Winter finds us really in the thick of our classroom routine. The school year is going so fast, mostly because we’re so busy. We have plenty to do in school from cooking to dance to art projects and everything in between. Having so many choices means that the day flies by, and before you know it, it’s clean-up time. Next thing you know we’ll be heading into spring…. hopefully!
The fall and winter holidays have taught us about the joy of giving and sharing. At Thanksgiving we shared a special feast, full of goodies that we made ourselves. We studied the various holidays and made gifts for our families. We also talked about the importance of kindness and caring, both at the holidays and every day. Our classroom affords us opportunities to share in many different ways. For example, we share food and stories at snack time, and we work together throughout the day on the various projects and activities that we do in school. It’s fun to be together, and we have all become very good friends.
We have had some big challenges this winter! The extreme cold and sloppy weather have made getting around very difficult, but we have made the best of it. We enjoy going out to play in the snow as often as we can. Snow is so much fun. It even makes the teachers feel like little kids. We enjoy running around and chasing each other and throwing the snow all around. We even made a snowman! The way the season has been progressing, it looks like we’ll have more opportunities like that. We hope so. To that end, please remember to dress your children for the weather. We like to go outside as much as possible, especially in the snow! Boots and snow pants are essential for snowy days, as are hats, scarves, and mittens.
We have done some other enjoyable and educational activities in the past few weeks. We have “winterized” our classroom by creating an igloo and an ice fishing pond. We go ice fishing every day because it’s so much fun. We made some snowy pictures using shaving cream and glue. We also celebrated winter by making white, glittery playdough and white flubber. Are you sensing a snow theme here?
Two “Parent of the Day” helpers came to visit our classroom recently. Matthew’s mom came to spend time with us and help us out, and Nina's Aunt Sarah came to make paper with us. Thank you to both our Parents of the Day for your time and support.
We have turned into paleontologists for the next few weeks while we study dinosaurs! We’re having a great time in the classroom digging up dinosaur bones and creating our own fossils and dinosaur eggs. We even made dinosaur nests that we can eat! In the next few weeks we will be examining different species of dinosaurs more in depth.. We may even BECOME dinosaurs! But we promise that when we come home, we will not eat you.
When you walk into our classroom it is very gratifying to see that everyone is busily interacting with one another. There are many things going on at the same time, and we have a great deal of free choice in choosing our activities. There are many opportunities to explore and use our creativity. In all activities, socialization and communication are encouraged and modeled by the teachers. It’s great to see a group of strangers become a class of good friends. All of these interactions will lay the groundwork for future relationships and successes in life.
Stay tuned for springtime fun!
Andrea, Alma, & Yasmin
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