Nursery Rhymes: End of the year 2025
- Alejandra Castillo
- Jul 2
- 10 min read
Director’s Corner
The Inevitability of Change
As another school year draws to a close, it gives us pause for reflection. As I walk through the
classrooms, observing children washing toys to put away for the summer (unaware that they are helping), and going about the day-to-day business of school, I’m realizing how remarkable these last days are.
For the past ten months I’ve watched these children grow and develop, almost imperceptibly,
into young people ready for the next phase of their lives. Some are going to kindergarten, some are becoming next year’s “graduating seniors”, and some are moving to new places and new experiences. All are growing and changing and moving forward.
Change is inevitable, especially for educators working with young children. Children’s skills and abilities develop so rapidly at this age, yet when we see them every day, we don’t always see the changes until we look backward. Looking backward at this time is amazing and nostalgic and bittersweet. The fruits of our labors are demonstrated in that one child writing their name for the first time or mastering toilet training.
As the children move on to new classrooms and new places, our staff is changing as well. Our
beloved Meg is retiring after many years with us. Meg did her student teaching with us and
never left. Sharis, another long-standing staff member and former parent, has finished the
degree she never thought she would embark on and is moving on to greener pastures. There
are no words to describe how much these two teachers will be missed.
In the office, Persia will be moving on to the next path on her journey, too. Persia has been part of our family, first as a parent and then as my assistant. She will also be missed more than words can say. Her calm and steadfast demeanor and easygoing style is just what a preschool environment needs.
While it’s sad to see our friends and colleagues leave us, it also sets up a wonderful opportunity. Robyn, the assistant in Room 3 (and yet another former parent), will now have the opportunity to spread her wings and begin the next chapter in her career. She will be moving into the 3K room as a lead teacher and beginning her graduate studies as well.
To the parents who are leaving us and to the parents who are sticking around, thank you for
being a part of our school. Thank you for your humor, your candid conversations, your input,
and your trust in us. You will always be part of our family.
Yes, change is inevitable, but we excitedly await what’s next.
Have a beautiful summer.
Andrea
Happy June, Room 1 Families!
And in a flash, the 2024-2025 school year is swiftly coming to an end! Room 1 friends will be moving on to Kindergarten as more mature, confident, independent, and curious young learners. Along with A-B-Cs and 1-2-3s, the children in Room 1 have learned to make friends, to play cooperatively, different ways to manage strong emotions, speak up for themselves, and how to be part of a classroom community. They will carry these skills forward into Kindergarten and beyond.
Here are classroom highlights since our last newsletter:
April
With Spring in full swing, we fluttered into April getting to know all about our favorite pollinators: bees and butterflies. We learned bees and butterflies help plants grow by pollinating them. The books I Am a Bee by Rebecca and James McDonald and Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries are very informative and helped answer a lot of our questions. We made honey muffins and used magnets to paint butterfly cutouts as supporting activities.
The end of April was all about opening up a pizza shop at dramatic play. We made pretend pizza as well as real pizza. We set up a tasting station and everyone chose which toppings they liked and didn’t like. Even our pickiest friends were brave and gave it a try. Our most popular toppings were cheese, peppers, and mushrooms. Pepperoni was too spicy for most!
May
With Mother’s Day just around the corner, the children worked on their Mother’s Day gifts. We read books about mommies (The Mommy Book by Todd Parr was a favorite) and shared our favorite things to do with mommy. Playing games with mommy was everyone’s choice. We hope you treasure the handprints and bouquets your children made. They really enjoyed the process of making them.
Our friends chose non-standard art tools to create some art in May. They chose balloons, bubbles, cars, and funnels to paint some very interesting pieces. They rolled balloons, blew bubbles, raced cars, and dripped paint through funnels and had lots of fun making art without paint brushes.
We ended May with discussions, books, and activities related to the ocean, some of the creatures that live there, and ways we can help keep the beach clean when we visit in the summer. We learned some shark facts with the engaging book Little Shark by Anne Rockwell. We were fascinated by the fact that sharks can grow teeth whenever they need to!
June
We are winding down in Room 1. Our friends are excited about summer break and
all the activities they will be doing. Our Moving Up Picnic was bittersweet. We are so
happy to see how much all of the children have grown in many different ways since
September but we are sad to see our class of amazing, funny, witty, curious friends
outgrow our little classroom community. We will truly miss you all: Ayla, Cairo, Eliana,
Eliza, Francis, Karnan, Kayla, Mia, Osman.
Thank you Room 1 families for letting us share our classroom with your awesome
children. Please come back and visit us sometime. You are always welcome!
Always,
Nathalie, Evie, and Alex
Birthdays
Ayla - 4/10
Kayla - 6/4
Francis - 6/17
Eliana - 7/1
Karnan - 8/10
Keep on baking!
Honey Muffins Recipe
Hello 3’s Class families,
The end of the school year always seems so far off, and then we blink and it’s here! We have been busy
having fun and learning all sorts of things so maybe that’s why the time flew by. Once spring arrived, we
began gardening in our raised beds in the Sand Park, and the children have enjoyed watching the seeds
sprout. We talked about the flower and vegetable seeds we planted, which led to a unit on vegetables.
We ended May with an exciting trip to the supermarket as part of our vegetable unit, which led to the question, “How do the vegetables get to the store?” This allowed us to begin June talking about all different kinds of trucks and transportation.
Our time in the garden also gave some students a chance to share their interest in insects, and so we spent
time studying the class ant farm and watching our caterpillars emerge from their chrysalises. Some
children helped build a “bug hotel” out of a cardboard box and small sticks and cardboard tubes for the
Sand Park and everyone enjoyed seeing if any bugs were sheltering inside each time we visited the park.
This class really enjoyed our construction unit. As mentioned above we spoke about construction
vehicles, but we also read The Three Little Pigs as an introduction to the idea that there are different
materials that can be used in construction, and that they require different tools. Many children already
knew a lot about wrenches, screwdrivers, drills, saws, and hammers, but we also spent time in our
dramatic play area pretending to measure, build, and repair the loft, the tables and chairs.
Talking about trucks and the construction unit helped students understand what was needed when we
began our unit on bridges. We read The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We listened to it, then acted it out with
props. We then read The Bridge is Up; The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge;
Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing, and Go! Go! Go! Stop!. These are all very different stories,
with words and illustrations that range from the very simple and repetitive to longer, more complex and
detailed ones. Some are historical, while others are more modern. All of these develop children’s ears for
the rhythm of a story, and their eyes for visual clues about what unfamiliar words may mean and what
might happen next. Of course, we needed to go see some real bridges so we took a walking trip to Van
Cortlandt Park. We saw the bridge that carries the cars and trucks overhead on the way to the lake, we
walked over the bridge that used to carry the train and still has the railroad ties but no tracks, and we
walked on the bridge over the lake. We ate our snack by the lake and drew pictures of the things we saw.
Then we walked back up the city steps to eat lunch. We all needed a good nap that day!
The next phase was to design and construct our own bridges from wood. The children used a real level to
check if their bridges were even, making sure the bubble stayed in between the two lines, and figuring out
how to fix it if not. They also had to ensure a toy car could roll down the middle of each bridge without
bumping into anything or falling off the side. The bridge unit really brings literacy, math, science, social
studies, and physical education together in all the best ways.
Once everyone’s bridge was complete it was time to display all their hard work at our Bridge Museum!
Thank you all for coming and making the afternoon a success! Children are always so eager and proud to
show their creations and knowledge to the people who are most important to them: their families.
We celebrated our Moving Up Day on June 11. At the ceremony, the children sang some of the songs
we’ve learned and received their certificates. It can be intimidating to stand up to accept the certificate in
front of the whole school community while everyone cheers, but it’s also an important milestone to
acknowledge, and no doubt the first of many in their academic lives. We are so proud of them all.
In the last few days we will be engaged in the process of winding down the classroom. The children help
clean the toys to be packed away by washing them in the water table. All art work will go home in a
portfolio. We will spend more time outdoors, weather permitting. Please don’t forget sunscreen!
Lastly, this is our most difficult newsletter to write, as it marks both Meg and Sharis’s last year working at
the Amalgamated Nursery School. We are very sad to be leaving, but this class was so phenomenal that it really feels like we are leaving on a high note. We will never forget our time with your children.
Thank you, families, for a wonderful school year. Everyone has come such a long way since those first
days back in September and we have all learned so much together, students and teachers alike.
Have an amazing summer and our best wishes for a terrific Pre-K experience to all!
June Newsletter: Room 3 UPK, ANS
As hard as it is to believe, the 2024/2025 school year is rapidly drawing to close. It has been an exciting year for all our students. It’s great to see how much these children have grown since the school year began. Our "graduating seniors" accomplished so much this year, and they eagerly await the new adventures that kindergarten will bring. They have learned much about being in the classroom setting and caring for one another. As friendships have developed over the months, and independence has developed as well, it’s not unusual to see them helping each other with smocks, consoling someone who is feeling sad, or sitting arm in arm chanting "we’re friends" together. What makes this more remarkable is that some of these children did not know each other nine months ago.
As we get ready to say goodbye, we believe that the children have acquired the skills in nursery school which will help them to be successful as they move through the school years ahead. They have learned how to learn.
All our class books have contributed to the children’s abilities to put their ideas on paper, and symbolize their thoughts for others to see, and all the children progressed from where they started.
We learned that yeast burps, and we made many kinds of bread which we happily showed off when we invited our families to our bakery.
We watched our caterpillars turn into beautiful butterflies.
Our children learned many valuable skills this year, both socially and academically. These early lessons will stay with them and pave the way for future learning. Kindergarten will bring new challenges that our children will be ready to face because of the experiences they had in their pre-K classroom.
The children were so lucky to have such a fine staff helping out.
Many, many thanks to Robyn for always being happy, cheerful, positive, and ready to help. Thanks to our after schoolteachers Evie and Jean for keeping our children happy during after school hours. Thanks to Alex, Joanna, and Persia for help during lunchtime, and thank you to Andrea for her assistance and support when needed.
Most of all I’d like to thank the parents for their support. So many of you have taken time to assist us during many of our field trips or send in fresh fruit and vegetables for snack. And most of all you trusted us with the care and education of your precious and wonderful children.
We have truly enjoyed having your children in our class, teaching them, guiding them, supporting them, and watching them become who they are now.
Wishing you all a great summer, and lots of luck and happiness in the future.
Margaret and Robyn
Note from Extended Day
Dear Extended Day families,
We have come to the end of our after-school program. We would like to thank you for allowing
us to have your precious children, first in the early drop-off, which made the start to our day
special. In the afternoon, we ended our day with the excited “see you tomorrow for breakfast!”
There were tears of “I want my mom/dad” from some of our friends at the beginning, but it
became ”I’m not leaving! I want to stay!” in a very short time. It was a pleasure to see you all
and watch as the children made their special bonds with each other in friendships that will last
forever. Towards our final weeks the children were obsessed with pirates, and we decided to
make a recycled pirate ship with boxes and paper tubes. We added some flags to represent our
diversity and embraced it all. We hope you have a great summer and look forward to seeing you
all in 25-26 Extended Day for more exciting projects, fun, and maybe some new friends!
With lots of big cuddles we thank you all for making the beginning and end of our days extra
special.
Jean and Evie
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