Last week, the Basil group welcomed back Elliot and this week the Aloe Vera group welcomed back Dylan Fields. We are so excited to have both families back on ground and the children are finding ways to make their friends feel welcome. Since many systems have changed and new ones have developed as we reopened the school, we saw this as an opportunity for the children to introduce Elliot and Dylan into this new culture of the classrooms. We started thinking by making a welcome sign.
Susan: What could we add to our sign for Elliot?
Tallulah: Maybe it can say, ‘Elliot, welcome back to New School West.’ I’m going to make me with a flower and a crown.
Mira: I’m drawing hearts.
Penny: This is how many days for him to come – 7 days! We have to write our name so he knows it’s from us.
Tallulah: We can put it outside where Kris is always sitting so Elliot can see it and his parents can read it! We can hang it on the fence!
Susan: Elliot, it’s your first day back! How are you feeling?
Elliot: I’m feeling scared.
Mars: You don’t have to be scared. What are you scared of?
Elliot: Because it’s my first day in the East Wing, that’s why.
Everly: Did you see the sign we made for you?
Elliot: Is it outside the school? I saw it this morning. I don’t know all my letters but I know my name. S is in my name. I saw my name written on it.
Susan: What are some things that we are doing differently at school that we want to share with Elliot?
Tallulah: We wear a mask and wash our hands. We get our basket.
Rufus: We put in our backpacks and our lunch and snack and water bottle and our wet bag.
Golda: We bring our own snacks.
Everly: We get our snack from our basket. First we wash our hands, then we take off our mask, and then we get our snack bag and we sit down. We don’t start eating right away. We wait for everyone to sit down.
Susan: Elliot, you were feeling a bit scared this morning. How are you feeling after your first day?
Elliot: I feel happy.
Susan: What are some of the things that made you feel happy today.
Elliot: To see Everly and Tallulah and some of my friends. And to play a lot.
Keaton: That includes me, right?
Elliot: Of course it does, Keaton. It was so much fun! I saw the sign too. Thank you for welcoming me.
Thinking of how to welcome Dylan Fields:
Susan: Today is Dylan’s first day and we talked about creating a sign to welcome her. What do you think it could say?
Mira: It can say ‘welcome back’.
Rufus: ‘Welcome to New School West!’
Asher: I’m going to make hearts. It means I love you. Did you know it’s her first day?
Golda: I wonder how she’s feeling? It has a heart – I made some of the hearts. I want to say, ‘I love you. I’ve been thinking about you.’
Rufus: I think she’s going to feel happy because we made a sign for her like Elliot. I want to send her love.
Susan: How does that work?
Rufus: We write it on the picture and she comes and sees it. That’s how we send love.
Jack: We can put the sign on the plexiglass because she can see it or we can put it in the mailbox because it’s more of a surprise.
Mars: I want to say ‘I love you’ and ‘I miss you’.
Penny: I miss her the whole day. I remember playing in the ball pit with Dylan. I played with the balls. I played family with her.
Aloe Vera creating a sign for Dylan:
Uma: We can make Dylan a sign.
Adriana: What should the sign say?
Presley: ‘Welcome back Dylan’.
Poppy: It should say ‘Dylan Fields’.
Mia: It should say, ‘We miss you.’
Uma: It should say all the things together. ‘Welcome Back Dylan Fields. We missed you!’
Santi: (As the children work on the sign) I can help with the letter “S”. I know how to make an “S.”
As Dylan Fields arrives on her first day of school.
Dillon: I made this note for you. It has all the friends that are here at NSW.
Poppy: I am so excited you are here.
At reflection meeting:
Amy: Dylan, is there anything you want to say about your first day back?
Dylan: My mom and dad told me I was coming back to school. I played in the Sand Area and I made flowers with Poppy today.
Poppy: It’s her first day of school. She doesn’t know everything, just a little bit, and everyone needs to teach her everything.
Dylan: Poppy, I do know everything!
August: It was a long time until Dylan came back.
Levi: Dylan knows everything. Right, Dylan?
Amy: Poppy, when you said that, did you mean there are some new things happening at school that Dylan doesn’t know about yet?
Poppy: Yeah, there is just some things that are different.
Amy: Dylan, remember this morning we showed you the spot to put your water bottle and your new cubby spot?
Dylan: Oh yeah.
Presley: I’m happy she’s back. This is her first day back. I’m not sure she knows about space between us.
Amy: That is another thing that is a little different. We talked about open space between us while we were sitting on the couch waiting to go outside.
Dylan: Today I made a mail for Mira.
Amy: Does anyone want to share with Dylan what we do with messages for the Basil friends?
Uma: We put it in the mailbox.
Hudson: We open the gate and then take it to the Basils.
Amy: Hudson, would you like to show Dylan where the mailboxes are and how to get there?
Hudson: Sure.
Adriana, Hudson and Dylan walk to the community garden to add the message to Mira to the mailbox.
At our core, New School West values relationships. An integral condition for nurturing and sustaining relationships through an attitude of welcoming – an ongoing process that invites an openness towards oneself and to others. One of the ways we foster a culture of welcoming is by listening to the children’s thinking and celebrating the ways they wish to express their connection and love for those friends who are reentering school. As we see the children walking Dylan Fields and Elliot through new routines and systems, we see how our culture is taking shape. By sharing their knowledge of the new systems and how to navigate their day, the children begin to see how their contributions impact their community.