The Art of Letter Writing, February Field Trips

Taking advantage of our Valentine’s holiday tradition, we’re focusing on letter-writing this month! While we may not be writing love notes, we'll have plenty of creative fun while expressing ourselves through the medium of words on paper. Yesterday’s Circle Time included a reading of “Dear Peter Rabbit” by Alma Flor Ada, a fun and creative new tale featuring favorite storybook characters. The children were delighted to discover that Goldilocks is actually Mr. McGregor’s daughter, and secretly befriends Peter Rabbit through a letter exchange. She also corresponds with “Baby Bear,” who happens to be friends with Pig One, and well, you’ll just have to read all the fun letters to enjoy the twist of a story. After reading this, the kids were inspired to write their own letters to both fictional and real characters, including letters to Darth Maul, George Lucas, a best friend, and grandma. We also sang and played the circle game, “A- Tisket, A-Tasket” and imagined what tantalizing information might be written in that lost letter.

In the afternoon we thoroughly enjoyed a field trip to the Escondido Children’s Museum and Arts Center for some creative playtime and a dance performance. The kids mostly enjoyed playing school in a turn-of-the-century one-room-schoolhouse featuring a primer for each grade and dresses, bonnets, and button-down shirts. They experimented with surface tension inside a big bubble, and they put on a one-of-a-kind multicultural dress-up song and dance puppet show. Then we all ventured over to the auditorium for a high-energy performance by the San Diego-based teen Unity Dance Ensemble.

The kids (and moms) seem to really enjoy our close-knit community, a circle of friends to learn and adventure together.

Check back to read about our other field trips this month:
“Letters to Harriet Tubman” by Performance Riverside
Wildomar Post Office