Flowers
Thank you so much to Cary’s and Ana’s families for the beautiful flowers this week. These bouquets not only brighten up our spaces but also provide inspiration for color mixing, observational drawing, and loose parts exploration. Here’s the link to our SignUpGenius for classroom flowers: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-flower
Birthday!
Traditionally, we have invited parents in to read a child’s favorite story to the class. The storybook was then donated in the child’s name. With this new school year that has us reinventing ourselves with mandated restrictions, we are learning the true value of flexibility and creativity. Yesterday, Brooke, Emme’s mom, sent us a video of her reading aloud the non-fiction book Dreamers by Yuyi Morales. The narrative text is poetic and full of breathtaking illustrations, created through painting, drawing, photography, and embroidery. Thank you Brooke for telling the story con mucho amor, with lots of love. Gracias Emme’s family for contributing to our NSW library! Click the link to enjoy the inviting read aloud and learn more of the history of Emme’s latino heritage.
Baby Urich arrives!
We wanted to give a big congratulations to Spencer and his family on the birth of their baby Skyler James, at home on Wednesday at 12:30am. We are all so excited to learn more about the baby as he grows.
Open House for West Wing Parents
Come see what we are doing at school on Saturday, November 14! Time slots are available for Cilantro parents from 9 to 10:25am and for Dandelion parents from 10:30 to 11:55am. CLICK HERE to sign up.
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.
Parent Zoom Meetings
Thanks to everyone who was able to join us for our Parent Zooms on Wednesday. Our next Parent Zoom will be on Wednesday, November 18 at 3:00 (Cilantro) and 3:30pm (Dandelion).
This week’s Cilantro theme was Developing a Resilient Mindset. All of us have the power to develop a resilient mindset; just like a muscle, it needs to be conditioned and strengthened every single day. Children gain confidence when they practice basic self-care. This may be making more time for them to put on their shoes, exercise, and get sufficient sleep. Nurturing children to trust themselves to solve problems and make decisions values their competence. They are more likely to know how to make choices in a way that they can bounce back from life’s challenges. Our first reaction when seeing a child in stress is to fix it. If we jump in too quickly, we can take away opportunities for children to tap into their own strength and build a repertoire of their own coping skills. Offer opportunities for children to come up and lead physical activities they enjoy to feel a sense of control. Children build character and feel empowered by supporting others with skills they have mastered. We intentionally put children in groups where they can scaffold and learn from each other. Connecting with others includes the skills of empathy and listening to each other. Having close ties gives a sense of belonging. Children will put more effort when they have a sense that their contributions are valued. Part of our daily routine is taking care of our spaces and recognizing each other’s contributions.
If you missed our parent check-in, or would like to revisit it, here is the relevant link:
Attached is the presentation in a PDF format:
And here is a link to Roleen’s choice of a podcast with Dr. Eliza Pressman speaking to the importance of building resiliency in children.
This week, the Dandelions had a casual check-in with families where we talked a little about our travel policies (summary: email Roleen to open up a conversation about your plans), our NSW blog and photos, and some of the tricky parts about the time change. Our next meeting will be about self-care and supporting children’s independence and autonomy. This is a core part of our curriculum: taking care of our bodies and possessions, feeding ourselves, using the bathroom and taking care of personal hygiene. We see how much self-confidence and self-assurance comes through children recognizing their own abilities, strengths, and powers — and we make it a point to give children plenty of time and opportunity to try things out on their own before we step in with any support.
This emphasis on self-care and independence skills is why we recommend sending your children in clothing and with lunch and snack containers that support their developing skills. Shoes that are easy to get on and off, pants that are loose enough to pull up and down, lunch and snack containers that can be opened and closed easily. One trick a Dandelion parent recommended to us: if you send your child a snack food that comes in a commercially sealed bag (like Goldfish crackers or granola bites or a bar), you can make a small rip in the package before you pack it for school so your child has a starting point for opening it.
Here’s a preview of the presentation in PDF format: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vqW_-jjNcd6IQpJDX3cz3nvCq07CCkWG/view?usp=sharing
Group updates
Cilantro
This week we reflected on how taking care of ourselves helps each other and everyone in our community to be healthy. We all have a role! Doctors’ roles are making sure we’re all healthy through check ups and covid testing. Emme shared that her doctor put a stick in her nose and twisted it around. She gestured how it felt as if it went down to her throat. Children signed ‘me too’ as she shared her experience. Luka led our washing hand song ‘tops and bottoms’ to remind us of our steps when we wash our hands. Part of taking care of ourselves is including exercise in our daily routine. We’ve been discussing strengthening children’s core and balance in our parent teacher conferences. Having good core strength builds functional posture, and helps provide a stable base for gross and fine motor skills. The core muscles are the muscles in the abdomen, back and pelvis. The key to strengthening these muscles is making it fun, like a game! Every morning, before the children enter the classroom for our morning meeting, Cindy leads fun gross motor activities that involve leg lifts, hokey pokey, and running. Everyday activities that help strengthen core in the Cilantro outdoor space are jumping on the trampoline, riding a trike and scooting on scooters. In the sand area there are opportunities for climbing and swinging on the monkey bars. On our way back from a walk, we encourage the children to exercise more core muscle control by slowly walking heel-to-toe on the cement parking blocks by the Cilantro door entrance. Here are attachments of physical exercises that can be done from home:
Core Strengthening Cards
Gross Motor Handout
In honor of Emme’s fourth birthday, children from all different groups created her birthday cards. On Wednesday in the sand area, the Cilantros were greeted with birthday cards and eager Aloe Veras through the glass sliding door. Emme had been sharing with us that a chocolate cake with a rainbow was going to be baked for her. That notion inspired Ami and Dot to paint a rainbow and gift it to Emme from all the Cilantros. The teachers got a piece of the chocolate cake that indeed have a rainbow heart in the center of it. Yum! What a sweet way to end our week!
Dandelion
In the Mini Studio, the Dandelions have started exploring polymer clay (Sculpey) to see how they can play with it, care for it, and use it as a language to express their ideas. Our initial experiences include learning how to warm up the clay; roll it into shapes like balls, snakes, or logs; and take it apart and combine it again. The Dandelions also continue to be inspired through light and shadow play. In the Exploration Room, we’ve been projecting time-lapse videos of skyscrapers and other buildings being assembled. The children enjoy putting on their yellow hardhats and working alongside the construction crew on the screen. We also created laminated figurines using the photos of the children in their Halloween costumes for the light table with the magnatiles. Outdoor’s play and work is a combination of running and climbing the structure in the wood chip area on Tuesday and Thursday. Monday, Wednesday and Friday the children have been alternating between learning how to connect ideas using tape, practicing woodworking (this week they tried sawing!), coiling wire on our water colored vials and hanging them in our vial mobile, bike riding, digging in the mud pit, and cooking “pancakes” in their house area.
Here are some links to new books that the children have been listening to during story times:
A Baby Sister for Frances (in honor of a baby brother for Spencer!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1XUjYUiR-U
The Seven Silly Eaters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3D8BwsfxVsChrysanthemum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fkR7X4SevE