The Garden School Tattler

Good morning!

The weather has been beautiful and we are glad to be outside. Some of the children have even felt a little cold. Can you imagine!

Today we will talk about fall and about how the earth turns. We've done geography this week, and most of the children understood the concept that the planet we live on is round and if you flatten that round ball out and make it flat, you get a map. They then listened to me use Kelly's floor rug with the world map on it to "journey" around to the seven continents and they tried to follow on paper coloring as they went. It was very exciting, and they did a great job.

One of the problems we are having is breaking the old habit of simply not touching our food because something better is on the way later. There are several children who simply don't touch either their breakfasts or their lunches at all. If a child arrives at school at 7:00, 7:30, or 8:00, you can guess the are eating a first morning breakfast at 6:30, 7:00, or 7:30. We eat our breakfast at 8:30. Then we don't eat again until 12:30. That's a four hour stretch. When a child does not touch his lunch, it probably means he won't eat anything substantial until dinner at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 or later. That could mean a child is not eating from 6:30 to 6:00 depending on when he or she is picked up.

We think, considering the lunches we serve, that there is a habit of not eating that is so well established that they simply don't think to eat at all. Then when snack is served in the afternoon, the clamoring to get a second, third, fourth, fifth piece of cake or cookie is so loud and so fierce, it's disheartening. It's a bad habit we're trying to break right now.

For the next few weeks, non touchers will have their stars pulled. It's not a punishment; it's a reminder that eating is something we really need to do. They don't have to clean their plates, but they need to at least pick up their forks and try something and make an attempt at drinking their milk. This reminds teachers who does not need a popsicle or candy. Stars can be earned back at the next meal.

We are not encouraging children to eat, eat, eat, because we don't serve enough food, or enough fattening food to make that happen. It's a matter of eating at appropriate times and not just grazing through the day on snack foods.

Yesterday we had homemade chicken nuggets, yesterday's left over spaghetti, sliced apples, pineapple, sweet buns and butter, and string salad - strings of carrots dipped in ranch dip. Fourteen children touched nothing. It was then that we talked about eating, and several non touchers ate. We asked the children if they liked or did not like the food, and they all liked it. It was just the habit of not eating.

It was the same at breakfast. I made homemade pancakes, juice and milk, and the full plates and full cups were outstanding.

Nutrition is one of the most important things we or any adult can give a child. It's an investment in his health and his life. We are not talking about making kids eat a fattening load of high fat, high cholesterol foods. We are talking about simple friendly sliced apples and oranges and an occasional carrot!

Please check to see what your child is eating or not eating. The habit of just leaving the food on the table is not a good one if he or she is clamoring for treats and sweets.

Miss Kelly tells me that her group is outstanding. Miss Amy tells me that her group is learning at a prodigious rate! Mrs. St. Louis's class is learning to listen.

Next week is picture week with Beve Pietrowski. She is a master photographer. Please read the letter to be sent home today and consider pictures for Christmas.