Griffin Nursery School

Dear Families, October 19th, 2019 After Ardenwood and a trip to the eastern Sierras, I am ready to return to the newsletters! PLAY THEMES AND CHASE...Continue reading

Parent Night on Tuesday, 9/24, was well-attended and well-joined. Everyone had a chance to share insights into their children and aspirations for their education. Thank you for bringing all your goodwill and enthusiasm! Our trip to Ardenwood this coming weekend also promises to be well-attended. We’re so glad we can share this golden place with you. I do hope many of you will be able to stay for Holly Gundolfi’s Singalong at 12:30. Can you stay until close to 1pm so you won’t miss any of it?

Dear Families, September 28th, 2019 The new children are acclimated enough now that we are starting to see what activities they gravitate to and what skills they bring. We already have some surprising fine motor skills under our belts: Cutting with scissors, using Scotch tape, putting together Magna-Tiles without frequent implosions, and remembering the long sequence of steps required for handwashing. The new children are intently growing their large motor skills, too, by fin...ding every way up the jungle gym possible, by balancing, crawling, walking, jumping, and leaping on and off our modular long and short boards that fasten to the jungle gym and free-standing standards. They are rapidly learning the routines, too, remembering the locations of their lockers, a couple of names of other children and teachers, and where to come for group time when they hear the sound of our wooden frog being swiped with a stick along its bumpy spine. Many of the returning children are so invested in group play that art bags might be coming home a bit emptier than before, and lunches may be cursorily eaten. The level of problem-solving they are engaging in is impressive. A child who joined a threesome’s game inadvertently took the red box she had been using. When she told him she had been using it, he looked at her but didn’t offer a conciliatory remark or give it back to her. She switched gears and said, Let’s pretend a monster stole my red box, and we’re making poison to kill it! The child who had taken the red box said, And I’ll help you make lots of poison with my [inaudible] powers! The first child was mollified and said, Yeah! With a seemingly simple comment but actually a very complex shift in perception, our problem-solver invited the newcomer to the negotiating table, and he stepped up, offering to help her fight the asocial behavior he had momentarily displayed. Peace and the satisfaction of creative collaboration prevailed. The heat brought on the wading pools and neighborhood walks again as well as 24/7 ice cream shops in the sandbox, sand kitchen, and the kitchen rice table. I’m sensing a vegan fruit sorbet day coming onEven if the weather changes, the enthusiasm for ice cream NEVER diminishes. The neighborhood walks to nearby Bateman Park have given children the opportunity to run hard for long distances and to know the satisfaction of drinking water afterward. This week yielded many discussions about water: Its wonderful drinkability, what signals we can read to know that our bodies need water, where water comes from and goes to, and why we need to conserve it

Dear Families, September 14th, 2019 What a busy first full week of school!!! The new children are settling in impressively. One of the most fascinating aspects of early childhood in a preschool classroom is the dignity and resourcefulness of each and every child starting school. The processes are different with everyone: Some children find that a few uninterrupted moments with a good book on a parent’s lap is the surest way to start the day. Another child might need to write...Continue reading

Dear Griffin families, October 19, 2018 The mornings have that tang of autumn in the air, and it brought out harvest activities at Griffin this weeksuch as pumpkin decorating, baking, and black-and-orange-themed art. The Morning Group had fun with pumpkin-bread bakingand we all got to share in munching it at Circle. There, we also learned some new songs and chants, such as Rags, a mov...Continue reading

September 15th, 2018 Greetings, Griffin Families! Children in both the Morning and Afternoon programs used this first full week of school to develop trust with the teachers, familiarity with the facility and its routines, and emerging play connections with other students. Their active exploration of a variety of learning materials shows their growing comfort....Continue reading

Putting on shoes

Dear Griffin Families, August 10, 2018 This week we took advantage of the warm weather provided us by summer, while also welcoming back many friends whom summer had borrowed from us for their family vacations. This will be the final newsletter of the summer. If your child is moving on to kindergarten or T-K, we will miss you. And we will cherish the few remaining days we have together, and celebra...te their progress and growth with joy! The Morning Group observed the emergence of the butterflies from their chrysalises with wonder and delight. We read several stories about butterflies, sang songs about them, and learned about their lives and habits. Many children tried drawing or painting these insects, or decorated their paper silhouettes. Work with playdough grew even more complex, as kids expressed internal images using this substance. Many were busy at the outdoor art table outside, making small, intricate pastiches, booklets, signs and origami-like things using stiff paper, tape, markers, scissors and string. Several made kites! Marissa read us a story about butterflies. Holly led us today in songs celebrating counting, rhythm and a bit of waiting for the next..note or stanza. Bailey and Rosie, two new friends joining us in Fall, visited and were welcomed right into the familydiving into activities with gusto. The Afternoon Group had lots of physical activity which helped them work off the energy that upcoming changes in routine can bring. So there was lots of chasing around the structure, lots of experimentation with surfing techniques as they slid down ramps balanced atop mats, lots of new tricks performed on the swings, and energetic games of hide-and-seek and Duck-Duck-Goose. Many also reveled in our friendly wrestling bouts, learning to manage their bodies, size up an opponent, and work on strategy and balanceall under close supervision. We went to Bateman II park to clamber around on trees and swings; many children had adventures chasing through the jungley bushes. Like the morning group, we gazed at the emerging butterflies as they left their chrysalises and fluttered around in the grass of the terrarium, and shared stories about these gorgeous creatures. In Circle Time, we vied to name all the skills and abilities we had already developed which we’d be using in T-K or kindergarten, and reminisced about the many activities at school we’ve enjoyed. We read stories about what activities children do in real school--and, making a list, found that we already mastered most of them. We also said Goodbye to Ryan, whose Mom and Dad joined us to mark the moment, and to Alonzo, whose Mom visited with baby Nomi, as we shared their final days with us (though both will join us for Graduation on August 16.)

NEWSLETTER; July 14, 2018 Dear Griffin School families, It was a week full of dramatic play, active outdoor games, swimming, complex indoor constructions, fantastic inventions, new designs, birthdays and goodbyes.... The Morning Group featured children gathering to sing and dance, with Betsy accompanying them on guitar, as they exercised their imaginative and verbal skills to invent lyrics and dance steps. There was more creativity in the dress-up area, as children all week tried on various costumes and developed play scenarios to expand their imaginations. With his parents, we also marked the departure of our friend Jack Oliver, whose last day was Friday, expressing our appreciation and sharing his special stickers. Naomi, 4, and Niko, 5, celebrated their birthdays at Circle time. In art, many children arranged designs with craft materials on special template forms which Harnaam provided. The morning group also got a crack at assembling contraptions with the found materials in the Invention Box, using tubes, cardboard, tape, stickers, pipe cleaners, boxes, plastic, etc. The Afternoon Group spent much time this week playing active outdoor games. On Thursday it was Hide-And-Seek, played the whole length of the school, as kids tried out following game-rules, counting aloud, and using ingenuity in hiding from each other. Other days, they clambered up the sides and the slide on the jungle gym, in new and daring ways, or splashed and paddled in our new wading pools on the hottest day. Indoors, intrepid builders imagined and built the roads, rail lines, tunnels and outbuildings of The Redwood Forest, a whole world of adventure and imagination. Others built child-size tunnels out of hollow blocks, to clamber through, gingerly. Children assembled challenging puzzles, or made their own designs with parquet blocks. Many tried out the Robot Color devicesthree-legged robots whose legs are thin markers for making Spirograph-like designs.

A typical newsletter: Dear Griffin Families, May 19, 2018 For both the Morning and Afternoon Groups, it was a week of trying outor consolidatinga variety of art-making skills and techniques....Continue reading

Pounded chalk paintings in our Neanderthal cave.