Another Halloween come and gone, and we turn our attention to… Thanksgiving! (Our curriculum seems to be heavily punctuated by occasions for celebration and, of course, for baking yummy treats to enjoy with the kindergartners!) Yesterday we started our chart of “Things we are thankful for”, where each child contributed – in his or her own writing – something for which s/he felt personally thankful. Check out the contributions on our wall in the classroom!
Each fall around Thanksgiving, TGS puts together holiday food baskets that are then distributed, by Putney Family Services, among needy families. The preschool’s contribution this year is dried cranberries, and we are asking that each family bring in one bag of dried cranberries on or before Monday, Nov. 17 – and thanks. On a related note: we will be starting our preschool “Food Donation Box” soon, with the goal of collecting food items that will be shared among struggling families of the Putney area this fall.
We have gathered nearly enough “Y” shaped sticks to begin our musical shaker instrument project. We hope to eventually create a variety of instruments that will stay here in the preschool, and that we can use whenever we like during music and movement, rhythm, and drama occasions. In the meantime, be listening for some robust stick-and-wire shaking music coming from our room!
Please join me in wishing Hannah a very happy birthday! She turned 3 just over a week ago, and will be joining us on a regular basis in early December. We’ve enjoyed Hannah’s visits over the last few weeks, and look forward to her presence later next month. Charlotte will also be joining us early in December, once she turns three, too. And with the addition of Margaretta in early January, we’ll have a brand new group of three-year-olds in the class – Yay!
Now that the weather seems to have turned chilly for good, please make sure your child comes to school with warm outer clothes: coat, hat, mittens, sturdy shoes or boots. The spare clothes in the children’s cubbies should also be appropriate for these colder temperatures.
We had a nice get-together with the kindergartners last Friday for (pre-) Halloween, and enjoyed some spooky stories, songs and chants, and an assortment of healthy snacks: “witch’s fingers,” ghost-face crackers, and cider. Later, the preschoolers donned costumes and paraded around the rest of the lower school, including Steve’s office. Trick or treat!
On Tuesday we used a few of the apples that we picked to make a delicious apple crisp. Yummm! We invited the kindergartners in and shared it with them. We are planning also to use some of the (many) blueberries we have left to make jam, which we will then have for our afternoon cracker snack occasions.
Our class generated only a minute quantity of trash on Tuesday’s “No Trash Lunch” day. We talked a little about how we can try to reduce trash each day.
I will be away at the Learning and the Brain Conference (Boston) on Friday, November 19, with several of my TGS colleagues. Leelee will be in for me that day.
These are but a few of our goings-on these days. The children by now are nearly completely settled in to the daily expectations and rituals of our program, and they are clearly having a good time. Thanks once again for entrusting them to our care.
--Ken and Leelee
