Blog

Hemlock Class

What a wonderful year full of learning and growing is coming to an end!

These last three weeks in December were filled with gift making and card writing and ornament crafting alongside our normal classroom hustle and bustle. During circle time we talked about Christmas with its traditions of Advent wreath, tree and Santa and where they come from. The children learned about St. Nicholas Day and tried “Lebkuchen”. We looked at Kwanza traditions as well as learned about Hanukkah. The menorah candles burned bright and shared a sweet light in class for both the morning and afternoon time!

The children also have class meetings twice a week during circle time to discuss upcoming issues related to peers and classroom organization. We are still working on our “compliments and appreciation” beginning part of this forum. So far we still get a lot of “I love my family” (which is actually very sweet just not the point for this open talk round:-)

The second part of the meeting is bringing up a problem and finding possible solutions which always brings out great thinking skills! Then we choose the most doable solution and follow up with a positive activity like a fun song or story to end the meeting.

At the next meeting we follow up and see how things worked out with the choice of action and if there is need for improvement. Our last meeting for example involved the mix up of wet clothes coming home (apologies to the involved parents) and we will see if our ideas can help keep things more organized in our cubbies and backpacks!

In the following year we will commence with Nature Walks again and there will be more wet clothes involved. Please keep your children’s extra clothes in school stacked for the appropriate season. Just an fyi: some children complained about cold feet in their rain boots. They are great for mud and water but get very cold quickly if they are not the insulated kind.

During our last week in class we sent home four ornaments and a gift with a card for you to enjoy during the holidays. Most children were present and enjoyed making the crafts. We also did our book exchange for the morning as well as the afternoon class (thanks for sending your child with one or two books depending on their schedule) and had a seasonal snack to celebrate the end of our school year in style.

Some of you got to go on vacation early so we will keep your items ready for pick up in 2025. We are looking forward to seeing everyone happy and healthy in the next year! Have a great break! Your Hemlock teachers

Buckeye Class

Buckeye Class

The children have settled beautifully into the rhythm of our classroom at this point in the year. We continue to hold weekly classroom meetings, which have become an integral part of addressing and solving any issues that arise. When a problem comes up, we add it to our class meeting agenda notebook and discuss it together during circle time. This collaborative approach not only highlights the issues but also fosters meaningful solutions.

During our nature walks and time in the garden, the children have noticed an abundance of mushrooms. To build on their curiosity, we introduced “Parts of a Mushroom” cards to explore these fascinating organisms in greater detail.

At the start of the month, Ms. Govindaraj from the Hemlock Class joined us to share about Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. She demonstrated how to create rangoli, a vibrant art form using colorful sand, and lit a traditional oil lamp called a diya, enriching the children’s understanding of this special celebration.

Later, Ms. Erika visited during circle time to talk about Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), a Mexican tradition that honors loved ones who have passed. She introduced pan de muerto, a sweet bread, and showed us how to decorate skulls, or calaveras. The children learned about papel picado, intricate paper decorations commonly used during this holiday, and enjoyed seeing examples of how they are traditionally displayed.

Snack has become a favorite, with the children actively participating in serving and enjoying their food. We’re grateful to the families who have already provided snacks and encourage everyone to check out our snack suggestion sheet for ideas. A variety of fruits and vegetables is always welcome, and trying something new can add an extra element of fun!

Thank you to all the parents who attended conferences. It was wonderful connecting with you and sharing insights about your children. Your support is greatly appreciated!

November is Native American Heritage Month, and we are excited to introduce the children to the cultural significance of totem poles. These beautifully carved poles, created by the Pacific Northwest Coastal Native Americans, tell stories of their people and heritage. We’ll offer an activity where the children can create their own totem poles using paper and add symbolic animals. Each animal carries a unique meaning: the dog represents loyalty, the owl symbolizes wisdom, the fox stands for cleverness, the bear signifies strength, the eagle embodies beauty and peace, and the orca represents wealth and long life.

You may have noticed friendship pins adorning shoes or backpacks recently. We’ve introduced an activity where the children can decorate small safety pins with colorful beads. The key to these “friendship pins” is that they aren’t meant to be kept—they must be gifted to a friend, encouraging thoughtfulness and the joy of giving.

As we approach Thanksgiving, we’ve started discussing the concept of thankfulness. The children are adding their thoughts to our “thankfulness tree,” writing what they are grateful for on leaf-shaped paper to hang on the tree. We’re also excited to prepare stone soup together as a class. Each child will bring an ingredient to contribute, and we’ll work as a team to prepare and enjoy the soup—a lovely way to celebrate community and gratitude.

Hemlock Class

Happy November! As we move into the heart of autumn, our classroom is buzzing with excitement and learning.  As the outside air gets chilly our classroom gets cozy and warm with love and kindness.

Let us start with thanks to Shourya’s mom, Sushmita, for explaining about the Indian cultural festival called Deepavali. Children enjoyed the book about Deepavali and the rangoli design she brought.

On November 1^st morning, Simon’s mom, Manon, read a book about Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and in the afternoon Ms. Erika read a book and explained it. Children enjoyed making Skull and Ghost collage work.

We had a wonderful opportunity to discuss your child’s progress during the parent-teacher conference. We shared insights of your loved ones and set goals for the remainder of the school year. We teachers thoroughly enjoyed it, and we hope that it was insightful to you as well.

This month, we focused on gratitude and community. Our children are engaged in activities that inspire gratitude and kindness. We had a quick talk about elections in general and during our class meetings, we discussed snack situations, coat room manners, work cycle clean up and recess period gentleness. We practiced saying “Stop” and encouraged children to respect other friends’ feelings and words.

We were fascinated to learn about which animals are true hibernators and torpors.  We honored and thanked all the brave men and women who have served our country.

We had a blasting Thanksgiving Feast which included butter churning and vegetable soup. This event encouraged children to understand the value of sharing and community.

School is being closed for Thanksgiving break from Wednesday 27^th till Friday 29^th. Wednesday was an in-service day for teachers to discuss and set up the classroom.

Please, check for the weather and dress them accordingly. December will be bustling with holiday projects. We will be exchanging books on Thursday, December 19^th before winter break. Children are requested to bring a book not more than $10. If it is a used book in good condition is also fine. Please bring the books on or before Friday, December 13^th.  If your child has a full day, the child is requested to bring a book for AM and PM.

We are very thankful to all you for entrusting your loved ones in our hands. We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.

The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn.”                                                                                    ———Dr. Maria Montessori.

Hemlock Class

As we entered fall the children have had a chance to explore different topics. They learned about fall season and why leaves change color.
We talked about apples , parts of an apple, types of apples and learned the “Apple tree “ song. All the children were very interested in the “ little star“ story.
Next we discussed about bats
The history of bats and types of bats, their foods and habitats and environments. How bats catch their prey using echolocation.
Next we looked at spiders. How are they different from insects. We learned what kind of arachnids exist and which ones live around us. Now our children can sing  “Itsy bitsy spider”
We did not forget the pumpkins the class learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin, parts of a pumpkin. They got  to see a cut cross section of a pumpkin. They felt the seeds , pulp meat and got to smell a fresh cut pumpkin.
With Halloween around the corner we are getting ready for our Halloween fun day by learning the “Witches Brew” song as well as the “Five little Pumpkins sitting on a gate” song. On the day of Halloween the children can come in costumes.( any kind of weapon that come with the costume stays home ) The two classrooms will meet on the playground to share a big circle for songs and a costume parade. Then when we are back in our individual classrooms, we will serve spooky snack as small Halloween treat which is taken care of by the teachers.

This year we have introduced classroom meetings for circle time where we discuss classroom problems that children come to the teaches with. We let them  come up with solutions for the problem and solve it. We have just started and children are getting into it.
Weekly Nature walk is been enjoyed by most of the children. They look forward to go for the walk. With change in weather please dress you your children appropriately if they are been chosen for the walk.

All the Hemlock teachers are looking forward to meeting with you for our upcoming conferences .

Buckeye Class

This has been a busy month filled with learning about Fall changes, pumpkins, spiders, bats and more. Our new students are settling into the classroom routine and learning the ins and outs from our returning students.
In keeping with maintaining a calm and peaceful classroom environment, we’ve introduced a new activity. Our “class meetings” will be practiced a few times weekly and give children the opportunity to share by talking about their feelings and offer solutions for problems. We begin the circle passing a talking stick to those interested in sharing something that they appreciated about another student. Next, we introduce an issue and practice problem-solving. Lastly, we end with a group bonding/connection activity. These class meetings will continue throughout the year encouraging belonging, building empathy, inspiring respect for others, and teaching problem-solving skills.
We talked about the parts of a spider along with the several types of spiders. Children learned what they eat, how they eat and how and where they build their webs. We also got to harvest and dissect the sunflowers that we had grown from seed! At circle time we dissected a pumpkin and learned about the parts and the life cycle of a pumpkin. We have enjoyed practicing our “5 Little Pumpkins” rhyme and our “Witches Brew” song in preparation for our meeting and costume sharing event with the Hemlock class on Halloween Day. At the end of the month, we plan to learn all about bats. In geography we will show how a playdough sphere of the Earth can be sliced in half and rolled out flat revealing the two hemispheres of Earth and the idea of a flat map. Here’s to lots of fun in store for November!

Hemlock Class

This month is all about critters in the Hemlock classroom. We started with butterflies, continue with ladybugs and frogs and take in as much as we can of our bugs around us. There are flies, bees, rolly pollies, ants and so many more to observe since the weather turned sunnier. The book shelves are filled with information and the children are very interested.

Our butterfly lessons are accompanied by our observation station of larva eating, molting and turning into pupa to become beautiful butterflies which we will release as they are ready to fly. The children even prepared their own butterfly pea flower tea in class and share it with a friend. Such a fun experience to see it turn from blue (flowers steeped in lukewarm water) to purple (with a piece of lemon) and enjoyed with honey for sweetness all while talking with a friend to enjoy the experience.

Ladybugs are just as interesting to learn about with their stages of life and parts of their insect bodies (6 legs, head, thorax, abdomen and 2 antennae). Next, we looked at frogs. Books, songs and poems are all around us on each subject.

We also have been gardening outside as well as inside. The children enjoyed planting the Mother’s Day surprise and have seen it grow in the window sill till it was time for it to come home. We hope you enjoy it, too! In our garden beds we will have radishes, lettuce, sweet peas and eventually tomatoes. Strawberries and garlic are still left over from last year’s planting. Some pots are also filled with lovely flower seeds. The children had a turn to amend the soil before the seeds went in and help with watering.

Now that it is warmer, the children are more eager to go on nature walks and soon our big one at the end of the year is coming up, too. If you are interested in volunteering on either the morning or afternoon walk to St. Edwards playground with picnic snack, please let us know. The exact date is to be determined depending on the weather forecast but will be during our last week of school. We need your help to walk them there and back safely as the group is much larger than our normal bunch.

Please remember to bring a water bottle for your child every day, it is getting hot, especially for the runners during play time outside!

Buckeye Class

Like almost every month, May was a busy and fun-filled month! Spring has sprung, and we started gardening. A big thank you to Cooper’s parents who supplied us with a variety of seedlings to plant! We added a few more and are now waiting for our kale, broccolini, snap peas, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, snap peas, and several other veggies to sprout and grow. Most children love to work in our garden and dig their hands in the soil.

Maria Montessori said: “There must be provision for the child to have contact with nature, to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty in nature… so that the child may better understand and participate in the marvelous things which civilization creates”

The children also planted a sunflower seed, and brought this home in a small container. In a short time, you can help your child to transfer it to a bigger pot, or plant it in your yard. Together with gardening and plants, we learned about insects in general and the life cycles and parts of butterflies, ants, and worms. The children enjoyed observing a worm experiment with live worms to see if they prefer light or darkness, wetness or dryness, and a food choice of cheese or potatoes and lettuce. Many of the kids excitedly checked on the worms every few minutes to see in which direction they were gravitating. They greatly enjoyed singing the songs “I’m an insect” and “Oats, peas, beans, and barley”, together with doing the movements.

Towards the end of last month, we received our caterpillars, which gave us the opportunity to witness the lifecycle of a butterfly up-close. We have seen them turn into pupas and the children are eagerly waiting for them to hatch into butterflies. Once this happens, we will release them on a warm day. We also have a small live ant farm in our classroom. Ants are amazing little creatures and they’ve been busy digging tunnels. It’s been fun watching them do this in our clear container. Soon we will release them in the forest.

Throughout the month the children enjoyed several different art activities. You might have seen some painted caterpillars, butterflies, and flowers come home. We also introduced a new food preparation work: Jam spreading on crackers – needless to say that this was soon a favorite. We continued our tea-making activity and also introduced “water serving”. The children pour water from a pitcher into a few small glasses, place them on a tray and then offer them to their friends asking “Would you like some water?” Afterwards they will collect the glasses and wash them in our washing station. This activity has an element of “Grace and Courtesy”, while also teaching foundational practical life skills. We included a sewing sequence among the materials on the shelves, and the children had the opportunity to create bracelets, purses, or simply practicing threading and stitching.

This month, several children made the leap to reading! This is one of the best moments in a child’s early learning, when the transition is made from sounding out letters to actually blending these sounds together into words and sentences. Next ,they are ready to start reading “Max”, the first book from our reading series. They are very excited and proud when they can bring this book home to read to you!

We are asking for volunteers for our fun fieldtrip to St. Edwards State Park on Monday, June 3^rd. We will leave around 9:30am, walk to the playground in the park, have plenty of time to play, and end with a picnic lunch. We will walk back in time for our nappers to rest at 12:30pm. Please let us know if you would like to join us and help out with watching the children to ensure everyone’s safety.

Buckeye Class

This month, we started off by wrapping up our space unit. We learned about Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, the moon, and eclipses. With the great weather, we have been spending more time outside. We are preparing our garden for planting, enjoying lunch outside, and during work time, the children may choose to bring their work outside and work at our outdoor tables.

By this time of the year, children are stellar at cleaning up, and we are able to introduce some advanced practical life materials. We introduced a tea-making activity where the children make tea and enjoy it with a friend. Another similar activity introduced is the water serving activity, where the children pour water into small glasses and then walk around asking friends if they would like a glass of water.

We will soon be ordering caterpillars to follow their life cycle and release them as butterflies. Additionally, we are ordering ants and will observe their tunnel-building capabilities in an ant farm.

For Earth Day, we will educate the children on taking care of the planet because they are the future caretakers of the world. This includes using alternate modes of transportation, picking up litter, composting and recycling, conserving water, and planting gardens.

Hemlock Class

As Spring fills the air, we wrapped up our transportation unit with joy.  The children delighted in exploring various modes of transportation.  Adding to the excitement, Roland’s mom, Ms. Lisa, visited us to share insights about Boeing and the planes manufactured there.  To conclude the unit on a high note, the children enthusiastically collaborated to craft a cardboard car from a parcel box, testing it outside in the fresh air.

Following spring break, the children eagerly reunited with their friends.  They eagerly pitched in to prepare the vegetable beds for planting, taking turns sowing seeds and diligently watering them.  While immersed in outdoor activities, we’ve been discussing topics such as seeds, germination, and the vital role worms in enriching the soil.

Exploring the significance of flowers in producing fruits and vegetables has deepened their connection to nature.  Additionally, earthquake and fire drills are underway to ensure the children are well-prepared for any emergency situations.

With Mother’s Day on the horizon, the children are bustling with excitement as they prepare heartfelt surprised for their moms.  The sunny days have created perfect opportunities for outdoor lunch.

Hemlock Class

Thank you all for attending the conferences. It was truly delightful to see everyone and share in the learning experiences of your children in the class.

This month, we delved deeper into our lessons on various modes of transportation: land, water, and air. We explored different types and conducted science experiments related to each mode. The kids thoroughly enjoyed creating art and crafts centered around the theme.

We were fortunate to have a parent who works at Alaska Airlines visit to discuss safety rules regarding air transportation. They even brought along a model seat belt, which was quite informative.

Additionally, Mrs. Fidelis’s son, who is a junior studying aerospace engineering at the University of Washington, visited our class to talk about rockets and space stations. The children were highly engaged, asking numerous questions and showing genuine interest in the topic.

Thank you for your ongoing support, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Buckeye Class

Spring has finally arrived!

Thank you all for taking the time out to attend conferences. We really enjoyed sharing things about friendships, learning activities, and things that peak your child’s curiosity. Seeing their individual growth in kindness, confidence and academics made it fun to share!
In our practical life area, children are now washing their own dishes after eating a snack! This is just one of the many skills they will collect as they learn to care for their environment. We have also introduced chalk board washing and eggshell grinding with a mortar and pestle. Eggshells are loaded with calcium to stimulate plant growth.
It was so much fun having a firefighter visit to share with us fire safety tips and give us a tour of the fire truck and its tools. The children even got to sit in the fire truck. Considering it is Women’s History Month, it was a bonus to highlight a female firefighter and to show appreciation for her contributions.

We also enjoyed three more classroom visitors. Roshanna’s family shared with us the music of the santoor instrument, singing, and the many traditions surrounding Nowruz. Dante’s mother, Fernanda, came in to teach the children some dances. They had so much fun! Jahvan’s family shared with us traditions behind the Persian spring celebration of Nowruz, including the meaning behind the various symbols. This marks the rebirth and renewal of nature and the beginning of a new year.

In class we too put focus on the vernal equinox, Spring, and how season changes are related to the Earth’s movement around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth.

In music, the children have been experimenting with the xylophone and the incredibly special Montessori bells and music notes.
As the weather is beginning to get warmer, please remind your child to bring a filled water bottle to school. We will be spending a lot more time outside both working and playing.
People are curious by nature and in science we learned that we use our five senses to make observations and to learn about the world around us. We are noticing small signs of spring in nature daily. Maria Montessori believed that nature helps to awaken a child’s senses, stimulates their curiosity, and encourages them to explore and experiment.

Our larger unit study began this month and is centered in Earth science. It is difficult to imagine that the universe is much bigger than what we see around us each day. We began with the birth of the universe, the Big Bang. A science experiment helped us to visualize this creation story by showing the cosmic dance of particles. Another science experiment demonstrated the expansion of the universe with stars and galaxies moving further and further apart. We moved on to discussing the ongoing “element factory” (stellar nucleosynthesis) that is going on in the cores of all stars and their life cycle. Then it was on to the largest mass in the Solar System, our star, the Sun. Without its heat and light, plants and people could not exist on Earth. The Sun’s gravity holds the entire solar system together and drives the Earth’s weather, ocean currents and temperatures. Throughout the next few weeks, we will learn all kinds of interesting things about our planets, our moon, asteroids, comets, and space travel too. I think, by the end of the week, many children will have the song “The Family of the Sun” committed to memory!
Thank you to Mrs. Leach who shared with the class some of the traditional activities she has enjoyed during her family’s celebration of St. Patrick’s Day including parades, storytelling and spreading love.

In honor of Spring and right before the Easter holiday, each child will have a chance to hunt for a Spring surprise in our school yard at the end of this month.

We cannot wait to dig into plants and gardening!

 Hemlock class:

The children are enjoying themselves and are coming into their own. Putting on indoor shoes and getting snack whenever they are in the mood to sit with a special friend has become second nature by now. New friendships are blossoming and harder works are tackled!

What a busy month this has become! We started our Unit for the year –Transportation-.

The children are very excited to learn all about early forms of transport and how they have evolved over time into what we use today. There are lots of examples all around our room to look at, to match, to sort, to count, to categorize, to read about and to inspect for individual parts. We included our theme into our Practical Life area, art projects and even our necklaces will be adorned by vehicle cutouts! We will enjoy talking about forms of transportation for the coming weeks and hopefully start lots of conversations on the subject. The reading corner is stacked and songs are plentiful around the subject.

Thank you all who came for guest night and took time out to accompany your child to see how she/he fills his/her day. We enjoyed meeting so many of you! Sorry, that we can only have one visitor per child as our space is limited!

Our nature walks have been a wonderful experience despite the cold and rainy weather. The last few times children have been able to measure all kinds of items in nature and enjoyed the practice with tape measures (Thank you Ms. Ekstrom for supplying them!)

Valentine’s Day was much anticipated by the children so they could bring home their lovely Valentines cards for their families. Handing out one’s Valentines is always a big deal and taking home a filled bag makes for a special treat. Speaking of treats, our class snack on the 14th was a frozen heart treat, a heart sandwich and a yogurt covered pretzel (Thank you, Mrs. Managuli!).

Please make sure to sign up for our conferences on March 1st. It is a signup genius under Mrs. Managuli. (We are trying a new signup platform to avoid confusion.)

Buckeye Classroom:

We want to thank all of you who came to our guest night, and we hope you enjoyed seeing some of your child’s favorite works on the shelves! February was a busy and fun month in the Buckeye classroom, and a lot of celebrating was done: Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and Carnival (Mardi Gras). The children learned about the meaning of these celebrations and were able to fine-tune their art skills by creating a variety of arts and crafts.

We want to thank Liyao, Levy’s mom, for sharing stories and information on Lunar New Year during our circle time. The children are very excited when a special guest comes to visit! We encourage all parents (and grandparents) to share any special gifts, talents, or information they have with our classroom!

Valentine’s Day was a highlight for the children, and they had fun making cards and decorating their own Valentine bag to hold cards from their classmates. Distributing the cards into the bags of each child is something the kids always look forward to. Together they also enjoyed a special Valentine’s snack that day.

The children learned about the history of the heart shape, and we discussed friendship and love. Next up was Carnival – a joyous festival of merrymaking that is celebrated world-wide in more than 50 countries. It is pre-dominantly a Roman Catholic festival, the last “hurrah” before the beginning of the season of lent (a period of fasting and reflection) which ends on Easter. Ms. Ross showed pictures of popular Carnival destinations around the world: the famous carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans, elaborate costumes and masks in Venice, Italy, and of her home town in Maastricht, the Netherlands. People dress up in colorful costumes, participate in parades, and decorate floats. There is music everywhere, and people dance and sing in the streets, young and old alike.

On top of all this fun, the children learned about vertebrate and invertebrate animals, and received an introduction to science. We discussed what science is and what scientists do. February was also “Black History Month”, and we highlighted a few of the many black Americans who have made incredible contributions to our country.

We are looking forward to seeing you during conferences on March 1^st. The children have grown so much these past couple of months, and we are excited to share their progress with you!

Hemlock Class

We welcome all of you in the new year. January is the month of transition, the reflection of the past and looking forward to the future. We were happy to see the children get back into their routine. We could see their excitement to go to the classroom and to be with one another. It motivates the teachers too.

We started our new year with a peace curriculum. Montessori peace education teaches children to be peaceful, positive members of a thriving society. Peace education is not a separate subject, but a process of learning values, knowledge, skills, and attitude to live in harmony with oneself, with others, and with the natural environment.  We learnt how to calm our bodies and feel the love within us. We learnt our Outer self, Middle self and Inner self using a Matryshka Doll. It is achieved through self-awareness with circles, mind in a jar, lungs and spinal cord awareness, hidden values, peace bottles with the science experiments, recognizing our emotions, grace and courtesy lessons, concentration, normalization, freedom within limits, the core principles of Montessori classroom. We talked about Martin Luther King Jr Day, how we can achieve peace in the world by giving everyone equal rights.

Then we moved to our planet Earth. We learned the position of Earth in Space and how it supports life on it. So, it is our job to protect our planet. We looked at the sandpaper globe to recognize land and water. With a colored globe, we learned the continents and how to divide the globe into two half haves, eastern and western hemispheres to make it easier for us to learn.

We learned why we named the first month as January and important landforms of the Earth too, how they are opposite to each other. Children were excited to learn and identify the landforms in our map. They were happy to make landform books.

We celebrated Asher (3), Leo (4), and Sienne (4) ‘s birthdays. Happy Birthday to our dear children. Since we are in winter and also the weather keeps on changing, we request to provide appropriate clothes, socks and shoes. Thanks to the parents who showed up on kindergarten night. We were excited to share our values and work with you.

Buckeye Class

Happy new year! The month of January is when we bring out a few more advanced practical life materials. This includes bubble mixing, hand washing, color mixing and food preparation. Each of these materials requires many steps to be completed in a specific order. For example, with hand washing, the children will fill a pitcher with water, pour it into a bowl, wet their hands, rub bar soap on their hands, scrub, use a nail brush to scrub their nails, rinse, dry, pour out dirty water, dry their work space, apply lotion to their hands and finally put the material back on the shelf. This helps children develop a sense of order, concentration, coordination, and independence. It provides a structured routine that enhances fine motor skills, promotes hygiene awareness, and fosters a sense of responsibility.

We had a conversation about the new year and the idea of setting personal goals for ourselves. Additionally, we read a book discussing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and his impactful contributions to the world.

The Arctic has been our main focus of study this month. This includes polar bears, hibernation, penguins, the Arctic Circe, and Antarctica. We will also learn about the layers of the earth and land and water forms.

Please remember to dress your child appropriately for the weather as we spend lots of time outside. During these cold months, you might want to pack mittens, hats, scarves, and warm shoes to for your child.

Hemlock Class

December is the fun time of the year and with so many different festivals celebrated around the world the children had fun learning about each festival. We started by putting up our Christmas tree and the lights on it in our classroom. We talked about Hanukkah and its Tradition. Children enjoyed seeing a menorah being lit and had fun playing the dreidel game. We moved on to talk about Kwanza and the principles that are followed during Kwanza. They got to practice setting up a Kwanza setting as work on the shelf.

Mrs. Dykstra talked to children about St. Nicolaus and its tradition and how they celebrate St. Nicolaus in Germany. She talked about the Advent wreath and calendar too. we also got to put up an advent calendar in the class, where the calendar leader got to put a magnet ornament on it to count down the days to Christmas. Children got to taste some yummy Lebkuchen (German Cookies).

The children learned about the traditional story of Christmas and baby Jesus.  They got to see the Nativity set. We talked about how Christmas is celebrated around the World.

To go along with the holiday spirit, the children have enjoyed singing carols, especially Rudolf, Frosty, and Twelve Days of Christmas.

 With the Christmas tree up the children enjoyed making different ornaments for the tree and they enjoyed making their special gift for their parents.

We had our book exchange and it was fun to be able to take home a new book to enjoy over the holidays.

The most fun part was they enjoyed the small treat we had for the class party, it was a snowman made of bananas and raspberry, Rudolf made of pretzels and some pears.

The children seem very excited for this time of the year for time off with family and to celebrate the festive season.

Happy holidays and Happy New Year.

Buckeye Class

We hope you all are enjoying this holiday season and getting to spend extra time with your loved ones.

We finished off November learning about our “peace virtues   that guide us in maintaining a peaceful classroom environment. These virtues include truth-using truthful words, personal best-practice trying your best, peace– having a calm body, friendship-what makes a friend, kind words– nice words to express feelings, and joy– happiness, the sum of it all!

It was a short and busy December here at school. In class, the children worked hard creating a card and gift for you to be surprised with. They also crafted lots of ornaments and other festive artwork.

December became the month of celebrations! By learning about the festivals of the world, we learn to appreciate and respect other cultures, traditions, and religions.

We began by visiting each of the seven continents around the globe to explore just how each continent celebrates Christmas. We found many similarities in the traditions practiced around the world including music, decorations, special foods, greeting cards, gatherings, and gifts. It was fun to see the differences also. In the Netherlands Sinterklaas arrives on a white horse, while in Australia Santa arrives on a surfboard!

In many European countries children receive a shoe filled with goodies given on Saint Nicholas Day. Each student decorated a shoe and left it out to be filled with a special surprise!

Also recognized in December, is a holiday that celebrates African heritage. Kwanzaa centers around seven principles which are a guide to help support one’s personal strength: unity, self-determination, working together/being responsible, support, purpose, creativity, and faith. Children may come home with a woven mat (“mkeka”) or a paper candle holder (“kihara”).

We discussed the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. This eight-night celebration includes lighting the menorah, playing the dreidel game, eating special fried foods, exchanging gifts, and having parties with friends and family. The kids had fun spinning the dreidel for gold coins.

Circle time was filled with a lot of music, singing, poems and stories.

Our annual holiday book exchange was a hit! All got to take home a book of their choice that was new to them.

In school, we prepared for our holiday party by making pumpkin muffins in class. We baked them and ate them with hot cocoa and marshmallows. Watching “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” while we ate popcorn in our pajamas was a very nice and fun way to end the month.

We have our work cut out for us in January. With the change in season, the cold has crept in inviting topics like hibernation, winter, arctic animals and landscape, and Antarctica.

We are looking forward to having everybody back and hearing about their time away from school. I am sure there will be lots of stories to share!

Happy Holidays and see you next year!