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The Young Children's Community is a place that supports both individual development and learning how to live harmoniously in our community. Our days will be filled with opportunities for baking, exploring, developing independence, acquiring new language and challenging motor abilities, just to name a few. I am happy to welcome your child to our sweet community and I look forward to the year ahead. "Joy, feeling one's own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul." Annie@traversechildrenshouse.org Emily Kolassa
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Classroom Highlights
November 20, 2024
Hello Trillium families!
To start off today's classroom highlights, I want to thank you all for attending conferences. I wrapped them up on Friday feeling more grateful than ever that I get to be a part of this community. It has been such a beautiful fall semester, and I loved the opportunity to sit down and reflect with each of you.
In exciting news, we welcomed Grace back into the Trillium Room last week! The children are delighted to have her around, and her sweet baby, Ollie, too! With Grace's return, Madison ventured across the hall to the Nido, but thankfully we still get to see her throughout the day.
Our buddy, Emmett, has also made a transition and is now in the Lily Primary class! Aberdeen will be following him shortly, as she makes this big, exciting move right after Thanksgiving Break. Watching our friends join Primary is such a bittersweet experience, but overall, we feel so thrilled for this next step in their journey.
In the absence of our older pals, we will be welcoming many new faces in the coming months. The first of these move-ins will be sweet Quinn, who is moving up from the Nido after the short break next week. Quinn has been visiting our classroom, so your child may have already mentioned our new friend. Given all these changes, I will be sending out an updated roster at the start of the new year.
As you know, next week is a short one. Before we part ways for the holiday, we will be joining for a final feast in the Trillium Room. Linked here is the sign-up for our Harvest Feast. Please bring your contribution in a labeled container on Tuesday morning. We are always grateful for you but love this opportunity to be especially thankful.
To conclude this lengthy email, I am linking a goofy song that comes up in our classroom on a fairly regular basis. As I'm sure many of you have experienced, it is common for the children to go "shopping" in our extra clothing bins and leave at the end of the day wearing some nice, "tight pants". It always makes us chuckle. Hopefully this puts a smile on your face, too.
The Trillium Room is thankful for you!
Warmly,
October 18, 2024
Happy Friday Trillium families!
It is hard to believe that we are already over halfway through October. With the cooler weather, we have been embracing the change of seasons in our classroom. There are currently several fall-inspired books on our shelves, as well as some seasonal language cards, puzzles and manipulatives. In the next few weeks we will carve a pumpkin, bake pumpkin bread, roast pumpkin seeds and jump around in the leaves on our playground; there is so much to look forward to. I have included a few pictures of some favorite seasonal activities below.
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I find that seasonal materials lead to fun, relevant conversations with the children. Many have expressed that they have picked apples or pumpkins and a few have brought up the costumes they plan to wear for Halloween. The “spooky” decorations seen in yards and grocery stores this time of year can be really alarming for YCC aged children and repeated conversations about these things helps demystify them. One and two year olds live in a reality based world, and Halloween is a very abstract concept. I make a point to explain that the decor and costumes they see are just pretend.
A bit of housekeeping:
- Thank you for sending warm outdoor clothing as the temperature continues to drop. Here is a Winter Gear Guide with tips and recommendations for the upcoming season.
- If your child/family dresses up for Halloween, please email me a picture. I will send out a virtual Halloween parade shortly after the holiday.
- Next Monday, October 21st, is Picture Day. Our classroom is slated to go first thing in the morning, so feel free to send your child in their photo-ready outfit.
- Join us on Thursday, October 24th from 4:00 - 5:30 to discuss The Montessori Toddler, by Simone Davies. This book is a great jumping-off point, but you are more than welcome to come if you haven’t read it. Childcare is available and you can sign up for it here. Please register by Monday, 10/21.
- Horizon Books Day is Saturday, November 9th! This is our annual book fair and Horizon gives 10% of all sales that day directly to The Children’s House. The children love on our books so intensely that they often need replacing. Please stop by Horizon and stick a book in the “Trillium” basket. We (adults and children alike) so appreciate it.
- Lastly, a reminder that conferences are right around the corner! You will receive an email with the link to sign-up in the next few weeks. I treasure the opportunity to sit down with each of you.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Annie
September 16, 2024
Happy first Classroom Highlights of the year, Trillium families!
For those of you who are new here, I send out a monthly email containing sweet anecdotes, pertinent information, and perhaps a sprinkle of Montessori philosophy. While these highlights should give you a good look into your child's school day, please do not hesitate to email me at any time.
What a wonderful start to the school year it has been! Over the last few weeks, we have welcomed four new children into the Trillium Room. You may hear about Walker, Hank, Edgar and Sophie as they settle into our little community. You may also hear about Declan, Meave and Rafferty who moved up to Primary at the end of summer and often come say "hi" to us while we are outside or walking down the hall.
Our youngest kiddos have been enjoying the sink (lots of hand washing, pouring, and plant watering), reading books, singing songs and painting at the easel – to name a few things. Our older friends have been tending to the community by washing dishes, scrubbing dirty tables & chairs, preparing snack, and collecting/starting the laundry. It is so fun to watch your children grow and continue to challenge themselves physically and mentally as the months tick by. Those who were once glued to the sink are now independently baking bread—the coolest thing to witness.
Thank you to all that came to the Back-to-School Parent Meeting! A few takeaways from our conversation:
- I will be sending an email with links to the winter gear I have found to be successful. Keep an eye on your inbox.
- Please feel free to come observe! The best time to watch your kiddo is between 8:50 and 10:15. If possible, let me know you are coming ahead of time.
- You should start receiving weekly photos of your child through Transparent Classroom. If you do not receive any photos this week, please let me know.
- Here is the link to the name stamp that we have found holds up well on clothing. Big thanks to Erin, Marcus' mom, for sharing!
- Last but certainly not least, here is the link to the Meal Train for Grace and her family.
On a more somber note, I feel I must share the story of our classroom fish...
As many of you know, over the summer our room inherited a fish tank with four established goldfish. For many weeks, the children enjoyed feedin the fish and watching them joyfully swim around their tank. Two weeks ago, we welcomed another goldfish from a neighboring tank that was struggling. After this addition, our fish grew sick. Despite reading up on the matter and cleaning/treating the tank, we unfortunately lost all five fish. I mention this because your children may bring up our empty tank and the aforementioned saga. My current plan is to continue treating the water and introduce a few new fish to the environment several weeks from now. Fish ownership is new to me, and I will take any and all advice! Hopefully we will have a balanced tank and some healthy fishy friends later in the year. ...
With that tragic tale out of the way, I want to thank you again for sharing your little people with me; I feel so lucky that I get to spend my days with them and partner with you during this formative time in their lives. Here's to a wonderful 2024-2025 school year and no more fish tragedies!
Looking forward to seeing you all at our class picnic tomorrow,
Annie Botsford