Culture and Cooking
A special needs teacher, social worker, and native New Yorker, Emily Rios has studied and taken cooking classes abroad and has a great appreciation for world culture and cuisine. So last year she decided to parlay her passion into Creative Cooks, along with Thomasin Franken, an alumna from the French Culinary Institute. Creative Cooks has devised programs that help children develop academically, rhetorically, and nutritionally, all by working with food. Creative Cooks offers both after-school and full-day summer programs that give children an awareness of the origins of foods from around the world and an appreciation of the farm-to-table journey. Children shop for locally grown food and learn how to make meals from scratch, all in Creative Cooks’ child-friendly kitchen. Creative Cooks accommodates special needs children as well as those with food allergies. They host themed birthday parties for kids and cookouts for adults, giving parents the chance to enjoy a night out. Creative Cooks, 298 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. 718-237-2218. www.creativecooks.us.
Music Intensives
The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music will hold its new Music Adventures Teachers Training Institute June 26-28. Developed for classroom teachers, childcare professionals, and parents, the program provides the essential tools to incorporate music and movement activities into an existing curriculum, or to create a new program. Whether you seek to enhance an existing childcare curriculum, or simply want to bring creative musical activities into your child’s extra-curricular routine, the Institute offers a wealth of time-tested methods for inspiring a lifelong love of music in preschool children. The teacher-training program is based on the Conservatory’s nationally recognized program, Music Adventures, and will be led by the director of the Music Adventures program. Participants do not need musical literacy skills or proficiency on an instrument. For more information, call Rich Frank at 718-622-3300 ext. 10 or email him at rfrank@bqcm.org. www.bqcm.org.
