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Classroom Review

Front Building:

Following our Halloween festivities, we began November talking about the parts of a pumpkin, the life cycle of a pumpkin, and even  hammering nails into a pumpkin. We have been talking about the Thanksgiving “story” with the pilgrims and Indians. We included why the pilgrims left, their voyage, and what the pilgrims and Indians  each had to offer to one another in the New World.  We talked about  how and why the Thanksgiving feast became a tradition that we continue to celebrate nearly 400 years later. While some worked on parts of a Mayflower book, others worked on crafts related to Thanksgiving (corn art, etc…). Most recently we began to learn about the parts of a turkey.

Beginning in December we look forward to talking about how people celebrate the holidays in December all around the world. We will likely cover the Hanukkah story, the story of  St. Nicholas (Germany), Christmas in the U.S. and more. We will be making ornaments for our classroom tree, making  a Christmas card and gift for our families, and enjoy a yummy festive holiday party on the 23rd.

We will also have our traditional holiday book exchange. Please have your child bring a new or used book of their choice to be given to another child in class. Each child gets to leave with a new and exciting book to keep!

We would also like to invite you and your child to participate in a holiday gift-giving opportunity. We will soon have a donation box for “Toys for Tots” where you may drop off an unwrapped toy for any age child to be donated to a family in need financially. This is a great opportunity to get your child involved and lay some groundwork on the importance of helping those less fortunate.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

Back Building:

This November has been all about Thanksgiving!  We have studied the story of Thanksgiving and learned about the Pilgrims making their long, uncomfortable journey across the ocean to their new home.  We focused on how the Native Americans were so helpful to the struggling settlers and how this cooperation led to the very first Thanksgiving feast!  They taught them how to hunt, fish, build homes and harvest the land; needless to say, the Pilgrims were very thankful for the Native Americans.  We explored many versions of this story and even used little figures to act out the story.  We talked about the ways that modern day people celebrate Thanksgiving, most importantly by spending time with friends and family.  We also read the story Stone Soup and had our own feast of soup filled with vegetables that the children brought and cut themselves, pumpkin pie, olives, cornbread muffins that we made together in circle and butter that the children churned themselves.  We’ve done several special turkey art projects, too.

In December we will focus on several winter Holidays!  Mrs. Dykstra will teach us about Saint Nikolaus and the traditions related to St. Nicholas.  We will also learn about Hanukkah and Christmas.  We will make a special holiday gift, have a holiday party with food and crafts, do holiday artworks all month and read holiday books.  We will also have a toy drive for needy children!  We will do our annual book exchange where the children each bring a new or gently used book to exchange so that each child brings a different book home.

We hope you all have a relaxing and fun holiday season!

 

creativemontessorischool_mz5i3rClassroom Review