This week we listened to, “Some Friends to Feed” which is a version of Stone Soup told and sung by Pete Seeger. The children love singing along, “Stone Soup is what you need, when you have some friends to feed. Step right up with what you got and add it all to the big soup pot!” We are comparing and contrasting all of our Stone Soup stories. We’ve had some good discussions about what is the same throughout all the stories and what is unique to each story.

We’ve been working on our Grace and Courtesy lessons at circle and in small groups. We are practicing how to greet one another, how to say “excuse me” when you need to move around someone and how to sit down and stand up quietly. We are also practicing walking around others work, pushing in chairs and rolling our work mats correctly.

“Grace and Courtesy lessons” is the term given to learning social skills in the Montessori environment. Maria Montessori believed that between the ages 2 1/2 -6, the child is in a sensitive period (when it is easy for a child to acquire a certain ability) for the learning of good manners. We present the lessons as role playing excercises in small groups or at circle. We may model how to carefully walk around another’s work and then any child who would like to, is invited to try it themselves.

We also enjoyed making some art projects this week. On Tuesday we made food color paintings by blowing through straws to move the food coloring around and on Wednesday they made collages with dried rice, beans, corn and peas.

Stone Soup day is Novemeber 24th. Please remember to send in a vegetable that your child can help wash and prepare for the soup by Tuesday, November 23rd.