Is it true? How’s it possible!? Are we really a couple of days away from ending our school year? It seems like yesterday when we welcomed the toddlers into our classroom! Your children have been working like busy bees from day one and have challenged themselves in every way. We couldn’t be more proud to see how much each of them has accomplished in different areas, one being great social-emotional development. It’s incredible to see the type of friendships born between them and how socialization has started to be very important to them. This is a great sign of growth!

At the beginning of the school year, it is usual to see a lot of toddlers parallel playing… children are aware of other little human beings around them, but they are not interested in really connecting with them. They might look into each other’s eyes, but as their thinking is still so concrete, they just seem more interested in the “little ball” with the nice color that moves, so it’s logical they decide to explore it. This is what we usually call: poking each other’s eyes. It’s common to see a toddler curiously trying to explore another child’s face with their index finger and the other toddler thinking he is just receiving something to taste. Yeap! We call that one finger biting! Ouch!

Thankfully the connection has developed, and as they have matured, it’s now common to see the children waiting for their friends at the door, inviting each other to play together, having logical conversations, joking and making each other laugh, hugging and verbally expressing their affection for each other. Amigos are the best!

As we enjoyed the last few days together as a little family, we spent quality time outdoors this week singing, walking, running, building, digging, chasing each other, laying in the sun, talking, and exploring nature. We also explored peas for food tasting!

We can’t wait for all the fun planned for the next few days. Thursday, 6/8, is our Toddler’s Water Day, and we will have our Crossing the Bridge ceremony on Wednesday, 6/14. Please refer to the email sent with all the instructions.

We wish you a beautiful weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Marissa

In a world filled with distractions, developing concentration and focus is becoming increasingly challenging for young children. Sensorial works in Montessori education promote the development of these essential skills. Toddlers engage in activities that require sustained attention, such as sorting objects by size or shape, arranging objects in a specific order, completing puzzles, and more. These tasks demand concentration, enabling toddlers to develop their ability to focus for extended periods, a skill that will benefit them in all areas of life.

As we continued our studies of birds this week, the children received a lesson on the birds’ calls and songs. Children are learning to identify each bird sound through a fun work where the children press a button, hear the bird, and have to match the picture card with the sound. As every work in our environment has a control of error built within it, the child has the opportunity to self-correct by matching the color dot behind the card to the color of the button, helping the child to match the sound to the correct bird. As children practice this work, they will learn to identify the birds just by listening, and they won’t need to look at the back of the card anymore to be successful. To say that this has been a big favorite work is an understatement! It has been precious observing the children taking the time to listen carefully and observe the details of the birds’ pictures. We hope you can take time with your toddler around your backyard and listen to some birds singing! Your toddler might surprise you by recognizing the name of the bird!

In our language area, we have added a wooden family house. This is an excellent platform for enhancing a child’s cognitive abilities. As toddlers manipulate the house’s dolls, furniture, and accessories, they improve their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Additionally, arranging the furniture, organizing the rooms, and categorizing the items encourage logical thinking and spatial awareness. This work also stimulates imagination, creativity, language development, emotional intelligence, and social interaction. This is definitely a favorite work in our environment these days.

For food tasting, we explored a delicious plum, and it got 99% of likeness! I am confident we can still convince our one friend who didn’t want to try it! 😉

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Marissa

The time we all were waiting for finally arrived! Our beautiful butterflies emerged, took time to strengthen their wings, and enjoyed the well-prepared environment your little ones created for them. Children enjoyed watching the butterflies walking around and using their long tongues to taste the fruits we provided. When the time came, we gathered together in the butterfly garden and opened the glass doors! We could almost sense the butterflies’ excitement as they felt the sun and the wind and immediately started to flap their wings. One flew high as soon we opened the doors, while the other three seemed a little shy. I grabbed a little stick and offered it to them. After a couple of seconds, the butterflies decided to fly, bringing smiles and laughter to your children while fulfilling their purpose as butterflies.

This activity always brings so many emotions for us as guides! In just a couple of weeks, our school year will be over, and as we reflect on the butterflies flying away, we realize that, as with those tiny caterpillars,  we have observed and enjoyed every change in your children’s lives during this year! They have grown so much! It has brought so much joy to our lives to step back and observe how independent, confident, and capable your children have become. Like the butterflies brought so much joy to your children, your little ones have brought so much joy to us, and we are so incredibly thankful to you for trusting us with them. Soon it will be time to open the “glass doors” and watch them fly, and we are so sure each one of them is going to spread their wings and fly high!

On another note and continuing our bird studies, this week, children got to be little ornithologists learning the parts of a bird (head, chest, wing, tail, and legs). They also got to observe, feel and smell the type of food birds eat and learn some names like sunflowers seeds, millet, corn, and wheat as they prepared the bird feeder for our classroom.

As a fun sensorial activity, the children worked on a little art project creating colorful binoculars, and we went for a walk, spotting some beautiful birds.

Lastly, the children enjoyed some cherries as our weekly food-tasting lesson!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Hood and Ms. Marissa

Reminder: As the weather gets warmer, please apply sunscreen to your child before school.

Your children continue to observe patiently how our very hungry caterpillars fulfill  their metamorphosis process and become beautiful painted lady butterflies! They have already witnessed how these tiny caterpillars have grown, climbed up, positioned themselves upside down and how quickly they had made their chrysalis.

At some moments the children seem to despair a bit because the butterflies are not coming out so this has been a great opportunity to talk and reflect about the importance of waiting and being patient. The children have helped to collect nature items to decorate our glass house and prepare the environment for when the butterflies emerge. We might come back on Monday to find butterflies out of their chrysalis but we are having our fingers crossed for them to wait and give the VIP show to the children next week. Regardless of what happens, we can’t wait for next week!

To reinforce this special life cycle lesson, the children have learned a new song and since it has been loved  by your children, we want to share it with you at the end of this note, so you can rock it at home and watch your children dance to it. We hope you enjoy watching them dance to this song as much as we do everyday!

While waiting and waiting, children also had the opportunity to learn  about the life cycle of another fascinating insect: the ant! Eggs, larva, pupa and ant were some of the names they learned this week and children repeated over and over.

We also initiated our studies on birds. Cardinal, blue jay, robin, woodpecker, oriole, indigo bunting, warbler, house sparrow and goldfinch are some of the names you will hear often in our environment. We can’t wait to dig into this unit as a class!

For food tasting we explored some crunchy celery and even though it wasn’t a big favorite some children really enjoyed it! At home, I invite you to spread some sun butter on top of it and add some raisins to create “ants on a log” and watch your toddler enjoy this vegetable even more!

To all of you, beautiful mamas: Happy Mother’s day! Without you, we wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do!

Enjoy the weekend,

Mrs. hood and Ms. Marissa