Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hello, everyone! 

I hope that you are having a great holiday break. I just want to wish everyone a great start to the new year. I hope you all only the best!

See you next year! 

Always,

Ms. Guerrero

Rey shared about their family's holiday celebration of the 3 Kings

We also had some breathing exercises!

Thank you, rey for coming by!

Ollie made her felted soap to give to her family.

Drying the felted soaps

More soap making...

More soap making...

Felted soap to give to our families.

We bid Amelia goodbye! Her family is moving to the suburbs.

We sold post cards for charity!

Our family present for the holidays

Family Holiday Celebration!

Party on!

Thank you everyone!

Polar express hot chocolate, popcorn and chips!

Happy Holidays!

The first gift of Christmas!!!

Gingerbread cookie decorating

Happy Kwanzaa!

Hello, Room 101!

Last week was another fun and exciting one! We celebrated Kwanzaa by reading several books gathered from our EC teachers. We usually plan our weekly lessons together (via Google Docs). It helps us unify the key themes and foundational lesson in EC. Of course, each teacher add their own to each lesson but we try to stay the same with our units. Our scope and sequence was carefully planned over the summer by all of us.

Back to our Kwanzaa celebration... our children discussed the different candles that make up the Kinara. Even though we don't have a Kinara in the classroom, we made bracelets that represent each candle. The children also made their own Mkeka mat to take home to use to place corn and fruits on. We also practiced saying the Swahili saying, "Habari gani" ("What's the news?").


We also had our school's Winter Recital last week. Congratulations to all of our students and performers! They all showcased their talents very well.

Santi made his Mkeka mat

Some of the books we read for Kwanzaa

Stefan and Julieta made their Kinara bracelets

Winter labeled her North America map

She also charted some of the migrating animals that we learned about!!!

We made our sugar cookie batter at morning work time.

Our students made their own cookie to eat at Sunset meeting.

Our students made their own cookie to eat at Sunset meeting.

Our students made their own cookie to eat at Sunset meeting.

Isabella showed of her work.

Nicholas concentrated on the Eyedropper work.

The kindergarteners and the animal research work using the Moveable Alphabet!

Roy and Tyler researched about turtles.

Ms. Castillo's discussion during Sunset meeting.

Room 101 is ready for the Winter Recital!

Some of the performances...

Some of the performances...

Oona created a watercolor postcard to sell for charity.

 

Isabella made one herself.

Sandy came out to play!

The cube of 5 (Long Chains)

  

Maya and Winter counter the cube of 5 chain.

Happy Hanukkah!

Last week, we started our celebrations around the world lessons. The first celebration we discussed was Hanukkah. The children loved learning so many things about this celebration! Some of our friends in the classroom celebrate at home and they shared traditions they have in their families. At school, we played with dreidels, read books, lit our menorah and ate latkes! Each child came home with their own dreidel as well! =)

In the following weeks, we will be exploring other holiday traditions. Our students celebrate Kwanzaa, Las Posadas and Christmas as well. Ms. Castillo and I have so much in store for the children to experience these holidays. We are hoping to widen our students' (and ours!!!) perspective and respect towards all celebrations. 

“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” 
― Maria Montessori

Ms. Castillo and I hope that through these activities, our children will widen their perspective of the world around them. We wish that they find differences and similarities to celebrate among others!

Peace and love. 

Come light the menorah!

Mark Anthony counted the 4 Short Chain

Maps, maps, maps

Thank you Ann for reading to our class!

Haylie and James worked on sounding out letters.

Isabella and Lea played with the I Spy game (initial "Tt" sound)

Ariana sorted different sizes of pompoms.

Oona: "These are the doctors and these are the babies."

RJ explored the Dreidel work. 

Julieta made a counting books to extend the Spindle Box work.

Maddox made melon balls for snack.

Sebastian did the same! =)

Our baguettes from the sharing basket became hard before we needed to use them for soup. So we chopped them up and made...

Bread pudding!

My son, Eli bought the class a book from the Book fair and read it to the class.

Kindergarten students shared their stories before writing them during Writer's Workshop.

Santi composed numbers (quantities) to the 1000s! 

Mark Anthony and Solomon worked on the 9 Layout.

Winter and Sophia finished their North America maps. They will chart different animal migration patterns using them.

E2 students from 211 helped our class grate potatoes for our latkes.

We talked about the importance of the oil in frying the latkes and how it represented the little oil that lasted 8 days. It's the Hanukkah miracle!

Do you like latkes with apple sauce or sour cream?

Sophia and Maya is practicing adding numbers to the 1000s!

Roy worked on the Snake game.

Dreidels for everyone!