2025-26 Smart Start Week 17

Letter D unfolded as a week rich in inquiry, expression, and relationship-building. Through imaginative play as dentists and doctors, children explored real-world roles, practiced caring for others, and engaged in meaningful dialogue. These experiences supported social connection, empathy, and language development as friends shared ideas.

Visual arts invitations offered invitations to promote creativity and wonder. Children explored drippy paint, observing how color moved and transformed across the page, and we began painting watercolor backgrounds for our Jim Dine inspired hearts. Friends also engaged in a guided drawing experience, following directions to draw a snowman, supporting listening, sequencing, and confidence while allowing space for individuality.

Design thinking continued as children decorated repurposed cans to create vases, making intentional choices about materials and patterns while exploring concepts of reuse and sustainability. Tasty Science offered sensory exploration and shared reflection at the heart of our donut taste testing , where friends observed, compared, described flavors, and expressed preferences, building language and early analytical skills.

Throughout the week, learning extended through dollhouse play, driving invitations, and joyful movement and dancing, offering opportunities for storytelling, collaboration, and full-body expression. We also captured a special New Year’s resolution video, giving children a chance to reflect, set intentions, and have their voices documented and honored as part of our classroom story.

Letter D offered a beautiful balance of play, inquiry, and reflection, highlighting the many ways children construct meaning through relationships, materials, and shared experiences. We can’t wait to see what experience the next letter inspires!

See you soon,

The Smart Start team