March has brought beautiful weather and Springtime to the toddlers of Celeste. Our windows are decorated with flowers that the children colored and painted. March also brought a visit from the Reptile Man for the older toddlers. They got to feel the skin of a snake, as well as touch an alligator who could fall asleep on command. There were a lot of smiles and laughter from the toddlers of Celeste.
April brings Spring Break, and time for families to hopefully enjoy some sunshine together. When we come back from break the toddlers of Celeste will be working on some practical life skills of scrubbing tables and chairs, as well as washing bikes and cars. The older toddlers will learn how to complete all the steps of washing, rinsing, and drying. April will also bring some work with different types of art materials for gluing and painting. The end of the month will wrap up with a celebration of Earth Day with a concert by Eric Ode!
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February was a fun time of celebrating friendships, and being able to serve and care for our friends and the environment. The friendship fruit salad was a big success, and the children of Celeste really enjoyed bringing in a variety of fruits. Our salad consisted of bananas, grapes, apples, mango, pineapple, pears, and several other fruits. The children enjoyed chopping and peeling the fruit, and helping one another get a serving. The month also brought a focus on watering our classroom plants with a small pitcher, and dusting them very lightly. At the end of February the older toddlers enjoyed attending a marionette show about a retelling of the story of Beauty and Beast.
As we head into March there will be a welcoming of several new friends into our toddler community. The toddlers of Celeste will work on showing these new friends the routine of the day, as well as welcoming them into our environment. March also brings a focus on Spring and the change in weather to warmer temperatures. Our walks around the school will consist of pointing out blooming flowers, as well as listening to the sounds of birds chirping. In the classroom we will work on coloring flowers, as well as putting a flower together on a felt board with its different parts. Flower arranging of fresh flowers will also adorn our classroom. January brought a focus on taking care of the environment around us, as well as talking about how to respect our friends. The children of Celeste helped scrub chairs, and wipe out cubbies after several rainy days on the playground. They learned more about emotions such as identifying what being happy, sad, mad, and frustrated looked like on each other’s faces. It was great to see their expressions change for each of the feelings, as they looked at one another and in a mirror. The toddlers also worked on asking their friends “Are you ok?” if a friend happened to fall or was upset. The kindness and helpfulness seen around the classroom and playground was wonderful to see and hear.
The month of February brings Valentine’s Day, and more importantly a focus on friendship and having a caring heart. Toddlers don’t quite understand the concept of passing out Valentines, so they will be sharing with each other a friendship fruit salad. They will work on chopping, peeling, stirring, and serving one another fruits. The month will also bring some new works into the classroom that deal with the shape of hearts such as gluing hearts to paper, putting together heart shaped containers, sorting different colored hearts, as well as coloring hearts. The toddlers of Celeste will also continue their work of talking about respect and apply this concept to plants and animals. They will get the chance to enjoy watering and taking care of our classroom plants, as well as helping to check that our playground bunny’s needs are met. December was an exciting time of exploration for the toddlers of Celeste. They enjoyed building with toilet paper snow, as well as painting with shaving cream. They also enjoyed working with glitter and glue. Several snowflakes and penguins were made very sparkly. The children also were very happy making snowman footprints for their parents, and enjoyed delivering these gifts to their mom and dad. December also brought colder temperatures, and lots of work with bundling up in hats and gloves. I hope everyone enjoyed spending time with their family during Winter break.
As we head back to school from Winter break January should be a great time for welcoming new friends into our toddler program and classroom, which is always an exciting time. It's wonderful to meet new friends, and learn their names and teach them the routine of the day. January is also a great time to emphasize the idea of respect and feelings. This means focusing on respecting ourselves, others, and the environment around us. All of the things that are so important in the Montessori philosophy. We will also enjoy reading books during circle time such as "Hands Are Not For Hitting" and "The Way I Feel." Celeste has been filled with such great opportunities for the toddlers to practice grace and courtesy, as well as several self-help skills during the month of November. The children got to put out paper towels, cups, and snack for each of their friends during the afternoon snack time. It's wonderful to see the smile they get out of being able to serve one another, as well as say that they did it themselves! There was also lots of opportunities to work on putting gloves, hats, and boots on due to the cold temperatures. Several of the children have mastered being able to get their fingers into each of the spots of the glove (not necessarily an easy task when they are so excited to get outside and play).
December will be an exciting time for the toddlers to continue to explore several materials with their senses including slime that feels cold, jello that smells fruity, sand that slips through their fingers, colors that are bright, as well as some other enticing materials. The month will also bring some new art work including working with glitter, painting, and festive stickers. At the end of the month Winter break will begin, and I just want to wish everyone a wonderful time getting to be with your family! Celeste toddlers were very excited for Fall and the month of October. It brought such joy to watch the children running around the playground talking about falling leaves, and the change in temperature. The new cold brought lots of work on self-help skills in the form of dressing in layers, and bundling up in coats and boots. The toddlers also enjoyed making a Jack-O-Lantern, and reading/singing songs about pumpkins. There's nothing like watching a child feel the insides of a pumpkin and experience the slime and seeds run through their fingers. Art work involving apples, colorful leaves, and scarecrows also adorned our classroom. The month of October was such a great time of exploration for the toddlers.
In November Celeste will get the chance to work more on flower arranging, as well as work in a sensory table filled with new and exciting things for their hands to explore. The month also brings even colder temperatures, which means working on putting gloves and hats on. The toddlers will also work on grace and courtesy skills of serving and offering each other snack, as well as helping to set the tables for lunch and afternoon snack. The month of September was the beginning of the school year, and an opportunity to enjoy the last rays of summertime . We happily welcomed back some returning friends, and invited new friends into Celeste. The change in weather from sunshine to more rainy days brought the opportunity for growth in self-help skills, specifically with the changing of shoes and coats to rain boots and raincoats. The children also greatly enjoyed the new playground equipment that brought the wonderful sounds of music to our toddler community.
As we move into the month of October the weather will once again change, and bring a new focus on Fall. This means observing the change in color to leaves, as well as slightly cooler temperatures outside. Celeste will also celebrate the harvest time by bringing pumpkins and gourds into the classroom for work on scrubbing and washing them. Later on the pumpkins will be cut open, so the children can work on scooping and exploring the inside seeds. Fall time will bring great discussions to Celeste about vegetables, leaves, colors, and the change to our outside environment. The month of May was an exciting time for the toddlers of Celeste. They welcomed new friends into their class, and worked on helping them with the routine of the day. The exploration of magnets was also very much enjoyed. The children used magnets to move pipe cleaners around, complete magnetic puzzles, as well as move items through a sheet of plastic. They also enjoyed working with shapes that snapped together, identifying shapes through puzzles and books, as well as talking about the shapes seen in the classroom. May also brought lots more sunshine, and the discussion of shadows.
June is the last month of the school year, and brings with it the warmth of summer. This means the promise of more water works, and activities that can be done outside. Children will join in scrubbing tables and chairs outside, as well as washing the cars and bikes on the playground. The month also brings more new children into Celeste, as well as the transitioning of some friends into the Early Childhood program. It is always a wonderful thing to see the toddlers move onto the EC summer camps, and use all of the skills that they have gained through the toddler program. They will be missed, but seeing their smiling faces in their new classrooms is always enjoyed. As summer comes with the months of July - August the toddlers will keep to their normal schedules, but will partake in several of the summer camp themes. These themes include: stars and stripes, wheels, bugs, music, construction, farming, circus, and puppets. What a wonderful time of the year to spend more time outdoors, and have the toddlers enjoy art and cooking projects. Welcome to Celeste. This will be our new classroom name, as we join the rest of the school in having a Spanish color for our class name. The color celeste means sky-blue or light blue. Please help me and the toddlers of our classroom share our new name, Celeste!
April has been a great time of watching the toddler’s shine in their self-help skills. The children have been excelling in their toilet learning, as well as with their skills involved in dressing/undressing themselves. April also brought a few art projects our way, and the toddlers enjoyed gluing tissue paper onto foam cut outs of bunnies in our continuing celebration of Spring and sunshine. They also enjoyed using dot paints to explore the mixture of colors on paper. The book fair was a wonderful way to wrap up the month of April, and the toddlers enjoyed all of the new wonderful books donated to our classroom. Thank you to all involved! May is guaranteed to bring more exciting times to our classroom. This includes another fun art project to celebrate the toddler’s love for their mother during our Mother’s Day art project. The month will also bring an exploration of more of our toddler academics including such things as hands on use of magnets, sounding out more alphabet letters, and learning different types of shapes. This will all be done through puzzles, art projects, the sensory table, and circle time activities. Of course we also hope May brings more sunshine and the enjoyment of our outside play times. March brought some sunshine to our classroom, and beautiful flowers for the children to put into vases. The toddlers also enjoyed using chalk outside to add lots of color and pictures to our outdoor space! Indoors several art projects occurred involving the bright colors of orange and yellow, the coloring of frogs, and the use of a stamp pad to put lady bugs onto paper.
As we come back from Spring Break and head into the month of April there will be a large focus on self-help skills, as several of the children will be gaining their independence by toilet learning. Some children will continue to be great role models during this time to their peers, and other younger children will learn a lot through observation. The toddlers here at MCH are continuously achieving a greater sense of independence and it really is a joy to see their smiles of accomplishment! April also brings a great book fair to our community, and the continuing development of the toddlers to gain an even greater appreciation and joy for reading. |
Ms. TammiaEl Salon Celeste Lead Teacher Archives
October 2018
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Montessori Children's House
5003 218th Ave. NE Redmond, WA 98053 Phone: 425-868-7805 Fax: 425-502-6608 office@mchkids.com |
Founded in 1987
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