Happiest of new years to you all! We missed seeing our students over the break and we also missed seeing all of the parents! We returned on Tuesday and hit the ground running! Listening to everyone’s news and continuing on with our curriculum just brought smiles to the teachers’ faces.

Our Ladybugs seemed to grow a couple of inches over the break and had ZERO tears on their return to class! We are learning “Jack and Jill” as our next nursery rhyme, and the children loved dancing with our new scarves and ribbons.

The Crickets, too, came back to school with such long legs! They were amazed that they could reach up and touch the climbers and monkey bars without standing on their tiptoes. Oliver returned to school as a big brother and the Crickets made an adorable book for Oliver’s family with advice on how to take care of little Magnolia. We met a new puppet friend, Scaredy Squirrel, and learned a new mantra to say when we are feeling a little nervous: “I am loved, I am strong, I am braver than I know.” The kids really liked starting our sessions indoors, and we noticed that our quieter students felt more comfortable.

The Honeybees were thrilled to be back with their friends and after a circle discussion about the new year and the months of the year, we started learning how to write the date, with the month/day/year in numbers. We opened our classroom gifts from you all and the kids LOVED the hula hoops and flower building kit. We all took a turn using the boot jacks, too. Thank you so much. We’ve heard our first “Special Person Reports” this week and are impressed with how comfortable our Honeybees are becoming with their presentations! Each report is being recorded and sent to the presenter’s family.

Can you believe that we are in January already? We know that at this time of year, our Bee families are beginning to think about Kindergarten. From buses and class sizes to readiness and school options, let’s talk about it all! Next Thursday, January 11, 2:15-3:15, hear from teachers and parents with Kindergarten experiences in a variety of school settings including public school, private school and homeschool. Younger siblings are welcome on the playground.

Some questions that you might be considering:

How did your child do with the transition from The Garden to Kindergarten?

What are the class sizes?

How is my child seen as an individual or taught to their own level?

When do you find out bus schedule?

Can we request a specific teacher or to have a specific classmate/friend in the same class?

How much parental involvement is in each program?

Do you feel like your child Kindergarten ready after The Children’s Garden?

Is there anything that we should be doing at home to supplement The Garden Social Emotional based curriculum?

Have a great weekend everyone!