May 2024
Happy May Day Forest School
Water Clan loved all the sunshine, returning to the rain has its hardships- for teachers too! May Day was a big hit with the sunshine, tea party and dancing the May Pole. I am happy to report that all the volunteers said our class was the most well behaved at the Tea Party! So many fun things in the near future to round out this school year, so looking forward to some more sun!!
Earth Clan: It’s May, we are quickly winding down the school year and have so many fun things to look forward to as the kids finish Kindergarten. Our Mondays in May include a specialized dance teacher who will be teaching us some new moves, and on Wednesdays we will continue to have show and tell. We will continue learning about animals and plants and how they survive. Our trips to the beach will likely become more frequent as the weather gets nice so please continue sending those extra clothes to change into. As always, reach out with any questions you have!
Congrats to the Air Clan kids for the successful completion of their Water Projects in April! Each child worked hard to envision the scope of their project and then see it through from start to finish. “You’re stretching your brains!” I’ve been telling them all year. It’s been remarkable to watch each child learn to focus and work for increasingly longer periods of time. We’re back at the Academic Blocks for the remainder of the school year with Literacy and Math Tuesdays/Wednesdays and various Writing practice every Thursday. I can’t wait to see what interesting work they produce!
The Fire Clan has been busy the past few weeks! They’ve practiced and performed a culminating Reader’s Theater (a play of sorts) about the Water Cycle and presented it once at all school circle for the whole school to watch. They will be performing it again during our next all school circle. We started a creative writing unit a few weeks ago and it’s been so fun to share in the stories they’re writing. We’ve also started up academic blocks again, which will continue through the last week of school. May will be busy for the Fire Clan as we’ll be learning African Dance on Mondays and hosting mapping specialists on three of the Thursdays. Students will be using these maps to plan for Predator/Prey (a giant game of hide and seek), our last all-school Forest Family activity. So many things to look forward to, including warmer, sunnier days at the park. Please continue to pack layers for the cool mornings, a change of clothes and hats/sunscreen as needed!
May Day was a hit!
Thank you to all the volunteers who made this wonderful event run smoothly!
Predator-Prey Forest Family
Thursday will be our last Forest Family activity of the year, and it’s a big one! The Fire Clan is working on making park trail maps that they will use to mark their secret hiding spot on. Each forest family gets a packet of maps and works together (with parent volunteer help) to find all of the Fire Clan kids wherever they are scattered through Mary S. Young! It’s a fun time, and we need at least 9 volunteers to help. Please let Audra or Heidi know ASAP if you are available.