The Caterpillar classroom started our new school year with eight students! We began our year studying the parts of the Caterpillar, making Caterpillar art and reading lots of books about Caterpillars! We reviewed all the routines and classroom rules and got our classroom jobs (pencil sharpener, shelf checker, calendar, etc.). In Language, we studied/reviewed rhyming words, beginning sounds and blending sounds to read. In Math, we studied/reviewed counting to 100, 1:1 correspondence to 10 and above and writing our numbers. We began our study of North America, talking about the animals and making animal books, coloring maps and landmarks. We are now studying apples, their varieties, parts of the apple and will be doing apple tasting.

Upcoming studies include Autumn and Seasons, Living and Non-Living things, Plants and Animals, and Air, Land and Water, including our Language, Math, Practical Life, and Sensorial curriculum.

This month we celebrated birthdays: Avery, Luki, Willie, Otto, and Elliot! We also had Hat Day, Pajama Day and Beach Day! We said good-byes to children heading to Kindergarten and beyond and welcomed some “soon-to-be” Ladybugs to Bumblebee!

This blog post we shine the light on our weekly yoga practice with Roxanna! She has written a post about what the children are practicing in this session.

Light Shine Yoga

Hi parents! It’s an honor and pleasure to be with your children and teach them yoga; I love seeing their progress each week as they develop their strength, concentration and balance. For this 10 week series, we are working on a Warrior sequence, which includes conversations about how a warrior develops inner strength and focus to stay grounded and present to all of life’s invitations and challenges. Our sequence includes a particularly beautiful posture called “Humble Warrior” which the kids practice with particular reverence. It is absolutely heart opening to see these kiddos bowing down in humble warrior.

Speaking of heart opening, we have been practicing a particular pranayam* and mudra** lately. It is called “Heart Breath” and we start the class this way along with our usual Namaste. In Heart Breath, each child is invited to sit comfortably, place their hands on their heart and close their eyes. We take a deep inhale and on the exhale, send love to our hearts and bodies. For the second round, I invite each child to think of somebody they love (e.g. their mom or dad, a sibling, a grandparent, etc.) and take a deep inhale. On that exhale, I ask the children to imagine sending love to that special person. For the third and final heart breath, I ask the children to imagine something/someone (e.g. relative, friend, animal, tree, earth) that might appreciate some extra love and on that third inhale/exhale, they send love to wherever they chose. It has been incredibly sweet to hear the impromptu sharings of the kids telling me who or what they chose to send love to.

I invite you to try this Heart Breath practice at home with your children. It’s a wonderful way to come to stillness, be in the present moment and it can relieve tension and stress. Yoga is a wonderful thing to incorporate at any age, and it’s such a gift to be introduced to yoga and meditation as a child, because they are all such natural yogis! Maria Montessori was a big proponent of children using their bodies: “Movement, or physical activity, is an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas.”

Namaste,

Roxanna

*pranayama – breath control
**mudra – hand position

This month we loved having Hat Day, Pajama Day and Beach Day!  We enjoyed Yoga and Music in our Classroom with Rasika and Nasrin. We missed Ingela but loved having Lauren as our Teacher. We visited Bumblebee Classroom in the mornings to work with the older children. We enjoyed playing on the yard, especially on Beach Day!

It has been a busy month in the Ladybug Classroom. We practiced our songs for the beautiful graduation celebration! Ladybugs and Bumblebees had so much fun practicing and performing together.

I, Ingela, was house sitting for a friend who has 30 different species of ducks. It just happened to coincide with the farm unit in our classroom. I asked him if he could come and do a show and tell for our school. He did and he loved it almost as much as the children. He brought in different types of duck eggs and ducks. Some of the ducks were only 24-48 hours old. The children got to hold them and were very gentle with the young ducks. It was a great day for everyone and we are hoping he will bring them again.

Finally we celebrated Emi’s 2 year-old birthday! She had so much fun celebrating with her classmates.

Graduation Celebration!
The children practiced their songs with Ladybugs for weeks before our celebration! The Ladybugs and Bumblebees did a fantastic job and each received a Certificate of Accomplishment! It was a wonderful evening!

Baby Bird Visit Day
Last week, Ingela invited her friend to bring in baby birds from his farm in Byron where he raises birds. Nick brought in about a dozen baby ducks and guinea fowls that were 24 hours old. Ingela showed us the different duck eggs where the babies had hatched. The children enjoyed holding the baby birds.

We celebrated three birthdays in June!
Maeve turned 4 and we had a Happy Birthday and farewell circle for her as she made her way back to Germany.
Leanne turned 3 and we got to sing Happy Birthday in Polish!
Frederick turned 4 and we enjoyed the book of his photos when he was a baby!

We are studying the Oceans and Ocean life and Planets in June. In July we are going to be studying Famous Artists and Art Appreciation!

Wow!!! It’s hard to believe it’s already May!  It seems like just yesterday we were starting the school year and the children were getting used to school.  Now the children come in with smiles on their faces, ready to go!

The children have been practicing with the Bumblebee Class getting ready for the big celebration coming up next Wednesday. They can’t wait for the big day!

This month the children were busy watching their seedlings grow into plants. The children enjoyed seeing the life cycle of the butterfly, watching the tiny caterpillars grow bigger and bigger, forming their chrysalis and changing into butterflies that we released into our garden.

Watching our Caterpillars grow into butterflies and planting our seedlings.

This month we celebrated two birthdays!

First was Cali’s!

Next up was Katherine’s!

 

We also welcomed two new Bumblebees, Maeve and Elliot.  Maeve joins us from Germany for the month of May:

This month we studied the metamorphis of a caterpillar to a butterfly, watched the caterpillars eat LOTS, build their cacoon and become beautiful monarchs.  We released them one morning in the yard!

 

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo by making guacamole and enjoying it with chips and some dancing!

We had a wonderful time preparing for the Parents’ Appreciation Brunch!

Here is a short video and associated photos of the children preparing their gifts:

Eliza’s Grandma visited us from England and helped us with our work and watched our Yoga Class:
 

We love our Yoga classes on Tuesdays especially since we now have Yoga Mats!

Norma’s Gardening Groups started this month!

           

Worktime photos!

   

We continued our study of South America by learning about the layers of the Rain Forest and the animals that inhabit each layer:

We also worked on finishing our Australian animal books:

Thanks for sharing the happenings in our classrooms!

April began with Spring Break Camp at school with Alyssa and Lupita!

 

We also welcomed a new student into Bumblebee Classroom.  Her name is Leanne and she will be turning three in June.

We celebrated Scarlett’s 4th Birthday this month:

We also welcomed Jake’s Mom into the classroom to do a fun art project making pinwheels and art with magic rainbow scratch paper!  Thank you Michelle and Jake for the fun projects!

We joined Ladybug classroom and had a presentation from Kiele’s parents this month about Fire Safety and demonstrating Drop, Cover (your face) and Roll.  Kiki’s Dad showed us how a firefighter has to put on their gear and we counted the seconds while he QUICKLY put it all on. It was a little scary seeing him in his mask but we learned that the firefighters need this for protection and we shouldn’t be afraid if we see them like this…they are still the same firefighter underneath it all — it was still Kiki’s Dad!  We made firefighter hats and learned how to Drop, Cover and Roll from Kiki’s Mom.  Thank you Kiki, April and Doug!

 

We are studying Australia and Parts of the Flower this month and had new works for both.  We made flags and maps of Australia, learned the animals of Australia (kangaroo, koala, kookabura, sugar glider, dingo, wombat, platypus, emu, echidna and bilby) and made aboriginal inspired kangaroo art.  We learned about the landforms island and archepelago.  We did flower arranging work and Parts of the Flower.

    

Our favorite photos:

Washing clothes and hanging to dry is one of our favorite outside works:

   

One day we marveled at all the hail that was falling on the playground!

Thanks for sharing the happenings in our classroom!

Welcome Spring!!!! We hope everyone had a great Spring Break and enjoyed the time off.  This month we studied all things Bugs.  The children enjoyed learning the different bugs that fly and the ones that crawl, the ones with six legs and the ones with four or eight. They also learned the parts and lifecycle of the ladybug and the butterfly.

This month we had Kiele’s Dad (from Bumblebee Classroom), who is a firefighter, visit us and talk to us about how to be safe around fires and what to do if our clothing was on fire which would be to Stop, Drop and Roll.  He dressed up in his firefighter outfit to show us that he is the same person under the mask and clothing and for us not to be scared.

We also have been moving our Yoga classes outdoors on nice days and the children are enjoying the meditation part where they  close their eyes and listen for the animals around them.

Next month we will move into our unit on Flowers and Plants.  We will be learning the different parts of the flower, tree, leaf and plant. We will also be starting our garden by planting different types of flowers and learning about all different types of seeds.

Please remember to check your child’s extra clothing to make sure they have 2 sets of clothing in case of accidents or if they get wet from playing in the water.  We will be in the dirt a lot this month and with the warmer weather we will be playing in water.

Yoga fun outdoors and learning to meditate and working on our different poses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucy’s Birthday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working on sounds, Color matching, Puzzles and Life Cycle of a Butterfly:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching the deer eat the leaves from the trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday celebrations in early March:

First was Eliza’s 3rd:

 

Then Jake turned 4:

 

We also had Naomi and her Mom, Nancy, come in and talk about Chinese New Year and showed us how to make Red Lanterns.  Naomi handed out red envelopes to all the children:

Jake and his Mom, Michelle, came in and made tissue paper flowers with us in Afterschool too!

And the highlight of the month was having our families come to see our Art Gallery:

Kayla works on her self-portrait

Camila works on painting her clay bowl 

 

We started our study of Frogs in March and learned about different types and Parts of the Frog.  We also had a visit from Lila’s tadpole!

 

In After-school we built and experienced an exciting volcano eruption!

 

Yoga and Mindfulness in the classroom…

  

 

We made Spring Baskets and decorated “Eggs” with a cool machine that Simone brought in…she demostrated in circle time and in Ladybug classroom.  A special thank you to Simone and her family for donating the Eggs and Coloring Machine:

  

Many families ask, “What is ‘Sound work’?” Children learn to identify the name of the letter “a” with the sound it makes, /a/ as in “apple”.  Children work in groups, sing songs, play games such as “I Spy” and then work on writing the letter in a sand tray and on paper:

 

Some classroom moments:

Fine Motor & Scissors activities:

Working (and eating!) with Friends:

   

 

Thank you for sharing the happenings in our classroom!