At the Children’s garden, students get to know some very special “teachers.” While they do not have formal teaching degrees, our puppet friends are very helpful at reinforcing concepts, expanding language, modeling listening skills and manners, and encouraging creative thinking. They help us all remember that learning is a lot of fun and the children come to love them all.
Belleamie is a sweet and gentle grey mouse. She deeply cares about how children are feeling, and is always up for making a new friend. She magically appears when someone looks like they might need to talk.
Parsley Flakes is our special unicorn who comes to celebrate birthdays and graduations. Although Parsley doesn’t speak, he will whisper in the teachers’ ears and the children love to hear the sound of his bells ringing, signaling his arrival!
“Baby” Burpee sometimes joins the group at circle, where he re-enacts inappropriate behavior (that the teachers have witnessed that day with the children). The children help identify the inappropriate behavior as a group. Mostly Burpee just cries, and needs to go back to the shelf for a nap–we all agree that he isn’t ready to come to school yet! But we always give Burpee another chance on another day.