Spring 2019 Newsletter

Planting the Garden

Thank you all for joining the Elements community of holistic learners! You have made it so special! Each child is so unique & individual, yet they all benefit from making friends, learning new skills, gaining new knowledge, & reaching new levels of independence. The children make it a pleasure to work toward our mission to provide a holistic, joyful & child-centered learning experience immersed in nature.

Lessons & Fun

Social/Emotional- It is important that we give our children tools to check in with their own feelings, communicate them and advocate for themselves in a manner that is healthy and safe for the others around them. This can even be done proactively before a previously identified difficulty occurs. In the instance that we are working out a difficulty, we ask and respond: How do you feel? I can understand. What do you need/want? Who can help? Do you have a plan? Can I help?

Academics- Many of our lessons are taught through hands-on activities and play. The children are given the opportunity to add illustrations and words to their journal for the extension of learning. During the end of our Spring Session, we finished prepping our garden and planted the first of our summer crops: peppers, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, watermelon, husk cherries, herbs, calendula, and sunflowers. The children helped harvest some crops with the RTB Team. They also measured the distance between plants, thought about how long it would take for fruit and vegetables to ripen and planned for the next round of planting. Other lessons included navigating to our favorite farm spots using the cardinal directions, tree names, and other landmarks.

Nature Art - Print making, stick wrapping, leaf rubbing, nature mandalas, sculpting all allow the children to develop fine motor skills and self expression- including the way they process the new information that they are learning at Elements.

Music & Movement - We continued our study of Qigong and demonstrated our favorite movements to our friends. On Wednesdays, our friends Lizzie and Tricia joined us to guide us through some improvisation dance and creative movement. The children (and teachers) had such a fun time!!