The snow has finally melted on our playground and the outdoor garden offers something new for everyone. Children have been exploring mud, sticks and most importantly the sun! To help your youngsters enjoy the outdoors please send sunscreen, hat and water bottles!

Last month Orsi returned to our classroom and provided inspiring and educating information about artists and their works including Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, The Water-Lily Pond by Claude-Oscar Monet and Ballerinas by Edgar Degas. We read about artists, explore their paintings and made an art project reflecting it. Thank you Orsi.

“It is winter, I can tell
By sights I see and scents I smell
Flavors I taste and sounds I hear …"
Thank you Jessamine, for working on the song and incorporating some of the ideas the children came up with as well as some of what we've been doing together in the classroom. Children have been using various seasonal works as well as revisiting different sensorial activities. We are going to continue with the winter theme by making a 'coffee bear', twisting lemons to make and taste lemonade, grind cinnamon sticks and more.

Thank you for all the Stone Soup contributions and for the classroom gifts. We are going to use every singe gift this season by decorating our classroom with paper chains, using the new rolling pin to make pierogies, beginning sewing projects, working with yarn and more. Kindergarteners have special assignments and problems to solve together. Sometimes children ask for more challenging work, sometimes they are tired and ask for more restful activities and we are learning about the importance of taking breaks during long periods of concentration in a Montessori environment.

I am very excited to start my second year at MMS. I look forward to another year of cooperative learning, endless silence games, a peaceful environment and studying about many different countries. Art class started this week and will take place once a week on Wednesdays between 1-2Pm. Thank you Orsi! If your child is not at school during that time, don’t worry. Art is always intermingled with the various studies in the classroom with theme-related work such as Solar System (current). In the Art area your child will find similar art materials available for individual exploration.

The children have been introduced to new work and experiments around the beach ever since they got back from the short vacation break. Inspired by some travels we discussed the beach children brought in some treasures and have been given time to explore. To make the lesson more interesting we made ocean waves for the science project. We have discussed shells as homes for some animals and what kind of homes we live in. The children have been very creative and have made a lot of good observations and comparisons.

We are practicing songs for Grandparent’s Day. Please remember to call and RSVP for this event. In addition to a short singing performance and sharing of classroom activities, we plan to make chewy oats circles to share with our guests.

Children are ready for the Spring. They have asked “How come it snows in Spring? We are making Spring related projects for art, including a sun project recently finished. In the upcoming weeks we will do egg painting and flower work. Thank you Jen!

Hopefully everyone has been doing lots of fun things during the school vacation. While the children were away we prepared some new activities in the classroom: button sewing or grinding activity. Children use mortar and pestle to grind and then they place breadcrumbs in a bird feeder.

One of our favorite winter games is a “melt an ice cube”. We play and observe how long it will take to melt our ice. Children take different actions and we play until the ice melt.

We are studying animals of the Polar Regions. From musk ox to penguins, the children are fascinated with it.

January is such a great time for us. We discussed how water comes in three forms (a gas, a solid, a liquid); we looked at many different animal tracks and we are going on a nature walk and will try to find animal tracks. Lexi, Linnaea’s mom, offered to come in sometime in the next few weeks to lead the primary class on a tracking walk in the woods behind the school. The trip is planned for 10:30AM-11: 30AM. Be ready!

Thank you for all stone soup contributions. It is now time to think about the winter season. We started with the making snowboard project. Thank you to Lincoln and Flor Smith for the inspiration and help making them.

Every Wednesday we learn a new Japanese word with Yoko and make an art project with Jen. Kids love it.