By Ms Melissa

Today we did a fun project with the portraits that I took of the kids yesterday. We printed them and cut them in half, we choose the colors they saw in the picture and drew the half that was missing. The children who were not in class yesterday made the portrait project from yesterday. Nice work kiddos!

By Ms Melissa

Greetings! Glad to be back after a restful break. A huge part of the Reggio Emilia philosophy is projects that are revisited throughout the year. The children really connected to the self portraits we did in September and they still talk about them, so I thought this might be a good think to reconnect with and build upon. The children enjoyed our discussion of a portrait being just a picture of your head and shoulders. I also took a portrait picture of each of them so they could look at them before we got started. These are beautifu!!

By Miss Melissa

Today we made some fun Christmas tree lacing cards and read lots of Christmas stories. Miss Kathy came and we danced, played games and went sledding. Fun times were had by all ;) Happy Holidays to all of you.. See you next week.

By Miss Melissa

Today we baked cookies with Jade's mother Alex.mthe children did a fabulous job, as always, cooperating and helping. Then we visited the charter school for library story time. When we returned we had lunch and SANTA came in to visit! Then before rest time we listened to some holiday music while we shared the cookies baked in the AM. Wow what a day!

By Miss Melissa

Today we talked about Poland with miss Kathy, played some Polish games and did some Polish dancing. Then we headed outside to do obstacle courses in the snow with our charter school buddies. Always a blast to spend the morning with miss Kathy!!

By Miss Melissa

Today Peter's au pair Lena came in to share with us about holiday customs in Germany. She told us about Christmas traditions as well as St. Nicholas who comes earlier in December and leaves candy and small presents in the childrens shoes. Lena was delightful and captivated the interest of all the children. Thank you Lena.

By Miss Melissa

Today we took a look at the traditions of Hanukkah which begins this week on Wednesday. The children made menorahs and pretend to cook latkes in the play kitchen. We spun the dreidel and talked about lighting the menorah candles on each night of the celebration.

By Miss Melissa

Today we made some roll out sugar cookies. The children all took turns preparing the dough, cutting out the cookies and sprinking on the colored sugar. It is so much fun to see them all patiently wait their turns and help each other!! After lunch we all sampled one :) Yumm!! Tastes like the holidays.

By Miss Melissa

Today we had our first official day of PE with Miss Kathy and we visited the charter school to play some games with the big kids! We talked a little about the Santa Lucia celebration of light in Sweden and played some Swedish games. What a fun and exiting day!!

By Miss Melissa

Today we talked about Diwali, the celebration of light, and the new year in India. The children made deepa lamps, or dayas from clay similar to those that are lit using oil to light the dark days of winter during the Diwali celebration. I was unable to get any action shots today but took a few of the finished project. When the deepas are dry we will put candles in them so the children can light them at home.