Japanese New Year & Light, Dark and the Colors Winter

❄️ ⛄It’s been so much fun to be all together again! Everyone jumped right back in the swing of things. Although it’s been sunny lately, we’re deep into our Winter inquiry. ⛄❄️

Updates/Reminders

Thank you for taking rains suits home to wash. Please bring them back to keep at school as the Winter rains will (hopefully) visit again soon.
Friday, 1/17- Report Writing/PD Day-No School; Childcare available for ExDay eligible children with sign-up
Monday, January 20- Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day: No School or Childcare

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Light & Dark in the Winter

We’ve been filling our visual sense with things that are commonly seen during or associated with winter: light and dark and the colors blue, white, and purple. Fairy light jars have been used alongside the wooden and blue transparent blocks to create all kinds of structures and sculptures. We observed what would happen if we painted pompoms that were frozen in ice and used the same pompoms the next day with various vessels and tongs to practice some practical life and fine motor skills: pouring, picking items up with tongs and our fingers. The light table has become a space primed for the positioning schema- the urge to find places for items and tinker with spatial relationships. We’ve seen stacking, balancing, hiding, trajectory play, and patterning emerge. Various hues of blue stickers and oil pastels are also available to create 2D art.

Japanese New Year

Kirstie shared some of her favorite food-oriented ways to celebrate Japanese New Year- making and eating all kinds of mochi and the foods in osechi ryori! We got to practice our chopstick skills as we picked up osechi ryori foods and make our own ozoni soup using a feltboard. We read Thank You Very Mochi, and pounded our own pretend play dough mochi, counting in Japanese, “Ichi, ni, san, shi! Ichi, ni, san, shi!”

Music with Aaron

Aaron brought in rhythm sticks for us and we used the drum as a floor to drum out different rhythms. We tapped and rolled the sticks together to make even more sounds.

Art with Julianne

Julianne brought in water soluble pastels and big ice cubes to create wintery art. We had fun sliding the ice back and forth on our papers!

Esra’s Birthday

We made a pink painting and strawberry moon pops in preparation for Esra’s 3rd brithday. Esra’s aba, John and mama, Emily came to celebrate with a dance party and stories.