BRRRRRRR! We came in Monday morning to no heat! Mr. Gaskill came and got the old furnace up and running, but we wore our coats for the first hour. Our fish were torpid. They were just lying at the bottom of the tank. We added hot water and up they swam-just fine!

Simon didn't change out of his coat after it warmed up. He decided it was too chilly. He is cutting napkins for snack.

We have added seasonal items to Practical Life. We are spooning whole cloves. We are dry pouring dried orange peel. We are crumbing with some holiday potpourri. We have candy cane designs in the embroidery work.

We love our Hanukkah song about Field Mice. We are really very good at singing it now, and we couldn't wait to teach it to Sarah, who had been away on a trip. First we asked her to teach us another German song, and she did. Then we taught her our Field Mice song. Children are learning about pitch and holding the half note. Next week we will enjoy some traditional Hanukkah foods: Challah (just like the mice!), latkes, and applesauce.

We have taken all of our beautiful little leaves out of our press, and laminated them and cut them out for necklaces. Children did the whole process and love sewing the leaves.

The Bank Game is a Montessori classic, and is very popular with this group of children. There are variations, but this game has a teller, and customers, and a banker. The customers have to line up and wait patiently. They say, "Good morning" to the teller who says, "May I help you?" (or something like that..) The customer gets number cards of various units, tens, hundreds and thousands and says, "I need...(amount). The teller gets the bead amounts from the banker and counts them over to the customer. Some of the children initiate this game daily.

We introduced some Christmas symbols. We have a small model of an evergreen tree and a small St. Nicholas statue. They are man-made. We also have a beautiful menorah. We have added a beautiful, hand-painted creche for acting out the story of the Good Shepherd. Townes asked about where the little drummer boy was..."remember...he had no gift to bring?"

Some conversations....

"Where do you think Roman Numerals came from?" ---"a factory!"

...and when Miss Chris visited..."Remember, Miss Chris is Mim's baby?" "No!!!" "Yes, she came out of Mim's tummy long ago."..."Well...I camed out of my mommy's tummy too, and I was in there at her wedding!"

John is trying to trace a gingerbread man. Laci is using a small strawberry huller to do transfer work. (tonging)

We made a "tintinanbulation." We put many types of bells on our rug. We each selected one and practiced our line walking together. "Sometime when you are outside, and it is cold, you might hear a tintinabulation. Maybe it will be a church bell. Maybe it will be a chime. What else could it be?"

vocabulary..."ringing" "jingling" "tinkling"

Three brushes at once?

We are learning to dance the Hora. These steps are tricky for us, but we can do it. (Step left, cross back, step-kick left. Step right, cross back, step-kick right.) We have the Hora on our Jewish Odyssey CD and on our folkdances so we recognize it right away.

Rocks are being polished in the studio: rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle...

Some of the older children decided this morning to sort and organize and clean all of the musical instruments. This is a big task! They were occupied for a long time, categorizing, checking the various sounds that each instrument makes, talking about the materials used to make the instrument... They were also engaged in discussing and debating exactly how the work should be done. (very kindergarten!)

IT'S GRACIE'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!!

Gracie's dad came and told us a good story all about Grace. One of her favorite things to do is make cookies with mama, (and taste the batter,) and play "Get me daddy," but now she can run so fast daddy can't catch her!

Gracie went around the sun five times with our globe!

We enjoyed cookies that Michael and the children baked. (Grace said, "Dad made TWO mistakes!!!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACIE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

We have been talking about "celebrations." People all over our world celebrate. We shared ways that people celebrate, and our group of children were able to think of many of the ways all by themselves. (We gather, we eat, we enjoy music, we dance, we decorate ourselves...) The children could not think of the last thing that people everywhere use to celebrate. It was fire! Then they laughed, because we always light a candle at birthdays, and they forgot that!!! We celebrate our human lives on Earth.

And speaking of celebrations...our children know every word to our song called "FIELD MICE" by Mr. Sanford Jones. Sing along...

"The party's over, the party's over, and we didn't even get an invitation. The party's over, the party's over, and we didn't get to join the celebration.

We heard the laughter, we heard the singing, Cold and hungry we were shiv'ring in the snow. The storm was brewing, the wind was howling, and we didn't have a single place to go.

And so we waited, and we waited, 'til the last guest had left the house. And then we crept in, then we crept in, we were quiet as a mouse! Challah bread crumbs, Challah bread crumbs, what a tasty first class treat. Party time now, party time now, Challah bread crumbs can't be beat!"

FAVORITE THINGS...Some of our kindergarten children who have been with us since they were sooooo small are really "getting a kick" out of the little ones this year. We were really involved in our work this morning, and Addie was just singing as she worked. Other little ones heard her and piped in. They were singing "potty's over, potty's over, and we didn't even get a 'tation." Sarah and Townes kept glancing over at Mim and exchanging "wizened" glances of enjoyment. Just wonderful...

Sarah is embroidering.

We enjoyed bagels today. Garett and Jaden said, "What are these things again? They're really good."

Jackson is squaring bead square chain of four. Ben..."Yeah...he's squaring four..."

Josie enjoys pastels.

Our playdough is brown. It smells like gingerbread! We can make pretend cookies.

Heloooooo there Julia!

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