LCG 1/11/05

Hi all,

It was nice to be back in class today. We missed Allysa though.

We started with our opening verse and songs. Then we sat down to do beanbag passing-- we did our 3's times table, which is going well. I introduced a new song which we'll use for our 4's.

The children seem to love their beanbags--we might try to make beanbags one of these weeks so they can take some home.

We sang a bit, and played recorder. Let me know if you ever want me to show you a song on recorder so that you can work with your child at home.

For form drawing we continued with our mirror images. Then we used our bodies and tried a challenging yoga balance pose-- tree pose.

Melissa was helping sub for Julia, so we were on our own for handwork. Everyone seems to be knitting well. I'd like to move forward with our knitted squares for our class blanket.

This then led into a discussion of the tsunami-- all of the children seem to be aware of what happened. They shared what they know, and also expressed a desire to help. I'd love to work on a class project-- we talked about each trying to raise money, perhaps by shoveling snow, or helping a neighbor with errands.

Molly mentioned that her church is organizing a drive to collect basics like soap, toothpaste, washcloth, etc. Let me know if you have thoughts on how to organize this. I know the need is great, and ongoing, and I'd love to see the evergreens contribute.

After snack we had a nice long time to jump rope, and work up some heat. Then we sat down for main lesson. Now we begin our second main lesson-- Lives of Saints (or amazing people). We started with one of my favorites, St. Francis. The children modelled beeswax from the story. It looks like St. Francis and the Wolf will be our play. We'll start reading it through next week.

We ended with some clapping games, rotating partners so they can all work with each other.

For the winter, if there is snow, and it's not too cold, I wouldn't mind ending class a few minutes early so the children can play in the snow. Let me know if this works for you, or if it doesn't, if you'd be able to come a few minutes early for dismissal.



Soren did great when I dropped her off, despite my fears that 3 weeks off would have left her w/ separation anxiety again. I went and bought her a cursive book, but don't like it and want to order one like Emma's for her.

Soren is reading her way through the Junie B. Jones series right now and Emma is listening to the LOTR trilogy on CD (thanks David!) and finishing reading the HP books.

Emma did some serious fraction work on Monday, with common denominators and mulitiplying and dividing - I don't think I'm doing a very good job of teaching it logically. I need to look at a book about it, so she doesn't get confused.