Notes

Now that the holidays are over and winter has truly arrived, we begin the new year rested and ready to get back to work. The children also seem glad to be back, enjoying playing together and also working on the many new activities on our classroom shelves. We spent some time over the break preparing new materials reflective of winter, but also getting ready for one of our most popular monthly themes….the Dinosaurs. As parents you know that children are incredibly fascinated by and drawn to these mysterious prehistoric creatures. It is a fun subject to explore with our many related materials including complete sets of the most interesting and well-known dinosaurs and even some of the less familiar ones. We place baskets of these museum quality dinosaurs in each classroom. They are true to life in both color and size. The children will learn not only the names and interesting characteristic of each including Allosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Velociraptor, Dimetrodon, Parasaurolophus, Ankylosaurus, Pteranodon and of course Tyrannosaurus Rex. We will categorize each one as carnivore, herbivore or omnivore and explain what that means. We will also talk about the work of paleontologists who have searched for and found many dinosaur fossils, and we will explore the various theories as to why the dinosaurs disappeared. There will be dinosaur activities in all classroom areas. Our book corners will be full of large and colorful non-fiction and fictional books, and there will be several dino art projects including dino sponging ,pinching and pulling and rubbing using different dinosaur bodies and footprints.

There are many new Practical Life exercises. As a follow up to basting, we will be using dropper bottles. An all time favorite will re enter the classrooms….shaving cream. The children wet a table with a sponge and we add a large dab of shaving cream. They then enjoy making shapes, letters, numbers and pictures with their hands or fingers. We will also add basting, mirror polishing and weaving. Another favorite is whisking with soapy water. We will also bring apple cutting into Side 1 and celery cutting into Side 2. In keeping with our dinosaur theme, we will be digging up dinosaur bones from a box of sand.

Sensorial will feature more work with shapes including making designs by repeating shapes. We have just recently brought in the triangle box and will add the large hexagon box to the shelf. Both pieces of equipment contain many different kinds of triangles which fit together so that the children can create not only more triangles but also rectangles, rhombuses, parallelograms and trapezoids. Also in Sensorial we will bring in our skyline blocks which the children can use to build their own skylines since many of them are familiar with the NYC skyline which is so much more visible in winter. The exercises in Math include snowflake and snowman counting as well as counting tiny dinosaurs.

The birthday of Martin Luther King falls on January 19 this year, and we will be talking about his life and work and his message of peace, respect for others and non-violence. This relates nicely to our ongoing Peace curriculum.

We are approaching the mid point of our school year in February, and the children are really settled, happy and busy now, and for the most part, they totally understand the routine and schedule of their classrooms. Since September they have been learning how to care for both themselves and their environment and also to interact positively with others, and so every January we introduce “Snack for Two”. We have a small table with two chairs and a small chest next to the table set up in one area of each room. It contains napkins, cups and the snack itself. The “host”, or child who invites a friend, will set the table and serve the snack (water and mini-pretzels). When they have finished both host and guest will help clear and clean the table. This “snack for two” time is an opportunity to encourage new friendships as sometimes children who aren’t necessarily best friends will sit together. It also fosters conversation and the practice of courtesy and taking turns. As we walk by we so enjoy listening to the sweet and funny conversations between the two classmates, even those who may not necessarily be close to each other.

At the very end of the month, with winter now truly here, we will be talking about life underground and animal hibernation. The children remember and can actually see that we planted our bulbs who are resting under the ground covered with pine straw. We will discuss other things that we might discover under the ground such as worms, insects, rocks and acorns. We like to introduced these conversations in direct preparation for our celebration of the legend of the Groundhog in early February.

As we begin 2026, we would like to wish all of our Parkside families a very happy and healthy new year full of love, hope and peace.

“The new year stands before us like

a chapter in a book, waiting to be written"

Melody Beattie