Hello Magnolia Families,

Here in Magnolia we’ve been thinking and talking about the messages of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King led a movement of people that believed all people should have what they need, regardless of their skin color. In Dr. King’s time, there were laws against Black people that were unfair. Unfortunately today there are still many ways that Black people and people of color are treated unfairly. We learned that there are so many helpers and activists today just like Dr. King and his community who believe in safety, health and happiness for all people. We have to say extra loud that “Black Lives Matter” so that as a community we can challenge others that have unfair ideas about who is deserving of safety, health and happiness.  Here’s some more about introducing the Black Lives Matter to young children, by Laleña Garcia.

In the pictures below, you can see Emily introducing photographs of Dr. King and asking: “What do you notice? What do you see? What’s in the picture can you tell me?” Then, we repeated the exercise with posters created for the Movement for Black Lives. The children shared what they noticed and what they knew, and made lots of connections between the prior lesson as well as our wants and needs unit. We made light bulb shaped “ideas” to illustrate the big ideas Dr. King had, and made birthday cards for him. We listened to Stevie Wonder’s song “Happy Birthday” which he wrote for Dr. King! A class favorite was reading a book called “Get up, Stand Up” written by Cedella Marley and heard the song by The Wailers. It was a hit!

Medical Dramatic Play Corner

We’ve been looking forward to our new dramatic play corner! Our theme is “Doctor’s Office” or “Medical Office.” We’re so grateful for the donations- we’ve got some medical equipment, lab coats, x-rays and scrubs so that we can use our imaginations to be community helpers. Get a sneak peek in our video at the end of the blog.

Around Magnolia

Music Teacher Chrissy joins us each week to learn songs and dance! Art Teacher Julianne is joining us next week to create lion heads for our upcoming celebration of Lunar New Year. Emily brought in lots of library books about Lunar New Year and Mitra even set up a special sensory bin for us. We’re making rabbits out of playdough (it’s the year of the rabbit!) and the timing just so happened that it’s also the week we are learning the letter “j”- for jac the jack rabbit! We love when that happens 🙂 In the Vietnamese Lunar New Year Celebrations, it’s the year of the cat which we know will please many of our cat lovers here in Magnolia.

Saoirse and Athena both celebrated their fourth birthdays with us! Eloise’s dad Brendan joined us for Family Friday, and tomorrow Liv’s mom Jennie will visit us at choice time. We’re so glad that families are able to join us in the classroom this year 🙂

Every once and a while we add a video too so you can get a glimpse into our day in “real-time.” Enjoy!

♥

Emily.Mitra.Darius