We are indeed gearing up for the holiday season in the classroom. We have had gratitude circles  with all our students to prepare for Thanksgiving, we are starting our family holiday gifts, we have begun learning dances and stories to present at our Winter Celebration, and our Crickets and Bees are having fun this weekend preparing to share a favorite snack or item for our Harvest Feast next week. In fact, we have actually started to plan our January Open House for new families who are interested in enrollment at The Garden for the 2026-2027 school year! 

We mentioned last week that we would love to welcome a family member into our classes over the holiday season to share a tradition or holiday that you celebrate in this season, a story, an art project or a cooking/baking activity. Talk to a staff member to arrange a day and time and let us know if you need assistance or special equipment to plan or set up something. We have had families in the past come in to the classroom to share their tradition of Hanukkah, to share their tradition of going for a drive to look at holiday light displays, to share their tradition of decorating sugar cookies, ornaments on a Christmas tree, collecting socks or canned goods for the local food bank, Winter Solstice celebrations, etc. The Children’s Garden loves to hear all the ways that you celebrate in this season of light. Please share your traditions with us! 

Our regular “Father Christmas”, who makes an appearance at the Winter Celebration, is unable to make it this year. We are wondering if any of our families has a friend, relative or suggestion for a sweet and kind person, (who is not recognized by our students), to join us on December 12th, from 6-7 at Issaquah Middle School. Please mention to Brin any of your ideas. 

We heard about how the Cricket moms are doing such wonderful and intentional community building! Once a month, the moms all get together on a Sunday afternoon for some fun activity. They have done wine tasting, brunch, and in December, they will have a ‘jingle mingle’ holiday gathering to celebrate the season! At The Children’s Garden, a big focus of our Mission Statement is to build community, not just amongst our students, but amongst our parents as well. Thanks Cricket Moms! You are doing such a great job and having so much fun in the process! 

It’s a short week next week, as we have Wednesday thru Friday off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Next week’s Mousehole will be a list of our student’s statements of gratitude. 

Ladybug

What a fun week we had in the Ladybug Class! We discussed all the people, places and things that we are grateful for, asking the kiddos what their favorite animal, toy, place, person, etc. We then shared a story at circle time, called “The Thankful Book” by Todd Parr. We so enjoy sharing this book at The Garden, this time of year. It carries an essential message of love and acceptance that is inspiring, empowering, and accessible. 

We learned a new finger play poem, called “One Day Turkey went out for a Walk” and we made peek a boo books about “A Turkey is a Funny Bird”. We loved waking up our turkey bodies and gobbling instead of wiggling when we wake up our beaks, wings and turkey toes! We have started learning and practicing a circle dance that we will perform at The Winter Celebration on December 12th, from 6-7 pm at Issaquah Middle School. Plan now to attend, and bring your whole family for this delightful and memorable event.

Cricket

The Cricket class had fun celebrating Charlie and Emmie’s birthday circles this week. We practiced writing our names, (which we will use to decorate an adorable ‘prop’ for our Winter Celebration), and started practicing our Gratitude Circle, which you are welcome to join us for at the last hour of next Monday’s class. Please check out the sign up genius for contributing to our Harvest Feast next Monday. 

We so loved having sweet Paloma, Iris’ mom, share a version of the Three Billy Goats Gruff that she wrote about Issaquah’s Jacob Two Trees as the troll, and the spirit of sharing and giving and repurposing. The children acted out the story, and being their first time to re-enact a story, we are very proud of how well they did. This next week, we will begin to read different versions of the Elves and the Shoemaker and rehearse our acting out of the story to prepare for our Winter Celebration.

Next day at school will be our Harvest Feast, a special celebration for the Crickets and the Bees. This year we are reading a story about Belleamie making some magic stone soup, and the puppets will prepare the soup for the feast. The Crickets themselves will contribute to the feast by bringing a favorite snack to add to a platter, and on Monday will help to make butter for the feast. We hope you can join us for the last hour of the class for our gratitude circle and the feast. 

Honeybee

Wow! These children sure learn quickly! They already know the NOvember and YESvember poems, they are reading two letter words by sounding them out, and they, just after one week of practice, have learned all the dance steps for one of the dances at the Winter Celebration! 

We loved having a different focus each day for our Gratitude circles. We started with snack foods, and moved on to favorite toy/ person/ animal/ place etc. 

The Honeybee school year is marked for many reasons, but the Reports that they present throughout the year are definitely a highlight. Emily introduced the first report that the students will be presenting, a sort of “All About Me” report. Emily presented her report as if she was Belleamie. The students took home their favorite color piece of paper to prepare their reports. The illustrations can be drawings, photographs, or stickers or collage of magazine pictures. The questions that we start with are family, favorite activity, favorite food, favorite place, something I’m really good at, something I’d like to get better at, and something that people don’t know about me. Of course, each child can focus on their own questions. The goal of these reports is for students to grow in their comfort level to stand at circle and use a pointer to share what they know. The teachers meet the students where they are and will help as much or as little as we are needed or asked of. The staff records each report and shares it with the parents. 

We are often told by Kindergarten and First Grade teachers that they can spot a Garden grad easily. They are comfortable standing in front of the class to share what they know, they find the eyes of the teachers and other students, they are class leaders and they are kind and check in with other students. Poetry recitations and reports and presentations are a huge part of this preparation that we provide our Honeybees. 

So, last week, our poem was “NO-vember” and the class had fun writing their own poem, called “YES-vember!” We learned how to write and read “NO” and “YES” and we worked on a ‘questionnaire’ with ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers. The students answered 5 questions about activities around the school. They could circle “yes” or “no” depending on whether they liked the activity or not. It was very impressive to see two or three students taking the questionnaire at the same time, and each of the kiddos being able to answer on their own behalf, and not be influenced by their friends’ responses. 

Not to brag, but we are extremely proud of these Honeybees. They are playing together as a big team, advocating for each other, and using kind words to ask each other, “What are you playing?” “Can I join you?” We see this every year with the Bee class, but we are seeing it earlier in the year with this group. :0)

Bravo Bees! Have a great weekend!