This month we finished up our study of the human body and shifted our focus to the New Years Celebrations within our community.  We asked “What does it mean to make a resolution” and thought about what our goals may be for the new year.  Our classroom birthday cakes with the months of the year helped our understanding of what a new calendar year means and “how” birthdays happen each year because the months of the year happen in a never ending circle.  Families, communities, and cultures celebrate the New Year in different ways.  How does your family mark the new year?  This month we are taking a deeper look at the celebration and traditions of Chines New Year/ Lunar New Year.  This holiday is based on the Lunar cycle rather than the calendar year, and thus lands on a different day each year.

 

Our class loves looking at maps and globes and we identified where the USA and Massachusetts is, as well as where China is.  Although it is winter time in the USA right now, in China this time of year is Spring, and their festival is sometimes also referred to as The Spring Festival. This created many great questions and wonderings about seasons, about why there is a difference on one side of the globe from the other, about what determines day and night (“Does the moon disappear at night? Why can you see the moon during the day, but not the sun still at night?”) and many other questions about where other countries and states are on the globe.  I love their curiosity!  I will be hunting down some books on planets and space and additional maps for them to explore!  If you have any old maps/atlases, we would love to borrow them!

Chinese New Year lands on February first this year and is the year of the Tiger.  In preparation for our weekly “travels to China” our class worked on packing our pretend suitcases (thinking about what we might need on a trip for different conditions) and worked together to help decorate and prepare our pretend airplane for the weekly flights.  So far we have flown to see the rice fields and how rice is grown and harvested. We also tired out using chopsticks and everyone took a pair home.  Our schedule has shifted a bit due to being out of school, but we look forward to exploring writing, traditional New Years foods, New Year traditions, parades, dress, the zodiac, and more! Our pretend center has shifted to a restaurant and the class has enjoyed preparing food for each other from a variety of Chinese Restaurant Menus donated to the class.  In years past we have also hosted a dragon parade for the school, but I am holding off on mentioning this yet in case it is not possible this year.

 

We are also very excited that our sliding hill is open! Students have done a wonderful job navigating their surroundings to be mindful of others, sharing and taking turns, coming up with creative ways to traverse up and sown the hill, trying new things, taking healthy risks, finding their bravery and sense of adventure, and working and playing together!  I LOVE watching them on the sledding hill!

 

Other Fun classroom happenings! Looking forward to returning back to the building now that our burst pipe is fixed! The kids are learning so much from each other every day! I am excited to see how much our bulbs have sprouted in our absence (new life for the new year) and to jump back in on a Wednesday (my favorite day!) with a return to YOGA, math games, and learning letters with Echo the owl!

 

 

Virtual Author and Illustrator visit with Ms. Rivers! We even tried out creating some directed drawings with her! They were so proud!  Thank you Ms. Rivers for helping to make this happen!

 

Due to hunting season this month, we were unable to venture out into the woods. This did not stop us from finding other creative ways to be with nature outside on Fridays!

Here are some pictures from our face creations made with found natural items

 

We collected pine cones around our campus and brought them back to our classroom to create tasty treats for the birds and squirrels.  We also explored many books about birds and squirrels and how they prepare for the change from fall to winter.

We went on a stick hunt and created jingle sticks with our finds! Another great activity for fine motor, hand-eye-coordination, patience, and helping each other out!  Our completed jingle sticks quickly became magic wands, swords, walking sticks, instruments, and so many other creative play ideas!

 

 

This December’s Winter Wonderland theme had us discussing and exploring the change of seasons from fall to winter.  What can we observe happening with the weather? The temperature? What changes can we observe happening to the trees? Why does it snow in winter? What is snow made out of? How does the change of the season change how we prepare for the school day and being outside? How do the animals prepare?  Many of these questions were also an important part of our discussions on Forest Fridays and will continue to be a focus into January!  This December was a bit warmer, but we are excited for all of the wonderful activities and changes that will come as winter progresses!  Here are a few pictures of some our snow theme activities.

This December we also explored what a folktale is, with a focus on various Gingerbread Folktales.  Did you know that different versions of the folktale The Gingerbread Man (or other Runaway Foods) can be found in almost every country around the world? With some versions going back many hundreds of years! We also looked at modern versions of the tale as well as new creative stories that feature runaway foods.  Our pretend center was transformed into a gingerbread house that students helped to decorate, and featured gingerbread playdough for us to play with.  We also decided that our gingerbread house would not include a wicked old lady, like in Hansel and Gretel, lol!   Before heading off for the winter break, we also created our own mini versions of gingerbread houses to take home! Deliciously creative way to work on fine motor (pincer grasp), problem solving, engineering, patience, perseverance, taking turns, hand-eye-coordination, and pride in a job well done!

This winter we will continue to explore families, communities, traditions, and identity.  We were thrilled to have Ezra, his sister Rose, and their mom Kate join us outside to teach us all about their Family Tradition of celebrating St Lucia Day in December.  Thank you for helping us to learn more about each other and celebrate the many different ways we are all alike and different!