Kindergarten Turtles: December 2-6, 2024

Dec 6

Greetings, Turtle Families,

Thank you for attending the Winter Spiral. It was a magical morning, and it was beautiful to see how each child's personality and light shone as they walked the Spiral.

We began a new circle full of colder weather/late autumn songs and verses. We also began work on a handwork project we will continue to work on over the next weeks. The children are keeping their projects in their handwork bags and will bring them home at the end of the semester. It is nice for the students to work on projects over time and see their creations take shape.

The cold weather has arrived. As a result, the children have mainly engaged in heavy, active play in the classroom. While this heavy work has the benefit of warming their bodies, there are also many unseen benefits. Activities such as carrying, pulling, jumping, pushing, climbing, lifting, and digging engage and develop our proprioceptive system. This system takes the input from our muscles and joints during this heavy, active play, and that information flows back and forth between the brain and the body. Our brains and bodies are constantly adjusting to make sure that the muscle output is appropriate for the task at hand. This helps the students develop body awareness, and it also is a powerful regulator for our other sensory systems. In addition to that, the children are building wrist and hand strength, core strength, and shoulder stability; they are developing their vestibular and interoceptive sense and motor planning abilities. All of these are building a foundation for later academic learning.

We celebrated Nika’s 6th Birthday on Wednesday. Nika’s parents visited our classroom to celebrate with us.

We celebrated Penny’s 4th birthday on Friday. Penny’s mom visited our classroom to celebrate with us.

Happy Birthday Nika and Penny!

It is hard to believe that next week is the last week of this semester. We will have fun activities each day. Every day, after our circle, we will play a group game. Other snacks and activities to look forward to:

Monday - we will have hot chocolate with our snack (hot chocolate ingredients – cocoa, oat milk, sugar, cinnamon).

Tuesday - we will make pomanders (oranges with cloves) for the children to bring home.

Wednesday - students may bring a stuffed animal to school. They can play with their stuffies in the forest, eat snacks and lunch with them, and rest with them at rest time. Please make sure the stuffed animal is small enough to fit in their backpacks and is one that is okay to get dirty.

Thursday - we will have musical instruments to play in the forest.

Friday - Game Day – we will play games in the forest all morning.

In addition, we will be finishing and wrapping our handwork project to bring home. This is such a fun and special time of year for children!

Announcements and Reminders: