Bulletin Board
Events, opportunities and resources for our Garden community.
Galentine‘s Fundraiser
Saturday, February 8
6-10 pm at Teacher Donna’s
Join hosts Donna and Brin for an unforgettable Garden Galentine’s Day fundraiser, celebrating the most amazing women they know!
Get more info and sign up on our Galentine’s fundraiser page.
Parent Teacher Conferences
Laedybugs: Tuesday, March 11
(no school for Ladybugs)
Crickets: Wednesday, March 19
(no school for Crickets)
Honeybees: Tuesday, March 25
(no school for Honeybees)
Sign up links and more information are on our Parent Teacher Conference page
Lunar New Year
Crickets: Wednesday, January 29
Ladybugs: Thursday, January 30
Honeybees: Thursday, January 30
Wear lucky colors on Wednesday and Thursday (Red, Orange, Purple and Gold), and we will be using chopsticks, snacking on fortune cookies, making lanterns and celebrating the Year of the Wood Snake!
(please pack a snack as usual for your child)
..and we’re off! Auction procurement is underway!
Our annual auction is a wonderful opportunity to support our school and students while enjoying an evening of fun and community. This year’s event is Kentucky Derby ~ and they’re off! held May 2 at The Lodge at Trinity Tree Farm
To make this year’s auction a success, we need your help in securing amazing auction items!
From now until March 31, we will be procuring donations to auction off at this year’s event.
Valentines Day
Valentines is special here at The Garden!
Children decorate envelopes during school and “mail homemade valentines to their classmates.
Ladybugs: Thursday, February 13
Honeybees: Thursday, February 13
Crickets: Friday, February 14
Visit our Valentines page for more information and class lists.
No Bad Kids Master Course
Discipline without Shame
with Janet Lansbury
Get 50% off the No Bad Kids Master Course and join a Garden discussion group in the spring.
Visit our No Bad Kids Master Course page for information about the course, financial aid and how to get your discount code.
The Mousehole
Brr! What a cold week we have had here at The Garden! Although it was frigid, it was absolutely beautiful – clear blue skies, bright sun, and sparkly ice crystals all around the playground. We hope you all have fun this weekend as the opportunity to see 6 planets aligned in the clear wintry sky peaks on Saturday!
We are hosting an Open House for new families this afternoon from 12 – 2. This is always an exciting time for us at The Garden. We love bragging about our program and introducing new families to our school. Thank you so much for your referrals. Keep ‘em coming! Our families are our best resource.
We also want to call your attention to a special “Mom’s Night Out”, hosted by Brin and Donna at Donna’s house on February 8th. We would love the opportunity to celebrate “Galentines” with all the wonderful women of The Garden Community. Check out the information in the Garden Gazette today and RSVP.
Next weekend, the staff will be working together to plan the curriculum and themes of the rest of the year, as well as check in with each other on how the year has been going so far, to tweak and better our program and our classroom space. We check in with each other on workshops and projects that we have completed, and we continue our work of assessing each student and how the program can best serve our children. Our staff retreat begins Thursday after class and continues through Saturday.
Next week in class, we will begin our celebration of the Lunar New Year. Wear lucky colors on Wednesday and Thursday (Red, Orange, Purple and Gold), and we will be using chopsticks, snacking on fortune cookies, making lanterns and celebrating the Year of the Wood Snake!
Read on for class news:
Ladybugs
These Bugs continue to impress us! They are continuing to develop their friendship skills and learning how to share and ask for a turn with a toy. We also had some big potty break throughs for a few of our Bugs this week, and everyone worked hard on our “Two Little Bluebirds” peekaboo book and the pieces for the Spring Art Show. We started painting with water colors on Tuesday and made some pretty tissue paper hearts that we will decorate for Valentine’s Day. A fun and busy week in the Ladybug class!
Have a great weekend everyone! We will be celebrating Lunar New Year next week!
Crickets
We had such fun this week, as we celebrated Camden’s birthday on Wednesday and practiced writing our letters, starting at the top line. As we try to keep the kiddos entertained and playing cooperatively in the courtyard before class, we introduced a “Find the Penguins” activity that the Crickets thoroughly enjoyed. We hope to continue this activity for a few more months with different animals and moving the animals to new ‘hiding places’.
The Crickets also enjoyed having Teacher Matt here on Wednesday – Lots of high energy fun was had on the playground!
Have a great weekend everyone! We will be celebrating Lunar New Year next week!
Honeybees
Ladybugs
Crickets
Honeybees
Gratitude Corner
This week, we want to send a special shout out of huge gratitude to our Board of Trustees president, Erin Carpinito! Erin has been a force at The Children’s Garden and an amazing volunteer for our school since Covid days! Her oldest daughter, Penelope, was a Ladybug in our first year of “Branching Out”, our outdoor program that kept us going through the pandemic. The staff fondly remembers her cool and calm demeanor as she greeted us each morning, in the pouring down rain, dealing with a daughter who really didn’t care for the wet Pacific Northwest weather!
Erin would smile through her car window, nodding with understanding, and leave her parking space with a sleeping baby girl in the back seat. At pick up time, we would come down the hill with our worn-out Bugs and report to the parents about their day, and Erin continued to nod with understanding and leave her parking space with TWO sleeping girls in the back seat.
The staff was amazed and grateful for Erin’s eager support of our program and how she dove right into our fundraising committee. It was an unusual year, without an in person auction, and we breezed past our goal with Erin’s guidance and support.
As Penelope grew through her three years at the school, so did Erin’s involvement; continuing her work on the fundraising committee, chairing the fundraising committee, becoming a trustee on the board, and now leading the Board of Trustees as our president.
We couldn’t be more grateful for Erin – her calm demeanor, her willingness to take on the hard stuff, her gentle guidance, her knowing and understanding of non-profits and her smile as she hears about the successes of the school and her support of the staff and her peers as we all make our way through ‘atypical’ and ‘typical’ school years.
This week, especially, we are grateful for Erin, as she celebrates her birthday, and the news that they are expecting their fourth child this summer. Congratulations Tommy and Erin, happy birthday to Erin, and thank you for all that you do to support and lead The Children’s Garden! We sure do love and appreciate you!
Office Notes
News and reminders from the office.
Handy?
From playground toys to classroom chairs, the wear and tear on our items can always use the help of a handy parent or grandparent.
Whether you have a few minutes or a few hours, we have jobs both big and small for take home or work on campus.
Let us know if you can help out.
In-house Priority
Enrollment
For current and alum families, the admissions process is simple. You let us know you’d like a spot in class next year, via In-House Priority enrollment, and you have it.
Please complete the 2025-2026 Registration Form in your child’s Brightwheel account or visit our Priority Enrollment page for
- more information
- FAQ
- direct link to Registration Forms
Calendar
Please mark your calendar with these important dates.
January
- January 20: No School in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. day
- January 24: Enrollment Open House for new families
- January 29: Lunar New Year Celebration for Crickets
- January 30: Lunar New Year Celebration for Ladybugs and Honeybees
- January 31: No School for staff planning day
February
- February 8: Galentine’s Fundraiser at Teacher Donna’s
- February 13: Honeybee and Ladybug Valentine’s Celebration
- February 14: Cricket Valentine Celebration
- February 17-21 Second Winter Break
- February 27: No school for Teacher conference planning day
March
- March 11: Ladybug Conferences (no school for Ladybugs)
- March 13: Leprechaun Day: Ladybugs
- March 17: Leprechaun Day: Crickets and Honeybees
- March 19: Cricket Conferences (no school for Crickets)
- March 25: Honeybee Conferences (no school for Honeybees)
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
~ 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.