Klahanie School
May 2016 Newsletter
I’m not saying we need to save the
trees. I’m saying that we need to
not overlook their capacity to save us.
Put it in your yard and watch it for a while. And pick it carefully because it’s hard to get a tree going.
You know if every seed turned into
a plant, we’d be living in a very different world. So choose well and open your eyes to give it everything.
Hope Jahren, NPR interview April 29th, 2016 “Lab Girl”
April 2016 Reflection
Our class has leaped into the spring with enthusiasm and
creativity in imaginative play and classroom material exploration as well as
amazing recycle art projects.
Please check out our school’s Facebook page and blog for wonderful
pictures of the recycle art creations children appeared to thoroughly enjoy
this month, expanding wonderful creativity with the materials. The garden has taken new shape and
inspired creativity in exploring play in the space as well as respect for the
garden, hosting habitat to many insects, arachnids, oligochaeta (worms) and
birds. We began planting seeds and
discussion of plant life cycle and plant care. With the increase of imaginative role-playing during garden
time we will be introducing more performance encouragement on the garden
stage.
Ending our month of Earth focus, I encourage many of you to
listen to Hope Jahren’s NPR interview from last Friday April 29th as
well as look into her recently published memoir “Lab Girl” focused on her geobiologist
quest described in a deeply poetic way.
I found her study and focus of botany deeply inspiring. Another fun find was Time magazine’s
focus “The Science of Siblings” with some interesting articles and research focused
on the inner workings of children within families of varying topic exploration.
May Curriculum Topics
Ten
little eggs all in a mound.
Out they
will crawl, crawling around.
And then
they will sleep and we know why, out they emerge as butterflies.
Butterfly,
butterfly what lovely wings.
Flutter
by, flutter by how my heart sings.
Butterfly,
butterfly I’d like to know, when it rains, when it rains where do you go?
We
all have different gifts, so we all have different ways of saying to the world
who we are.
Fred Rogers
·
Butterfly
life cycle and habitat: egg, larva (caterpillar), chrysalis (pupa),
butterfly. Our painted lady
butterfly larva is on display observation of the life cycle in class until
ready for release.
·
Moms! Amazing moms and how we show love to
our Mamas as well as May Day celebration!
·
Amphibians:
the amazing world of amphibians and habitats.
·
Insects:
what is an insect, why are insects important and habitats.
·
Woodworking
and sewing projects.
·
Self
Portraits: self-portrait paintings.
These treasures will be on display in class until the end of
school.
·
Friends, Our Neighbors creating empathy
development fun: what
makes a friend and using Compassionate Listening models as foundation to practice
listening games and role playing during circle time. We will make Talking-Listening Sticks
to bring home for family time (taking turns holding the Talking stick to speak
and listen. Each family member
taking turns and repeating back facts, emotions/feelings, values).
·
Thank you Klahanie School families for your
scholarship raffle donations! May
5th is the drawing!
Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a
creative force. The friends who
listen to us are the ones we move toward.
When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.
·
- Karl
Menninger
Reminders, Thank-Yous,
Dates to Save & Changes
·
Thank you & Reminder: May 5th is
our scholarship fundraiser raffle drawing, thank you for your donations,
time-organizing and support!
·
Thank you for the play dough donations!
·
Thank you for spreading the word for next year
enrollment! Would be great to
enroll two four-to-five year old children to balance out our multi-age class
ratios
