This week, our afternoon friends followed a color that felt both bold and full of possibility. Inspired by Red from Laura Vaccaro Seeger's color series, we began to notice just how many reds live quietly (and loudly) around us. Inside the classroom, while exploring and playing, James exclaimed, “Cool! A red dinosaur!”—opening the door to a week of looking a little closer and seeing a little more. Our hands explored red again through crayons of different shapes, each mark telling its own story. Color became something we could hold, layer, and return to.

Music and movement carried us up and over our soft block “mountain” as we sang She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain, each friend choosing the color of their horse—riding together through rhythm, imagination, and laughter. Inside, we turned our attention to texture—mixing playdough and noticing its transformation. “It’s getting sticky!” Willy shared, as Athena echoed, “Really sticky!” Eventually, we combined our dough with green, shaping something that felt like our version of the Earth—colors meeting, blending, becoming.

Out in the yard, red came alive in brushstrokes—paint meeting air, movement, and sunlight. As always, our yard offers its own invitations: water flowing through, fabric swaying along our clothesline, and bodies testing balance, height, and the joy of a well-timed jump. Risk, trust, and delight all woven together.

We ended our week with the warm comfort of banana bread, made together and enjoyed together, and with the gentle sounds of the xylophone as small hands created their own melodies alongside our goodbye song.