Birthdays
On Monday, the Dandelions celebrated Evyn’s 4th birthday, which was on January 24th. In the New School-West tradition of sharing a birthday book with the community, Evyn brought in a couple of her favorite books — Pirate Pups and The Sneetches — for us to read at Morning Circle. Before we started reading, we invited all of the Dandelions to go around the circle and share a favorite memory that they have of Evyn:
Flora: I love it when we play chasing outside.
Marcel: I like when we all play dinosaurs.
Ana: Riding the bikes together.
Emma: I like to run around the tree. I like to play hide and seek.
Spencer: I like you, Evyn.
Eddie: I love riding on the bikes with Evyn.
Arya: I like to play with Evyn.
Cary: I like sticking out my tongue at Evyn and playing with her.
Dana: I remember when you taught all of the Dandelions how to make snowpeople with the sculpey clay! That was a lot of fun.
Evelyn: I remember when you set up the picnic in the house area with Emma.
In addition to sharing some of their favorite memories, the Dandelions all made birthday cards for Evyn — and so did the Aloe Veras and the Basils, which we discovered when we checked our purple West Wing mailbox! And, to continue the celebrations on Tuesday, we had some air-popped popcorn that Evyn’s family donated to our group as a snack. Thank you to Julie Ann, Rebecca, and Evyn!
Birthdays are special times for many of us. A time for us to stop and receive loving and caring attention. In the days leading up to Wesley’s birthday, the Cilantros and children from other groups created birthday cards to honor her special day. During one of our morning meetings, the children learned something new about Wesley that helped them be intentional with the card making.
Teacher Silvana: Wesley has a birthday coming up next week after the weekend. If you wanted to make a card for her, what information do you think you would need to know about Wesley?
Wiley: What colors do you like Wesley?
Wesley: I like pink, purple, red, and blue. Like the blue she’s wearing (pointing at teacher Silvana’s shirt).
Leo: That’s turquoise.
Ami: Turquoise! We have that color paper at the Communication Center.
The Cilantros celebrated Wesley’s 4th birthday on Tuesday, January 26th. We surprised Wesley with all the thoughtful birthday cards strung over the Communication Center. For her birthday book, Wesley brought in one of her favorites, Ahoy There, Little Polar Bear by Hans de Beer. After singing Wesley Happy Birthday, Wiley surprised her with a necklace and a card that he made from home. Wesley welcomed the gift with grinning eyes.
Valentine’s Day
In the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, the West Wing teachers are planning to continue facilitating a lot of card making and note sending at school, as we keep exploring as a group the ways that we can send messages (including messages of affection!) to each other. Through this work, we celebrate love and our deepening connections with one another every day!
We recognize that the concept of Valentine’s Day might still be very abstract for many children at this age, so there will not be an expectation of a focused Valentine exchange at school. However, if your child would like to share cards from home, we ask that you send one for each member of your child’s group. (The teachers are emailing home updated rosters on Friday.) The teachers will support your child in exchanging the cards with his or her peers throughout the month of February.
Upcoming Calendar Reminders
Monday, February 15th: SCHOOL CLOSED for Presidents’ Day
Friday, March 5th & Monday, March 8th: SCHOOL CLOSED for West Coast Collaborative Reggio Conference with Teachers
In case anyone still has the remnants of the original short NSW calendar sent last spring, we have also changed two days that were intended to be closed for staff retreat and inservice — February 12th and March 26th — and will now be open on those days in place of these. We have made this plan to be sure teachers have this opportunity to collaborate with our local colleagues and mentors from Italy. We are grateful for your flexibility and support as we continue to value these professional development opportunities during this challenging time.
Monday March 29th through Friday, April 2nd: SCHOOL CLOSED for Spring Break
Flowers
Thank you to Jack’s family for bringing in viridescent flowers this week! The bouquets warmed up our classroom and brightened up our tables during these chili days. Thank you for signing up to bring flowers!
Here’s the link to our SignUpGenius for classroom flowers: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0449afa629a02-flower
Cilantro
With rain in the forecast, some modifications were needed in our Middle Courtyard play spaces. One of them being our favorite area called the Party Place, previously known as the Haunted House. Knowing the children would be disappointed without their beloved dark play area, we made a commitment to make sure that the materials from the shelves would still be available for play. During a sunny break in the cloudy sky, the children discovered a rainbow on the cement while Leo and Wiley played with prisms. As they moved they noticed that the rainbow would change, or disappear, and appeared mystified by the why’s and how’s. This was a moment that brought an awareness that the sun itself offers a very magical experience and holds many illuminating wonders. For this group who loves the dark, so that they can play with light, it was a new concept. To offer more discoveries with the sun, we have brought out multiple materials such as old CD’s, small mirrors, prisms, and crystals to play with both reflection and refraction. This is the beginning of a new exploration and, if the sun happens to peak out this weekend, we hope you can join the fun too.
While visiting the garden, the Cilantro group has become intrigued by our worm bin. Over the past few weeks, we have been spending more time digging in this vermiculture bin and taking a closer look at the crawling, wiggly creatures. With the growing curiosity, we recognized that the location of the bins was quite a tight squeeze for the group. To get a better, and healthier look, we gathered some worms (along a small portion of their habitat), and brought them to the Middle Courtyard. Spreading out a bit, the children used magnifying lenses to investigate. But, being who they are, the group called their friends over to share in their discovery. As a tool to get a closer look, while offering a more spacious viewing point; a digital microscope was introduced. Our thought was by using the larger screen of the computer, the children would be able have a common experience as a community and share their joy and discoveries together.
This week, we again brought out the digital microscope to investigate a mystery insect that was found on our outdoor rug. Luka wondered if it was a fly and Jack thought it might be a bee. The group thought that if we found a stinger it would most definitely be a bee. Together, we searched for a stinger and though no stinger was observed, the two opposing ends of the insect were quite spectacular. To document this observation, the group was introduced to new technology that allowed them to use the computer as a tool to capture their observation in a photograph. This is all very new and we are excited to continue these moments where we can see things through a new lens.
Dandelion
One of the strategies we keep in the back of our heads as we work with children is ways to Strengthen the children’s value for thinking, bridging and contributing during reflection meetings. This week, this strategy has been helpful during our card making for others in the paper house. On Monday, the children made birthday cards for Evyn. On Wednesday, they made ‘goodbye’ cards for Luka in the Cilantro group (Luka’s family is moving to Toronto, Canada). In addition to all this, we have lots more birthdays to celebrate and Valentine’s Day is soon approaching. As we work on these cards, we are encouraging the children to think about questions they may have for Luka or what is a favorite memory with Evyn? You might wonder WHY is this important to share? Our intention with card making is to support the interest children have for each other by scaffolding connections and building a culture of caring about others. Card making is our communication tool to bridge these early connections. Even if the child only wishes for us to write ‘hello’ on the card, that’s a beginning. Teachers from both groups (Cilantros & Dandelions) are collaborating and will also be modeling interactions for the children when receiving/delivering cards. We are sharing some of the thoughts and questions the Dandelions had for Luka:
Ana: Do you like snakes?
Arya: I love snakes. I love you, and I’m making a note for you.
Cary: Luka, do you like garbage trucks?
Eddie: Do you like popcorn?
Emma: I love him.
Evyn: This is snow. Snow is fun to play with. Snow balls! Snowflakes are falling.
Marcel: This is a ladybug snowmobile for you going around and around.
Spencer: I love him.
Zoe: Do you like purple unicorns?
At the Mini Studio, the children continued to work in collaboration to create additional materials for the House Area. We read Everywhere Babies and We Have a Baby, and then we had a discussion about what babies like and need. Together, the children decided that the babies needed more food to eat. The group used sculpey clay to make blueberries, strawberries, carrots, pumpkins, pumpkin pie, and moon cakes. Then, using the same observational skills that we practiced when we drew our pumpkins and gourds in the fall, the children looked closely (some with magnifying glasses) at large photographs of those fruits, vegetables, and pastries to choose which color to paint the clay with our oil-based paint markers. We give the children many opportunities throughout the day to engage in free drawing and painting with the available materials in the Mini Studio or in the Paper House. During Appointment times, however, we support the children in slowing down the creative process to be intentional about their choices, both with colors and with shapes. These experiences allow the Dandelions the opportunity to deepen their observations and extend their focus, as well as to remain connected with the group on a shared task.
These new oil-based paint markers are also giving the children some additional opportunities to practice focus and patience. The tip of the marker is thinner than the brushes that we have been using, which requires more work and time to add color to a large area. The thin marker also gives the children the chance to add more detail to their art based on their observations: the stripes on a carrot, the designs on a moon cake, the stem or the seeds of a strawberry. As we continue to give children additional experiences with different materials, we also give them the chance to express their ideas — and themselves — in new ways. As Jean Van’t Hul, the author of The Artful Parent, has explained, “Children are naturally creative. It is our job to give them the freedom, materials, and space to let their creativity blossom to its full potential.”
The Dandelions also had the opportunity on Thursday and Friday to explore their creativity collaboratively through building in the Exploration Space. The children used the blocks to build houses, castles, and roads for the wooden figurines (5 people, 1 ghost!) who live in the space. As the Dandelions built with the blocks, they also built narratives together; one friend would start to tell a story, and then another friend would add on to it. We continue to be interested in seeing where these stories take us!