Happy New Year

Before Winter Break, we had time for some very special activities. One of my favorite times is when we buddy read with the Beacon class. The children are paired with an older child and they take turns reading to each other. This is a valuable activity for all of our readers, the younger children gain confidence reading to the older children and the older kids love being in the role of teacher. You can just feel the excitement and happy energy in the room as the children read as many books as they can in the amount of time we have.

We were also lucky to have several parents join us for a holiday party. The children decorated treats and enjoyed every messy bite! They had a wonderful time! Thanks to our volunteers who either came to the party or who donated treats. We appreciate all of you.

The Superstars as musical stars!

We had our first public performance as Superstars this past week. The children did an excellent job with the Winter Program. They looked adorable!

We had another interesting teachable moment this past week. One of our kids was out with a cold last week and had missed several days of school. When the kids heard that I was gathering some work to send home for this child, they jumped into action! They drew pictures and used inventive spelling to send good wishes to our friend. It was the perfect opportunity to encourage creativity and working together to make something they thought would make their friend feel better. It was fascinating to watch this in motion. This empathy for one another is one of the reasons we enjoy working with this age group.

The Superstars are learning how the winter holidays are celebrated in different parts of the world. So far we have traveled to England and France. We have stops planned for Sweden, Mexico, Germany, Italy and the United States. We will also spend some time on Hanukkah. We are learning about the traditional foods and holiday customs. We have made sausage rolls, spiced cider and decorated yule logs. We're looking forward to more treats!

We are so lucky to have the older kids next door, Ms. Head's class has been so helpful with the Superstars. They have joined us in the computer lab, helped us with our unlucky fish tank and now they have been helping us with subtraction. It's a valuable partnership that benefits both classes. The older kids like being helpful and the little ones really benefit from the one on one help.

Don't forget the Winter Program on Tuesday evening, it's going to be fun!