Classes resume Tuesday, January 5th

Happy New Year! PRINTS will re-open at 8 a.m., Tuesday, January 5^th, 2015. 

Staff Development Day, Monday, January 4th, 2016

Classes will not be held due to faculty and management professional development.  

Staff Development Day, Monday, January 4th

A Day in the Life - San Mateo Infant Community

 I have to be careful to put this bowl.

Erdkinder Holiday Fair

Today is the first day of the EK Holiday Fair!

We set up our organic strawberry jam jars to form the word, 'JOY'!

We have holiday cards for sale - handmade ones too!

Delicious hot chocolate for a cold day!

We have a great assortment of cookies to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Once you are ready to make your purchase, head over to the cashier to pay.

A day in the life- Emeryville Children's House

After learning all the Christmas nonmenclature cards in three languages, today we finally made our own fruit cake that looks exactly like the picture on the card! We are so excited for the winter celebration tomorrow!

Happy holidays!

A Day In The Life: San Mateo Children's House

We are making more cookies for the Winter Celebration!

Today, we are baking gingerbread cookies.

We take turns stirring up the ingredients.

Baking for the Winter Celebration

In Children's House, we are baking cookies for the Winter Celebration!

We have to mix up all the ingredients for our cookies.

Now we all roll the dough into little balls!

 The Elementary is preparing gingerbread for their gingerbread houses.

We are mixing up the ingredients in a big bowl.

When our arms get tired we switch off with another classmate.

Field Trip to the California Academy of Sciences and Safari West!

We learned so much on our trips to the California Academy of Sciences and Safari West. The trip supplemented our classroom learning on Africa and we gained a lot of additional insight into the history, culture and amazing animals of this continent.

On the Living Roof of the California Academy of Sciences.

Beautiful jellies in the Steinhart Aquarium

We arrived at Safari West and met our tour guide. He was amazing. He knew so much about all of the different animals. He explained that Safari West is working hard to contribute to keeping many critically endangered species alive, including rhino and some very fragile antelope species.

Mr. Renato gets a kiss from a giraffe. Their tongues are dark to stop them getting sunburned!

There were many exotic birds at Safari West

Giraffe selfie-shot. There are two baby giraffes currently. They weigh 120 lbs as newborns.

Ostrich are very curious and aggressive.

It was fun on the Jeep ride, but sometimes the animals were a wee bit scary!!

This is the official bird and symbol of Uganda. One of the students did a country report on Uganda and we were all excite to see the bird!

The cattle were originally bred and developed by the Ancient Egyptians. Fascinating as we had recently studies Ancient Egypt and had seen cattle depicted in the frescoes and art pieces.

We learned that zebra are very aggressive animals which is why humans cannot ride or domesticate them,

Safari West has many antelope species, including lots of endangered animals. Their captive breeding program is especially important keeping some breeds that have less than 300 individual cattle left.

The lemur exhibit!

Most giraffes in Africa have this darker coloring. The lighter ones are more known in zoo settings.

Flamingo at the watering hole.

Winter Break: Monday, December 21st through Friday, January 1st

Half-Day Friday, December 18th

All classes will end at 12:30 pm.

A Day in the Life - San Mateo Infant Community

After washing the dishes, I have to wipe down the wet table.

Winter Celebration, Friday, December 18th (Emeryville)

The schedule for each level:
ND 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
IC 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
CH 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
EC: 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

It is a half day Friday and all classes will end at 12:30 p.m.

Winter Celebration, Friday, December 18th (San Mateo)

Nido:                                                         9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Infant Community:              12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Children’s House:                9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Elementary Community:    11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
High School:                          December 16th at 2:00 p.m.

Thanksgiving Feast Preparation in the San Mateo Infant Community

 We are breaking green beans for the Thanksgiving feast.

We are enjoying the Thanksgiving meal together.

A day in the life- Emeryville Children's House

What is 1231+3211? Let's do addition!

A Day in the Life: Emeryville Children's House Shares their Sourdough Bread Recipe

For the past week, the Emeryville Children's House was busy baking homemade whole wheat sourdough bread to cut and toast for croutons for the stuffing for the turkey we ate at our Thanksgiving feast. It may seem like a lot of extra steps, but it's our third year doing it, and we really enjoy it!

The children like this bread so much that they have asked us to share it with all of you.

First, we begin with sourdough starter. Our starter is over fifty years old and was started by Mrs. Williamscraig's grandmother. She gave us our starter and our bread recipe. If you don't have your own sourdough starter already, you can make it! First, you take 3/4 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water, and mix it until you have a smooth paste. Then you put it into a wide-mouthed glass jar (like a pickle jar), put saran wrap and a rubber band over the top, and let it sit out overnight.
The next day, make another paste of 1/2 cup of flour and between 1/4 cup and 1/3 cup of water, mix it until it is smooth with a wooden or plastic spoon, stir it into your jar, and re-cover. This is called "feeding" the starter.
If you feed your starter for three days in a row, you will notice lots of little bubbles beginning to form, and a mildly sour, yeasty smell. The level of starter should also be rising in the jar. On the fifth day after you began the process, your starter should be ready to use.

To make one loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread, you will need:
1 cup of water, between 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit

Taking the temperature of the water.

1 Tbsp sugar
1 packet standard yeast (not rapid-rise)
1/2 cup sourdough starter (please remember to use a plastic or pyrex measuring cup, not metal!)

Adding the starter from a glass measuring bowl.

Stir these together in a large bowl and wait 10-15 minutes. Then add:

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour (or a blend of whole wheat and unbleached bread flour)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp sea salt

Stirring in the flour.

Oil your hands a little and knead the dough in the bowl until smooth and elastic. The surface should look shiny if it is ready to rise. Just before you cover it, pinch out an egg-sized portion of dough and feed it to your sourdough starter. Then the starter can be covered and refrigerated. If you use a jar with a metal lid, it is good to keep a layer of plastic wrap in between the jar and the lid.

Feeding dough back into the starter. 

Cover the bowl of dough with a dish towel and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (1 1/2 - 2 hours). Then oil a loaf pan and press the dough gently into the pan.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 42 minutes.

Caring for your sourdough starter:
Starter is *almost* impossible to kill. Even if you forget about it for months in the refrigerator and a brown liquid begins to form, pouring off the liquid and feeding it for 2-3 days in a row should restore it to good health again. If you use it regularly, simply take it out of the refrigerator the night before you intend to use it, let it come to room temperature, feed it, and let sit for about an hour before using.

Thanksgiving Feast Preparation

The whole school is busy preparing for the Thanksgiving Feast....

We are breaking off green beans in IC!

We are preparing the ingredients to make cornbread in CH.

The cornbread mix is ready to go in the oven!

Next thing we have to do is to wash the potatoes.