Welcome to a New Year of Smart Start!

A new school year has begun! This week was full of firsts, new friends, and big feelings as we kicked off a brand new year at Smart Start. The first week of school is always exciting as we meet new students and welcome back returning learners. Each child is so beautifully unique and brings their own particular personality into our classroom. Much of the first week is spent seeing how the puzzle that is our classroom fits together. We take our time as we get to know one another and as the students get to know the staff and our space. We spend plenty of time in open invitation play to ensure that students have ample opportunity to explore the environment and spend time with new friends.

This week's letter of the week was Ff. We learned F's shape and sound and bumped into the letter F in all our learning invitations. In creative movement, students learned about folding, unfolding, falling, floating, and flying. Our science study had us investigating our fingerprints, creating flowers that unfold in water and dissecting flowers to find out what's inside. Our books this week were all about feelings and how we can understand how friends are feeling by focusing on their faces. This week's inspiration artist was Frida Khalo. We learned how she painted pictures of her own face with bright, bold flowers in her hair. Students used mirrors to see themselves as they sketched their own faces. Our imaginative play center was a flower shop this week.

By making connections between movement and science, art and reading we are helping our students make mind and body connections as well as intellectual and emotional connections. Neurons that fire together wire together and we did a lot of both this week! The goal of this type of learning is to inspire a generation of whole-brained and whole-hearted students who live with boundless curiosity and a life-long love of learning!

Happy First Week of School!