Dear Rainbow Families,

What a fun and engaging month in the Rainbow Room!  The Rainbows so enjoyed their explorations of the neighborhood and community.  The trip to the Brooklyn Public Library was a real hit, with the children getting a chance to see the different areas of the Children’s section, learn about borrowing books, and listen to several delightful picture books (including Jules Feiffer’s “Bark George”) read by our librarian guide.  The library trip was followed by the Rainbows setting up their very own class library with opportunities to peruse the Rainbow bookshelves and check out books.  The Rainbows also visited the Community Bookstore where they read books together in the back room, talked with Ezra the owner, and met a Collective alumna (Ezra’s daughter).  And earlier this week the Rainbows returned to the Public Library to collect their library cards (for those families who had sent in forms).  It is wonderful to see all these ways that books, libraries, and reading are being nurtured in the Rainbow Room.
The neighborhood and community focus turned to bakeries and diners as the month progressed.  The Rainbows visited Cousin John’s bakery where they observed baked goods being prepared, displayed, and purchased.  The Rainbows used this learning to make their own classroom bakery, which involved deciding what treats to make, making and baking the treats at school (augmented generously with the teachers doing some extra baking at home), making and hanging signs around the school announcing the bakery, setting up the bakery in the classroom with labels for the different treats, and then opening the bakery and selling the treats for $1 each to families and teachers.  Children enjoyed taking on the roles of the different workers as they discovered all that goes into making a bakery.  Following the success of the bakery, the Rainbows decided to open a Breakfast Diner.  The children first made a menu of which food items to serve, then, using the hard-earned money raised from the bakery, they shopped with their teachers at the Fifth Avenue KeyFood.  The Rainbows then brainstormed ways to decorate their diner – tablecloths, vases, flowers – and made those items, along with signs.  The teachers had great fun cooking, and the children so enjoyed having a special breakfast with family and friends.
With spring’s arrival, the Rainbows have been busy planting.  There have been some group plantings in large containers, plus individual planting with sunflower, marigold, and various fruit seeds.  The children are tending to their plants and watching the growth.  The children have also made a group mural of a spring garden (displayed just outside the classroom) and individual pictures of tissue paper flowers and words, which are their responses to the question “Spring is here – how do you know it?”  Please check out these pictures on the closet doors in the classroom.  More attention to spring will occur in the next few weeks, so please stay tuned!
IMPORTANT: Please note the following two days with items needed from home:
Tuesday, May 7: Bring Artwork from Home Day
Thursday, May 23: Bring Your Favorite Drink from Home Day
Enjoy the beautiful weekend!
Martha