This week, we celebrated Valentine’s Day at Children’s House.

On Tuesday, the upper elementary students served herbal tea, baked goods and fruit to the primary children...



...and today, children in the early elementary were served by parent volunteers for the annual High Tea.
A grand time was had by all!


One more thing...a strange phenomenon occurred over the weekend.
Korey and some of the teachers have been glazing ceramic pieces for the auction, with the children. Last Friday, Jennifer Wills covered up the palette of glazes they were using in her classroom so they would be fresh for use on Tuesday, when we all returned to school. When she came in on Valentine’s Day, the red glaze had dried as you see below...

This morning, just before students did their dress rehearsal for our winter performance, the top lap-runners presented the money to El Camino Homeless Organization representative, Terri Sherwin. Terri was amazed and thankful for the amount of money the children raised and told them they were special for helping those in need. We are so proud of our students!

Terri also explained to the children, the shelter had recently taken in some new families and they now had eleven children staying at the shelter. Many of them will probably be there for Christmas. Hopefully our donation will help in some small way. Remember, a donation to ECHO, of $5, provides three meals and a warm bed for a man, woman or child for one night.

Each year our Kindergartners buddy up with our Upper Elementary students and together they take a field trip to the Loaves & Fishes distribution center at the National Guard Armory, in Atascadero, where they help to sort food that is distributed to the families in need. Before the field trip, the students and teachers talk briefly about where the food comes from, who will eat the food, and why they might need it. This is just one way that we can help people in our community!

The children start out with their own special job: counting out 10 tea bags and putting them in a baggy.

They work at that for about an hour...

and then begin sorting from the BIG pile of food items which involves sorting cans of vegetables, fruit, boxes of cereal, jars of peanut butter, etc.

They work until they are “done” - tired, exhausted, bored or finished - whichever comes first!

They scraped off the Oreo cream to mimic each moon phase and then...

...they glued each finished cookie half to a paper plate. Sally then labeled each of the phases for them.

It’s all pretty self explanatory but if you want more detailed instructions, with a lesson plan for older children, here is a link at leosciencelab.com.

Today, the students visited the library for a special annual lesson with Miss Joan, the Youth Services librarian, to learn about picture book writing and drawing techniques. Joan knows better than anyone what it takes to make a picture book popular with young readers and her guidance is invaluable as the children begin to write their own picture books this month. Joan also invited Grenda Ernst, the Friends of the Atascadero Library, President, to meet with the students and accept the Read-A-Thon donation.

The students were also given a tour of the new library. The building for the new library has already been purchased and is located at 6555 Capistrano Avenue. Friends of the Atascadero Library have raised two-thirds of the $1 million needed to fund the cost of construction on the interior of the building. If you would like to donate or learn more about the new library, visit Friends of the Atascadero Library.

They are given guidelines about what their village needs and they determine trade quantities for the different items. They used chips of different colors to represent different Goods; white chips = vegetables, red chips = meat, skins and wool, blue chips = tools, etc. Black chips represent different Services, such as village defense and cultural enlightenment (art & paintings or performances).They set up their “shops” and then traded away. ~Dana

Our jog-a-thon fundraiser is today from 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. This year, kindergarten and elementary students will run to raise money for the El Camino Homeless Organization. In November 2010, the weather certainly did not dampen their spirits, as they ran in the soaking rain and slippery mud. Last year, jog-a-thon students ran a total of 3,375 laps! Since each lap is approximately 800 feet, more than 500 miles were pounded out that day, and the school donated more than $6,000 to a charity similar to ECHO.

ECHO was recently informed, they will have to move out of their current location by May 2012. A donation to ECHO, of $5, provides three meals and a warm bed for a man, woman or child for one night.

The Atascadero News gave us a Shout Out in Wednesday’s paper. See page A-7.

We have kicked off our annual fall fundraiser with a brand new company and catalog. Equal Exchange offers 100% organic coffees, cocoas, teas, chocolates and unique artisan made gifts. They are considered a green Fundraiser. With Equal Exchange we can all support sustainability, enjoy award winning products and make a difference in the lives of small farmers and artisans across the globe. We hope you enjoy this catalog as much as we do and hope you’ll find some items for yourself, as well as some great gifts for family and friends. We feel this company and their products fit in well with our goal of becoming a “zero waste” school. This fundraiser ends on October 21, so please return your envelopes and payments on or before the deadline.

Equal Exchange also offers a small but unique selection of gift wrap, cards and gifts boxes using handmade cotton paper. The gift wrap can also be used in crafts, scrapbooking and more! All of these papers are completely tree-free and handmade by Indian artisans. They use only 100% recycled cotton. The video below shows the paper making process from start to finish. This would be a great video to watch with your children.

First, we had a little peace ceremony on the playground. We lit a candle and all the children (sans toddler) sang “Light a Candle for Peace”. After singing, Korey read out all the names for each pair/trio of buddies and the children found each other and spent a little time getting to know one another. At the risk of sounding corny, it really was kind of magical.

If you have not had a chance to see the buddy photos, drawings and acrostic poems on the bulletin board, please take a moment to check them out. We think they’re pretty special. ~Dana