“Have a peaceful day” was how we greeted each other this morning. Our new unit on Peace and Peacemakers has just begun, and this month we’ll focus on ways to make our classroom, our families, and our world more peaceful. Our room has an excellent collection of books and today we had a good discussion about this big and important topic. In addition, this month we’ll spend time learning about the holidays of Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas, make some special gifts for some special people, and learn some new poems and songs.
Speaking of music, Mozart had a featured place in our class this week. Over the course of several days, we listened to two piano concertos at lunchtime. And today we began to learn the round “Dona Nobis Pacem” (I even managed to find my recorder to play it for the children!) The children’s openness to all sorts of music, art, literature – even those with themes of inequality or sadness – adds such richness to our experience together.
The class has been working hard on handwriting. On Monday we’ll finish all the numerals, and we’re almost done with the second group of uppercase letters, the Starting Corner capitals (H K L U V W X Y Z). The children’s handwriting is looking good these days – very few reversals and their letters are beginning to become quite uniform in size. They’re working hard and the results show much progress.
A closeup of our mural
Cooperation has also been a big topic lately. Along with reading many books together and having excellent discussions about them, Kindergarten has been trying hard to put into practice what they know to be good choices. (Cooperation is one of three, broad units in our values curriculum. Courage and Compassion will round out the year.) The mural that the class made for our cooperation assembly (which had been on display in the room) has been disassembled and today each child brought home their piece of it.
Our annual Friendship Lunch, held just before Thanksgiving Soup, was one example where Preschool and Kindergarten cooperated together to create a fine meal. The day before our meal, teams of children all helped make homemade butter, cornbread, cookies, and placemats. We all enjoyed it!
We also had a wonderful Lunch Bunch last week. Many thanks to Elizabeth Weinberg and Stephanie Buchanan for coming in and serving “Pasta Anyway-You-Like-It” – the catering can’t get much better than that! With veggies and brownies to round it out, it was a meal that all enjoyed. Thank you again!
Holiday Gifts are due back next week, and so are the book orders. Lunch Bunch on Tuesday. And don’t forget to visit the Holiday Book Fair, too – they’ll have some great gift ideas for all members of the family.
Andrea