The Orcas do a lot of cooking. One day we took the two sugar pumpkins that surprised us by growing under our sunflowers in the garden. We cut them into pieces and cooked them until they were soft. We were going to make a pumpkin pie! We added some ingredients we didn't know about, like sweetened condensed milk. We bravely tasted it, and it was yummy!

We added other ingredients and used a hand mixer to mix them all together. It took some work to use this hand mixer, but we helped each pther out.

Teacher Ellen invited all of the Orca friends to help bake the pie, but it was these four boys who said yes. We put the pie crust in the pan and then used our forks to crimp the edges.

Here's the pie, ready to go in the oven,

and her's the finished pie. After letting it cool, we cut it up and squirted on whipped cream. Most of us really liked it.

At ICP we try to think about how to take care of the world and the people, creatures and plants that share it. We talked about how we always have food to eat, but some families do not. We held a school-wide cereal drive and collected lots of boxes of cereal! We counted and sorted the cereal, and then helped to load it into a friend's car to deliver to the food bank. We also collected pet food for them.

We learned a song about the little things:

"It's the little things that you do,

It's the little things that I do, too,

It's the little things, we do together,

That make this world a little better,

It's the little things."

We tried to have a little thing, and act of kindness, to do every day in December. One day we wrote happy words and then candy cane bombed the parking lot, leaving our notes and candy canes on the car windshields. We planted beautiful daffodil bulbs in front of our school.

First we divided into teams, each with an adult, and then we worked with our team to find good places for the bulbs.

We can hardly wait until spring to see the happy flowers. What a surprise for the other children at preschool!

During this dark time of yearwe learn about the winter solstice. We also learn about how other people bring light into the dark by putting up Christmas lights, or lighting Advent wreaths or menorahs. We made quiet lanterns and practiced being calm and quiet as we thought about others each day.

One little thing we did was bake a lot of cookies to share.

Look how many we made! We packaged some up and shared them with the different people who work and learn in the church where our school is. We also packaged them up to take to a friend's or neighbor's house. It was really difficult for the 4 and 5 year olds to remember that those cookies they took home were for sharing with someone else and bringing some light into their day.

We learned about Hanukkah. This story is told at school about people who built a beautiful temple where they could sing their songs and tell their stories. They kept a lamp lit in the temple to show their happiness. We built a wonderful temple using all of our blocks. It took a lot of cooperation.

But the King did not like the people singing their songs or telling their stories because they were different than his, so he sent his army to tear down the temple. The children really could relate to someone knocking down something that was special to them. Of course, the magic of the lamp burning really captivated them, too.

Ice Day was delayed because of snow, which was a surprise to all of us! We drew pictures and wrote about who would live in an ice castle, and then we built one from the ice we had brought.

We learned songs about fire that used sign language, and we lit real candles in circle.

On St Lucia Day we learned about Lucia who carried bread to the starving people who had to hide down in a dark cave. Because her hands were full with the tray of bread, she wore candles in a wreath on her head so she could see her way in the dark cave.

St Lucia Day is a Scandinavian tradition. We made candle crowns, and baked Lucia buns, which are specially shaped rolls decorated with raisins. Then we had a parade, with the oldest girl in class leading it with the tray of rolls.

We all followed with our star wands and crowns.

We each got a little bag of frosting to squirt on our rolls.

We also had hot chocolate. Yum!

In January we made glitter jars. We learned that sometimes our feelings and energy get all stirred up like the glitter when we shake our jars. We lie quietly and watch the glitter slowly settle to the bottom, thinking about our breathing and being calm and quiet.

Sometimes we place the jars on our soft bellies as we lie on our backs and take deep breaths. This helps us become aware of breathing in to fill our bellies. This mindfulness practice helps us be calmer in the classroom, and will help us when we have big emotions.

Writing opportunities abound in the Orca class. We are learning the letters that are most important to us, those in our names. We sign in every day, or check in with our names. We write our names on everything. One day we used ABC stones to write our names, and then we used number stones and dot stones to figure out how many letters we have in our names. We write in our journals almost every day, and we have been busily writing puppet shows by drawing and dictating a story board first.

There are so many different materials and activities at school to practice our budding skills. This boy made a face out of magnetic cubes, and then copied it with his own face.

Social skills can be the most challenging for this age. Children this age really want to play together, and cooperative play is blossoming. This kind of play is also called "mature social play" and it is a fantastic way to develop self-regulation skills. Cooperative play is defined by the verbal script. The children talk through the play, almost more than actually playing. Everyone has a role, and they must hold in their minds how the king, baby, or fire fighter would act. They have to be flexible as the themes develop during the play. They need to be able to listen and add to the ideas, and problem solve with the other children involved. Here a group is trying to play together with the fairies and animals in the fairy land.

The Orcas art is really developing as well. After reading a story where a group of children painted a mural, we decided we wanted to make one, too. How to get everyone's ideas on one piece of paper, and in a way that makes sense? They had to listen and coordinate their efforts as they drew together on a large piece of paper.

Then they worked together to paint the mural with liquid watercolors. It turned out fabulously! It hangs on our wall at school, and even the little children have liked it. Next we will write a story about the mural.