Slipping and Sliding

Sunnies(3,4,5s)

Mail, Slopes and Cozy Cooking

We can't believe that we are already (more than) halfway through the first month of our new year! Winter Celebration was such a special way to wrap up 2025 (albeit in 2026) as we sang good-night to Beetle, Grandmother Maple, and all the other maple trees. We have been lucky to have already experienced several snowfalls big enough for sledding and snow-building, and are hoping and wishing for more snow in the future! In the meantime, the cold temperatures provide plenty of other exploratory opportunities. We have been finding a balance between being cozy and adventurous, as we listen to our bodies' rhythms during this dark, quiet, cold time of year. Since we have returned to school, we are adjusting to being back together in community as well as finding our rhythm in the new year!

Special Delivery

In January, The Sunnies have been exploring post offices, mail carriers, cards and packages, letters and numbers! As we noticed the children's interest in mail, the teachers provided different kinds of materials to see what aspects of the topic were interesting to the Sunnies. We started with typewriters and adding machines, which led to discussions about letter sounds and formation, addition and other forms of number manipulation, small machine mechanics, the purpose of writing and recording, and so much more. Other invitations available during the past few weeks included lots of different kinds of paper and tools for making mail, books for research and resource materials, loose parts to set up our own post office, and Morning Messages that got us thinking about mail in all its forms.

The Sunnies Gain Momentum

We kicked off the month celebrating Slope Day and exploring slopes! To kick off ski and sledding season at Randolph, the whole school gathers to celebrate Slope Day, which has become an annual tradition. Indoors and outside, we are experimenting with rolling different materials down all kinds of slopes, from gentle to steep.

When the Upstairs is Away

The Sunnies have been enjoying the having Randolph to themselves by having Cozy Pajama Fridays. We have been busy cooking up delicious recipes! For four Fridays, when the rest of the school heads to the mountain, we wear pajamas and take on some cooking projects. On our first Ski Friday, we made tomato soup and focaccia. We learned about yeast and how it works - someone even asked, "is it still alive when we eat it?" We measured our flour with a scale (connecting to our post office work) and counting teaspoons and tablespoons of other ingredients. We thought about the ratio of flour to water, and how changing that ratio would change our dough. Once we found a good consistency, we put the dough in a warm, cozy spot to rise as we chopped tomatoes and simmered our soup. The bread and soup made a delicious combination that we snacked on at the end of our day!

To read more about the Sunnies adventures, click this link!

Flower Patch Kids(5,6,7s)

How Does Skiing Influence our Learning?

The idea of slopes after our All School Slope Day and our first Ski Friday has taken over upstairs for the Flower Patch kiddos. In our block building space, friends were working together using ramps, boards, blocks and rolllable objects to create a variety of runs, making connections to the steepness of the ski mountain. "This is the bunny hill run", "I'm gonna make a black diamond slope" , "Do you think I will ski as fast as this ball?" are a few phrases heard throughout our play and exploration. Simpler to more complex buildings were made, getting inspiration from neighbors and noticing what designs work better. Trial and error also arose as kids had feelings of frustration or disappointment when their slopes fell down or did not work how they wanted. But perseverance was all around and failed ideas sparked new ones! We even left some up for our Downstairs Sunnies to try out while we are gone skiing!

"A ski goal I have is turning"

Journaling is another way we keep our connection to the ski mountain. Having children reflect on our first trip, naming feelings and emotions that went along with our first attempts of becoming a skier or what it feels like if we already have some ski skills. Setting a ski goal for what to work on next time and sharing our personal hopes for our ski season together was wonderful conversation and when we come back together discussions will be had about if and how we met those goals!

"My goal is to go on a double black diamond. I need to go on more hills."

"My goal I have is going on Lower Alley Cat"

"My goal is to go down the Bunny Hill without falling."

Runaway Cookies

Winter time brings opportunities to get cozy and warm, listen to stories and embark in some delicious cooking projects. Last week we dove into the world of gingerbread and all that it entails. A variety of stories from various cultures have been written about foods that come alive, run away and are then caught and eaten. Some with more clever plans than others. The Flower Patch kids and teachers listened to a bunch of versions, compared and contrasted the different stories, came up with our own ways to catch a runaway food, mixed up some ginger smelling playdough and created our own gingerbread puppets and felt sewn cookies.

Baking up a Batch

Of course our study could not be complete without whipping up some gingerbread cookies for us to taste. Into the kitchen we went, following a recipe, using measuring cups and spoons, smelling and noticing all the ingredients then using our muscles to roll and cut out the dough. We baked them without peeking so they didn't run away from us!

Then came the decorating and eating. But a challenge arose. Can you take just one bite of your cookie? After that happened we asked the children which part of the cookie did you bite first? A graph was crafted and each kid shared their answer as to where they enjoyed their cookie first. Interesting results came about. The most bitten area was the leg, followed by arm and then head was the least bitten first. Kids were eager to finish the cookies they worked hard on so we continued to enjoy them all together!

Bluebirds and Cardinals(7,8,9,10,11s)

Getting Our Muscles Ready

With our ski season officially underway, we are enjoying our time up on the slopes, continuing to grow our skiing and snowboarding skills all while making memories that will last a lifetime! However, our ski season didn’t start last week with our first trip to Catamount. In fact, it started back at campus when we returned from winter break weeks ago.

Something that has become common practice at Randolph is prepping for our ski season well before it actually begins. In the Carriage House, we prepare with the following things: ski/snowboarding muscle warm up activities and goal writing. In a way, these two activities have become somewhat of a tradition for the Carriage House students. We do them every year to allow students to get their muscles moving and ready for the slopes, and also, setting goals each year allows them to see the growth they are making year to year on the mountain. An added bonus is that they look forward to these activities! The first day the warm up exercises were drawn on the blacktop for them to see after playground time, it was fun to see the excitement when they realized what it was. Carriage House elders took on the role of showing our friends that are new to the Carriage House this year what each activity consists of. It wasn’t long before they were all up and moving, having fun, while getting ready for Catamount!

They were testing their balance and stretching their leg muscles with “Flexi-Flakes”, communicating and working together as they jumped from place to place in “Group Ski”, working on keeping their “skis” parallel as they jumped from X to X in “Moguls” and practicing “French Fry & Pizza” to prepare for going faster and slowing down.

Flexi-Flake

Group Ski

Moguls

French Fry & Pizza

Goal Writing

In addition to warming up their muscles, students worked on setting and writing realistic ski and snowboarding goals that they hope to achieve this season. More often than not, when asked what goal a student is setting for themselves for the season, many will say they want to go down a black diamond. While this may be a realistic, achievable goal for our more experienced skiers and snowboarders, it isn’t necessarily achievable (yet) for friends who are still newer to the sport. We had students reflect back on last year and think about where they were skill wise to be able to see how they can grow in a realistic way. They set a goal for themselves and told how they plan to reach that goal this year. For friends who are new to skiing altogether, other classmates gave them some information to make them a bit familiar with what to expect. From there they were able to write about what they hope to achieve this year as new skiers.

It was exciting to read what they wrote! We had goals that ranged from being able to “graduate” off the bunny hill up to the chair lift, working on turning and slowing down, and keeping skis more parallel to name a few; all the way to things like going from green circle trails last year to making it successfully and comfortably down a blue square trail this year, and skiing more on the edge of the skis along with teaching younger skiers how to do the same. No matter what goal students wrote, every single one of them spent time reflecting and really being genuine in thinking about what they can accomplish this year. We will be checking in with them throughout the ski season to see if they have reached their goal yet, and if they have, they can set a new one to work towards!

Ski & Snowboard Stories

This year we brought ski & snowboard story writing to the whole Carriage House! Though the prompts were different to meet the different levels of writing, all The Bluebirds and all The Cardinals have been hard at work writing stories about memorable moments from their first day of our ski season.

Bluebirds were given the following prompt: Write one paragraph about your favorite moment from Friday’s ski day. Beginning (one sentence) - Tell your feelings or events leading up to skiing/snowboarding. Middle (three sentences) - Your favorite moment from the day. Closing (one sentence) - What are you excited for next time? Learning to write a proper paragraph is key as Lower Carriage House students move up, and writing tasks get longer and more involved. This prompt was great practice for setting up a paragraph and using some details along the way. Students worked hard on making their response sound like a story, with a beginning, middle, and end. It was very interesting to read about how students prepare for skiing! Some kids wrote about how they layer to stay warm during the ski day, some wrote about the process of getting those pesky boots on their feet! Their favorite moments, which made up the body of their writing, varied across the class. Students' favorite moments from the day ranged from experiences in their ski lessons, skiing with their best buddies, falling and getting back up, or going on the ski lift for the first time! Most every student finalized their paragraph by writing that they are looking forward to skiing again next week!

Cardinals focused on “Small Moment Writing”. This type of writing is a bit different than what they are used to, as it forces them to zoom into a small "snippet" of their day (five minutes or less) and write in detail about that moment. A slice of watermelon is used as a visual for this type of writing. The slice of watermelon represents the “Big picture” or a big event, while the seeds then represent many small moments within the bigger picture. Cardinals were told to use descriptive language, feelings, senses and dialogue. Their writing was to be a minimum of three paragraphs, having a beginning, middle and end. These Small Moments were fun to read! We had stories about being anxious on the lift ride up to the very top of the mountain, anticipating what it would be like to ski down their first Blue Square trail all the way to things like after skiing in the cold all day ready to walk into the lodge to have a nice warm cup of cocoa, only to find the water was cold! No matter what they wrote about, each student worked through the challenges of zooming into a small moment (let’s face it, it is so much easier just to summarize a larger chunk of time!) and wrote some really fun stories!

We cannot wait to get back to the mountain and continue having fun on the slopes!

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