We are now two weeks past Halloween and two weeks until Thanksgiving. While October in Austin is a busy time with ACL Festival, Formula 1 and Halloween (and we also have our camping trip), October pales to the excitement of the weeks from Thanksgiving through New Years. At school, we embrace as many holidays as […]
Category: holidays
Holiday Art & Cheer
December is always so busy. With all of the events, shopping, travel and more it can be hard to keep up. With adults so busy, even the children can get drawn into it and feel an extra level of excitement. This year, more than most years, our kiddos have been drawn to the classroom’s art […]
Sugar and Spice and…
This year, we had a special lesson on the sense of smell. In particular, gingerbread cookies.
Gratitude all around us
This month we are particularly grateful for our community. October and November have not at all been normal months for us, but with flexible teachers and parents, the kids have had a wonderful time.
We Love October
October brings not just the cooler weather, but we are finally settling in after the start of the school year. We get to go camping together. We enjoy the playground more and more. Of course, October also means Halloween our classroom turns orange and we start to see witches and ghosts and pumpkins everywhere!
Love is all around us
Today may be Valentine’s Day, but we’ve been talking about it for several days already and no doubt it will last into next week. Here is a glimpse are saying and doing this week…
Pumpkin Carving
We had so much fun making our Jack-O-Lanterns this morning! It definitely takes a village of varied talents to accomplish carving 7 pumpkins in one morning. Above all, you need an amazing parent community. Many thanks to the two parents who were able to help. Their patience and organization made it all possible. It takes […]
Happy Birthday, MLK
Monday might be his holiday, but today MLK would have turned 92. In honor of this event, and so that our young students might be aware of why Monday is a holiday, this morning we read a book about him, Martin’s Big Words (by Rappaport and Collier). (Note: for our ages, the story is abridged, […]
‘Tis the Season
Our holiday materials are back It’s December, and that means cooler weather and new works on our shelves. After a month of smashing golf tees into pumpkins and learning the parts of a turkey, now we’ve moved on to cutting out snowflakes, learning the parts of a snowman and sorting wreaths and candy canes. but… […]
Halloween Fun
This morning everyone arrived in costume for some Halloween fun with witches & skeletons, turtles & sharks, Batman & Violet, and even a unicorn and an entomologist! We can’t lie, we missed our usual costume parade, Sing-a-Long and Parent Social and other fun from yesteryear, but kids love their pretend play and of course costumes […]
Happy New Year
新年快樂 !! Back by popular demand… Many thanks to the Grandma of one of our students for her wonderful lesson on the Lunar New Year. We learned about dragons, dumplings, firecrackers, and how at this time of year it’s nice to get a haircut and visit friends and relatives! Best of all, everyone got a […]
Dia de los Meurtos
At HMS, we regularly talk with children about death as part of the natural life cycle. After all, the children have seen dead bugs, some have had pets die or have even experienced death in the family. Death is a part of life so this is not a topic that we shy away from when […]