“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
-Frances Hodgson Burnett, from The Secret Garden
Parent Potluck Minutes
It was great to see folks come out for our parent potluck on Thursday! We reviewed school safety policies and had discussions regarding kindergarten readiness. Here are some of the notes from that meeting:
- We were fortunate to have Rachael Keaton, kindergarten teacher at Stowe Elementary School join us for the evening to answer questions. Thanks Rachael!
- By far the biggest developmental focus for children headed to kindergarten is social and emotional.
- Children that are able to navigate social interactions with peers, follow directions from a teacher, maintain self-control while in a large group, wait for a turn, ask for help, handle disappointment, and so on, will be better able to find success in the classroom. Academic growth will come easier when a child is emotional stable and socially connected to those around her.
- Our goal is for children to feel comfortable and confident in the classroom setting, and at MVS we have focused on teaching independence so that when they move on they aren't worried about who will zip their jacket or how to pour themselves water at the snack table. These self-help skills along with the focus on social and emotional development are key parts of our curriculum.
Other questions included:
Will there be before and after school care at MVS? Yes we will be offering it. The children are either welcome to ride the bus or a teacher will meet them at SES and walk them back to MVS.
What will the transition from MVS to kindergarten look like? Kindergarten teachers will visit MVS and meet the children in the classroom. There will also be a day for the children to go to the elementary school to meet the teachers and see their new classrooms.
Reminder:
Our parent book club is scheduled for April 7th at 6pm, please join us!
Classroom Happenings
Infant 1: The children have been using the comfy pillow nook more and more. They can be found lounging solo or with a peer; this tends to involve a lot of chatter, laughter and snuggling. Sometimes the children use this area to flip through books independently. We have also been blowing bubbles indoors this week, which creates a lot of excitement. The children chant and clap when the bubbles come out and several of the younger children have been reaching out to try and grab at the bubbles as they float by.
Infant II: Our class also explored bubbles this week, but instead took them outside. They compared the differences between the large and small bubbles: Did the large ones travel faster/slower, or take longer to pop? Did the bubbles freeze because it was cold? We worked on our social interactions a lot. We've observed that the children are very eager to both interact and be in close proximity with one another. So, we are being thoughtful about making our social interactions positive. Ways we are practicing these skills include waving, giving high fives, shaking hands, and saying a person's name when we want to talk or play with them.
Toddler I: We started the week with foam letters and numbers in our sensory table. We observed that many of the children we very focused on squeezing and crumpling the letters, so we followed their lead and provided a different material for them to try this out on: aluminum foil. The children crumbled the foil into balls then worked hard to undo smooth the foil into a flat piece. This was very challenging, but the kids enjoyed that and the changing textures of the foil. We had a lot of conversations about trains after reading some train books at the train table. The children wanted to know how the trains on our table were similar or different from what they saw in the books. Questions included: Do we have an electric train? Do we have a conductor? What does the conductor do? We appreciated a donation of a few items for the play kitchen, which have been very popular with the children this week. We are supporting the children's independence in getting dressed, as fostering autonomy is a key part of our program. Sometimes getting dressed can be a challenging process for the children, from frustration with clothing, to feeling distracted or overexcited by the transition to going outdoors. We are sticking to this work and being consistent with our expectations that the children dress themselves; they can and do!
Toddler II: This week in Toddler II we have been working on balance and seeing this in action by experimenting with blocks, rocks and trucks. We added sand to the sensory table along with shells and small scoops. This has been extremely popular but also brings along the responsibility of sweeping up sand that has fallen on the floor using small brooms and dust pans. This requires a lot of focus and skill as we work together to keep the room neat and tidy. We learned about the holiday, Purim, from one of our classmates. We read a book about the holiday and how to make hamantash, which are small triangle cookies.
Pre-K: We took a trip to campfire forest and cleared some of the sticks and brush away. We collected some trash that still needs removal and we will be working at marking the play boundaries off in a more permanent way. If parents would like to help in the process, it would be most welcome! While there, we also rebuilt the "fire" and made a giant leaf pile...which was quickly jumped in. We took walks on the Rec Path and had conversations about how to tell the living trees apart from the dead ones. On the return trip up Thomas Lane, we made predictions on how many houses will be built this summer. Our weekly library visits will soon come to an end, the alphabet had to run out of letters at some point. We have Y and Z left. We do have some great programming planned for the warmer months, including a collaboration with the Stowe Land Trust. Back in the classroom we started a brand new 500 piece puzzle, explored the unifix cubes and made comparisons to our heights and tried some still life drawings from our fruit salad fruit:
As Seen at MVS
Thanks for Reading!
-Sam
What will the transition from MVS to kindergarten look like? Kindergarten teachers will visit MVS and meet the children in the classroom. There will also be a day for the children to go to the elementary school to meet the teachers and see their new classrooms.
Reminder:
Our parent book club is scheduled for April 7th at 6pm, please join us!
Classroom Happenings
Infant 1: The children have been using the comfy pillow nook more and more. They can be found lounging solo or with a peer; this tends to involve a lot of chatter, laughter and snuggling. Sometimes the children use this area to flip through books independently. We have also been blowing bubbles indoors this week, which creates a lot of excitement. The children chant and clap when the bubbles come out and several of the younger children have been reaching out to try and grab at the bubbles as they float by.
Infant II: Our class also explored bubbles this week, but instead took them outside. They compared the differences between the large and small bubbles: Did the large ones travel faster/slower, or take longer to pop? Did the bubbles freeze because it was cold? We worked on our social interactions a lot. We've observed that the children are very eager to both interact and be in close proximity with one another. So, we are being thoughtful about making our social interactions positive. Ways we are practicing these skills include waving, giving high fives, shaking hands, and saying a person's name when we want to talk or play with them.
Toddler I: We started the week with foam letters and numbers in our sensory table. We observed that many of the children we very focused on squeezing and crumpling the letters, so we followed their lead and provided a different material for them to try this out on: aluminum foil. The children crumbled the foil into balls then worked hard to undo smooth the foil into a flat piece. This was very challenging, but the kids enjoyed that and the changing textures of the foil. We had a lot of conversations about trains after reading some train books at the train table. The children wanted to know how the trains on our table were similar or different from what they saw in the books. Questions included: Do we have an electric train? Do we have a conductor? What does the conductor do? We appreciated a donation of a few items for the play kitchen, which have been very popular with the children this week. We are supporting the children's independence in getting dressed, as fostering autonomy is a key part of our program. Sometimes getting dressed can be a challenging process for the children, from frustration with clothing, to feeling distracted or overexcited by the transition to going outdoors. We are sticking to this work and being consistent with our expectations that the children dress themselves; they can and do!
Toddler II: This week in Toddler II we have been working on balance and seeing this in action by experimenting with blocks, rocks and trucks. We added sand to the sensory table along with shells and small scoops. This has been extremely popular but also brings along the responsibility of sweeping up sand that has fallen on the floor using small brooms and dust pans. This requires a lot of focus and skill as we work together to keep the room neat and tidy. We learned about the holiday, Purim, from one of our classmates. We read a book about the holiday and how to make hamantash, which are small triangle cookies.
Pre-K: We took a trip to campfire forest and cleared some of the sticks and brush away. We collected some trash that still needs removal and we will be working at marking the play boundaries off in a more permanent way. If parents would like to help in the process, it would be most welcome! While there, we also rebuilt the "fire" and made a giant leaf pile...which was quickly jumped in. We took walks on the Rec Path and had conversations about how to tell the living trees apart from the dead ones. On the return trip up Thomas Lane, we made predictions on how many houses will be built this summer. Our weekly library visits will soon come to an end, the alphabet had to run out of letters at some point. We have Y and Z left. We do have some great programming planned for the warmer months, including a collaboration with the Stowe Land Trust. Back in the classroom we started a brand new 500 piece puzzle, explored the unifix cubes and made comparisons to our heights and tried some still life drawings from our fruit salad fruit:
As Seen at MVS
Thanks for Reading!
-Sam
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