September 2024: A New Start, The SimpleLife Way!

**Every child deserves a childhood full of wonder, laughter, joy, excitement, exploration, safety, and love.**

Mindful Focus: Friendship and Kindness

Explorations: School, Harvest, Fruits/Veggies, and Apples

Welcome school year 2024-2025! SimpleLife Preschool has made quite a name for itself, thank you for supporting a local women owned and run business! Each month we will be sharing our monthly newsletter/blog going into detail about all the learning that went on. The teachers will begin collaborating and being in charge of writing sections in the newsletter starting October.

As many of you may know since you made the choice to send your child to preschool; in the first five years, a person develops faster brain connections than any other time in life. Meaning, every experience is deeply significant and has consequential outcomes on who we become as a person.

School:

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”
`- Clay P. Bedford`

Predictable routines create a sense of security within children, that’s why starting school can feel so big and scary. We intentionally plan our days and weeks in a way the brings comfort and confidence to children. Something special about SimpleLife is that we rotate teachers, so all the students have experiences with the different styles of each one of our amazing teachers! Miss Sushi, Miss Mallorie, Miss Annie, and Miss Lottie! And sometimes me, (Miss Demi)!

This is most children’s first experience in school, so the first thing to learn is “how to school”. Lining up, waiting your turn to speak, cleanliness, teamwork, and so much more. One of our main goals is to instill a positive association with school. Learning is fun! Each day we sing, dance, move, and create.

We also learned about hand washing, tissue use, covering our mouths, and putting on our shoes. Throughout the school year we will continue to gain skills that will be necessary for children to communicate, work with others, and be a promising figure within society. We saw so much excitement in the children coming to school. We saw some meaningful friendships ignite and a sense of comfort and confidence!

Kindness and Friendship:

“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”
`- Franklin D. Roosevelt`

Each month we will have a “Mindful Focus”. This is a type of life value that will be useful in many social and emotional situations. Kindness and friendship are our first focuses as children come to school in the fall. This sets a time for the whole school year of expectations for the children’s interactions with each other as well as one of the main purposes of school (learning to make friends!)

With prompt cards of real children, representing diversity, the preschoolers unveiled and discussed different ways they can be a nice friend. During early childhood education, young children are still developing how to be a kind friend and need experiences to support their understanding.

Sharing and taking turns can be a hard concept to accept, but with time and practice children will realize how rewarding it is to include others. Remember, learning these skills are what preschool is for!

We welcomed a lot of new families this school year which was very exciting for us. It’s great to build community friendships and foster all types of loving friendships.

Harvest Exploration:

The garden provides opportunities for learning in all domains!

Each year our yield has been different. Just like a developing child the garden has phases and different areas of strength. The garden provides opportunities for learning in all domains! Studies have shown that there are many benefits in garden and agriculture activities. Including, increasing children’s love and knowledge for agriculture, improve children’s naturalist intelligence, promote healthy foods, foster curiosity, aid a nature-friendly attitude, at support cognitive intelligence. It was so fun watching the children working together to carry giant squash! There was so much excitement when the children got to take home a little box of items they harvested from the garden. The experience felt very magical.

Explorations are part of SimpleLife curriculum. Explorations are weaved into different activities throughout each school day. Explorations evolve and morph based on the seasons and children’s interest. We discussed the meaning of harvest season during circle time, then got to go on our very own harvest walk around the school grounds. We collected produce to take home, for the community produce table, and for some upcoming activities!

Harvesting fruits and vegetables brings instant gratification, but to sustain a healthy garden seeds must also be harvested. Most seeds need to be dried over the winter to be planted in the spring. We harvested our mammoth sunflowers and used mathematical thinking to explore how tall they got and how many seeds we think are inside. One very special seed needs to be planted in the fall, the milkweed seed. Did you know that milkweed is the required host for the powerhouse pollinator, the monarch butterfly? Each child got to take home a seed packet with planting instructions so we can support the growth and spread of the milkweed plant. My daughter was thrilled about this, it was the first thing we did when we got home from school that day.

We learned that not everything we harvest has to be used up immediately. Some other options are freezing, canning, or dehydrating. After harvesting our grapes we destemmed them and put them in the dehydrator. After a long weekend we got to eat the raisins for snack time. They were so sweet and tasted better than the store bought ones. SimpleLife Preschoolers approved!

Fruits and Vegetables Exploration:

“It should be fun introducing kids to fruits and vegetables. If you start young, it will be something that they'll attach to really quickly.”
`- Michelle Obama`

Using child safe knives, children got to practice cutting open produce. We discussed, “What do you think the inside will look like? Will it have seeds? Will it be the same color as the outside? What is the texture? Firm or gooey?” Allowing and trusting children to use tools is empowering for them. We first taught them how, explained what the tool is used for, and gave them multiple opportunities to practice with assistance given when needed. We loved watching their focused faces they made while cutting the veggies!

With the help of informational books, songs, and games we explored more about harvest, specifically what is produced! Is it a fruit or a vegetable? Or maybe this food is something else. We also learn how fruits and vegetables grow. Some are underground, on trees, vines or stalks, or a bush! We explored these topics through hands on activities, group games, songs, books, snack time and art projects. Enveloping the whole child.

The children’s favorite part was the pluot tree! Having a hand picked snack during outside play was pretty exciting for them.

Apple Exploration:

Identifying and evaluating similarities and differences with verified taste testers.

Let’s deepen our thinking and exploration even more! We learned about different types of fruits and vegetables, but we also learned there can be more than one type of a species. We collected four different types of apples. Observed what they looked like on the outside. Made a prediction and investigated what they look like on the inside, learning the anatomy of an apple. Then, we got to taste a slice of each of the four different types of apples. After tasting them we compared them. Some were more tart or bitter. We took a vote on which was our favorite.

What else can we do with our apples? Let’s make some yummy goodies! With our apple turner and juicer we made apple crisp and 100% pure apple juice. The juicer spins the liquid so fast it makes an apple foam on top of the juice. Children said, “It taste sweet and tart!” “The bubbles taste like bubbles!”

Clay Exploration:

Having a messy creative time!

Did you know that SimpleLife Preschool has a kiln? Children who attend get to make some pretty special ceramic projects! We introduced our clay projects by letting the children squish, smash, roll, create, and get messy! If you noticed that your child came home covered in gray dust, our clay is the culprit!

Art Exploration:

“Creativity takes courage.”
`- Henri Matisse`

Being able to do art outside feels our hearts with so much joy! With inspiration all around them, the children created some beautiful works of art. It’s so lovely to see how each child is unique and creates their own individual large easel painting.

We are very passionate about allowing children to create in their own way and find satisfaction in the journey of an art project, rather than a copy paste product. We help children learn HOW to use our tools. Glue, staplers, paint brushes, and so much more. Look at the focus and engagement in these photos! Every child is an artist and they all worked so hard on their projects.

With our harvest, children then were able to paint what they see, aka a still life. The children were so thoughtful with their paintings and were excited to hear that they will be displayed in their preschool portfolio.