Joyful Beginnings Hummingbirds: April 20 - 24, 2026

Apr 27

Dear Joyful Beginnings Hummingbirds Families,

Thank you for supporting our school through your joyful participation in the Hope Blooms auction! Your care in contributing to our class project, as well as your presence at the event, was deeply felt and appreciated. The Hummingbird class tea time bundle became a richly layered and heartfelt offering that reflected the warmth, creativity, vibrance, and connection within our class community. Bravo!

Last week, the children revealed the confidence and growing independence they have been diligently developing throughout the year as we shifted our morning rhythm to saying goodbye to parents at the door. With steady hands and purposeful movement, they moved through the multi-step sequence of changing into indoor shoes, tending to their belongings, washing their hands, and hanging up their snack baskets. This familiar routine was completed with ease and knowing smiles. Thank you, parents, for supporting the children in this transition with trust and encouragement.

The children also had a wonderful opportunity to strengthen both their fine and gross motor skills through our flower pounding project. In a bit of an experiment, the class discovered that the small wooden hammers were not quite suited for extracting the colors from the blossoms. With care and guidance, we introduced heavier tools, including two full-weight hammers and a rubber mallet. The children handled these heavier tools, which required the full use of their arms and upper bodies, with care and precision, carefully hammering directly onto the petals and stems to create their prints. They noticed how the different hammers produced different results and shared these novel “grown-up tools” with one another with fairness, cooperation, and joy. These hard-earned wildflower print tea towels will be coming home this week as a gift of gratitude for the caretakers in the children’s lives.

In the days ahead, the children will enjoy a bit of water play in the forest and begin creating the covers for their spring drawing and painting books. They will bring closure to a beloved nature tale, Father Sun and the Golden Girl. The story tells of the golden-haired girls in green dresses (the dandelions in bloom) becoming the wise elder women with soft white hair (the dandelion seed heads). The imagery of this story has been woven into our circle as well through a reverent and lilting song the children now know well:

Dandelion yellow as gold
What do you do all day?
Why, I sit, and I wait in the tall green grass
For the children to come and play.

Dandelion yellow as gold
What do you do all night?
Why, I sit, and I wait in the tall green grass
For my hair to grow long and white.

And what do you do when your hair grows white?
And the children come to play?
Why, they pick me up in their dimpled hands
And they blow my hair away.

Announcements & Reminders:

TGS Families are invited to attend Class Plays, Presentations, and School Assemblies!

We hope you will join us!