This year, Paddington added Art, Music and Science specials to our curriculum. Each classroom has specials twice per week and the teachers are in the classroom for a three week rotation. Having a three week rotation allows for a deep dive into each area of exploration. Here's a little more on our first semester of specials.

If you are interested in learning more about Paddington you can find more on our curriculum here. Virtual tours are happening now for the 2022-23 school year. The application deadline is February 25. You can learn more about the admission process here or schedule a virtual tour.

​Mellody Hobson addresses this in her TED Talk ‘Color Blind or Color Brave’ (toward the end at minute 12:15). She shares how the words of her mother are still in her head and led her right where she is today – President and co-CEO of Ariel Investments. Hobson is one of the only Black, female CEO’s of the thousands of publicly traded companies. While her talk is not intended for children, and mostly focuses on racial issues in business, she is a clear reinforcement that our words, as parents and educators, are important driving forces for our next generation. 
 
So, if you haven’t already started talking to your children about race, now is the time! Children as young as six months begin to recognize differences in skin color and hair texture. Wherever you are in navigating these conversations, it may be uncomfortable. That’s to be expected. Questions on how to raise anti-racist children, how to talk to little ones about injustice and brutality without inciting anxiety and fear, etc. will arise. We hope you are able to find the resources, both here and otherwise, that best help guide your conversations and tune your listening ears. You are likely pondering where to start. As a play-based school, we encourage you to take a look around your environment to evaluate the toys, dolls and books your children are playing with. Do they have materials that represent different races and the broader world around them? After evaluating play materials (which are also great tools to aide in talks about race) we hope you'll check out our list of resources primarily for addressing these issues with the preschool and young elementary group. We hope you’ll dive in now, and also come back to these again and again as the journey continues. Some of these resources are for you, the parent, and some, like the read-alouds, are resources you can engage in with your child(ren). We also encourage you to check out Great Books for Children on our website, particularly those sections on ‘Being Different’, ‘Diversity’, ‘Empathy and Bullying’ and ‘Social Emotional’. We will continually add new titles. If you have a book title to share, please pass it along!
 
Our Paddington staff and faculty will continue to listen and learn with you. We are dedicated to continuing this conversation. We encourage you to share your thoughts, ideas, examples of how your family is addressing these conversations and any additional resources you have found to be most beneficial. This journey toward an anti-racist future depends on us.

​Talking Race with Young Children (NPR)
What we loved about this listen: They dive into issues of real families and how to help young children navigate racism and how to talk about the scary realities.
 
How to Raise Anti-Racist Kids with Dr. Nzinga Harrison
What we love about this listen: Dr. Nzinga Harrison lays out a 10-step plan for how to raise anti-racist kids and emphasizes throughout that this work start early!

How to Talk About Race and Protests with Your Kids, Explained by a Child Psychologist
​What we love about this listen: They discuss the differences Black parents and White parents will have talking about the issues of racism and terms to use that preschoolers can relate to.

“You Can Do It, Bert” by Ole Konnecke

Challenge yourself to try something new! 
1. Bert was trying something new, something he hadn’t done before.  Is there something you could try today that you haven’t done before? 
Maybe try 30 jumping jacks in a row, or you could draw a bird like Bert, or maybe you could get dressed all by yourself :). 
 Challenge yourself to try something new!

Find birds in your neighborhood!
2. After I read the story I went outside to see if I could see any birds in the trees.  I saw a robin, and a really big blackbird. 
If you go outside or look out of your windows do you see any birds? What kind of birds live in your neighborhood?

Sing a song about birds!
3. Do you remember our Bird Song?
 Way up in the sky
The little birds fly (flap your wings)
Way down in the nest
The little birds rest (pretend to sleep)

With a wing on the left (flap your left wing)
And a wing on the right (flap your right wing)
The little birds sleep
All through the night (SHHHHH)

The bright sun comes up (make a sun over your head with your arms)
The dew falls away
“Good Morning Good Morning” (make your hands talk like a beak)
The little birds say

Story Time Activities​ related to “The Most Wonderful Egg In The World” by Helme Heine

1.  In the story Dotty, Stalky, and Plumy each laid an egg, 
and each egg was  extraordinary and unique.  Pretend that you are a chicken, Bok Bok, and lay an egg. What does your egg look like? Is it a  colorful egg? Is it a small, medium, or large egg?  You could even draw or paint your extraordinary egg!

2.  In the story Plumy’s egg was not the usual egg shape - it was a cube.  Go on a shape hunt around your house or yard and look for things that are in the shape of a cube.  Does a cube resemble a 
square? How many squares can you see on a cube?

3.  Presumably chickens came out of Dotty, Stalky, and Plumy’s eggs, but maybe not? what if the story continued and we got to see what hatched from the eggs? What do you think came out of Dotty’s perfect egg? What came out of Stalky’s very large egg? And finally what hatched from Plumy’s colorful cube shaped egg? I wish that I could hear all of your creative answers - you have the best imagination!

​Science Teacher Wendy is here to do a special activity based on a lesson she did at school a new weeks ago - "On and Off!"

​How many *safe* things can you find that turn on and off?  Make sure a grownup is supervising this fun science activity! 

* After listening to the book “HELP” have a grown up cut out a triangle and two circles from scrap paper.  See if you can make these shapes look like a mouse.  You can even add eyes and a tail!

* Make a batch of homemade play dough (recipe to follow) and roll it into little balls, after rolling little play dough balls place them on a table and roll them into little snakes.  Your paper mouse and play dough snake can have a playdate!

Play Dough Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup salt
3 cups water
3 cups flour
6 Tablespoons vegetable oil
4 Tablespoons cream of tartar
coloring

Recipe
1. Add 1 cup salt to large mixing bowl.
2. Boil 3 cups water then add to salt.
3. Stir for a few minutes until salt begins to dissolve.
4. Add coloring and stir.
5. Add oil.
6. Add cream of tartar and stir.
7. Add flour one cup at a time and stir.
8. Once it forms a dough - flour your
work surface and knead until cool.
* Play Dough can be finicky add flour if too sticky :)

Day 15: Here is a photo that shows each caterpillar chrysalis. The chrysalis is made of a tough “skin” that is underneath the hairy outer part of the caterpillar. You can see sections in the top part, and they remind me a little of the caterpillar body sections. The bottom part is smoother...this is where the wings are forming! They are attached to the lid with the silk webbing that we saw in the cup above. You can also see a small piece of the hairy outer part of the caterpillar near where each chrysalis is attached. This is the part that was shed from the caterpillar as it made it’s chrysalis. Once I captured a cool video of this happening, and I will try to upload it to this page as well. ​