When you cook, make extra can refrigerate or freeze for a

• Make recipes healthier with

tions. For example, instead oground turkey or lentils (abouper pound of ground beef). Acheese such as mozzarella; bof white rice; oil and vinegarsalad dressings. Sugar can babout half in most baked goo

 With just a small amount of advcooking a healthy home-cooked snap!

Resources: American Heart Association: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Getting- Healthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyCooking/Healthier-Preparation-Methods-for- Cooking_UCM_301484_Article.jsp KidsHealth: www.kidshealth.orgMayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/NU00585

 April 2013SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

1

 Jason C.’sbirthday 

2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9Eric W. &Vincent N.’sbirthday 

10 11 12 No School for Head Start Rooms 1 & 2

Chicago Public Schools Early Dismissal – School Age care beginsat 11:30 a.m.

13

14 15 16 17  In-housefield trip: Bubble

Wonders

18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27  

28 29 30

April 15–19: Head Start Federal Review Week and Week of the Young Child –––––––––––––––––> 

Chloe L.’sbirthday 

CHILD ABUSE

PREVENTION MONTH:

GO BLUE!

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t     c    H    i    l   D   

 a   b   u    s   e    

7/30/2019 OHU Bridgeport II Child Development Center newsletter - April 2013

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Classroom 201 –Ms. Stacey & Mr. TonyMarch was a month of scientic discoveryfor Room 201. Our study was “DNA - Thebuilding Bocks of Life.” The children cameto understand what DNA is and that weall are made up of it. They discussed howgenetic traits are unique to everyone:

Karen said “My DNA gave me a cute smile.” Rui Hong claimed, “My DNA gave medark hair and dark eyes.” Peter explained, “My DNA gave me a small nose.”

 We then did a project to extract DNA from strawberries. First, we mashed fresh straw-berries. Next, we poured the mash over cheesecloth and into a funnel. This served asa ltration system. We poured the ltered strawberry liquid into a test tube lled withan extraction buffer: salt, water and liquid dish detergent. Then, we put several dropsof cold rubbing alcohol on top of the mixture. Doing this made three visible layers inthe test tube. Finally, we were able to see small strands of DNA in the middle layer,and we were able to extract it. Impressive stuff! Ask your children what they knowabout DNA. Also, a side note on other living organisms: Keep your eyes out for ourgarden…our spring tulips are beginning to sprout!

Classroom 202 –Ms. Kyara and Mr. JoeIt is nally SPRING! In March, thechildren enjoyed a week off of school,and during that week we traveled toBrookeld Zoo. The children enjoyedreading the map and guring out whereto locate their favorite animals, such as

the monkeys and lions. During springbreak, the children worked hard planning their projects for the program’s rst annualScience Fair. The consensus among the children was to study volcanoes for the fair. While gearing up for the fair, we conducted experiments and discovered how dif-ferent materials react with each other. For instance, ask your child about the “Catcha Rainbow” experiment, which taught us this important scientic concept. With St.Patrick’s Day occurring in the middle of the month, we learned a bit about Irelandand Mr. Joe shared a family tradition with us by bringing in Irish Soda Bread for usto sample. Finally, we have also been talking with the children about taking responsi-bility for their actions and being respectful this past month.

 When you drizzle a few spoons of reonto your pancake or wafe, you’re aing gallons and gallons of tree sap o

It’s just been boa smaller, mucyummier syrupmonth all the mare harvesting their maple treesyrup. They docally sticking ainto each tree asap drip out intIt takes anywhe50 gallons of s

one gallon of syrup—and to get that has to tap acres and acres of trees. Tfarms doing all that work for us, it’s mus to t a bottle of syrup in the fridge

 Wee ones: If you pour 2 teaspoonseach of your 3 wafes, how many teasyrup did you use?

Little kids: If you put 2 tablespoonsyour pancake stack, and you need 4much sap to make that syrup, how maof sap did that syrup come from? Bonmaple tree can yield 8 tablespoons omany trees did it take to make your sy

Big kids: One farm we talked to magallons of syrup each spring, and haacres of trees to get the sap for it. Holons of syrup do they make from each(Hint: to divide by 20, you can divide10.) Bonus: If this year they need 40to make 1 gallon of syrup, how manyof sap will they harvest this spring?

The sky’s the limit: Suppose a dwafes and pancakes in total one modon’t know how many of each. All yocustomers usually put 2 spoons on eabut 4 spoons of syrup on each wafelittle square holes. If the customers useof syrup, how many pancakes and wserve?

PARENT/CHIHOME ACTIVFrom the Director’s Desk – Brigette Davis

This coming month of April, will truly proveto be a busy month for the center. We haverecently completed the Head Start ProgramSelf-Assessment process, and came through withpositive outcomes and feedback for continuedimprovement; and no sooner had we completedthe process, we learned our Federal Review willoccur the week of April 15. This is the sameprocess as Self-Assessment, but with representa-

tives coming to the center to review our program, from the federal gov-ernment. The Week of the Young Child occurs the same week! We haveplanned some fun events for children and families during this week andlook for calendar of events to follow shortly. April is also National Child Abuse Prevention Month: GO BLUE! As in the past, we will hold variousevents highlighting abuse prevention in our typical “BLUE” style. Theseevents will also be represented on the calendar which is forthcomingfrom the classrooms. WHEW! A busy month! Be on the look out forways to participate in this special month’s events!

Classroom 1 – Ms.Angie, Ms. Ling &Mr. MathewThis month, we have worked on“clothing.” This has led the classroomto explore who makes clothing, of

what clothes are made and read-ing stories with clothing as a prominent aspect. Caps for Sale, our rstmajor story in this study, introduced a wealth of sophisticated vocabu-lary for the students. Words such as: peddler, irritate and disappointed,have been used independently by the students. Additionally, the storyallowed the students to explore patterns and sequence, two key math-ematical skills.

Finally, several food experiences have been completed by Ms. Ling,who has taken a lead in ensuring these experiences are interesting,engaging, and fun for the students. Next month, we shall be workingmore in depth in our study, exploring various kinds of clothing and theirfunction, which will allow more opportunities for dramatic play, clas-sication and measurement.

 As a reminder, home visits will occur this month. Please see the class-room board to sign up. Children need to be at home during homevisits, so please make arrangements to have your child picked up from

the center before your scheduled time. Staff cannot transport children toor from the center.

Classroom 2 –Ms. White,Ms. Reginaand Ms. TiffanyThis month we continued ourstudy of “water.” The childrenconducted a science experi-

ment, testing the ph balance of water. The children used the actualtools, ph tester strips, to measure the alkalinity of the water. The childrenthen graphed the results. They used water to paint and learned that allliving things need water to live and grow: people, plants and animals

all share this trait. The children will conclude their study of water a ndmove to creatures living in water this April.

 As many of you may have noticed, Ms. White has not been at school.She had a slight accident in her home and will be out of work until April or possibly May. Ms. Ida, Ms. Regina and Ms. Tiffany will con-tinue to work together in the classroom, in the interim.

Parent/teacher conferences are set to begin this month and will continuein April. It is important for all families to sign up for a home visit. If youhave any questions or concerns regarding home visits and parent/teach-

er conferences, please do not hesitate to ask Ms. Regina or Ms. Tiffany.

Classroom 3 –Ms. Yan andMs. Bernadette We have been quite busylearning about “re safety.” Thechildren made a ‘life size’ retruck out of recycled materialsand enjoyed driving it and using

pretend the re hoses to put out imaginary res, while it was in the dra-matic play area. On our nature walks, the children had a blast playing“I Spy” and found seven re hydrants in the neighborhood. We learnedabout “STOP, DROP, and ROLL” and practiced this safety procedure atcircle time. A resource for families was shared with all, along with ahandout on developing a plan for emergencies. It is important for fami-lies to plan for emergency evacuations in case of re. Here at school,we have emergency evacuation plans we p ractice on a monthly basis. Ask your child about our re safety drills. At the end of the month, wecompleted our unit on re safety by inviting a Chicago reghter tocome visit our classroom. The reghter s hared his experiences andsafety equipment used to ght res with the children.

This month, we also completed our parent/teacher conferences andwish to thank all the parents for their continued participation in the pro-gram. Together as a team, parents and teachers, we work together tosuccessfully transition each child to their next level of development. Nextmonth we will extend our study on “Transportation.” We will discussland, sea, rail and air modes of transportation.

CENTER NEWS