New Beginnings

Hello all,

Thank you for joining me on this new medium. I find myself more drawn to read long passages of text when interspersed with photos, so I hope you will as well. This also can serve as a record of our year together. Feel free to share with your extended family and friends this link, as it a glimpse in our world.

 We explored apples through observation of different varieties – Strawberry Parfait, Pink Pearl, Akane, Summer Red. We saw, smelled and tasted and noticed the differences. We built shapes with toothpicks and apples as joints, read books about apples, and made apple sauce.

Following strong student interest in the garter snakes found in the garden, we identified four species and played with patterns, like on a snake. This was also a sweet teachable moment for practicing how we treat animals with care and respect. We tried to put ourselves in the place of a small snake, being picked up and handled by a giant! Our mantra this week was “gentle, low and slow.”

 

We celebrated Rada and Oly's birthdays (they both turned 5!). We also celebrated the autumnal equinox with a painting project based around the question, “What does autumn look like?”

We began music with Mandy Troxel, who, along with many sweet songs with lots of movement, is starting a musical appreciation alphabet. Last week it was A for accordion and this week, B for Broadway!

Art started this week with Colleen Stewart, with oil pastel relief and painting with blackberries. We are so excited to have her here at Salmonberry for the first time.

We started reading buddies with Paul's class this week, in which the oldest students come over and read stories to us. We baked bread and made shapes with the dough.

We has Christopher Mullan, Salmonberry alum and current seventh grader come play with us one afternoon. He did his sixth grade internship with Matthew Chasnoff in the public school kindergarten and will be joining us regularly on Wednesday afternoons. We will also have the pleasure of having Angelina Riddle, current Salmonberry fifth grader volunteer in our class on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.

We started recognizing the shapes of lines and letters of our names. We explored these qualities through loose parts play, rainbow names and water painting.

We are working on hand strength and fine motor skills through beeswax and clay play.

We started exploring the qualities of the numbers one through ten through loose parts play and books.

We learned and practiced our morning verse, with gestures as well as our mealtime verse.

We played, oh how we played! We built airplanes and flew to Cuba, built kitty houses and took our kitties on walks with leashes, ran from huge snakes, played mamas and babies and many many more imagination games.

We have been reading stories from Brambly Hedge as our afternoon read-aloud. We have also been learning to 'read' pictures through seasonal read-aloud books and independent quiet reading time.

But most importantly, we are learning how to be with one another and be in a community at school. We are practicing sharing, resolving conflicts, recognize emotions in others, taking turns talking and the rhythms of school life.

Looking forward to much more, as we settle into our routines and are able to have new experiences together!

Love, Emmy and Kelley