What’s Happening in the New Year

Dear Parents,

We have been on the go since school has been back in session as we work on helping our students to stay focused and challenged. While Carrie and I have presented the students with new lessons, our students have especially been tuning in with good “listening ears” as they learn new material. We have also gathered for several “Celebrations of Lives,” being that January is a big month for birthdays. So far, it’s been an exciting start to the new year with such a motivated group of students.

SO, what kind of work have the kids been up to? Where to begin…

Beginning Sewing Lesson with Needle & Thread

This is an activity I like to present each year as sewing is a great practical life skill that every child enjoys. Below, students were learning a very basic stitch called the running stitch that they were shown practice with a real needle and thread on cardstock. In my observations over the years, I have noticed that sewing has stimulated the process of building fine motor skills for many students as improvements are especially seen in drawing and writing. Naturally, a child tends to hold a needle just as they should begin to hold a pencil. Furthermore, there is something about handling a sharp needle that feels like a privilege to children, perhaps because they know an adult is trusting them to be responsible. Below, students focus intently while poking holes along the dotted lines, careful not to prick themselves.

Below, students were shown a different technique with foam sheets where they sewed along the edges to connect two sheets, a.k.a. an overcast stitch. We cut out shapes from the foam sheets to sew together accessory bags and wallets.

Sewing activities will certainly be on the shelves during the rest of the year as kids just can’t seem to get enough; it’s a creative outlet with results that kids take pride in.

Fine Art Lesson: Getting Ideas from the Masters…

I recently gave a demonstration to show how we can gather ideas to create our own art by studying famous artists’ work. I presented several paintings and pulled ideas from each image as I drew up my own image. During the work cycle, imagery of famous art is offered for kids to lay out and study as they draw. After looking at Degas’ ballerinas and Monet’s lily pads, one child drew dancers leaping on lily pads! This is unquestionably a creative exercise to encourage kids to think outside of the box.

Lessons on Martin Luther King, Jr.

After our three-day weekend, we started our circle time off with a discussion on why we had an extra day off… We read a kid-friendly book on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. which lead to discussion on racial discrimination and Dr. King’s dreams of equality. It’s always a thoughtful conversation with these kids (and a pleasant reminder that we should never underestimate how much children can consume and comprehend).

Ongoing Lessons

Language: We are especially encouraging children who are ready to begin recognizing their letter sounds to focus in these areas more. Writing and tracing along with word building are presented on a regular basis to a number of individuals. Our kindergarteners have been word building and sentence building as they create their own short stories. Our youngest students have been consistently interested in our beginning sounds materials (probably because we’ve recently added a lot of cool new trinkets and figurines in this area), and older students are helping them to sort these objects and match them to their beginning letter sounds.

Math: Children are drawn to our color coded math beads that offer a variety of ways to teach math for both young and old students. While some little ones are still learning numbers one through ten, our older ones are learning how to count by tens, add, subtract, etc.

Geography: Our geography puzzle maps have been a hit with this bunch of kids as they continue to try more difficult puzzles. These puzzles can be very difficult and time consuming as children are shown to carefully place the puzzle pieces in their proper state or country on a map drawing that sits alongside the actual puzzle.

We have also added some material such as miniature models of famous structures or animals to help kids learn more about what can be found around in places around the world.

Celebrations of Lives

Below are images of some of our celebrations from the new year. Though our ritual is short and sweet, it’s a very special time for each child as we honor their lives. We appreciate the parents’ participation as you tell stories of your children from an infant to the present age. It really makes for a special occasion for your little ones.