Autumn Blessings!

We had such a joyful day with our Thanksgiving Meeting for Worship, filled with special reasons to be thankful, and a fun-filled morning with our Third Grade partners.  We are so blessed to be part of such an amazing community.  Wishing you all a lovely Thanksgiving and for many, a Happy Hanukkah as well.

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~ Winter Program ~

El Día y La Noche

The Day and The Night
An Abington Friends Lower School Winter Program
Friday, December 20, 2013 ~ 10:00 a.m.
Abington Friends School Muller Auditorium

~ Winter Program Concert Attire ~
All children, 3 years old through Grade 4 should dress in black shirts, long, black pants, and comfortable shoes.  Children are welcome to add a white accessory as a way to connect to our program theme (a white bowtie, white hair accessory, a white scarf, etc.)  We encourage children to be creative with this choice!  All children are encouraged to bring their concert attire clothing to school on Thursday prior to the program.  Children will be given the opportunity to change at school on Friday morning prior to the 10 a.m. performance.

Please note that all children will be involved in movement activities on stage and should wear pants and comfortable shoes (no heels please).  In addition, we ask that third and fourth graders wear black socks for their movement performances.

We look forward to celebrating our accomplishments with you on

Friday, December 20^th in our Muller Auditorium beginning at 10:00 a.m.

If you have any questions, please contact Aedín Larkin, alarkin@abingtonfriends.net or Jason Novak, jnovak@abingtonfriends.net.

Shining Pennies

Here are a few photos from our latest chemistry experiment in Kindergarten.  Is there any way to clean a penny once it gets dull over time?  That's the question that the Kindergarten students set out to answer last week.  We tried four different solutions to see if we could bring a shine back to our pennies.  Three of our solutions didn't work, but it was exciting when our last combination of vinegar, water and salt worked and made our pennies look new again!  Take a look on the experiment page of my blog if you'd like the recipe.  I'll post it there so you can try it at home.

Los Colores

In the last couple of classes we have studied los colores (colors) and what some of the objects, animals and food that we can find with those colors: manzana roja, pollito amarillo, pez azul (red apple, yellow chicken, blue fish). One of the activities we had was reading a book titled ¿Qué color? (What color?) where students were able learn and later identify colors in Spanish. Then, as follow up, they had to locate and bring back to circle andobject that had one of the colors that appeared in the book. Many used their clothing as an example of blanco, verde, negro (white, green, black).

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Paws for Reading!

We had a unique treat during book sharing this week!  Gus had his mom bring in one of their dogs, Franny, a reading therapy dog,  in honor of Gus' special week.  We loved Gus' book sharing but Franny was the real center of attention!!  Franny was discovered and rescued when Gus and Grace were just two years old.  Sometimes Franny likes to sleep on Gus' bed!  She is a sweetheart!

Celebrating Diwali

Anjali and her mom, Anu, enchanted us as they shared their traditions about Diwali, a festival of lights, celebrated throughout India and in many other countries around the world.  We heard about Prince Rama whose return after 14 years away was the beginning of Diwali, as lights were burning everywhere to welcome him home.  Fireworks and many kinds of lights bring the celebration to light.  Cards are written, houses cleaned, new clothes are purchased and sweet treats are baked.  We had a chance to eat some rice pudding which is a favorite!  Abby shared another book about Diwali and we saw a picture of India taken from a satellite during Diwali.  It was spectacular to see ALL the lights throughout the country!  After lunch the children were so excited that they wanted to wear the special clothing that Anjali brought in.  They created diyas using unifix cubes and then had a Diwali dance! This was an exciting beginning as we look into 'Celebrations of Light' and our 'Familly Traditions.'

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Some of our "Best Days Ever!"

Some of our most favorite days in kindergarten are the days when we get to spend time with our Third Grade Meeting partners or our friends in the Junior Class.  Our first engagement with the Third Graders was a community 'building' activity that gave us a glimpse of our soon-to-be Meeting partners.  Each student chose a block, shared some information about themselves, and then added the block to an ever changing structure. The result was fabulous!  There was a beautiful structure at the end and the children delighted in getting to know one another.  Now we look forward to our Wednesday mornings at Meeting for Worship with them and they even joined us for Choice Time one morning!

Our first time with the juniors was of course the all-time amazing Field Day.  Since then they have come down to visit us just before lunch on several Tuesdays.  The energy they exert playing with one another is, well, breath-taking!  The kindergartners are so excited, waiting with anticipation for the 'big kids' to  arrive.  And when they do, the kindergartners scream with joy. You can see that they enjoy spending time together!