Dear Nursery Families,
It has been wonderful to see the children at play on these frosty days back at school.
I was particularly impressed with one transformation today. A couple of boys were pretending to be lions. I had them doing tricks in a circus for a while, but another group of children seemed to be having fun pretending to be afraid of the lions, which was fine. But the lions also were scaring children who no interest in such intensity. I finally followed a hunch and spoke to the children who were egging on the lions by pretending to be scared. I enabled them to observe that the game wasn't working for some others; then one of the lions said, "Let's be chipmunks," and a child who had seemed genuinely frightened jumped right in and started playing.
There seems to be no best way to dress for this relatively cold weather--some of children are on the petite side and get quite cold quickly. It should warm up later this week. As it warms up, please balance the needs of warmth with the needs of independence in using the bathroom. More than a few children are wearing sweaters over overalls and the like that make it hard for them to use the bathroom independently--or even for Lynne to help them in an effective way. Please don't buy new clothes based on my request; do, please, in purchases and clothing for the future, consider your child's developing autonomy. Again, I know when it is really cold, we want to make our children as warm as possible. All in all, we want the clothes to be as practical as possible.
We have welcomed a new boy to our class (details and roster will come in a non-public forum), and he has fit right in. We have a couple of children who are on shorter or longer stays away from our class, so our whole group may not be together for a week or two.
It is snowing as I write this. It may change to rain. Please check schoolreport.org for South Whidbey Schools or call our main number 360-341-5686 to find out if our school (which follows South Whidbey) is closed or delayed. If there is a 2 hour delay, our whole school opens at 10am. We will be outside a brief time before baking bread inside, so if you find yourself arriving at 10:30, it is possible we will already be inside.
Many children were in our parent & child class last year, and I have been reprising the Polar Bear puppet show from that class. I will repeat it a little or a lot depending on how it holds the interest of the children--then I will present a show about little rabbit, who finds 2 carrots buried in the snow. He eats one and brings the other to a friend he thinks must be hungry. The carrot makes it way back to little rabbit. We are singing and reciting rhymes about snow, so it is a gift to have the genuine article to enliven our imaginations.
With warmth and light,
William Geoffrey Dolde
It has been wonderful to see the children at play on these frosty days back at school.
I was particularly impressed with one transformation today. A couple of boys were pretending to be lions. I had them doing tricks in a circus for a while, but another group of children seemed to be having fun pretending to be afraid of the lions, which was fine. But the lions also were scaring children who no interest in such intensity. I finally followed a hunch and spoke to the children who were egging on the lions by pretending to be scared. I enabled them to observe that the game wasn't working for some others; then one of the lions said, "Let's be chipmunks," and a child who had seemed genuinely frightened jumped right in and started playing.
There seems to be no best way to dress for this relatively cold weather--some of children are on the petite side and get quite cold quickly. It should warm up later this week. As it warms up, please balance the needs of warmth with the needs of independence in using the bathroom. More than a few children are wearing sweaters over overalls and the like that make it hard for them to use the bathroom independently--or even for Lynne to help them in an effective way. Please don't buy new clothes based on my request; do, please, in purchases and clothing for the future, consider your child's developing autonomy. Again, I know when it is really cold, we want to make our children as warm as possible. All in all, we want the clothes to be as practical as possible.
We have welcomed a new boy to our class (details and roster will come in a non-public forum), and he has fit right in. We have a couple of children who are on shorter or longer stays away from our class, so our whole group may not be together for a week or two.
It is snowing as I write this. It may change to rain. Please check schoolreport.org for South Whidbey Schools or call our main number 360-341-5686 to find out if our school (which follows South Whidbey) is closed or delayed. If there is a 2 hour delay, our whole school opens at 10am. We will be outside a brief time before baking bread inside, so if you find yourself arriving at 10:30, it is possible we will already be inside.
Many children were in our parent & child class last year, and I have been reprising the Polar Bear puppet show from that class. I will repeat it a little or a lot depending on how it holds the interest of the children--then I will present a show about little rabbit, who finds 2 carrots buried in the snow. He eats one and brings the other to a friend he thinks must be hungry. The carrot makes it way back to little rabbit. We are singing and reciting rhymes about snow, so it is a gift to have the genuine article to enliven our imaginations.
With warmth and light,
William Geoffrey Dolde
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