Happy Friday, West Wing Families! Here’s the info for the week.
Flowers, pumpkins, gourds, and more!
Thanks to Leon’s family for bringing in flowers and Eddie’s family for bringing in pumpkins and gourds for the Dandelion classroom. The flowers have brightened up our indoor and outdoor spaces and the pumpkins and gourds have provided inspiration for color mixing and painting at the mini studio table on Friday.
We had generous donations this week from the Cilantro families! Thanks to Ami’s family for bringing in flowers and to Luka’s family who brought in Halloween decorations throughout the week. At first, the children thought the fall fruits gifted by Leo’s family were small pumpkins. Leo shared that he brought in persimmons picked from his tree. Thank you, Leo’s family. Colette gifted us two books: The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld, a story about comforting the people in your life with an empathetic ear. The second book intrigued the children with its illustrations, Little Dreamers: Visionary Women Around the World by Vashti Harrison, an inspiring book representing world-changing women. Thank you, Colette’s family.
Here’s the link to our SignUpGenius for classroom flowers: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-flower
Conference sign-ups
West Wing Zoom conferences started this week, and they will continue through mid-November. If you haven’t signed up yet, or if you need to change your sign up, please use this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-west16
The West Wing teachers would appreciate at least 72 hours advance notice for the sign-ups to make sure that we have all of the necessary materials prepared.
West Wing Parent Zooms
Our next Parent Zooms will take place next week on Wednesday, October 21st.
The topic for the Dandelion meeting will be the Environment as Third Teacher. Dandelion families, please check out this updated video of our indoor and outdoor classrooms as a preview for the conversation: https://vimeo.com/468730159/fc834057b1
Halloween Party
Our West Wing Halloween Celebration will be on Thursday, October 29th, to accommodate for all of the children in the West Wing. Children are invited to come to school in costume. Please look out for more details to come on the specifics of our celebration!
New School-West BOO(k) Fair
Join us for a remote BOO(k) fair on Sunday, October 25th, 11 to 11;45am (but maybe we’ll go to noon!!).! While we can’t gather in person for our annual NSW book fair, we will meet on Zoom to share Halloween story time and songs, with special guest, Roleen! Be sure to wear your costumes!
The NSW library depends on your donations! Please consider donating to the library and/or purchasing the Halloween story time book for your home library. CLICK HERE or on the link in the attached event flyer. The BOO(k) fair is free and open to all current NSW families.
Group updates
Cilantro
Morning drop off is full of bustling children wanting to reconnect. A band plays rhythmic sounds from the grass area, flying dragons emerge, children persevere as they put puzzles back together, and turns are taken jumping on the trampoline. One day, Emme asked if We’re Going On A Ghost Hunt could be read to her. One by one the children gathered to hear the story and asked if the book could be read again! The teachers collected more pumpkin and spooky stories for the classroom. An audio favorite, Dark Dark Tale, is requested almost daily by the children. Sounds of squeaky doors, hushed whispers, screechy violins have provoked excitement, along with a little fear. Children reassure each other, “It’s just a cat” and “It’s okay to be a little scared.” At this age, children are learning to tell the difference between reality and fantasy, so those lines can be blurred. They are learning to cope with more complex fears, led by their growing imaginations. Common fears at this age are fear of the dark, being alone, and imaginary creatures. Children learn to accept the comfort of a friend and trust the adults in their life will keep them safe. Halloween brings many opportunities to reassure children of their safety and maybe have some fun in the process. Cindy draped dark fabric and invited the children to help decorate and create props for the spooky “Haunted House” in our outdoor space.
The cilantro seeds have sprouted with the care from the children. On one of our Sand Area days, a small group transplanted the cilantro plants to our NSW community garden. Just as we offer moments to care for the environment, we encourage children to practice self care skills. Learning to put on shoes and opening food containers are opportunities to feel in charge of their bodies and gain confidence that they are trusted by the adults in their life. Children are unique and reach the ability to complete these skills at different paces. We are learning the balance of each child of when to encourage autonomy and when to offer our support. Key phrases we practice with the children are: What is the first step you could do? Try again. Time and encouraging self care is a sure way to help children feel capable. And they are!
Our book recommendation to encourage perseverance is
Dandelion
This week, the Dandelions continued experimenting with balls, ramps, and inclined planes with Dana in the Exploration Space. Other materials offered indoors included charcoals and watercolors at the Mini Studio Table; line tools, paper, and roster photos at the Composition Table; Magnatiles and small dinosaurs at the light table; and the dramatic play materials in the House Area. Outside, the Dandelions returned to use the climbing structure. Evelyn and Flora observed them feeling more comfortable and even planning the games they wanted to play together. Arya: Emma, let’s play climbing up from the back, going through the tunnel and down the slide. Emma agreed and Olivia joined later. Ana did some independent playing then also joined them later. Eddie and Spencer requested “big buckets” to collect wood chips and pour them into the wooden boxes. Leon also asked for a bucket to play the game with them. Marcel, Cary, and Evyn enjoyed the large body play on Thursday. On our non wood chip day, the Dandelions continue to build ownership of each space as well as brainstorming game ideas they want to play together. Example: Chasing games and tickling games. We’re constantly spraying hands and spraying the air to receive it like mist all over our bodies:).
We’ve also been getting into the spirit of Halloween with some books and songs. The Dandelions have enjoyed reading Big Pumpkin and Room on the Broom, singing “Five Little Pumpkins”, and dancing to “The Monster Mash.” The children started to think about what kinds of decorations that they would like to see in their classroom to celebrate the holiday; some ideas included pumpkins, spider webs, bats, skeletons, and ghosts. We are brainstorming how we can create these items together! (Also, if you have any child-friendly decorations at home that you aren’t using and would like to loan us, we would be happy to put them to good use in our spaces!)