Greetings of the season, dear Parents!
"Once upon a time, there was a mother who was waiting for the birth of her child. It was Midwinter time, and all around the earth was dark and hard and cold..."
The children have been enjoying the puppet play of "the Midwinter Garden".
And during circle time they are working with the gnomes, and finding out what the gnomes underground have to do with the sun, the moon, and the stars. This is a fun circle with lots of movement, and big contrasts of loud and soft, and big and small.
We painted with blue last week, and this (past) week, with blue and yellow. Our friends, the little ones of the forest (an ongoing story for us often on painting day) met a new character, Belinda the momma bear, in her cave home up among the evergreens, and RoseMarie and her friends decorated their Grannie's cabin with evergreen boughs...
We have had super good luck with the weather on our hike days! And thank-you all so much again for dressing your children in appropriate warm gear. The children are really enjoying the vigorous time outdoors, and the smell and the warmth of our little campfire...
Time is flying by! Soon we will be at the turning point of the year's cycle, and the days will start lengthening again. At school we are busy with all the preparations and special celebrations of the season. The children are getting excited as they anticipate the holidays to come.
Last week the children met our good Saint Nicholas, who gave them sweets while reminding them to use their kind words and kind deeds with each other. Six-year-olds especially need this reminder! They love each other, but they are also finding their own strength, and have been a bit quarrelsome with each other in indoor play... this is quite normal-- I remind myself of the words of a favorite teacher of mine (Kim John Payne), that we mustn't become "addicted to harmony", since the children have opportunities to learn compromise, compassion, and resilience as they "bump up against each other" in their play. If they were good as gold at all times, we would worry, right? 🙂 They need these lessons many times throughout their school years as they grow.
Sweet Lucia , harbinger of the Light, will be visiting our classroom this coming week, and, dear parents, please remember our all-school festival of "Light, Love, and Hope" on Tuesday Dec. 19th after school (3:45). All are welcome! Please stay or return to school if you can, to see our grade-schoolers perform and bedeck our recently planted living Christmas Tree. More details will be forthcoming in the Da Vinci school newsletter.
Our last day of school on Dec. 20th will be a half day-- no extended day care that day.