Hello, Sweet Families!
We hope you had a wonderful Winter Break together and that there was much joy and peaceful rest to be had be all. It was unexpectedly short week back, but we were so happy to have your lovely ones back in the classroom. They were all so happy to see one another. We want to thank you all again for celebrating your child by visiting our Art Show, and we would also like to thank you for the glorious luncheon you provided for us, along with the beautiful cards. It was all such a wonderful way for us to celebrate the end our first semester together as a staff.
Again, while this week was short, we squeezed as much fun and activities in as we could! I surprised them with a new dramatic play area, our Winter Cabin, complete with a cozy fireplace, marshmallows, and cozy fireside blankets. They are loving this! We spent the week welcoming Winter, January, a new year, and new activities. We are talking a lot in these weeks about what happens in Winter, what animals do in Winter, and the science of snow. We are reading many wonderful books on these subjects, and are doing lots of fun activities! This week we loved playing in the real snow outside, and we certainly enjoyed the muddy melt waters as well! I introduced a new snowflake song with sign language, and we’ll be singing this a lot in the coming weeks, so soon they’ll be able to sing it for you! We had so much fun welcoming January by making homemade calendars, playing in and painting with some snowy foam, forming some winter pattern shapes together, playing our new Winter bingo game, and building patterns together on our giant snowflake in our meeting circle, and so much more!
The biggest news we have to share with you is that we’ve also welcomed a new teacher, Jenny Greene, to our afternoon (full day) program! Jenny fits in seamlessly already as she comes to us with a rich and wonderful background in childcare and teaching. We are thrilled to have her and the children love her already!
Next week we will continue learning about Winter and snow, and will be building up to our Hibernation/Migration/Adaptation unit, and building a big beautiful bulletin board together. I have so many fun things planned, I’m having trouble choosing! A couple of thoughts: a lot of children may be going through growth spurts, as many seemed a little extra hungry this week. Please check in with your child to make sure they feel like they have enough to eat, and that they like what is being offered. They love to be a part of this! Additionally, we do apologize for the amount of mud that’s probably coming home… our multiple mopping sessions each day are real! Mud play is proven to have many benefits for children, so we appreciate your patience with what we know is extra laundry and a messy car ride. Here’s a wonderful article all about the magic of mud play: https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2016/the-benefits-of-mud-play
Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us!
Wynne
