The New Year has begun with a wonderful transition of new families and many celebrations! We have been talking to the children about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and about Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year). We have talked about prominent historical figures like Dr. King, Gandhi, Dr. Montessori and Mother Teresa who promoted peace and justice in the world. We have also introduced a few traditional foods and festivities for Lunar New Year including Jon (sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf), the lucky red envelopes, and the lion dance. We invite any parent volunteers to come into the classroom to help facilitate these celebrations or share their own cultural celebrations!           

As we continue to investigate the human body, dinosaurs, and instruments of the orchestra, we see how many of these work together.  We use our senses to explore everything around us, to touch activities, to see pictures of dinosaurs, and to smell tortillas cooking. We are researching what our body parts do. We are also learning how dinosaurs had similar body parts to humans but how they adapt to fit each need. We welcome the wet weather!! Please send rain boots, jackets, and pants for our walks. Please make sure there are 2 sets of extra clothes in the bag just in case we get a little (or a lot) wet.         

 
Last Friday we had an inservice day in which the teachers had time to work on their classrooms and meet. The Jacaranda teachers very much enjoyed the opportunity to catch up, prepare new activities and materials, as well as "spruce" a little! We are so happy that it has rained this week although it has also gotten colder. Thank you to everybody for making sure that their children are wearing warm layers or have coats on their hooks. Mr. Moody, our dance and movement teacher, visited our class on Wednesday and then we ended our week with Mr. Hoffman, our music teacher, bringing us lots of instruments to help with our study of the orchestra this month.              

The Juniper children have been celebrating Lunar New Year since Wednesday. A Chinese New Year altar was set up in the classroom for the children to visualize the traditional celebration materials (ex: red envelope, spring couplets, lion dance  stands... and so on). The children are  learning how to greet each other during the new year and have been singing several new year songs. Many new years related books have been read; the children especially like the dancing dragon story. The new year celebration in Juniper will continue on for a whole week. We will do rice cake dumplings, Chinese brush painting, lantern making and more fun activities!..Happy Lunar New Year everybody.    

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a well known researcher, often wrote about flow, the period of intense focus and rapid learning. Perhaps you've experienced this before. This time of year is exciting in the classroom because we see many of examples of this each morning. The children are feeling the flow. Everyone has lots of activities they know how to use and are excited to be learning new activities. There is an overall focus and energy, like that of a busy bee hive. Some of the oldest children have started working on sewing projects, including sewing a pillow from scratch. Many of the younger children are using more advanced daily living activities like silver polishing (don't worry, we use toothpaste!) and needle threading.

Winter is finally here! The children have been enjoying the change of weather and are excited to break in their new rain gear. Many of our older children have taken the lead to give lessons to the younger children. For example, one lesson our older kids like to give is the "I Spy" game where the one giving the lesson spies an object that begins or ends with a particular sound. The younger child is called upon and then chooses the object that begins or ends with that sound. It's been a real treat to see them expand their vocabulary and analyze how words are made up from sounds.            

Mulberry children decorated dragon masks for our Lunar New Year celebration. Friday we will have a dragon dance and follow the dragon while holding up the mask. The children have been learning how to say Happy New Year in Chinese "Gung hey fat choy". We have also begun planting bulbs in our gardens. Welcome to Sonny Corbin and parents Freddy and Lisa, Theo Klein and parents Amanda and Jonathon, and Indigo Briskman and parents Pamela and Randy.