FB Meekins Preschool

Crossing over from the weekend into a fun week at Meekins!

It’s amazing to watch out kiddos of all ages use the playground to collaborate and innovate. 😌

Our Reds and Blues enjoyed another field trip adventure this week to Area 2 Farms!
🥬🌶️🍋🥕 👨‍🌾👩‍🌾

Our Meekins kiddos were dazzled by the innovations going on at this indoor farm.

Area 2 Farms uses vertical farming, an agricultural technique that grows crops on top of each other, rather than in traditional, horizontal rows. The farmers told us that this process allows them to eliminate pesticides and herbicides and to control the environment to produce the most nutritious plants.

On our visit, we pulled carrots, handled dirt, observed growing, and tasted mint and other hybrid vegetables. An indoor farm was a first for us. Thank you to Area 2 Farms for the educational and fun visit!

🚌📚 A Day to Remember: Bus Adventure on Maple Avenue and Library Exploration! 🚀

Our delightful FB Meekins explorers embarked on a memorable adventure: a ride on the city bus along Maple Avenue, leading to an enjoyable visit to the Patrick Henry Library in Vienna! 📖✨

Navigating Maple Avenue, the kids' excitement was palpable from the moment they boarded their bus seats. Their journey at the library began with a special meet-and-greet with the librarian, followed by their enthusiastic participation in the library scavenger hunt.

📖 Plus, a unique peek behind the scenes: our young explorers got to see the magic of the book drop and how it operates – a highlight for many!

👧👦 A few of our preschoolers proudly picked up their very first library cards, marking the start of their personal reading journeys.

🎼Tra la la la la! 🎤

FB Meekins Cooperative Preschool is hiring a Music Teacher.

Our ideal candidate has experience teaching music to students 2-6 years old in a fully play-based preschool. The music program should embrace lots of movement, fun kid-friendly songs, and a love of the outdoors. We have music supplies in house.

We're looking for someone to come in two hours a week over two days during our regular hours (9:15am-1:15pm). We offer some flexibility for times and days.

We are located in the Town of Vienna. Our school year runs Labor Day to Memorial Day. We follow the FCPS calendar for days off and weather.

FB Meekins is an outdoor focused, cooperative preschool in which parents play an integral role in their child's classroom experience and in the operation of the school. The result is a tight-knit community of teachers, parents, and families working together to create a fun, safe, and nurturing environment in which our children can learn and grow.

For details, email [email protected]

With a little sunshine, a sprinkle of creativity and a dash of determination, a garden can grow in the most magical places.

🌸🌼🌺🪷🪻🌹🌷

Calling our Meekins community! 📣

This week, we’re asking for your help. We will be collecting food to help fill the pantry of the Committee for Helping Others (CHO).

CHO is an all-volunteer organization that helps provide emergency food aid and other services to people in need in Vienna, Oakton, Dunn Loring, and Merrifield.

Right now, CHO has the greatest need for the following items:

Jelly
Cereal
Snack bars
Canned spaghetti sauce
Chunky soups
Canned fruit
Bagged white rice

Boxes for donations will be located at both of the playground entrance gates Monday 9/11 thru Thursday 9/14. Your help is greatly appreciated!

For more information about CHO and what items they accept, visit cho-va.com or find them on Facebook at Committee for Helping Others.

Just like that, it’s already pick up time! We hope everyone had a wonderful first day.

Welcome back, Meekins! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

How is your summer going? ☀️ It’s hard to believe we’re almost over the hump of summer break. Before you know it, our playground will be filled with smiling faces and lots of activity. We can’t wait!

Let’s take a special look at our Blues class. 💙

This class is for children between the ages of 3.5 and 4. The skills they are learning at this age, including turn taking, being able to participate in group activities, forming friendships and becoming more independent, are the foundation for success in elementary school.

Interested? Send us a message or email [email protected]

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” - A.A.Milne

Our Blues ended our last day at Meekins with a hug sandwich. Saying goodbye is hard, but we're thankful for all the friendships, messes, artwork, and play we had along the way this year.

Instead of goodbye, let's say see you soon! Happy summer, everyone.

Meekins is now a Certified Wildlife Habitat with the National Wildlife Federation!

Our Kindergarten/RSL kiddos were able to install this new sign to mark their achievement. This habitat was the culmination of their philanthropy project where they learned about how to help animals, people, and the environment.

Every habitat garden is a step toward replenishing resources for wildlife such as bees, butterflies, birds, and amphibians—both locally and along migratory corridors.

Look at our little green leaders go! 💪🌳🌎

In addition to being a teacher and director at Meekins, Tara Bloch is the Executive Director at BRAWS: Bringing Resources to Aid Women's Shelters, a local Vienna non-profit that provides menstrual products, and new bras and underwear to underserved people in our community.

May is Menstrual Month at BRAWS and they set an ambitious goal to collect 4,800 packages of products for their partner organizations that include schools, homeless shelters, food pantries, and domestic violence shelters.

Our Meekins community supported BRAWS by hosting a collection drive. Thank you for supporting this fantastic and necessary organization!

To learn more about BRAWS and how you can help, visit BRAWS.org

Hi there from our Blues kids! 💙 This class is for children between the ages of 3.5 and 4.

With springtime weather, there are more bugs on our playground and the Blues class is fascinated by them. We've had a lot of interesting discussions about how they move, what they eat, whether they might bite/pinch us and more.

The skills they are learning at this age, including turn taking, being able to participate in group activities, forming friendships and becoming more independent, are the foundation for success in elementary school.

Escape the rain ☔️ with photos from our field trip to Riverbend Park. What a lovely way to spend a spring day with our Reds and Blues last week!

Thank you to our lovely guide, Sue, who took us on a tour of all the plants and critters living in the park. We learned so much about the park’s natural surroundings.

Spring is here 🌺🌸🌼🌻 and the kiddos at Meekins have been busy on the playground! Outdoor play is here to stay, and we’re loving it.

Our Greens had a WONDERFUL field trip to the post office! Every single student was kind, courteous, and excited to see all the inner workings of our local post office.

Each child mailed their own letter, we found our Meekins PO Box, and they even got a chance to climb and explore a mail truck.

The best part is coming back to the playground and seeing how going to a post office inspires their play. We had MANY mail carriers running around delivering mail that was put in the playhouse.

Thank you to the Vienna Post Office for so kindly hosting our little ones!

Our Reds had the pleasure of taking a field trip today to The Kreeger Museum in Washington, DC! Our students had a hands on experience with the world of modern art.

A special thank you to former Meekins parent and teacher Sandy Pugh, who was our docent today. We had a fabulous time with you!

Thank you for joining us for Play-Based Learning 101!

It was an informative evening on the benefits of outdoor learning and play-based education, both offered at Meekins. Hats off to our own Sarah Erdman and Stephanie Jasenak hosting this wonderful event!

When it rains, we love the way it changes our playground! So much collaboration to make mud pies, drag bins of water around, and lots and lots of play!!

Meet Tara Bloch, our Director, Reds/RSL/Kindergarten Teacher! Our Open House is coming up NEXT WEEK on February 1 and 2 from 2-3pm each day. Come out for an opportunity to meet our teachers in person. Email [email protected] to join us for a tour.

Tara started as a parent at Meekins in 1995 and never left! She has her BA in Early Childhood Education and has been our Reds teacher since 2010 and our Director since 2016. Tara loves teaching the oldest Meekins kids. They are witty, silly, and so fun. She appreciates all the benefits from having parents in the classroom on a daily basis.

When not at Meekins, Tara is slowly updating an old country farmhouse. She enjoys crafting, cooking, and traveling. She shares her home with 2 old greyhounds and a spunky cat. She’s thrilled to gain the new title of grandmother in the spring.

Meet Sarah Erdman, our Blues teacher! Our Open House is coming up on February 1 and 2 from 2-3pm each day. Come out for an opportunity to meet our teachers in person. Email [email protected] to join us for a tour.

After ten years in early childhood education (six of those with the Blues class at Meekins), Sarah is still constantly surprised and amazed by the observations and insights of young children!

Starting her career in Museum Education, the move to the preschool classroom was a natural one incorporating her background in informal learning with her interest in child development. Along with Sarah’s Masters in Museum Education, she’s earned an Associates in Early Childhood Development and contributed to the field with three books on related topics.

Growing up in rural Maine, she has a deep love of nature and is excited that Meekins is embracing high-quality outdoor education. Along with her role as an educator, Sarah is a Mom of two Meekins alumni and she does the expected amounts of driving, snack fixing and social calendar coordination. Visiting museums and historic sites are some of her favorite weekend activities and luckily her family agrees. Sarah also loves spending time in her garden, baking, reading and teaching herself various fiber arts. Basically, living the life!

Meet Jill Steuter, our Yellows teacher! Our Open House is coming up on February 1 and 2 from 2-3pm each day. Come out for an opportunity to meet our teachers in person. Email [email protected] to join us for a tour.

Jill Steuter is the teacher for our Yellows (2s) Class. Jill holds a Masters Degree in Special Education from George Mason University. This is her fourth year teaching and her second year at Meekins. She loves stories and making up silly songs to share with her students.

She grew up on a farm in Nebraska where her family raised corn, wheat, soybeans, sunflowers, and cows. She enjoys traveling and learning about other cultures, reading, and spending time with her family.

Meet Stephanie Jasenak, our Greens teacher! Our Open House is coming up on February 1 and 2 from 2-3pm each day. Come out for an opportunity to meet our teachers in person. Email [email protected] to join us for a tour.

Stephanie Jasenk is our Greens and Music teacher here at FB Meekins. Stephanie joined our staff in 2017 starting as the music teacher while her daughter started in the Yellows class. Since then, Stephanie has grown within our school and became the Greens teacher in 2019.

Stephanie has taught music in Connecticut, California and Virginia, and holds a certification in Music Education for PreK-12. She earned her undergraduate at Western Connecticut State University and graduated in 2006 with a Bachelors in Music Education. Stephanie continued her education at the University of Florida and left with a Masters in Music Education in 2016. Stephanie is a proponent of Music Education and all its educational and social benefits, especially at young ages. She has now been furthering her training in early childhood development and in outdoor, play-based learning.

Stephanie loved her time as a parent at Meekins, but she especially enjoys her time as a teacher. When she is not teaching, you can find her with a camera in her hand or camping with her daughter and husband.

Happy 2023! We’re welcoming our happy faces back to Meekins after winter break and we couldn’t be more excited.

Just before the break, the Blues class took their exploration outside of our playground and went on an adventure to the library by bus.

Needless to say, our students were thrilled to experience the bus and learn more about the library. While at the library, there was a scavenger hunt, a chance to see where the books disappear to when we put them in the return slot, toys to play with, and prizes. Could it get any better?

In our Kindergarten class, we were talking about "families.” We did our best to define what a family was. There were a lot of good ideas: people who care for you, people to which you are and are not related, and people close and far away.

Then, we pulled out the bin of figures and each made our family. It was up to the Kindergarteners to choose and pick from the pile to best represent their family members.

We also created family portraits using stones and other natural materials. Each of the Kindergartners had a very different approach. One of the friends discovered if you put water on the stones you could paint faces, so that took things in another direction. We love talking about family!

Meekins is falling for fall! 🍁 🍂 ☀️

All the leaves from our trees make for a wonderful addition to our play. Our kiddos can’t get enough of fall, from carving pumpkins to singing about falling leaves to reading about why the leaves change color. What’s more fun than a running jump into a pile of leaves?

Knock, knock!
Who's there?
Boo.
Boo who?
Don't cry! We didn't mean to scare you. It’s just Meekins walking in the Vienna Halloween Parade!

Our little ones and their families had a spooktacular time waving to the crowd and showing their pride during this wonderful Vienna tradition.

It’s a beautiful day for a trip to Potomac Vegetable Farms. 🥕 🍁🐖🥬☀️

Our Greens class enjoyed a hands on tour of this local farm, featuring pigs, bees, chickens and (you guessed it) vegetables!

A big thank you for letting these little ones visit and get their hands into everything.

For our Kindergarten class, a really important pre-reading skill is learning how books "work."

How do we hold them? What is the title and what can it tell us? Where do we find the author and illustrator? And what can we learn from the pictures?

With all of this you can usually get enough information to have a sense of what the story is about!

Carrying a rainbow in our hearts at Meekins during a very gray start to our week! 🌈 Hopefully we’ll play in the sunshine before the week is over.

See one of the benefits of our outdoor program in action! With no walls, it’s easy to look beyond the fence for an opportunity to observe, evaluate, and wonder.

“Our society is much more interested in information than wonder, in noise rather than silence… And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives.”
- Fred Rogers

It’s Twinning Tuesday! Our Meekins teachers seem to be of the same mindset with learning through play AND fashion. Coincidence? Maybe. Lovable? Absolutely!

Thank you to our teachers, here at Meekins and everywhere. ❤️

Climbing, rolling, and digging our way through our second week. Friendships are sprouting, routines are forming, and magic is happening through play.

It’s raining, it’s pouring! At Meekins, we’re exploring! Let the play-based learning begin.

Welcome new and returning students to our first day of class. Rain or shine, we’re happy to see each smiling face.

All hands on deck for our community playground clean up day. We can’t wait to welcome all our students next week!

FB Meekins offers a variety of educational opportunities for children ages 4-6!

Our Reds class is a half-day program for ages 4-5 that runs Monday-Friday and is specially tailored for older preschoolers. Children turning 5 by end of May 2023 can add on “Ready, Set, Learn”, our after-school Kindergarten prep class that runs 3 days per week.

Our Kindergarten class for ages 5-6 shares mornings with our Reds class, and then continues with the Fairfax County Program of Study curriculum after school 3 days per week.

Give your child the gift of play-based preschool or Kindergarten in a nurturing, open-ended environment!

Calling all littles who love learning through play! At Meekins, the Yellows group for our two-year-olds is the perfect place to start your child on their preschool journey, with plenty of outdoor play and freedom within limits to make school a special place in their hearts.

Reach out to [email protected] for more information. We’re accepting applications until Monday 8/29 to be able to start on our first day of school!

Interested in a play based preschool for your child?

Join us for an Open House to find out about our offerings. We have openings in all classes! Our teachers are looking forward to meeting you.

Open House:
Thursday August 11, 3-5pm

Meekins Playground
900 Maple Ave E, Vienna

Openings in all classes!

For more information email
[email protected]

Visit our website at FBMeekins.org

If your child is two or turning two this fall, ask us about our Yellows class!

Our Yellows class is two half-days a week and is the perfect introduction to school and socialization for toddlers.

For more information check out our website at www.fbmeekins.org or contact us at [email protected]

🍊🥝🍎 Wow, how time flies when you’re having fun! This last week of camp was filled with tons of sea shell and sand crafts, popsicles EVERY day (shaved ice today 🍧), sprinklers and swings, playing with pals, the occasional toad in the sandbox, and the BEST camp teachers and aides! Thank you for the best three weeks of Meekins camp! 😎🍉🐰🐸🐚🏖💦🍩🌈🎨

Leaf printing last week—petting cute animals this week! Camp sure is maaa-rvelous, especially when Squeals on Wheels brings special visitors including a tortoise, hen, hedgehog, a dragon lizard, rabbits, ducks, alpacas, a miniature goat and more! What an incredible hands on learning opportunity for the campers! 🍃🐰🦙🐐🦎🦆🐔🦔🐢