The Dublin Community Preschoolers and their parents had an amazing outing to the Perkins Observatory on the campus of the Dublin School last night.
Dublin School teacher, Jonathan Weis, helped facilitate an amazing learning experience for us. The night was clear and cold. Perfect viewing conditions. Outside the building at the top of the field we looked together at a variety of constellations that the children had already learned about through their monthly visit from the Harris Center. Harris Center teacher Laura Kennedy also joined us and helped bring to life everything we have been learning about during our space theme. We saw great Orion the Hunter and Cassiopeia, the Queen. We saw a star called Beetle Juice that might explode sometime in the next thousands of years. We saw the Big Dipper. We saw the moon. And then the magnificent telescope brought all of that and more to us, so close that we felt like we could reach out and touch it.
“I liked seeing the moon. It was SO BIG! I felt like I was on my way there.”
“I loved seeing Jupiter and its moons. At first it just looked like a regular old star.”
Thank you, Jonathan, for brightening our horizons and inviting us into your magical world of astronomy!
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"St. Nicholas? Are you out there?"
December brings such magic with it. The first snow, the lights on houses, the hopes and wishes of the season, and of course the numerous holidays that we all celebrate. While most of the students at DCP do celebrate Christmas, we feel it’s important to for them to understand that there are different ways to celebrate this festive time of year.
During the first week of December, we learned about the Israeli tradition of Chanukah. We played Dreidel, did scarf dancing to Israeli music, made latkes and went on a hunt for chocolate gelt.
We also learned about the Swedish tradition of St. Lucia Day. The children went on two parades through Dublin Village Park, the boys with star wands and hats, the girls with candles and our beautiful St. Lucia with her wreath of evergreens leading the way to bring light and the gift of gingerbread cakes and hot cocoa to our neighbors.
We also learned about the German tradition of St. Nicholas Day. While most of us know him as Santa, the children learned about how one culture believes he came to be. After hearing the tale, they all left a shoe by the door and layed down for a “winter’s nap” in hopes that St. Nicholas would leave them some cakes and clementines. There was a jingle at the door and a “Ho, ho, ho” and when they woke up, their shoes were filled!
Senora Wheeler taught us about where cocoa beans come from and how they get from beans to hot chocolate. With an authentic Mexican batador, the children all took turns churning the chocolate so it would melt in the hot milk. The modern blender, we found, was a huge help in speeding up this laborious process! Topped with a few tiny marshmallows and YUM! What a huge hit and a great learning experience.
As the children here have learned, there are many ways to celebrate such a magical time of year. We want to wish you all a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year, no matter how you celebrate!
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Our giving tree went up and although we know times are especially tough for families this year we went with it anyway because we so love the idea of it. The idea of teaching children at a young age the importance of giving to others, of helping those with less. The community spirit. The church was hopeful we would be able to help their cause.
It began slowly with a couple of hats here and there. We decided to make some pine cone ornaments to help fill in the empty spaces. We were still wishing and hoping. Then within a matter of a few days it seemed that it was suddenly overflowing with the spirit of giving we all had hoped for. It exceeded the best of our best years. Those that maybe were not able to purchase still found a way to give - there were some of the most beautiful home made hats - some crocheted, some sewn…
The church was thrilled and we all were able to feel great about helping others. Thank you to all who found a way to participate!
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