Newsletter

 

Greetings glorious caretakers!

 

We've been taking advantage of this week's beautiful weather by enjoying lots of time playing and exploring outside. With our classroom study of Flowers our Preschool friends have been pointing out all of the pretty plants they've been finding around campus, including the many dandelions that are sprouting up. On Monday after we found lots of dandelions outside, we brought some in to do an experiment. A teacher split the stem of a dandelion vertically, and we gently lowered it into a clear vase of water. Amazingly, once the dandelion's stem was submerged it began to spin, sway and curl. We watched the dandelion dance!

 

As we watched the dandelion move gracefully around the water, we noted how the bright "yellow gold" head of the flower stayed at the surface to help it float. That brought us back to one of the questions shared last week when we asked, "What do you want to learn about flowers?" Beira had asked, "why are flowers so purpley?" While many flowers are indeed beautifully "purpley," here was the dandelion floating as an example that they come in other colors too. That led our class to ask "Why are flowers different colors?" We explored this question throughout the week.

 

First we found some short, helpful videos explaining that flowers have something inside them called "pigments." Different pigments cause plants to be different colors. Flowers and leaves were collected from outside, and we extracted the pigments found inside by placing them on paper and hammering them. As the plant surfaces were smashed, natural hues of yellow, green, pink and purple transferred onto the paper which created beautiful, colorful art. At the end everyone could happily tell us that pigments give flowers their colors!

 

This week during centers we continued working on making our names out of beans. We quickly realized that we needed to supplement our supply of beans since they are so small, so we also used beads to help us form the letters. We are continuing to practice using glue and using fine motor skills to carefully place our pieces onto paper.

 

On Monday Jade and Mila’s mom came in to help our class celebrate Cinco de Mayo. We read a book explaining a bit about the holiday and why it’s celebrated, then they showed us how to make maracas using beans, dried farro, plastic eggs and spoons. Once our instruments were completed we had a maraca dance party. Thank you to both mommas who helped us have a joyous, hands on day!

 

To end the week we went to the Kingergarten and First Grade Play! This amazing performance of "Goin' Buggy" was a collaboration between the older grades, and they've spent weeks preparing. We excitedly walked over to the Main Building and were quiet audience members for the entire half hour production. Our big kid friends did incredibly, and it was a special moment to connect with our wider school community!