Week of January 6- 9

Welcome back to school!!! We hope that everyone had a lovely break! There was so much enthusiasm in the classroom this week and so many faces glad to be back among friends and exploring new works, while re-exploring familiar activities. The weather was so lovely on Thursday that we all decided to take a walk through our neighborhood, culminating in a visit to Starbucks for some hot cocoa. While we sat drinking our steaming cups and singing songs, a local merchant from Art for the Nations came out and gave everyone a gift bag of marbles...WOW. We came back to class in time to celebrate Addie's fourth birthday! Happy Birthday Addie!
Could we have had more fun? It's difficult to imagine how.
We look forward to the week ahead, while celebrating the week past with some photos:






Looking Ahead:
Mark your calendars, Mother's Night will be on Wed. January 14 from 6-7.
There is no school on January 19th.
Announcements:
We are looking for a few supplies:
Some photos of geese,
goose feathers,
and anything goose related (but not Mother Goose).
Thank you so much and we'll see you again next week!

A New Book

We have a new book called, Why Is It Getting Darker Outside? Please click here to view it online or come inside to view it in person. It is filled with beautiful theories formulated by your children in response to the question of, "Why are the nights getting longer and the days getting shorter?". If you are interested in purchasing a book please see Angelina. We are waiting to place an order until there is a deal or discount with the publishing program.
Thank you.

Snowy December Days

At last we have snow on the playground!
It brings opportunities to play in many new ways...

Shoveling...Building snowmen...Playing hide and seek...and making snowballs.Inside we are still enjoying the scientific inquiry of color mixing and the wonderful colors that fill our fishbowl at the end of the day (don't fret it is fish-free environment).

There are several new class works in honor of the various celebrations and holidays that open the door to winter.Like this menorah puzzle.And let's not overlook all the traditionally Montessori activities that always permeate the work cycle.Like matching number rods and numerals at a distance. There is always time to help a friend with an art activity

or to just make some music.
It was another wonderful week in Ward-Hobbs PM.
Announcements:
The father's night was a big success and we will post some pictures next week.
Hannah's mom and Nanny came on Thursday to make gingerbread men with the class---Thank you, thank you Erin and Kelly, they loved it.
Our classroom is happily decorated with handmade chains, garlands and snowflakes that the students proudly made. Please come in to take a peek.
The weather has turned cold so please make sure we have an extra set of weather appropriate clothing for your child and take home any shorts or summery attire. Thank you.

Looking ahead:
Winter Break is fast approaching. There will be no school December 19th-January 5th. Classes resume on the 6th.
Mama's save the date for Mother's Night on January 14th from 6-7:00PM.

Thanks again for the opportunity to work with and learn from your children,
Angelina, Shannon and Belle.

Week of Harvest

Grandparents day and some celebratory stone soup...
It just doesn't get much better than that. On Monday we chopped carrots and reenacted the story of stone soup, adding the ingredients they brought from home (hint: there is a book in the making so keep on the look out, Angelina is busy putting it together). The story of Stone Soup centers around the power of sharing and the happiness that unfolds when we open our hearts, doors and cupboards to the people that surround us.

On Tuesday our classroom filled with some very special friends and hummed with loving activity, shared food and laughter. It was a truly glorious celebration to kick off the Harvest celebrations.
The students enjoyed sharing some of their familiar activity's with some of their favorite people.The pink tower...
Sharing some soup...

Having fun on the playground...

With a captive and adoring audience...cheering from the sidelines...
And when the day was done we all understood the meaning of happiness and the joys of sharing.


Here is the recipe if you would like to make our soup at home:

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 small zucchini, sliced
• 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomato
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce OR V-8 juice
• 1 (15-ounce) can small white beans or cannellini beans
• 1 (10 ounces) box, cut frozen green beans OR 1 can of cut green beans
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup fresh basil, torn or shredded
• Grated Parmigiano or Romano, to pass at table
• 3 small stones (provided by the teachers
• Place each ingredient (except the cheese) into a crock pot, cook on high for 1 hour and on low all day. Serve with crusty bread and sprinkle cheese. Enjoy (This dish tastes best when shared).

Remember, conferences are scheduled for December 4th and 5th, we look forward to seeing you then.
There will be no blog post next week, due to the shortened week.
See you again soon and Happy Harvest to everyone!
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THE UNTERMYER'S FOR THE FABULOUS BISQUITS!!!!

November 16-20 2008

The unseasonably warm and beautiful weather continued (through Wednesday) and the great outdoors beckoned, inviting us outside to play beneath the sunny skies, flip flops and all!

Our new playground balls are a big hit. Prompting a wide array of play, even the occasional game of basket ball... with a few modifications.

Inside, the classroom has been a hive of activity.
Many of our students have become interested in the continent map.
The first step in this map making process is to punch/poke each of the 7 continents out of colored construction paper. Next, we paint the watery backdrop onto which the 7 continents will be carefully placed, glued and labeled. This map making process takes great concentration, hand skill and patience.

There's so much to do!

There's scrubbing a mammoth...

or discovering the beauty of the written word,

exploring designs with the Red Rods in the Sensorial area...

and checking to see if the indian headress fits...

or even making colored sand and pouring it into layers in small jars.

And when the day is done we still have time to reflect on all that has transpired, and pose the quintessential question...
"Do you really think it's going to snow??"

We'll just have to wait and see.
Looking Ahead
We will be making Stone Soup on Monday December 24th. Many of you have already signed up to bring in ingredients, but if you haven't please check the sign up sheet and choose one.
Grandparents Day is scheduled for 12:30 on November 25th. We are looking forward to it and the students are eager to share their soup with these very special people.
There will be no school on November 26th thru November 30th.
Conferences are scheduled for December 5th and 6th. There will be no school on these days.

November is upon us!

We can't believe it's November! As we move through Autumn we continue to explore our enjoyment of cooking. Angelina popped corn at circle and discussed harvest time and foods that we like to eat during Fall celebrations, like Thanksgiving.
One of our morning mom's collected the season's last grapes from our arbor and treated both Ward Hobbs classes to the fun of making jelly! This time of year we bring seasonal items into the classroom for the children to enjoy. Tweezing kernals of indian corn has sparked lots of interest among the children. In addition, this activity boosts finger muscle strength and eye/hand coordination.



The "45 layout" shows how we use concrete materials, the golden beads, to illustrate the concept of place value in the decimal system. The child counts out unit beads from 1 to 9 then shifts to a column of 10 bars counting by tens from 10 to 90. The hundred squares follow showing quantities 100 to 900 and finally thousand cubes from 1000 to 9000. It is a spectacular display when complete and children marvel at their own effort and ability and at these fascinating numbers they are beginning to understand.
Here is a new and very popular color mixing work showing how yellow and blue mix to make green.
Seeing the two colors come together is truly magical for the children. We would do well to take note of their sense of wonder and discovery at what may seem obvious to us as adults. This week we had visits from 2 toddlers who will be joining our class in the near future. Our veteran preschoolers were gracious and generous in showing them around the environment and helping them feel comfortable and welcome.
We love our readers who come in to spend time with us!




Learning together...

And finally we are grateful for the beautiful weather we've had this week. It's a great time to be outside playing together before the snow flies!

Coming up...
Harvest Celebration
Our students have been talking about the harvest season and how we would like to celebrate it as a class. Please look for a handout outlying our plans.
November 25th at 12:30 PM is Grandparents Day!
There will be no school November 26-29 for the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Conferences are being scheduled for December 4-5.
Whew!
Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the first flakes of snow winding their way to the Earth, we'll see you on Monday.

November 3rd- 7th

Well another week has come and gone and this time you will be astonished to note... there isn't a posting (well unless you count this announcement as such). It was a short and full week so, after some discussion on the point, we decided to postpone our next dance until Friday the 14th.
Until then,
Angelina, Shannon and Belle