First, I have to start out by saying that being around all these bright, happy, and joyful children is such a pleasure. While it's my job, I love it! Those eager faces are precious and  the excitement on their faces when they get something? So rewarding.

And that leads me to the last two weeks. The youngest class had so much fun and yes, preschools can really work together without tears and without fights. We read a story from Sesame Street called, "Big Bird Shares". In the story Big Bird gets a new toy that he doesn't want to share and by the end he learned that sharing his toy led to making something even greater than he could have made on his own. So, our kids worked together and built this (plus many more like it): 

And they were very, very busy!     The Special Places class  talked about how it is getting darker now that the days are getting shorter.  They talked about light and dark and what animals do at this time of year to find warmth and shelter.  They read a book about animals in their homes during the winter.  They also had a pumpkin which was their house for light.  The kids drew a shape on the pumpkin which was cut out and then they talked about light and shadows.  With extra time and with brought in  blankets the kids  created their own dens.   The following week was a special week as it was NoVES' Fall membership meeting. We knew attendance would be a bit lighter so we decided on a service project - actually, a couple service projects. Our first service project was to stuff bears and prepare them for children who needed to go to the hospital. These 7 children (one not pictured) made 42 bears!     Then they made cards. These cards will be sent to members who might need a special little note for when they are sick. What a better pick me up than a card made by a child?   We have a lot of other exciting things coming up too. This upcoming week is our annual Stone Salad Fall Festival. The children will remain with the adults for this platform and will participate in making the stone salad (which they always get a kick out of). We will have our monthly slideshow too which will include little blips of children's thoughts on what they are thankful for.   Also, we are starting rehearsal for our Winter Festival. The children will sing "Paz y Libertad" from the book and CD De Colores by Jose-Luis Orozco.   One of the other exciting things is that we are starting a fourth class. We are opening a toddler class for our 1-3 year olds. Our numbers have grown for this youngest set, so the demand is there. We are very excited to be able to offer a class for this age group for the first time.