We had a fun week at The Garden! We worked on Art Show projects, enjoyed several birthday circles, practiced writing our names and using scissors, heard some wonderful “Family Reports” in the Honeybee class, and welcomed a new baby brother to our Garden community. 

Brook’s Dad, David, picked up some gravel to fill the gazebo steps and the Honeybee kiddos helped to dig out the old and fill with new. David also filled the pothole at the end of the driveway! Thank you, David!

Brin has been holding some observations for next year’s classes, and we are expecting a large group at our Open House next Friday afternoon. As always, thank you for your referrals. We know that you are all curious about what next year holds for you. Our Coffee Talks the first week of February, will be hosted by the staff, to discuss ‘what to expect next year’, in Crickets, Honeybees and Kindergarten. 

We had our first Fundraising Committee meeting of the year this past week, and we are really getting excited about the upcoming auction. We can’t wait for you to hear what the theme of this year’s auction will be and we are excited to hear all your ideas for auction items, packages and events and experiences! 

Parents Night Out! January 31st at Big Block Brewery! C’mon out everyone and have some fun with the staff and other Garden parents! Almost every parent at observation and open house said that building community was so important to them. This is a great way to start the process, or continue the process. Take the leap and join us! It is sure to be a great night. 

Read on for class news.

Ladybugs

The Bugs did a lot of art work this week, finishing up some adorable handprint ladybugs to display in our courtyard windows, completing another Spring Art Show piece, showcasing their scissor practice, and making another cute peek a boo book, based on one of our favorite circle songs, “Two Little Blackbirds”. We also acted out
“Two Little Bluebirds” at circle time. 

The Bugs are having a wonderful January, really coming together as a group and moving from parallel play to inclusive play and beginning play time problem solving. We went around the circle to have everyone announce their name, “I’m Donna!” and have the class respond with “Hi, Donna!”. We were so pleased to have everyone participate and loudly and proudly tell us their name. 

Crickets

We celebrated Lucy’s birthday this week, and had fun starting a winter art project for the Spring Art Show, revolving around penguins. It’s adorable, and we can’t wait for you to see it. 

The Crickets are really becoming comfortable leaders, problem solvers and lovely friends. Their imaginations are amazing, and we decorated gingerbread people, acted out the GingerBread Man story, and made some incredible Gingerbread Stamper books. 

We have no school on Monday, honoring Martin Luther King Jr., so we will see you on Wednesday. 

Honeybees

The Bees continued their Family Reports. Oh! How they love their families! It is marvelous to watch them stand in front of their peers and boastfully tell us their family’s interests, favorite foods, activities and values of the family. We have a few more reports to do next week, as we found that this year’s Honeybee class can really only sit attentively through two reports a day. They have SOOOOO much energy, that even after an hour and a half of outside running full speed time, they still have ants in their pants! 

We celebrated Koa’s half birthday and Wells’ birthday circles this week. The Williams family welcomed a new baby boy on Monday, and we are all happy that Brook and Coco returned to class! When Emily needed a sub on Thursday, Koa’s mum, Katie, sat in for her. It was fun to have this Kindergarten teacher working with us! 

The beautiful sunshine provided lots of fun outdoor activities. The Bees helped distribute the gravel to the gazebo steps and also to the steps on the playground. 

The Honeybees continued authoring and illustrating their 5 page stories, and for news this week, we thought it would be fun to ask the children how they would help a mommy with a brand new baby. 

The poem this week is one of our favorites, “Dreams” by Langston Hughes, and we asked the children to illustrate the poem with what they would dream or wish for. It’s very sweet. The answers ranged from “all people be happy” to “I would get to eat all the candy I want and not tell my mom”. :0) Check out their ‘dreams’ on the Movement Room windows. 

We hope you have a nice three day weekend, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., and we will see you on Tuesday.