What is A Greenie?

So glad you asked and what an appropriate first post to make. During the first year of my teaching experience in the Green Room I had a wonderful co-teacher. She was a super gal whom I miss very much. She was the first one to address the children as the Greenies. The term of endearment stuck and continues to live on. The name is so synonymous with our classroom that we can often hear other students of other rooms telling the teachers about "those Greenies over there." My favorite is when I hear parents embrace the term before they even join our classroom community, "Jill, you're going to be a big Greenie soon!!!"

As our spring program comes to an end we prepare for our Family and Graduation Night by designing class shirts. Usually the shirt matches our song and this year we had chosen to do "Workin' In The Garden" by Gary Lapow, a WolfTrap musician. The front of the shirt was composed of many flower pots with plants the children drew growing out of them. On the back of the shirt my co-teacher and I came up with a list, a set of instructions if you will, of "How To Grow A Greenie." It goes like this:

How to Grow a Greenie:

Celebrate the wonder of everyday things.

Smile and be silly… a lot!

Learn new things together.

Ask your Greenie, “Show me...”

Hunt for worms.

Give everything a name.

Tell your Greenie anything is possible!

Celebrate Un-Birthdays.

Inspire them to see how we are all connected.

Believe in magic.

When in doubt, go with the flow…

Take time to care for others.

Make wishes.

Show them that everyone has a gift- and celebrate it.

Get dirty on a regular basis.

Love and be loved.

 
It's of course a very incomplete list but I am pretty sure it holds all the essential ingredients to a happy preschool-hood. Rereading this list I can envision pictures of the children on the front of seed packets, the list on the back. This coming week I will be welcoming a new batch of seeds while a handful of ripe Greenies go off to Kindergarten. Even though fall is creeping upon us, I cannot wait to get this last planting of the year in and watch them grow...