December Recap:

Our school had a fantastic month studying our Celebration Around the World theme in December. We reviewed holidays celebrated worldwide, such as Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Christmas. With each holiday, the children learned new Montessori jobs and created artwork to express each. Our literary focus was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. This book taught the children the value of giving gifts to loved ones and not expecting anything in return aside for provided happiness to one another. Each class completed an art activity that followed the book's concept; seeing each classroom's interpretation was nice. 

We also had many different events that took place. Our Giving Tree donations went so well this year, all our gift tags were taken, and we were able to spread holiday cheer to two teenagers. We welcomed families into the school for our yearly Holiday Performances, where each class performed two rehearsed songs and dances. We were all pleased by the turnout and participation from the parents. We also celebrated our holiday spirit week with fun days such as a crazy sweater, crazy socks, a favorite holiday hat, and pajama day. We even got a visit from Santa Clause, and all our friends enjoyed talking to Santa and telling him what we wanted for Christmas. Enrichments were also full of interesting subjects such as Edgar Degas, Piotr Tchaikovsky, Holiday snacks, computer lessons, seasons, and months in Spanish. We hope that everyone had a memorable holiday season as we did here with our exceptional students. 

January News:

In January, our theme will be Winter Snow & Ice. Our students are learning about the change of climate and how that affects animals in the Winter months. We will have activities that tie in these concepts and a project based on the book of the month, The Mitten, by Jan Brett. Our extracurriculars will be back in full swing with Soccer Shots and Webby Dance; if you want more information or sign up, please check out the flyers at the front office.

We look forward to another fantastic year here at San Clemente Montessori!