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Preschool II Newsletter September 2009 Dear
Families, Our
first days together have truly been wonderful.
The children have transitioned with ease into their new environment and
have quickly adapted to the differences in their routines whether from home,
another school or Preschool I. We are
delighted to invite seven new families to our CSDC community. We have been
spending our time developing new friendships while playing and working with a
variety of materials in the classroom as well as outside on the playground, in
the garden and on the nature trail. We
have been observing closely in our efforts to come to know children well,
establish relationships with them and begin to develop our curriculum. Intended
Curriculum: Attached
you will find a copy of our intended curriculum for the year. These are the broad areas we hope to
investigate together with children throughout the year. It is flexible and open to change as we
believe in the importance of observing children, closely listening to their
questions and curiosities and responding by creating experiences to support the
enrichment of their thinking. As always
we welcome and invite parent feedback. Relationships/Community: This is an
ongoing piece of our environment but is particularly noteworthy in our first
months together. We will spend a lot of
time in the next month establishing our community and getting to know one
another. We will use our family books,
play a variety of games and have opportunities for sharing ourselves, our
likes, dislikes and interests, as we work to gain an understanding of who we
are as individuals. Each child’s
self-identify is important to our community and so we will also interview
children and begin to invite them to create their self-portraits. As we do so children begin to see the many
things we have in common as well as the ways we are diverse. The children are doing a wonderful job
working and playing together and have already begun to make new connections and
friendships. Nature: As teachers
we are interested in children’s interactions with nature and with one another
within the natural environment. Our adventures with nature have already begun
and the children have responded with enthusiasm and interest. We have done some work in the garden thinning
out broccoli and offering families to take some home to plant themselves. We will begin gathering other things from our
garden and using them to cook and bake.
Our work in the garden will continue as we move into the harvesting
season and prepare for our annual Harvest Festival on September 23rd. It
is also our goal to spend a lot of time exploring our Nature Trail that wraps
around the back of our school through the woods. We began taking walks last week and will
continue to do so throughout the year.
Children loved walking in the woods and had many questions about the
wildlife that might be there. Children
looked for things that were interesting to them and we documented the
experiences writing their words and taking pictures. Some of their observations include different
size trees, leaves covering the ground, sticks, various colors of plants and
the sounds as they walk. The also found
some physical challenges as they climbed over stumps and balanced across fallen
trees. We are looking forward to more
journeys into the woods as we invite children to explore the natural world
around them and we strive to create questions to pursue and investigate
together. Early
Sprouts: The
Early Sprouts program, an ongoing research project, will begin the week of
September 8th with children being invited to taste vegetables to determine
their current preferences. We will have
two students, Kelsey and Daniel from the Nutrition department joining us who
will invite children to explore five target vegetables over the course of the
semester having both a sensory experience and a cooking experience. In addition, every two weeks take home kits
will be provided to families so that they may try the recipes made at school at
home. We found this to be a wonderful
opportunity for children last year and we are glad to be participating again. Welcome
Students Our
students have begun working in the classroom this week and we would like to
take this opportunity to welcome them and introduce them to all of you. Lindsey and Caitlin are both interns in the
Family Studies program. Both will be
with us ten hours a week working with us on the many facets of our
program. In addition, Kaitlyn, Melissa,
Hilary, Stephanie, Kim, Andrea and Meaghan will all be working in the classroom
with us. Students are true assets to our
program and we greatly appreciate the significant contributions they make to
our classroom community. Please
introduce yourselves to them and help us to make them feel welcome. Happy
4th Birthday to Michaela! She
celebrates her special day on September 2nd! Dates to
Remember
Have
a great long weekend! Karen
and Beth |
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