Bulletin Board

Events, opportunities and resources for our Garden community.

First Days of School

Crickets:
Monday, September 14

Honeybees:
Monday, September 14

Ladybugs:

You and Me Meet the Teacher-Tuesday, September 15.

A caregiver accompanies their child for a “you and me” meet the teacher day. This fun experience allows children, caregivers and teachers to get get acquainted with each other and the daily Ladybug routine before the first full Ladybug class on September 17.

Ladybug first full day of school- Thursday, September 17

Parents of New Gardeners Luncheon

For parents of all children beginning their first year at The Children’s Garden.

Work Party

All School Work Party, Saturday, September 12 from 9am-12pm

Start of School Guide

The start of school is a big adventure—for your child and for you! Whether you’re feeling excited, nervous, or a little bit of both, this

Mousehole

News From the Classroom

Wow! So much has been going on this summer, that it is hard to believe that the return to the classroom is just a few weeks away! The teachers all had class retreats to celebrate and bond as a team, setting up our goals for the year, daily routines and themes, and brainstorming different strategies and projects.

The Ladybug team, Cara, Cari, Brin and Donna, had a fun get together, planning how to best help our littlest littles feel comfortable, engaged, confident, and welcome. Our goal is for all the Ladybugs to know that they ‘belong’ at The Children’s Garden. We have some great projects, fun songs to introduce and a year full of engaging themes planned out! We’re excited to see everyone on the first day as you all begin to plant your roots at The Garden!

The Cricket team, Brook, Cara and Donna met up at the classroom to review and revise our daily routines. We looked at what worked well, and what we might want to change up for the new school year. We plan on incorporating Luna’s Forest into our weekly routine and to have a ball, focusing on the alphabet, name writing and other fun curriculum themes. We made some changes in the physical classroom as well. The cricket year is a super social year, when the kids are jumping around, as active and as loud as crickets, and making friends left and right! We are excited to watch it all happen and allow the kiddos to feel like The Garden is their place to have fun, to play and learn, and to set their roots deeper in The Garden community.

The Honeybee Team met up for delicious Chinese food and then dove into literacy, art, and science planning for the year. The teaching team for this class will look different this year — Brook and Emily will be showing Freya the Honeybee “ropes”. Our hope is to spend more time in the Forest this year, as well as incorporate more process-oriented art opportunities into the classroom. We are looking forward to meeting new friends and seeing our old pals.

Next week, the entire staff comes together at Cari’s family cabin, over on the Hood Canal for a few days. We are very lucky individuals who, not only love our jobs, working with preschoolers and their families, but we are also very fortunate in that we have the opportunity to work along side, our dear friends. Our ‘all staff retreat’is a lot of fun, but also has a lot of focus. Our plan is to coordinate our ideas, themes and goals for each class and each child, and to make sure that there is a cohesiveness across all three age groups to flow and grow together. We’ll share our class focuses, assessments, projects, and discuss our overall vision for the mission of the school and how to best implement it and build it throughout the students, the staff, the alumni, and the parents, grandparents, nanny’s and greater Garden community. When we say our opening circle ‘poem of intention’ it is our hope that everyone in the Garden community uses it as their guide in the gazebo, Garden grounds and throughout our daily lives:

‘We light this candle, to remind ourselves to treat all people kindly, because they are our community, to take good care of the earth, because it is our home, and to try to live lives, filled with goodness and love, because that is how we will become the best people we can be!’

We are excited to get back in the classroom and ‘get this party started!’

Ladybugs

Crickets

Honeybees

Gratitude Corner

We want to do a special shout out of thanks to our amazing friend and teacher, Emily this week!

Emily is celebrating her birthday on September 2nd , while we are at staff retreat, and we thought it only fitting that she is the subject of our first Gratitude Corner of the school year!

Emily came to us six years ago, at the recommendation of an alum Mom, who thought that her heart, her love of children, and her passion for all things artistic, would be a perfect fit for The Children’s Garden. (For that, we also are extremely grateful to Lori Kay!)

For the first few months of knowing sweet Emily, we put her on our sub list immediately, and became more convinced every time that she worked with us, that we wanted to have Emily spend more time with our staff and students.

We love her caring, her empathy of our students’ emotions, and her gentle approach to talking to those kiddos who are having a rough day. At any moment, you can see Emily surrounded by at least 4 or 5 Honeybees, who like to spend their time drawing, chatting, and catching up with her. Emily, through her leadership of Camp Tree Circle every summer, and her occasional subbing in the Ladybug and Cricket class, gets to know the Garden students in each class, and loves to watch them grow from Bugs to Bees. Emily is one third of the Honeybee team this year and we are so fortunate and proud to have her work with our Pre-K kiddos!

Emily’s artwork has become well known at The Garden. She decorates all our sandwich boards, greeting children and families to events and celebrations, (check out all the signage on the first days of school!) she leads the honeybees in several art show projects each year and she is constantly bringing amazing ideas and projects to the curriculum.

Emily has a dream of using art as therapy and a way to communicate feelings and emotions. We love that idea! She will remember a tiny piece of a conversation that she had with you weeks earlier and circle back to ask how things are going. She pays attention to your interests and ideas and will think of you when she hears something about them, remembering to share the information with you the next time she sees you. Emily is eager and willing to learn new things, new approaches and ways of working with the children. She’s such a hard worker, waking early early every morning to do her morning work at Trader Joes, and then joining us at our lunchtime to work in the afternoon. (She loves her surprise visits with you all at Trader Joes, too!) She loves her time in the forest with the students at Camp Tree Circle and adores every minute that she spends with your children.

We love you Emily, and we are so appreciative of you!

Rooted

Once part of the Garden, always connected.

Collin when he was a Honeybee

Collin’s first day with our Honeybees

Honeybee Sana feels thankful for Collin

It is always especially meaningful when a former student returns to The Children’s Garden, carrying with them warm memories of their time here. Garden alum Collin will be volunteering with us in the Honeybee class on Wednesdays and recently shared a favorite Garden memory along with what he’s looking forward to as an alum volunteer.

“I remember spending so much time on the playground, with my classmates building sandcastles in the sand pit, befriending the creatures that were on the playground (like ladybugs and rolly polly’s) and collecting those big round colorful glass stones in the creek. I am eager to volunteer at the Children’s Garden School because I am interested in studying and working with early childhood education and practice working with children in an environment that fosters educational growth. I also really would enjoy reconnecting with the school that I had once attended through another point of view instead of being the student.”

Stories like this remind us that the seeds planted in early childhood can grow in lasting and unexpected ways. We are honored to welcome alumni back into our community and to witness the next chapter of their journey unfold in the garden where it all began.

Office Notes

News and reminders from the office.

Tuition and Materials Fee

Look for September tuition and our one time materials fees to be added to your students Brightwheel account next week.

Come on in. Everything you’ll need lives here.

Garden Parent Portal

This is your go-to hub for all things Children’s Garden. Whether you’re looking for day-to-day logistics, a deeper look at our curriculum and philosophy, or want to revisit past newsletters, you’ll find it all here in one easy place.

Current Garden Families can visit our private password protected Parent Portal page on our Children’s Garden website using password Garden2627!