Well, here we are at Memorial Day weekend! The semi-official kick off to summer! Just a few sessions left of classes at The Children’s Garden! 

We are having lovely days with these kiddos. Since the Art Show, we have rapidly turned down the workload of projects necessary to complete and are now completely enjoying lots of imaginative play, story reading, outdoor play and learning about our namesake insects. Each class is beginning to take on a little sampling of the class they will be entering in the fall, and they and the teachers are LOVING it! The Ladybugs have tried their hand at a Cricket Stamper book and are learning a poem about being a Cricket! The Crickets have started doing “All About Me” reports, and are learning a poem about being a Honeybee, and the Honeybees have been asking questions of our alum Kindergarten students, and beginning to share with us the ‘school mascot’ of their school they will attend in the fall. 

We would like to repair/replace our tree deck on the playground over the summer, as some of the floor boards are showing their age, and need a little bit of a redo. The staff have mentioned this to a few of the parents out there that are handymen, work in construction, or have relatives who could help us out. Please contact us if you are interested in helping us, advising us on what materials we need, or know of someone who might be able to give us a day or two of their time to get this done over the summer so that it is nice and fresh for starting the new school year in September. We would love for someone in the next week to stop by the playground, assess and estimate what we need. We can set up the process once we have guidance. Thank you! 

Tuesday was a special day for two little Ladybugs who had lunch with the teachers. The parents purchased the item at this year’s auction and it was a sweet time as they drank apple juice tea, ate teddy bear sandwiches, and said ‘cheers’ with their cups to Belleamie, who joined them in front of the fireplace for the cozy and fun experience. Thank you so much to the parents for your support of the school, and thanks to our two little guests for being such lovely lunchmates for Belleamie!

We had a stomach bug run through the Honeybee class this week, and started the week with only 5 students in attendance. 13 kids absent in one class in one day!  The bug is hitting siblings as well, and we have heard of a similar stomach bug that has run through several of the local elementary schools, and actually closed down the 3rd grade of the Eastside Community School, where we held our Art Show. Even though it is Spring, the viruses are still out there! Seeing that this virus had such a huge impact on one classroom, we advise an abundance of caution, and please keep your child home for at least 24 hours after a fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. 

Every once in a while we run across a social media post of a school or an educator that addresses an issue that we are dealing with or a strategy for social emotional learning. We love to share these ideas to collaborate with you and help your child grow empathy, leadership and confidence. Here’s one we ran across this week:

Three questions to ask your child before they go to school every single morning! Put these on your fridge! 

1. What’s something you’re looking forward to today? (makes them pre-scan their day looking for something good – a child who looks for something good, or one good thing, finds it.)
2. What’s something you are good at that you could help someone with today? (This flips the script, from a child thinking, ‘I hope I can keep up’ to ‘I have something to offer’ That shift from being a receiver to a contributor is where confidence lies – not in praise, but having a purpose and feeling useful)
3. If something hard happens today, what is your plan? (not ‘nothing bad will happen’ because it might, but this teaches your child that ‘I have a strategy’, that ‘I will take three deep breaths’ or, ‘ I will tell my teacher’, or I will walk away?.  But a child with a plan feels braver than a child with a promise. They are also one step closer towards actually using that strategy if something happens. Confidence is not the absence of fear, but it is having a plan for when it shows up. 

We hope you all stay healthy and safe this Memorial Day weekend, and enjoy a BBQ, a Slip and Slide, a family trip, or a lovely relax and refresh before the last two and a half weeks of school! 

Ladybugs

On Tuesday, we had a celebration of Ophelia’s 3rd trip around the sun. It is so sweet to see this sweet event for every student. Phi/Phee is our youngest Bug, and therefore the last to turn 3. Happy happy birthday Ophelia!

Tuesday was also a special day for two little Bugs who had lunch with the teachers. Some lovely Ladybug parents purchased the item at our wonderful auction. It was a sweet time as they drank apple juice tea, ate teddy bear sandwiches, and said ‘cheers’ with their cups to Belleamie, who joined them in front of the fireplace for the cozy and fun experience. Thank you so much for your support of the school, and thanks Sophie and Easton for being such lovely lunchmates for Belleamie! 

We had a fun day on Thursday in class, finishing our cute little hand print flowers to put in the waving window, and we had a visit from Baby Burpee. Baby Burpee is our puppet who really wants to join us at circle, but just isn’t quite ready for Ladybug class. Baby has trouble following the rules and often breaks them! This puppet comes down off the shelf when a behavior has taken place that we want to address. On Thursday, we had a Ladybug who did not want to help us clean up. We had a Ladybug pull someone’s hair, and we had a Ladybug who threw toys and rocks on the playground. Baby Burpee came to closing circle to ‘re-enact’ all of these activities, and as per usual, the students that ‘broke’ the rules to begin with, were the ones who ‘scolded’ Burpee and said, “You should always help to clean up!” “You shouldn’t hurt people”, or “You shouldn’t throw toys, you might hurt someone!” We love how our curriculum uses puppets to teach important lessons, and the kids enjoy the puppets so much that they don’t realize that they are learning! 

Crickets

Wow! We are blown away by the courage and clarity of our Crickets making their ‘All About Me’ presentations! Bennett was the brave guy to go first and did an awesome job! Lucy and Owen also presented on Monday and showed such confidence, used a nice loud voice, took questions and feedback nicely, and then they each took a great bow! We record the presentations and upload them to our school video library service. Brin then forwards the video to the parents of the presenter so that you, too, can be blown away! Our ‘audience’ is also learning the art of listening respectfully to the presentation and to think of thoughtful questions and feedback to give to their classmates. It’s a lot to learn for a 4 year old! They should be very proud of themselves! Our “All About Me” reports will continue through next week. On Wednesday, we had reports from 4 more students, and a few more this morning.  We hope you are enjoying watching their report video at home. Let us know if you didn’t receive the link to watch. 

Our Crickets also have learned the names and sounds of each letter of the alphabet and can sign a word that starts with each letter. Ask your child to sing the ABC song, that starts A, ‘a’ “Alligator” and see if they can remember the signs for each of the 26 words. 

A,’a’ alligator, B, ‘b’ bear, C, ‘c’ cat, D, ‘d’, dog.  Etc.  We will send home a song sheet next week for the kids to have as a review over the summer. 

This morning, the playground warmed up enough for the Crickets to dip their toes (in rubber boots) in the creek. Remembering that the sun does not hit the playground until about 11 am, it’s not as necessary to have a ‘cooling’ experience, but rather, an experience in itself. Next fall, as Bees in the afternoon, there are several more opportunities to enjoy the shaded cool waters of the lovely water feature of our playground. 

Hope you have a wonderful long weekend. No school on Monday for Memorial Day. We’ll see you Wednesday. 

Honeybees

What a crazy Monday! We had 13 students absent and spent the afternoon with only 5 Honeybees in attendance! We are so grateful to our Bee parents who kept their students at home for a full 24 hours after a fever, vomit or diarrhea episode. Thanks for helping to keep us all healthy. With so many special end of year happenings, grad parties and ceremonies, dance recitals and T-Ball games, we appreciate everyone working together to ensure that everyone can fully participate in each event. 

On Monday, the staff had a great time getting some special surprise graduation projects underway. The Honeybee graduation ceremony is such a special event, steeped with lovely nostalgia, endearing presentations, and extra special project reveals. When you see your student in the gazebo at the end of class with paint under their fingernails, a little bit of plaster on their shirt, or some golden marker on their hands, we hope you understand that we are all working together on some special surprises to be revealed at the ceremony, Friday, June 12, at 10:30 AM. I’m sure your kiddos will share if you ask them enough – :0) – but please ‘help’ them to keep the surprise, and respect the other parents’ desire to be surprised as well. We are so proud of the courage of these kiddos for taking on the challenges and emotions and projects over these next few weeks. They are doing awesome! 

Speaking of graduation, please click on the graduation page and give us a head count of how many guests (not counting your grad) will be attending the graduation so that we can plan accordingly. The event is open to graduates, and adult family and friends. Older siblings are welcome if you are sure that they can keep the focus on our graduates. We want our Honeybee graduates to be the sole focus of the event, and we ask that you find alternative care for younger siblings. Babes in arms are welcome. Thank you for your understanding of our request and for everyone’s desire to focus on these amazing Bee grads!

We are working with the children to make some keepsakes that are based on the mascot of their next school year. Several of our Bees know that their next school is Kindergarten, but not all of them know the name of their school. Please fill us in with this information so that we can find the mascot of the school, and if you are attending a school, or homeschooling, that does not have a mascot, please discuss this with your graduate. What animal or mascot would they like to represent their Kindergarten year? Something strong? Something fierce? Something adorable? Or Cuddly? Let us know what they decide! 

10 more classes! Can you believe it? 

We’ve been finding wonderful words of advice on social media lately, regarding the transition from preschool to Kindergarten. We love to share those that go with our Garden philosophy. 

What your Child Actually Needs to Know before Kindergarten:

1. Know a handful (18 or so) letters and sounds
2. Know their full name – not to write it, but to say it, first, middle and last name
3. Count to 20 correctly, and have 1 to 1 correspondence when counting
4. Know how to grip a pair of scissors
5. Open their own lunches, open their own snacks, open their own coat, open their own backpacks, open their own folders – manage their own supplies
6. Problem solve – when faced with a frustrating situation, can they work through it without an adult? with their own peers?

Have a great long weekend! See you Tuesday!