Bulletin Board
Events, opportunities and resources for our Garden community.
Auction 2026
Can’t Make It to the Auction? You Can Still Support The Children’s Garden! Starting Saturday, May 2, visit the Fund-a-Need page on our auction site
Coffee Talk
March 5 and 6. The Children’s Garden has long been grateful to grow in this special place. Feel free to stop by the Movement Room
Leprechaun Day
Leprechaun Day is a Children’s Garden “You and Me” day full of fun shenanigans, duo tricks and a lucky photo booth. Crickets Monday, March 16
Spring Egg Hunt
Egg hunt is Saturday, March 28. Are you joining us? If so, sign up and let us know so the bunny knows how many eggs
Mousehole
News From the Classroom
Sea! Hawks!
What an exciting weekend for all our 12s! Congratulations to the Seahawks!
And…the Olympic Opening Ceremony and opening weekend of events! What a wonderful week it has been cheering on all our favorites! We hope you are enjoying some or all the festivities and introducing/sharing the excitement with your kiddos.
What a fun week we had, once again, at The Children’s Garden! We started the week revealing what the auction theme will be this year, and we ended the week with a cuddly pajama day and Valentine’s Day celebration! We hope you all enjoyed the festivities on Tuesday and Wednesday following the students down the Yellow Brick Road! Our Auction Chairs, Elisa Morrison and Erica Aldassy, have come up with an amazing plan for our biggest night of the year!
We had a bunch of illnesses these last few weeks, with students and staff, and are so appreciative of our families who kept their kiddos home with mild symptoms or if another family member was sick. It really helps to keep the spread of colds and flu down to a minimum.
Reminder that when we return from our second winter break, the students will have a short week, as the staff is doing Parent Teacher Conference planning on Thursday the 26th, and they have a Staff In Service Day on Friday the 27th.
Our Parent Teacher Conference planning is intense, as we have all members of staff discussing each of our 54 students. Each staff member has their own observations and contributions to the discussion, seeing the child over more than one year, in different classes, and in different areas of the classroom. We typically spend about 15 minutes of discussion on each little Gardener, and comment on their accomplishments, their growth and areas to focus on for development. It is truly a day of just loving on these kiddos and appreciating the wonderful way that we get to spend our days with your children. Our conferences are unique to The Children’s Garden, as we spend 25 minutes with you on Zoom, share with you assessments, self portraits, and a full page written reflection and report.
On our In Service Day, we will be planning the curriculum and projects for the remainder of this school year and working through several ideas, workshop registrations and plans for the year ahead, as well as returning to review the notes and agendas that were made at our Staff Retreat in August of 2025, to see how things are going, if they are going as planned and what changes or adjustments might need to be made.
Happy Valentine’s Day this weekend! To those who celebrate Ramadan, may this beautiful month bring peace to your heart, ease to your mind, and blessings to your life, Happy Presidents’ Day on Monday, Happy Mardi Gras/ Fat Tuesday/ Carnivale and to those who recognize Ash Wednesday as the beginning of the season of Lent, peace be with you and, wishing all our families, a warm and wonderful winter break! We will see you on Monday the 23rd!
Ladybugs
Our littlest littles had a super sweet week being brave little lions, cozy little valentines and wearing lots of yellow for yellow day! We celebrated Leo’s birthday on Tuesday and had a great time ‘mailing’ our valentines on Thursday. Have a wonderful winter break!
Crickets
The Crickets started a new unit on a Garden favorite folk tale, “The Mitten”. We read a few different versions of this classic tale of forest animals using a lost mitten to squeeze into and keep warm. On Monday, the students used their Elf Hat sewing skills to stitch up some warm mittens for themselves to re-enact the story.
We enjoyed seeing all the Tin Folk coming down the yellow brick walkway on Wednesday to reveal the auction theme, and appreciated all the amazing hearts that we have in this class! Our Crickets have wonderful friendship skills!
This morning, we celebrated Valentine’s Day, distributing our greetings, and had a wonderful birthday circle for our friend, Lukas!
Have a great Winter Break!
Honeybees
Last week, we had such a fun Olympic Day celebration with Wells’ mum, Bryn, who organized so many wonderful events and crafts, complete with a ‘Parade of Nations’ around the courtyard!
We shared our amazingly smart brain power as we skipped down the yellow brick walkway on Tuesday to reveal our fun auction theme.
The Honeybees are aweing the staff with their wonderful Animal reports! Wow! These kiddos have really learned a lot about how to present a report and how to be an audience member for reports! Thank you for all your help researching and preparing with them.
We closed out the week with our Valentine’s Day celebration on Thursday. Hope you all have a wonderful Winter Break!
Valentine's!
Ladybugs
Crickets
Honeybees
Gratitude Corner
We would love to give a shoutout to Bryn Pinkerton, Honeybee Wells’ mum, alumni Jack’s mum and future Ladybug Gwen’s mum. Bryn approaches the staff throughout her time as a parent at The Garden with such wonderful interactive lessons and activities for our students. Before the winter break, Bryn came in to read a family favorite holiday story and brought a fun craft that all the Honeybees enjoyed, putting together their own little mice and bears and dressing them in hand decorated paper doll clothes.
Last week, to introduce the Honeybees to the upcoming Winter Olympics, Bryn organized a complete afternoon of fun olympic games at centers throughout the classroom, courtyard and movement room, as well as a ‘chill center’ in Brin’s office! They made torches, they competed in fun hockey, curling, downhill ski – like activities to cycle through, as well as an Olympic torch making craft and finishing off with a fabulous “Parade of Nations” through the courtyard. To see the absolute joy on our students’ faces had to be so rewarding for Bryn. She spent hours planning, organizing, building ‘props’ and equipment, and oversaw each event. We love to watch the joy on her face as the activities and events are taking place and enjoyed by all.
To Bryn Pinkerton, we give our gratitude, our appreciation and a well deserved Gold Medal! Thank you so much, Bryn!
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.
Visit Our Black History Library
Celebrating stories and voices that help our community grow together.
Our office library is blooming with beautiful books celebrating Black history, culture, creativity, and community.
Whether its your first visit or tenth visit, we warmly invite you to stop by, browse the collection, and linger with a story. Whether you have five quiet minutes after drop-off or want to share a book with your child before heading home, please stop in, snuggle up and read some of these wonderful stories!
You can get more information on how The Garden celebrates Black History month in thoughtful, age appropriate ways on our Curriculum page.
Recycling for a Greener Garden
RECYCLE empty plastic easter eggs now until April 20
We take care of the earth because it is our home – Ridwell Recycling at
Tax Reports
Get year end tax access information for Garden donations and Brighthweel payments.
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 2526Garden!
Calendar
Please mark your calendar with these important dates.
February
- February 16-20: Second Winter Break – no school
- February 26 and 27: Staff Planning Days – no school
March
- March 5 & 6: Coffee Talk with Brook and Mick
- March 9: Priority In House Enrollment Due
- March 10: Ladybug Conferences: No school for Ladybugs
- March 16: Leprechaun Day for Crickets, 8:15-9:15 am
- March 17: Leprechaun Day for Ladybugs, 8:15-9:15 am
- March 17: Leprechaun Day for Honeybees, 2:15-3:15 pm
- March 18: Cricket Conferences: No school for Crickets
- March 24: Honeybee Conferences: No school for Honeybees
- March 28: All School Spring Egg Hunt
Daily Class Schedule
Ladybugs
Tuesday and Thursday 8:15 – 11:15 am
Crickets
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 8:15 – 11:15 am
Honeybees
Monday-Thursday 12:15 – 3:15 pm
~ Poems~
School Poems
Part of our daily routine at The Garden is singing or saying a few of our traditional poems.
Find a printable version to our Closing Circle Song, and the poem “We Light This Candle” at the following links.