Only a few more days until winter, and your kiddos are doing great with the cold. Our biggest challenge is keeping fingers warm during meals. Bridget and Kristine and I will meet tomorrow to come up with a more official plan about cold weather and inside eating - stay tuned. In the meantime, we've invented a handy "warming cooler" (half gallon of hot water inside a cooler) to keep mittens warm while kids eat, and hand warmers and hot tea are helping too. We'd happily take more donations both!
We're winding up the last lessons in our mindfulness and kindness curriculum, though will continue to practice the skills for the rest of the year. One thing we've talked about recently is how common it is to make mistakes and hurt others by accident. Maybe you bump into someone, or knock down a block structure that someone else is making. Instead of forcing an empty apology, we encourage kids to check in to see if the other person is okay. We use the words “I didn’t mean it, are you all right?” This gives the other child a chance to respond, and a chance for reparations to be made.
Keep your calendars marked for our Solstice Celebration on Monday night at 6:00. We'll be sending home lanterns that we made inside during rest time later this week, so have them ready to light promptly at 6:00 - it'll be pretty quick! I'll make sure you all get the zoom link on Monday.
Enjoy pictures from the week!
We do many little activities during rest time inside. This child often spends time working with clay.
Patterns! Pine cone, orange, cranberry...
After making patterns we strung them up with needles and twine to decorate the forest.
Exploring the ice in the field
Our study of shelters this week transitioned to animal shelters. But first we had to figure out what different Vermont animals do to survive the winter. And we of course turned it into a running game.
Our woodpecker log has turned into quite a treasure trove.
"Loose parts" or objects without any specific intended use (think rope, sticks, buckets, etc) often contribute to wonderful imaginative play. These gourds were from an activity a few weeks ago, and when we put them out for general play they instantly became "kittens dressed up like pumpkins!" They were counted, arranged, moved, hidden, and compared. So much great learning happening with a few simple gourds!
Ice is also a great "loose part" for imaginative play.
Focused experimentation at the balance scale.
Emily from BEEC came on Tuesday and brought nests for us to examine. What amazing examples of animal structures!
We looked closely at the nests...
Then we built our own nests!
A contemplative moment at her sit spot.
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