Blossoms: A newsletter for the family and friends of Rose Blossom Nursery School

May and June 2005

Dear Parents,

Spring has really sprung here, and the children are busily tracking down spiders, chasing flies, looking for lizards in the yard, finding snails, watching the apple tree grow apples, planting seeds, transplanting flowers, holding baby birds, seeing tarantulas and hens and tortoises that parents bring in, and participating in water experiments. Making pretzel animals for cooking class in April was a bit hit, and in May, we are planning to juice fresh fruits and vegetables, and make a fruit salad. The children are learning in leaps and bounds. It is an exciting time.

The end of the school year approaches, and we are all having to make plans for the summer and fall, and the children who are moving on to other schools are coming to terms with the end of the school year. We have really grown close, as a group, and this time of year represents a passage for some of the children, and their families. It is my hope that participation in the graduation ceremony and celebration helps to make this passage for us all.

The graduation ceremony is on June 16th, with singing, food, and celebration, as we help the children honor the end of their time at Rose Blossom School, or the end of the school year.

In the meantime, there is still much we can do together, and the children are excited to learn more about money, time, counting, writing, reading, musical instruments, and how children live around the world.

I am very grateful to have had this time with you, and your child, at Rose Blossom School. Thank you for all of your cooperation, good will, and support, all of which helps to make the Rose Blossom experience a magical and joyful experience for the children.

—Sharon Rose, Director

Notes to Parents:

There will NOT be a performance in May. Songs from both May and June will be combined for the Graduation Performance scheduled for Thursday, June 16th, at 9:15a.m. There will be a performance, certificates, and a pot luck celebration. Julie Skromme is helping to coordinate parents who would like to speak to the audience. There will be a pot luck sign up sheet on the counter. Suggestions are welcome!

Tuition for June will be based on a three week month, rather than the usual four weeks. Summer session starts July 5th, and runs for six weeks

Pick-up times are at 11:45 and 1:45, with a 15 minute grace period. At noon, keeping to this time frame helps us to stay on our schedule for lunchtime, and the afternoon. At 2:00, the teachers are cleaning up, scheduling conferences with parents, or have other appointments, and it helps for us to know that the children are safely with their parents or child care providers by 2:00p.m. If these pick up times are difficult because of your schedule, we can talk about how to make it work for everyone. If you’d like to chat with the teachers or other parents, or get to know the children your child plays with at school, coming early, sometime between 1:00 and 1:30, to hang out with us, is a great idea! Thanks!

Please let us know how the Rose Blossom School year has been for you and your child! Letters of opinion, including appreciations and improvements, are very, very welcome. Parents have differing needs and opinions as to what they would like in a preschool experience, and it helps for us to know if we have met your needs and expectations, or not. Sometimes, needs clash, or we do not have the facility or means to meet every need, but we can at least try. Thank you!

Happy Birthday!

May:

Max — 05/02/01

Teacher Sharon — 05/08

Maverick — 05/10/01

Jared — 05/11/01

Anthony: — 05/12/99

Logan — 05/17/01

Isabel — 05/25/00

June:

Oonagh — 06/10/00

Brynna — 06/14/99

We celebrate the children's birthdays at school with a "walk around the sun" for the number of years of the birthday, and we sing happy birthday. We also help the birthday boy or girl make a birthday crown, which he/she can wear all day, and especially for our ceremonial ritual.

If the family wants to bring a treat in to contribute to the school celebration, we ask that it not add too much sugar to their diet. We have noticed some creative ideas, like sliced fruit, mini quick bread muffins, and even party favors, like small bubble bottles.

Monthly Themes

March: Money, Time, Instruments, and Mother’s Day

We are practicing recognizing coins, and their value. We even have Abraham Lincoln and George Washington dolls who “talk”, to help the children understand that pictures of presidents are on coins and bills. In order to help with both telling time and counting money, we are practicing counting by 5’s and 10’s; counting this way with your child for practice will be an extra boost for them, as would counting and trading coins, and pointing out what time it is on the clock. We are also identifying instruments, and playing instruments with several songs at school. If your child plays an instrument, or you have an instrument that you can bring in, and/or demonstrate how it is played, that would be great! Also, the children have requested that we get a child’s size guitar, so that I can show them how to play. Any suggestions for a good sounding child-sized guitar?

April: Children Around the World and Father’s Day

We will listen to music from different countries, read books about how children live in different countries, and identify places on the map/globe. Suggestions about how to present different cultures to the children are welcome.

Spring Plants

The children planted seeds in clear plastic cups: pumpkins, corn, sweet pea flowers, and/or pole beans. Most of the seeds germinated and sprouted into seedlings, and are growing strong, except for the pole beans – they didn’t seem to germinate at all. Those children who planted only pole beans have replanted, but it will take another week or two for the new plantings to grow. It has been a wonderful experiment, and some of the children are wondering, how does that plant grow, anyway?! Jared kicked up his heals for joy when he saw his seed had sprouted, and all of the children are proud of their little seedlings, which they will be taking home in May. Please help your child to transplant their seedlings into bigger planters, or into the ground, so they can continue to grow. The pumpkins are organic jack'o'lantern pumpkin seeds.

We are doing more with plants. Mother’s Day presents are pansies, in painted clay pots, and we have flowers planted in our school garden, which the children water. I have also started sugar snap peas and sunflowers from seeds, and will be transplanting them to bigger pots for the children to watch them grow bigger. They have a much better grasp of how plants grow, and what they need to grow, now that they have started some plants from seed. I will be reading the Frog and Toad Together story “The Garden” by Arnold Lobel, to the children, which I believe they will now be able to relate to, after waiting and waiting for their seeds to grow.

Animals

Spring has sprung. In addition to the apple tree in the yard blossoming and already starting to make little apples, caterpillars are crawling around, lizards are scooting through the yard and hiding, and the children keep track of the spiders in the yard, too. Baby chicks, ducklings, goslings, and baby turkey chicks visited the children at school in April, as did grown hens, with a sampling of their eggs — white, brown, and green. We had visits from two Russian tortoises, and some large and small pet tarantulas this spring, all brought in by parents. If there are any other animals that can safely be brought in for the children to see or touch, we will be happy to include more animal visits in our schedule. Let us know!

Spring Cleaning

Kudos to the Spring Cleaning parents who came and spruced up Rose Blossom School on Spring Cleaning Day in April. We washed outside toys, raked bark in the yard, cleaned, repaired, and refilled the sandbox, shampooed the carpets, and scrubbed down the art room. The children noticed the changes, and were very happy! Our next project is to create a “secret garden, and a digging area, in the back garden. We are excited to be preparing this space for the children.

WISH LIST

Art Sale:

Last year we had the idea to frame and exhibit the children’s artwork in the yard for an art sale at the end of May. We are studying money, and wouldn’t it be wonderful for the children to experience the satisfaction of selling their own artwork to appreciative parents, even parents of other children? Please talk with Sharon and Mary about how to prepare and display the art work, and let us know if you like this idea!

Please bring in empty oatmeal containers or coffee cans for making drums and other projects. Also, newspaper for a science project this month. Empty food cans and plastic coffee can lids are also candidates for a Father’s Day project. If anyone has one of the older model metal globes that we can use at school, please let us know. Thank you!

Rose Blossom School Calendar: May, June, and Summer 2005

Summer Activities

Barry Brooks, aka Mr. Strawberry, will continue to offer tumbling classes on Mondays and Thursdays for the summer session, and when school starts in the Fall. Sign-up sheets will be available at the counter under the clock.

Sharon is offering Yoga for Children once a week after school, on Wednesdays, 2:15 – 2:45 PM. The class if for children ages 3 – 6 years old. A sign-up sheet for this class will be available at the counter under the clock. If there is a strong interest, another class, for older children will be added on another afternoon.

Previous Newsletters

• March and April 2005
• January and February 2005
• December 2004
• November 2004
• October 2004
• September 2004
• July and August 2004
• June 2004
• May 2004
• April 2004
• March 2004
• April 2004
• March 2004