Greek American Preschool Christmas Party 2010

On Friday, December 10, The Greek American Preschool at Saint Paraskevi had their 4th Annual Christmas Party. It was wonderful. The children sang "Ta Kalanta", there was an elf who played games and there was a special visit from Santa Claus.

Greek Picture Book Sample Pages

During the summer, I spent some time writing several Greek picture books for The Greek American Preschool at Saint Paraskevi. The reason I wrote these books was to help students develop some Greek sight words by using repetitive text. I used pictures and words that our students are already familiar with and incorporated them into picture books. These books are used to teach our students how to read and also help build their self esteem. Our students feel a sense of pride that they are able to read a book in Greek. After the book has been read a few times during class, each student gets to bring the book home. Then, they read it with their parents and draw their favorite part of the story. At the end of the year, I will be compiling all of their pictures in a class book that each child will be bringing home.

Class is in session at The Greek American Preschool at Saint Paraskevi. The children are learning so much. We have 20 students this year and are starting a traditional Greek dance group Friday evenings. I am very excited for a fun a productive school year!

Nouno Yiannis at Halloween

We love our Koumbaro. He dressed up on Halloween as Batman. The boys had a blast!.

Easy Karidopita Cake

My husband and I will be baptizing yet another beautiful baby. We feel so blessed. Last week we were going over to see the baby and the boys and I made an awesome karidopita. It was so easy too. Here is the recipe.

3/4 cup walnuts very roughly chopped
2 1/2 cups finely grated walnuts
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick of butter
8 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
5 tablespoons cognac
1 tablespoon bread crumbs

For the Syrup
2 cups sugar
3 cups water

Preparation
Beat the butter, sugar, cinnamon the yolks of the eggs in a mixer for 10 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl.
Clean the mixer bowl and beat the whites of the eggs in the mixer until it becomes a meringue.
Add half of the meringue to the yolk mixture.
Mix the baking powder with the 2 1/2 cups grated walnuts, gradually adding the flour.
Add this mixture to the egg yolk mixture along with the remaining meringue, stirring gently.
Transfer the whole mixture to a 13 by 9 pan which has been well buttered, and the bread crumbs sprinkled over the bottom.
Spread the 3/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts on top.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the sugar and water in a pan and boil for 15 minutes.
Pour the hot syrup over the the cool cake
Now the cognac.

So good! Let me knwo how it came out!

My Koumbaro Yiannis writes books about Spiderman, Batman ect. Whenever a new book is published he always comes over with copies for the preschool and my sons. He sits and reads the books to my boys over and over again. He even translates some parts into Greek. We are so proud of him!

Attached is the fall classes flyer. I can't wait for another productive year! Thank you everyone! I feel so blessed to be a part of this program. Thank you Agia Paraskevi for giving me this opportunity.

At the end off every school year I have a bbq at my home. This year it was held on June 27. We had a wonderful day. It's my way of showing the parents and students in the program how proud I am of them.

The Greek American Preschool at Saint Parasekvi had their first Summer Immersion Camp. It ran from June 21 - 25. The theme was "Thalassa". Our students had a blast. They sang songs, played games, and did projects all about the sea. Thank you to our teachers Kyria Pelagia and Despinis Heido who did a wonderful jpb.

Greek American Preschool at Saint Paraskevi Graduation

On Sunday, June 13th, The Greek American Preschool at Saint Paraskevi had their Moving Up Exercises. The students performed "To Naftaki" and read a Poem. We had 9 graduates. The community loved it. I am so proud of them! Sixaritia!

Our church had their annual golf tournament on Monday. One of the winners of the tournament donated half of his winnings to the Preschool. God Bless Him!

Article for the Omogenia Newspaper

Mr. Niko Notarides( an old soccer buddy of my dad) runs a local Greek News and Sports paper called the "Omogenia Kai Athlitismos". He wrote an article on the preschool that I started at Saint Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Church. This article is featured in the May 2010 edition. Thank you Father Lou for scanning it for me! Located in the pictures are some of the students, one of our teachers Kyria Pelagia, Thea Stella (we love her), and my parents....... my inspiration!

Childrens Greek DVD's

There are some great Greek DVD's for kids out there. Instead of allowing my children to sit and watch hours of TV, I put on Greek DVD's. They have many of the Disney movies in Greek and some educational ones as well. One in particular that my children love is the "Greek 4 Kids" series. It is distributed by Ellinas Multimedia. http://www.ellinsmultimedia.com/. There are 4 different DVD levels .

The parea!

The Greek American Preschool at Saint Paraskevi had a Greek Night Fundraiser at The Artful Dodger in Huntington, NY on May 1st. This fundraiser was to raise money for the Greek language preschool I am the director of. It was a blast. Open bar, buffet, and Greek music. We all danced the night away. In fact, my husband Kostas paid for the D.J. to stay an extra hour because everyone was having so much fun. The owner of The Artful Dodger couldn't do enough to make this fundraiser a success. Thank you to Mike Conforti. I want to thank everyone who came and contributed to this evening. Thank you to my family, friends, and members of our community who helped to support this fundraiser. We were able to raise money for the Preschool, our church and spend time with our friends. Awesome Parea!

St. Paraskevi's Greek-American Pre School

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In the News!!

Niko Notarides, owner and editor of the Omogenia Newspaper, visited our Greek-American pre-school at St. Paraskevi in Greenlawn, NY. He is writing an article on our school and we performed To Naftaki (The Little Sailor) for him. He was very impressed! Look for the article to be published in June 2010.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Mia Peinasmeni Kampia

Using the Greek version of Eric Carle's timeless classic, we taught the children counting, sequencing, and the stages of a butterfly's life. They had fun coloring and creating 3-D models of a caterpillar, chrysallis and butterfly that then went on display!

Greek Independence Day Parade 2010

Here we are on the St. Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Church (Greenlawn, NY) float and getting ready to make our appearance on 5th Avenue!