Notes

December is always a month that seems to go too quickly. Naturally the materials that come into the classrooms early in the month relate to the upcoming holidays, and so there will be some fun holiday-themed exercises in all curriculum areas as well as plenty of holiday art projects, library books and festive songs.

Traditionally our children have really enjoyed Practical Life activities, even as they become more challenging. Clementine peeling continues, and, as with last month’s apple cutting, the children are doing a fine job peeling and sectioning the clementines, cleaning up their work, and then serving the pieces to their friends. Funneling will begin using a larger funnel at first and then a smaller one. Basting with a large baster will be brought in, and again, we will use a smaller one later in the month to prepare for using eyedroppers in January. We will be making beaded bracelets as well as candy canes with both beads and pipe cleaners. There will be spooning, tweezing and straining activities using tiny holiday objects. Of course all the exercises will be presented in holiday colors. As always in Practical Life, our students will be refining their motor skills, developing a sense order in a task, concentrating and having fun, all at the same time.

In Sensorial the Geometric Cabinet has been introduced. This is a large and beautiful piece of equipment which has drawers holding trays of different sized circles, triangles, rectangles and polygons with three sets of cards for each drawer. It is particularly popular this year in both classes. In both Language and Math there will be new holiday matching, sequencing, counting and stamping.

As time goes on, more and more of our Parkside teachers are creating new, beneficial and fun exercises in all classroom areas to augment and enrich our many traditional monthly additions. Often we have trouble finding room on the shelves! This is a very good thing for us and certainly adds to the overall positive experiences for your children.

We continued our Peace curriculum throughout November. The children seem to understand what peace is as we have explained it….being kind and caring towards others, helping friends, family and teachers, staying busy, sharing, playing together nicely. Many of the kids are using our Peace Bowl to add a stone if they have been helpful and kind. Our Peace discussions now include trying to manage difficulties that may arise during the day. These problems are usually minor and may relate to a youngster not understanding why another does not want to hold his or her hand, share an activity or sit near him or her at a table or on circle. We have placed on our Peace Table the Peace Flower. If a child becomes upset with another or perhaps even with one of us, we gently guide them over to the Peace Corner where they can take turns holding the flower and use their words to express how they are feeling to the other child. Hopefully, by going to a quieter place in the classroom, the children can express their feelings freely (with our help and encouragement). Conflict resolution does take time, especially with young children, and we are there to facilitate those conversations and help the child involved really hear what the other has to say. Learning to be a thoughtful listener is just as important as learning how to express negative feelings. Our hope is that as the year progresses, we as teachers will be able to step back a little and let the children themselves work through a problem that may happen to come up, but we understand that our guidance is often sought and always needed.

As the school year progresses and the holiday season keeps us all so busy, we do continue to feel grateful to be working with your bright, inquisitive, happy and affectionate children who not only keep up focused and hopeful, but who are also all a wonderful distraction from the problems of our sometimes complicated world. We wish all of our Parkside families safe, happy and peaceful holidays.

“If we are to have peace in there world,

then we shall have to begin with the children.”

Mahatma Gandhi