Suz Lipman has more than 25 years experience as a writer, editor, social media manager, community builder, and advocate for getting children into nature. Suz serves as Social Media Director for the Children & Nature Network.

Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was primarily a city dweller.  She was born in Rome and opened her very first school in Rome, but ended up living all over the world as she struggled to protect her work from political upheaval during both World Wars.  Her urban lifestyle, however, didn’t inhibit her from developing a great appreciation for the value of all living things, and a deep understanding of how they coexist on our planet in a highly complex web of life.  She viewed every living thing as having a purpose –  a “cosmic task”, in her words.  The cosmic task of humans, in her estimation, was to care for everything else.  We humans carry around a brain so big and so highly developed that we can choose our actions.  We can choose to be stewards of the planet or not.

For a young child, the first step toward becoming a steward of the environment is simply to  connect with life, to be given  time to hold  a worm, or look at a spider, or smell some lavender, or help fill a bird feeder.  Time is one requirement for children, and a friendly adult is another.  Having a grown-up who is willing to hold a worm, or point out the fragrance of a flower helps tremendously.

Developing an environment that affords children those opportunities is one of the reasons for our Earth Week.  We want to place our strong support beneath each child’s natural curiosity and openness, providing a prepared environment in which they can safely explore.  They are too young to confront global climate change in any meaningful way, even though any changes that occur will affect their lives more than ours.  They must be protected from fear that the rainforest is disappearing at an alarming rate.  It’s difficult for adults to know what to do about that, let alone children.

So – in order to maximize opportunities to connect with nature for our children, we ask your help during the week of May 14 – 18, which we are calling Earth Week at Children’s Garden.  Children are attracted to beauty, as we all are, and watering purple pansies will strenghten their love of the earth, as will planting, harvesting and cooking beets from their own raised-bed vegetable gardens.  Those experiences will help with connection,  so that when they are old enough to do more, their activist will be built on firsthand knowledge of the earth.

At each gate there are lists of plants and supplies we need during Earth Week.  We invite you to either come spend time with your child next week to help us spruce up our gardens, or, if you’re not able to join us, we would appreciate your contribution of flowers or supplies.  Although we don’t need us schedule a particular time to come, if your child would not be happy being left at school when you leave, please plan to come late in the school day, or take your child with you.  Thank you for all your help!!!

We are looking forward to celebrating a wonderful year of creativity in the studio with the Arts Festival.  The festival will be Thursday, May 10 from 5-7pm.    This is a wonderful time for the entire family to enjoy the wonderful work that all the children have been doing in the studio this year.  There will be snacks, music and a school filled with festivity!

We will be celebrating Earth Day this month by inviting parents to come in during the school day to do some planting with their children.  We have a wish list of items we need on the clipboard.  We ask that you come at a time near the end of your child’s class, so that when you are finished planting they can leave with you.

We will start doing more outdoor time and open our doors to have an outside environment as an extension of our classroom.  The children LOVE this!!  Please remember to put sunscreen on your children.  We are also going to put out more food prep works.  This is when the children can choose a work to do things such as spread cream cheese on a bagel, or cut bananas, or crush pretzels to give to the squirrels.  They LOVE doing these works as well!

Just so you know, Coco will be leaving school a couple weeks early to go to Chicago for the summer.  Her last day will be Thursday, May 24^th.  Ruth will substitute for her.

We are singing our butterfly song on a regular basis as we continue our celebration of spring.   We also started singing a new song called The Days of the Week this month:

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Tell me what day is Today

Raise Your Hand

  Vida, Melody and Kristen – 440 Classroom Teachers  

It is hard to believe that we are now in our final month of school for this year!

We will miss all of you who are moving on to new schools, and look forward to working with many of you again next year.

Our study of Spring in now in full swing! We have small seedlings growing in our classroom – corn, watermelon, sunflower seeds and carrots that each of the children have helped to plant.

We also have painted lady caterpillars that we’ve been watching as they grow bigger and bigger each day.  A few of them have already formed their chrysalis, and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the butterflies in about 10 days.   They children have been eagerly checking on the progress of these amazing creatures each day when they come to school.  Many of the children continue to be interested in documenting the life cycle of a butterfly as a result.

The new science experiments have been a huge hit.  More and more children are enjoying the wonders of science as they explore them through these creative experiments designed by Bekke and Vida.

We’ve also put out more challenging Practical Life activities for the end of the year, in order to reengage some of the older children, and to ensure continued interest in others.

Art activities continue to be a favorite, as do the activities that involve feeding the birds and squirrels.

The children have also been enjoying the time to work outside.  The weather has been very cooperative, and we’ve been able to open our outdoor environment a few days each week.

Happy Birthday

Janie M.                                                              June 1

Thank You

Thank you to Audrey W., Chris K., Gretchen K., and Alison F. for reading to the children.

Thank you to Finnur M. for the hand soap.  Thank you to Ryan O. for the tea and the sugar cubes.  Thank you to Elizabeth K. and Nevi L. for the Painted Lady caterpillars.  Thank you to Elizabeth K. for the salt, bananas and oranges.

Instead of a steady stream of small people with big energy coming through the front door, there is an ebb and flow of grown-ups, often cluching a Starbucks cup,  checking the schedule, worried about running late or arriving way too early.

What we aim to do during a parent-teacher conference, as well as during those short moments at the gate, or during any phone conversations we might have with you, is share what we observe about your child.  We hope you share with us what you observe as well.  Our hope, and indeed our past experiences with all of you, is that the conferences will become dialogues – back and forth exchanges about a child who is special to all.

Writing the spring conference reports is a process of pulling together information from the entire year with your child.  This year we have used a software program called Montessori Workspace in both the preschool classrooms to keep records of children’s work.  Both preschool classrooms have iPads that are used to access Montessori Workspace.  The toddler teachers also keep extensive records, but Montessori Workspace is not as conducive to toddler recordkeeping so they still use paper and pencil for record-keeping, as do all the teachers on many occasions.  Because there are many teachers working with each child, conference preparation also involves hours of conversations and comparing notes.

We also worked with Shari Caudron, who is a writing instructor for Lighthouse Writers Workshop and DU, to help us finetune writing skills.   Just like other learning processes, incorporating different writing approaches is not easy, and you may or may not notice any changes in what teachers have written about your child.  But to all of us, the shift to using Montessori Workspace for record-keeping, and our time spent with a professional writer, gave this year’s conference preparation a new feel.

Because of the changes we have made, I am  interested  in how the conferences meet your needs.  I have already told the teachers that I want to sit in on some conferences this year, so if I ask if I can sit in on your conference, please don’t see me  as “the principal” who is there to check up on things, but as one more friend at Children’s Garden who is part of the team.  Sometimes children ask me if I am “the principal”, and I always wonder what they think “the principal” does.  Angelina is also going to be available to you in the art studio for some of the time.  We look forward to meeting with you!

A day spend in the company of children and flowers is a day well spent.

                           Vida, Kristen and Melody           

440 Classroom Teachers

Classroom Spotlight

This month, our focus shifts from the Geographical study of Antarctica to a Science and Cultural Study of Spring and the life cycles that it implies.  We will be studying various life cycles such as the life cycle of plants, worms, butterflies and chicks.  In the Science area we have put out many new activities and materials including:  lifecycle of a butterfly and parts of a butterfly, lifecycle of a plant and parts of a flower, parts of a bird and some fun bird puppets.  We have also been reading books about eggs and the various types of birds that hatch from them.

We have plans to plant seeds, create a worm bin and watch caterpillars turn into butterflies.

We started our first seed planting activity in the classroom last week.

Each of the children planted two spots in the planting tray and chose what type of seeds they wanted to plant, documenting their work in small pictures.

The playground has also undergone a spring transformation.  The plants have started to grow, and the trees have started to bud.  We’ve also opened the playground during our work time and have set up an outdoor work environment for the children which includes new activities such as baby washing and clothes washing.

We are also beginning a study of music and families of musical instruments:  percussion, string and wind.  Children will have the opportunity to utilize instruments in each of these families including a marimba, a guitar, and a recorder, among others.

In Practical Life and Art we have introduced activities that support the study of the lifecycle including a theme revolving around eggs and chicks.

Parent Volunteer Opportunities

Please continue to check the Volunteer Basket which we bring out to the gate periodically for specific volunteer opportunities.

Happy Birthday!

Drew Finley                        April 14

Finnur Mercier                  April 14

Thank You

Thank you to Dawn D., Missy B., Emily G., Kimberly C., Angie O., and Emily S. for reading to the children.

Thank you to Erin P., Shannon R., Jennifer J., Jessica M., Kimberly C., and Mary K. (Delaney’s grandmother) for substituting.

Thank you to everyone who has provided supplies for our food preparation and science experiments.  Thank you to Jack W. for the cake for the teachers.  Thank you to Oliver H. for the children’s sized snow shovels.  Thank you to Hunter S. for the tracing paper, baby food jars and the hard boiled eggs.  Thank you to Karsten V. and Gabriel D. for the flowers.  Thank you to Caroline K. and Caroline J. for the eggs.  Thank you to Nevi L. for the book for the classroom, the oranges and the toothpaste.  Thank you to Sully S. for the oranges.  Thank you to Annika B. for the pumpkin bread for the teachers, the tea and the baking soda.  Thank you to Elizabeth K. for the salt, flowers and eggs.  Thank you to Gabriel D. for the salt.  Thank you to Finnur M. for the baking soda and the toothpaste.    Thank you to Lucas D. for the salt.  Thank you to Ryan O. for the tea and the sugar cubes.  Thank you to Bella J. for the tea.  Thank you to Parker B. for the sidewalk chalk.

The money went in four different directions, following the children’s wishes, and today we had a visit from a Senegalese Parrot and a Cockatoo and their handlers.  They were from  Colorado Parrot Rescue in Littleton.  The afternoon children sat on our  stadium-seating-like steps and watched the birds watch them.  The birds were impressive.  The  children were more impressive.

The children, from toddlers to extended primary,  listened to lots of grown-up talk about birds.  They asked intelligent questions.  They sat quietly for a LONG TIME.  They didn’t poke their friends.  They followed directions.  They exhibited all the intensity and fascination with the natural world that children who are not over-stimulated use to connect witih reality.  It was a half-hour spent during a week at Children’s Garden that left me with a satisfied feeling that we are having a positive effect on many young lives (not to mention a few parrots!)

I hope you have a lovely holiday weekend with your families.  We will see you and your children on Monday.

With all this play outside, we ask that you please slather on the sunscreen before coming to school.  We have some new shade but the sun can be mighty strong in the afternoon.  We will also be using the water table more often so be prepared for wet clothing because they love to play in water!

Some new things we will be trying out this month is food preparation with your toddlers, such as bagel spreading, banana slicing and cracker crushing.  We are always working to build their independence and since of community and preparing food and sharing it with their fellow classmates is a good and yummy way to do this.

This is also a good time of year to ask our parents to please come into do different projects! We love to eat and also it is a good time to start some planting of seeds.  If you would like to come in to cook, do some art or do some planting please let us know!

Happy Birthday!

Till S.                    April 27, 09

Maya W.              April 28, 09

THANKS A BUNCH!

Anika, Travis and Callan W. for the yummy starbucks, carrot cake and lovely red umbrella for the sandbox!;  Georgia M.  for the daffodiles; Eloise H. for the wipes;  Ellis S. for the wipes; Waitman J. for the yummy cookies; James and Audrey W. for the delicious brownies and Eve Marie E. for the book Big Hugs Little Hugs.

We want to thank you all for spoiling us rotten with your generousity and being such a wonderful community of families!

Also last reminder is to please write us emails if you have some questions we will check it at least once a day and get back to you within 24 hours!

Dress your children warmly tomorrow – it is spring in the Rockies after all.