Wellness in the Classroom
Incredible learning takes place inside the walls of CPSC. We're so proud that students and teachers also experience school within the community, outdoors, and world around them...a very big and very fun classroom!
Below, Judy's 4th graders embark on extensive water study in preparation for a collaborative project with the Museum of Natural History. They raised shad (a type of fish) and released them into the Neuse River.
Check out the cool video they made about the shad project here!
Below, Judy's 4th graders embark on extensive water study in preparation for a collaborative project with the Museum of Natural History. They raised shad (a type of fish) and released them into the Neuse River.
Check out the cool video they made about the shad project here!
Wellness Month Schoolwide BreakfastThe Wellness Committee successfully put together a schoolwide, free and healthy breakfast for all students. This was a way to celebrate Wellness Month at Central Park School for Children as well as just share in a nutritious start to the day. Students were offered yogurt and then were able to choose from an array of healthy toppings, creating a sort of parfait. Students with dietary restrictions were tended to with nut-free or dairy free alternatives. Hooray for Wellness! Many thanks to the many volunteers that helped orchestrate and execute this beautiful idea.
To The Cookery with Scott's ClassScott's Kindergarten class visited The Cookery, aligning with their project on food. From The Cookery's website, The Cookery features a state of the art commercial food production facility and incubation program, in addition to a beautiful event space called the Front Room. The kindergartners were able to tour the large kitchen and checkout cooking equipment. The students were then introduced to the fresh ingredients that would be used as they worked alongside a baker to make fresh muffins. Scott's class was then led to a long table set up for them to follow a big recipe. The end result, scrumptious carrot muffins.
Cooking with AsiaEK's class preps with Asia, a volunteer cook, to make hummus. Hummus is a mediterranean food that goes along with this class's peaceful project involving Syria.
Talking about food, growing it and eating it |
5th Grade Electives 2013-2014
CPSC's 5th grade students are offered the opportunity to choose some of their coursework. These electives are a way for students, teachers, parents, and guest experts to extend learning into territory often uncharted in regular class sessions. This quarter, each 5th grader got to select a physical activity elective from 6 unique choices: Zumba/Jazzercise, Cooperative Games, Cross Country, Outdoor Sports, Cross Training, and Volleyball.
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Cooking with EK's class
This Wednesday, these kindergartners made Tabouli, a Middle Eastern bulgur and parsley salad. This food would align with this class's project involving Syria. Bailey and Bea, above, are pictured here peeling and cutting cucumbers.
Corshawn prepares the fresh herbs for the tabouli salad.
Third Graders Explore the Human Body with 3 Guest Experts!
1. A Registered Dietitian visited each 3rd grade class to share about different BONE BUILDERS and BONE BUSTERS. In effort to build super strong bones, we learned to explore Nutrition Facts labels and computer databases for calcium content of foods in our journey to earn 1300 bone bucks (ie: 1300mg of calcium) per day.
Click here for more info about what we learned. |
2. Dr. Katie Ollendick, a member of UNC's Physical Therapy faculty and Pediatric PT specialist taught students lots of new things about the skeletal and muscular systems...how many bones and muscles do we have? What are our biggest and smallest bone? Which muscle is the strongest? Which bone is fractured most frequently? Dr. Katie even brought some real bones and casts, braces, crutches, and other tools PTs use in their work.
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Movement- Dancing with Gaspard
Our school is fortunate to have Gaspard Louis teaching dance to our students. The Haitian-born dancer and choreographer performed with the renowned modern dance company Pilobolus for 10 years before launching his own group, Gaspard & Dancers – right here in Durham – in 2009.
Dance is a special class set aside for each grade at Central Park School for Children. Our students alternate their special classes each quarter in order for them all to have this amazing experience with dance. Here are a few pictures of students from 3rd and 4th grade stretching and dancing with Gaspard this quarter in addition to a video of 2nd graders in a video describing Project Dance. |
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Movement- Aikido with Jason
Central Park Students are fortunate to have Jason as their Aikido teacher. The word Aikido is made up of three Japanese words. Ai, meaning harmony; Ki, which means spirit or energy; and Do, the path or the way. Together, Aikido is the way of the spirit of harmony. Jason is not only working to teach good body movement through martial arts, he is teaching our students about self-control and peace.
This is a photo taken of Aaron's fourth grade class involved in an Aikido activity.
Movement- Music with Liz
Pictured here in Music class is Meg's 2nd grade class. Liz integrates movement into her music classes for Kindergarten through 5th grade.
Kindergarteners Cooking with Parent VolunteersEach week, Aileen has a time for cooking designated for her class. Parent volunteers from her group are the leaders as the children explore the world of cooking.
Brandon's parents, Joe and Gretchen, came in to make fresh salsa and guacamole with the students. Not only were the children able to actually help make these healthy foods, but Joe and Gretchen talked to them about where the fresh ingredients come from. |
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Gretchen and Joe's Simple Salsa
1 clove of garlic jalapeno pepper (use about 1/4 of the pepper with kids) 1 can of diced tomatos juice from 1/2 lime a handful of fresh cilantro (1/4-1/2 C loosely packed) 1/2 tsp sugar salt and pepper to taste Chop garlic and jalapeño in blender or food processor. Add other ingredients and blend until desired consistency is reached. Everything can be adjusted to taste - more jalapeño, garlic, lime juice. |
Simple Guacamole
1 avocado juice from 1/2 lime season with salt and pepper Mash all together and enjoy! |
Gardening- Planting with ScottScott's Kindergarten class took a walking field trip across the street to visit Stone Brothers & Byrd garden center to purchase some plants to grow outside of their classroom. This was planned after the class brainstormed in groups of four, on chart paper, what they could grow in their class planters outside.
These kindergarteners picked out lettuce plants, pansies, strawberry plants and other vegetable seeds. They trekked back to school and got their hands dirty in the soil planting the plants and seeds. Not only are these kindergarteners learning about how plants grow, they are experiencing first hand that they can grow these healthy foods themselves! |
Food Study- Where Does My Food Come From with Alex
Last year, Alex's fifth graders made a book entitled Where Does My Food Come From. This very detailed handmade book features many aspects of their project about food. They read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Micael Pollan and dove into food topics such as organics, preservatives and processed foods, food travel, factory farming, corn usage, and grocery store jargon associated with food. They watched films like Food Inc. and Supersize Me and used information they learned to write and share within their class book. They also visited a local urban garden, Seeds, and collected information and inspiration there as well.
Their incredibly detailed book features many questions and answers that are both thoughtful and deep as well as meaningful.
Their incredibly detailed book features many questions and answers that are both thoughtful and deep as well as meaningful.
First Grade Cooking & Gardening Club
Parent volunteers help Julie's class cook and garden each week!
Nutrition & Wellness- Project Work with Cheryle's class
Cheryle's fourth graders have been doing project work centered around the topic of nutrition and wellness. They created bulletin boards/displays full of information all about healthy living and much more. Within this project work, the students have studied:
* Major food groups * Nutrients and vitamins * Creating a balanced meal with MyPlate * Reading Nutrition Food Labels * Identifying food ingredients * Sugar, fat and processed foods * The importance of water * Exercise To listen to their own rap songs devoted to these topics, check out Cheryle's class website here. Click on the pictures below to see the display images larger: |
Movement- A Class HikeAileen's Kindergarten class took a hike to conclude their project studying the Eno River. The class hiked, explored the water, and had a picnic lunch. Aileen's love of nature is evident in and out of the classroom. |
Food Science - Food Preservation
Fifth graders in Alex's Advisory dehydrate a watermelon! Read more about the process and their observations here. |