We love dirt.

To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wildflower
Hold infinitely in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour

-William Blake  Auguries of Innocence 1803


News and Reminders:  MVS clothing swap is coming up on April 29th from 9 am - 12 pm at the SES gym. Please drop off donations in the entryway.

We are closed on Friday, April 21st for in-service. Parent teacher conferences will be held on this day as well. 

As the weather warms up we are starting to get outdoors earlier. Our older preschool and prek classrooms are adjusting their schedules to incorporate more outdoor time into our day. We are working on packing snacks and water, sometimes lunch, and heading out into the woods. Please make sure to arrive no later than 8:30 am so that your child is able to join their class. Before we head out we make sure to use the bathroom and get properly dressed. The weather is ever changing so we like to have layers that are easily shed and carried (by the child) if needed. We are all excited about spending more time outside, exploring new places, and having ample time for serious play in the woods.

Dirt, is it healthy?

Most families at MVS are already privy to the benefits of getting outdoors and exposing your children to the natural world. The reason we promote outdoor learning is based on the research showing the educational and health benefits it brings the children. We like to remind ourselves every now and again of that research and share it with others that might not quite understand our Vermont ways. It might also make it a little easier for you at pick up time when your arrive and your child is covered in mud, I hope so anyway.

Here is a link to a research article on infants exposed to animal dander, dust, and germs and how that actually decreases children's risk for asthma and increases immune responses to allergies later in life. You may have already heard about this research, it was published in 2014, however it is good information to reread and to share with others.

Here is another article from the Huffington Post about the reasons why exposing children to dirt and the natural world can be beneficial for their health. The top ten ways to get your child dirty are listed from the article below. To learn more details about each suggestion look through the article!

1. Let your child taste things

2. Don't be a bottle boiler

3. Avoid antibacterial soaps

4. Avoid antibiotics

5. Visit farms and have pets

6. Increase time with other kids

7. Eat a variety of cultured foods

8. Play outside

9. Don't bathe or shower every day

10. Don't do excessive laundry loads



Classroom Updates

Infant I
This week we welcomed a new infant to our class and she is making a very comfortable transition. As usual, the other children have been very curious about their new friend. Small groups some days have also led to more focused and extended social interactions between different children than usual. There has been lots of touching hands, smiling and laughing at each other, and imitating each others' noises. Of course, we have also enjoyed warmer temperatures and a slightly less soggy yard outside. It may be time to start thinking about sun protection - sun hats and sunglasses from home would be great!

Infant II
We were so excited and grateful for the warmer weather this week! Monday and Tuesday we spent a lot of extra time outside absorbing the sunshine. The children really enjoyed being able to move more freely with less layers on and were really able to focus on helping dress and undress themselves more independently with less layers. Towards the end of the week, we began being more mindful of putting our boots on the mats and carpets ourselves as we undressed. The children enjoyed having Amanda from the toddler room fill in as our teacher for a few days. We enjoyed sharing oru favorite songs and had a lot of dance parties with her. Outside the hay and rocks have been a big interest. Collecting rocks with the toddler room and scooping hay into buckets or throwing it above our heads are a few ways we've explored these two things. We are still working hard at practicing being gentle with our peers and using our words to solve problems and conflicts.

Determined to build a snowman, she picked out the materials and made one. 

Toddlers

We had a great week in our classroom. We are working very hard on being as self-sufficient as possible in the classroom with focused concentration around diapering and dressing times. Children are hard at work pulling on tuffos and taking them off. We are also working hard on our routines and transitions, making them structured and consistent. We continue working on identifying shapes around the classroom. The children are now looking around while we are inside and out to identify different shapes that they see. Cooking in the kitchen continues to be popular among the children in our class. There have been collaborative recipes and shared materials while preparing a recipe. Please note that we have changed the format of the white board by the cubbies, daily information will always be here. 

MK wanted to go skiing so she asked for help getting her boots into her bindings. 

"I'm stopping! It's pizza!"

Preschool I

We've always said, in Vermont, if you don't like the weather just wait 15 minutes. The children have witnessed many different types of weather this week as things fluctuated wildly from summer sunshine to cold rain. We celebrated sunshine with boots and light jackets and rain with puddle splashing and painting with mud. The children that went on the weekly library trip returned with more books on rocks. Everyone has made an effort to help collect rocks to examine both on the playground and in Campfire Forest.

Next week Shannon is planning on engaging the students with a "spring cleaning" of the classroom materials. Old work on the walls will be documented and sent home to make room for new student projects. Hopefully, this will all be done in time for parent teacher conferences! 

Working on painting with sticks, mud, water, and other found natural materials in our playground. 

Preschool II

This week we focused on getting outside. We worked hard to be quick and efficient with our morning routine, packing our snack, and being dressed properly to handle the weather. We also talked a lot about behavioral expectations. We practiced walking calmly and with awareness while in town on the sidewalks and stopping at the designated lamp posts. We also talked a lot about respecting one another, communicating clearly, and listening to what people are asking of us. We definitely have some social leaders among us that are very good at supporting and encouraging one another through conflicts and disagreements. 

We talked a lot about flowers and growing things this week as well. We are planning on pulling out our flower pots, mixing some soil, and planting seeds next week. We have looked at photos of flowers, seeds, and read books about them. We are all pretty excited about planting vegetables too! 

PreK

Our motto this week was "Up and Out". We started early and went on adventures to Sunset Rock, the Woof Trail, the SES playgound, and the small pond near school (have you heard the peepers?!). We are learning a poem about money to help us understand how much each coin is worth. We also continue to be interested in math problems, numbers, counting, patterns, and shapes. Many children are writing words and we are all learning that we put letters together to make words and words together make sentences and stories. Units of measure have also been a popular topic as we try to understand height versus length versus weight. "I'm four miles strong!" or "I weight 10 inches." have prompted us to take our rules and our scale. We will continue to work with math, money, and measurement next week. 

Preschool and PreK Adventures...

This week we spent a very long day out at the Woof Trail. We left school at 8:45 and took a meandering way to the trail. We were able to spend over an hour playing and exploring in the woods. The children were so excited to have an extended time to play. We found bugs, made fairy wands, drove tractors and motorcycles, used large machinery to move leaves and broken tree trunks, and found some gooey mud. It was a great day in the woods. Here are some photos to show what we did.