Re: open arms news letter 5/13/14

Dear Parents

I want to thank you and the children for the love, attention and gifts for my birthday.

I felt very cared for, just spending the day with the children was a wonderful way to spend my birthday.

you were all very generous and kind.

Please remember our end of year picnic on Thursday may 29th at 11am here.

It is a pot luck lunch so please bring something to share and plates and utensil for yourself.

I will tell the children a story followed by a small gift and the children who move to kindergarten will receive the end of year book. All the rest may order one from me they are about $30, yes they get more and more expensive every year. I will place the order in the next 2 days so please let me know soon.

I will have a copy for us to keep here that the children can look at.

I attached some reading material if you would like to look at. (one attachment two links)

http://movingtolearn.ca/2014/ten-more-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned-for-children-under-the-age-of-12

http://movingtolearn.ca/2014/ten-steps-to-successfully-unplug-children-from-technology

With much gratitude and Love

Maayan

  

Open Arms newsletter

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break and celebration last week.

Here at Playgarden we have sung spring songs and planted seeds in the garden, we baked bunny bread last week, and I told them how I saw so many hares coming out of the ground in the meadows now that spring is here.

The children are playing with water and can finally take off their shoes when the weather permits, they love the feeling of their feet in the sand and grass.

Our new play house is a great addition as well.

Thanks to Neko's family for the new swing, wheel barrow and digger also wonderful additions to inspire the children's play.

I would like to welcome Neko to our play garden he will start this week.

Our beloved rabbit Mr. Buttons passed away while on break. I did all I could to help him with the vets help but he was too sick.

I told the children a story and it seemed to help. In the story, however, Pippin, our little bunny, takes on the responsibility of looking after the garden and sitting still for the children to pet him. This might take some work as he is not as patient as Mr. Buttons was. But he promised Mr. Buttons (in the story) to do his best.

This week I am telling the story of Briar Rose. It is a Grim fairytale. I chose to tell this story because this year we have a lot of older children that are going to kindergarten. Usually these stories are told in kindergarten but this group really needs the challenge. Another reason I chose to tell the story is because many of the children watched the movie Frozen. They have been acting it out and singing the theme songs over and over as is very common after watching a movie. The children try and process and retell the story in order to understand it. When the story comes in a form of a movie though it leaves a great impression since at this age they learn through creating images and are developing their imagination. Hence why we suggest as little media as possible.

The story of Briar Rose, when told close to the original form, is full of symbolism and messages about childhood and growing up to maturity. Theses are not messages the children perceive consciously but are told to as "soul food". As an example, when the princess pricks her finger at age 15, and falls asleep only to wake when the prince comes, it speaks of the letting go of early childhood and taking on the transformation to adulthood. The princess and prince marry and live contented together can be seen as the unity of the masculine and feminine in each of us at maturity.

Please remember our end of the year picnic here on May 22 at 11:00 here at playgarden. Please bring something to share, it is a pot luck.
Also I will be making photo books with pictures of the children.

Those that are moving to kindergarten will receive one as a present; however, the rest can buy it at cost price. I will let you know the price before I order.

If you object to have your child's picture in the book please let me know. I use Shutterfly to create the books.

Happy Spring.

Warmly,

Maayan

open arms news letter

Dear Parents:

As most of you saw, we have one baby goat (kid) and one lamb to care for for a few weeks.

Their bleating can be heard throughout the yard.  It is a new experience for all of us.

They still drink from a bottle 3 times a day and the children have watched me feed them.

The children are very careful and kind to the new babies.  It is wonderful to see. 

Please remember to come to the parent evening next Thursday at 7:30 here at Play Garden.

I would like to have our end of year picnic here at 11:30 on May 22.  It is a pot luck, so bring a dish to share and your own plates and utensils.

Happy spring

Maayan

open arms newsletter

Dear parents,

The garden is beginning to bloom and there are birds and bugs to hear and see in the garden. Butterflies and bees are busy waking up from winter's sleep and working in the garden.

The children are very active and with the time change this week we are spending more time outside.

We ate morning snack on the grass, picnic style, yesterday and continued to play outside immediately after.

One of our songs at circle time reflects what we see around us in nature every day:

Spring is coming, Spring is coming

Birdies building their nests.

Weave together straw and feather,

each one doing their best.

Another verse we say:

A caterpillar crawled to the top of the tree

I think I will take a nap said he.

So under a leaf he began to creep,

to spin his cocoon and fall fast asleep.

He slept and he slept all winter long,

until spring came along one day and said:

Wake up wake up sleepy head

Wake up wake up and get out of bed.

So he opened his eyes that sunshiny day,

and lo! he was a butterfly and flew away.

We crawl on the floor like caterpillars and then fall asleep only to wake up at spring time and fly like a butterfly and then repeat it again.

The crawling movements and then laying still are very healing for the children. It is also important to know how to fly around without bumping into friends and then calming down and becoming a caterpillar again.

Here are some dates to remember:

April 3rd Parent evening here at 7:30 (Parents only, please rsvp if you are coming unless you already did).

April 7th to 11th we are closed for spring break.

Coming up in May is our end of the school year picnic.

Enjoy the wonderful weather

Warmly

Maayan

open arms parent evening

Dear Parents

I had scheduled a parent evening here on march 20th not knowing that my son's class has their play performance then.

I would like to reschedule it to April 3 at 7:30 pm at my home.

The topic is finger play, songs, rhythm  and reading readiness. I would like to teach some of the children's favorite songs and speak about the importance of it.

It is also a great opportunity to meet other parents in our school comunity.

Please let me know if you can make it.

Best

Maayan

Gordon Neufeld Talks

Dear Parents

This is the updated information for Gordon Neufeld talks

How to Keep Children Safe in a Wounding World"

Wednesday, March 5th, 2014. 7-9pm. Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm. Santa Rosa, CA

https://neufeldsonoma2014.eventbrite.com

"Heart Matters: What To Do With a Child's Feelings"

Thursday, March 6th. 7-9pm. Unity in Marin. Novato, CA.

http://neufeldheartmatters.eventbrite.com

"Making Sense of Aggression & Defiance in Children"

A Two-Day Professional Training (open to all)

Friday-Saturday, March 7th & 8th, 2014. 9am-4pm. Unity in Marin. Novato, CA.

https://neufeldtraining2014.eventbrite.com

Best

maayan

Valentine's Day

Dear Parents

Happy valentines day to everyone!

I hope you can all enjoy the hearts the children made, some worked very hard on sewing the lavender pouches.

We collected the lavender in the fall of last year here in the garden.

It is important to me to craft with the children things that make sense, are practical and fun. Sewing the heart and the pouches is a great fine motor skill activity, the lavender is from our garden and they were part of collecting it.

This week I am telling the children a story about a prince that is looking for the best valentine gift to give his friend the princess.

The king and queen agree that only a heart will do.

So he goes looking for a heart.

First he stops at the jewelers but when he pays for a heart and walks out with it, it is not so shiny anymore and he does not think that a heart he paid for is the right present. He returns it and walks on past a bakery.

There he sees a cake shaped as a heart. He asks to buy it but the baker gives it to him. However as he carries it out it feels heavier and heavier to carry and he thinks that a heavy heart is not the right gift so he returns it to the baker.

He walks on until he comes to a man selling birds. He sees the most beautiful birds and they sing beautiful songs. But one song is the sweetest and he asks the man about it. He finds out that it belongs to a blind white dove. The dove is singing because her heart is happy. He asks to buy the dove but the saller gives it to him because he is willing to take care of a blind bird.

The princess loves the bird and declares that it is the best valentine she got.

Together they sit in the sun listening to her song.

The children like this simple story, we will act it out as a play on Friday and when we get back from our break.

We will be closed next week and back on Monday 2/24.

Thank you to all that have returned paperwork. Just a reminder that the summer weeks we are open are filling up as a first come first serve and I would need a deposit for the weeks your children are attending school.( in the summer ).

Have a great week

best

Maayan