Greetings from the preschool,
We’ve been having such an enjoyable start to the school year! Highlights of these first few days include cavorting in the sprinkler outdoors, get-togethers with the kindergartners, hiking up to the garden (and sampling the cherry tomatoes and cucumbers – yum!), music with Alli and French with Johanna, starting our watercolor placemats project, and attending All School Meeting yesterday afternoon. Whew! Much of what we are currently focusing on falls into the category of “getting to know each other:” name games, songs that repeat the children’s names, and plenty of free time for collaborative play and social interactions. This group clearly is eager to dive in and enjoy all that we have to offer. Normally we start the fall at a gentle pace, adding our standard activities and rituals gradually over the course of the first few weeks – but these children are quite ready for the job chart, sharing (our version of “show-and-tell”), our weather chart, the calendar, and more. We’ll try to be up-and-running with these activities as early as next week.
Today marks our first field trip of the year: we’ll go to Green Mountain Orchards here in Putney and pick blueberries. We usually pick enough to freeze and enjoy blueberry muffins throughout the year. We will leave school by bus at 10:15, and return to TGS by noon. Preschoolers are required to be in car seats on the bus, and while I have several spare seats for just this purpose, we will need some parents to drop off seats with us. As with all our field trips and special event, every child and parent is welcome to join us!
Here are a few reminders of important, and helpful, details:
Please don’t forget to sign-in and sign-out on the clipboard (currently located on top of the cubbies nearest the exit door). Any special instructions can be mentioned here as well, although we require that you share important information with us personally when it involves someone else picking up your child.
Each child should have slippers or some type of indoor shoe to change into, as well as a complete change of clothes in the event of spills, accidents, encounters with water/mud at recess, etc.
Children should have a personal cup for drinks at snack and lunch times.
I’ll be passing this letter out in hard-copy form, but in the weeks to follow I would like to post these missives on our preschool blog site, along with photos and other information. If anyone would like to continue receiving a paper copy, please let me know. It’s easy to do!
Here are some important dates for upcoming events:
Friday, September10th – All school potluck
Friday, September17 – Lower School Photo Day (all children welcome!)
Thursday, September 23 – Preschool through 4th Curriculum Night meetings
Saturday, October 9th – Medieval Faire
(over)
Thursday, October 21st – Parent/Teacher Conferences (no school)
Friday. October 22 – Long Fall Weekend (no school)
We’ll be starting our sharing next week, and I’d like to designate a day for each child to bring something special from home to share with the group. This is a ritual that promotes all kinds of social skills, from taking turns and listening to others, to speaking in front of the group and actually sharing something that is personally meaningful with others in the class. While children often need some help/suggestions in deciding what to bring from home, try to give your child as much freedom as is reasonably possible in choosing his/her own sharing (please – no precious family heirlooms or breakable one-of-a-kind valuables; no candy/sweets; no electronic noise-making toys…). I will have a sharing chart at school so that we can fill in the sharing day of your choice in order to get started right away next week.
Thanks to all of you for your patience and efforts toward making sure the start of school is a special, safe, and happy occasion for your child!
In appreciation of your children,
--Ken and Leelee
