Year of the Fire Horse!

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè, Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái – Happy New Year and Wishing You Good Fortune!

Our Grade 4 through 6 Mandarin students kicked off the Chinese New Year celebrations by preparing over 600 vegetable dumplings, which, along with other delicious Chinese dishes created by our Chefs, were enjoyed by the entire school during a special festive lunch. Meanwhile, our younger students had fun practicing their Mandarin skills by crafting Play-Doh dumplings, listening to stories about why red and firecrackers are essential for Chinese New  Year Celebration and making colorful Chinese New Year crafts. As part of the celebration, all Mandarin students received traditional Red Envelopes to mark the New Year of the Fire Horse.

     A special thank you to Unquowa parent Mrs. Toolan, who visited the 5th and 6th grade Mandarin class to share insights into Chinese New Year traditions. The students had a great time taking turns wearing the festive dragon costume and dancing around the classroom!

     Throughout our two-week celebration, Mandarin students across all grade levels showcased their language skills with performance on the school assembly. Their songs were filled with wishes of good luck and health for the New Year. Adding to the joyous spirit of the occasion, everyone came to school dressed in red!

    Enhancing our foreign language program, this cultural experience is always a festive and delicious highlight of the year that our Unquowa community looks forward to celebrating.

The Beauty of Being Unique

Our PreK students recently discovered the bold and imaginative world of Kimmy Cantrell, an Atlanta-based artist known for his vibrant mixed media works, ceramic masks, and expressive sculptures. Inspired by African artistic traditions and Cubism, Cantrell creates faces that are beautifully asymmetrical, filled with exaggerated features, bright colors, and even found objects.

One of Cantrell’s most meaningful philosophies is the idea that beauty does not have to follow traditional rules. His art challenges standard ideas of perfection and reminds us that there is beauty in imperfection and individuality.

Inspired by his work, our PreK class designed their own unique masks using patterned paper, paint, and cardboard. Students were encouraged to take artistic risks , placing eyes, mouths, and other facial features wherever they felt they belonged rather than where they “should” go. The result was a joyful collection of colorful, creative faces that celebrate differences and self-expression.

Through this project, our young artists learned an important lesson: art does not have to be perfect to be beautiful. Sometimes, it is our differences that make us shine the brightest.

The “Bear” Necessities

Once a story unit starts, it takes over! We find ways to weave our fairy tale into every subject of the day. Our latest story was Goldilocks and the Three Bears so fittingly our science focus was bears but we didn’t stop there! We used bears for math, taking out our trusty bear counters. Friday’s math game was bingo bears. Bears became our mindfulness inspiration too as we learned to breathe like bears. We created cardboard tube bears and paper bag caves to remind us how to breathe deeply and relax our bodies. As our culminating activity for this unit we had a teddy bear picnic! Everyone brought in a favorite stuffed animal and we spread out a tablecloth on the floor to share bear themed books and snacks with our special friends. I had each child draw a line down the center of a paper plate and practice counting to divide each snack equally between them. Good news though, the toys didn’t eat much so the kids got to have all the snacks! In a surprise that I wish I had planned, the Unquowa lunch menu was picnic Friday so while the class was at Art, I moved the tablecloth to the table and surprised the class by having our visitors join us for lunch!

A Blank Canvas

What better time to learn about snow? Our PreK explorers have been studying snow and snowflakes using math, literacy, science and art activities. We observed photos of snowflakes under microscopes to learn about their unique shapes. We then recreated them using pattern blocks, craft sticks and even pompoms- handled with tweezers for extra fine motor practice. We learned the scientific reasons for why it snows and about the value of snow for animals and humans. We read lots of stories about snowmen including one that imagines how famous artists would create them. This inspired us to decorate some snowmen in the styles of our favorite artists. We complied lots of hours of field study, examining snow in its natural habitat. We could not resist the blank canvas it provided for snow paint art!

Fun Friday: Our Vote, Our Game!

Fun Friday is the BEST part of the week in PE class. Why? Because we get to pick the game by voting. That’s right—we all have a say!

From freeze tag to sink the ship, pinball to bean bag toe touch, students shared their favorite game and the winning choice took over the gym. Once it started, the energy was off the charts! Laughter, cheering, and teamwork were everywhere as we all jumped in and played our hearts out.

Fun Friday isn’t just about games—it’s about making choices, working together, and having a blast while being physically active. We can’t wait to see what game we’ll vote for next week!

Action Art!

This month the PreK students are learning about Jackson Pollack and we couldn’t sit still for these activities! Jackson created art by splashing paint, splattering paint and even throwing paint. His body was always in motion when he made his action art. First we made Jackson Pollack shirts by squeezing fabric paints onto plain white shirts. We used the playground bridge as elevation to create paint splatter masterpieces. Fittingly our story this month is The Three Billy Goats Gruff which has a bridge as a central feature. We made trees out of brown paper bags and used a splatter technique to add different colored “leaves” to represent the different seasons. In a mindfulness art activity we conveyed the emotions music gave us using just one crayon. Things got even messier when we made our own paint color by filling up squeeze bottles and drizzling them over cardboard. I learned my lesson after bridge painting that paper can’t hold up to this much paint! For our last action art activity we did string paintings. We dipped strings into different colors of paint and then pressed it between two pieces of white paper. These will become colorful feathers for an artist tribute turkey!