Happy September everyone! The teachers are as busy as bees preparing for the upcoming school year! We’ve all just returned from a three day staff retreat where we discussed, planned, prepped, coordinated and just plain, Got Things Done! Here’s a brief report ‘from the mousehole’ about each of our summers:

Wow! So much has been going on this summer, that it is hard to believe that the return to the classroom is just a few weeks away! The teachers all had class retreats to celebrate and bond as a team, setting up our goals for the year, daily routines and themes, and brainstorming different strategies and projects. 

The Ladybug team, Cara, Cari, Brin and Donna, had a fun get together, planning how to best help our littlest littles feel comfortable, engaged, confident, and welcome. Our goal is for all the Ladybugs to know that they ‘belong’ at The Children’s Garden. We have some great projects, fun songs to introduce and a year full of engaging themes planned out! We’re excited to see everyone on the first day as you all begin to plant your roots at The Garden! 

The Cricket team, Brook, Cara and Donna met up at the classroom to review and revise our daily routines. We looked at what worked well, and what we might want to change up for the new school year. We plan on incorporating Luna’s Forest into our weekly routine and to have a ball, focusing on the alphabet, name writing and other fun curriculum themes. We made some changes in the physical classroom as well. The cricket year is a super social year, when the kids are jumping around, as active and as loud as crickets, and making friends left and right! We are excited to watch it all happen and allow the kiddos to feel like The Garden is their place to have fun, to play and learn, and to set their roots deeper in The Garden community. 

The Honeybee Team met up for delicious  Chinese food and then dove into literacy, art, and science planning for the year. The teaching team for this class will look different this year — Brook and Emily will be showing Freya the Honeybee “ropes”. Our hope is to spend more time in the Forest this year, as well as incorporate more process-oriented art opportunities into the classroom. We are looking forward to meeting new friends and seeing our old pals.

Next week, the entire staff comes together at Cari’s family cabin, over on the Hood Canal for a few days. We are very lucky individuals who, not only love our jobs, working with preschoolers and their families, but we are also very fortunate in that we have the opportunity to work along side, our dear friends. Our ‘all staff retreat’is a lot of fun, but also has a lot of focus. Our plan is to coordinate our ideas, themes and goals for each class and each child, and to make sure that there is a cohesiveness across all three age groups to flow and grow together. We’ll share our class focuses, assessments, projects, and discuss our overall vision for the mission of the school and how to best implement it and build it throughout the students, the staff, the alumni, and the parents, grandparents, nanny’s and greater Garden community. When we say our opening circle ‘poem of intention’ it is our hope that everyone in the Garden community uses it as their guide in the gazebo, Garden grounds and throughout our daily lives:

‘We light this candle, to remind ourselves to treat all people kindly, because they are our community, to take good care of the earth, because it is our home, and to try to live lives, filled with goodness and love, because that is how we will become the best people we can be!’

We are excited to get back in the classroom and ‘get this party started!’

And just like that, It’s the end of another school year. Gone are the tears of separation anxiety, here are the tears of realizing that this year has come to an end, so quickly, and so routinely. This morning we celebrated the graduation of our newest group of alums, the Honeybee class of 2026. We said ‘goodbye’ to some families that we have known for years, and we said ‘see you soon’ to families that have younger children going through the program. 

Wow! What a year it has been! We welcomed new families, and we reunited with old families. We kicked off the year at our New Parent’s Luncheon and worked side by side at the all school work party. We blew past our fundraising goal, and we watched community grow. We had fun making cider at our Apple Fest, were excited searching for the items on the Carpinito Brothers Pumpkin Patch hayride, giggled at our Halloween costumes and loved getting balloons during Belleamie’s birthday gifts. We so appreciated our gratitude circles for our Harvest Feasts. Winter Celebration provided a warm send off to the Winter Break. When we came back in January, we hit the ground running with a Parents Night at Big Block Brewing, and then the “ high holy days” of Children’s Garden started, with Valentines, Leprechaun Day, Egg Hunt, and Butterfly Tea. Art Show was amazing! Watching our kiddos join in, rather than sit out the performances.  It all happened so fast! We laughed out loud at the antics of our families celebrating our “No Place Like The Garden” auction! Where did the year go?!?

Really! It all happened so fast! The kiddos started as Ladybugs and they are almost immediately Crickets! Our Crickets are now Honeybees, and our Bees have graduated to Kindergarten! 

Our Parents are graduating from preschool committees and boards to PTA’s, non-profit board members, scouts and soccer moms and T-ball families. We are so excited for you! You have such an amazing foundation…Go on! jump in! Have a ball! 

Throughout it all, we have had an amazing year of community building and watching our children grow. We thank you all for your support, your dedication, your acknowledgement and your trust of our program. 

We couldn’t do it without you. 

Have a great summer and we can’t wait to start the year all over again in September! 

Ladybugs – 

These Bugs are Crickets! Watch them jump! Have fun over the summer! Arrange play dates and meet at the park! Thank you to our amazing room parents this year!

Crickets –

These Crickets are Bees! Watch them fly! Have fun over the summer! Arrange play dates and meet at the park! Thank you so much to our amazing room parents this year! 

Honeybees – 

These Bees are now alumni! Congratulations! We are so proud of our graduates. Please come and visit us! We invite our alums to be ‘Belleamie’s big kid helpers’ once a year, each year, after graduation. Can’t wait to catch up with you all! Thank you so much to our amazing room parents this year! 

Have a wonderful summer, Garden Community!

Next week are our final closing circles of the school year. We invite the Ladybug and the Cricket families to arrive at pick up about 10 minutes early so that you can join us in our send off to the summer. At the end of every school year, we send home a grocery bag with each child, with their extra clothes, end of year news and mail, Fathers’ Day gifts, small teacher made yearbook for each child, and, if a child is not returning to The Garden, we send home their emergency kit. It is always a fun exercise to ‘probe’ into the kids’ mailboxes to find what treasures are deep into the back of their cubbies – we often find a handprint turkey that never made it home, or a few ‘gems’ or beads from a random playground discovery. Each child should bring home a necklace featuring the mascot of their next year’s school class, a Cricket, or a Bee.

Check out the Lost and Found items and the wonderful collection of books from the lending library. We will donate anything not claimed and start fresh with different books in the fall. Please help yourself. 

If you happen to find any tiny treasures from the school that have made it home in pockets or backpacks, like little animals, items from the sensory table, triangle or wedge shaped polishing stones from the dino den, etc., we’d love to have them back so that they can be discovered as treasures again during the next school year! 

Lastly, we are often asked what families can do over the summer to help their kiddos, our answer is always, spend time with them! Play with them. Have fun with them. Have playdates with other children. Go on adventures with them – a walk through town, a day at the beach, stay up late, lying down on a blanket and look at stars. Make S’mores. Take a ferry ride. Read to them, let them read to you, (they can read the pictures, or read by memory). Play board games. The Orchard Game is a wonderful first board game, Uno, Sorry, Lots of card games – SNAP, Go Fish, etc. Play Car Bingo for short or long drives, Sing fun songs all summer long! Jump in the sprinkler, have a picnic lunch outside, write a note or draw a picture to mail to a family member who lives away from you, and let your kiddo put the stamp on it and take it to the post office! 

Play some silly word games “I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with cat.” “I spy something that starts with ‘b’ sound”, “Robot Blending – say each sound in a three letter word like a robot: /c/../a/../t/ – see if they can blend the sounds to make ‘cat’. …And, have some time alone as parents as well. Go on a date night, Try to fit in a weekend getaway, or some alone time. Fill your summer with the things, the activities and the people that you love. That is the biggest lesson for your child! 

Ladybugs

What a great week we had with these bugs! Boy have they grown! We sent a video message to our friend, Sean, in China, and we made our “I’m a Little Cricket” peek-a-boo books. This song is sung to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”. We hope you enjoy reading/singing it with your little Ladybug. Have a great weekend and we will see you Tuesday for our final Ladybug session. We invite you to come join us for the final ten minutes of class as we say goodbye for the summer.

Crickets

We had a fun and full week in the Cricket class, having a hot day to explore the creek, realizing that our caterpillars have emerged out of their cocoons as butterflies, making our Honeybee necklaces, and having wonderful picnic snacks outside on the playground. We finished all our “All About Me” reports, and oh! How proud are we of these Crickets!? They each got up and bravely stood in front of the circle and shared some fun information about themselves. What an accomplishment! We learned a poem called “I’m a Little Honeybee” and had some fun practicing reciting it at circle time as solos and duets. We invite you to come join us for the final ten minutes of class on Wednesday, our final day, to say goodbye for the summer. 

Honeybees

Wow! What a week! Lots of creek play, picnic snacks, we made our mascot necklaces, came up with cowboy names, voted on our Roundup vittles, painted our cowboy hats, finished our self portraits, made some beautiful things for our graduation ceremony next week, and celebrated Dominic’s birthday circle. We said goodbye to Lyla, enjoyed having Cari as a teacher for a few days and read some great tall tales and Cowboy stories! 

Thursday night was Roundup at the Okie Dokie Corral, and we had a blast with these little Cowpokes! We love to see them bond as a group and enjoy every last minute together. Last Honeybee class is Wednesday morning, pool party is Thursday and a week from today is our Graduation Ceremony – Friday morning at 10:30 AM. The ceremony takes place in front of the gazebo, so everyone will park in the lower lot. We all have so many mixed emotions about all of the events of the upcoming week, and we know you all do as well. We’re all in this together. Have a great weekend. 

Here we are at the end of May! Hard to believe that there are only a few sessions left in each class! 

With the year winding down, (Rapidly!), we are trying to make sure that we have all of our I’s dotted and our T’s crossed, before we close up the classroom and open up our summer camp sessions! 

We will be putting our Lost and Found items out on a table in the courtyard for the next few sessions. Please peruse them and make sure you collect lost mittens, gloves, water bottles and jackets. Anything that is not claimed will be washed and donated. 

As a reminder, if you are interested in checking out the Lending Library one more time, we would be so happy to see the books go home with someone who is excited to read them. Any books left over the summer will also be donated, and we will start fresh again in the fall. 

These final few sessions will be spent finishing off our Fathers’ day gifts, making our ‘next year’s’ mascot necklaces, reviewing our year of what we have learned, and just enjoying the children. They are above all, the best part of our job. We are astounded every year at the growth and development in our students, and, we are surprisingly surprised, every single year, about the same occurrences, Ladybugs get louder, pair off with best friends, Crickets move from a best friend to a group of friends, lots of tattling as they want to impress us with their knowledge of the rules of their school, and they easily write their own name without a yellow brick road. The Honeybees are trying to enjoy every last minute at their beloved school, lingering longer with their Belleamie hugs, and wanting to arrive earlier each day to have more courtyard time with their besties. Parents, too, seem to be arriving earlier for pick up, to spend more time with the other parents in the Gazebo, and want to linger longer, feeding the chickens, or moving up the street to Squak Valley Park Playground. 

It’s a special moment in time and brings about all sorts of emotions every year. Take it all in, and remain mindful. It’s going to be ‘the good old days’ in a minute or two! 

Ladybugs

We had such a fun week in the Ladybug class. Kali, our Gibson Ek intern, just said out of the blue, “Wow! These kiddos are really Crickets now, aren’t they?” They are loud, they are active, they have made friends and are jumping all over the place! This year, we thought it would be fun to try a Cricket activity in the last few weeks of Ladybug class. We had the kids make some ‘stamper books’. We give each student a booklet with 4 or 5 blank pages inside. The children use a variety of rubber stamps that are out on the table to ‘stamp a story’. The teacher will ask them what is happening on each page, and write down their words. After they have told us about each page, we ask the student what a good name for the story would be. At circle time, the teacher will read the story to the class and the author will sit beside the teacher in the author chair. We hope you read these stories to your child, and then invite them to ‘read’ them to you. Remember, it is THEIR story, so the words might be different each time. That’s okay! They are continuing to author their stories. This is such a great next step for the Bugs for their literacy journey. The Peek a Boo books teach them to hold the book upright, turn a page for each phrase, and the fun phrase on the last page, “THE END”. The stamper books continue the journey, learning about what an ‘author’ is, illustrating their own stories, and thinking about their own plotlines and titles. The kiddos are all at their own different levels. Some might still be at the labelling stage, where they just report or name what is on the page. Others can tell a sentence about each page, and some have already gotten to the place where they can keep the story continuously going from page to page. It’s a really fun activity and we are really glad that we decided to try it out on our Ladybugs this year! 

We hope you enjoyed the little photo/news page from our friend Sean, in China! We are working on recording the children singing at circle and sending a video message to Sean. He so loves all the songs and games that we play at circle. 

Thursday was our sweet Kali’s last day with us this school year. We sure do appreciate all that she has learned, and all that she has done to help us this year. The students just adore her and she feels the same way about them. Thanks Kali for everything! 

Crickets

We had a short week this past week, but we sure got a lot accomplished! 

Just as the Ladybugs tried their hand at their first “Stamper Books’, the Crickets have been trying their first reports! About half of the Crickets have completed their “All About Me” reports, and we hope to get the rest done next week. It is so fun to see them stand in front of their friends and peers and use a pointer to help  us see what they really wanted to include on their posters. 

We’ve never done this exercise in the Cricket class before, and we are all learning from the exercise! 

1. We’ve learned that the kids, even the shy ones, will get up and share information about themselves, and take such pride in their poster. 
2. We’ve learned that Question vs. Feedback is a difficult concept for a 4 year old to grasp. For teachers, almost as much joy is realized when WE learn a concept, as when a student grasps a concept. We changed this prompt halfway through the week to ask for “Questions or Comments”, and after each response, we reply with “Great Question” or “Great Comment”. Thank you Crickets for being such great teachers!
3. As this is our first time trying reports with 4 year olds, you will hear the teachers guiding the students throughout their presentations on the videos. The teachers are encouraging the kids to ‘use a big voice, so everyone can hear’, ‘use your classmate’s name when calling on them’, ‘say ‘thank you’ after someone compliments you.’ etc. We hope you understand that we are not ‘hounding’ the kids, but guiding them in a brand new skill. 
4. We love to hear the kids’ interest and excitement in their peers’ posters, and also in the opportunity to do it themselves. We’ve heard several students say repeatedly, “When is it my turn?” When we respond that we haven’t seen their poster yet, they say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m still working on it” :0)
5. We are so proud of these Crickets for doing what they are doing! Can you believe they have been on the earth for 4 short years, and they are standing in front of a group with a pointer and telling us ‘All about themselves!’ ?!

The Crickets at this time every year, are developing into Honeybees! They are branching out from just having one best friend to having a group of friends. They are finding it easier to move from playmate to playmate if their ‘plus one’ is absent. They are also wanting so hard to impress the teachers with their good behavior and their knowledge of the school rules. Thus…tattling. It starts out as ‘informing us of someone who is hurt’, and when we look down the playground we see the ‘hurt’ child running and laughing. It graduates to letting us know that there are some hurt feelings of classmates because someone else said something mean, to again looking over and seeing that everyone is playing happily. We then hear about a lot of potty talk going on, or unfairness, but we are trying to impress upon the kids that we want the kids who are hurt, insulted, or feeling left out, to be able to tell us themselves. Afterall, we want the kiddos to be able to advocate for themselves. Of course, we also want the students to advocate for others. It’s a fine line to walk! Something we are trying this year is, instead of tattling, that we want to hear ‘tootling’! ‘Tootling’ is reporting when you see someone do something good, friendly, or helpful. The person reporting gets lots of appreciation and recognition, and then the student that is ‘tootled’ on, also gets lots of appreciation and recognition. 

We’re trying it! We’ll let you know how it is going! 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Honeybees

Wow! What another fun week we had with these Bees! We celebrated Orion’s 6th trip around the sun on Tuesday, and Parsley enjoyed making a rare 6 candle crown for him. We learned a lot about Bees this week, the guard bees, the nurse bees, the worker bees and the Queen Bee! 

Next week, our attention turns to Tall tales, Cowboy stories and cowpoke names as we prepare for our wonderful Honeybee Roundup at the Okie Dokie Corral. You might want to chat around the dinner table about a good cowpoke name for your Honeybee. We often try to guide them to use a phrase from the old west that starts with the same letter as their first name, like “Howlin’ Hank” or “Rattlesnake Riley”. We will be collecting their cowboy names at circle early next week to help us in our planning for Thursday evening. It might be a fun project to ask Claude or ChatGPT as a family! 

Thursday evening, the kids will rest up Thursday afternoon and not come to school until 3:30. We will have a few photo shoot opportunities in the courtyard, and after saying goodbye to their parents, we embark on a scavenger hunt throughout the campus, up into the forest and winding up in the creek. When we arrive back to the playground, we will sit down to a delicious meal (kids will vote on their meal choices before Thursday) and then a romping good time on the playground, where the bonfire will be roaring to make some ‘smores! Every year, we love to see how this truly ‘bonds’ this group of children to be a real ‘Honeybee Team’ as they prepare for graduation. The play on the playground the final week of school just seems a little sweeter as there is no good guy/bad guy or super heroes/zombies etc., but just one big happy Honeybee group. We love to experience this memory making evening every year. 

If you haven’t done so yet, please RSVP on the graduation page so that we know how many chairs we need for the ceremony. In advance, could you please also let us know if you have folding chairs that we might borrow if necessary? The staff can usually come up with 50 or so, but it is good to know if we need more. We have heard that the plan is to have a couple of ‘babysitters’ on the playground for younger siblings. This is awesome. We hold the ‘audience’ open only to adults and older siblings that can be in control so that all of your focus is reserved for your graduate in this special moment in time. 

Thanks everyone! It’s an exciting moment in time for everyone, we understand. Have a great weekend. 

Well, here we are at Memorial Day weekend! The semi-official kick off to summer! Just a few sessions left of classes at The Children’s Garden! 

We are having lovely days with these kiddos. Since the Art Show, we have rapidly turned down the workload of projects necessary to complete and are now completely enjoying lots of imaginative play, story reading, outdoor play and learning about our namesake insects. Each class is beginning to take on a little sampling of the class they will be entering in the fall, and they and the teachers are LOVING it! The Ladybugs have tried their hand at a Cricket Stamper book and are learning a poem about being a Cricket! The Crickets have started doing “All About Me” reports, and are learning a poem about being a Honeybee, and the Honeybees have been asking questions of our alum Kindergarten students, and beginning to share with us the ‘school mascot’ of their school they will attend in the fall. 

We would like to repair/replace our tree deck on the playground over the summer, as some of the floor boards are showing their age, and need a little bit of a redo. The staff have mentioned this to a few of the parents out there that are handymen, work in construction, or have relatives who could help us out. Please contact us if you are interested in helping us, advising us on what materials we need, or know of someone who might be able to give us a day or two of their time to get this done over the summer so that it is nice and fresh for starting the new school year in September. We would love for someone in the next week to stop by the playground, assess and estimate what we need. We can set up the process once we have guidance. Thank you! 

Tuesday was a special day for two little Ladybugs who had lunch with the teachers. The parents purchased the item at this year’s auction and it was a sweet time as they drank apple juice tea, ate teddy bear sandwiches, and said ‘cheers’ with their cups to Belleamie, who joined them in front of the fireplace for the cozy and fun experience. Thank you so much to the parents for your support of the school, and thanks to our two little guests for being such lovely lunchmates for Belleamie!

We had a stomach bug run through the Honeybee class this week, and started the week with only 5 students in attendance. 13 kids absent in one class in one day!  The bug is hitting siblings as well, and we have heard of a similar stomach bug that has run through several of the local elementary schools, and actually closed down the 3rd grade of the Eastside Community School, where we held our Art Show. Even though it is Spring, the viruses are still out there! Seeing that this virus had such a huge impact on one classroom, we advise an abundance of caution, and please keep your child home for at least 24 hours after a fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. 

Every once in a while we run across a social media post of a school or an educator that addresses an issue that we are dealing with or a strategy for social emotional learning. We love to share these ideas to collaborate with you and help your child grow empathy, leadership and confidence. Here’s one we ran across this week:

Three questions to ask your child before they go to school every single morning! Put these on your fridge! 

1. What’s something you’re looking forward to today? (makes them pre-scan their day looking for something good – a child who looks for something good, or one good thing, finds it.)
2. What’s something you are good at that you could help someone with today? (This flips the script, from a child thinking, ‘I hope I can keep up’ to ‘I have something to offer’ That shift from being a receiver to a contributor is where confidence lies – not in praise, but having a purpose and feeling useful)
3. If something hard happens today, what is your plan? (not ‘nothing bad will happen’ because it might, but this teaches your child that ‘I have a strategy’, that ‘I will take three deep breaths’ or, ‘ I will tell my teacher’, or I will walk away?.  But a child with a plan feels braver than a child with a promise. They are also one step closer towards actually using that strategy if something happens. Confidence is not the absence of fear, but it is having a plan for when it shows up. 

We hope you all stay healthy and safe this Memorial Day weekend, and enjoy a BBQ, a Slip and Slide, a family trip, or a lovely relax and refresh before the last two and a half weeks of school! 

Ladybugs

On Tuesday, we had a celebration of Ophelia’s 3rd trip around the sun. It is so sweet to see this sweet event for every student. Phi/Phee is our youngest Bug, and therefore the last to turn 3. Happy happy birthday Ophelia!

Tuesday was also a special day for two little Bugs who had lunch with the teachers. Some lovely Ladybug parents purchased the item at our wonderful auction. It was a sweet time as they drank apple juice tea, ate teddy bear sandwiches, and said ‘cheers’ with their cups to Belleamie, who joined them in front of the fireplace for the cozy and fun experience. Thank you so much for your support of the school, and thanks Sophie and Easton for being such lovely lunchmates for Belleamie! 

We had a fun day on Thursday in class, finishing our cute little hand print flowers to put in the waving window, and we had a visit from Baby Burpee. Baby Burpee is our puppet who really wants to join us at circle, but just isn’t quite ready for Ladybug class. Baby has trouble following the rules and often breaks them! This puppet comes down off the shelf when a behavior has taken place that we want to address. On Thursday, we had a Ladybug who did not want to help us clean up. We had a Ladybug pull someone’s hair, and we had a Ladybug who threw toys and rocks on the playground. Baby Burpee came to closing circle to ‘re-enact’ all of these activities, and as per usual, the students that ‘broke’ the rules to begin with, were the ones who ‘scolded’ Burpee and said, “You should always help to clean up!” “You shouldn’t hurt people”, or “You shouldn’t throw toys, you might hurt someone!” We love how our curriculum uses puppets to teach important lessons, and the kids enjoy the puppets so much that they don’t realize that they are learning! 

Crickets

Wow! We are blown away by the courage and clarity of our Crickets making their ‘All About Me’ presentations! Bennett was the brave guy to go first and did an awesome job! Lucy and Owen also presented on Monday and showed such confidence, used a nice loud voice, took questions and feedback nicely, and then they each took a great bow! We record the presentations and upload them to our school video library service. Brin then forwards the video to the parents of the presenter so that you, too, can be blown away! Our ‘audience’ is also learning the art of listening respectfully to the presentation and to think of thoughtful questions and feedback to give to their classmates. It’s a lot to learn for a 4 year old! They should be very proud of themselves! Our “All About Me” reports will continue through next week. On Wednesday, we had reports from 4 more students, and a few more this morning.  We hope you are enjoying watching their report video at home. Let us know if you didn’t receive the link to watch. 

Our Crickets also have learned the names and sounds of each letter of the alphabet and can sign a word that starts with each letter. Ask your child to sing the ABC song, that starts A, ‘a’ “Alligator” and see if they can remember the signs for each of the 26 words. 

A,’a’ alligator, B, ‘b’ bear, C, ‘c’ cat, D, ‘d’, dog.  Etc.  We will send home a song sheet next week for the kids to have as a review over the summer. 

This morning, the playground warmed up enough for the Crickets to dip their toes (in rubber boots) in the creek. Remembering that the sun does not hit the playground until about 11 am, it’s not as necessary to have a ‘cooling’ experience, but rather, an experience in itself. Next fall, as Bees in the afternoon, there are several more opportunities to enjoy the shaded cool waters of the lovely water feature of our playground. 

Hope you have a wonderful long weekend. No school on Monday for Memorial Day. We’ll see you Wednesday. 

Honeybees

What a crazy Monday! We had 13 students absent and spent the afternoon with only 5 Honeybees in attendance! We are so grateful to our Bee parents who kept their students at home for a full 24 hours after a fever, vomit or diarrhea episode. Thanks for helping to keep us all healthy. With so many special end of year happenings, grad parties and ceremonies, dance recitals and T-Ball games, we appreciate everyone working together to ensure that everyone can fully participate in each event. 

On Monday, the staff had a great time getting some special surprise graduation projects underway. The Honeybee graduation ceremony is such a special event, steeped with lovely nostalgia, endearing presentations, and extra special project reveals. When you see your student in the gazebo at the end of class with paint under their fingernails, a little bit of plaster on their shirt, or some golden marker on their hands, we hope you understand that we are all working together on some special surprises to be revealed at the ceremony, Friday, June 12, at 10:30 AM. I’m sure your kiddos will share if you ask them enough – :0) – but please ‘help’ them to keep the surprise, and respect the other parents’ desire to be surprised as well. We are so proud of the courage of these kiddos for taking on the challenges and emotions and projects over these next few weeks. They are doing awesome! 

Speaking of graduation, please click on the graduation page and give us a head count of how many guests (not counting your grad) will be attending the graduation so that we can plan accordingly. The event is open to graduates, and adult family and friends. Older siblings are welcome if you are sure that they can keep the focus on our graduates. We want our Honeybee graduates to be the sole focus of the event, and we ask that you find alternative care for younger siblings. Babes in arms are welcome. Thank you for your understanding of our request and for everyone’s desire to focus on these amazing Bee grads!

We are working with the children to make some keepsakes that are based on the mascot of their next school year. Several of our Bees know that their next school is Kindergarten, but not all of them know the name of their school. Please fill us in with this information so that we can find the mascot of the school, and if you are attending a school, or homeschooling, that does not have a mascot, please discuss this with your graduate. What animal or mascot would they like to represent their Kindergarten year? Something strong? Something fierce? Something adorable? Or Cuddly? Let us know what they decide! 

10 more classes! Can you believe it? 

We’ve been finding wonderful words of advice on social media lately, regarding the transition from preschool to Kindergarten. We love to share those that go with our Garden philosophy. 

What your Child Actually Needs to Know before Kindergarten:

1. Know a handful (18 or so) letters and sounds
2. Know their full name – not to write it, but to say it, first, middle and last name
3. Count to 20 correctly, and have 1 to 1 correspondence when counting
4. Know how to grip a pair of scissors
5. Open their own lunches, open their own snacks, open their own coat, open their own backpacks, open their own folders – manage their own supplies
6. Problem solve – when faced with a frustrating situation, can they work through it without an adult? with their own peers?

Have a great long weekend! See you Tuesday! 

Well, there you have it! Art Show, 2026! It’s the culminating display of the growth of our three classes, in movement, artistic expression and the broad stretch of all that we have done this year. We hope you enjoyed the performances, the displays and the works that you were able to take home. We hope you find a place of honor to display your child’s art. We are aware of Children’s Garden students’ artwork displayed in downtown Seattle Law Firms, at Swedish Issaquah Campus, several parents’ personal offices throughout King and Pierce County, and in homes around the country! Alum students who are no parents of Gardeners themselves, tell us that their Garden art is still framed and displayed in their childhood homes. 

There is a certain ‘free spirit’ in preschoolers’ art. They think they are artists, they have freedom in their movement and do not judge or criticize their work. We teach them to frame their works, because each work so deserves a frame. 

The dances are such a huge show of growth. From Ladybugs learning how to follow steps that have them let go of hands, to Crickets sharing partners, using their dramatic skills to act out being elves or dinosaurs, and Bees learning intricate dance steps and series of motions. We are so proud of each and every one of them for being so brave to show us what they have learned and for being exactly where they are.

In the classroom, we are seeing such wonderful growth in our students. The Ladybugs have settled into the daily routine of school and will sit engaged in a project, imaginative play, and at circle time for a longer story. The Crickets are playing in larger groups, independently of the teachers, and able to use their words to advocate for themselves. The Crickets are also singing the full alphabet song, able to sing, not only the alphabet names, but a word that starts with that letter as well. The Honeybees are preparing to launch from The Garden, and we want to thank Garden alumni students who are currently in Kindergarten, who have joined us at circle time this past week to answer questions about Kindergarten from our Bees. Thank you Claire, who came in on Monday afternoon, and Bella, who came in on Wednesday afternoon. They answered questions like, “Do you still do art?”, or “Do you have a tire swing?”, to, “Do you get to go outside?” and “How many kids are in your class?” These question and answer sessions help to calm the nerves and smooth the transition from one class to another. We are so grateful for our Garden Community that continues to work together to support our program.

Ladybugs

What a fun week we had with our Bugs these past few days! We celebrated Anya’s July birthday on Tuesday, and Easton’s third trip around the sun on Thursday. We made some beautiful handprint flower gardens, complete with ladybugs and honeybees. Emily, our Honeybee teacher and Camp Tree Circle Director, was in the class with us on Thursday, as Cari was on a plane to Arizona for her son’s University graduation. Cari has an exciting graduation season this year, as her youngest graduates from Issaquah High School next month. You can see Cate’s beautiful graduation announcement in the courtyard along with other Garden alums. 

Our Ladybugs sure shone on Wednesday night at The Art Show! Every Bug that was there got up and danced with the group! Yay Bugs!

We said “Have a great summer” to our friend, Sean, who is off to China for the summer and will be back at The Garden as a Cricket in the fall.

Wishing you all a great weekend! Just 7 Ladybug sessions remain! 

Crickets

What a sweet way to kick off this past week, by celebrating our friend, Theo’s birthday circle! We also had Caleb’s mum, Jen, with us in class on Monday as she interviewed the students for the Cricket yearbook. 

We had a great time Wednesday night at the Art Show, displaying all of the Crickets’ amazing art pieces and then watching them dance the night away! “Brother, come and Dance with Me”, and “We are the Dinosaurs”. We especially enjoyed when they all stop to take a rest, and then get up and roar! That’s kind of like every Cricket class day, except without the ‘rest’ part! :0)

These Crickets are definitely morphing into Honeybees, as we notice that they play more independently on the playground. They are not so centered or focused on the teachers, but making their own games. These typically are good guy/bad guy based, and poor Cara usually ends up in ‘jail’, but they sure are having fun as a group. 

A few of our Crickets have been having a little bit of separation anxiety at drop off and this is completely normal. The kids always go through phases and stages of development and they are sometimes more cyclical than ‘once and done’. We’ve noticed that several of the students experiencing the separation anxiety have younger siblings all around the same age – no longer sleeping infants, but baby siblings who also want more attention from their parents.

A few of our Crickets have been working through lots of frustrations at school. These kiddos have spent months brushing up on their friendship skills, inviting themselves to play, joining in with others in their play, and are now comfortable with that skill. Now, they are wanting to control the play more. ‘ I’ve got you as a friend, so now, I’d like to do things MY way!’ This too, is a learning step in the wonderful preschool years of exploring social and emotional skills. Lots of play dates, lots of understanding, and lots of guiding and helping them use their words and taking turns. 

Freya was with us this morning, as Cara had a family gathering scheduled out of town. We always have a wonderful time when we watch Freya set up such wonderful imaginary play scenarios for the Crickets. 

We hope you all have a great weekend! Just 10 more Cricket classes remain! 

Honeybees

Whoo boy! These Bees are the Bees’ Knees! Wasn’t their Art Show performance so fun?! And the parent Maypole dance was such a great way to top off the evening! We sure enjoyed it all! 

Our week kicked off with such sunshine and warmth that we opened up the gate to the creek and boy! Do these kiddos love to play in the water! We know we desperately need the rain for our green environment, but we sure do hope we get lots more sunshine so that these kids can have a ball!

With the Art Show behind us, our attention now turns to our end of year celebration, the Honeybee Graduation Ceremony! We have a few projects that we do in class, some video making, and, of course, treasuring our remaining time with these 18 kiddos. Graduation Ceremony is Friday, June 12th at 10:30 AM. There is no school on Monday, May 25th for Memorial Day, and no school on Thursday, June 11 for Graduation Preparation. Believe it or not, that means 14 Honeybee classes left.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy Children’s Day! May the Fourth be with you and Happy Cinco de Mayo! Lots of celebrations this week, and all of them, fun celebrations of life and laughter. 

If you are familiar with the style of our weekly Gazette, you are probably guessing that every single paragraph this week is going to start with “OH!”

Oh! How we are blown away by your support, your appreciation, and your love for our staff, our school and our program!

Oh! How much we feel appreciated by you, and want to send it all back right at you all! Thank you for a wonderful Teacher Appreciation week! The treats, the bevvies, the lunch, and the superhero signs! How spoiled are we?!

Oh! We are blown away by your sense of humor, sense of fun, and sense of ‘rolling up your sleeves and getting involved’ attitude, and, thank you so much for an amazing Auction weekend! 

Oh! How we are blown away by you entrusting your kiddos to our care! 

Oh!, How we love them, and you, and this community, and the feeling that we get after every class, walking down the brick path to the gazebo!

Oh! Thank you immensely for everything!

Oh! What an amazing week we just had, basking in the glow of the post auction buzz, the work on the special warm-hearted Mother’s Day gifts, and the last minute preparations for the Art Show, learning new dances, making sure every student has all the art, and reading and re-reading their biographies to make sure we got every detail correct. 

Oh! We cannot believe that there are only 5 weeks of school left and we have 1) so much to do, 2) so little time left to visit and converse with our amazing parent community, and 3) lots of plans to make for summer get-togethers and auction event purchases. How did the year go by so quickly? If you are one of those nostalgic parents who saves each of the Gazettes, or collects the weekly classroom newsletters in a three ring binder, you will see that in September, we warned you all about how quickly this year would go by. As we always say, the days go slow, but the years fly by. Here we are in May!

May, of course, is Mother’s Day, and we hope you all feel loved and celebrated by the littles that you brought into this world. They sure are not shy about telling us how much they love YOU! Happy Mother’s Day to all of our mamas. We hope you enjoy your special gifts from your kiddos, and have a special day with them on Sunday. Donna will always remember her Mother’s Day breakfast in bed provided by her three littles under the age of 5. – A lovely tray with a flower from the garden in a vase, a bagel with cream cheese, and an ice cold beer. (!) When Donna’s son was asked about the beer, he said, “Well, I didn’t know what else you liked to drink!” Donna decided that she really needed to work on her motherly image :0/  Hope you all get what you really want for Mother’s Day…time alone, or time together, breakfast in bed or brunch, fancy dinner, or a drive in the country. We love and appreciate you all, Moms! 

May is also Art Show month, and next Wednesday we have a wonderful evening ahead!

We’ll be gathering Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. at Eastside Community School
(5025 Issaquah-Pine Lake Rd SE, Issaquah, WA 98029).

We would love a few adult helpers at 4:45 p.m. to assist with setting up chairs and hanging artwork as we figure out our new location and bring the children’s creations to life. Because of the nature of setup, we’re hoping for helpers who are able to come without children this time around.

Please let us know if you’re available to lend a hand!

One quick and important reminder as we head into these special last weeks of school: We’ve noticed a lot of joyful parking lot play happening at pickup lately, and while we absolutely love seeing the children and families soaking up these moments together, safety has to remain our top priority.

Please remember that any child in the parking lot must be holding hands with an adult at all times. That is our most important rule.

We also want to gently remind families that, due to insurance requirements, The Children’s Garden campus is officially open to children from 7:45 a.m.–3:45 p.m. only, except during special school events that are arranged with our insurance company ahead of time (such as Apple Fest, Graduation, etc.).

Thank you so much for helping us keep everyone safe while still making space for the friendships, connection, and community that make The Garden so special. If you’d like to continue visiting after pickup, the Squak Valley playground just up the street is a wonderful nearby gathering spot.

Ladybugs

What a fun week we had with these littlest of our littles. They had such fun with imaginative play…we had shipping trucks getting produce from the farmers and taking it to QFC, we had babies needing to go see a doctor, and we had tea parties galore. How fun to play with these Ladybugs and to model and shadow friendship skills with them. We love to realize the growth that they have shown in just these few short months, inviting others to play, asking to join in, and setting up wonderful imaginary worlds for all to experience. We see the Bugs becoming Crickets as they have started to get loud! Dinosaurs roaring, firefighters’ sirens blaring, and paint, everywhere! :0)

What a treat to see so many of our Ladybug parents at the auction on Friday night. We understand that it can be a little bit of a ‘shy’ feeling, entering into an environment with lots of parents who have been there more than once. We got you, first timers! You showed up! And you had fun, and you are ready to model it for the next year! Wow! Some great bidding wars were going on with Ladybug parents, and lots of laughs were observed as well. What a fun evening! Thank you so much for showing up. Thank you also, to Caroline and Nick, for sharing their story of Garden Community with the rest of us on Friday night. We so appreciate you all. 

Ladybug families! You are figuring it out and learning about how important community is for a young family. We love it. We see it. We want you to help us introduce this idea to the next ladybug class. Don’t be surprised if a teacher approaches you in the next week or so to help us make plans for next year. You guys are awesome and are realizing how important building a community is for a preschool family. Our alum families are still involved with their preschool community long past their high school graduation. Donna and Brin are attending weddings, baby showers and other events from their little Gardeners now that they are adults and building their own families and futures. 

Crickets

Wow! Wasn’t that a fun auction!? Thank you so much to Stevin for amazing videos, and thank you all for showing up! What fun to see you all having so much fun together, and wow! Did you guys show up and have fun! 

Yuri came in on Wednesday to share a lesson about Children’s Day, which was Tuesday. Thank you so much Yuri for sharing your traditions and stories about how the carp fight their way up stream, just like our salmon, and, like our children, go through challenging courses, to become strong ‘dragons’! Such a fun lesson. Thank you so much for setting it up for us and sharing your wonderful story. We love seeing the carp fly at our roadside sign and over our courtyard. 

We had a great week in class this week with the kiddos. We worked on Mother’s Day gifts, we practiced our Art Show dances and we talked a lot about the life cycle of the butterfly. These kiddos are making their caterpillars out of egg cartons and are wrapping their caterpillars in yarn to symbolize the building of the cocoon. 

Honeybees

These Honeybees are amazing! They finished up a few last minute art show projects, they learned two new dances, and they finished up their Mother’s Day gifts. We started learning about insects and butterflies, which will lead us into the study of the Honeybee. 

We thought it would be fun to ‘write’ our own news this week, and drew pictures of what we did on the sunny weekend, and then ‘sounded out’ our sentences. “I Played” “P” what letter says “P”? “Pl”, “what letter says “L”? Etc. We played a game at circle time, from Koa’s mum, Katie’s teacher boxes of goodies…”I have an “A”, Who has an “M” where everyone has a card showcasing a letter, and asking for another letter. It’s a really cool way to practice recognizing letters and letter sounds. 

At The Children’s Garden, we work with letters and numbers and sounding out sentences, learning about periods and spaces between words, but our focus is on social emotional learning. 

This week’s weekly news shared the range of kiddo’s ability to recognize letters and sound out words. They are all doing fine. Learning how to sound out words and write letters is exactly what Kindergarten is for. That is what the Kindergarten teachers are preparing to do. Our job, at The Garden, is to teach the kids how to ask for help, how to share, how to separate from parents, how to advocate for themselves and others, and how to be a strong community member. We work with the kids on how to problem solve, how to dress or undress for the weather, how to invite themselves and others to play, how to open their own snack containers, how to check in with a classmate who looks like they are feeling sad, or mad, or hurt. We love when a Honeybee finds our eyes and gives a full on greeting – “Hi!, Donna, it’s great to see you, today!” We encourage our students to be proud of what they have learned and stand in front of their peers to share. Our World Culture reports and weekly poetry recitations do exactly that. We are proud of our Honeybees. Wherever they are in reading, or writing, we know that they are confident, friendly, and socially ready to take on the next level of education, and are definitely ready to become involved community members in any community that they are, or will be, a part of. 

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend! 

Good afternoon Gardeners! It’s Auction Day! We are looking forward to spending a wonderful evening with many of you and grateful for all your support of our school. May you all win the item that you want the most and we hope you all have a blast at the Emerald Garden!

The staff and students are in full Art Show and Mothers’ Day mode in the classroom! Brin is interviewing each student in the office for their “about the artist” biographies, the teachers and kiddos are having fun learning and practicing their dances for the Art Show, and we are all busy thinking about what makes our mother so special, why we love them so stinkin’ much, and how can we show them our love and appreciation? 

The office was a bustling busy beehive this week, with parents putting finishing touches on auction decor and plans, another group of parents joining Brin to help us prep for the Art Show, lots of kids going in and out of the office so that Brin can interview them for their Art Show biographies, and lots of parents dropping off items for the auction this evening. We also had a walk through of a possible cleaning company for the school, a landscaping/gardener stop by to spruce up our courtyard/parking lot gardens, and a meeting with our treasurer and a financial advisor about our next year’s budget, and along with her stint as Parsley Flakes for our two birthday circles this week? Geesh! We sure appreciate you Brin and your organization of all things coming and going! 

Read on for class news:

Ladybugs

What a fun day we had on Tuesday in the Ladybug class! Freya brought in so many wonderful baby dolls and baby doll clothes and supplies to add to our baby center. The children had so much fun giving their babies bottles, putting them in carriers and dressing them for their outings. 

We started creating our very fun Mothers’ Day gifts, greetings, and learned a new dance for the Art Show coming up in a week and a half. This is such a crazy busy time of the school year, but we are having a ball, creating all of these memorable gifts and events.

The children are acting more and more like crickets, sharing, asking for a turn, checking in with our classmates and being so sweetly independent. We so love our Ladybugs!

Crickets

We sure do love starting outside with our Cricket class! It gives them a chance to run off their Cricket energy (or a bit of it, anyway!) and we love to see them greet each other over the bridge as they arrive. The weather has certainly been on our side this week, although it disappoints the kiddos as there is no rain in the rain barrel! 

We finished up our 26th  letter of the week, and this week, we had a review of the alphabet, an alphabet scavenger hunt, and practiced writing all of our letters. We had fun learning two new dances for the Art Show, began making our Mothers’ Day presents and continued learning about Butterflies, and making stamper books about the life cycle of the butterfly. 

Freya joined us in class on Monday, as Donna’s allergies got the best of her, and we had a ball jumping around and making cricket noise every day as we always do! We are learning two new dances for the Spring Art Show, and having a ball doing so!

Our Crickets enjoyed exploring the new ‘baby center’ in the critter corner, full of baby dolls, baby carriers, lovely board books to read to our babies, and rattles and toys and all sorts of things. What a fun center that Freya provided for us!

Honeybees

The Bees are winding down their school year with a lot of fun activities, and this week is no exception. Koa presented his World Culture report, delayed by illness, and we have two big projects that we are trying to finish in time for the Art Show!

We started having Kindergarten alums visit our class to have the Bees ‘interview’ them about what their next year of school is going to look like. Claire Carpinito will be here Monday afternoon to answer any questions and we have Maya and Bella coming in the next few weeks to share their insights as well. We so love our alum community and how they are so helpful with our Honeybee concerns and questions. 

We began learning two new dances for the Art Show! These dances are tricky and we are so proud and confident in the development and skills of the Bees that they can take these complicated dances on! We know you will enjoy their accomplishments! 

Thank you so much to Alissa Roth for taking home the kids’ beautiful art work from all three classes to crop, frame and mat. Alissa! You are a rock star! Thank you so much! 

Looking forward to such a fantastic and memorable evening tonight! See you at the end of the yellow brick road! 

Welcome back to school! We hope you all had a wonderful spring break! The kids were full of news and excitement, and we loved to watch so many hugs between classmates when they reunited! It warmed our hearts! 

Each of the staff had a lovely spring break as well. 

Emily was awestruck as she toured Spain and Northern Ireland to visit her sisters where they are attending school. 

Cari spent some wonderful time with her high school senior, enjoying soccer weekends in Portland and Boise, and then touring Portland where Cate will start university in the fall. 

Brin revelled in the fact that she did not get out of bed until after 9 am every day, after having her coffee delivered to bedside each morning. She also had some fun craft time, making some amazing props and decor for the auction next week! 

Brook had some lovely family time celebrating her baby, Coco, turning 5, working on the water wall on the playground and having fun family time at the Skagit Wood Expo and Marketplace, where Mick and the whole family performed at the Circus Show! 

Donna had a list of 20 house and garden projects that she wanted to get to, but was happy that she got to three and completed two! 

Cara went to California to spend time with her kiddos and then a couple of weeks with her husband at their family cabin. 

Cara’s dad has been ailing for some time, and after arriving home from California late Saturday night, Cara spent a sweet and meaningful day with her dad on Sunday. Monday morning, Cara woke up to the news that he passed Sunday night. It’s as if he was waiting for her, and it is such a sweet blessing that she got to spend time with him before he passed. Cara told us that she spent Monday with family and was looking forward to and then returned to school on Tuesday. Our hearts and hugs are all holding Cara and her family at this time.

We had amazing Butterfly Teas this week. The Tea Parties are such sweet and memorable events that are stoked in tradition. The silver service is from founder Bonnie’s mother, and Bonnie polishes it each year for us. The cookie recipe is from the original ‘Brin’ office manager’s mother, and a lot of the tea cups are from Donna’s mum, and also a few from several alum students and families who wanted to contribute to our tea cup collection. 

Where the World Culture Reports are an important milestone for our Honeybees to stand and present what they learned to their peers, the tea parties are stepping stones to this goal. The children practice standing at their class circles, stating their name and reciting their poem, nursery rhyme or song. We can’t guarantee that they will stand in front of an audience mixed with adults and children, but we celebrate every little moment moving toward this goal. Each student is different and we meet them where they are, never forcing, but always encouraging. We are so proud of our Bugs, Crickets and Bees. Can you imagine being 3, 4 or 5 years old and doing the same? Bravo brave Gardeners! 

We also celebrated Earth Day on Wednesday and Thursday! We read some wonderful books about ways that we can take care of the earth, because it is our home, and made some beautiful earth art to decorate our campus. 

The staff spent the week assessing and organizing all of the art work that will be displayed at the Spring Art Show on Wednesday, May 13th, and we are wondering if there is anyone who would be interested in helping us mat the different art pieces? We will provide you with a cutting board, construction paper, and a guide or sample. We also have a mat cutter and need some poster board frames cut for 18 pieces, as well as a poster board cut for each of our 54 kids. Please let us know if you have an interest in an hour or two of cut and paste work at home over the next few weeks. It’s a fun way to get a ‘sneak peak’ at the masterpieces that will be displayed at the Art Show! 

Speaking of the Art Show, we are holding it at a new facility for us and we are not really sure what it will take to set everything up this year! Please let us know if you have an hour or two, kid free, to help us display the art work of 54 students. It is our understanding that the venue has wood boxes and pillars that we will use museum putty to adhere the art to, but, as you know, the first time is always the most time consuming to figure out how to do it. We would love to tackle this without kids running around. Please let us know if you can assist us, kid free, at 5 pm, on Wednesday, May 13 at  Eastside Community School, and we are excited to start a new tradition of using their space for our amazing Art Show! 

Well, next week we hope to see many of you at the end of the Yellow Brick Road! Auction night is one week from today! This is a time of year when the staff and board and fundraising committee are giddy, exhausted, excited and emotional! There’s a lot going on and there’s a lot of work being put in for each and every event. Thank you to each and every one of you who help to make it all happen. 

Have a wonderful weekend, Garden Community! We sure love you!

Ladybugs

What growth we saw in our Bugs on Tuesday morning! Not just physical, but friendship skills took a huge leap as well! We enjoyed hearing their news about break week, practicing our songs for Butterfly Tea, and painting some beautiful earth sun catchers to celebrate Earth Day. 

Our Peekaboo booklet this week was “I’m a Little Teapot” and we read some fun story books about welcoming spring and celebrating our earth. 

Our Tea Party was so wonderful! What a great starting Butterfly Tea Party for this group of brave littles. Each of them got up to the microphone and sang a song of their choosing. They performed the “Tall Tall Tree” song and “I’m a Little Teapot” song like pros! We are so proud of our ladybugs! Our sweet tea party on the deck and on the playground was a definite moment in time that we will remember for many years. 

Crickets

We had such beautiful weather for starting the Cricket class outside on the playground. It was lovely to see so many hugs when these friends reunited! The energy was calm, happy and the kids so enjoyed the work that Brook had done on the water wall. We just need more rain to provide more clean water to work its way through the tubes and funnels! We are excited to return to starting out on the playground and look forward to the weather warming up so that we can open up the gate and have some play time in our rain boots in the creek. 

We painted some beautiful earths to celebrate our home planet for Earth Day, and talked about ways that we can help keep the earth healthy. Use both sides of the paper, turn the water off while we brush our teeth, plant a garden and put our trash and recycling in the correct bins. 

Cari was with us on Monday, and the children always enjoy seeing their Ladybug teacher. The students are taking turns to go into Brin’s office, one at a time, to be ‘interviewed’ for their “about the author” biography that will be posted next to their art work at the Spring Art Show. 

The Cricket Tea Party was so fun! We loved to watch the smiles and side eyes of the parents as they watched their Crickets shine. You guys have such a wonderful community in this class. We loved to hear the moms calling out to each other “Go ahead, I’ll film for you!”, “You go on up, I got you!” Very sweet indeed. For such a rainy tea party, the memories are warm and sunny.

Honeybees

Happy Vaisakhi! This week, we learned about the Sikh celebration of the Harvest, on the 14th of April. Ema and Harv and Harv’s father brought in a delicious lunch for the staff and some wonderful treats for Sana’s classmates. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful tradition with the Honeybees! 

Along with Vaisakhi, we celebrated Earth Day, and Butterfly Tea this week as well. We started our self-portraits for the Art Show, and began looking at our dances that we will learn and perform for the Art Show. 

Almost everyone came up to the microphone for the Butterfly Tea and we are so impressed with the students’ growth and memory of their poems! Bravo Honeybees! Another memory is in the books!

The students took turns going to Brin’s office where she ‘interviewed’ them for their Art Show biographies. 

All in all, a very fun and eventful week!