Hi Camellia Families!
Spring is right around the corner and the children have been picking and planting vegetables and flowers in time for Spring! It's been wonderful to add a few planter boxes to the Camellia yard and the children have loved it! If any parent wants to help with a gardening project, please let us know! We celebrated Lunar New Year when it finally stopped raining and it was wonderful doing the Lion Dance and eating Joong - the Chinese New Year sticky rice treat!            

We are being surprised by the weather every week. We are studying weather and, as we can see, in one week we can have many different weather patterns, sun, fog, rain, etc. We are also studying birds and the continent of Asia. We go bird watching to see what birds are doing during the day. There are many aspects of Asia to study. If you have an artifact from Asia to share with our classroom, we will gladly appreciate the contribution. To prepare for spring, we planted seeds and placed them in the new greenhouse. We will be ready to transfer to our garden soon. Please let a teacher know if you'd like to help with our transplanting.          

 
This week we enjoyed celebrating Groundhog Day! We took the opportunity to learn more about Groundhogs themselves and so got to call ourselves "marmotologists" for the day! Some interesting facts we learned: Groundhogs are also called Whistle Pigs or Woodchucks, they hibernate and only breath once every six minutes while doing so, they have flaps in their ears to protect them from getting dirt inside while they dig and their teeth are always growing! And yes, we also tried to say the poem: "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood" as fast as we can!               

Sensorial materials are materials the children use in the classroom to help them develop and refine their five senses. Use of these materials constitutes the next level of difficulty after those of practical life. Like many other materials in the Montessori classroom, sensorial materials have what is called "control of error", meaning that the child not only works with the material, but also has a way to check the work rather than seeking out the teacher. This is done to help promote independence on the part of the child. While Juniper teachers were preparing for Montessori 101 by using sensorial materials, the children were watching and were inspired to use the materials too.  The power of visual learning is truly amazing!  

As we enter February, the children will be studying birds, weather, and Asia. Already a few children have been busy making bird books that illustrate the parts of the bird. The older children in the classroom have been hard at work on researching topics of their choosing, including cheetahs, boa constrictors, and butterflies. They start by writing questions they have, then they read some books to find and write down the answers to their questions, and finally the work culminates in the production of a poster or other product to demonstrate their learning. Look for some posters to be up in the classroom soon!

The Magnolia teachers feel very inspired by the children's creativity each and every day.  In the past week, the children made up a song, created illustrations to go along with it, and then performed it for each other.  As Valentine's Day is slowly creeping up on us, the children have been brainstorming ideas on how to decorate the classroom.  It is delightful to watch as the children work together and help each other draw heart shapes to cutout for decorations.             

Mulberry class celebrated Lunar New Year. Mr. Tien told the story of Joong the food eaten during the Lunar New Year. Then the children had a parade following the Lion worn by Claire, our Juniper friend. In the classroom the children have been practicing taking care of books. They have been taking turns turning pages gently. The class also cleaned the fish tank and we got 5 new fancy goldfish.