Arriving late at night to Bucharest, we were greeted by the beautiful lights decorating the city for the Independence Day National holiday. This morning, we were up and ready to meet our Romanian colleagues at the Gradinita 
Ganeden. We watched in awe as the children arrived and were checked head to toe by the school nurse. With patience and full cooperation from the children, she deemed each one well enough to spend the day at school with us. Starting with early morning exercises, we danced with the children and listened to them recite their morning blessings before they headed to breakfast. The children looked at us with blank faces until they realized that we were there to play and engage with them at which point their stares turned into smiles and giant hugs.
The big excitement for the day was the Tu B’Shevat Seder. The children were asked to wear green to school and some showed up in homemade artwork in the form of leaves and fruit adorning their clothes. As a group, they were able to taste all kinds of tree fruits and plant flowers bulbs in honor of the holiday. We brought them a gift of child-sized pitchers to enhance their self-help skills. They used these pitchers to pour their own juice for the Seder. They were so proud of themselves at this new accomplishment. One boy even asked if he could have a pitcher at home!
After the Seder, we all went outside to give gifts to the trees. The oldest children made recycling bins before our arrival to give to the trees while the younger children gifted school-made bird feeders. After the children presented these gifts, they joined in a circle to sing to the trees. It was a wonderful tribute in honor of the holiday.
We concluded our day at the school by holding a mini-workshop with the main teachers of the school. We showed them a video depicting a day in the life of children at the preschools in Reggio-Emilia. This was followed by a group discussion about the merits of the Reggio approach. We look forward to hearing from them tomorrow once they have time to personally reflect on what they heard and saw.
