This week we enjoyed reading “Over in the Arctic” and acting like our favorite arctic animals. The book mimics the song “Over in the Meadow” and the children enjoyed howling like arctic wolves, hopping like arctic hares, growling like wolverines and so on. We read a story about an Inuit child and her mother “Mama Do You Love Me?” and our afternoon students enjoyed two Inuit legends, “A Promise is a Promise” and “Ka-Ha-Si & The Loon.” We are also working on a poem/fingerplay called “5 Little Inuit.”

On Tuesday morning we used white paint and glue to make puffy snow pictures. They came out great!

During music we did the cross-over dance. We put different colored stickers on oppositte hands and feet and the children had to reach down and cross over their body to match up the colors. This helps the children work on crossing mid-line, which is a developmental skill. It was also a great way to get moving (and anything that involves stickers is met with enthusiasm).

We also revisited some favorites such as, the “Mexican Hat Dance” and “The Rattlin Bog.”

We enjoyed a great Spanish lesson on Tuesday and on Thursday our older children worked on spelling out animal names in Spanish with our Movable Alphabet.

Lots of great work has been going on in the class! Our 3 year olds are naming/matching colors, shapes and numbers. We are working on our phonetic sounds and matching items to letters. Our older children were very busy this week! We had one child complete a geography map and another make a paper mache dragon. On Thursday we learned about static electricity and enjoyed using balloons to pick up sand, shredded paper and our hair!

Many of the children are enjoying our Metal Inset work. The Metal Insets are a wonderful excercise that are used for direct prepartation for handwriting.

The first step is simply tracing the shape of the inset and learning to hold a pencil. Over time, the children begin to master the movements to make a continuous solid line around the inset. Then, variations can be added, such as adding lines or designs inside the shape. Many of our children choose to pin punch out the shape after, which is more great fine motor work. This attention to detail helps your child develop those precise, intricate movements needed for handwriting. It’s also one of the most enjoyed activities in the classroom.

“My children thus perfect themselves in writing without writing.” Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child

We are still collecting milk jugs! Please keep sending them in!