In this holiday season at Buckle My Shoe, we are busy making preparations like building a Christmas tree in our room, making ornaments for the shared school tree, and talking about when Santa is coming and what happens at Christmas and during the holidays. This week in 2B. we made pinecones with white glue and glitter, like festive little Christmas trees to match our fantastic colorfully-lit tree on the light table. Cole really loved the "acorns" (glitter pinecones) so much that he wanted to take one home with him. Lauren has been asking, "It's Christmas? And Santa?" Not yet, almost! Today, we made ornaments for the shared tree, the kids carefully placed one hand in the roll and painted, then added glitter with the other.
In the season, there are other changes in the classroom. Everyone wants to use the potty, friends are beginning to play in groups instead of alone or in dyads, becoming more sociable with each other; and we are beginning to be more comfortable sharing, negotiating turn taking, and showing empathy towards others in the class. Today, classmates stacked their own magnet tile towers, then decided to work together after, building a tower even taller than Jude! Lauren said it was her tower, but she let everyone help her. Devin even handed out tiles to his friends so they could continue building, and when it was time to clean up he and Oliver teamed up to put away legos and tiles together, with one friend holding the basket and the other putting the items inside. It's so nice to grow together as a class, we can't wait to see what happens in January and next semester!
