Dear Parents,
Our Daled friends have been showing their artistic sides lately. The art easel is a place for them to express themselves with the paint and brush. We change the color after a week or so. The children experiment with moving their arms and hands in various ways in order to spread the paint across the paper. We typically do not send the paintings home unless the child specifically indicates that he or she has depicted someone or something, or has a lot of pride about it. The main focus of this work is refinement of their fine motor skills and exposure to a new medium.
At meal times and snack times, we have incorporated the use of placemats. We cut silicone placemats in half to size them appropriately. These placemats define the child’s space, helping them understand what is their food versus what their friends’ food is. In the Toddler and 3 to 6 classrooms, they will continue to use placemats for this purpose. This is similar to another Montessori staple of older classrooms— the rug. The rug helps to define a child’s workspace, and establishes a personal boundary that helps prevent interruptions from friends. Both placemats and rugs fulfill our little one's innate sense of order and offer an element of consistency as their materials change and their foods vary.
Welcome to Julian, the newest member of our Young Toddler community. Julian is 19 months old, and we are so happy to share our time with him!
We’ve made it through the bulk of January! The year is off to a great start.
Warmly,
Morahs Kathy, Pallavi, Rachael, Sarah, Marla, Leslie