Dear Families,

Winter never came this year, but now that it is officially spring the world is greening up around us again! The children always look so big this time of year as their growth spurts become evident in their longer limbs, joyful energy and engaged minds – bursting with all they know and are curious about!

Our “Moon Mission” was a great success! 

Jane’s groups worked really hard developing a moon phase calendar. They learned about all of the moon phases; designed and assembled the calendar; and wrote all of the words to label the phases. Lots of hard work! They also designed and built their own amazing rocket ships.

Katey’s M/W kids began by talking about nighttime – seeing the moon in the nighttime sky and reading about nighttime animals. They then settled on exploring the book “Owl Babies” by Martin Waddlell. They created puppets of the three little owls and their mother; formed a sturdy nest; and then performed the story for all of the children to enjoy. The T/TH gang messed around with thinking about the moon before choosing a favorite story to focus on. “Can’t You Sleep Little Bear”, also by Martin Waddlell. The Little Bear is afraid of the dark and Big Bear keeps bringing him larger and larger lanterns before bringing him outside to see the full moon. The children made all of the lanterns and then played in a darkened room while talking about “the darkness all around.” Following “Can’t You Sleep Little Bear” they fell in love with the book “The Boy and the Moon” by James Christopher Carroll. A boy and some creatures howl at the moon joyfully until it wanes and the crescent moon gets stuck in a tree. They figure out how to get the moon unstuck by feeding it apples until it is full again. The group made a beautiful backdrop to the story that reflected the beautiful illustrations in the book. After lots and lots of hard work their wall was completed and they joyfully acted out the story for an audience.

Janet’s M/W kids also spent a lot of time exploring the concept of the phases of the moon – New, Crescent , Gibbous and Full. They then decided to make magical paper mache moon masks. That turned into deciding to write a collective story about a birthday party for the moon! That turned into a performance of our story for the other children.

The T/TH peeps messed around with looking at the surface of the moon – which turned into creating a larger moon complete with craters to walk on – which turned into designing and creating a large cardboard rocket ship – which turned into wearing space suits and traveling to the moon – which turned into a storybook (written and illustrated by the children) of a huge baby stuck on the moon. Phew!

When Kate’s M/W crew thought about what might be interesting regarding the moon they became interested in nocturnal animals in the forest. What do they do at night? Where do the daytime animals go at night? Through a series of many steps they created beautiful nighttime shadow boxes with a “window” into that moonlit world.
Her T/TH kids designed and constructed individual Moon Rovers with the intention of exploring the surface of the moon. They each engineered a way for their Rovers to collect moon rocks (which they had made out of paper mache.) They then went to the moon (the sandbox) to put their Rovers to work gathering moon “samples!”

If you haven’t heard yet, the final focus of this school year is a study of Vehicles – Air; Water; and Ground. Stay tuned for all of the many different ways this study comes into being!

STUDIO DISCOVERY FRIDAY
CONIFEROUS FOREST
Throughout the school year the children have studied each layer of the Coniferous Forest. They have learned about the importance of each layer, including what is happening with the trees themselves as well as what is happening in the ecosystem that the forest supports. They began studying the Root Layer, moved on to the Forest Floor then explored the Understory. They are now beginning to learn about the Canopy.

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.”
John Muir

Spring Conferences

We will be holding Spring Conferences to celebrate your children’s growth and accomplishments during the week of May 18th. We will have sign-up sheets with time slots for you to sign up with your child’s group teacher. These sheets will be available in a couple of weeks.

Parenting Discussion Night
Things got pretty busy for all of so we apologize for the space between our last parent meeting and this one!
We will be available for another session on Wednesday April 29th from 6:30 to 7:30.
If anyone has any specific topics they would like to talk about let Jane or Janet know in advance.

We are looking forward to coming together again!!

DATES!!!!!!!
We will be closed Monday May 25th for Memorial Day.
The last day of this school session is Friday May 29th
Summer session will start Monday June 1st and run through August 14th.
We will be closed to children the week of August 17th to prepare for the next school year.
Fall session will begin Monday August 24th.

THANKS and Happy Spring!!!
Jane, Janet, Katey and Kate