From our last Parent Partners’ night, the Garden Committee and teachers talked about the importance of collaborating in continuing the work on our vertical garden.
Jake: Look at our lemons in here. They are so big.
Teacher Katherine: I’m wondering how can we support this space. The herbs didn’t grow so well in these planters.
Harrison: Well, we can grow more vegetables and grow more and more herbs. We can make it really big.
Katherine: This is a big job. Do you know that we have a garden committee of parents who want to support us? I noticed this part of the garden is very dark. The sunlight isn’t coming in.
Jake: We need to cut some parts off from this plant.
Katherine: We can ask a parent to support us to cut the hedges.
Paisley: We can make a note for them.
The children write and reflect about the process of making this letter.
Jacob: I know all the letters. It’s just really hard to write the lower cases. I’m better with the upper cases. That’s what I’m good at.
Luscia: It was very hard for me to do the monkey bars and Flora supported me.
Adriana: Luscia, you are sharing a moment when it was hard and Flora supported you and you took time to really practice.
Luscia: I practiced for many days and one day I did it.
Adriana: Jacob, just like you are working on the lower case letters, Luscia worked on the monkey bars.
Jacob: I know, that’s why I’m working so hard on my letters.
Paisley: Jacob, keep trying and trying. Don’t give up.
Jacob: No, I’m not giving up. It’s just hard for me.
Fiona: Maybe I can hold your hand and support you to make the shapes of the letters.
By creating this note, we made an intention to reach out to our parents and yet in this process the children are faced with a new challenge where they are asking for support from one another. They are welcomed in to brainstorm ideas to assist their friend Jacob in developing his hand-writing. Note writing continues to support not only the East Wing children’s work, relationships, and self-perceptions, but our collective value of nurturing community.