We're all welcoming spring and hoping for some warmer days. Birds are avidly visiting the feeders.

All of the benches have been beautifully painted with flowers, pictures and flags of the world. As you can see here, as each child's portion dries, Mrs. T masks it off so the next artist doesn't accidentally paint into or over someone's work. For that reason, the end result looks almost too good to be true, as one parent noted upon seeing the finished benches after her conference with us. We miss seeing them in the classroom, but whoever gets them will have a unique and lovely piece.

Here's the stool ready for PODS. Most of the class worked on just this piece. Mrs. T. showed them some paintings by Kieth Haring. They easily copied some of his images onto the stool. We have one more stool, a box and some frames to be decorated. I can't wait to see what the children come up with next! I suspect paintings may be musically inspired since this month brought all of our class the opportunity to play wind and string instruments and to see a wonderful program combining art with music.

As you see, February was busy. Aside from Valentine's Day, we celebrated Chinese New Year, making Chinese flags and making origami goldfish. We learned about George Washington and Abe Lincoln, who became the subject of some terrific portraits.

We're so thrilled with how well the children are decorating the wooden pieces and ceramic tea set that PODS will auction off.

Earlier this year, I introduced the class to my little How To Draw An Elephant book. Many of their drawings were still posted on our bulletin board when this project came up. Mrs. T asked several of those children to recreate their drawings on this chair (some are on the back). Then I showed the class some examples of patterns in print and on fabrics. After creating their own on paper, some of those children recreated their patterns as borders on the chair.

It's beautiful to see the care and concentration as each takes his/her turn. Currently they are working on the tea set and a step stool covered with frolicking figures.

ni hao (hello? in Chinese?)

Someone help, please. Tomorrow we begin learning about China. I've enlisted the help of three young scholars. Their expertise will be much appreciated. It will be an adventure!

Here are some pictures of friends.

Fire Drill !

One day last week a young child pulled the fire alarm. The entire school hurried outside. The fire trucks arrived and several firemen in full gear came into each classroom to ascertain our safety. Everyone was thrilled with the response to this unusual "fire drill". A large group of our boys huddled together watching the activity. One wide-eyed fellow looked toward the teachers and announced,"This is the most exciting day of my life!".

Above is a child working with the moveable alphabet and, on another day, making a large equilateral triangle with several smaller equilateral, isosceles and scalene triangles. Next is a child grading the tones of the bells.

Happy New Year !

Before the holiday the excitement of counting the chains of the squares and cubes of the numbers one through ten began spreading through the class. Upon the childrens' return to school this past week, the thrill of completing one chain then moving on to the next has continued. It's as much a joy for us as it is for the children to see their concentration and work pay off with happy exultations at the completion of each chain.

As always, our easel remains another popular spot in the room.

Wow! The weather outside is frightful. But the class has been delightfully understanding about not being able to play on the icy playground. The children are always so busy that lunchtime arrives before we realize that we haven't been out on the playground.

We did have a lot of fun learning about the Native Americans. The class discovered how easily fiber (twine) can be cut by laying it down on a stone then pounding it with another stone. That is how they cut the twine to sew their little canoes together. Then they each made a little clothespin Indian Brave and Squaw. Many brought in shoe boxes to create a diorama of a village. They cut, colored and pasted trees for a forest around their villages. With sticks glued around the edges of the box they made a fence to keep out the wild animals. Some made a longhouse and many made teepees to shelter the clothespin natives.

Everyone fashioned pots out of red clay. Next we'll try making coil pots.