What a short fun week we had! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your loved ones and got to enjoy some fun time outdoors with your little ones on our first snow of the season.

This week we gather together with all the children and said good bye to autumn, giving a big welcoming to winter! Using the book Mouse’s First Snow by Lauren Thompson, we got to discuss the different things we can do during the winter. This created conversations and some children got to express their favorite things to do during this new season. We LOVE watching your children grow and be able to put into words what they are thinking!

This week we also introduced painting on the easel. There are three main objectives of this exercise. First, the development of hand-eye coordination. Dipping the paintbrush in and out of the paint pot requires a steady hand and a keen eye, working simultaneously. Second, small motor control. Holding the paintbrush and whooshing it across the paper in the direction you want it to go is hard work when you’re small. Think of all the pre-writing skills they are learning just by holding the brush! Third, and I have to say my favorite goal, creative independence! There are no rules when it comes to painting. There is no predetermined product, just a process. The children can plan their own painting, from start to finish without any interference from adult rules or directions. The only thing they must remember is to paint only on the paper. Their sense of satisfaction after they finish their masterpiece is just incredible to witness!

Hand-eye coordination is one of the most important parts of the learning process. It helps your child track the movements of their hands with their eyes, which is essential for reading and decoding. Because your child also uses their visual system with hand-eye coordination, it can greatly impact their writing skills and handwriting as they use their eyes to guide, direct, and control their hand movements across the page as they write letters and words.

As we enter the holiday season new works have been introduced. Some of the favorites have been placing little ornaments onto the Christmas tree, placing candles on the Menorah, putting together the seasons puzzle, making gingerbread men with our homemade gingerbread playdough, transferring and spooning ornaments, and flipping pretend latkes in the pan.

For food tasting we explored and tasted clementines. The children loved it!

Some new books your children seemed to enjoy are: Hannukah Is Coming by Tract Newman, The Child In the Manger by Liesbet Slegers, and Germs Are Not For Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick.

As families across the U.S. are preparing for one of the biggest holidays of the year, our children have been preparing for the Thanksgiving festivities! This week we introduced the concept of color mixing to the children. Using coffee filters in the shape of maple leaves, children discovered that when mixing red and yellow we can create orange! Children were excited to see the water moving and creating new colors! There is tremendous joy that floods a child’s spirit when they discover a transformation happening in front of them. We love color mixing because it’s a process that helps to develop a love of learning. We can’t wait to discover new colors together!

We also had a great time baking our vegan banana bread. Children learned names of ingredients and had the opportunity to touch, smell, see, measure, and mix all the ingredients. We can’t wait to share the fruit of our work with other students in the FWM community at the sharing bread event in honor of Thanksgiving next week! We can’t wait as well to share a special time with our friends in the younger toddler room for our own Toddler Thanksgiving bash! It’s going to be epic! Stay tuned!

“Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas.” –Maria Montessori

One of the main advantages of our prepared environment is the opportunity for children to move freely! Children engage with the materials as long as they want and are able to choose activities that perfect different skills – all while they think they are just playing!

One of the most popular areas in our environment is the movement area. The children seem to love climbing the stairs and finding their reflection on the big mirror. They enjoy jumping on the trampoline, balancing, climbing and jumping from the balancing board, spinning in the bilibo seat, and carrying heavy objects or, better yet, carrying their peers around the classroom in our wagon. This week we also introduced oversized blocks for building and imagination. Children exercise their need for maximum effort through this work and it offers a great opportunity for problem solving and bonding with a peer.

In addition to this, our toddlers have access to the gym all week at different times! We are so thankful for it, since we truly are able to “follow the child” and adjust activities according to their needs without interrupting their work cycle. Children enjoy climbing and jumping on the mats. They love running as fast as they can! They also enjoy playing with the balls and learning the basics of soccer.

On another note, one of our most popular works this week was hammering golf tees into a pumpkin using a wooden mallet. They also enjoyed corn for food tasting. New vocabulary words such as corn kernels, husk, cob, and silk were introduced.

Children have a natural attraction to animals of all kinds. Research shows that humans’ innate interest in animals is biological: we are drawn to species that are “other” than human and in many cases have an instinct to want to care for or nurture creatures that are small and vulnerable. This week we introduced forest animals in our Language area. Through a concrete lesson and short, meaningful videos, children observed these animals in the forest and learned some specific facts about black bears, foxes, owls, moose, and beavers. We learned that black bears have sharp claws. They climb trees. Foxes have bushy tails. Foxes are members of the dog family. Owls have large eyes. They are active at night. Moose have a big body. Some of them have big antlers. Beavers have big front teeth. They have a broad tail. Beavers build dams using mud and wood. Using models to represent these animals, children repeated these facts to teachers and peers, practicing the use of two to three word sentences with the new descriptive vocabulary acquired.

Another highlight of this week was in the area of self-care in practical life. Children learned how to respectfully use a glass pitcher and serve themselves water in real glasses throughout the morning. In our environment we use porcelain and glass purposely. Their use empowers and allows children to use ‘real’ things, shows the children we trust and respect them, lets the children know that they are capable and that we respond to their abilities, and helps them develop their skills. We give them the opportunity to learn natural consequences: drop a glass and it will break. Children learn and adjust their movements to protect the fragility of their environment.

Needless to say, children were pretty hydrated this week since they found the activity quite attractive, and there were no broken glasses at all. Don’t be surprised if the water bottles start going back home quite full. This means your child is busy practicing this new skill.

For food tasting we introduced pomenagrates. As always, children were curious and excited! It was certainly a juicy experience and 98% of the class enjoyed every bit.

We All Go Traveling by Barefoot books, We All Sing With the Same Voice by J. Philip Miller, and The Thankful Book by Todd Parr were the books most requested this week!

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 14th, from 6:00-7:00 pm.