Discovering Traditions

One of the best ways to promote peace is to give our children great insights and appreciation of others’ cultures. We have been learning about winter celebrations around the world. To enhance learning and make it meaningful, we talk about how our community celebrates the holidays. 

During circle time, we tell stories, dance, recite poems, and play games honoring a holiday. “Agua de limones” is a group game to play before “Las Posadas,” for example. We place herbs and spices in our practical life, science and geography shelves for our children to find and explore. In art, children have enjoyed making tissue paper art, “papel picado,” and coloring patterns with rich colors inspired by our Kwanzaa lesson. 

As 2019 comes to an end, we look forward to continued growth and success in the new year. We have all grown a little closer, happier and merrier in December.

Hope you all have a wonderful winter break with friends and family, and we look forward to hearing about all of your children’s favorite memories they make this holiday season!

January Unit

Solar System

Constellations

Antarctica

Polar Animals

School Resumes 1/07/2020

No School: MLK Day 1/20/2020

Kindergarten Enrollment Night 1/29/2020 @ 5:00 p.m.

First Grade Enrollment Night   1/30/2020 @ 5:00 p.m.

Desert life……

So we thought a desert was just a dry empty place. Looking a little closer, we have learned about the wonderful plants, animals and people who used to live there. We learned that many of the animals in the desert are nocturnal. During the day, we might not see them on our hikes because perhaps they are resting inside caves, burrows, underground tunnels, or possibly inside a cactus!

The animals have adapted to needing little water, mostly just getting it from the plants they eat and even then, they have to work hard to get it! The plants themselves are also fighting to stay alive. They too are creative and adaptive to the climate, covered with thorns and tough leathery leaves to fight the heat and animals that want to eat them. Lastly, we learned that we live in a rain shadow desert, surrounded by mountains stopping most or all rain clouds from getting to us. 

Favorite activities…

We brought in play dough for the children to shape into a cactus and we covered them with toothpicks. We also experimented with desert soil vs. regular dirt. A fun game was introduced where a child hides under a few Montessori mats while another child is a ‘fox’ trying to guess what friend ‘turtle’ is in its burrow. A favorite activity has been playing with sand and building a desert habitat for out artificial plants and desert animals.

Events…

Our kindergartners are taking a trip to Red Rock Canyon and hiking on the Lost Creek Children’s Discovery Loop Trail. This self-guided interpretive trail introduces children to the many different features of the Mojave Desert including pictographs, areas of desert life, and breathtaking views. This field trip is a special tradition for our kindergarten students. 

Last week we were a great audience for the Taiko drummers from Japan!

Reminder…no school from November 25th – 29th for Thanksgiving break.

We work hard, we play hard!

It has been a fun-filled two weeks with English and Spanish goals to complete, a one of a kind Fall Festival, and World History Day.  We would like to to extend a shout out to Sondra and Elizabeth who saved our classroom carpet during WHD:) Unfortunately, there was a hole in the “swamp” and the water feature spread out more than joy into the classroom. 

We are very grateful for all of your generous donations, borrowed items, and for helping us transform and run our room for WHD! The children had a lot of fun. We visited four other rooms, munched on a little bit of everything, crafted unique art pieces, and even got “swallowed” by a prehistoric crocodile and survived, incredible right?!

November Studies:  Mojave Desert, Reptiles, North America

11/8 No school, teacher in-service

11/11 No school, Veterans’ day

11/14 Picture retake

11/19 Red Rock field trip, kindergarten students only

11/25 – 11/29 No School, Thanksgiving break

Pumpkins, skeletons and guts!

It looks like fall in our classroom, even though it feels like summer outside. We rotate practical life, science, geography and art material based on the season, unit of studies, and most importantly the needs of the children. We presented the skeleton puzzle, touch tablets, and been exploring further using the five senses.

The children love the taste testing with Mrs. Sadie. She gave each child a sample for each taste. Of course,  the children were eager to try the chocolate on their sampling napkin, ignoring the warning that it was going to be bitter. Most of them placed the whole piece of chocolate in their mouth. Within seconds we had a crowd of disappointed customers demanding  water. A few ran to the trash can while others were grateful they had waited. It was quite a sight. Luckily sweet was next on the menu!

Everybody gains when kids read together!

We have started our reading buddy program. Reading buddies is a program in which two or more students read together. Lower elementary students were paired with our kids and come to the classroom each Friday to read to our children. The ‘big buddies’ were so excited about their new role, and our younger friends enjoyed the fun stories and  positive experience with their new ‘big kid’ friend who is now a recognizable face in the school community.

World History Day

We are so excited for our upcoming event, World History Day, on Thursday, October 24th. This day is packed with fun, crafts, sightseeing, snack sampling, and so much more. Since WHD is a half day, dismissal is at 11:15 a.m. We are making preparations and asking for a few items that we could borrow or have for that day. P2 has a list of things that you can sign up to bring, but is not mandated. During the event, your child may also dress up which is optional. If your child chooses to dress up, we recommend that they wear a hat or costume reflective of a dinosaur, amphibian or reptile. Please keep it simple. 

Thank you for all of your support!