Parent Letter 5-9-12

Greetings from the preschool!

We counted how many days till the end of school (22!) and I immediately started to panic.  There is still so much we want to do!  The classroom has felt very busy lately, in a good way -- but there's a fine line between being "good busy" and a schedule with just too many activities, too many transitions, and not enough of what the children need most: uninterrupted stretches of play time, "down time" moments when crucial processing occurs, and opportunities to explore interests, practice social interactions, and relax.  We'll keep these goals at the forefront even as we try to finish up all our projects and activities these next few weeks!

We've been practicing "The Garden Song" for Grandparent's Day next Friday (May 18). We will be performing this classic song on stage with the kindergartners -- you won't want to miss it!  I hope it will be possible for all preschoolers to come to school that Friday morning (it's a special day at TGS!) as if it's a normal preschool day.  We'd like to have as many children here as possible for the performance. Please let me know if that's a problem, or you have a conflict with that schedule.

Our tadpoles are growing so quickly!  We are amazed at how much bigger they get each new day.  We'll keep on the lookout for those tiny rear-leg sprouts.  The paper mache tadpole project has been put on hold since we decided to finish the activity outdoors and it's been fairly wet weather lately.  We should be able to complete them soon.

We got started on our self-portraits recently, and will begin to paint them now.  I always enjoy seeing these life-size works of personal art go up on the walls (and ceiling!) this time of year.  Stay tuned!

Yesterday we all helped to paint the beautiful hardwood child's rocker that we'll be contributing to the TGS Spring Auction.  Please be sure to admire the newly decorated chair -- I'm sure you'll agree there's a certain Dr. Seuss quality to it.  It's beautiful!  "Thank you" to Melanie who organized this effort, and to everyone who contributed as well.

We finished our beautiful Mother's Day surprise gifts yesterday.  I hope you're able to use the beautiful notecards (hand-made paper!) in some special way.  This project was really fun -- and we sure got our hands wet (and gooey!) in the process.  Happy Mother's Day, Joanne, Melanie, Cindy, Jenn, Caitlin, Annique, Juliet, and Madeleine!

Our date for the annual Spofford Lake trip (all-day cookout/picnic, swim, and beach party with the preschoolers-through-second graders) has been set: Monday, June 11th.  Please put it on your calendar, and I hope you'll be able to make it.  Guaranteed fun-in-the-sun! (Fingers crossed for the "sun" part!)

We are still planning to take a trip with the kindergartners into Putney to visit some of the special work places there: the Post Office, the Co-op, and maybe even the Fire Station.  We will let you know more when we have a set date.

I hope you've been enjoying the spring!

In appreciation of your children,
--Ken and Jessica

Parent Letter 4-25-12

Greetings from the preschool,

May Day is just around the corner!  It's the day we celebrate the return of spring, the newness all around us, animals and plants and even insects that we haven't seen all winter.  We talked about May Day at our circle time this morning.  Even the frog eggs that are about to hatch in our class room are tiny miracles of spring, as are the daffodils just outside our window.  It's a wonderful time of the year.

Our paper mache tadpoles are taking shape.  Today at Centers with the kindergartners we put the first sloppy layer of goopy paper strips onto the tadpole shapes.  They're looking great -- and we decided to do the next application outdoors. (You should have seen the classroom!)

On Earth Day, we toured the school grounds and searched for trash to pick up.  We each had a plastic bag, and you'll see in the photo just how much trash we picked up.  We were very proud of our efforts at making the school--and the world--a little bit more beautiful.

Earth Day trash collection around TGS

Our All School Work Day is scheduled for this Saturday, April 28, from 9:00 till noon with lunch to follow.  There'll be plenty of tasks for everyone as we all dig in to spruce up the school.  I hope you can make it!

Thanks to those of you who took the time to come in for a conference last week.  I always enjoy these opportunities to share observations and exchange notes about how your children are doing, and how we as a program are doing, too.  As always, if you were not able to schedule a conference but would like to meet and talk, please don't hesitate to let me know.  We can schedule a time that works for you.

We are planning a field trip into Putney with the kindergartners, to visit some of the places that interest us and yet are something of a mystery.  The Post Office will be one of our stops, as well as (we hope) the Fire Station, the Co-op, and the Library.  We will let you know more plans as they develop!

After several "mowings" and many waterings, our grass seed mini-plots were ready to plant outside.  They are currently enjoying real dirt, sun and rain in their new location, alongside the library building and across from our play ground... right where we can watch them grow.

May is, of course, a busy month, and we have plenty of events and activities for which to prepare.  The Spring Auction event, Mother's Day, and Grandparent's Day are three examples of special events coming up in the next few weeks.  We have big plans, and are looking forward to May.  Lots of activity!

The 7th and 8th grade musical is in full stride.  We hear them rehearsing every day in the gym, and we're looking forward to the dress rehearsals.  Every year the musical makes such a huge impression on our young children.  They will sing and dance to the tunes they remember for weeks to come.

Enjoy the spring!

--Ken and Jessica

We found the first spring trilliums!

Parent Letter 4-8-12

Greetings from the preschool,

Happy Easter and Passover! Together with the kindergartners, we made a delicious Haroset on Wednesday, using oranges, pecans, cinnamon, grape juice, and raisins, which we enjoyed with matzo bread. Jessica told the story of Passover, and several of us shared memories of special seder meals with family members and friends. Later in the week we decorated paper Easter eggs with brightly colored tissue paper. Beautiful!

We gave our grass plantings "haircuts" this week! The seeds we planted have grown into fine, lush little plots of grass, and as long as we water them, give them some sun, and "mow" them from time to time, they'll stay healthy. We'll plant them out near the playground fence later this spring.

While the "signs of spring" continue to unfold around us, we're also experiencing some "spring fever" right here in the preschool. I've been observing that behaviors frequently alternate between disengagement or lethargy, and almost a manic silliness! Things can be pretty "wicky-wacky" these days. I have concerns about our sharing ritual in particular. In addition to being a time when children get to show and talk about something special from home, the bigger social agenda includes practice at attending; listening; taking turns; and being a respectful, polite audience. Sharing is a wonderful time of the day when it works -- but lately, it seems to have lost some of its appeal, and in the interest of trying to get back that magic, I'm asking children to limit their sharing to a single item from home. I think that some of the ennui we've been experiencing at sharing time might be because it takes a long time when there are many items. I'll let you know if that helps perk things up.

Last week we took advantage of the beautiful weather and hiked to Four Corners, where I told the story of Vermont farmers more than a hundred years ago clearing the land, chopping down the forest, and building stone walls around their pastureland. Now many of the farms are gone, the forest is returning, and the stone walls are solid reminders of those earlier days. The children enjoyed hearing that story while sitting on those stones, looking at the trees all around. Oh--and we took the long way back to school, following the Stone Wall Trail!

Guess what? -- we have frog eggs in the pond! This is the earliest that I can remember frogs laying their eggs. We'll bring some into the classroom to observe. Tadpoles won't be long now!

Remember that there's no school this Monday (April 9) as it's a School Visit day for teacher professional development. Also, we have parent/teacher conferences scheduled for Friday, April 20 (12:30 - 4:30). If you'd like to schedule a conference, please call Tammy to choose an afternoon time slot that that works for you.

In appreciation of your children,

--Ken and Jessica

Parent Letter 3/25/12

Greetings from the preschool!

Welcome back from vacation. With much warmer weather and the snow all gone, our thoughts turn to the signs of spring around us. We made a list of all the signs of spring we could think of, and later in the week we took a hike to search for them. We found plenty of mud! And the frogs' croaking at the pond is plenty raucous. We should see eggs soon. In the classroom, we started some grass seeds in small pots, and we'll compare their progress with the growth of the grass on our playground.

We took our two sap buckets off the sugar maples trees last week, and noticed the old holes from past years' sugaring had nicely healed over. Over vacation, our tree provided us with four full buckets of sap, a portion of which we started boiling in the classroom last Monday. Now we have the finished product, and we'll be making waffles with the kindergartners on Wednesday to enjoy with our syrup. Yummm!

Having put our winter coats and snow pants away, we've returned to our regular schedule of two outdoor recesses. We'll try to have snack and lunch a bit earlier to accommodate the second outdoor play time, so look for us outside at pick-up time. Following these recesses, we are making an effort to conduct tick checks, as we expect to have plenty of the unwanted creatures around after such a mild winter. We highly recommend a more thorough search before bedtime as a daily ritual. Please make an inspection of the spare clothes in your child's cubby, to determine if it would be good to augment or change items. We do have a few spare clothes that children are welcome to use when needed. Finally, some of you may want to have sun screen applied to your child prior to our outdoor times. If you're able to put sunscreen on your child in the morning, that would be great (the applications often last up to 8 hours or so), or we can do it if you'd like.

We have a school In-service day scheduled for Monday, April 9 (no school). I'll be traveling with Libby to visit a preschool-kindergarten program at a nearby independent school, perhaps St. Paul's of New Hampshire. As always, thanks for your support in making these visits a vibrant and productive part of our professional development as TGS teachers.

You'll be receiving a Progress Assessment report in the mail shortly. These written snapshots of your child's progress are designed to highlight her/his proclivities, strengths, and challenges at this 8th month of the school year. And on Friday, April 20 we'll have our spring parent-teacher conferences from 12:30 to 4:30, another opportunity to talk more leisurely about how things are going in the preschool. Some of you have returned the Program Evaluation that I handed our prior to the break -- thanks for taking the time to share your feedback and comments. I'm still collecting them, and if you need another copy, I have spares.

As always, thanks for the privilege of teaching your children!

--Ken and Jessica

Parent Letter 2-28-12

Greetings from the preschool,

February has certainly flown by! Today we talked about how special February is this particular year, with an extra day in it. I mentioned that one of the sixth graders has a birthday on February 29th, and for that reason his birthday only occurs once every four years. What a strange concept! Currently, we in the preschool are excited about a new month about to begin: March! Maybe it'll bring some new snow as well as warmer weather.

We are very happy about the addition of Samuel to our preschool. He's such a sweet, cheerful guy, and while it's always a challenge to transition into a program that's been up-and-running for a while, he's already feeling like one of the group. If you haven't already done so, please join me in personally welcoming Samuel, and parents Annique and Tom, when you have a chance.

Indoors, the marble roll continues to be very popular, as does the wooden climbing-and-sliding structure. Puzzles, drawing, art projects, the loft, the blocks and vehicles are still favorite choices, and we have been enjoying the new bird feeder (and the red squirrel, too!) right outside our big window. Still, it's our impression that these children are very ready for a vacation, and for something of a new landscape -- both socially and physically -- when they return later in March. There is an undercurrent of silliness that very easily blossoms into behavior that is less than respectful, or inappropriate, these days. It's a sign that they are tired, eager for something new and different. In the meantime, we are talking quite a bit about following directions, being helpful, making good choices, and being a good friend. It's all good!

We have put together our mid-year Preschool Program Evaluation, which I have already handed out to most of you. It would be very helpful if you could take a few minutes to share your feedback about the preschool and how we are doing, and return the evaluation to me or Jessica as soon as you are able to. Thanks in advance for your candid responses!

On another note, you may already have noticed a change in our sign-in, sign-out process. The new form is designed to better show, at a glance, who has arrived and who has been picked up. We'd prefer that parents and guardians quickly jot down the required information, but we are able to sign in/out for you if you forget. Each day, every child must be accounted for on the sign-in form, and this is the information that the DOE inspector will look for when s/he visits.

Our Exploration Center with the kindergartners lately has been focused on the Sugar Maple season. We read some stories about the wonder and joy in making syrup from sap this time of year, and then drilled two taps in our sugar maple on the path to the upper school. Two buckets are collecting sap, although the past few days it hasn't been dripping much. I wonder how much we will collect during the vacation? We have been invited to visit Hannah's farm to watch the sap boil. Let's hope there's still some boiling happening after vacation!

Our spring vacation begins this weekend, and goes for two whole weeks (March 5th through March 16th, returning to school on Monday the 19th). When we come back, we'll be ready to observe the changing of the seasons more closely, and enjoy some activities and projects (maybe a field trip to the Putney School Barn?) relating to Spring all around us. In the meantime, we wish for all of you a wonderful spring vacation, filled with magical family fun and joy.

Cheers!

--Ken and Jessica

Parent Letter 2-7-12

Greetings from the preschool!

Our Family Portrait wall features several photographs now, and I hope that the rest of our preschool families can provide a picture to put up, too. It's a nice way for the children to feel connected to home and family during the school day. Thanks to those of you who brought in photographs so promptly!

We looked for groundhog prints in the snow last week, but we didn't find any. We decided that she'd seen her shadow and ran back to the comfort of her burrow. Six more weeks of winter would be nice, actually -- that is, if we could be assured of having some good snow. Still, we're having fun outside on the small sliding hill, with occasional visits to the big kid's playground. (Check out our wonderful, furry Groundhog art on the wall outside the classroom!)

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and we've been busy making special Valentines to bring home. We will celebrate Valentine's Day with our annual Valentine's party, enjoying heart-shaped cookies, a story, and Mousie's special valentine performance, together with the kindergartners. We will also share in a valentine exchange among preschoolers. Please plan to spend some fun, creative time at home with your preschooler making valentines for everyone in class. Have fun! (FYI: class list includes Beatrix, Gillian, Margaretta, Atticus, Eamonn, Charlotte, Hannah, Molly, Ken, Jessica, and newcomer Samuel Garbarino who starts in the preschool on Valentine's Day!)

Jessica and I have been strategizing ways to minimize the moments of unfocused, unrestrained behavior that emerge during certain parts of the day. We'll be thinking carefully about how we manage transitions, and how we balance calm and quiet times with more active parts of the daily schedule. We'll also try tweaking the schedule in a few small but significant ways to see if it helps the children with making transitions, settling into a task or activity, etc. Please let us know if you're seeing improvements in this area -- or if you are not! We greatly appreciate your comments and feedback regarding how things are going.

Our seed chart is up on the wall, and we already have about a dozen different kinds of seeds displayed and identified. We have encouraged the children to be on the lookout for seeds from home that could be added to the chart -- especially when making dinner, school lunches, or even when out on a walk in the woods. Thanks for helping out with this project!

Thanks you all once again for the generous subscription to Ceramics Monthly! I received the first issue recently, and thoroughly enjoyed the photographs of stunning ceramic art, as well as the thoughtful articles showcasing creative leaders in pottery, current technical highlights, and more. My son Miles is taking the ceramics course at The Putney School, (which, in a former lifetime, I used to teach!) and so the arrival of Ceramics Monthly on our coffee table is doubly appreciated these days. Thanks so much!

In appreciation of your children,

--Ken and Jessica

Parent Letter -- January 19, 2012

Greetings from the preschool,

We spoke last week about the important contributions Martin Luther King, Jr. made toward equality, fairness, and peaceful problem-solving here in our country. A number of our circle-time conversations included examples of behaviors that MLK would approve of, right here in our own preschool. How can we solve problems when they occur? What should we do when we see a friend who is feeling sad? In what ways can we be helpful and kind to each other? The children helped put together a list of ways we recognize "kindness" around us, and it is up on the wall in the classroom. Check it out! Jessica and I will keep the legacy of Dr. MLK alive in the preschool by wondering aloud "What would Martin Luther King do?" at opportune moments of the day. We appreciate when parents report hearing their child wonder the same question out loud at home!

We have been talking about our families, and how they are alike in many ways and yet individually different at the same time. Our watercolor Family Portraits are currently on the wall in our cubby area. I have invited the children to bring in photographs (if available) of their families, and we will make a space to display these in our classroom, too.

Next week we have Parent-Teacher Conferences scheduled for Thursday, January 26, from 11:00 - 7:00 p.m. There's no school on that day. Please give Tammy a call to set up a conference time that works best for you.

I have been attending a series of training workshops for CSEFEL (Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning), an approach toward helping children achieve social-emotional literacy through evidence-based strategies. I plan to adopt some ideas from these workshops for our own program, in a variety of ways. Stay tuned! If you are interested, the CSEFEL website link is:

http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/what_works.html

We're happy to have some new snow (any snow at all is welcome!) and we are enjoying the change of scenery and routine that comes with having snow. We followed some fresh animal tracks at the top of the hill on Tuesday, and we shoveled a section of the pond to slide around on. We made snow angles and dug for ice crystals near the dam. And we brought several icicles into the classroom to observe and monitor their return to liquid water. The snow is currently pretty crusty -- but when we get new accumulation, children are welcome to bring sleds and saucers to school if they would like. We have a safe area on the playground for fun sledding.

We're hopeful that we can fill our Food Donation Box again by the end of the month. Thanks so much for your continued attention to this ongoing community project of ours.

On Monday, January 23 we will celebrate the Chinese (Lunar) New Year! We don't have any "party" plans, but we'll eat some dumplings, read stories and talk about how some different cultures celebrate the new year with their families. Happy New Year!

In appreciation for your children,

--Ken and Jessica