Happy New Year Camellia Families!! We had such a wonderful series of celebrations the past month and welcome the new year in Camellia class. We want to welcome four new children that are joining us: Mackenzie, Mae, Miles, and Nile! They began in Camellia the first week of January, some coming from Mulberry class, and are all adapting well and we look forward to the rest of the year! We continue to garden with the children and harvest Chard, Red Leaf Lettuce, and Carrots from the garden for our Little Chef program - this week we had veggie rice! The children love to pick and prepare what they eat!          

Happy New Year and Welcome Back!  We are very excited about our new floor.  We are taking very good care of it by using our practical life skills.  Our attention to detail is being perfected every day. How carefully we look at every aspect of the classroom, our activities, our environment, and each other. We will be looking at the human body and our senses this month. Please welcome Eleanor Osborn and her parents, Mike and Gwendolyn. Troy Garcia-Jacobs also started on Monday, his parents are Leta and Calvin. London Reese will start during the next week, her parents are Quincy and Sherley.        

 
Happy New Year, and welcome back! We've had a lot of fun over the past few weeks celebrating this wonderful holiday season. Thank you to all of the families who have volunteered their time to share their family's holiday traditions. Thank you to Ana, Eva's mom, who shared with us the New Year tradition in Spain. Thanks to Jessica, Owen's mom, who read the children a story about the holiday tradition in Italy and shared some delicious pan doro (golden bread). Also, we would like to thank Auban, Ellie's mom, for making name tags for all the children.  We have had an amazing start to the new year. We are looking forward to learning, growing, and having lots of fun in 2012!             

Our bodies are amazing machines. They can move, think, listen, and talk. It also mends itself, changes shape and grows! This week, Juniper children started learning about their bodies and how the different parts work together. We talked about our skin and hair.  During the Month of January the children will learn and experience many things about their amazing machines. If you would like to share info/materials/projects about the human body please inform any Juniper teacher and we will set a date.               

The children are excited to be back in Live Oak! They're eager for new lessons, anxious to revisit old favorites, and surprised by some of the new activities on the shelf. Many of the older children are becoming experts at finger knitting and are pursuing projects like knitting scarves or blankets. One new favorite is an activity for exploring electricity. With a battery, a few wires, small light bulbs, tiny electric motor, a buzzer, and a switch. The children are exploring different ways to make circuits and the amazing things that electricity can do. One child discovered, on his own, that he could place two lights and a motor in the same circuit and make them all go at the same time!

The new year has brought on many wonderful changes to our classroom! You may have noticed our new floors, the placement of our hooks, and Ms. Vaasili's long awaited return. We have also welcomed Julian and Avery to our classroom as they have joined Magnolia full time. Please introduce yourself to them and their parents if you see them around. We have returned full swing to our daily routine and the children have been requesting lessons that pique their interests.  Thank you for a wonderful 2011 and we look forward to all of the experiences of 2012.           

Mulberry class welcomed Naomi Permutt to the team of teachers in the Brown Cottage. The  children have been enjoying the new geometric dome play structure. There has been lots of climbing, hanging and crawling in and out. We even sang songs under the dome. Mulberry is in need of two new room parents. If you want to learn more about what a room parent does or are interested, contact Mrs. Aima.