// Curriculum Update, Mid-May //

Week of May 20

Wheeewwww! What a week of celebrations!

Hooray for our Kindergarteners, who shared their words of wisdom with everyone!

Hooray for our Pre-Kindergarteners, who sang their hearts out for everyone!

Hooray for our caterpillars, who emerged as butterflies, stretched their wings and took off into the world!

There are so many metaphors that can be made-- here's to growing up and stretching our wings!

Week of May 13

Hello, Silver Room Families!

The week ahead is a busy one!

We welcome you to join us for our End-of-Year Ceremony on the 6th floor on Thursday morning. After the ceremony on the 6th floor, you are invited to a brief celebration of songs by the children in the Silver Room. We’re prepping the children to say goodbye to you after that, because we know so many of you need to head to work afterwards!

We *are* still aiming to go outside after that ourselves, weather permitting, so if your child wears something fancy for the ceremonies, please let us know if  you’d like them to change clothes before we head out.

And by the way, this past week, we had a LOT of fun— we did get a turtle visit on Friday, and the children were still excited about that! Lucas the Box Turtle may come back for an outdoor visit in upcoming weeks. Children who brought in boots and rain jackets on Tuesday were able to get out for a little bonus recess puddle-jumping time, and the sun came out for a nice, extended recess and picnic on Thursday! This longer recess is great for several reasons: the children have made such gains in their academics this year, and in outdoor play, they have a chance to apply their learning-- they use counting, logic, spatial reasoning and problem-solving skills as they collect twigs and stones to build "castles" and "campfires"; they narrate complex stories about their dramatic play scenarios; they study the plants and look for insects, spiders and worms, talking about what they need and how to help them be comfortable based on what we've learned from our Cultural Studies activities and books. And for students working on their social skills, this more open-ended but tightly supervised and closely supported time allows them to devise, explore and re-devise games to figure out which kinds of games will work for everyone in the game, how to manage disagreement, ask for compromise, and come up with win-win alternatives. In many ways, and for many children, this social learning is the most challenging-- and so also the most important. 

So, here's to recess! And picnics! And play!