Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful holiday break and you got some relaxation and meaningful time with your families! We are thankful for all of you and for the joy your wonderful children bring to our lives! What an honor it is to see them growing and blooming right before our eyes! We want to thank you also for your generosity through your gifts and encouraging words! Ms. Lizette, Ms. Maria and I love partnering with you through this adventure!

Your children transitioned peacefully after the break and they arrived eager and ready to explore the environment and all the new works on the shelves. For the next month we will focus on our Winter studies, using water as a main object for conversations and sensorial experiences. This week we introduced one of the conditions of water that is truly magical: snowflakes. Children learned that even though snowflakes have in common symmetry and a hexagonal structure, the detailed structures of the snowflakes are totally different. I can’t stop thinking how the individuality of a snowflake is parallel to human life. Each one of your children are so unique and so precious and we are grateful we are able to “contemplate” them as they grow and continue to share their beauty.

At the end of the week, children enjoyed choosing their favorite stencil to paint their own snowflake, not forgetting the magical touch of glitter as the last detail.

Another highlight of this week was the addition of the rocking moose and the slide to our climbing structure. There is a sense of exhilaration in the life of a child when using slides, no matter how big or small they are. Apart from promoting balance, coordination, and spatial awareness, this exercise promotes positive social skills. Children learn to play together and take turns. Children learn to be patient and tolerant and they increase their communication skills.

As part of our Enrichment of Vocabulary curriculum we added opposites to our language works. It’s so great to see your children purposely observing and verbally communicating while enjoying finding the matching opposite cards.

For food tasting children seem to enjoy using all their senses in the exploration of a beet! Its leaves looked like hair for some of the children and the roots of it were fun to touch. Most of the children were not too enthusiastic about tasting this food, but at least some of them liked it and asked for more!

As we continue to enjoy our winter season, please make sure your child brings a labeled bag with winter gear inside. This includes: snow pants, waterproof mittens with mittens clips, snow boots, winter hat and winter jacket. Feel free to leave it in your child’s locker as we will use it, weather permitting.

And just like that, our first trimester comes to an end, filled with great moments and stories to tell. Your children have grown a little bit more and we feel honored to be able to see them unfolding so beautifully. Thank you for all your support and trust. We love partnering with you in this adventure.

May the holiday season fill your home with joy, your heart with love, and your life with laughter.

May 2020 be a great year for all of us!

Enjoy the fun pictures from our Pajama Holiday celebration!

See you next year! 🙂

Winter holidays are used in our environment as a fun way to keep children engaged, encourage joy of learning, and help us to introduce the passage of time and seasons. Since they bring a sense of light and joyfulness to the long, dark winter months and create a sense of community, we welcome them wholeheartedly. Peacefulness and purposeful work using the holiday materials is something you can observe when entering the environment! As children are growing, their concentration does too. It’s such a gift to be able to witness this!

This week children had fun learning a new song, Candle Chase by Lauren Berkner, in honor of Hanukkah. Through this song they practiced using their fingers for counting. They really enjoy it! Their faces also glowed when hearing the song Jingle Bells, so much, that organically they paired with a friend to dance and have a good time!. As we continued learning Spanish, children also practiced the song Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano. What a blast!

We introduced cauliflower as food tasting, and even though this food didn’t receive a thundering ovation, we were joyful as some students kept asking for more and more.

We can’t wait for our holiday pajama celebration next week! Please feel free to send your child in pajamas on Thursday, December 19th and thank you in advance for all your support to make this happen!

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.

Practical life activities present themselves as a highly logical, sequential chain of activities that indirectly lead the child to grander things.

During the last few weeks your child has been gradually learning how to independently use materials in the environment. One example of this is found in our practical life area where children have been practicing transferring and pouring different sized dried objects, in addition to many other exercises. This week we were excited to introduce a new fun activity, one that your toddlers seem to really enjoy, transferring water. Working with water is a great sensory experience and is a good exercise for their hand muscles and fine motor skills. We can’t wait to present all the wonderful works that require water and to watch the children freely and respectfully using these activities in our environment.

In language, children were attracted to a new work called the mystery basket. This is a preliminary exercise for reading. Through this peek game children label objects in the environment. On this occasion we used objects that we usually use in our kitchen. Words such as: whisker, masher, strainer, ladle, pitcher, and strawberry huller were introduced. Children observed, touched, and learned the use of each tool. We hope you can reinforce the use of these vocabulary words by inviting your child to cook with you and show them how you use these tools in your daily lives.

For food tasting, children enjoyed the flesh of a roasted pumpkin. They also enjoyed roasted pumpkin seeds! Most of them liked the pumpkin flesh but ALL of them loved the roasted seeds! We encourage  you to  incorporate this yummy snack at home with your children! They truly devoured them!

We hope all of you that celebrated, had a wonderful Halloween!