What a fantastic first few months of the school year! Eudenis and I are blown away by all of the amazing ideas and play adventures that we have gone on with your children so far. And we know even better things are to come!
We want to thank you for being a truly amazing set of families and for always supporting us along this journey with your children. We look forward to continued communication and growth in the new year.
Click here for your holiday home fun!
Celebrating
It’s hard not to stop and talk about all of the upcoming holidays. There has been magic and excitement in the air all week! We have honored Christmas and Hanukkah by:
Learning about Cleo and Jasmin’s tradition of lighting Bayberry candles on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve - thank you for sharing!
Practicing our Dreidel spinning
Reading numerous books about both holidays
Creating a Polar Express train out of cardboard boxes and taking a ride up to the North Pole to “see” Santa!
Working on various projects with the colors of the season - red, green and silver/gold as well as blues and gold
Creating a very well decorated Gingerbread House
Additionally, we spoke a lot about kindness and giving. We have been much more kind with each other and are growing socially!
Specialists
Ernestina shared some of our favorite holiday songs in Spanish - don’t forget to check out the spotify channel so you can listen at home.
Diane helped us create a veggie Menorah. A big cucumber was our base, and we added yellow pepper sticks as the candles. Diane topped the Shamash with a halved tomato to represent the flame. We also made a lemon basil dressing to pour over our veggie menorah salad.
Coach C had us create a cozy campfire by practicing little kicks, learning how to run in all directions without bumping into others, and remembering to only use our feet.
Mr Andrew had us imagine creative materials we could use to make a dreidel, sang us the story “From Head to Toe,” and had us all bopping around to the “five little monkeys.”
Classroom Activities this week
Making slime and using creative thinking to storytell as we play (following a recipe, working as a group to accomplish a goal, fine motor workout)
Creating a snowman out of baking soda and dish soap and using vinegar to watch him bubble up and melt (science experiment, trial and error, voicing a conclusion/summation, reflection, chemical reaction)
Using glue and salt to discover how salt absorbs liquids (in this case, liquid watercolor)
Building very tall structures with sensory stackers (counting, concepts of height and weight, balance, gravity, color recognition)
Kinetic sand (fine motor, creative thinking)
Measuring and comparing with loose parts - ribbon, pom poms & pieces of masking tape (using tools to measure, using big, bigger, biggest, and small, smaller, smallest language)
Cloud dough (scooping, pouring, measuring, noticing how a solid changes when a liquid is added, forming and reforming dough, fine motor, using sense of smell)
Again, have an amazing holiday, and we will see everyone in 2020!!