What the children are learning and eating right now. This page changes through the year as each new unit of study begins.
All Things Fall
Each classroom plans its learning around a unit of study, with every corner of the room joining in and each activity tied to the Connecticut Early Learning and Development Standards. Here is one from the fall.
Art
Fingerprint fall trees, twig painting, leaf stamping and shading, apple stamping, apple bracelets, fall handprints, a sticky tree of real leaves and acorn collages.
Dramatic play
A farmers market, stocked with apples, pumpkins, apple cider, pies and hay.
Math
Hammering nails into a pumpkin, pumpkin patterns, sorting fruit, lining up leaves from smallest to biggest, and measuring how many apples tall you are.
Sensory
Pumpkin guts, a fall bin of popcorn kernels, leaves, acorns and pine cones, orange rice with pumpkin seeds, and bubbling witches’ brew.
Science and cooking
Tasting red, yellow and green apples and charting our favorites, investigating fall finds with magnifying glasses, and guessing smells: apple, pumpkin, pine and orange.
Literacy
Writing letters in applesauce and painting the ABCs with Q-tips.
Music and movement
“Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down,” “Five Perfect Pumpkins,” “Little Leaf on the Tree,” an apple tree poem and a leaf hunt.
Blocks and outdoors
Building a farm with wooden blocks, people and animals. Outside, a hunt for leaves of every color and size, and hopscotch.
Social and emotional
A lesson with puppets on fair ways to play together.
Books we read
Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall, The Tiny Seed, The Leaf Thief, The Apples on the Tree, Leaf Trouble, Hedgehugs: Autumn Hide-and-Squeak, Pete the Cat: Falling for Autumn and Ten Red Apples.
Words we learn
Tractor, hay, corn, farm, harvest, scarecrow and rake.
At home
Each child brings home a leaf to decorate as a family and return to school.
Sample menu
Every child gets breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack each day, at no cost to families. Breakfast and lunch come with 1% milk, and there are whole grains every day. Our menus are planned to the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program meal pattern and change through the year, so the week below is a sample to give you an idea of what children eat, not this week’s menu.
Monday
Breakfast: whole-grain Chex and pears
Lunch: grilled cheese on whole-grain bread, broccoli and grapes
Snack: yogurt and blueberries
Tuesday
Breakfast: whole-grain oatmeal and apples
Lunch: beef tacos with lettuce, tomato and cheese in whole-grain shells, corn and pineapple
Snack: animal crackers and milk
Wednesday
Breakfast: whole-grain French toast and mixed fruit
Lunch: baked chicken, whole-grain rice, black beans and cantaloupe
Snack: a cheese stick and Triscuit crackers
Thursday
Breakfast: corn flakes and pineapple
Lunch: SunButter and jelly on whole-grain bread, a cheese stick, carrots and applesauce
Snack: mixed fruit, tortilla chips and salsa
Friday
Breakfast: a whole-grain bagel and oranges
Lunch: cheese ravioli with sauce, garden salad, peaches and a dinner roll
Snack: SunButter and apples
A sample week
What a week of learning looks like in each room.
