Reminder: The Solstice Stroll is happening this Wednesday at 5:45 pm. We will meet on the stairs in front of town hall.
As you all know, we are a nature-based school. We spend a considerable amount of time outdoors each day. We truly believe that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. What we wear can make a big difference in our comfort levels. We do have our limits, we stayed indoors on Friday as the temps were below 0 F for the majority of the day. Our infants and toddlers will stay indoors if the temperatures are below 15 F. Our cutoff for the preschool children is usually 5 degrees, unless there is severe wind which sometimes keeps us stuck inside.
We want your children to be comfortable while playing outside. We have witnessed the difference in their engagement in play when they are properly layered compared to when they are not. The most important pieces for cold weather start with the under layers. Warm socks and long underwear go a long way. Make sure to consider wool and fleece. Please stay away from cotton, as it does not insulate or wick. You can buy a pack of 6 pairs of wool socks for under $20.00 on amazon. Here are a few great companies and garments to consider for under layers:
Ella's Wool
These are great baselayers that will keep children warm underneath everything else. They also will keep them from getting too warm in the classroom after transitioning indoors.
Little Spruce Organics
This company carries a lot of different brands of wool clothing for children and even some for adults. There are some great items on sale right now too!
Danish Wool
They have some great long underwear, unique layers, and practical layers.
Mountain Warehouse
They have great options that are priced very affordably.
Having extra mittens, hats, and neckwarmers can go a long way too. Stonz, makes some great mittens. They are warm, waterproof, and stay on the younger children that are often tempted to pull theirs off.
A reminder that we have a discount with the company, Oakiwear, enter the code: outdoorschool at checkout to receive 15% off. Their product line has really expanded over the past year. They have great new snow boots, rain suits, and winter items. They have some one piece snow suits on sale right now!
Another great company for outdoor clothing is Molehill Mountain. They have some great down snowsuits, proven to be very warm right here in our playground.
We truly believe that getting outdoors is vital to healthy development. You have all consciously chosen to send your children to our nature-based program. I'm sure I don't need to explain the benefits of outdoor play to all of you. However, there continues to be research on the effects of exposure to the elements and they are all very positive. Here is a great blog post at Wild Earth that offers a great perspective on outdoor play.
Here is a report that was published by the National Wildlife Federation all about the recommendations for outdoor play. It is definitely worth a read.
Classroom Updates
Infant I
This week much of our free time has been spent painting, which is a great sensory experience for us. Though a few of our children can grasp a thick paintbrush, most of them prefer using hands and arms to push, spread, and smack the paint on the paper. We enjoyed watching each child's unique approach. Another big interest has been reading books, both sitting and looking at them independently and bring them to teachers to read. Lots of our children are getting really good at turning board book pages by themselves and "buh(k)" has become a popular word amongst our older infants. Finally, we continue to enjoy rolling balls all over the place and find that they are great motivators to get us to move.
Infant II
We explored chalk on the easel, making lots of marks, some even tasted the chalk, crayons too! We finished exploring mixing colors (see the photo of our wall) and will begin moving on to watercolor exploration. Snowballs have been really exciting to explore. Truly to carry them with our mittens on has created some real problem-solving experiences. Tasting the snow is another fun way we have observed the characteristics of snow, along with trying to pack the snow together into a ball. We transformed the snowperson into a caterpillar earlier this week with some help from the toddlers and preschoolers. We have really enjoyed trying to climb up, over, and onto the caterpillar. It has been a fun place to sit and interact with many of our peers.
Toddler I
This week we explored the painting with blue and yellow. We used our hands, fingers, and in some cases our entire arm. We mixed the paint together to discover that mixing blue and yellow makes green! We used small paint brushes and q tips to create the green color and of course, our fingers and hands. We continued our work with writing: holding a writing tool with hands and fingers and making deliberate marks on paper. There were lines, arcs, and very intentional small scribbles. Our fine motor skills have really progressed over the past few weeks. We have also been working very hard on toilet training as a whole class; every child is working on this new skill and we are seeing significant successes! The children are all very invested and proud of themselves as well as one another.
Preschool I
Shannon has joined the classroom this week and it has been wonderful! It has been also been a very busy week. The older children are working very hard on modeling our routines and expected behavior as we all prepare to transition a couple of new children. Cold weather reminds us that we must take care to bundle up properly for our outdoor adventures. Once outside, though, we've been up to all sorts of great activities. The children keep requesting songs such as "The Lady with the Alligator Purse" and "Joe's Button Factory". We are working on making our songs interactive to keep our bodies moving in the cold. Other highlights this week include rhythm sticks, "sled trains", using shovels as snow plows, and lots of imaginative pizza cooking in the kitchen.
Preschool II
This week started off with more lantern making. We have a lot of extra to share this coming Wednesday. Christmas and Hannukah have been big topics of excitement this week. Everyone was very excited to share what they are hoping to receive when Santa comes. While walking to town we observed a lot of holiday decorations on people's homes. We especially enjoyed the sparkly ones. We also had a few real wreaths in the classroom that we worked to decorate for the front doors of the school. We decided to make our own wreaths that we can wear for Solstice. After reading a book about Solstice, we learned that it was a tradition for children to wear wreaths on their head with candles at Solstice celebrations. We used construction paper, tissue paper, felt, feathers, and a whole lot of glue. On Friday one of our families brough in a manorah to share with the class. We read 7 books about Hannukah and learned a lot about the traditions of the holiday. Paige even read us a prayer in Hebrew!
PreK
This week was the week of Letter B. We read lots of Books about the letter B, came up with a substantial list of B words, and ate some snacks starting with B! We continued our work on lanterns, and made some pretty creative ornaments out of recycled materials. We are working on a 300 piece puzzle too! We now all know the words to "This Little Light" and can sing it quite well as a group. We had some extending time for free play inside this week as the weather was a bit on the chilly side. This allowed for some very focused play; the building books came out and so did a team of architects. We had a visit from a person named September this week. She is part of the Early Multi-tiered Systems of Support Grant that we have been awarded. The grant will provide coaching for our teachers as well trainings and materials to provide more social-emotional skill building in our classroom. There will be a few days when Jen will be gone at trainings over the next few months. She will come back and teach all of our other teachers what she learned. We are all very excited about this opportunity! To learn more about this grant opportunity and the Pyramid Model visit the website. There is a lot of information and materials on the site so take your time, there's a lot for parents that you can use at home.
As seen around school:
We are closed for the week of December 26th. The school will reopen on January 2nd.
Winter Now is Here
As you all know, we are a nature-based school. We spend a considerable amount of time outdoors each day. We truly believe that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. What we wear can make a big difference in our comfort levels. We do have our limits, we stayed indoors on Friday as the temps were below 0 F for the majority of the day. Our infants and toddlers will stay indoors if the temperatures are below 15 F. Our cutoff for the preschool children is usually 5 degrees, unless there is severe wind which sometimes keeps us stuck inside.
We want your children to be comfortable while playing outside. We have witnessed the difference in their engagement in play when they are properly layered compared to when they are not. The most important pieces for cold weather start with the under layers. Warm socks and long underwear go a long way. Make sure to consider wool and fleece. Please stay away from cotton, as it does not insulate or wick. You can buy a pack of 6 pairs of wool socks for under $20.00 on amazon. Here are a few great companies and garments to consider for under layers:
Ella's Wool
 |
| Wool Baselayers |
Little Spruce Organics
This company carries a lot of different brands of wool clothing for children and even some for adults. There are some great items on sale right now too!
Danish Wool
They have some great long underwear, unique layers, and practical layers.
Mountain Warehouse
They have great options that are priced very affordably.
Having extra mittens, hats, and neckwarmers can go a long way too. Stonz, makes some great mittens. They are warm, waterproof, and stay on the younger children that are often tempted to pull theirs off.
A reminder that we have a discount with the company, Oakiwear, enter the code: outdoorschool at checkout to receive 15% off. Their product line has really expanded over the past year. They have great new snow boots, rain suits, and winter items. They have some one piece snow suits on sale right now!
Another great company for outdoor clothing is Molehill Mountain. They have some great down snowsuits, proven to be very warm right here in our playground.
As always, please please please remember to label everything!
We truly believe that getting outdoors is vital to healthy development. You have all consciously chosen to send your children to our nature-based program. I'm sure I don't need to explain the benefits of outdoor play to all of you. However, there continues to be research on the effects of exposure to the elements and they are all very positive. Here is a great blog post at Wild Earth that offers a great perspective on outdoor play.
Here is a report that was published by the National Wildlife Federation all about the recommendations for outdoor play. It is definitely worth a read.
Classroom Updates
Infant I
This week much of our free time has been spent painting, which is a great sensory experience for us. Though a few of our children can grasp a thick paintbrush, most of them prefer using hands and arms to push, spread, and smack the paint on the paper. We enjoyed watching each child's unique approach. Another big interest has been reading books, both sitting and looking at them independently and bring them to teachers to read. Lots of our children are getting really good at turning board book pages by themselves and "buh(k)" has become a popular word amongst our older infants. Finally, we continue to enjoy rolling balls all over the place and find that they are great motivators to get us to move.
Infant II
Toddler I
This week we explored the painting with blue and yellow. We used our hands, fingers, and in some cases our entire arm. We mixed the paint together to discover that mixing blue and yellow makes green! We used small paint brushes and q tips to create the green color and of course, our fingers and hands. We continued our work with writing: holding a writing tool with hands and fingers and making deliberate marks on paper. There were lines, arcs, and very intentional small scribbles. Our fine motor skills have really progressed over the past few weeks. We have also been working very hard on toilet training as a whole class; every child is working on this new skill and we are seeing significant successes! The children are all very invested and proud of themselves as well as one another.
Preschool I
Shannon has joined the classroom this week and it has been wonderful! It has been also been a very busy week. The older children are working very hard on modeling our routines and expected behavior as we all prepare to transition a couple of new children. Cold weather reminds us that we must take care to bundle up properly for our outdoor adventures. Once outside, though, we've been up to all sorts of great activities. The children keep requesting songs such as "The Lady with the Alligator Purse" and "Joe's Button Factory". We are working on making our songs interactive to keep our bodies moving in the cold. Other highlights this week include rhythm sticks, "sled trains", using shovels as snow plows, and lots of imaginative pizza cooking in the kitchen.
Preschool II
This week started off with more lantern making. We have a lot of extra to share this coming Wednesday. Christmas and Hannukah have been big topics of excitement this week. Everyone was very excited to share what they are hoping to receive when Santa comes. While walking to town we observed a lot of holiday decorations on people's homes. We especially enjoyed the sparkly ones. We also had a few real wreaths in the classroom that we worked to decorate for the front doors of the school. We decided to make our own wreaths that we can wear for Solstice. After reading a book about Solstice, we learned that it was a tradition for children to wear wreaths on their head with candles at Solstice celebrations. We used construction paper, tissue paper, felt, feathers, and a whole lot of glue. On Friday one of our families brough in a manorah to share with the class. We read 7 books about Hannukah and learned a lot about the traditions of the holiday. Paige even read us a prayer in Hebrew!
PreK
This week was the week of Letter B. We read lots of Books about the letter B, came up with a substantial list of B words, and ate some snacks starting with B! We continued our work on lanterns, and made some pretty creative ornaments out of recycled materials. We are working on a 300 piece puzzle too! We now all know the words to "This Little Light" and can sing it quite well as a group. We had some extending time for free play inside this week as the weather was a bit on the chilly side. This allowed for some very focused play; the building books came out and so did a team of architects. We had a visit from a person named September this week. She is part of the Early Multi-tiered Systems of Support Grant that we have been awarded. The grant will provide coaching for our teachers as well trainings and materials to provide more social-emotional skill building in our classroom. There will be a few days when Jen will be gone at trainings over the next few months. She will come back and teach all of our other teachers what she learned. We are all very excited about this opportunity! To learn more about this grant opportunity and the Pyramid Model visit the website. There is a lot of information and materials on the site so take your time, there's a lot for parents that you can use at home.
As seen around school:
 |
| Thank You cards for the Stick Season Social donations, decorated by the preK children. |
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| Adding drawings to the thank you cards. |
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| Three architects working on plans for building a garbage truck. |
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