Kindergarten Chickadees: October 23 - 27, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee families.

Last week we had a lot of fun making our lanterns for the upcoming lantern walk. In Early Childhood, art is about the process and not the product. While we had a specific project to make, students were given the freedom to choose the color, number, and placement of the tissue paper squares they adhered to their glass jars. They worked on fine motor and early math skills while expressing their individual creativity. We also began learning our lantern walk songs. You can find these by following the link near the top of the Garden  Messenger. We will be singing “My Lantern” and “I Walk With My Bright Little Lantern”. Speaking of singing, the Second Grade class surprised us on Tuesday with a singing performance in Spanish; it was a special treat that the Chickadee students greatly enjoyed.

This week we will continue learning our Lantern Walk songs and begin our special story that honors the meaning and reverence of the Lantern Walk festival. During this time of decreasing daylight hours, we remember the light we each carry within us. We honor the opportunity to carry our special, individual light out into the world to help light the path for ourselves and others. This story is about a little girl who learns of the special light everyone has inside. She learns how to make her inner light shine and practices kindness until her light shines so brightly that others ask her about it. The girl then shares the story of inner light with others, and they practice kindness and begin shining light into the world, as well. 

Announcements and Reminders:

  • Please join us tomorrow tonight, 11/1, at 6:00 pm for our Early Childhood curriculum night. We will meet upstairs in the kindergarten classrooms to talk about what winter looks like for our forest program and the clothing and gear needed when cold temperatures set in. This evening is for grownups only.

  • This week looks to be getting quite cold, especially in the mornings. Please dress children in layers, with warm socks and footwear and coats, hats, and gloves.

  • We are looking for two volunteers in our class to bake gingerbread and bring it to Lantern Walk.  We have a standard recipe and individual bags for pre-portioning that we will provide to all volunteer bakers. Please coordinate with our class rep, Julia Gee, if you are willing to help.



Upcoming Events:

  • 11/1: NO SCHOOL: Teacher in-service

  • 11/1: Joyful Beginnings and Kindergarten Parent Night: 6 pm - 7 pm

  • 11/7: Kindergarten Lantern Walk: 6 pm

  • 11/7: Grades 1 - 3 Lantern Walk: 6:30 pm *Please note new date for grades

  • 11/17: Thanksgiving Luncheon 11 am: Half Day

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: October 17-20, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families,

Thank you all for a wonderful Kingdom of Halloween festival! It was fantastic to see so many families working and playing together in a beautiful and fun-filled community festival.

Last week the Chickadees were hard at work in the forest. The students enjoyed raking our bounty of leaves and pine straw into several piles to jump into. These piles were also turned into nests and moved around in dump trucks and wheelbarrows. The children marveled at the ‘clean’ areas of the raked forest and the many colors of the fallen leaves. They dug holes and built fairy houses in the cleared forest areas, as well. The students had painting and drawing this week, and a couple of children even began learning how to sew. We visited the farm to pet the goats, and students had the opportunity to see feeding time for the different animals at the farm. 

We are entering cold and flu season, and we can use your help in keeping everyone as healthy as possible! The children are working on proper handwashing at school and will benefit from guidance at home as well. Reminding children to scrub all parts of their hands with soap until they finish a song, such as Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star, before rinsing can greatly reduce the spread of viruses. Reminders to use a tissue for their nose and to cough and sneeze into their “Chickadee wing” (elbow) are important as well. Lastly, please keep children home when they are not feeling well. Not only will it keep germs from spreading, but they recover more quickly and are able to participate in the day more meaningfully when they have the opportunity to rest when they are under the weather.

Announcements and Reminders:

  • Please continue sending coats, hats, and gloves daily.


Upcoming Events:

  • 11/1: NO SCHOOL: Teacher in-service

  • 11/1: Joyful Beginnings and Kindergarten Parent Night: 6 pm - 7 pm

  • 11/7: Kindergarten Lantern Walk: 6 pm

  • 11/7: Grades 1-3 Lantern Walk: 6:30 pm *Please note new date for grades

  • 11/17: Thanksgiving Luncheon 11 am: Half Day

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: October 9-13, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families,

THANK YOU all so very much for attending conferences last week. It was a joy to meet with each of you about your incredible children. This week, we are excited for a full week of school and the Kingdom of Halloween on Saturday. 

Last week, we had our first fire of the season. Monday began quite chilly, and we enjoyed some warmth from our fire pit. Students worked to collect a bucket of pinecones to help start future campfires. They also collected sticks to use as kindling and sorted them by size. On Tuesday we started our fall and winter garden. First, the students helped clear the planters of weeds, dried leaves, and other debris. Then, each student was given spinach seeds to plant. Finally, students each took a turn watering the seeds a little. We will continue to care for the garden and watch our spinach grow! Some students helped build our new classroom feature, a “spider web” of thin rope woven around and between three trees. The class had a lot of fun climbing in and out of the web and developing balance, proprioceptive, and vestibular senses. Students had the opportunity to practice finger knitting, as well.

This week, we are adding more challenging movements to our morning circle. This circle is about a trip to an apple orchard to pick apples. At the beginning of the circle, after we greet the world and each other, we travel to the orchard. That part of the circle includes a song in Spanish about looking at the beautiful, colorful leaves that fall to the ground and walking in the crunchy leaves. The children have been enjoying this circle and are ready to add running in a circle. Next week, we will increase the challenge by adding a new song.

We look forward to seeing you all at our Kingdom of Halloween festival THIS Saturday.  If you have not signed up to volunteer yet, we do need more help at the wand booth.  Please sign up here.  Thank you!

Announcements and Reminders:

  • Although it is early, please start sending a hat and gloves in your child’s backpack. Some mornings, their hands and ears are cold.

  • Please plan to attend our next curriculum night on Wednesday, 11/1 at 6:00 pm. All of the early childhood classes will meet together to talk about winter weather gear and how we manage winter weather at school.


Upcoming Events:

  • 10/21 Kingdom of Halloween: 4 pm - 8 pm

  • 11/1 NO SCHOOL:  Teacher in-service

  • 11/1 Joyful Beginnings and Kindergarten Parent Night: 6 pm - 7 pm


Thank you for sharing your children with us, and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: October 2 - 9, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families. 

Last week was so beautiful in our forest classroom, with colorful leaves falling and children working and playing among them. Students spent time most days working with rakes and brooms to clear paths that weave around our outdoor classroom. These paths became highways for the dump trucks to drive on. Students also placed pieces of wood as bridges over holes they had dug. Along with highways and bridges, the children enjoyed creating obstacle courses with loose parts such as wood pieces, branches, and tires. These activities were completely student-driven from conception to completion. Giving children the time, space, and open-ended materials to play in this manner allows them to develop creative thinking, problem-solving, and both cooperative and communication skills. The process of building in this way also develops gross and fine motor skills, coordination, awareness of the body in space, attention and focus, and strength and stamina.  Our classroom environment and carefully chosen play props allow our students to experience these healthy physical and mental benefits.

Now that we have entered fall, with cooler nights and mornings, we put our visits to the creek on hold until late spring. Creek shoes will stay home for now. Our class will be visiting the farm more often and working on gardening projects in our classroom garden. There are large planters in our outdoor classroom that are currently growing lemon balm and mint. In the coming weeks, the students will be planting new fall/winter crops and tending to them as they grow. They will harvest these vegetables to add to our soup later in the year. 

Announcements and Reminders:

  • If you have not yet signed up for conferences, please do so here.

  • If you have a full-day student and have not sent in a blanket for rest time following the break, please do so as soon as possible. The students enjoy having blankets, which bring comfort and warmth and help them rest better, especially now that it is cooler outside.

  • Please send your child with a jacket and long pants every day. If your child borrows a warm layer from the school, please wash and return it so we have it when it is needed by any student again.

Upcoming Events:

  • 10/11 - 10/12 Sixth Grade caving field trip

  • 10/12 HALF DAY - Parent Conferences

  • 10/13 NO SCHOOL - Parent Conferences

  • 10/14 Community Work Day 10 am - 1 pm *Please note the date change

  • 10/21 Kingdom of Halloween

  • 11/1 NO SCHOOL - Teacher in-service

  • 11/1 Parent Night for Joyful Beginnings and Kindergarten classes, 6 pm - 7 pm

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: September 18-22, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families.

We hope you all had a wonderful fall break. It is lovely to have the forest filled with students again. Before the break, we wrapped up our first six weeks with special activities to celebrate the fall equinox and Day of Courage festival. Students separated goldenrod flowers from the stems and saved them in a pot. The flowers were then turned into a beautiful, natural golden dye that they used to make golden capes from flour sack towels. The students also made shooting stars from some of their watercolor paintings and ribbons. The stars were part of our story about George, Cleolinda, and the Dragon, which we shared a puppet show of during the week. The students loved seeing this story of adventure and compassion played out with puppets and props and spent time during the week creating their own puppet shows with blocks, silks, and peg dolls on the platform.

This week we begin a new morning circle, with songs and verses about autumn and apple harvesting. Now that students know what to expect during the morning circle, we will include more challenging movements such as galloping along with reaching above and across the midline of the body. We want to include every language spoken in the students’ homes in our circle songs and verses this year. So far students have sung in Russian, Cherokee, and Spanish. Please let us know if you have a children’s song or verse in a language spoken in your home (or by extended family) that you would like us to share in an upcoming circle. Stories this season will include themes such as gratitude, generosity, or teamwork, and seasonal themes such as apples and harvesting.

Announcements and Reminders:

  • If you have not yet signed up for conferences, please do so here. It will be lovely to meet with each of you. 

  • As the days get cooler, and mornings can be especially cool, please send your child with a sweater, sweatshirt, or jacket every day. It is around 10 degrees cooler in the shaded forest. Please also include long pants in your child’s backpack if they wear shorts to school.

  • Please continue to send a vegetable to chop for soup on Mondays and an apple to chop for quinoa and for muffins on Tuesdays.

Upcoming Events:

  • 10/11 - 10/12 Sixth grade caving field trip

  • 10/12  Half Day - Parent Conferences

  • 10/13  No School - Parent Conferences

  • 10/14  Community Work Day 10 am - 1 pm *Please note date change

  • 10/21  Kingdom of Halloween

  • 11/1 NO SCHOOL - Teacher in-service

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: September 11-15, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families.

Fall is coming soon; we can feel it in the slightly cooler days and light breezes that refresh us on their way through the forest. As we approach the autumnal equinox, we recognize the courage we must build to care for ourselves and others. This month, our stories have focused on friends who gathered the courage to do what was right, although it was not easy and they were afraid. Our previous story was about two butterflies who were ready to leave their cozy greenhouse for the gardens outside the door, working through their fear of the new and unknown adventures ahead. Our current story is about a boy named George and a wise princess named Cleolinda who try to save their village from a dragon who is burning the crops and making the air and water dirty. With the help of singing falling stars, a message from a dream, a sky being, and some gnomes, they courageously meet the dragon with swords made from metal. These swords make dragons sleepy and, therefore, easier to reason with when they are near. In the end, they are able to help the dragon, themselves, and their village return to a happy, peaceful life.

We have begun some woodworking projects in class! The students are using hand drills to make small holes in thin cedar boards to make our own lacing cards. After they drill the holes, they will sand the boards and polish them with beeswax to make a fun new activity for our classroom. We are also making a kindergartener-sized chickadee nest from small logs. Students used teamwork and strength to move the small logs to the nest location and also helped saw some logs to the size we needed with a hack saw. We are looking forward to more woodworking projects throughout the school year.

Announcements and Reminders:

  • Rest blankets will go home at the end of this week. Please wash them and return them when your student returns after the break.

  • Our days are filled with the hard work of playing and learning. Please help your child be ready for a successful day at school by ensuring they have 10-12 hours of sleep each night and by providing a filling breakfast that includes protein.

  • This Friday is a HALF DAY (12:15-12:30 dismissal) for all students. Please use the carpool line for pickup as usual.

  • Next week is FALL BREAK! There is also no school for students the following Monday, 10/2, due to teacher in-service.

  • Conferences are coming up soon, October 12th and 13th. A sign-up will be available in the next messenger.

Upcoming Events:

  • 9/22 Half Day - Day of Courage

  • 9/25-9/29 Fall Break (No School)

  • 10/2 Teacher In-Service (No School)

  • 10/12 Half Day - Parent Conferences

  • 10/13 No School - Parent Conferences

  • 10/21 Community Work Day 10 am - 1 pm

  • 10/21 Kingdom of Halloween

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community. We hope you have a wonderful break.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: September 4-8, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families,

Thank you all for coming to our first Curriculum Night of the school year! It was wonderful to share our circle, snack, and information and have a conversation with you all. We look forward to our next Early Childhood Curriculum Night on Wednesday, November 1st.  We will meet with the other Early Childhood classes to discuss warmth and winter gear.

This week was filled with building and creating. We focused on creating this week, building our logical and creative thinking skills, fine and gross motor skills, and the social-emotional skills of collaboration and problem-solving. The students made a large fort with tall branches and tiny fairy houses with small sticks and other nature treasures. They planted acorns found in our forest classroom and watered them. We noticed grass was growing from the bird seed that had fallen on the ground around the bird feeder, so watered those seeds.  Along with our usual weekly painting activity, there was the opportunity to draw with crayons on an easel generously donated by the Itliong family. Drawing and painting on a vertical surface, such as an easel or roll of butcher paper hung over a door, builds important muscles and connections in the brain that differ from those built when children draw and paint on a horizontal surface. We will continue to introduce new ways to build and create throughout this month and beyond. Students are also working on some special projects that will come home before fall break.

Announcements and Reminders:

  • If you are able, please harvest goldenrod and/or marigolds and bring them to school this week. We can use as much as you can find! Goldenrod is a flowering plant that grows in fields, meadows, and forest edges throughout our area. These plants will be turned into a natural dye, which we will use for a very special project this month.

  • Due to the need to keep the carpool safe and effective, teachers are unable to have conversations about your child’s day or answer questions during carpool. Please email me with questions or to ask about your child’s day. Thank you for your understanding! 


Upcoming Events:

  • 9/16 Community Workday 9 am - 12 pm

  • 9/22 Half Day - Day of Courage

  • 9/25-9/29 Fall Break (No School)

  • 10/2 Teacher In-Service (No School)

  • 10/12 Half Day - Parent Conferences

  • 10/13 No School - Parent Conferences

  • 10/21 Community Work Day10 am - 1 pm

  • 10/21 Kingdom of Halloween

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: August 28-September 1, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee families,

We hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend, and we are excited to see you at curriculum night tonight!  A recap email will be sent later in the week. 

Last week was full of strengthening work in our play and through practical work tasks. Students spent a lot of time in the forest, creating in the mud kitchen, digging, hauling wood and dirt in the dump trucks, building fairy forests, and experimenting with different consistencies of mud. The students discovered that they could chop and pull apart an old stump that was becoming soft. They worked until some of the stump was in small pieces of wood pulp, which they moved about the forest classroom in our dump trucks. They used other larger pieces in their fairy forest. The students also found woodworms, or wood beetle larvae, in part of the stump and were fascinated watching them. The students have been learning to not only love nature but also to respect it. They did a great job observing the worms without disturbing them further. We enjoy observing our animal friends and mushroom friends in the forest, but we do not touch them. A teacher can be called to help if an animal friend needs to be moved. 

We have been slowly introducing practical work activities, and we will continue introducing more of these this week. We wash our dishes, sweep our crumbs and dirt, chop vegetables and apples, care for our painting supplies, put our toys and tools away, and sand cutting boards. This week students will be able to begin a small sanding project that they can take home when finished! We will sand small cedar pendants, which students will receive on our Day of Courage on September 22nd. Students who attend two days per week will receive their pendants on the 21st. Sanding is an excellent practical activity because it uses and builds motor planning, gross motor skills , focus and attention, proprioception, and patience. The results are visible and can also be felt and heard, engaging many senses. Students are excited to show how smooth they can make wood with their hands and some sandpaper. We are looking forward to this new activity!

Announcements and Reminders:

  • Please check your child’s backpack daily for soiled clothing and replace them with a new change of clothing as needed.

  • Please send your child in or with rain boots daily. Our forest has benefitted from the shade of the trees, but this also keeps our forest floor wet and muddy for a few days after rain.


Upcoming Events:

  • 9/5 Joyful Beginnings and Kindergarten Curriculum Night 6 pm (adults only)

  • 9/6 Grades 1- 5 Curriculum Night 6 pm and Sixth Grade 7- 8 pm (adults only)

  • 9/16 Community Workday 9 am - 12 pm

  • 9/22 Half Day - Day of Courage

  • 9/25-9/29 Fall Break (No School)

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: August 21-25, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families,

The Georgia heat presented us with the opportunity to have extra indoor time last week. We enjoyed outdoor activity most mornings (Wednesday painting is indoors) and headed into the air conditioning for the afternoon at lunchtime. The students have enjoyed both spaces and the variety of play and activity opportunities they bring. Outdoors, we had our first creek mornings on Monday and Tuesday. The students rested, played in the cool running water, and searched for gems and other treasures. We even saw some small fish swimming! In the afternoons, we chopped apples, swept with hand brooms, and ground coriander seeds with a mortar and pestle.

We are looking forward to curriculum night next Tuesday.  Please plan to join us (adults only, please) from 6:00 p.m. -7:00 p.m. We will walk to our outdoor classroom and do our morning circle as the students do each morning. We will then recite our blessing and share a light snack of gluten-free, nut-free, vegan corn muffins and apple slices on the platform as the students do for Friday snack. We will then talk about rhythm and the sense of life. We will answer the questions, “What is rhythm, and how is it different from a schedule? What is the sense of life, and how does it develop? How does rhythm help develop the sense of life in young children?” We will also discuss how to build a rhythm at home and the small steps you can take to make a big impact without a lot of stress.

Snack and Lunch blessing words:

Blessings on the blossoms

Blessings on the fruits

Blessings on the leaves and stems

Blessings on the roots

Thank you for our food and friends.


Announcements and Reminders:

  • Students are working on skills for independence. In kindergarten, it is necessary for them to be able to change their own clothing (especially underwear and pants) and use the toilet completely unassisted. Please continue to work on this at home if your child has not yet reached full independence in these areas.


Upcoming Events:

  • 9/4 Labor Day (No School)

  • 9/5 Joyful Beginnings and Kindergarten Curriculum Night 6 pm

  • 9/6 Grades 1-5 Curriculum Night 6 pm, Middle School 7 pm

  • 9/16 Community Workday 9 am - 12 pm

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: August 14-18, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families,

We had a magical first full week of school! The students had their first experience with wet-on-wet watercolor painting on Wednesday. We started by meeting our painting friend, Tippy Toes, the paintbrush. Tippy said hello to each student, and then they tucked her into her bed, listening quietly so they did not wake her. When it was time, the students helped Tippy wake up and take a bath, and then she guided them on an adventure with our friend Yellow. When Tippy finished her adventure, they helped her wash off and tucked her back into bed. They then took turns caring for their painting supplies before joining free play. This year, we are going to collect and keep the students’ paintings and drawings at school until the end of the semester. When the students leave for the semester break, they will have a beautiful book of paintings and a wonderful book of drawings to bring home. These will serve as a keepsake and a record of their artwork showing their growth throughout the semester.

Weather permitting, we will visit the creek and/or the farm this week. In the creek, students will have the opportunity to play in the sand and ankle-deep water. We will bring toys and tools from the mud kitchen, allowing the students to play in various ways. The area of the creek we visit is shallow and slow, giving us an excellent opportunity to cool down, play, and experiment with water. At the farm, students can visit our two donkeys, two goats, two Angora rabbits, and eight chickens. We learn to be safe and gentle with the animals and to treat them with respect, not only as living beings but as friends. Students will have the opportunity to check for chicken eggs, climb the big rock, look at the growing plants, and see the butterflies, birds, and insects that enjoy the garden space. We are looking forward to visiting these new places!

Announcements and Reminders:

  • If you would like to send a light snack with your child to have with the daily shared snack, such as fruit or crackers, please pack it separately from their lunch (if they are a full day student). If it is in their main lunch box, students do not remember which part they should have for snack and can end up eating much of their lunch, leaving them hungry later in the day.

  • Hard-soled, closed-toe water shoes or old sneakers are required at Creekcess.

Upcoming Events:

  • 8/26 Community Work Day 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

  • 9/4 Labor Day (No School)

  • 9/5 Joyful Beginnings and Kindergarten Curriculum Night 6 p.m.

  • 9/6 Grades Curriculum Night 6 p.m.


Thank you for sharing your children with us, and for being part of our community.


Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly

Kindergarten Chickadees: August 9-11, 2023

Osiyo, Chickadee Families,

Our first week of school was short but wonderful. It was a joy to watch all of the students playing together; our class is harmonious, kind, and peaceful, and everyone quickly made many friends. During our first two days, we focused on discovering our indoor and outdoor classrooms through play. We also started to get to know our rhythm of the day, participating in our morning circle, story time, snack time, lunch, and rest. Our first story is one you may already be familiar with, Stone Soup. This is not only a story about working together and sharing resources, it also helps prepare us for our upcoming Wednesday soup snack, which will also have a special “wishing stone”.

This week we are introducing our daily activities. We will chop vegetables on Monday morning, and peel and dice apples on Tuesday morning. We will also visit the farm or creek on Monday and Tuesday mornings. We will be able to visit the creek on warm mornings, provided it has not rained in the preceding 48 hours. Wednesday we will paint with watercolors and on Thursday and Friday we will draw. We will have a puppet show of our story next week. 

Announcements and Reminders:

  • If you have a full-day student and have not sent in a change of clothes, indoor shoes, or a nap blanket for your child, please send them in this week. Thank you for your help!

  • Please send your child with insect repellant, and consider also applying some before school. The mosquitoes love the Georgia forests in summer.

Upcoming Events:

  • 8/26 Community Work Day 9 a.m.-12 p.m. 

  • 9/4 Labor Day (No School)

  • 9/5 Joyful Beginnings and Kindergarten Curriculum Night 6 p.m.

  • 9/6 Grades Curriculum Night 6 p.m.

Thank you for sharing your children with us and for being part of our community.

Gvyalieliga,

Ki Holly