Dear parents,
We began our week outside drawing pictures of our tree. The children noticed almost all the white flowers were gone and replaced by green leaves. We sat on the brown square to draw before getting up to swing, slide, and dig in the sandbox. The next day we did tree rubbings on our tree using crayons. We noticed how bumpy the bark is. Some people used one color, others many.
Wednesday we had music with Alex. While half of us were in music the other half painted pots to prepare for planting. We started with blue and yellow. We talked about how they make green! We had ideas of what types of things we find outside that are these colors: the sun, dandelions, sunflowers, the sky, water, grass and leaves were some of our ideas.
We used big and small brushes. After we painted with blue and yellow, we had the option to add some gold and sparkles. We painted inside and outside the pots.
Outside the sandbox remains a favorite activity for all.
Quiet time means ten sleepers, or at least half the class, pretty regularly.
Molly came to plant with us. First we put a scoop of soil in our pots. Next we sprayed water on the soil. Then we added our seeds: we noticed they were very small. Finally we added a small scoop on top and a little more water. Our plants are in the planters near the bench if
anyone wants to visit them. Molly left us a spray bottle to water our plants. We talked about different things we like that have mint: ice cream, lemonade, toothpaste etc. Apparently we planted mint seeds.
In circle Friday we talked about our kidney bean and popcorn plants. We noticed how much they grew and talked about gently feeling the soil to see if they needed more water. We read The Owl and the Woodpecker, and listened to the sounds made by woodpeckers and owls. We closed
our eyes to listen for sounds outside. We heard birds, an airplane, and a construction truck.
After snack we decided the kidney bean soil felt dry and needed a drink. We felt the popcorn soil and decided it felt wet. Someone also noticed one popcorn looked too wet and was growing a little mold. We decided not to water the popcorn because we didn’t want the plants to drown. One friend said, “The leaves might turn yellow and it will die.”
Outside we brought our spray bottle, and friends took turns giving our new plants a drink. We didn’t find any sprouts yet! We played in the sand box making pizza, cakes, and concrete.
The conference was interesting as usual and included several sessions on mindfulness and self-care.
Have a great weekend,
Therese and Anna