We had such a fun time Saturday night at Parents’ Night Out, and it was great to see so many of our parents enjoying the community building that is such a mainstay of The Children’s Garden. 

Groundhog Day kicked off the week, and we had fun telling the Crickets and Bees all about Punxsutawney Phil! It sounds like we might be in for 6 more weeks of winter, but several of the students were happy to hear that we might still have a chance for some snow! 

The staff hosted the coffee talks for the month of February and we enjoyed visiting with you all and answering questions that you might have about what to expect in the next year of school. We so appreciated your comments and questions and look forward to speaking with you all individually during our upcoming parent teacher conferences in March. 

Have a great weekend everyone! Go Hawks! Go Olympic Teams! Go Everyone!

Ladybugs

Wow! We had such a fun time in the Ladybug class this week, starting our study of the colors of the rainbow! Tuesday was Red day and Thursday was Orange day. Thanks so much for sending the kiddos in red and orange clothes and for those of you that sent colorful snacks, we just want you to know how excited the Bugs were to share their fun snacks. 

Next week, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Thursday. We encourage the families to make some home made greetings, (although, we also completely understand the time involved – so please do what works for you) and to wear pajamas on this special day. When you arrive at school on Thursday, the valentine mailboxes will be hanging along the brick pathway, on the movement room wall. Each mailbox will have a different Ladybug’s photo on it, and your child can match the photograph on their card to the photo on the mailbox.

Another special event next week will happen on Tuesday, when the students will reveal our Auction theme for 2026! Last year, when our theme was the Kentucky Derby, each student came down the pathway at pick-up time with a handmade hobby horse, made out of fun socks and fringe manes. It was adorable, and we are sure you will find this year’s reveal adorable as well. Have your cameras ready at pick up time on Tuesday! 

Continuing with our rainbow colors, Tuesday will also be “Yellow Day”. The kids are invited to wear yellow clothes and bring yellow snacks. We will continue the “G-B-I-V” colors of the rainbow after Second Winter Break. 

Crickets

The Crickets had fun learning about Punxsutawney Phil, and we watched a clip of the video of Phil seeing his shadow in Pennsylvania Monday morning. We celebrated the beginning of the month of February, making our February calendars and completing a wonderful penguin art show project. 

With everyone signed up for a Parent-Teacher Conference zoom meeting time, we will begin assessing our students, seeing where they are in number, letter recognition, shapes, colors, pencil grip, scissor skills, and knowing the names of their classmates, but we will also be assessing the students where they are in their social emotional development. We look forward to discussing all of this with you when we meet with you in March. 

Brook brought a family game down to the classroom last week, and the children enjoy rolling the dice and then ‘flipping’ the numbers on the board that correspond to the numbers on the dice. It’s a great introduction to counting the pips on the dice to connecting the number counted to the printed number. It’s hard for these kiddos to understand that having so much fun is a great learning opportunity as well! 

We celebrated Kai’s birthday circle on Wednesday, as Kai turned 4. It is so fun to see the joy in these Crickets as they get to bang on the birthday drum! 

Next week, we have a couple of special events happening in the courtyard. On Wednesday, we will be revealing the Auction 2026 theme. You may remember last year, for the Kentucky Derby theme, each student came down the brick pathway at pick up time, riding their home made hobby horses, made out of fun socks and fringe. It was adorable, and this year will be adorable as well. Make sure you have your cameras ready at pick up time on Wednesday. 

On Friday, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day. We encourage the families to make some home made greetings, (although, we also completely understand the time involved – so please do what works for you) and to wear pajamas on this special day. When you arrive at school on Friday, the valentine mailboxes will be hanging along the brick pathway, on the movement room wall. Each mailbox will have a different Cricket’s photo on it, and your child can match the photograph on their card to the photo on the mailbox.

Honeybees

How fun to kick off February this week with our potato Groundhogs! These are always a favorite of the staff. We also acted out our Groundhog Poem, with each Bee taking a turn at “Poking their head out and looking all around”. 

We have a bunch of readers in our Honeybee class! With the letters that we have learned this year, we have been able to sound out several three letter words. We follow the consonant, vowel, consonant pattern and have made “AT” books and this week, “IT” books. The kids are so proud of themselves for being able to “READ”. It is so fun to watch their eyes light up when they realize that they just sounded out a word!

We are working through our “Wee Thinkers” Social Emotional series, and read another couple of stories this week, learning about following the “Group Plan”, and that “Our Eyes are like Magnets” and show everyone who or what we are thinking about. 

There are a few special events happening next week. First, on Tuesday, the students will be revealing the Auction 2026 theme at pick-up time. Remember last year’s reveal of the Kentucky Derby theme, each child came down the brick pathway on their home made hobby horses, made from fun socks and fringe. They were adorable and this year promises to be no different. Have your cameras ready at pick up time on Tuesday afternoon.

Next week, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Thursday. We encourage the families to make some home made greetings, (although, we also completely understand the time involved – so please do what works for you) and to wear pajamas on this special day. When you arrive at school on Thursday, the valentine mailboxes will be hanging along the brick pathway, on the movement room wall. Each mailbox will have a different Honeybee’s photo on it, and your child can mail their valentine greetings to each student’s mailbox.