During the month of February, the Amarillo children took a look at the provinces, animals, and flowers of Canada.

We enjoyed our Valentine's Day celebration of the exchanging of cards, and lessons in gardening with Ms. Katherine returned as part of our weekly routine.

A surprise snow day at the end of the month pushed our one hundredth day of school to the last day of February. We celebrated the day with a special art activity. 
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In March, we will be talking about all kinds of transportation, and looking for signs of Spring as the weather slowly improves and buds appear on the campus.

The children of Amarillo began the month of January delighted to renew their friendships, and ready to try new lessons in the classroom.

During our lessons at circle time, we learned about animals of the rainforest and what kind of plants grow there.

We continued to enjoy our lessons in art, music, and Spanish.

We conducted a science experiment with carnations in colored water, observing what happened to the flowers as they sat in the water. 

I have volunteer opportunities in the classroom for readers, or for parents willing to listen to our burgeoning readers. Please see Bloomz for the signup opportunities or contact me with any questions. 

Thank you for being sure to label your child's items of clothing. With weather changing so frequently in our Pacific Northwest climate, children do tend to remove layers when it warms up and it can be challenging to find owners of stray items. Speaking of strays, please do send back any forks or spoons that wander to home to you.

If other tiny items, like marbles or small cubes, find their way home, they may be a crucial part of a classroom set of a material so please do let us know if you find those among your child's belongings. 
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Next month, we will begin a look at our own continent of North America, with an emphasis on Canada. We will also spend a little time on Valentine's Day (watch for school emails on how we celebrate) and President's Day, and by the end of the month we expect to celebrate our hundredth day of school!

In the month of November, the Amarillo class began our study of foods and nutrition. We sampled different apple flavors, and chose our favorites. For Thanksgiving, we made a friendship fruit salad from everyone's favorite fruits and enjoyed it together. 

We will continue our discussion of healthy foods in December, and hope to do some food preparation together as well. We will also look at the different holidays that people celebrate in the month of December. 

We have enjoyed some rather wet recesses lately; the children often choose to change socks or pants after recess. Thank you, parents, for keeping your child's clothing box stocked with changes of clothes to facilitate those changes. Please remember to put your child's name on any garment that comes to school so that we are able to reunite any stray jacket, sweater, or mittens with the correct owner! 
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At this time of year I take time to reflect on the many blessings in my life. The opportunity to work with your children each day is certainly one of those blessings! Thank you for your support and your trust. I wish you all happiness and peace as we enter what is for many people a very busy time of year.