¡Hola Maestra!

Here we are, right in the middle of summer, and I am still being called out as "maestra" around the neighborhood. Living in the mission means I see many of our families as I am out walking. This time it was little Mauricio in the aisle of Walgreen's - I recognized him, but he was with his older sister whom I had never met. Fortunately, just on the next aisle I found his mother and was able to say hello. "Mauricio is really wanting some new books!" she said. We are all looking forward to starting up again in the fall.

-Dawn Noelle

End of the Semester

Who would have thought that it would be raining in San Francisco in May? Well, it was. Unfortunately the rain made many families stay at home and our plans for the end of the year party had to be changed. Instead of meeting at the park, we met at our regular location. We still enjoyed some food and our time together. We said goodbye to a few of the children that would be moving on. It is sad to say goodbye, but hopefully I will still get a chance to see them out and about. It has been a wonderful opportunity to see the children grow and to get to know the families!

-Laura Hecht

Enjoying Books (2)

Here are a few more images of the children enjoying books:

-Laura Hecht

Nature Appreciation

The lesson was going to be to take a walk around the neighborhood to find interesting leaves, branches, flowers, or other natural items to stick on clear contact paper to make a something that could later be hung. It had been a rainy week so we had to skip the walk since everything was wet. Luckily, I was able to find plenty of leaves, flowers and twigs beforehand for the children to use. Everyone really enjoyed the project and there were some wonderful pieces to remind everyone about the beauty of nature.

-Laura Hecht

Enjoying Books

The month of February went by so quickly. I just wanted to share these two images of the children reading.

The toddler had set up a little rocking chair next to a shelf with books. I didn’t manage to get a picture in time, but she had also invited a friend to read with her.

The baby in the picture was really interested in the book. At first we read a different one. She protested when I got up, but she quieted down as soon as I came back with another book.

-Laura Hecht

Five Little Monkeys!

Since my multi-lingual class in the Tenderloin regularly sings "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed..." with the City College Childhood Observation Class teacher - this week's story was easy to read in English for all children to enjoy. I have been alternating a story in English with a story in Spanish each week - trying to translate one direction of the other bits and pieces of the story to maintain the interest of all my students. If I spoke Chinese and Vietnamese as well, I could be reaching each and every one of my students in their mother tongue!

-Dawn Noelle

Growing and Changing

It always amazes me to see the development in the toddlers who have been with us since their first months of life. This week I found myself in conversation with three of our toddlers at Good Sam. These three are at similar developmental stages both in language and in large motor skills. When we played the "Guess what's in the bag?" game, we not only made the sound, but we scattered like a mouse, prowled like a lion, waddled like a duck, scratched like a hen...all of this back and forth across the mat. It was a lot of fun.

-Dawn Noelle