This week, many of our discussions revolved around instilling a deep respect for books. We have placed a few regular books onto the bookshelf, (as opposed to board books) and have discussed the importance of caring for them tenderly. As always, we’d love it if this could be reinforced at home. 

In addition to books, your children love music! As soon as we finish singing one song, their symphony of “more, more, more” begins. I will attach one of their recent favorites, called These Are My Glasses, by Laurie Berkner. The children love to open and close their imaginary book.

Additionally, we’ve delved into the world of yoga, exploring various poses together, fostering mindfulness and relaxation.

The children explored the versatility of chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans. They eagerly embraced the experience, delighting in the chance to spread hummus onto pita bread. 

We all enjoyed the rejuvenating spring weather this week on the playground. We took a walk and found buds growing on trees, as we discussed the change of seasons. 

We are looking forward to the week ahead! Christine & Lizette

We celebrated another birthday this week! This time we shared a special snack of delicious chocolate chip cookies and read one of the birthday girl’s favorite books, Little Blue Truck’s Springtime,  which the children have continued to enjoy all week long. It was a lovely celebration for our sweet friend. 

Food tasting was a huge hit this week. We tried golden berries. Golden berries belong to the nightshade family and are native to Chile and Peru. They are closely related to the tomatillo with a sweet, tropical taste somewhat reminiscent of pineapple and mango. I was trying this fruit for the first time along with many of the children, which was exciting. Such an interesting fruit with an impressive nutrient profile!

We continue to encourage the children to “catch” their cough with their elbow. We’d love your help to encourage this at home as well. We also walk each child through the steps of washing their hands at the sink. First, they roll up their sleeves (most need help with this). Then, they place one hand under the soap pump, and the other hand pushes the pump. We tell them that their hands will share the soap, and we show them how to rub their palms together and look for the bubbles, then show them how to rub the tops of each hand. As we show them how to rinse, we mention that we are cleaning some of the germs off our hands. Then, we show them how to use a towel to dry each hand. 

Wishing you all a happy weekend! 

Christine & Lizette

Welcome back! It was exciting for all of us to reunite this week. The children quickly settled right back into our classroom routines. We celebrated Margot’s 2nd birthday this week. She counted two votive candles, and we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her as we played our music box. She shared one of her favorite books, The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear, which captivated the whole group! Then we had a special snack of blueberry scones. The children especially loved looking at Margot’s baby pictures. It was a lovely celebration! We’re looking forward to celebrating a few more birthdays soon!

Just before break, we tasted Irish soda bread. The children were given a lesson on spreading butter. They loved the bread, and they loved being able to spread their own butter! An activity such as spreading butter requires a unique rotation of the wrist, which is necessary for learning to write. Spreading requires strength, coordination, and the use of the support hand. It is also very satisfying for young children to participate in preparing their own snacks. The next time you are preparing a snack for your child at home, think about how they can participate. They are so capable! Some ideas for spreading are spreading avocado onto toast, jam or cream cheese on a bagel or rice cake, hummus onto pita, and sun butter onto apple slices or celery. 

This week, we tasted Brussels sprouts. I’d say it was a 50/50 split. Definitely worth trying again at home. There are so many interesting and delicious recipes that surely did not exist when I was a child!

I wholeheartedly thank you all for all that you do for us. Thank you for showing up each week with food for our food-tasting experience and flowers for the children to arrange. Thank you for sharing in the task of doing laundry. I appreciate all of you!

Happy Easter to those who celebrate!

Warmly,

Christine & Lizette

We have spent the first week of March listening to Irish music. The children have learned a bit about bagpipes, and many of them start to dance as soon as the music begins to play.  We’ve listened to the music from Riverdance and talked about Irish dancing. In some of the music, we listened for drums being played along with the bagpipes. The children have also enjoyed learning the names of other musical instruments such as flute, clarinet, French horn, trombone, and guitar. They have seen photos of people playing these instruments and enjoyed matching miniature replicas of these instruments to the photos. 

This week, we tasted asparagus: raw and cooked. Many of the children enjoyed the cooked asparagus. They noticed the difference in taste between the two, as well as the distinct crunch of the raw. 

We are so grateful to Angela and Michael Huttemann for working with our children to create a gorgeous collaborative handprint masterpiece, which will be available for purchase at the gala. 

Our children also had the opportunity to work with Ms. Sarah, our art teacher, to complete another project for the gala. They each pressed their fingerprints onto a ceramic vase. Upon completion, their fingerprints will look like insects crawling on its surface. We are eager to see the finished product!

We hope you enjoy some quality time with your families over the spring break, and look forward to seeing everyone back at school on March 25th.

Warmly, Christine & Lizette

The children enjoyed the sunshine and warmer weather this week. They ended last week tasting lemons, and this week, they gave plantains a try. We discussed the differences between plantains and bananas. Plantains tend to be larger, with thicker skin. They are also a bit starchy, whereas bananas are sweeter. We had the opportunity to taste mangu, which is a Dominican dish consisting of cooked, mashed plantains. We’ll end the week trying plantain chips. 

Stay healthy, and enjoy the first weekend of March! 

Last week wound up being a shorter week than we expected due to the snow. The toddlers enjoyed a delightful Valentine’s Day celebration filled with joy and camaraderie. They enthusiastically joined forces to create a “friendship fruit salad,” pooling their efforts to open containers, meticulously wash, and expertly prepare the array of fruits. Along with their fruit salad, they enjoyed raspberry muffins and sipped cranberry juice. They exchanged valentines and were thrilled to take home their specially decorated bags filled with goodies -spreading smiles all around.

We explored the themes of kindness and friendship, emphasizing the importance of helping others. Within our classroom, these values are demonstrated vividly as the children willingly assist each other in opening water bottles, offer to carry a friend’s lunch or drink to their designated spot, help one another hang their coats, and retrieve slippers from their cubbies.

Our food-tasting experience extended through this week and included both avocados and guacamole. The avocado was more popular than the guacamole. 

The toddlers have been exploring Arctic animals and engaging in hands-on experiments with ice and water. They’ve been actively observing how water interacts with ice, noting how it causes the ice to melt and drawing connections between the two states of matter.

See you next week! Christine & Lizette

A large part of our work with toddlers is to lay the foundation for developing emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize, understand, manage, and express emotions. Cultivating emotional intelligence in toddlers is crucial for their social and emotional well-being.

Teaching children to identify and name emotions is the first step in teaching children about their own emotions and the emotions of others. Being able to identify and name their feelings can help children to feel heard and understood. Introducing toddlers to a diverse range of emotions through books, stories, and discussions will develop their emotional vocabulary. Since toddlers often mimic the actions and attitudes of the adults around them, demonstrating healthy ways to express and manage emotions is crucial – such as taking deep breaths to calm down when feeling frustrated. One of our favorite books this month was In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek. We have read it numerous times, and it has inspired discussions about times when we’ve felt a variety of different emotions. The children especially enjoy hearing the anecdotes that I share with them about times when I have felt brave, happy, sad, etc. 

For this week’s food-tasting experience, we tried beets. The children seemed very fond of exploring the whole beet and were quite eager to taste this vibrant root vegetable. Some studies have shown that children need to be exposed to a new food at least a dozen times before they make a final decision about truly liking it or not, so perhaps consider adding beets to your menu this week – maybe topped with crumbled goat cheese!

The children decorated their Valentine’s Day bags this week, and we’ve been reading Valentine’s books that celebrate friendship. We’re looking forward to exchanging cards next week. 

Wishing you all an enjoyable weekend. 

Christine and Lizette