I hope you all had a nice long weekend! In Vermont we now recognize Indigenous People's Day instead of Columbus Day. Here's a good resource for honoring Indigenous People's Day with your kids.
Did you know that our school has an active Diversity and Equity Committee? We would love more family members to join our committee; we meet the 3rd Thursday of each month at 2:45. Please let me know if you're interested. In pre-k we work hard to notice differences, something that young children are naturally programed to do. We use children's literature as a medium for many of our conversations including talk about race skin color, and we are always amazed and excited by the insights of these young learners. I'll include more resources around issues of diversity and equity in early childhood in coming newsletters, but know that your children aren't too young to start having conversations!
I'm sure that dressing your child for school in the morning is giving you whip lash with all the changing weather. Keep the warm clothing coming - you're doing a good job! We're working on a video and/or book for kiddos that shows how to get ready for school in the morning - stay tuned. Also keep your eyes peeled for an email with links to affordable cold weather gear. We have some extras at school, but a good non-cotton base layer and pair of wool socks will go a long way as the weather gets colder.
Enjoy the pictures from the last three days of school - some sun, some rain, some incredibly tough and hearty Vermont kids!
One of our Kindness Curriculum lessons focused on paying attention on the "inside" and the "outside". In this activity children had many opportunities to wait, a challenging thing for young people! We planted daffodil bulbs that will take a long time to flower, waited for tools and bulbs, and paid attention to what that felt like on the inside of our bodies.
Meanwhile, all is well at the pumpkin factory.
We took our first big expedition on the Nature Trail (poison ivy has died!) and headed to Mt. Everest.
It was an adventure getting there...
And when we got there we scaled a cliff!
Leaning back while holding on to the rope is actually quite tricky.
And the hill is much steeper than it looks in the pictures!
We're working hard to help children create friendships with one another, and one way we do this is with "buddy time." Kids are assigned a buddy to an activity with - here they built small homes for a chipmunk.
A couple of new tables for eating - they remind us of mushrooms!
story time
We dipped more leaves in wax. It's just so much fun!
Tuesday was a truly rainy day, and these kiddos were awesome.
A cool mushroom growing on a birch tree
Our farm to school coordinator "Farmer Sarah" came to make tea with garden herbs. She was happy to be in the rain too!
A perfect picture of good gear - this kiddo was filling up his cup, and miraculously stayed dry under his rain gear!
A nice mud puddle is endless entertainment.
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