Then followed that beautiful season.... Summer...

Then followed that beautiful season....
Summer...
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if newly created in all the freshness of childhood.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Solstice Stroll

Thank you to everyone that came out to our Summer Solstice Stroll this past Wednesday evening. It was an impressive showing. The effort from the Parent Collaboration Committee made a huge impact. They were able to procure ice cream to have once we were done strolling. The children had a lovely time running, dancing, and waving their ribbon wands.

Our solstice celebrations are some of my favorite gatherings of our small community. They are a time for us to get together, celebrate the seasons, and wander about town. So, thank you again to all that were able to join.

Lunch this week was great. We introduced some new flavors and textures. We had a new recipe that we tried for whole wheat carrot muffins. They were very popular and delicious. We added ginger to our carrots again this week. Ginger seems to be a very new flavor for some children and they are noticing and remarking on it. We had grilled cheese with a slice of tomato in the middle! We also had kale mixed into our brown rice pasta. While eating together, we talk a lot about these new flavors and combinations. It is a wonderful experience to spend time with the children where we are really focused on our food. Some of the older children were able to come into the kitchen to see a few ingredients and how things are being prepped and cooked. They snacked on a few green beans and were interested in knowing how we were going to cook them. During lunch, the conversation about green beans continued as the children eagerly ate every single one.

Here are the carrot muffins, cheddar cheese, and cucumbers portioned out for the younger children.

Classroom Updates

Infant I
We have had a relatively quiet week, with some smaller groups than usual. Our children have so enjoyed trying all of the different meals from our new food program, and we are getting into a great rhythm of preparing our eating space, eating together, and cleaning up. Our ongoing interest in sounds this week has turned into drumming, often accompanied by clapping from onlookers. Several of our children are perfectly happy to bang away on the drum by itself, and we also sometimes sing a song while clapping or drumming a steady beat. One of our drums also rolls around perfectly on its side, so some children enjoy chasing it around that way too.

Infant II

Who knew cotton balls in the sensory table could be so much fun? We've used our hands and different utensils to explore and manipulate the soft squishy cotton. We also have enjoyed trying to fit them into different sized containers. We love throwing them too but are quick to clean them back up. Outside we can't get enough of the pine needles. We especially love scooping them up, watching them fall, and many other creative activities. Our children continue to enjoy trying the new meals and are becoming more and more adventurous. We have also seen an increase in independent skills and their play has become more associative instead of parallel. The children are starting to make steps toward engaging with others in their play and becoming more aware of what the other children are doing, creating, and pretending.

Toddlers

We had a nice week in our classroom. We enjoyed playing in the rain and mud in the beginning of the week with special interest and focus on a very large puddle by the pallet structure. We have welcomed new students and they are settling into our routines and schedule quite well. This week our children have been quite observant, noticing if another student is absent, taking note if someone has new shoes, and observing new growth on the trees outside. We are also working hard on using language to express our thoughts, needs, and frustrations when wanting to communicate with others. We continue to really enjoy the food program and trying new foods and combinations. We are also really enjoying eating family style at the table. We have established a new feeling of community and togetherness during meal times.

Preschool I

The children have continued to request "Green Eggs and Ham" and are getting quite good at remembering the words and rhymes. The varied weather has also brought hot, sunny afternoons for running through the sprinkler, or rain puddles for digging rivers, and making soup. Shannon brought her dog, Zelda, to the solstice stroll and the children have been asking about her as the week continued. Jacob set up a mural for the children to help paint on Friday featuring a phrase from our school "Friday Book". We started with Hope & Peace, next week we will work on the second part. We have also helped the PreK class to plant more herbs on the small "edibles hill" out back and have been very keen to watch the progress of the sunflowers here at school. How are your sunflowers growing at home? Please feel free to share pictures of their progress, we can't wait to see them flower!

She made a milkshake.

Then it turned into cookies.

Preschool II

This week the magical fairies told us about a mama dragon that visited school. The dragon asked us to care for her eggs and we readily accepted the task. All week we have been singing to, rocking, and taking them for adventures. While we are caring for the eggs we are flexing and growing our empathy skills. By taking moments to care for things we in turn are learning to care for others. We have also loved the abundance of mud this week, allowing us to do lots of baking and carving of waterways.

PreK

We spent more of the week in and around MVS. In addition to awesome puddles to jump in, the rainy mornings gave us a little extra time indoors working with our train table where we began removing seeds from last years sunflower heads. We read several books about seeds, plants, and most specifically sunflowers. We planted a new batch of sunflower seeds in our side yard. We also planted more plants in our edibles hill and put 2 kinds of beans in the front garden beds with the strawberries and surprise squash plants.