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!
