Congratulations! You and your children have successfully completed the first week of school!  We are excited to see so many enthusiastic and happy faces each morning.  Adapting to new changes are certainly going to be a challenge for some, but we have confidence in your children’s ability to rise to the occasion.  Every child in our 15-16 group has the potential to show their true selves, and I hope that we will all continue to do our best to provide an environment that supports this growth of the whole child. This support begins with sending a genuine message to your children that you believe that they are in a safe place with teachers who genuinely care about their growth and well being.  This support also includes sending a genuine and clear message to your children that you believe that they have the capacity to become a productive member of their learning community, to take instruction and to be willing to be guided to learn more.

This week, we began practicing how to say good bye to our children.  We would ideally want to each child to begin the day stress free,  Please keep good byes short and sweet, prolonged good byes make transitions very difficult and stressful for your child. Once your children were able to settle in, they learned simple safety rules, learned some of their friends’ names, where to put their shoes, which were outside vs inside shoes, how to serve themselves at the buffet snack table, how to have a meal together, how to listen to instructions and how to gather for group time.  The challenges moved from transitioning from lunch to nap or having a rest period to practicing the procedures for a fire drill.  Following the ground rules, we moved into learning the August poem, the difference between straight and curvy lines, identifying these lines in our environment, the uses of rulers, tracing, coloring, cutting out and naming our family members, learning about what it means to be a special friend.  Your children volunteered answers like being respectful, kind, caring, loving, giving, peaceful, patient, funny, and being part of a community. We learned the difference between left and right parts of the body, and was introduced to some of the aspects on which character is built. Hard work being the main one.  Some character traits include civility, responsibility, loyalty. We will continue learning more of these lessons during this month.  Your children were also introduced to learning ‘ morning and afternoon greetings, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, head, hair, hands, feet’ in Chinese.