Kindergarten February 5 - 9

The first full week of February brought us some pretty sunshine and so much rain! We celebrated Violet's 4th trip around the sun with a birthday circle. We painted rocks that we will use to line the garden path. We played in deep puddles and mud holes. We felt different animal coats and learned about how animals with fur stay warm in the winter. In our Creature Feature program, we had a visit from Ki Kim and Ki Tim. They brought their two rescue greyhounds, Riley and Max, who received lots of pats and hugs.

Kindergarten January 29 - Feb 2

This week we celebrated 4-year-old Valkyra with a birthday gathering. In the Nature Moment we looked for Hidden Birds and then hid them in the forest for our friends to find. During Creature Feature Ki Mike brought a corn snake named Kernal, as well as a snake skin and snake skeleton, for us to see. We made bread dough, played in the cold mud, and raced our shadows. Ki Sonya helped us create a story about two children who go on a journey with lots of crazy animals!

Kindergarten January 22-26

Our first full week of spring semester was packed full of adventures! We celebrated Lucan's 6th birthday with chocolate chip banana muffins and a laurel made of pinecones and pine needles. 

We visited with Ki Vicky from A-Z Animals who had us try on bat masks, told us how bats come in all sizes, and showed us a live Egyptian fruit bat.

Ki Warren told us a Seneca Indian story about how the very first story came to be. We chopped veggies for soup, baked bread, and made wooden toys.

We created pinecone bird feeders and hung them from trees for the winter birds. We played in the puddles. We explored the creek where the highlights were the river cane and a dead frog. In our Nature Moment, we learned about seashells and held them to our ears to hear the call of the ocean.

Kindergarten Dec 11 - 15

Monday was a SNOW day so we started back to school Tuesday. We began the week by celebrating Abby's 6th birthday with her Mom, grandmother, and brothers. They brought us popcorn, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider! We finished sewing a few more water bottle holders. We enjoyed our Spanish class. We created some crayon drawings. Miss Sonya told us a story about an old man who punched holes in the night sky to create the stars and the moon. Mr. Warren read us a lovely story about four princes. 

The snowstorm brought down a lot of pine boughs so we used them to build a fort. We were thrilled with the new fairy garden created by Miss Tammy's daughter, Grace. We shared a milestone when one of our students lost her very first tooth while in class! 

We practiced lighting a candle and walking with it carefully and respectfully to help us prepare for the Advent Spiral. We practiced our songs that we sang for Advent. Finally, the BIG event arrived and we participated in the beautiful Advent Spiral and performed our Advent songs.

Kindergarten Dec 4 - Dec 8

There was lots of activity in kindergarten this week. We celebrated 4 trips around the sun with Mason and his parents. They brought us banana bread as a birthday snack. 

We took a sunny walk in the creek looking for clams and quartz and raccoon tracks. We created stained glass from sycamore leaves on the playground fence. Miss Sonya told us a story about the monkeys that live along Silver River in central Florida. We helped Mr. Lee empty the compost bin and add all that good stuff to the soil in the garden. 

Alice brought her tiny turtles Holly and Tinsel to the kindergarten and taught us all about them. Roman and Andi did crayon drawings to enter in a poster contest. 

We sang a fun song about Jack Frost and one about the leaves and the wind. We also practiced the songs we'll be performing at the Advent Spiral. 

We completed our snow globes and packaged them to take home to our parents. On Friday we got the real thing as we played and built snow families in several inches of fluffy snow.

Kindergarten Nov 27 - Dec 1

We had nice warm weather for the last week of November, although Sister Rain visited us on Thursday and Sister Fog started the day with us on Friday. This week we celebrated Anya's 6th birthday with a visit with her parents, songs, poems, and fresh strawberries. Mason broke his leg on a trampoline (Ouch!) but he is back at school with us and healing well. 

Kindergarten students went on a creek walk to look for animal tracks. We buried acorns for the squirrels. We worked on our crayon drawings and water bottle holders. We found some mud puddles! 

We practiced the songs we will be singing at the Advent Spiral. Miss Kathee helped us write new words to the 17th century English Christmas carol, I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In. We continued to talk about class expectations for our kindergarten, with an emphasis on being kind and respectful to each other, to our teachers, to our toys and tools, and to all life.

Kindergarten Nov 13 - 17

In the week before the Thanksgiving holiday, the kindergarten students enjoyed playing in the leaves, climbing hills and trees, and building forts. We spent hours digging for jewels and sailing a pirate ship. For our tiny morning snack, we tried pears, pomegranates, and even sugar cane (always a favorite in the late fall). 

Mr. Warren read to us from Grimm's fairy tales. He twisted vines and ferns into wreathes, the students created candles and felted pumpkins, and Miss Sonya added hickory nuts and sweetgum balls to make centerpieces for our Thanksgiving dinner. Miss Sonya brought earthworms for us to visit with. Miss Lindsey continues to help each student sew their own water bottle holder out of felt. We sang a song about wild horses and one called "I Like Dirt"!

Kindergarten Nov 6 - Nov 10

Last week the Kindergartners enjoyed a visit with Mr. Rodney from our schools Garbage Disposal company. The highlight was getting to press that truck horn!. For story time, Ms. Kathee visited the Kindergarten class to share the Stone Soup story. For Practical work the children baked their own Sourdough bread, and tasted it for bread and butter snack on Thursday. Lastly, we completed our watercolor and cutwork Lanterns which we enjoyed sharing with our families and school community on Nov 9th. 

Kindergarten Oct 30 - Nov 3

What a fun week at The Garden School! We wore our Halloween costumes to school on Tuesday. We made leaf and flower presses so we can preserve some of the colorful leaves and pretty fall flowers we are finding. We took home bumpy gourds in our backpacks to show to our families. 

Miss Sonya told us a story about The Fox and the Falling Leaves. Miss Lindsey taught us how to sew shoulder holders for our water bottles. Mr. Warren helped us swing very high on a new swing. Mr. Lee let us smash pumpkins for the goats and miniature donkey to eat. We grated lemons to make lemon zest. We stood around the fire pit in the mornings but then took our jackets and gloves off for the warm sunny afternoons. We are learning two special lantern songs that we will be singing on the Lantern Walk this Thursday.

Kindergarten Oct 23 - 27

Fall is definitely here at The Garden School! The kindergarten students finished creating leaf rubbings using many different kinds of leaves from the forest floor. Miss Sonya told a story about pumpkins and gourds that were lumpy and bumpy and then we got to play with some very lumpy, bumpy pumpkins and gourds. Miss Jasmine taught us a lantern song that we will be singing on the Veterans Day Lantern Walk.

We worked to grind more cinnamon and nutmeg, and crushed garbanzo beans to make hummus for our snack. We played on the rocks in the creek. We visited the miniature donkey and the goats, Snow White and Prince Kudzu. Each day brought an opportunity for imaginative play as we rode on a stagecoach pulled by a powerful horse, cared for a snail that left a trail made of real silver, and dug in the sandbox for jewels buried by pirates. As they like to say in the Deep South, a good time was had by all!

Kindergarten Oct 16 - 20

The kindergarten enjoyed some gorgeous fall weather and a fun 5th birthday celebration for Eric and his Mom Anita. We worked to chop celery and zucchini for our soup and grind grain for our bread. We worked together to dig up a huge "golden stone" from the ground which we placed in the kindergarten classroom. We sewed our watercolor artwork into binders for new nature books that we will fill with drawings and bark rubbings. 

Miss Lindsey told a beautiful story about a mother spider and her babies. Miss Sonya taught us a fun song called "Froggy". We played with the colorful parachute. We walked over rocks through the creek. We walked to the garden to feed the miniature donkey and goats. And we had an archaeology dig in the sandbox where we discovered all kinds of bones, antlers, shells, and fossils.

Kindergarten Oct 9 - 13

We had short days this week as we spent the afternoons in parent teacher conferences. We made the most of them though! We chopped celery and bell peppers for our Thursday soup. We use small grinders to grind cinnamon and nutmeg for our holiday spices. We finished up our water color sessions using red and yellow paints. We ate tiny snacks of fun cucumbers and juicy plums. Miss Sonya told us a story about a kindergarten student who turned into a snail and had to take a long journey back to The Garden School. We sang a new song about a snail's trail. We ate our snacks outdoors and collected the colorful leaves that are beginning to fall.

Kindergarten Oct 2 - 6

The Garden School kindergarten was excited to return from Fall Break and get back to the business of play! Mr. Warren told us a story each day about a little boy and his star kite. Miss Lindsey taught us how to water color with red and yellow. Miss Sonya led us in sidewalk chalk art where we drew mermaids and rainbows and pirate ships. We sang a new song called "I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas" and ate bananas for a little snack on the playground. Then we slid down the new Banana Slide at the beach near the creek. We ate our snacks outdoors at the picnic tables. The weather was so pretty we stayed and ate our lunch outside too. Miss Naazneen shared traditions of Sharad Purnima, the Harvest Festival of the Hindu culture, and Miss Nina served us white bean quesadillas and cauliflower nachos to celebrate the eating of white foods on this special holiday. 

Kindergarten Sept 18 - 22

Kindergarten decided to celebrate the last full week of Summer by spending as much time outdoors as possible!  Ms. Sonya was out for the week with her family.  As a special treat Mr. Lee joined Ms. Lindsey and Mr. Warren with Kindergarten for the whole week!  We stayed on the playground for our morning circle and activities such as leather stamping, polishing wood, washboard laundry, practicing our sewing stitches and crayon drawing.  We enjoyed our morning snack at the picnic tables each day then headed into the forest for story and play.  Kindergarten loved seeing the grades students perform for the Festival of Courage and the story of the princess and the dragon. The javelin throw and silk flag dyeing were especially popular with the kindergarten children. Friday Ms. Lisa joined us for our morning circle and tea. Our time in the garden was spent feeding kudzu to the donkey and the goats. Afterward we all gathered down at the creek to cool down on a hot first day of Autumn. 

Kindergarten Sept 11 - 15

This fifth week of kindergarten was a short one thanks to Tropical Storm Irma. The water was too high and swift to play in the creek but we made the most of our time in the forest and garden. We learned to chop and peel, and prepared carrots, sweet peppers, spinach leaves, and apples for our morning snacks. Miss Sonya told us the story of Tiny Turtle and the Great Migration. We sang new songs about fairies and goblins, going to sea on a pirate ship, and waltzing with bears.

Kindergarten Sept 5 - 8

As we finish up our 4th week of school, it has been a delight to watch the kindergarten students become more comfortable and self-confident. Week by week they realize they have a safe home away from home where they are encouraged and cherished.

This week we found lots of new mushrooms that had popped up after the heavy rains. Miss Lisa told us a beautiful story during storytime of two children, a caterpillar, and a butterfly. We walked on the tightrope, built bridges out of wooden blocks, built a fort for the chipmunks, played with rocks and shells, chopped carrots and apples, and could not get enough of the sandbox!

Kindergarten Aug 28 - Sept 1

Our third week of kindergarten was full of play!  We played in the creek and we played in the sandbox and we played on the swings and we played in the rain!  We built a fairy fort.  We listened to Aesop's fable about The Wolf and the Dog.  And we celebrated Rory's 6th birthday!

Kindergarten Aug 21 - 25

Our second week began with a very special Shadow Party, a celebration of astronomical proportions. Students and their families joined The Garden School staff in the playground for solar eclipse activities and delicious eclipse cookies. Using special solar viewing glasses, we went to the upper viewing field to watch the moon as it passed across the sun. We were delighted with the unique shadows of tree leaves that appeared on the ground during the eclipse.

Later in the week, we played in the creek and in the sandbox, chopped up vegetables to make our own vegetable soup, and got a closeup look at some cicadas. We listened to a great story of a boy and his parents who, with the help of the garden animals, pulled a ginormous turnip out of the ground.

Kindergarten Aug 14 - 18

Wow! Our first week of welcoming our preschoolers & Kindergarteners to the Garden School Family.  During indoor time we sang finger play songs with our ten fingers, played teacher directed games as we adjusted to our first emotions & experiences of our time in school and without our primary caretakers. We ate snacks together as a class; you may have heard them mention sauteed peas and steamed rice (yum!) . We also familiarised ourselves with outdoor rhythm as we played in the creek, had storytime about an old woman & her daughters by the pond, and discovered an inchworm, a five-lined skink, and a mama wolf spider. The students, new and old, are quickly coming together as a class and a community!