Snow and Clouds

Originally published December 5th

Hello everyone,

We had a super fun week last week talking about clouds and weather, and playing in the first snow! We didn't go to the forest at all, but we still spent most of every day outside enjoying and exploring our world newly covered in white. Staying close to school also gave us a chance to get used to our full winter gear and make sure that everyone could stay comfortable outside in this newly wet and snowy season. We will venture back to the forest this week, and will continue to go periodically even in winter now that we have a hauling sled to bring our gear back and forth. Tomorrow looks relatively warm and rainy, with temps dropping on Tuesday and a chance of snow again on Wednesday. As always, thanks so much for all of the work that you do to make sure that your child is dressed appropriately!

Last week was wonderful for talking about clouds and weather. The sky really cooperated with so many lovely clouds in different concentrations and configurations every day. On Monday of last week we read Little Cloud by Eric Carle and watched the clouds. On Tuesday we read Cloudette, and talked about how clouds move weather. We did an activity with water and cotton balls and made our own rainstorms. On Wednesday we read an informational book about clouds and played a fun visual activity making clouds out of snow and identifying cloud types. We then pretended to be clouds together and made rain, snow and thunderstorms. We had a busy day on Thursday making cloud cookies (meringues), reading It Looked like Spilt Milk, and making cloud pictures with puffy paint. On Thursday morning we also learned about Hanukkah at circle and read some Hanukkah stories.

This coming week we will be beginning our preparation for welcoming winter and celebrating the solstice by focusing on darkness and rest. Next week we will be talking about the ways that we bring light into the darkness, and the week after that we celebrate the solstice and prepare for the upcoming holidays in our short week before the winter break.

Have a great week! May you be happy, May you be healthy, May you be peaceful, May you be filled with joy,

Jessica