Spring Pizza Party!

Thank- you to all of our families for helping to make the last day of school before Spring vacation so special! The "pizza luncheon " was wonderful and the children loved the 'fancy flower plates and napkins' and thoroughly enjoyed the veggies and dip, fruit, chips , drinks, and very delicious desserts! Our children love to celebrate and share in joyous moments together and gathering for a favorite meal is a perfect way for all of us to celebrate each other.




After lunch, Margaret read Babar's Museum of Art by Laurent by Laurent De Brunhoff. Through this book the reader experiences the fun of museum-going as Babar and Celeste introduce you to their magnificent museum where you may recognize a painting or two!

A special thank-you to Brooke and Margaret for organizing and setting up this very special day for us!

Enjoy the Spring vacation with your children and we look forward to seeing everyone in April!

ChaCha's Visit

Ella's uncle ChaCha visited our class today and shared a wonderful art lesson with the children. ChaCha is a retired art teacher who worked in the Philadelphia schools for many years teaching children art. He was accompanied by Ella's Auntie Ann, and her Dad Kim.

Having heard that we are studying art and nature ChaCha prepared a thoughtful lesson connecting art and nature and used several art books of Vincent Van Gogh to introduce the concept of landscapes. He first asked , " What does a landscape picture include?" Some of the responses were, " Trees, leaves, grass sunsets, flowers, sun and sky." In small groups, the children looked through the books of Van Gogh paintings that depicted landscapes and trees and the children were asked to think about what they learned simply by looking at the picture. For example looking at the pictures the children were asked to identify the season and describe how the artist created the feeling of a particular season.

ChaCha demonstrated the technique of leaf rubbings and showed how the rubbings could be turned into bare trees. The children practiced making their own rubbings by using a dry, flatten leaf and a crayon. The children were encouraged to darken areas of the rubbing which created the image of a bare tree. Once this step was completed , the children had the opportunity to add leaves , buds and flowers to the branches. The greatest joy was watching each child take their own creativity to a different level by adding their own details creating a landscape scene.

Ella loved having her extended family join in our learning and supporting the connections of home and school experiences are so very important in the lives of our children.

Cookie Decorating

Interest in learning about community helpers continues to be a common theme in our classroom. The children continually comment with excitement when they see a 'community helper' such as a garbage collector and truck, or a mail carrier delivering mail and the enthusiasm is contagious amongst the children! Today Jen Goldberg, Annabelle's mom visited with us to share her joys and talents in the baking world. Annabelle was so thrilled to have her mom come to class and talk to the children about her baking career. Our community helper chef was excited to have her community helper job highlighted and the children were delighted to have a hands on opportunity to learn more about baking and cookie decorating.

Jen first spoke with the children about her love of baking and ways that bakers can be community helpers. "Sometimes bakers bake sweet things for a neighbor or for someone who is sick to help them feel better", explained Jen . We discussed what bakers need in order to bake, which led into a great conversation about ingredients and baking tools and equipment.

We passed around a set of measuring spoons and a measuring up that Jen uses when she bakes. The children generated a list of cooking equipment and ingredients that they thought one needed when baking. We talked fairly extensively about the importance of measuring ingredients accurately when baking in order for the baked goods come out tasting right!

Jen had baked red heart cookies prior to her visit and brought lots of yummy treats to use to decorate the cookies with the children for Valentines Day. Jen explained that the frosting acts as the 'glue' for the cookie which enables the decorations to stick!

Creating opportunities to join your child in our classroom experience is very meaningful for yur child. Children love making the connections between home and school and feel so proud in sharing their worlds with each other. Jen's visit was wonderful on so many levels, but especially in bringing to life family and AFS! We look forward to your participation throughout the remaining months of the year.

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Maggie's Dad, Daniel, visited with our class today to share traditions of Chinese New Year. Daniel began our conversation by asking the children " What do you know about Chinese New Year?" A few of the comments that the children said were, " They have red"," They eat dumplings and noodles" and "They have a dragon costume".

Daniel first shared beautiful paper lanterns that Maggie's family uses to decorate during the Chinese New Year. We looked at a 'chop' which is a stamp that has symbols and characters that are used to print Maggie's name in the Chinese language. Daniel shared with us photographs of his visit to China when he went to bring Maggie home. Afterwards he read the book

My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz. This delightful book describes how Chinese New Year is a time to for new beginnings, giving thinks, and reunions with family and friends. We learned that families prepare for many days getting ready for the Chinese New Year. The holiday lasts for fifteen days, and each day is distinguished with a different activity, such as visiting relatives or eating special food.

We learned that the color red is symbolic during this celebration Families try to wear clothing that is red and some families give red envelopes to children. These envelopes may contain money or chocolate coins. The money and coins symbolize good luck and prosperity for the coming year. Daniel gave each child a red envelop with Chinese symbols representing an inspirational word with chocolate coins inside.

We saw many photographs of China and noticed the beautiful artwork and architecture of the country. The children especially loved see the photo taken from the airplane of the North Pole! The children were fascinated with seeing the photo album of the trip to China and we all appreciated getting to know and understand more about Maggie and her family and how they celebrate traditions.