We had a fun week in the classroom this week, beginning our preparations for the Harvest Feasts and for our Winter Celebrations. Our focus turned to Gratitude, and we speak of what we are thankful for at each circle. Our Cricket and Honeybee circles are centered by sending out the message, “I’m thankful for…, then turn to our neighbor, use their name and say, …, what are you thankful for?” It is a wonderful practice for the children to not only focus on what they are grateful for, but to be interested in what others are grateful for as well. You might want to incorporate this practice in your own dinners at home, and your own thanksgiving feast. 

The Crickets and the Honeybees do not have the special event of the Stuffy Spend the Night, that is a Ladybug only treasured memory, but the Crickets and the Honeybees each have a fabulous Harvest Feast coming up this month. We focus on everyone contributing to our meal, and all that we are grateful and thankful for. 

We are beginning our preparations for our wonderful Winter Celebration. After the Cricket and Honeybee Harvest Feast on Thanksgiving week, our focus turns to the Winter Celebration on December 12, at Issaquah Middle School. Each class puts on one or two dances/performances, and we welcome the holiday season with Father Christmas and beautiful candle light. Please join us at the Winter Celebration, a beautiful memory making event. 

Ladybugs

With only one day this week, we focused on news and gratitude! We made handprint turkeys and did some fun artwork with Kali. 

We love how these Bugs are beginning to make friendships, and we encourage play dates to help these littlest littles feel more comfortable with the friends in their class. Talk to the teachers if you are interested in who would be a great play date partner for your child. Each child is at their own maturity level and it is nice to pair them up with someone who is at the same level. 

This preschool journey is an important first step in your child’s social development. The Children’s Garden loves being on this collaborative journey with you. Thanks again for entrusting your kiddo to our program. We love being part of your village. 

Crickets

We had a great time talking about what we are grateful for at our circle time and started an exploration of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”. When we do a folk/fairy tale at The Garden, we read several versions of the same story, we act it out, and we always love doing stamper books so that the children can write their own version of the story. This week, we looked at The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and we also read The Three Billy Goats Fluff, where the mama of the goats used her brain to problem solve the dilemma of the grumpy sleepless troll and knitted cushioned booties for her three children so that they did not keep the troll awake! Iris’s mum also wrote a new version of the story, about The Three Pinecone Goats, and the troll in her story was our very own Jacob Two Trees! Thank you so much Paloma! We love the new version to add to our collection. We enjoy teaching the children about comparing and contrasting the different stories. We had a wonderful discussion at circle about what was the same (there were three, there was a bridge, there was a troll ) and what was different (one story had a mama who problem solved, one story had a troll that was sleepy, one had a troll that fought). We love the stamper books that resulted after a few different readings and we so enjoy acting out stories with these amusing crickets!

The Crickets love putting on puppet shows through the window of the critter corner and they also love playing airport with the cars and trucks and planes. We had Kai’s  big sister, Karen, as a Belleamie Alum Helper on Wednesday, and Canyon’s big brother, Caven as a Belleamie Alum Helper on Thursday. We enjoyed making hand print turkeys for our Harvest Feast placemats, and getting started on our sweet family gifts for the holiday season.

Next week, we begin to talk about our Harvest Feast and begin reading wonderful versions of the classic folk tale, called Stone Soup. to our students. We look forward to having you join us at a special gratitude circle on November 24th, and watch our Crickets have a wonderful Harvest Feast. Watch for details on how you might contribute to our feast.  

Honeybees

What a great time we had this week, celebrating our friend, Sloane, as she completed her fifth trip around the sun.  We fully immersed ourselves in gratitude circles, who we are thankful for in our news, and handprint turkeys! 

We love the month of November at The Garden. Our attention turns to all that we are grateful for and we love learning how to read the word “NO” and then learning our “NOvember” poem. 

Can you believe that we are preparing for our beautiful Winter Celebration? We can’t wait for you to see what these 5 year olds have been working on. We will perform two complicated dances at the Winter Celebration, December 12th, at Issaquah Middle School. Bring the whole family, you don’t want to miss it! 

We had some wonderful Belleamie AlumBig Kid helpers join us on Wednesday and Thursday including Camden’s big brother Finn. How fun to keep this connection with our recent grads. The Bees get to see kids that are in Kindergarten and first grade, and we talk about how they used to be Honeybees, just like themselves! We love the strong roots that are developed here, at The Garden. We love the wings that they grow as well.

Have a great weekend, everyone!