In May, First Day School continues its spring theme of “Sanctuary”.  We will make our ‘personal trees’ into imaginary sanctuaries for all kinds of small creatures by building fairy houses under them.  New children will get to choose their personal trees while all the trees will get better identification tags.  We will learn about what sanctuary means and why we want our meetinghouse to be a sanctuary where everyone is safe.  We will finally make imaginary sanctuaries out of gingerbread.

We will put out tick tubes in the field this month.  These kill larval ticks hosted by field mice without hurting the mice or other mammals.  They have been very successful so far in making our grounds safer for children to play.

The next Dungeons and Dragons sessions for older children will be on June 7 and 14.

Melinda Wenner Bradley teaches a storytelling technique called “Godly Play” that has informed our new moon stories.  Melinda had a Zoom on April 1 about her “fresh and challenging vision for Quaker communities…that move toward a deeper practice of belonging rooted in the conviction that children already carry that of God within them and have spiritual gifts to share right now.”  There is a Zoom recording available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxa4xl0SgFI&t=243s  If you are interested in watching this with others, please let Anne Anderson or Heather Gray know.

FDS could use a few more adults willing to spend one Sunday every month or two helping out with the children.  We have some very young ones who need to be watched, held, or assisted with coloring, pasting, etc.  We have regular volunteers for the first and second Sundays of each month but could use people willing to commit to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays.

Contact Anne Anderson, FDS Coordinator for more information or to be put on the mailing list for weekly updates on upcoming programs for FDS.