The Orange Class has had a squirrel week. Art projects, puzzles, toys, songs, and books with squirrels filled our classroom. Our bulletin board is very full with many types of squirrels. This is the first year that the class made a ‘red squirrel’, which is really a bit more orange. Red squirrels are not as common here as gray squirrels, but the Levine house and yard has a resident red squirrel. In fact, we saw him enter the house behind a gutter where he had nibbled a hole in the wood and heard him scampering in the ceiling and walls for close to 3 weeks before a company was able to come and install one-way doors on a couple of holes so it could get out but not in. Fortunately we have not heard the scampering inside any more, only scampering in the gutter. But the squirrel was not going to be foiled in his attempt to make a stockpile of black walnuts. Instead, he stored them in a high gutter. Now you know why I had the children make a red squirrel.

Squirrels on a tree branch; squirrels in a nest; squirrels everywhere.

This week we had a squirrel family visit during Circle Time. At first, we were singing our Hello song to them in English, but a child pointed out that that’s not how squirrels talk. For the rest of the week, we sang the squirrel way: Chip Chip, Squirrels, Chip Chip Squirrels, Chip Chip Squirrels, Chip Chip, Chip Chip, Chip Chip. Your child should be able to tell you their names.