Celebrating the Lunar New Year

Happy Year of the Tiger! Last month, CCC'ers enjoyed a whole week of activities celebrating the Lunar New Year. The children made and hung paper lanterns, decorated a large paper dragon with sparkles and shiny scales and paraded the dragon around the school with lots of noisy drums.

At circle time in both classrooms, teacher Kathy Chew explained Chinese New Year traditions and passed out red envelopes, with the help of her grandson. Below, she shares what this holiday means to her.

The Lunar New Year is a special time for our family, when we look forward to sharing time together and with friends. To prepare for the beginning of a new year, we clean the house, get a haircut and new clothes, and buy a bag of rice. We decorate our home with flowers or plum blossoms, set out a plate of oranges (for good luck), put up red and gold symbols for happy thoughts of peace, health and happiness and prepare a special candy box with treats to share with visitors.

During a two-week celebration, we visit family and friends. Children are given red envelopes, decorated with pictures or symbols to wish children a Happy New Year. At the end of the two weeks, there is a parade with many firecrackers, drums and cymbals; the loud noises are to scare away bad luck. There are also many lions/dragons, a symbol of good luck.

There are 12 years in our lunar cycle. Each year is linked to an animal. This is the year of the Tiger, special for me as I am beginning my fifth cycle.

At CCC, I shared how my family celebrates and invited our grandson Tyler to come help me pass out red envelopes and say "Gung Hay Fot Choy" (Happy New Year) to each front and back yard friend. What a special moment for me as a teacher, parent and grandparent.

-- Kathy Chew

Love, Sweet Love

Love was in the air at CCC on Friday with the annual Valentine's Day celebration. Children brought cards and other small tokens to fill each others' Valentine bags and decorated the classrooms with lots and lots of construction paper hearts.

Back Yarders traveled to the Front Yard for a group serenade of love songs, including favorites like If You Love Me and Skinnamarink. Then the older children escorted their younger schoolmates to the Back Yard classroom for the traditional "ice cream sodies"--Italian strawberry soda with vanilla ice cream... and straws, of course!

Afterward, both yards were open as the kids mingled, played beanbag toss, put on tattoos and painted their own faces. Meanwhile, the plum trees bloomed brilliantly all around, their pink flowers a perfect complement to the colors and joyful spirit of the day.

Thanks to Annie (Alex, FY) for the photo.

Back Yarders Host a Feast

Last month the Back Yarders welcomed the Front Yarders to their classroom for the annual pre-Thanksgiving Feast. Prior to the big event, Back Yard teacher Lara read the classic tale Stone Soup with the kids. On the day of the Feast, each child brought an assigned vegetable and the class worked together to cook up their own (and might I add delicious!) version of stone soup.

In their roles as hosts, the Back Yarders were each assigned a Front Yarder to escort to the table and to sit with at lunch time. Front Yarders made cornbread to contribute to the meal. With the whole school--kids, teachers and participating parents--gathered together over warm bowls of soup, the Feast was a vision of community togetherness, a perfect beginning to the holiday season.

(Thanks to Annie Burke for the photo)

Food, Glorious Food

Front Yard mom Sara Hinkley shares the culinary joys of the season, and a recipe for a delicious CCC-inspired cranberry relish.

For the past several weeks, the Front Yarders have been busy peeling, mixing, measuring, grinding, cutting, baking and eating. They made applesauce (first making "apple yoyos"), pumpkin pancakes, cornmeal pancakes, cornbread (for the all-school feast) and cranberry relish (which every Front Yarder got to take home for Thanksgiving weekend).

This is the season for eating: for celebrating the last big harvest before winter, for cherishing the foods associated with early Americans (pumpkin, cranberry, corn, sweet potatoes, nuts), for celebrating our own cultural traditions, and filling up on warm, spiced, sweet foods for the long winter. As Allyssa reminded some of us on Friday, food is a wonderful way for children to learn about each other's cultures and backgrounds. The way to each others' hearts may just be through our stomachs!

Recipes for everything but the relish are on the wiki. Here's my adaptation of Allyssa's recipe for relish (almost the same as my mom's, who grew up on Cape Cod, where cranberries are taken very seriously.)

Cranberry Relish
1 bag cranberries (washed)
1 orange (cut into wedges, skin left on but seeds removed)
1 apple (cored)
juice of about 1/2 lemon
cinnamon (optional)
small fistful dried cherries
sugar to taste

Blend in a food processor (or hand-grinder, pictured above) and eat! I've found it does best if you let it sit to let the sugar dissolve before refrigerating. And I try to stop the food processor before it turns into mush.

-- Sara Hinkley, Ethan (FY)

Jack O' Mountains

Annie Burke (mom of Alex, FY) shares a special CCC moment--an unexpected surprise at pick-up time last night.

When I went to get Alex at Tea Time this evening, I found the kids, Hannah and Brian walking out of the building towards the back. They were following Brian who was telling a story about Jack O Mountains. Brian crouched down with some matches (the kids were standing away at a safe distance, of course) in the sandbox. After a few minutes and several matches we saw this (see photo).

They built it during the afternoon and waited until it was dark--now about 5:20--to light him up. The kids oooo-ed and awww-ed... and so did the gathering parents who were there to pick up their kids. I missed the story that Brian told but it was clear that whatever it was, it was full of imagination, passion and a deep care for our kids. That place and the teachers who breathe life into it everyday are pretty special.

-- Annie (Alex, FY)

Halloweeeeeeeeen!

The count-down has begun. There are costumes to make (or, in our family's case, search for frantically online), pumpkins to carve and trick-or-treat itineraries to map out.

Meanwhile, the classrooms at CCC are bustling with activities to celebrate the season. Front-yarders are enjoying Halloween-themed books and songs, roasting pumpkin seeds, making pumpkin pancakes and painting their own faces. Allyssa will be sharing a favorite book, Go Away Big Green Monster, a great selection for this time of year that helps take the scariness out of monsters. And on the Friday before Halloween, kids can hunt for pumpkins on the hill!

Back-yarders are also busy with DIY activities, Lara reports—making costumes and masks, decorating mini pumpkins and learning about witches, including the historical role of witches as women with knowledge of herbs and medicine. The kids have even been concocting their own potions. The Back Yard is also celebrating Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with an altar in the classroom and sugar skulls for the children to decorate and take home.

Outside of CCC, families are enjoying all kinds of spooky fun. Kate (Milo, BY) writes, "Halloween has traditionally been the only holiday we spend at our own house. And we love it for that. The kids can hardly wait to decorate and it's all we can do to wait till October 1st to bring out the bins of bats and skulls and costumes." Milo's family also enjoys an annual trip to Sebastopol to go pumpkin-patching with friends.

On Halloween night in years past, Ravi (FY) and his family hit popular streets like Mariposa (near CCC) or Belvedere in San Francisco. "We used to call these streets the Castro, but for kids," says his mom Promita. But as the kids have been getting older, their traditions have changed. Now they have Arizmendi pizza and spooky snacks with a few friends before trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.

And finally, Alex (FY) and his family have found a great way to let the magic of Halloween live on... and on. His mom Annie tells us, "One of our traditions is to let our jack o' lanterns decompose in our veggie beds. It's fun to watch them get all smooshed and crumble into the dirt. And then in the spring, up come little baby pumpkin plants!"

How is your family celebrating Halloween? Share your favorite pumpkin patch, trick-or-treat destination or a special tradition your family enjoys in this "spirited" season!

Allyssa's Pumpkin Pancakes

A Halloween Front Yard tradition, these delicious pancakes make a perfect breakfast treat for this time of year.

• 2 c. flour
• 3 T. Brown sugar (packed)
• 3 t. baking powder
• 1 t. salt
• 1 t. cinnamon
• ½ t. ginger
• ¼ t. nutmeg
• 1 ½ c. milk
• 1 ¼ c. pumpkin
• 4 eggs or 8 T. cornstarch
• ¼ c. melted butter

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately. Combine. Cook. Add a drizzle of maple syrup… mmm.

Feeling fancy? Try them with candied ginger butter: In a bowl, with wooden spoon, stir 2 T. finely chopped candied ginger into ¼ cup soft butter. Spread on warm pumpkin pancakes.