Molly, Lucas, and Ryan practicing brushing teeth.

The PreDental Society showing the children good foods to eat.

Last Friday, a group of students from the UC Berkeley PreDental Society, came to do a presentation about healthy teeth care with the students at Daisy CDC.

First, the group showed what good foods to eat to keep your teeth healthy – a bit from protein, dairy, vegetables, grains, and fruits are all helpful. They shared that sugar, though it tastes good, can give your teeth ‘sugar bugs’ if you eat too much!

Then the children got to volunteer and pretend to be teeth (white shirts) or gums (pink shirts), that were covered in sugar bugs! Various volunteers either brushed the bugs off with a toothbrush, or helped floss to get the stuck sugar bugs.

Afterwards, the students heard several fuzzy puppet animals talk about eating too much candy, and how how brushing your teeth can make you feel better! Then the children got to practice brushing a pair of teeth, just like the puppets did. The time was ended with a song – to the tune of ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’!

We hope to welcome them back again!

Hello families!

Daisy CDC will be hosting its annual Fall Fest on October 27th from 10:30am-12:30pm. It will be a potluck-style, and we will have games and activities for the children (and young at heart!).

We enjoyed watching the families interacting with each other over great food, stories, and laughter.

Daisy is not Daisy without our fabulous families. We sincerely appreciate all that you give to Daisy while your child is here.

Enjoy these photos from the event!

DAY OF: Children need to have car seats with them, so please bring the
car seat and leave it at Daisy.

DRIVERS need to be at Daisy by 9:00
AM to load car seats. The field trip will go through lunch – we will
have lunch at the nature center at noon and return to Daisy by 1:00 PM
for nap time.

We look forward to exploring!

Please keep in mind that the weather is warm and some of the children like exploring with water as well. Please keep their cubbies full of extra clothes, shoes, swimsuits, and hats!

As with the shifting student body transitioning into kindergarten, our Daisy family is growing! Please stop and say hello to the new children playing about. We will be continuing to welcome new students well into September.

There is also a new teacher line-up in our classrooms as well!

Star Room’s teachers are Karla Monroy, Ingrid Escalante, and Angela Banchi. Yeshi will out of the country until the end of September. She has gone back home to visit her family in Ethiopia! We will miss her, and will look forward to hearing stories when she returns.

Sybil Burciaga has left Rainbow Room, and Daisy, to pursue her education in Early Childhood. We will miss her creativity and generosity, wish her well in all her future endeavours. In the meantime, Eva and Joanna will be helping out in Rainbow. A new substitute teacher, Oksana Wright, will be working three days a week in the mornings. We welcome Oksana to the school! She brings along a several years of working as a teacher in the Bay Area and a warm spirit.

Although not a new face, Alexandra ‘Alex’ Barquin, now works 3 days a week in Cloud room.

Friday June 29th from 4:30pm – 6:00pm 

There will be an art show celebrating the magnificent and wonderful pieces of art that the graduating class has done. Each student chose their own pieces to display for the show.

There will be a small ceremony held in Rainbow for students and families. Afterwards, the room  will transform into the art show! There will be music playing, videos showing, and light refreshments will be served.

We are pleased to have these substitutes working at Daisy through the summer. Two of them are not new faces in the Daisy community; the other is an amazing addition!

Karla Rodriguez is a student at Diablo Valley College, studying Child Development. She brings a warm energy and sense of fun. Karla has already spent some time with the students in Galaxy room and Star room.

Khalil Lamnaouar, Joanna’s son, is no stranger to Daisy. He recently graduated Oakland School of the Arts, and Daisy is lucky to have him be apart of our staff for the summer.

Gabe Stewart, Eva’s son & Johana’s brother, already has plenty of fans within the student body at Daisy. He has substituted before at the school, and we are more than happy that he will be apart of the staff once again.

Don’t be shy; say hello!

Lucia in Galaxy room, looking at a music book and hitting notes on the keyboard.

Music has always been a big part of the life at Daisy. From the musicians who visit our school, such as Mariela Herrera (featured last week) and Toni Gross, to the silly songs teachers and children make up alongside together throughout the day, Daisy has always been full of song.

The band's all here

The idea that very early music education provides great long-term benefits has been rendered incontestable by studies in cognition and early learning. Research in developmental psychology and commonsense observation underscore both the importance and the wisdom of making music an integral and overt part of the earliest education of young children.

One can see temperament and body changes when a child is singing a tune, whether alone or with classmates.  Singing, and the creative expression that it brings, is apart of our school and is encouraged. Through singing, children can develop cooperative and listening skills, speech coordination, self-control, concentration skills and memory, while also fostering their imagination. And the accomplishment of completing a song is a clear boost in self-confidence.

So…..spaghetti? A poor meatball? Somebody sneezed, and is seems that the meal has come to a halt. You guessed it  - I was paraphrasing the popular tune “On Top of Spaghetti”, a parody of “On Top of Old Smokey”, which is a beautiful folk song. Below is a snippet of a video that I capture of the Cloud room children singing the beginning lines.

Click here – “On Top of SpaghettI”

Mariela singing 'The Tortilla Song'

¡Es nuestra profesora de música preferida, Mariela Herrera!

We are happy to welcome back our Spanish music teacher, Mariela. She took a hiatus to return to her home country of Chile, and yesterday, she was here to sing and play for the Daisy students.

Before beginning her songs, Mariela told the children about interesting animals she saw while visiting home, seeing “the big ice country” Antartica from a boat, and also, how much she missed California.

El Sol, la estrella, y la luna

The children sang songs along with her in Spanish about animals, (¿Quién es?), songs about food (The Tortilla Song), songs about weather & our environment (El Sol), and we also learned the words to ‘Head Shoulders, Knees, and Toes’ in Spanish!

We look forward to seeing her performing more at Daisy. ¡Adios!

Ingrid Escalante, a teacher in Star Room, has been taking classes at Merrit for several semesters. She describes her most recent child development class, which focused on infants and toddlers.

Ingrid working with a student in the Star Room playground

“One of things we focus in at Daisy is creating nurturing relationships with each child. Many of the children in the Star Room don’t yet have the vocabulary to communicate with us which at times is hard and frustrating for the child.”

“My goal and desire as a caregiver is to stay in tune with each child in order to create a nurturing relationship. This means being aware of each individual child’s reactions, interests and needs. Taking classes has helped me become a better caregiver.”

We look forward to showcasing more of our amazing teachers!