Weekly Digest - Monday, February 6th

Photo above: Special guest African Drummer, Maputo!

 

Announcements

 

Valentine's Day -- If your child is interested in bringing Valentine's for their friends they are more than welcome to do so.  You need not include absolutely every child, and we encourage you to help your child make a few special home-made cards rather than getting the store-bought variety.  We will also offer many opportunities for children to make cards for each other and for home.  If you want to contribute stickers, special papers, lace, etc, that would be great!  And although we love to celebrate holidays, we do ask that you please not bring any sugary treats.

   

School Threads & Happenings

 

New Faces - Mitch, Toddlers & Preschool

Along with the new year comes new resolutions, excitement for new experiences and new beginnings. We were excited to see several of our toddlers graduate from toddlers to preschoolers this January. While Ellie, Aine, Ashleigh, and Ameila have all moved their cubbies next door we still visit each other frequently and love seeing how they are growing and forming new relationships. We also have some new faces joining us at both schools.  Marisa, Nora and Maisy are our new faces in the toddler group and have been so wonderful it seems like they have been here all along! The Preschool is lucky to introduce Cru, Fiona, Shepard, Sarah and Jack. Benny and Destiny are our new red group students. We are so happy to have them in our community! Please help us welcome these new children and those transitioning to new spaces!

Observed conversation:
Amelia to Haley: "I miss my friends"
Amelia looks behind her to see Ashleigh dressed in her frog costume: "Ashleigh! You came back for me!!!!" (runs and wraps her arms around her)
An onlooker (Gavin) cannot resist joining in on the hug

(Photo above: Aine, Ashleigh & Milo have fun making shadows and funny faces at the preschool)

 

 

Mind Maps - Liza @ Preschool

As many of you know I am part of the internship program through The Patchwork School and Goddard College. One of the learning tools I have found extremely helpful in my own learning is Mind Mapping. Mind mapping is a way to brainstorm, come up with new ideas, and to see how concepts are connected to others. I decided to use this concept with the children as a way to collaboratively collect information. This has been an extremely rewarding and useful tool with surprising results. In dinosaur meeting I asked the children to share with the group everything they knew about dinosaurs, while I wrote their responses on a dry erase board. Children who already knew a lot about dinosaurs were able to teach and share their knowledge with the group. However, I found that children who maybe didn’t know very much about dinosaurs were still able to share and contribute. I was impressed by their ability to build off one another’s ideas.
This tool allowed me to step back from my teacher role and allow the children to really lead meeting. Our mind maps have been filled with rich vocabulary and creativity that follows the children’s own thought and learning processes.   In one meeting we found that as a group we didn’t know very much about fossils and this opened up ideas for an investigation. In another meeting, one child shared that they found dinosaurs to be scary. A few other
children agreed and we discussed why they were feeling this way. It was lovely to see the community the children have built in which they feel comfortable talking about their fears in a group setting. Other children then
shared why they were not scared of dinosaurs with deep empathy for those who were. This is a tool I want to continue to use to build community, emphasize
collaborative learning, open dialogue, and discover new topics and ideas for strengthening our learning threads.

(Photos above: Volcano Mind Map &

Paper Mache Volcano offering in the studio)

 


  

CURRENT VOLUNTEERING IDEAS

 

NEW & HIGHLIGHTED OPENINGS:

  • Painting - there are a few rooms that could use a fresh coat of paint!
  • Transcribing - some of our new documentation would be great to have typed up!

CONTINUED OPENINGS:

  • Snack Prep or Clean-up
  • Dishes & Laundry
  • Book Organizing/Sorting
  • Sanitizing
  • Toy & Costume Repair
  • Animal Helper
  • Weekend Home for Poppy
  • Start Seedlings for Garden
  • Dinosaur Offering
  • Cities/Buildings/Houses Offering
  • Bring in a picture of your house
  • Library Book Runner
  • Welcoming Committee
  • Gym Redesign
  • Building Maintenance Tasks!

 

Just email info@thepatchworkschool.com to sign up or get more information on any of these things!

THANK YOUS

  • Thank you to Sherri Huwer for the great Teacher coffee mugs and for volunteering at school recently!

 

FAMILY UPDATES

 

Please let us know if there is someone we have forgotten to thank or if you know of a family update that should be listed!

 

Click Here for Last Week's Digest!