Dear Verde Parents:
Tinsel
I’m sure you heard all about Tinsel and her pups from your child, but if not, Tinsel gave birth to four female pups. Unfortunately, one of them was born with her internal organs outside of her body, so she did not survive. The other three are doing very well and are loving having plenty of room at the “milk bar”. They are quite pudgy! They will be ready for socializing in about a month. I will let you know when Bonnie is open to receiving visitors in case you and your family would like to make an appointment to visit them. My co-breeder caretaker, Bonnie, lives in Elk Grove.
Verde Coffee Chat
My first Verde Coffee Chat will be this coming Friday, May 4 at 8:30 a.m. in the new family room just behind the Upper Elementary Classroom. The topic will be “Deep Thinking in a Google World” where you will get a sneak preview of my yet-to-be-published blog post that Matt is working on editing for the Bergamo community. We will start out discussing how to help your child learn to think deeply and move on to any topic you would like to discuss. I hope to see you there!
Gardens
The new raised garden beds on the back playground were finally ready for planting this week. Two of the boxes will be used for a “Farmer’s Market” garden managed by Rhiannon, our after school coordinator. She will work with the children in after care and summer camp to plant and maintain this garden. I am in charge of the “lesson garden” and all of the Verde children got a chance to work the soil and plant this past Monday. The gardens had been very packed down by children playing in them for so many months, but the children all worked hard to loosen the soil completely so that our new plants would grow. This lesson garden will be used by the whole school and will include flowers for arranging (for the primary) and studying (for the elementary), root plants for snack and study (carrots and radish), milkweed for attracting Monarch larve and sunflowers for study and harvesting. In also includes a couple of succulents, including Aloe vera.
Cabana Club
I was having a hard time pinning down the folks at the Cabana Club about our end of the year pool party. This week, I found out the reason why they were putting me off – they have decided to close the pool this season. Apparently, high maintenance costs and low membership made this decision necessary for them. We are sad to let this tradition come to an end, but we have a few “last week of school” fun activities planned that will be a nice wrap up of the school year.
Drumming
After a few weeks of drumming with all of the Verde students, it became clear to me that some of the students LOVED this activity and some really didn’t care for it. When Daneen returned from her maternity leave, some of the children requested that we begin having PE instead of the drumming. Although I was pretty set on just keeping on with the drumming, I said, “Convince me”, after pointing out to them all of the exercise that they get each day at school. After recognizing that they actually had some compelling arguments, I asked them to choose either PE or drumming. About half the group stayed with the drumming and half went with Daneen’s group to PE. I then invited ten Marrone students to join us. Even though it didn’t turn out as planned, the new group is happy, enthusiastic and ready to perform at the Open House on May 24th! They have named themselves the Bergamo Bucketeers and it’s really fun to mix both upper and lower students in an activity together.
Transition Ceremony
This year we are having a school-wide Transition Ceremony for all of the students moving up to a new level in our Montessori Community — primary students moving to lower el, lower el moving to upper el, and the sixth year students moving on to new schools next year. All parents of third year students are invited to attend. The ceremony will begin around 10:30 and go until noon. We will have a half day of school that day for all elementary students. All of the children will participate in the ceremony that day by performing a few songs. I will send more details later, but please note this date and time if you have a child moving out of lower el this year.
I hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to seeing you next Friday morning (if not before!).
Patty