Thank you Colette’s family for bringing in flowers this week!
Here’s the link to our SignUpGenius for classroom flowers: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-flower
Parent Zoom Meetings
Thanks to everyone who was able to join us for our Parent Zooms on Wednesday. Our last Parent Zoom of 2020 will be on Wednesday, December 16 at 3:00 (Cilantro) and 3:30pm (Dandelion). If you missed our parent zoom, or would like to revisit the conversation, here are the relevant links:
Cilantro: Roleen sends her apologies for no recording of this 3:00 gathering. It was a first of what she hopes to be a continuation of her Coffees with Roleen. Mark your calendars for next Friday, December 11th, at 9:30 for all the WW parents who can join us to talk “parenting”. What do behaviors really mean? She’ll send you a zoom link at 9:15 so be on the lookout.
Dandelion: https://vimeo.com/486617110/80f11ee217
In case you passed over the above message to the Cilantros:
Mark your calendars for next Friday, December 11th, at 9:30 for all the WW parents who can join us to talk “parenting”. What do behaviors really mean? Roleen send you a zoom link at 9:15 so be on the lookout.
Group updates
Cilantro
We just wrapped up our first virtual remote learning week! While we couldn’t be together physically, we had special moments being together in a new way. We even celebrated Dot’s birthday on zoom!
We opened our Morning Circle meetings to zoomed faces eager to greet each other! We welcomed everyone with the playful song Willaby Wallaby Woo followed by our favorite fingerplay and movement songs. Percy the Owl and Timmy the Stripe Tiger were introduced to segue into our focus meeting of show and tell. They asked the children to share why what they brought was special to them. Today, the children were asked to bring nature collections with the intention of creating compositions. Cindy shared the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert and used stop-animation of a leaf person to inspire different creations with nature.
We noticed the children brought nature full of texture, movement, and similar round findings. Attached are links to today’s meetings and support videos.
Friday Morning Circle
Friday Focus Meeting
Leaf Man read By Mr. Adams and his class
Cindy’s Leaf Person in using Stop-Motion
Next Week
We are feeling so grateful for the support of our community of educators. Michelle Appel, a colleague that we first met collaborating with First Presbyterian in Santa Monica, will join the Cilantro group along with Mary Rising, who many of you may know from her work with the Dandelion and then Aloe Vera groups. Both bring a new set of gifts and experiences to offer. We will continue our typical flow of the day with Michelle taking on the classroom position in place of Silvana and Mary taking on the inside/outside position that Wendy held. Cindy will continue leading the outside classroom in the Middle Courtyard. We will spend time getting to know each other and exchange our talents. The children will have the opportunity to give Michelle and Mary a tour of the environment and share their favorite spaces and experiences with them. It should be a lot of fun to hear what they say.
Meet Michelle Appel
A huge THANK YOU to parents for all your efforts in supporting the children throughout our Zoom meetings. We appreciate each and every one of you as we have navigated this challenging situation together. – Silvana & Cindy
Dandelions https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bh23dawwge0tldc/AAB2oUp_mXN29CTakDaY72Wba?dl=0
This week, the Dandelions had a very busy week outdoors! They started the process of adding water colors to the tape as a resist canvas on Monday. Using droppers or paint brushes, their piece of art is turning quite colorful and artistic! On Tuesday and Thursday they continued to request to begin their day in the wood chip area playing games such as Duck duck goose, hide and go seek, “Monster Mash,” or creating obstacle courses. They also like to go say hi to the Aloe Vera group from the garden side and, occasionally, they request to do woodworking.
This week was also the Dandelion’s first neighborhood walk. Thank you for signing the permission slip. These walks are always adventurous. Seeing the neighborhood through the eyes of the children is like seeing a new neighborhood every time. Because of the children’s constant interaction with our Front Yard tree, Flora invited the children to think about what kind of other trees we would see on our walk. Some of their answers were: Big trees, little trees, trees with leaves and trees without leaves. They also were hoping to find “climbing trees.” Overall, it was a good first walk where we got to practice some important safety rules. For example, we made the following agreements as a group: walking with the group, staying with your partner, looking both ways when crossing the street,and using our hands as our “stop” signs, to name a few. Next week, we are planning on taking the next group of Dandelions who didn’t go yet.
Indoors, the Dandelions continued to discover the possibilities of clay, using the sculpey to create a series of alphabet letters. At first, the children used the clay to roll “snakes,” then used the long pieces to trace the shapes and the lines of our wooden alphabet cutouts to create their own letters. Later, the children explored other ways of creating letters: making imprints with the wooden letters or using clay tools to carve out the shapes. Like the Aloe Veras in the East Wing, we hope to use these letters in our classroom so that the children can grow more familiar with the types of lines in different letters — and also the specific letters in their names and other familiar words. The Dandelions also explored straight lines, curved lines, and circles in the Exploration Room with colored, semi-transparent and opaque manipulatives on the light projector.
We also want to thank you for the touching and kind words you left on the notes for us on the open house day. We appreciate you all. – Dana, Flora, and Evelyn