Calendar

Healthy Lifestyles Curriculum

April 2013
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News Bulletin
April 2013 Elgin Child & Family Resource Center A program of One Hope United 210 National St., Elgin, IL 60120 847.697.7100

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Overall Health Exercise

Nutrition Environmental Sustainability

Making quick home-cooked meals is easy with advance planning

Hurried parents often turn to pre-prepared meals Many slow cooker recipes can be assembled to feed their families. Processed foods can contain raw and stored in your freezer. Chop vegunhealthy levels of salt, fat, and other chemical etables and cut up meat, beans or other protein ingredients. As an alternative, it can be just as easy and add seasoning to a freezer bag. Push the and less expensive to make healthy meals at home air out so it stacks neatly in your freezer. In from whole foods. It also is a fun way to get chilthe morning, empty the contents of one of the dren involved in helping to plan and prepare meals. freezer bags into your slow cooker. When you come home that evening, a delicious, homeHere are some ideas for cooking quick, cooked meal will await you. healthy meals: When you cook, make extra portions that you can refrigerate or freeze for another meal. Plan meals in advance and shop for a weeks Make recipes healthier with ingredient substituworth of meals at the same time. tions. For example, instead of ground beef use Stock up on common recipe ingredients such ground turkey or lentils (about cup of lentils as milk; juice; shredded and sliced cheese; per pound of ground beef). Also try low-fat whole-grain pasta; bread; canned tomatoes cheese such as mozzarella; brown rice instead and tomato paste; brown rice; eggs (look for of white rice; oil and vinegar instead of bottled eggs enriched with omega-3); beef, chicken or salad dressings. Sugar can be reduced by vegetable broth; olive oil; fresh and frozen fruit about half in most baked goods. and vegetables; canned or dried beans; boneless chicken; and condiments such as mustard, With just a small amount of advance planning, ketchup, mayonnaise and soy sauce. cooking a healthy home-cooked meal can be a Speed up the weeknight cooking process by snap! pre-cutting vegetables and putting them in the refrigerator. Then you can quickly add them to any dish. Try using a slow cooker so you can assemble the recipe in the morning and have it ready by dinner.

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April 816: Scholastic Book Fair

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Toddler Play Group 35 p.m.

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April 816: Scholastic Book Fair

closing at 2 p.m. Professional Development Day Straw Hat Day

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April 2226: Art Gallery in gym, 35:30 p.m.

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PREVE NT CH ILD ABUSE

CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH:

GO BLUE!

Four Components of the

April 1419: Week of the Young Child: Art Gallery in gym and Blue Baskets Raffle

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facebook.com/1hopeunited twitter.com/1hopechildcare

Resources: American Heart Association: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyCooking/Healthier-Preparation-Methods-forCooking_UCM_301484_Article.jsp KidsHealth: www.kidshealth.org Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/NU00585

onehopechilddevelopment.org

YOUR TRUSTED PARTNER IN EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION

Week of the Young Child and Blue Ribbon Month

Throughout the month of April, the Elgin Child & Family Resource Center will be highlighting two special causes: Child Abuse Awareness Month and the Week of the Young Child.

At Elgin Child & Family Resource Center, we will be celebrating in several ways. The first floor classrooms will be creating blue baskets containing a variety of blue items created by your children. These baskets will be raffled to several lucky winners. The proceeds will go to raise support for One Hope Uniteds Blue Ribbon Month. Be sure to watch for the flyer as to when the raffle will take place. Our center will also be raising money by hosting a book fair by Scholastic Books. The book fair will be held from April 8 16. We encourage you to stop by and browse the books with your children before making your selections. The second floor classrooms will study a variety of different artists at the beginning of the month while practicing various techniques and styles of art. To showcase your childs work we will be hosting an art gallery in the gym. Please come to browse the different creations from April 22 26 at 3 5:30 p.m.

Focus on a Classroom
The teachers in Classroom 108, Jen, Ayeshah and Marisela are encouraging Healthy Lifestyles by making banana bread with their students. The children not only learned the joys of eating healthy foods, but enhanced their fine-motor-skills by mashing the bananas in plastic bags while developing language through conversations. Be sure to keep the banana bread recipe below, and enjoy the sweet and healthy treat with your family. It is exciting to see even the youngest children participating in everyday tasks. How do you make everyday tasks fun for your children? Ask your childs teacher if you would like more creative ways to include your children in the everyday tasks you do at home.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention month, a time to recognize that we each can play a part in promoting the social and emotional well-being of children and families in our communities. One Hope United passionately promotes this cause through many fundraising opportunities and awareness events. The Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The purpose of the Week of the Young Child is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. The 2013 Week of the Young Child is April 2226 and the theme is Early Years are Learning Years.

PREVE NT CH ILD ABUSE

BANANA BREAD
Ingredients: 2 cups all purpose flour 1-teaspoon baking soda teaspoon salt 2 cup mashed bananas cup plain yogurt cup brown sugar 2 eggs, beaten cup butter

Early Closing: April 19

In April, the center will be closing early at 2 p.m. on April 19 for a professional development training. Please keep these dates and times on you calendar! Each classroom will also be posting a red sign to remind families of the next few early closings in April and May. Be sure to check these signs as they are posted.

children and their parents to play together. We cannot wait to see you there!

Community Focus
Have you taken the time to appreciate the many different resources that Elgin has to offer? Well the Gail Borden Library is one resource that every family should know about! It is a place to learn and grow as a family while instilling the philosophy of a life-long learner in your child! The library always hosts a large variety of activities for your children and family. These activities are not only exciting but provide a great space for your family to spend quality time doing something fun! Mondays and Wednesdays they host family story times at 7 pm, in English and Spanish accordingly. No registration is required, so make a plan and do something fun with your family this week!

Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan. 2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Beat butter yogurt and brown sugar with an electric mixer or in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be notice ably lighter in color. Add room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into butter mixture before adding the next. Place bananas in a plastic bag and mash them using your hands. Then stir them into butter mixture until well blended. Pour banana mixture into the flour mixture, stir just enough to moisten. Transfer batter into prepared loaf pan. 3. Bake in preheated oven until a tooth pick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean, 60 to 65 minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn over onto plate or wire rack to cool completely.
This activity is a part of a center-wide plan to incorporate healthy lifestyles into the curriculum. Ayeshah mentioned that their classroom incorporates healthy lifestyle learning into their lessons at least twice a week. The teachers focus on both physical movements and nutrition to encourage healthy lifestyles.

Infant & Toddler Playgroup

The Elgin Child and Family Resources Center will be hosting the next Infant and Toddler Playgroup on April 15 from 35 p.m. This group is designed to allow families a chance to meet and interact with other families, while playing with their children. The playgroup will also include a few teachers from the center who will provide developmentally appropriate activities for