Dear Families,

Your gift to me is your patience. I had a bunch of things going on this weekend and didn’t get to post the blog – so here now is our update with pictures.

We have been very busy – especially with our hands. After conferences, we changed many things in the Practical life area to help develop hand muscle strength and fine motor skills. These works which often involve unusual uses of kitchen tools (such as pushing clay through a garlic press or using a loose tea strainer with a squeeze handle to fetch things out of a tub of water) have been very popular and have gotten much use. Just last week, I brought in two types of hand nut crackers and we cracked walnuts, pecans, almonds and hazelnuts. Other Practical life lessons that have been popular are the wrapping lesson (how to wrap a present); how to tie a bow on a gift; how to grate soap (for a sachet ) and the ever popular sewing, knitting and embroidery lessons. Julian’s mother donated some strawberry Indian corn to the classroom so each child got to remove the kernels from the cob with tweezers and keep the corn which can be popped and eaten. J Please be assured that Practical Life lessons teach: concentration, coordination, independence, a sense of order (sequence) and self-confidence. These are foundation lessons that also develop being methodical, patience and task completion.

The children have been tracking the growth of their bulbs-  they still do not know what kind of flower will emerge. J Each day, they record their observations, draw any changes and delight in the new appearance.

We had a wonderful St. Nick celebration followed by hot chocolate on our return to school from the park, on the 6^th of December. On the 7^th, we started our Act of Kindness Tree: each child is invited to do any act of kindness for another- anonymous or not- and the recipient of the gesture gets to put a ribbon on the tree. I don’t have a photo of the branches here but it is getting filled. We also had a magnificent anonymous gift one day last week, when all the children got clementines and chocolate coins, even Julian and me.  Only the giver (and me) know who did this kind gesture J. Then, we celebrated one friend’s birthday and another’s half birthday! Last Thursday, we talked about the story of the Nutcracker – after we had been cracking real nuts for a few days. They enjoyed seeing my Nutcracker collection and are being super respectful of them as they stand on the window ledge all this week too. We have been listening to the music by Tchaikovsky too.

Thank you to the family who brought in tea last Wednesday. While the hot chocolate was the most popular when returning from a cold day at the park, the tea was tasty and sweet. The mugs are working out wonderfully. Thank you for sending those.

Last Friday, we had our third Great Lesson: The Coming of Humans. Though several students were out, we decided to do it anyway and we will give it again at the end of this week. This lesson is all the evolution of humans and the development of the modern human person. We began with a long discussion of why humans are special mammals. We learned that the development of the brain, of the hand and of the sense of love together make humans very different from other mammals. Many of the students can tell you the theory of why scientists think that humans learned how to love and other mammals didn’t. We talked about the important development of the hand and the especially the opposable thumb which also marks a distinct change in the development of these kinds of primates. We all taped our thumb to our palm for about an hour and tried to have snack, do practical life works and other daily functioning without a thumb! They thought this was very fun but soon realized that they needed their thumb quite a bit, so they ended the experiment when they wanted. They also learned about the famous early human discovered in 1974, named Lucy; an Australopithecus. They can also tell you why she was named that. 

Here are some lessons:

Math:

Clock work – minutes with fractions on the clock  ( 15 minutes / quarter hour) any place on the clock

Operations

Skip counting (bead chains, hundred board with pattern work)

Date and measurement: charting growth of the bulb

Writing numbers in words (one to ninety-nine)

Right angle triangles; 90 degree in a right angle; the total degrees in a rectangle and circle

Algebraic expressions with an unknown

Language:

More phonograms and spelling variations

We now have a second reading group that is doing Frog and Toad books

The first reading group is about to finish their Magic Tree house book

Words by heart: words that have to be memorized and not phonetic (come, put, because etc)

Vocabulary work as well as articulation and diction lessons

Grammar: use of I and me

Grammar: punctuation lessons on quotation marks, commas, periods

Cosmic Education:

Great Lesson: The Coming of Humans

Terminology: Homo Habilis/ Homo erectus/ Homo sapiens; intellect,

Tools of early humans

US Map and states

Practical Life:

How to knit and purl

How to use an embroidery hoop

How to grate

How to use tweezers

How to clean and clip one’s nails

How to sew a seam (right sides together to make a hidden seam)

How to thread a needle

How to tie knots

How to tie, zip, button, velcro etc

How to wash a chair, boot trays, tables, dishes

How to tweeze

How to make an envelop

Not all the children have had all these lessons, but all the children have had some of these lessons.

It is a distinct pleasure to work with your children. We are excited for them to share with you over Winter Break the surprises they have prepared for you.

Children teach adults so very much – I learn something every day from them.

We will send one more group message before the break.

Happy Solstice! Talk to you soon,