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June 13, 2005 Dear Parents, This year seems to have flown by. We can hardly believe we have only three weeks left. Yes, that's right. We made a mistake -- we have three weeks. The last day of school will be June 30th. The recent weather has either inspired us to bake muffins and huddle under blankets with pillows telling stories or to be outside with sunhats and sunscreen. If you feel strongly about sunscreen let us know. It is a good idea to put it on in the morning before coming to school, and sunhats (with a name inside) are a great idea. We keep sunscreen at school and are happy to put extra on your child. We love easy on/off footwear; however we have to admit flip-flops are not our favorite. The pace is often fast at outside time and they seem to cause more trips and falls than more secure footwear. Thank you Gretchen for creating that lovely garden celebration last week. Che Blaine did a native circle dance with us and we heard the salmonberry song while eating salmonberries. We had little birds and butterflies dancing and flying all around. If your child made a costume, it went home/is in their cubby. They will have a chance to wear it again. Solstice parade is this coming Saturday June 18th and the theme is wings. We believe we have a case of chicken pox at school. Children were likely exposed last Monday; incubation is 7-14 days. As a precaution it would be best to stay away from pregnant women. If your child does come down with chicken pox he/she must stay away from school until the scabs have healed over. We hope at this point you have let us know your preference for the school calendar next year. The Board will be meeting on Tuesday. This is the final week to get your registration in for the Summer Fun program. We will be handing out re-enrollment forms for the next school year. Please let us know to the best of your ability what days you are intending to come next September. It seems we have quite a few children starting and we would like to fit them in around your preferences. In the weeks we have left we will be exploring water. We will be looking at the water cycle with the wonderful Ms. Frizzle. We will be exploring what sinks and what floats and why, and inspired by a book the children enjoyed last week, we will be looking at solids, gasses, and liquids. We will also be making bird feeders and exploring our personal similarities and differences. Dates to Remember: Board Meeting Tuesday, June 13 at 3:15 pm Parent Meeting Monday, June 20 at 1:15 pm Last day of school Thursda, June 30 Once again Gretchen and I are grateful for the trust you place in us. We LOVE your children and feel blessed to be in their lives. THANK YOU! Blessings, Ethna May 9, 2005 Dear Parents, Hard to believe this is the last week of the quarter. This year seems to have flown by, and yet when I think of how the children began last September, they have made significant all around progress. It has been (and will continue to be) exciting to be witness and participant in their growth. The next quarter begins May 23rd and will go for six weeks. Check your calendars, but I believe the last day of the year will be June 30th. We have received only four responses about summer programming. This week is your last chance to talk to us about your summer needs/desires for a program at Salmonberry. This past week the children have demonstrated rapt attention when learning about their bodies. We have made intestines and bones, and felt our heart pumping our blood, and been conscious of our lungs breathing in air. We are barely touching the surface but the children are fascinated. We will continue to draw our bodies and what we now understand is inside them. We have talked much about food and how it either feeds our bodies or not. The feely box will resurface and some experiments about senses. One of the subjects we talked about this week was appropriate touch. We are very touchy-feely at school, hugs are common. I have read a book to the children I would be happy to share with you. The essence of the book was listening to our bodies and identifying a touching problem. I asked them to find five adults that they could talk to if they needed. I would encourage you to continue to talk with them and help them identify the five adults they feel they could talk to. The chickens are now two weeks into sitting on the eggs so we will see, but hopefully when we return after break we will have some little chicks scurrying around. I am looking for a volunteer to redo our chore list. We have chores to add to the list and would love it if a parent who enjoys being creative would be willing to help us set up a new list. We have plenty of supplies at school. If you did not get a chance to read the big white board, please do. Your children said what they loved most about their moms. We had comments such as "I love it when my mom loves on me" and "I love when she gives me money." Once again thank you for being part of the Salmonberry family; we receive your blessings and kind words daily. We continue to be grateful. We hope you all enjoy this break, have some fun with your children, and enjoy the sunshine. Much love, Ethna and Gretchen May 2, 2005 Dear Parents, We have had such beautiful weather this past week. There has been much time spent out in the garden planting and watering. The shade of the big cherry tree has been a place to enjoy Storybird's magic and Lydia's wonderful explanation of Passover. We said goodbye to Matia, who is moving to Mendocino, CA. We are still collecting pictures and momentos to send to Matia. She left us all a photo of herself with all her contact information. She would love to hear from any of us. Surveys went out asking about your summer needs, next year's school calendar and welcoming input about the new person to be hired for K-2. Please get back to us ASAP, we are making big decisions and your opinion is helpful now. A summer program will not happen if not needed by enough parents. If you need another copy of the questionnaire, please let me know. The short summer quarter May 23 - June 23 is looking pretty full. The fall looks like we will be welcoming quite a few new children. We are excited about our growth; we are getting very full for fall. If you have friends who are considering Salmonberry as a placement for their child please have them speak to one of us soon. We have loved exploring birds these past weeks. We will continue this study, but more low key. For the next two weeks we will be learning about our bodies. We will be introducing bones, muscles, and internal organs. How our digestive system works and what food makes our bodies work best. Also how play and exercise gets our heart moving and keeps our bodies healthy. This is an opportunity to revisit eating the colors of the rainbow in fruit and veggies. We will be tracing our bodies and identifying body parts. It is not our intention to discuss the more personal body parts, but if they come up we will be responding with anatomically correct labels. There will be some discussions about personal space around our bodies. The last day of the spring quarter will be May 12. We will return on May 23 for the summer quarter. Gretchen and I continue to realize how blessed we are and what a privilege it is to be able to spend such precious time with your children. It has been a love fest at school lately. Lots of love, cuddles and snuggles. It is a gift to be included in their lives and we are clearly grateful for the honor to love and safely guide your little ones. We deeply thank you, and we look forward to being a part of their lives for a long time. With blessings of peace and laughter, Ethna April 11, 2005 Dear Parents, A huge THANK YOU to all of our hard working parents. We are all grateful for you giving of your time, sweat, and energy. The results are amazing; the garden is ready for planting and looks beautiful as it is. The willow structures hold great potential and hopes, and last but not least the climbing/play structure is stunning. Our volunteers worked until dark to make it safe for kids to play on this week. Someone mentioned they had shingles for the roof of the cabin. Please call Paul Kamin or bring them into school. I would suggest next time we bring a few child care teenagers in to make sure the younger kids are safe, happy, and cleaning up the classroom after tornado playtime. Salmonberry playground is really starting to shine. Congratulations on a great effort by many. We have a field trip coming up this week. Greg and Tess have lambs at their place. On Thursday we are looking for two more parents to volunteer and drive children to visit and feed the lambs. If you can help, speak to Lydia who is organizing the details for us. Please sign the permission slip and return to school before the field trip. We will be expanding our spring theme this week with planting wildflowers and planning our planting for the big garden. Our bird masks and bodies will continue to evolve, and we will be talking about how we would like to acknowledge Earth Day. Carol, the new Orcas Library Children's Librarian will be coming to share stories and bring us supplies of books for four weeks starting Wednesday April 20. This week we will be making class journals. The children will make them themselves if they want one. We will take time daily to encourage them to write or draw in their journals about whatever they wish. Parent meeting has been changed to Monday April 18. We moved from Wednesday because of violin lessons. We hope this works for everyone. Parent meetings are a good place to find out what is going on, bring up things you would like to discuss, and just generally connect with other parents. Dates: 4/11 Board meeting 4/14 Field trip 4/18 Parent meeting 4/21 Earth Day celebration March 14, 2005 Dear Parents, Welcome Back! Although spring is officially just one week away, I can feel it everywhere. It is wonderful to see life reemerging on the ground and in the trees. We will be spending much of this first week settling back into school routines. It takes the children a little while to readjust to being with each other again. We are excited about the progress that has and will take place with our little ones. Our classroom looks great, thank you to Stacy, Andria, and anyone else who took responsibility for painting over the break. Your efforts will be enjoyed by all. This is how we best function, by you as parents pitching in where you can. Of course this week we will be exploring Irish music and tales of leprechauns chasing pots of gold at the ends of rainbows. Over the next two weeks we will be starting our seedlings and feeding the birds. We need water/milk/juice cartons for making bird feeders. If you have any pinecones we would love them too. Your help is much appreciated in gathering these items for our program. We hope to spend more outside time and enjoy the light and sun. We will be painting and drawing our impressions of spring. We would like to invite any volunteers to come and do eggs for Easter next week with the children. We are excited to get started this spring quarter; we look forward to all the developments taking place with your children. We gratefully thank you for entrusting us with their minds, hearts, and little bodies. With love, Grethna February 7, 2005 Dear Parents, Congratulations to the elementary school children for their courage and successful presentations at The Living Room on Saturday night and thank you to Stacey and Dave. Although I was unable to attend I heard wonderful comments about the evening. I know the children prepared for months in advance, planning, working and fundraising. Well done, Paul Freedman, putting into action the values we hold dear. As you all know, there is a virus going around. I just want to remind everyone that frequent hand washing can make a significant difference. I encourage taking the time to really rest your body and give yourself a chance to recover fully to avoid a relapse. We encourage little ones to question us, and challenge our decisions. At the same time, there are some basic rules at school that are nonnegotiable, such as washing your hands before we eat. We have been encountering quite a few "NOs" lately. It is normal to test boundaries and rules, and it is also important to respect the needs of the group. We will be spending some time this week looking at some of the basic rules we have at preschool, and why we ask the children to help clean up, wash hands, not hit, etc. Our three R's are Respect for self, Respect for others, and Responsibility for our actions. This week we will be doing a lot of Valentine's creations. We do not expect the children to make a valentine for everyone; however, they can if they wish. We are exploring more about self love, loving our family and friends, and inclusion. If your child should choose to make valentines for all the children you will find a list of names on the refrigerator. We only have two more weeks of the Winter Quarter, hard to believe. Gretchen has had a sign up on the door for a program during the break. Now that you have all gotten used to signing in, we need to ask that your initials become a signature. I will recreate the sign-in sheet to accommodate signatures for spring quarter. The Board meeting is this Wednesday 2/9/05 at 3:15 pm; please check the front door for agenda items. We have two juicy topics this month; we will be talking about kindergarten configuration and spirituality. All are welcome. Love, Grethna January 24, 2005 Dear Parents, It seems to be a common theme that many of us have a lot going on these days. As a school community we are here to support each other. I have seen parents reaching out to each other and supporting each other. I believe this is wonderful for our children to see. As we get stronger and more at ease with each other, we teach this to our children. Please continue to support each other. As we encourage the children, we will encourage you. Ask for what you want. You might not always get it but at least you supported yourself by asking. We had a big week at preschool. On Wednesday we had a visit from the state. This was the first of what could be a few visits. For those of you who are not aware, we are exploring what it will take to get licensed. If licensed, the state would provide funding on top of what the Board generously gives out every year. This funding would pay for children who really could not afford to be here otherwise. We will keep you posted. Wednesday was also our parent meeting. Thank you to everyone who came. It was a wonderful turn-out with lots of ideas and suggestions. Thank you to Stacy for typing up the minutes and getting copies in everyone's box by Thursday morning. A copy of the minutes is posted on the inside door of the preschool. Oak has offered her services as new volunteer coordinator, Lydia will be coordinating field trips, Lynn will be parent liaison, Emily will be heading up the volunteer gardeners and Morgan who is working on grants is in the process of creating a list of all the improvements we desire at Salmonberry in general. The chickens will be taken care of by parents and everyone will be taking turns. They are pretty low maintenance, they need feeding/water just twice a week. Thank you parents for giving of your time; this is what makes our program great. Backwards day was quite entertaining at times. The children particularly enjoyed hearing their names backwards. The children are getting skilled at yoga and some are just about ready to lead our class. Our new singing teacher Sabrina brings great energy and songs. We are learning a few new songs, you may hear your children singing them, and my personal favorite is the African song. We would love to present what we have learned at the end of the quarter. Gretchen had hoped to do some science around rainbows but the sun did not cooperate, and the forecast for the next week looks similar. We have been looking at different fruit and vegetables and where they come on the rainbow. We will continue to explore our favorite fruits and vegetables, making charts and categorizing. We plan to continue with conflict resolution and including others. Communication at preschool is big of late. The children are learning to use words and really ask for what they want. We have all kinds of humph, whines and loud NOs and we are working with them to "say what you mean, just don't say it mean." They are really making progress in their communication skills. Remember we are all role models. February is just around the corner. Have a great week! Grethna January 10, 2005 Dear Parents, Our first week back was really about settling back into school. After a break from school it just takes some adjustments. This coming week will be a little more settling in with lots of fun and understanding. We have been painting/drawing/building/singing rainbows. Gretchen will be introducing some science with prisms and I will be introducing a nutrition concept of eating the colors of the rainbow. We spent some time with the idea of conflict resolution. Gretchen and I feel strongly that what most of our children need at this time are tools to deal with the disagreements that come up at school. We have 9 steps that we go through to come up with solutions to our conflicts. We will expand conflict resolution awareness more over time. It seems so basic and so vital to accept we will have differences and that there are solutions available to us when we are not emotional and can brainstorm. This coming week we will be learning about Dr. Martin Luther King and his work as a peace activist. There is a concert to celebrate Dr. King's birthday at the Living Room on Monday, January 17th at 7:00 pm. Monday, January 17th there will be no school. This coming Thursday at 3:15 will be the Board meeting; we really do encourage you to attend just to get a feel for what goes on. You will be welcomed. Sabrina, our new singing teacher was unable to come last Thursday, but we will begin singing with her this Thursday at 12:30 pm. We have Story Bird coming to Tuesdays now, which means we will be doing yoga/music on Mon/Wed. We read a wonderful pirate story last week, "How I Became a Pirate" (more than once.) Wednesday and Thursday of this week we will be indulging our inner pirates. Your children may dress up or not, it is up to each child how involved they would like to get. Just so you know pirates might not brush their hair, teeth, take a bath, or wear pajamas. Generally speaking pirates do not have very good manners. If we digress in our hygiene and manners please note it is temporary, we promise not to be pirates for too long. Please mark these dates on your calendar or put them in a place where you will see them. The new snack schedule will be out this week.
November 29, 2004 Dear Parents, Welcome back! We hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and your families over the week. We have had some new children enroll in the program; most of your know Zoe Halliday, as she has been attending for a few days. Finn Carpenter will officially start this Wednesday and Maggie Paige will be starting Monday (today.) Please welcome the children and parents, we are very happy to have them with us. We received some new donations of wooden trains and vehicles along with a play tree house and a puppet stand, thank you to Andria, Paul and Lynn. We have also received some new equipment we ordered before break. There are lots of new goodies to play with at preschool. It is amazing that we only have three more weeks before the Christmas break. There have been a few changes in our schedule due to adding a woman by the name of Sabrina to do singing on Thursdays. So, as of this week, we will have music with Gretchen on Mondays, Story Bird on Tuesdays, yoga on Wednesdays and singing on Thursdays. This week we will be continuing to work on our poetry books. The children have worked together in creating some wonderful poems. We will be decorating our gift bags and will begin to make gifts for our families. There could be some secrecy. Next week on the 8th and 9th we will be having our blanket/bear day. PJ's are optional (be sure to bring warm clothes for outside too.) Children are asked to bring their cuddly bear and a snuggly blanket. If they wish they are welcome to leave their pj's on for the day. We do not plan to officially celebrate any holiday but wish to expose the children to the variety of holidays. We would love parent support for this. If anyone feels excited about sharing anything about Hanukah, for example, reading a book, using a menorah and teaching us how to play with a dreidel, that would be great. We are also looking for someone to teach us something about Kwanza. We hope to explore the winter solstice and would love to hear from a parent who could help with Solstice traditions. On the 15th and 16th of December we will be doing a small closing with the children. We would like to do a book gift exchange. Please start thinking now about which book you would like to bring in. It can be a book from home (in good condition) or if you wish to buy a new book we suggest keeping it under $15. The book will be wrapped and suitable for a girl or a boy. Each child brings a book and takes home a different one. We really need all children to be able to dress warm for outside play. Hats and gloves (labeled) and warm shoes or boots and a warm coat is really important, or many layers at least. This Friday night at 7:30 PM we have our fabulous guest speaker from Portland, Oregon. This will be an informative lecture/discussion on holistic education and everyone is invited. Please check the flyer on the door for more information. Once again we are thankful to be the teachers of your blessed children; they bring us gifts of spirit and joy on a daily basis. Blessings to all, Grethna October 18, 2004 Dear Parents, Salmonberry is in full swing, it is fall, and we are enjoying the fall colors as we take walks around our school and beyond. We would like to need a parent or two to come with us. We went with our Thursday bunch last week and had a grand time looking at leaves, eating pears and apples, and visiting spiders and their webs. We've all decided we would like to focus on spiders for the next little while. Spiders remind us of the web of life which interconnects us all. I will be learning along with the children about these incredible creatures. How do they help us? What can we do to help them? Why are they special? We will also look at what makes us special by thinking and talking about feelings. We will explore feelings through listening to music, doing "feeling art" and movement. We will learn to listen to, and notice in ourselves and others, the language of feelings. When we feel love, do we feel more connected How do feelings connect us - to each other? To nature? When we feel fear - what happens to our connection? Also, Andrea has brought us some great seasonal songs which we will be incorporating into music and our ongoing noticing of the changing seasons. Some dates to keep in mind: Parent Meeting: This Wednesday the 20th at 1:15. We generally have a meeting once a month - the third Wednesday of the month. It's that time! Let us know what you would like to discuss - we will put it on the agenda. Work Party: This Sunday October 24th at 10:00 until we are done. Drinks and snacks will be provided, and we will have a potluck when we are done. Halloween Fun, October 27th and October 28th. Children can wear costumes if they wish. We will be making pumpkin goodies and playing Halloween games. Evening to discuss Children's Spirituality. Date to be announced soon. I will share some of what I learned from my conference. Peace to all, Gretchen October 11, 2004 Dear Parents, Fall is definitely here. I have been watching the trees. It is such a pleasure to watch the changes evolve. Yet as the leaves begin to fall and the trees start to look bare it is challenging to embrace the coming winter and associated weather. It is a time for warmth and nurturing indoors, baking and tea. We would love your recipes that we could make with the children; we are putting together a simple recipe book for a resource. We have experimented with beginning outside; the damp cool mornings inspire most children to be inside. We will start inside and if there are children that really want to be outside to begin their day, then we can make that happen. What worked well was snack before circle. Gretchen and I feel open and flexible to the children's needs and want to continue to assess what really works best for them. Some of the children have delved into making books, many are letter books, sometimes they want to help and other times it is totally their own creation. Gretchen taught us a song about leaves decomposing; we have been looking at the soil and turning the compost pile. We have touched on how, from this breaking down of materials come rich nutrients to feed life. I can't help but think this pertains to live in general. We plan to focus on a sense of gratitude and begin to talk about and identify feelings. We did some of this last year and there has been a request from a few parents to revisit this topic. Gretchen is returning from her conference and I am sure will be charged with wonderful energy and information. Monday (today) October 11 at 3:15 is the board meeting. I would love you to attend if possible. It is a great way to catch up on what is happening in your school and get in some volunteer hours. Thanks for being wonderful parents; we appreciate your efforts in remembering to sign in. Breath in the season's changes and enjoy. Blessings, love and gratitude, Ethna and Gretchen September 27, 2004 Dear Parents, All is well, our children are well, and we have so much to be thankful for. Things are also changing. Due to the high number of children who can focus much better with enough food in their bellies, we are changing our morning schedule a bit so that we can have snack sooner. The new schedule will begin on Wednesday of this week. Please discuss this with your children beforehand, as we will be doing today and tomorrow. Here it is: 9:00-9:45 Outside time (walks, outdoor activities) 9:45-10:00 Snack 10:00-10:30 Circle time 10:30-11:30 Free choice - with options for outside time if needed 11:30-11:40 Cleanup 11:40-12:00 Specialists/Music 12:00-12:30 Lunch 12:30-1:00 Outside Our specialist/music schedule will for now be: Monday - Storytelling with Storybird (Antoinette Bottsford) Tuesday - Yoga with Nona (Elsie McFarland) Wednesday - Music/Movement/Puppets/Theater Thursday - Music/Movement/Puppets/Theater We enjoyed seeing all of you for our goal setting conferences. We learned a few things we did not realize. There are a growing number of children an/or parents who are interested in more pre-reading/writing/math materials and activities. We'd planned to set more up for our kindergarten age children, and will make these available to anyone who is interested. Letter boxes, alphabet books, and more math and science manipulatives and activities will be in the works. If we do have science-oriented parents out there, feel free to get us started with a unit -- your presence and expertise is always welcome. Speaking of involved parents! Andria Freedman - hats off to you. Saturday evening's Blue Grass Rock Fest was a smashing success! People commented on how many people were on their feet dancing. All ages - together as one. That's what we're all about. The food was great too! Thanks also to Lydia Miller, who organized for the Rummage Sale - we could not do this without your help - and you do so much. Just know it is appreciated and deeply felt how much you care about this school. There are other parents whose help does not get noticed as much, but it is just as important. What a model for our children! We are still working on constructing a tree in our classroom to illustrate our connections, and will be taking time in the yard to look closer at our trees - their differences and similarities. Thankfulness will also be an ongoing theme this season as we explore how an attitude of gratitude can help us connect and feel more love. As always, connection, love, peace, and joy are the foundations of our learning and growth, and any way we can feel and explore these parts of us, we will be doing - through music, storytelling , art, and just being together in awareness. Peace to all, Gretchen September 20, 2004 Dear Parents, We have had a fabulous first few days at Salmonberry Preschool. The children have been exploring the surroundings and Gretchen and I have been getting to know the children and how they come together as a group. We will be spending more time this week just settling into routines. Gretchen will be providing us with music twice a week. We have been singing "The More We Get Together" and our new circle song. This week we will be working toward making a tree collage. We will be doing some tree rubbings on bark, painting paper green, and leaf rubbing. It will be nice to have our tree to remember the green leaves through the winter. Paul Kamin has taken some photos of children and will be back on Tuesday to take some more. These pictures will be used on our tree. There has been a donation from one of our families to help build something outside, maybe more swings or a slide. As we opened the discussion at the board meeting it became clear we need to look at the bigger picture of how we want the outside space to be used. Lydia, Moana and I would love to have more parents help decide how our outside play area would benefit all the children. Please talk to one of us if you are interested. Please be sure we have a change of clothes for your child at school. We will keep the bag at school, with your child's name on it. Thank you to all those parents who have done this. With the weather changing we really do need practical shoes or rubber boots and raincoats (preferably with hoods.) We plan to go outside every day, so hats are a good idea. Please keep umbrellas at home. Please label clothing so we can make sure it ends up in your child's cubby. We would like to suggest extra slippers for school; toes get chilly this time of year and with the addition of socks the floor seems rather slippery. The bulb sale has been a success for us in the past, and to continue with thi success we ask that you sell bulbs to friends and family and any organizations you belong to. Those orders are due back to school on Thursday, September 23rd. Some of you may have found a form in your child's cubby, such as an emergency contact form or immunization form. It is because we require them for our file. We would appreciate it if you would fill out the form/s and return to school. It is important for us to have have up-to-date information on how to contact you. Please inform us if there have been any changes in phone numbers or addresses. If you have not returned your enrollment contract, please do so as quickly as you can. Thank you. Thank you to Lydia and her helpers for all the hard work that went into our garage sale. We are so grateful for these wonderful children that come so open and curious. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to be loving guiding adults in the lives of your children. We look forward to a long, healthy, growing, loving year ahead. Blessings, Ethna and Gretchen |