Emeryville Elementary Work

We're planting seeds for botany work and our winter crop.

We're creating rhythm patterns and writing them down using rhythm notation.

I'm creating solutions and precipitation from a geography command card.

Elementary Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Here we are making traditional Mexican pan de muerto.

Cleaning up!

We made and decorated calaveras de azucar (sugar skulls).

Dia de los Muertos is for honoring our loved ones who have passed on with stories and ofrendas (offerings). Here we are decorating the altar.

Next we had a procession and lit the friendship candle. 

Time to eat the bread and drink some Mexican hot chocolate!

Emeryville Elementary Work

Chinese calligraphy requires focus and control.

Our Mother's Day Project

Last Sunday was Mothers' Day. Now that we are no longer in danger of spoiling the surprise, we would like to share with you some photos of the many steps we took to create the bracelets we gave our mothers!

The first thing we did was to make our own clay. For each batch of clay, we mixed 2 cups of baking soda, 1 cup of cornstarch, and 1 and one half cups of water into a cooking pot. While one of us stirred it over the burner, a friend added food coloring until we agreed that the tint was just right. The tutorial we read said that we would know the clay was ready when it looked like mashed potatoes.

When the clay had cooled, we took turns choosing our colors and rolling the clay into spheres, cylinders, hearts, and other shapes. Some of us liked to make beads from only one color, and some of us liked to blend colors. The line across our trays showed us how many beads we each needed to make.

The next step was to carefully bore a hole through each bead with a bamboo skewer. This part was tricky, because the clay was still soft! Then we let our beads dry for at least 24 hours.

After the beads were dry and hard, we threaded needles with elastic cord and sewed our bracelets.

We were all so excited to bring our gifts home to surprise our mothers! 

A Work of Heart: Painting our Christmas Canvases!

Students at the Emeryville campus love to paint, from the tempera colors we introduce in the Infant Community to the watercolor and acrylics used by the Children's House and Elementary. When a Montessori colleague suggested that small paintings might be an ideal gift for our students to give their parents, we were all immediately excited.
Our first step was to set a stage in our own minds for our work. We are only days away from the longest night of the year, and so we primed our canvases with Mars Black. This would make the colors we added later shine like jewels in the night.

Some of the children wanted to create a smooth, even surface; others were more interested in a thick impasto and experimenting with different brush strokes.

When the canvases were dry, it was time to add our colors. We selected a deep forest green, red, white, gold, and copper for the holiday project. The children discovered that, adding the metallic gold or copper to the white, red, or green added iridescence along with a shift in color. Word spread quickly after a first student's lucky accident that blending red and copper with a little white made a luminescent rose hue that many of the students wanted to try to replicate.

Christmas trees (both indoor and outdoor) were a popular theme, but we were surprised to hear some of the stories the children told us about their paintings. One boy described the sea lions he saw on the beach on a trip with his parents down the coast; another child pointed to an abstract swirl of copper in a white corner and said her grandfather was making "snow angels" for her underneath the trees.

 Now that our canvases our dry, we are ready to wrap them.
The children are so proud of what they have created, and so excited to present their parents with these gifts, that it has been difficult to convince them that we must wait until Friday!

Attention PRINTS Parents: Spring Break March 31st through April 4th

Dear PRINTS Families,

As a reminder, school will be closed for Spring Break from Monday, March 31st through Friday, April 4th.
Classes will resume on Monday, April 7th.

Thank you for your attention.

Attention PRINTS Parents: Parent-Teacher Conferences Friday, March 21st and 28th

Dear PRINTS Families,

Just as a reminder, the parent-teacher conferences will be held on 2 consecutive Fridays: March 21st and March 28th. Free childcare will be provided during your conference time.

Thank you for your attention.

A Day in the Life: Hina matsuri in San Mateo

For hina matsuri, or girls' day, we prepared presentations, food, and a display in the San Mateo hallway.



Here we are setting up Hinadolls for display.

We are describing the special foods we eat on girl's day to the Children's House children...

...any questions?

We enjoyed presenting our work in Japanese and hope the Children's House children enjoyed learning about this special day in Japanese culture.

Attention PRINTS Parents: Half-Day Friday, March 7th

Dear PRINTS Families,

This Friday, March 7th, all classes except those for the High School level will end at 12:30 pm. Lunch will be served at 11:30 am. Childcare is available for those enrolled in the No-class Childcare Package.

Thank you for your attention.

Attention PRINTS Parents: San Mateo Community Involvement Nights March 6th, 25th and 26th

Dear PRINTS Families,

Our March Community Involvement Nights will be held as follows:

• All levels – March 6th at 5:30 p.m
• EC – March 25th at 5:00 p.m
• HS – March 26th at 6:00 p.m

The CIN this Thursday is entitled "Developing the Mind for Well-being; a dance between children and adults." This CIN is open to all levels and we encourage you to join us!

The EC CIN on March 25th will be on Leadership.
The HS CIN on March 26th will be the students' Science Fair.

Thank you for your attention! We look forward to your participation!

A Day in the Life: Gardening in Emeryville

The rest of the country may be in the middle of winter, but here in Emeryville, we're getting started on our Spring planting!
Over the past two weeks, we have...
* completed the first two steps in the month-long process of making our own Bokashi composting Effective Microorganism mixture (this involved careful measuring and pouring, a little bit of math, and a whole lot of waiting);
* created our own illustrated planting calendar poster for the classroom wall that details what we can plant during each month of the year (based on the information in Golden Gate Gardening by Pamela Peirce);
* started three trays of vegetable seeds (snow peas, carrots, and mixed lettuces)...

... and weeded the itchy, nettle-like leaves out of the planting bed next to our picnic tables.

Before Spring Break, we hope to transplant our seedlings into the vegetable garden, water them with our collected greywater, and nourish them with the lactobacillus curd from the bokashi-making process.

We love gardening!

Attention PRINTS Parents: Presidents' Day, Monday, February 17

Dear PRINTS Families,

Presidents’ Day is Monday, February 17th
School will be closed to honor all U.S. Presidents.

Thank you for your attention.

Attention PRINTS Parents: Staff Development Day, Friday, February 14

Staff Development Day, Friday, February 14th

Classes will not be held due to faculty and management professional development. Childcare is not available for this day.

Thank you for your attention.

A Day in the Life: Emeryville Mochi Pounding on January 17th

We celebrated Japanese New Year with Mochi Pounding in Emeryville

Here we are grinding sesame seeds to prepare the Mochi seasoning.

The children in all levels enjoyed the Mochi pounding.

Thank you to the parents volunteers!

A Day in the life: Doing our part during California's drought: Collecting graywater!

This week, children at the Emeryville campus have been discussing their observations about the unusual weather this winter and how it is much warmer and drier than usual. We talked about what the word "drought" means: how there isn't enough rain and the rivers and lakes and reservoirs are low, and there isn't much snow or ice on California's mountains. One child concluded that this meant that "there wouldn't be any ice to melt in the springtime, and that's bad, because the plants and animals need it." This led to suggestions about what we could all do to help California conserve water as Governor Brown has requested. "Well, we could stop watering the garden, because that uses a lot of water," one child offered. "No, because then all the plants would die," another said. We then arrived at the idea of saving the water we use in the classroom for Practical Life work and lunch clean-up instead of pouring it out. When we go outside at 1:00, we pour the water from the graywater bucket into watering cans and use them to water the plants in the Sensorial and Vegetable Gardens. Thursday and Friday of this week, our class re-used eight gallons of graywater in our garden! We invite you to continue this discussion at home, and even to consider a graywater collection bucket of your own.

We have already continued the discussion across campuses. Children in San Mateo have discussed all the different ways in which we use water. They discovered independently that there are a lot more ways in which water is utilised than one might initially think. Drinking, bathing, washing... these are just some ways in which we use water. Paying attention to how we wash our hands and utilising a graywater bucket like our friends in Emeryville are simple ways we can conserve water. We are trying to think of more ways in which we can conserve, so hopefully you can help us brainstorm more ways at home!

Attention PRINTS Parents: Spring Festival Rehearsal and Celebration, Thursday, February 6th and Friday, February 7th

Dear PRINTS Families,

The sixteenth annual PRINTS Spring Festival Celebration will take place in the auditorium of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Temple Hill in Oakland on Friday, February 7th at 10 a.m. All family members and friends are cordially invited to attend. School tuition includes two electronic tickets per student. Additional tickets can be purchased in the Management office: children under 5: free, children 5 – 15 years: $5, adults: $20.

All students aged four and older will attend the Spring Festival’s dress rehearsal in the auditorium of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Temple Hill in Oakland from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 6th. Transportation details will be sent out by email and will be available on the PRINTS website.

Attention PRINTS Parents: Chinese New Year, Friday, January 31st

Dear PRINTS Families,

School will be closed on Friday, January 31st to honor the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar. This day is traditionally reserved for visiting family and celebrating the new year together. Let us welcome 2014, the Year of the Horse.

Attention PRINTS Parents: Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Observed, Monday, January 20th

Dear PRINTS Families,

School will be closed to honor the civil rights leader and his mission to demand desegregation, justice and equality for all through non-violent means.

Attention PRINTS Parents: Emeryville Mochi Pounding, Friday, January 17th

Mochi Pounding, Friday, January 17^th

Mochi pounding is a traditional way Japanese people celebrate the New Year. All children will participate in mochi pounding on January 17. More information will be sent out later.

Attention PRINTS Parents: San Mateo Community Involvement Nights January 16th at 5 pm and 6 pm

Dear PRINTS Families,

Our January Community Involvement Nights will be held on January 16th. The theme for IC, CH and EC will be Second Language Acquisition and will be held at 5 p.m., and the theme for HS will be Creative Expression and will be held at 6 p.m.

We look forward to seeing you there!