Parents and/or Guardians,
The school year has begun and for all of us in kindergarten, that means it is time to shake things up! It is extremely important to include play and natural exploration into the curriculum and one way we do that at Windsor School is by participating in Forest Friday. Some schools across the state are starting to offer outdoor education to their students and this year, the kindergarten teachers across the supervisory union (Albert Bridge, Hartland, and Weathersfield) are all doing a forest program at their school. The plan is to hold our classes outside every Friday. We will be outside most of the day unless the weather creates a safety concern. Children in our Forest Kindergarten will engage in the same curriculum and meet the same goals as children in other kindergarten classrooms with the added purposeful implementation of time and space for outdoor play and exploration. This nature-based learning will be characterized by a balance between supervised student-directed play and exploration time, as well as teacher led discovery following our curricular goals. Independence, imaginative play, problem-solving, communication and teamwork will be the focus of social and emotional development in the woods. On outdoor days we encourage parents to join us for some or part of the day as we learn and explore together. Parent support and involvement is always essential to the success of children in school. As part of the Windsor community we have the pleasure of using Paradise Park as an outdoor space on the days we will be outside. Our day will follow a predictable schedule for students that includes the usual morning meeting, station rotation at learning centers, a hike, snack/lunch, read alouds and free time for individual and small group exploration. Some notes on clothing for Forest Fridays: The following list of clothes will keep your child warm. Please don’t break the bank or head out on a goose chase after this stuff if you don’t have it! Just let us know what you’re missing and we will help sort it out in a cheap (or free) and easy way. Here’s what your child needs: · Rain jacket with a hood · Sweater or Sweatshirt · Snow pants · Snow jacket · Socks · Boots (rain boots for the wet seasons/ insulated boots for snow season) · Hat · Mittens or Gloves · Neck warmer or scarf LAYERING is the key! Sometimes we will be very active outdoors and sometimes we will be sitting. Layered clothing allows for flexibility – not too hot, not too cold. Whatever the children are not wearing, we can store away. Hats are essential on wet and cold days. Again, if you need help with some of the above items please ask. We will get your child what he or she needs. We don’t want gear to be a barrier for kids to participate and a warm child is a happy child who is ready to learn. We already have a ton of gear that has been donated to our program! GETTING DIRTY We will send home muddy children often! Getting dirty is an important part of outdoor learning. Please use old clothes and let your child know that on Forest Fridays they CAN GET DIRTY and you don’t mind! We will have plastic bags for bringing home muddy clothes. You may even want to throw a tarp or old sheet over your backseat on Fridays. You can keep a full change of clothes in a daypack you provide that stays here. Please label all of your child's clothing with his/her name. ***Please note that if one of these dates has inclement weather, we will not be going outside. September 14th January 4th May 3rd September 21st January 11th May 10th September 28th January 18th May 17th October 5th January 25th May 24th October 12th February 1st May 31st October 19th February 8th June 7th?? October 26th February 15th November 2nd March 1st November 9th March 8th November 16th March 15th November 23rd March 22nd November 30th April 5th December 7th April 12th December 14th April 26th It is important to note, that the success of this forest program is with the volunteer efforts of teachers, parents, family, and community members. If you are available and interested in volunteering for Forest Friday, please let us know! We are already taking down names for the dates listed above. If possible, please email or call one of us to let us know what dates you can join us outside. Tim Ives Ashley Moorhouse Emily Knapp
0 Comments
|
AuthorWindsor Kindergarteners Archives
October 2018
Categories |
Photo used under Creative Commons from Steve Byrne's Photos