
~ Bulletin Board ~
Events, opportunities and resources for our Garden community.

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Folk Music Singalong
We are thrilled to bring a Happy Time Sing-along to our Honeybee and Cricket class led by professional musician and alum parent Ali Marcus of Happy Time Studio.
Parents and siblings are welcome to join us for the last half hour of class on
March 27 from 2:45-3:15 for the Honeybee class and
April 5 from 10:45-11:15 for the Cricket class.
Ali will strum a few folk songs on her guitar giving us the words and some historical context about the artist and songs we sing.
What a fun and lovely way to come together in song and stories in this live music event.

Honeybee World Culture Reports
In the next few weeks we will be embarking on World Culture Studies in class. Each student will have the opportunity to choose a country, research information and give an oral presentation to the class.
~ Mousehole ~
News, pictures and videos from the classrooms.
Welcome back to school and welcome to March at The Garden! We hope you had a wonderful break week of adventures, rejuvenation and some relaxing!
The staff was excited to see the return of our kiddos on Opposites Day! We loved hearing all of their news and enjoyed seeing their interpretations of opposites in their clothing, their artwork and our circle discussions. We had students come with two different shoes, hair done two different ways, and lots of black and white! Instead of waking up our bodies at opening circle, we did the closing circle song and at closing circle, we put our bodies to sleep! It was so fun to watch their eyes sparkle and smiles develop as they ‘caught on’ to the opposite routine.
We are now in the final trimester of the school year, full of special days and events, memories and a whole realm of emotions! On our Parent Teacher Conference planning day on Wednesday, the staff went through a realm of emotions as well, recognizing the growth we have seen in all of our students, and commiserating about how little time we have left with our Bees, how quickly it all goes by, and what an amazing community we are part of!
We had a great Board Meeting on Tuesday night where each of our committees gave their monthly report and lots of important decisions were made for the remainder of this year and future years! We are beginning to look for new Trustees for our Board! Please let us know if you have an interest in being a trustee or joining a committee to help shape the future. We would love to have your input, your interest and your ideas!
On Wednesday, all staff members conferenced on our observations of each of our 55 students. This is always a long day, a productive day and an eye-opening day as we each discuss our own interpretations of what we have seen with each Gardener. It is a unique process to The Children’s Garden as we have 3, 4 or even 5 early childhood education specialists processing each student, and then preparing for our twenty minute conference discussing your child. This is a moment in time for you as a parent, as schools rarely provide such a lengthy conference about your child, not to mention all of the opportunities to work together with the teachers throughout the year – we all have one goal in mind for your Garden student – the best that they can be!
We are so looking forward to our Leprechaun Days at The Garden, on the 14th, 16th and 17th of March. Invitations to special persons will go out next week!
Read on for Class News:
Ladybugs
Well, our Black and White Bugs were adorable, as always. We enjoyed looking at a book of Opposites that Oliver brought in to share, and we danced about our black and white clothes.
It is amazing to us that just a week away from school can weaken stamina, bring back the separation anxiety, and fill us with a lot of emotions that we have a hard time holding in during class time – and that’s just the teachers! :0) Seriously, we had lots of tears on Tuesday, and lots of runny noses. We understand that you want some time without toddlers after a week away from school, but please continue to be vigilant and keep the kiddos home if they’re nasal discharge is green, they have a loose cough, or if they are super lethargic or fussy. They are probably fighting something, and it would be healthier for all of us to give them a day of rest.
Thursday was a fun day as we celebrated “March coming in like a Lamb”, and made sweet Lamb masks. We also started learning “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and danced at circle with all of our friends!
Crickets
The Crickets came in hot on Monday morning, to a very cold playground! They were excited to show us their black and white clothing and enjoyed the switcharoo of our Closing Circle song and our Wake up our Bodies song.
We had two fun sound baskets, “T” and “U”! We started a new project, called “Pin Poking”, which is a Montessori exercise to increase focus, improve pencil grip and work on our letter and shape recognition. We hope you enjoy the students’ ‘initials’, that they worked really hard on pin-poking out the shapes.
Brook read a fun book called “Quick as a Cricket” which told a story of a child who housed emotions and actions that are opposites, ‘fast, slow, brave, shy, small and big’. We loved hearing the students guess which animal would represent the opposite attribute, and we all agreed that we have all of these moments and feelings in our day to day lives. We can be tame, and we can be wild, we can be brave, and we can be shy.
No school on Wednesday, as the teachers prepared and planned for our Parent Teacher Conference later in the month.
Honeybees
We started our final Honeybee trimester with our Opposites Day! How fun! We had such fun interpretations of opposites in our clothing choices! Eowyn was amazing, with two different shoes, inside out pants, a backward shirt, and two different sides of her hair do! We started our afternoon with the Closing Circle Song and put our bodies to sleep instead of waking it up! Giulia and her mum brought in a wonderful chart that they made together, with Swedish words for our body parts. We so appreciate everyone sharing new cultures, traditions, and languages.
Brook read a fun story called “Quick as a Cricket” which told a story of a child who housed emotions and actions that are opposites, ‘fast, slow, brave, shy, small and big’. We loved hearing the students guess which animal would represent the opposite attribute, and we all agreed that we have all of these attributes and feelings in our day to day lives. We can be tame, and we can be wild, we can be brave, and we can be shy. We then went on to work on an ‘opposite pair’ with our hive mates. Our plan is to make our own Honeybee book based on this Garden favorite. We can’t wait for you to see their version!
As we get closer to our World Culture Reports, we continue to explore all of the different places that describe where we live. This week we looked at our state, our country and our continent. Thank you for filling out our World Culture Report Sign up Genius to let us know your child’s country and date of presentation. If someone already has signed up for your child’s country of choice, don’t worry about it. We will be doing two a day in two smaller circles, and therefore, we can separate two reports on the same country.
On Tuesday, we had a wonderful moment at our circle where we read “Same, Same, Different” about two pen pals from very different places in the world, who realize that even though they both take a bus to school, that bus is different, and even though they have pets, those pets are very different, etc. A friend of Brook’s just came to town from France to be a part of the new Cirque de Soleil show, and he joined us for our circle time to talk about same, same, different things in USA and France. Our students so enjoyed interacting with Joris and they shared their excitement about their world culture reports to him. If you have the opportunity to see this touring of Cirque de Soleil, look for Joris– he is the acrobat who ‘throws and catches’ other human beings!
The Honeybees started a new project, called “Pin Poking”, which is a Montessori exercise to increase focus, improve pencil grip and work on our letter and shape recognition. We hope you enjoy the students’ ‘initials’, that they worked really hard on pin-poking out the shapes. 3-year-old students typically poke the paper around the lines drawn, while 4-year-olds use a better grip and begin to follow the lines. 5-year-olds learn to poke the paper with holes very close together so that the positive and negative images can be separated easily. It’s amazing to watch the growth and development with each of our students in each skills practice.
The staff have had a few inquiries from Honeybee parents about how we work with our students when something inappropriate repeatedly comes up. The Ladybugs have their lack of sharing, the Crickets enjoy potty talk and the ‘Good Guy, Bad Guy’ games continue on into the Honeybee school year. This is age appropriate and developmental. The teachers work with the children to talk about inclusive vs. exclusive behavior, we help them find ways to work together as teams, and we teach them how to use their voices! One point that we never waiver on is the discussion or use of weapons – bombs, lasers, guns, etc. When we hear these words, or these ‘sounds’, that game of play is shut down immediately. The kids have a fresh start the next school day, but they are not allowed to continue that play for the remainder of the day. We want all of our students to feel safe, and many of our children and our staff do not feel safe when these words or sounds are used. Again, this is very age appropriate and developmental, but at The Garden, the comfort level of the students is absolutely our priority. Having the same staff from week to week and year to year, along with the practice of presenting in front of your peers, is a Garden Road map for developing confidence. The children need to feel comfortable to build their confidence. We often hear from the teachers and administrators at our neighborhood elementary schools that they can recognize a Children’s Garden kid easily, as they typically are class leaders, comfortable and confident to stand in front of their peers to share what they have learned. We also hear from our alum families that they appreciate the strong boundaries that we set for our students when it comes to everyone feeling safe.
We’ve had this discussion earlier this year, but we have found that bombs and shooting sounds have resurfaced. Therefore, we have told our students that this is a ‘non-negotiable’ rule, like biting, and is necessary to be in place for all of our students to feel safe, so therefore, if bombs and shooting sounds are mentioned, the student will have to go home. We are having a hard time with this in 2023 and would appreciate your help at home to reinforce these rules.
On Thursday, we had Mara’s older brother, Max, return to The Garden to share his World Culture Report on Germany, that he presented when he was a Garden Honeybee! Max did such a wonderful job – and held the kids’ interests, as he talked about the Germany flag, language, food, celebrations and clothes. He took questions at the end and then asked for feedback. This was a wonderful example for our Honeybees to aspire to. Mara’s mum said that the tri fold ‘science fair’ boards were a little hard to find right now. FYI, we have ways to hang flat posters, sandwich boards, etc. Please feel free to help your child display their information in whatever way that works for you. Kids can come with clothes, money, memorabilia, music, dance, flags, snacks etc. from their country. Please let us know if you are bringing a snack and what it consists of, so that we can inform those with food sensitivities.
The kids went home with their new “Continents” poem. The teachers will try to send a video of the song this afternoon that accompanies this poem to assist in memorization.
Have a great weekend! See you next week!
~ Gratitude Corner ~
We love our community and are so grateful and humbled by the support and love you so generously give! Thank you!

Much appreciation to Cricket Cooper’s Grandma Lisa Reinitz for welcoming everyone to our school with lovely spring planters flanking our gazebo!
Thank you to Cricket Dylan’s TuTu (Grandma Ronnie) for visiting our Cricket class today.
~ Office Notes~

World Culture Library
Please enjoy browsing through our books that explore maps, the many ways people live across cultures, and how we all have similarities and differences. If you would like to borrow some content for reports please let us know and we can help you make photocopies.
View our World Culture curriculum on our Curriculum Corner page

All School Egg Hunt
Our traditional annual All School Egg Hunt is back!
Join us Saturday, April 1 (no foolin’) at 10 am
Our bunny will be hiding eggs for current students, incoming students and younger and older siblings!
Consider joining our bunny team to help our bunny organize the event, hide eggs and setup and cleanup.
Let the office know if you can help out!

Get ready to break out your grooviest ‘70s threads and Let’s Party Like It’s 1977!

When: Saturday, April 29th 5-9pm (please note the updated time)
Where: Pickering Barn – 1730 10th Ave NW, Issaquah, WA 98027
Who: current families, alumni families, teachers, friends and supporters of CGS – bring your friends and family!
How: $50 per ticket for a night of food and drinks, fun and entertainment, and an exciting live auction – all proceeds benefit and support The Children’s Garden!
Visit our Auction page for more details including donation forms.
~ Upcoming Events~
Please mark your calendar with these important dates.
Month at a glance
March
March 1 – Conference Planning. No School for Students
March 14 – Leprechaun Day. A You and Me day in the Ladybug class. Please note the date change.
March 16 – Leprechaun Day. A You and Me day in the Honeybee class.
March 17 – Leprechaun Day. A You and Me day in the Cricket class.
March 20 – Honeybee Conferences during class time. No School for Honeybees
March 21 – Ladybug Conferences during class time. No School for Ladybugs
March 22 – Cricket Conferences during class time. No school for Crickets
April
April 1 – All School Egg Hunt
April 10-14 Spring Break
April 29 – Let’s Party Like it’s 1977! Children’s Garden School Auction4
Daily Class Schedule
Ladybugs
Tuesday and Thursday 8:15 – 10:45 am
Crickets
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 8:15 – 11:15 am
Honeybees
Monday-Thursday 12:15 – 3:15 pm
~ Quick Links~
Quick access to informative Garden pages.
Health and Wellness
What are the protocols for a stuffy nose?
Please view our Health and Wellness page for our health safety practices and protocols for the 2022-2023 school year.
Curriculum
Explore our Curriculum page for the foundational elements of our programming to see how we integrate social skills, literacy and math readiness, science, cultural enrichment, and the creative arts in an emergent, play-based environment in our unique natural setting.

Closure and Inclement Weather
With winter weather upon us, you can view our Closure and Inclement Weather page for policy information and pick up a hard copy from the bulletin board.
While we monitor conditions at the school, please note our families live across a broad geographical area and conditions in your neighborhood or on your route to/from school may differ from that at The Children’s Garden. If you are concerned that it is not safe for you or your child to be on the road, please do not hesitate to stay home.