Parent Education Resources

In case you missed them, below you'll find books from our last meeting with guest speaker Connie Dawson, Ph.D. She is the mother of 3 and grandmother of 8 and a former therapist working with families and childhood attachment problems. She taught in the counselor education program at Portland State University and is currently writing a book about 7 unposted rules that govern relationships.

What's New?

It's time for a little bit of housekeeping and dusting off the old keys to get this blog up to date! A few things things worth mentioning, in case you were not already aware:

• Did you know that the preschool has a Flickr account where parents can share and view pictures of the classes? The url is www.flickr.com/photos/shorelinecooppreschool, but you'll need a couple of things. 1. You do need to have a Flickr account because our photo albums aren't publicly shared and 2. you'll need to visit this link (while signed in), hover over our profile photo and add us as a contact.
• Notice that handy little Amazon box to the right? You didn't? It's wedged between the 'Recent Posts' and the 'Blog Archive'. One of our Imagineers parents setup an Amazon associate account for us (Thanks Evan!) which means if you use our link when you search and buy things on Amazon, SCP will earn $ to help our school. It's easy and it doesn't require anything special. You just need to make sure you either click the link on the SCP website (it's at the top) or start searching from our handy dandy little widget box. Don't forget! It's a great and painless way to help support our school.
• Do you have a blog? Do you have a family blog that you'd like to share with other SCP parents? Please feel free to comment here, leave the link and we'll add it to our Preschool Family Blog linkroll on this site.
• Do you like to blog? Want to help represent your class with posts on the blog? Please leave a comment here with your name and we'll be in touch with login credentials.

Happy Holidays!

In the blink of an eye we've managed to make it through the holidays and are just about ready to welcome in 2011. The classes have been to several field trips including the yearly visit to The Farm, tumbling at Cascade Elite Gymnastics and of course the always exciting visit to the Seattle Center to visit the huge holiday train followed by a trip on the monorail to ride the holiday carousel across from Westlake Center.

Here are a few pics from the carousel trips. Stay tuned in the coming week for a picture recap of the school year so far. We hope that all of the families are having a wonderful holiday season and we're all looking forward to getting back to school after the new year.

23rd Annual Halloween Carnival

Yes, it's that time of year once again! We're busy preparing for the Halloween Carnival this year. This year is extra special as it's also the 50th year of Shoreline Cooperative Preschool! It's amazing that for half a century SCP has been provided a caring, creative and nurturing place for families to grow. The carnival is this coming Saturday. Join us for lots of non-scary fun :)

The Imagineers - Farm Field Trip

Last Thursday, the Imagineers class had their annual trip to The Farm for pumpkin hunting, animal petting and all around fun. What a difference a year makes! Last year, the weather was freezing and pouring down rain while this year couldn't be more different. We had a beautiful sunny day and a great turn out. We picked out pumpkins, jumped in a corn room, saw newborn piglets and celebrated Emma's birthday with cupcakes and popsicles!

The full set of photos from our day are posted on Flickr.

Welcome Back Preschoolers!

Autumn 2009 (3), originally uploaded by dktrpepr.

It seems like we just kicked off the school season with the annual picnic and here we are starting the third week of school already. It's amazing how the kids have grown over the summer!

Our class left last year as Discoverers and came back earning their new Imagineers name. The kids have all grown by leaps and bounds over the break and it's so much fun for us all to experience how they've changed. In addition to the all of the kids that returned this year, we've got many new faces as well. We're all doing out best to make our newest families feel welcome and comfortable in class.

We're all gearing up for the 23rd Annual Halloween Carnival on Saturday, October 23rd from 10a to 3p. For those who've attended before, it's a yearly family event. For those who will be coming for the first time, it's great fun! Hope to see you there :)

New Chicks!

The eggs have hatched and we have new babies in our class! A few of the Imagineers actually got to watch one of the eggs hatch, and I happened to catch the action:

All the dads were impressed with this exciting event!

Inventive Inventors

The Inventors made some pretty impressive inventions this spring:Passerbys of all ages enjoy seeing them on display!

T is for Trout!

The Imagineers went to the Trout Farm during "T" week. The kids had a great time, when they weren't a little freaked out like their parents anyhow.
There were fish caught by all, and of course a little puddle jumping to top it off.

Off to the Jungle!

Today at school we were all in this plane on a trip to the Jungle (over and over in fact)! Thankfully we had a lion, a co-op preschooler, a police officer, and Buzz to aid us on our adventure!

Fooled Ya!

Teacher Patty fooled the kids today! She did a preschool switcheroo with North City. So the kids got to explore in a whole new environment, and they loved it.
Then Emily brought in a foolish snack to fool the kids as well. Yum grilled cheese:
Hee, hee it was really pound cake with orange frosting!
It was a rad day!

A Day of Discoverery

This morning in the Discoverers class it was all about planes, trains, and automobiles, with some superheroes, paint, sand, hoops, and balls thrown in for good measure.


Click Super Why to see all the photos from today's class.

Lil' Kicker Imagineers

The Imagineers had a great field trip to Arena Sports this week! The kids were all very attentive to their coach and had a great time learning new skills, playing goofy games, sharing lunch and bouncing together.

Aqua Town

We've been having all sorts of aquatic fun at preschool lately. After our trip to the Aquarium we've been interested in all things fishy, such as:

Creating a big beachy scene:(this group made collage was a painting, topped with glued on sand and fishy stickers)
Mini aquarium tank collaging (and perhaps some fishy earring wearing):
A little sensory tub fishing:And of course, gearing up and heading out on the boat for some magnetic fishing:
No crabs around here with all the fun we've been having!

Open House!

Hey all you SCP Parents, please share the Open House flyer with friends and family, spread the word, and plan on coming too.

(as seen online)

From 10-noon on Saturday, February 27th your kiddos can play, spend time with other friends and parents, and ooo get a bonus preschool day!

Hope to see you there!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

It's been all sorts of fun celebrating the Lunar New Year at preschool.
The Inventors cleaned the whole school for us:The Imagineers were busy once all was set up.
Painting red lanterns:Wearing the lion head costume:
Playing a little mahjong:
Crafting with red and black,
Having a little tea:
Happy Year of the Tiger!

Discoverers Paint the Town

This past Friday we Discoverers gathered together at Paint the Town at U. Village for some exciting pottery painting. It was so exciting at Paint the Town that I forgot to take out the camera. That's probably for the best, given the way Keegan was slinging around his brush.

After the artwork, we moseyed on over to the playground for a while, and then went to story time at the bookstore. And that went a little bit like this (click the photo to see the set on Flickr):

All In A Days Work

I love that on any given day at SCP the kids are endlessly busy with so many different things. From reading about and digging up rocks and minerals,
to water play,
to playdoh snake making.
From seeing blue,
to drawing red.
From sign creating,
to birthday celebrating!
(hee, hee Andre is taken becoming a big 4 year old seriously!)
Yep, for these Imagineers it's just all in a days "work".