Exotic spices filled the air along with the calls of street merchants. The bustling crowd of proud and curious parents were clamoring about. Was I really in the Rainbow playground or had I found myself transported into the middle of an Indian street bazaar? All around me I saw the blue room preschoolers dressed up in colorful and fancy clothes as they sat at their stalls (mats) along the paved area. Some stalls were shops where the children hawked trinkets like bangles and tie dyed fabric (made by the preschoolers earlier this month). Other stalls I visited were informational stalls where the student told me about yoga or cleaning brass.
India doesn’t seem like the typical subject preschoolers would learn about. So their teacher, Jessica Redford explained. “The kids were very interested in India ever since Molly went.” Molly was the after school preschool teacher with us last year. She left us and Asheville to tour India for six months. While in India she sent her former class a large box full of bangles, little wooden trinkets for counting and beautiful cloths for dress up.
Today the children celebrated all they had learned about India with their bazaar and then a large Indian feast. Their parents supplied the tasty, aromatic meal, and the children supplied their fair share of excitement.
Millions Will Participate in the Annual Turnoff week and 139 kids of those millions will be from Rainbow Mountain. We think it’s always time to PLAY! So we choose as our team name; PLAY – Positive, Learning, Active, Youth.
Rainbow Mountain Children’s School will join thousands of schools, libraries, and community groups nationwide in a coordinated effort to encourage millions of Americans to turn off televisions, computers, and video games for seven days and turn on the world around them. Screen-Free Week is a chance for children to read, play, think, create, be more physically active, and to spend more time with friends and family.
“Screen-Free Week is a much needed respite from the screen media dominating the lives of so many children” said Renee Jackson, fifth/sixth grade teacher. “Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that we help children discover the joys of life beyond screens.”
On average, preschool children spend over four and a half hours a day consuming screen media, while older children spend over seven hours a day including multitasking. Excessive screen time is linked to a number of problems for children, including childhood obesity, poor school performance, and problems with attention span.
Screen-Free Week (formerly TV-Turnoff) is coordinated by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a national advocacy organization devoted to reducing the impact of commercialism on children. Since the Week’s founding in 1994, it has been celebrated by millions of children and their families worldwide. For more information, visit www.screenfree.org.
“From the mouth’s of babes…” What a POWERFUL speaker. This girl reminds me of some of the young people who have graduated from Rainbow Mountain.
~Renee Owen (Executive Director)
PS. The video is slightly out of focus, but totally worth it.
Come visit our Five-Star Preschool and Kindergarten this Monday, 30 January from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.
Meet our loving, dynamic teachers. Learn about our engaging, holistic curriculum. Tour our beautiful classrooms.
RSVP are appreciated but not required: 258-9264, ext. 21
Future Rainbow Mountain preschool and kindergarten Open House dates are Tuesday 28 February and 25 April. Come visit all the grades at our school wide Open House 21 March.
One of the most exciting events of the year….The Rainbow Mountain Science Fair…is fast approaching on February 10. Is your child working on collecting their data yet? For some inspiration, here is a video demonstrating how even the simplest science fair project often has intriguing and unexpected results. You won’t want to eat another non-organic sweet potato after watching it!
By the way, Rainbow Mountain students score exceptionally high (averaging 80th – 90th percentile compared nationally) on standardized science tests. (Something we don’t usually publish, because we aren’t real into standardized tests.) Attend the Science Fair on February 10, and be prepared to learn something new from our amazing students.
Exotic spices filled the air along with the calls of street merchants. The bustling crowd of proud and curious parents were clamoring about. Was I really in the Rainbow playground or had I found myself transported into the middle of an Indian street bazaar? All around me I saw the blue room preschoolers dressed up in colorful and fancy clothes as they sat at their stalls (mats) along the paved area. Some stalls were shops where the children hawked trinkets like bangles and tie dyed fabric (made by the preschoolers earlier this month). Other stalls I visited were informational stalls where the student told me about yoga or cleaning brass.
