Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you. - Langston Hughes

News and Reminders: We have a short week next week. We are closed on Thursday and Friday for in-service. We will have some time on Thursday and Friday afternoons for parents to sign up for parent-teacher conferences. Please check your child's classroom for the sign up sheet.

A couple of the teachers have been invited to show their photographs as the South End Art Hop this September. For the children in the photos that we would like to display, there will be a consent form in your child's cubby. Please return it to your child's teacher with your decision. If you would like to see the photo of your child first please ask Sarah or Megan to share it with you.


Classroom Updates

Infant I
This week we have had some slow, quiet days with lots of time for one-on-one play between children and teachers. Peek-a-boo with scarves continues to be a favorite activity, and interests this week also include finding comfortable places to lie on pillows and in the big chair, looking for worms under stumps outside, and negotiating over coveted books and toys. We have also been very active outside, using trucks as push toys and using new methods of crawling to get where we want to go.

Infant II

Our classroom has seen some change this week with a new child joining us and another moving on up to the toddler classroom. Our week was mellow and a bit quieter than usual. We noticed some of the quieter, younger children branching out and showing their personalities. We are looking forward to welcoming some tadpoles to our classroom next week. We have spent time reading books about frogs and were even lucky enough to find a frog on the playground. We spent Friday morning watching the grog swim around the small pool before returning him to a nearby pond. 

Toddlers

We had a fun and active week with lots of new activities. This week we introduced circle time to the children and new good morning song. We enjoyed our circle time outside on the big tire. The books "Go, Dog, Go" and "If You're a Monster and You Know It" were very popular this week. Everyone loved participating in roaring during the monster book. On Wednesday we made purple playdough and the children thought it was "so sticky" and "mushy". They loved squishing it in their hands and in between their fingers. 

Preschool I

We have experienced a noticeable shift in the dynamics of the class as we welcomed some younger students from the toddler classroom. These younger children have excitedly said many times "I'm a big kid!". Shannon T has done a wonderful job of channeling this excited big body energy into the new class favorite song "Grizzly Bears". The children must listen carefully to the song to know when to pretend to sleep and when to leap up and dance! Shannon E is starting a long term project to encourage the children's interest in pre-literacy skills by keeping journals, stay tuned. 

Preschool II

This week we welcomed a new child to our class with songs, dancing, and student led drumming. We shared our songs with others by marching our instruments to the side yard where we took a turn to lead the class in song. We had a busy week, with an adventure back to the cold creek by the baseball fields. We had a great team effort to slow the creek by building a dam of sticks, mud, and rocks. We never stopped the water but we made a great pool to cool off in and enjoyed watching the water trying to escape and waterfall over teh sticks and rocks. Our interests in bugs and the small creatures both inside and outside of our playground have continued. We watched a busy funnel-grass spider as it worked on its' web and climbed in and out of the tunnel. We also found an interesting caterpillar and guessed what color butterfly it might become after it makes a cocoon. 

PreK

We continue to be interested in learning about edible and medicinal plants we walk through the first and around the playground. On Thursday's hike a small group went in search of plantain to put on a scraped knee. We learned that plantain does not grow in the shady forest, at least not along the Woof Trail. We did find lots of other interesting plants, mushrooms, and insects though. We continually remind children that they must confirm plant identification with a grown up before toughing any plants. We also talk a lot about the need to be kind and gentle with all of the plants and creatures. Spiders in particular have been of interest. We are talking about how important they and their webs are. We are trying to be "Super Hero Spider Helpers" leaving webs intact and using our eyes to watch and learn.