USDA - Child and Adult Care Food Program

We had a visit today from Quality Care for Children. They monitor my participation in this program for the USDA. With federal funding being questioned they are starting to come down really hard on everyone - everywhere! Because of this I am now required to start keeping a In/Out Sheet with times EVERYDAY. So starting Monday there will be a sheet on the counter for the time and your signature (iniatials NOT ALLOWED). For those of you that drop off upstairs in the mornings I will write in your times and you will need to sign that as well as for pick-up. Please help me keep this maintained. I could loose the opportunity to be apart of this program and it is a big help to me in paying for high quality foods :-). Every little bit helps right!! Also, they will be making household contacts sometime in the next couple of weeks. If your child was not here today please make a mental note because they are going to ask if your child was in attendance on May 21, 2010. The reason they are calling is because I typically have 6-8 kids here and today I only had 5. I know some of you are part time BUT in order to be paid on the days that your child is here I've notated your days as "Days/Times Vary".....the easiet thing to say to them is....my schedule varies but they are typically there for all meals when they are at Angie's. Another thing that looked bad was the fact that they are comparing this week against the week of Spring Break which is when I had Caden and Madi here as well! Eventhough I do not charge for my family members I am allowed to claim meals on them as long as I have the proper paper work on file which I do......... Also, I am suppose to have my menu plan posted in the classroom which I keep on the REF.......of course I just took it down yesterday to make some changes. Sometimes it seems like too much of a hassle to be involved but bottom line it is for good healthy nutrition for our children......so I'll get my act together ha ha and do better. If you have any questions and/or concerns just ask.........THANKS EVERYONE ......have a great weekend.

P.S. They given me some stuff to send home and I'll be doing that sometime next week so be on the look-out and please always ask if you have any questions.

The Very Hungry Catepillar by Eric Carle

We are reading books by Eric Carle this month as well as our favorite book by him called......The Very Hungry Catepillar. The first spring I was open I bought this book along with a CD where Eric Carle (the author) read the book aloud to the class. I purchased (8) small books so the children could follow along with him and I turned the pages of the large book. This is a great way to give them another skill to help them READ. If you have this book at home read it with your child tonight.......THEY ABSOLUTELY love it as much today as they did last year. Take a look at the catepillars they made in class......they are hanging everywhere!!!

Perfect Plants

We started our new reader today! This morning started out a bit cloudy but soon the sun broke through......and we took our class outside. It was really a wonderful feeling to be teaching outside under the trees about things that grow!!! How appropriate....and the kids loved the change of scenery! As you are working outside or just stopping somewhere to look at flowers/plants ask them to point out things they know.....for example: stem, roots (in the dirt), flower, leaf.

Weekly Reader: PERFECT PLANTS

 

Mother's Day Flowers

I hope everyone had a wonderful mothers day! A couple of you asked about the flowers that the children made.......they painted coffee filters and then we put them together with a dot of hot glue so we could form them. I didn't haven't any tissue paper so I thought coffee filters might work well. My thought was to build them and then turn them upside down and dip into food coloring.....hoping the coloring would seep up into the flower. Well then I had NO food coloring so I thought maybe the kids could paint them with water colors........they had so much fun doing it this way! I was running out of time to dry them so I then threw them in the DRYER.........ha ha it worked really well and I think the flowers turned out so unique becuase of each child's painting style! Take a look at the picture and see how different they all were......I thought the bouquet was beautiful.