Back to School

Hello everyone,

It is with great joy and gratitude that I announce that our first week back to in person school since last March has been completed. It has been a long road to here, with a lot of challenges and uncertainty along the way, and I am so glad that Fiddleheads students are finally once again playing in the forest together at Mt Tabor. And it wouldn't be happening without you families that showed up to be part of it. Thanks again for entrusting us with your children, and to so many of you for being willing to go the extra mile to help out on a regular basis and participate in making the childrens' experience this semester as safe, comfortable and supported as possible. I hope that your own childs' health and happiness, along with the joy of seeing the children being together, is at least as much reward as our appreciation.

Arielle writes about the week:We did it everyone! We all made it through our first week of school! This week has been so rewarding and full of immeasurable joy. We spent most of the week adjusting to our new surroundings, getting to know one another better, and learning how to be back at school in general. While our focus was mainly on learning the routine, we read some books about hibernation and touched on the idea of adaptations as we all worked on adapting to our new daily rhythm. Monday, our first day, went as well as anyone could hope for a first day of preschool! Chelsea was our parent helper and we were able to have an introduction to circle time and a hike to the mudslide. Tuesday, we were met with some heavier rain to which we had to adapt more than we did the first day! Rye was our parent helper that day and we persevered by spending our time exploring mud puddles, making forest soup, doing a little scavenger hunting, and of course- we went to the mudslide while it was in full effect. Everyone was thoroughly coated in a layer of mud- a sure sign of a day of forest preschool well spent! Wednesday was much drier. With the help of our parent helper, Sarah, we journeyed to our furthest location yet, and took in the aftermath of the night time storms that swept through the park. We went past one of our favorite hiking spots along the way, including some overturned tree roots referred to as “the cave”. We found some cool nature art left in the park by others, which inspired us to play and create ourselves. We left a little nature art of our own behind for others to find. Thursday we were met with a beautiful, sunny day that was very much enjoyed by all. With the aid of our parent helper Kristin, we did circle time, some tree climbing, and visited another favorite spot referred to as the “friend trees” where we built a small fairy house and saw an abundance of spiderwebs glistening in the sunshine. The fog rolled in thick for us on our final day of the week, but with the help of our parent helper, Cara, we ran our first fully successful circle time, visited the beloved mudslide, and continued our conversations about winter adaptations. 
As the week carried on, each day got a little easier, things began to fall into place and we learned how to navigate our day to day. Everyone this week came fully prepared and ready to take on the adventures awaiting. Thank you for the patience and effort that you all put into ensuring that your child has all of the things necessary to be comfortable throughout the day!