Friends!

Good evening families!

We had a great week learning about friends! We learned the sign for friend, which is done by hooking your pointer fingers together so that one pointer is hooked over the other, and then hooking them together again so that the pointer from the other hand is on top. We also sang “Little white box, ” which goes: “If I had a little white box to put my Julia in, I’d take her  out and (make kissing noise three times) mwa, mwa, mwa, and share her with my friends.” And then we would go on to the next child. The kids love kissing their hands and it’s another fun way for them to learn their friend’s names.

We read “Nobunny’s Perfect,” which is a book about bunnies who sometimes have trouble remembering to share and be kind to their friends. It talks about sharing and saying please and thank you and being gentle with our friends. As you may have noticed, we have been having lots of playdates in our room as we get ready for transitions in the new school year. Colette, Rye, Hank, Matilda, Lila, and Juliette are some of the friends who will be joining us in the New Year.

On Monday we did a group painting project where we covered one of our tables in butcher paper and let the kids use crayons and paints to cover the paper as they liked. We worked on sharing space with our friends as we tried to fill up the whole paper with color!

On Tuesday we joined hands and played “Ring Around the Rosies.” Everyone did a great job working together as a group, and they had a blast doing it! On Wednesday we worked on a special, secret painting project using water colors.

On Thursday the children brought in special toys from home and we worked on sharing these with our friends. Although it was very difficult for some of the children to let go of what they brought, they did all let their friends take turns touching and looking at their toys.

On Friday we had our first cooking project with Mr. Mike. He read a story about Hanukah and, after examining a whole potato, the children helped mix up some latkes. And of course they enjoyed eating them too! The children have also really been enjoying their Spanish class. They have been hearing about different animals and learning the animal's names and sounds in Spanish!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! This is our last week before we break for the holidays and we will be focusing on culture. We would love to hear about your family’s holiday traditions!

<3 Magdalen