Mindful Moments

This week, while still reinforcing routines and materials, we started to get into a rhythm of our daily schedule with opportunities for small group work every day. During our intentionally *short* small group times we focus on teaching a mixture of social skills and content related to thematic studies. This week we had a lot of fun with TWO new projects.

First, we started our Kindness and Mindfulness curriculum. The foundation of the curriculum is mindfulness practice with an emphasis on kindness practices. Mindfulness is “paying attention” on purpose, in the present moment without judging one’s experience. The curriculum is divided into 24 different lessons and covers the following themes:

• Mindful bodies and planting seeds of peace and kindness

• I feel emotions on the inside

• How I feel on the inside shows on the outside

• Taking care of strong emotions on the inside and outside

• Calming and working out problems

• Gratitude

• All people depend on each other and the Earth

• Gratitude and caring for our world

Ask your child about the feather-on-a-string that they have in their backpack. We use it as a tool to help us take deep calming breaths - your kiddo can show you how to use it! 

The second exciting project that began this week is called the Birds Eye View Challenge. Run by local Guilford science expert Jimmy Karlan, participating WSESD classrooms receive a birdhouse that contains a wifi enabled solar powered camera that will allow us to observe the amazing lives of birds. This week we did some brainstorming and thinking about what birds might move into our birdhouse. Next week we'll hang the birdhouse, and will talk through some of the conundrums that might arise along the way. We'll keep you posted on our progress and what we discover!

So much more happened this week - take a look: 

Our resident chipmunk is a great inspiration for play. In pre-k we love to BE the animal.

Some chipmunk scientists...

We repurposed some Covid-era plexiglass from the nurses office. What a fun painting surface!

A new load of sand = some real work for pre-k.

Guilford Free Librarian Amber started her weekly visits to read to us on Wednesday. 

Buddies helping one another - so kind!

Our art supplies shelf is filling out nicely. Recently added materials include water color paints and tape. 

We left Chippy quite a pile of acorns, it took them a couple of days to eat them all.

Flower collection for a special printing project

Flower art

For our Friday cooking project we made ants-on-a-log.

Spreading is a great activity for practicing motor skills. 

You can let your kids do some spreading at home too. 

Think peanut butter, cream cheese, butter, hummus...it's okay if it's a little messy!

This class loves playing together - so many wonderful friendships are forming!

We took our first hike on the nature trail today.

And we ended the week with another arrival - Clippy worked her way into the world, and is now on her way to Mexico. 

Have a great weekend everyone!