Week of April 17 - 21

Dear Garden Families,

Here is my note of appreciation for a wonderful 2016 summer camp and school year. As of May 1, the Grades students will combine into one class led by Ms. Melissa. Instead of The Garden School of Marietta, I will join DeKalb County Parks implementing the wealth of instructional approaches I have gained while teaching at The Garden School...Waldorf and Forest School. Thanks for sharing your family with me and entrusting your children to me.

With appreciation,
Angela Sauvé

 

Here are some grades 4,3,(2,1) highlights with Ms. Angela.

Picnic Lunch everyday!

Picnic Lunch everyday!

Math practice while learning about the snapping turtle.

Math practice while learning about the snapping turtle.

Picnic Lunch Everyday!

Picnic Lunch Everyday!

Preparing new garden beds.

Preparing new garden beds.

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Reading about animals and creating calculations while enjoying the shelter classroom

Kindergarten April 17 - 21

We had a great week this week in KDG. With only a few weeks left our school remains to stay busy with new visiting guest like Devon. Plus we had a busy week celebrating Elainas and Samanthas birthdays. As school begins to wrap up...I wonder what KDG will bring before the school year is over. Until next week!!

Click here to read Ms. Angela's goodbye message. 

Grades 1/2 April 17 - 21

Hi Garden Families, 

We had a busy week at school! We read the stories The Four Winds, The Length of Winter and Kluskap Finds the Summer and copied or wrote summaries independently based on each story as well as drawing pictures and making yarn flowers. We have been reading about insects and have learned some fascinating facts about dragonflies! The creek holds its usual enchantments for the children as well. :) 


Starting this week we will have Gardening class Mondays and Wednesdays starting at 9:10AM through the end of the school year. Please be sure your child has used the bathroom when he/she arrives and brings water shoes, snack and a full water bottle to the playground in the morning. 

Warmly, 
Ms. Melissa

Click here to read Ms. Angela's goodbye message. 

 

Grades 1/2 April 10 - 14

Hi Garden Families,

The children enjoyed coming back after spring break and getting back into the fun of outside play!  Please make certain your child has appropriate footwear for the creek.  An extra pair of socks and shoes is also very helpful for most students.  We are also getting wet once again, so extra clothes and a bag for wet clothes is needed.

We are enjoying Native American stories that give us opportunity to learn more about the natural world around us.  It was also a lot of fun, and very interesting, learning more about each other’s names and our families. 

I hope you all had a chance to enjoy our Springtide festivities this past Saturday!

Warmly,

Ms. Melissa

P.S. The “critter” in the bucket in the photo is an American Eel that lives in our creek! 😊

Kindergarten April 10 - 14

We were happy this week to be back playing together after spring break. We saw and explored lots of things; a salamander, beaver sticks, snail trails, river oysters, caterpillars, and sniffed the wild roses and jasmine. We also crossed the creek bridge!

 

Grades 1/2 March 27 - 31

Hi Garden Families,

It was a beautiful spring week at The Garden School!  We enjoyed a lot of outside time at the creek.  The children are ready to dive back into full-on creek play (literally), so please be sure your child comes with extra clothes, shoes and a bag to keep wet gear contained in backpacks.  You may choose to send your child to school with bug spray if desired as we will be spending most our day outside in our forest classroom following break. 😊

This past week we finished our math block with the red gnome named Divide.  The children quickly picked up on the concept of dividing amounts into equal groups and we drew many connections between division and the other three mathematical operations we have studied.

The children had lots of fun during pentatonic flute classes this week with Mr. Ben.  He had them jumping and moving to the notes, told funny stories, and had the children enjoying their daily lessons.   In Handwork, they are continue knitting projects with good success.  Our garden is taking off and the chicken coop is nearing completion.  The children have had lots of fun practicing yoga with Ms. Nina on Wednesdays as well.

When we return to school following break, we will dive into our last Language block combined with Nature Studies while sharing Native American legends. 

Have a lovely and safe break!

Warmly,

Ms. Melissa

Kindergarten March 27 - 31

Busy week in kindergarten before our springbreak rest. We were able to spend more time with Ms. Tammy this week and continue her gardening project. On top of that we had many opportunities to interact with our baby chicks and include them with part of our free play! New faces continue to filter in and out of our room...hinting to us that next year will be even busier!  Until next week!

Grades 1/2 March 20 - 24

Hi Garden Families,

We had a great week with the yellow gnome named Times.  We spent our mornings working with gems to figure out how multiplication works.  The children really enjoyed taking a group of gems and seeing how many ways they could be grouped for faster counting (multiplication).  We also practice form drawing with circles which takes some practice and patience.  We are back to playing in and around the creek this week with the nicer weather.  We saw a Yellow Belly water snake (our best guess😊), snails, minnows, and many macroinvertebrates. 

The children all helped to make and tasted mango lassies on the last Thursday of Hindi class.  Next week we will begin learning American Sign Language.  They also had so much fun playing Camel Tag and Blindman’s Bluff in Games class.  For Handwork, the children wet felted around plastic eggs, an activity offered at our Springtide festival on April 15th, as well as continued working on their knitting projects.  Our garden is starting to show its signed of springs as the seeds the children planted are now seedlings and being replanted into our garden beds!  The watering crew worked very hard bringing water from the pond to our new plants too.

Spring has sprung!  Please check your child’s backpack and be sure that their extra clothes are in place and updated for our spring weather.  They will be getting wet once again and a change of clothes is necessary as well as extra shoes for inside (or boots for outside).  Jacket are still needed in the early mornings as is full rain gear (pants too please).  Every child has had their water bottles (yay!) which becomes even more necessary as it warms up.  Thank you all!

Have a lovely week,

Ms. Melissa

Kindergarten March 20 - 24

This week in kindergarten we started our new spring circle! New songs and rhythms are added to our day. We also welcomed back Ms. Tammy for a few days. We enjoyed a visit from a new and prosper student Nicolas. The class finished up our week with Ms. Tammy leading a great gardening project. Until next week! 

Week of March 20 - 24

Namaste,
We leave the Hindi language and on to American Sign Language. At other times of day, every purposed and spontaneous opportunity leads us into appreciation of and practice with reading, writing, calculations, fractions, time, wildlife and relationships.

Watercolor

More Watercolor

Yellow Banded Watersnake

Mr. Lee's games are a favorite!

Aquatic Dragonfly Larva

Aquatic Fly Larva

Reading & Writing

Self Portrait using Times Tables

Semester 2, Week 8

Hi Garden Families,

We had a chilly, but enjoyable week in class.  We met Minus, the blue gnome, and practiced subtraction using gems on our place value boards.  The children built numbers and then practiced the concept of “borrowing” from the tens bags of gems as we subtracted numbers.  We will continue practicing both addition and subtraction as we move into meeting another gnome next week whose name is Times.

The children also spent time with Ms. Angela this week and worked on the weather wall near the front desk.  They learned about the various types of clouds and wind speeds.  We also had a good time celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with some stories, treats and we learned to tie a Celtic heart knot as well.  

It was wonderful talking with each of you for parent conferences these past two weeks as well.  Thank you!

Have a lovely (and much warmer) week!

Warmly,

Ms. Melissa 

Week of March 13 - 17

Hello families,

Cold weather encourages us to hold school indoors with a few excursions out into the cold. As we read about weather, we talk science and math as well as artistically create an indoor weather station collage. It should be ready for weather forecasting by 3/31...

Kindergarten March 6 - 10

We had a very busy week this week in Kindergarten. We embraced the wet and cold weather of the mornings followed by the heat of the early afternoons.  We had a small family of chick's hatch and enter the world here at The Garden School, where now we shall raise them all just like our own ( because they are). Finally our thoughtful children finished up a Get well Soon card for Gabriela, who has been out with bit of a sickness this week. We sure do miss her. 

Until next week!!!

Semester 2, Week 7

Hello Garden Families, 

We had a busy and exciting week at school.  We worked daily on the concept of place value (ones, tens, hundreds) to build numbers with gems. The children enjoyed the challenge. We then took the numbers we built and added more gems to them to practice addition with single and double digits.  We also enjoyed wet-on-wet painting the green gnome who we found out is now named ""Plus" by King Equals.  Next week we will move into the concept of subtraction.  

Of course, (way) more exciting than math was watching the first chick hatch out of its egg earlier this week. The children have enjoyed watching and holding the newly hatched chicks each day since then. 

Thank you all who came for parent conferences and I am looking forward to those scheduled for next week. 

Next week is looking much colder than this week. Please continue to send your child in layers and with rain gear in their bags. :) 

Have a lovely week,

Ms. Melissa 

Week of March 6 - 10

Experiential learning permeates the walls and forest of The Garden School. Transplant the pea seedlings 6 inches apart and 4 inches deep. Look at the clock hands to tell what time we begin the water sample incubation. The thermometer reads how many degrees Celsius for air and then water? What is the difference? For me, this type of learning is fun!

Games with Mr. Lee result in the children emptying their water bottles. Hydration matches invigorating exercise!

Can you speak and write Hindi? Garden School graduates can.

Academic rigor meets the developing scholar.

Academic rigor meets the developing scholar.

Kindergarten Feb 27 - Mar 3

This week in kindergarten, we experienced a taste of early spring by shedding layers, rolling up our sleeves and hunting down edible plants such as sassafras and cleavers. Also, we were able to celebrate Sadie Mann's Earthstrong and was surprised with a wonderful snack from Sadie's mother, Abby. Thanks again. Our children and their parents are so special!

Semester 2, Week 6

We had a busy week at The Garden this week! 

We started our final math block, meeting five gnomes and an ancient tree named Old Dismas, who will teach us more about the secret of numbers and mathematical operations.  We revisited the Roman Numerals I – XII and learned larger Roman Numerals such as L for 50 and C for 100.  We also began building numbers up to 50 with gems forward and backward, using the concept of place value based on the rainbow.  Our fun way of remembering rainbow order is with the phrase “Regal old yellow gnomes buy itchy vests”.  We played a bean bag toss game to help us remember the order of colors.  For Language this week, we re-visited nouns and verbs, and introduced adjectives, including three special adjectives we call “articles” which are “a”, “an” and “the”.  We created funny sentences describing nouns in which we used many adjectives!

Next week we will continue our gnome adventures while building numbers forward and back to make the concept of place value concrete.  We will work on addition equations as well.

Parent conferences will be happening next week as well!  I look forward to seeing and talking with you then.

 

Warmly,

Ms. Melissa 

Week of Feb 27 - Mar 3

March arrives! Increasing outdoor & unpredictable weather, so please attend each day or store inclassroom: raincoat, rain pants, rain boots, water and dry shoes/socks, dry-wick top & bottom layers, hand toweland extra "change of clothes" for prn/ end of day. Academically, we explore fractions in relationship to measurement and division. Fluency motivates all other activity. Writing responses, in Vimalla, as we expressively read. Strategically think with our math facts and calculate the 4 operations while repetitively relying on basic facts using a distribution method.

The Garden School Adopt-a-Stream service poster will be displayed at Cobb County Watershed offices.