November 2018
Dear Parents,
The wait is nearly over, our 2018 Celebration of Light and Love music performances begin next week. Tuesday will be our River classroom and Thursday our Forest classroom. The following week we will have Evergreen on Tuesday and Aspen on Thursday. River, Forest and Evergreen will be at the Lafayette public library and Aspen will take place in our great room at Treehouse. We are looking forward to seeing you all there as well as any of our alumni that are able to attend.
At Treehouse we believe it is important to celebrate and learn about the many holiday traditions that occur this time of year. Over the years the children anticipate and are very excited to return to the familiar stories and songs of the season. It isn’t unusual for me to hear, “I love that book” when these books return for season. This month we looked at Thanksgiving with the song and story book, “Over the River and Through the Woods.” I also brought in story books and a song for Diwali, Chanukah, and of course, “Frosty the Snowman.” Our animal sounds this month centered around the animals featured in the Over the River book and include a horse walking, trotting, and galloping; a dog barking, a church bell and some sheep. I love to have them compare the traditions of these holidays to see how we all have much in common with each other.
The favorite activities in the toddler classrooms are typically animal sounds, storybooks, and movement. This month we combined animal sounds with the sounds from the books and also allowed them the choose animal sounds they wanted to listen to. Birch was especially fond of hearing the animal sounds that went with their animal toys in the classroom. For our movement activities we reviewed their favorites and also marched to some songs from the Nutcracker. The “Trot, Trot, Trot” song still remains very popular. I usually begin each class with a short time of singing or chanting. The Mountain classroom likes nursery rhymes action songs and finger plays. The toddler classrooms are learning songs of love and friendship, and the preschool classes are learning the songs for Light and Love. River is also learning about Santa Lucia which they will share with the other classrooms.
As always, I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at our concerts. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very happy holiday season.
Ms. Kathleen