Calm, light and grateful-to-giving filled hearts this holiday season.
Winter is Coming
BY Jim LaMarche
Dawn burns the sky.
A flock of wild turkeys jostles by.
They pike everywhere, muttering food, food, food.
We can learn from animals, my father says.
About patience. About truth. About quiet.
About taking only what you need from the land because we are just its keepers.
I pay attention to the wild turkeys.
Suddenly the wild turkeys flurry away without warning.
Winter is coming.
- Happy Holiday Break No School: December 22 -January 1
- Please help how you can this Holiday Season & Donate a New Toy(s) & Books and warm coats, footwear, family holiday meals to local or extended Holiday Drives through local organizations-drives for children and families.
- Klahanie School will be making a monetary donation in the name of all the children to the Vashon-Maury Island Food Bank.
December 2025 Topics
- Winter Solstice and Festivals of Light
- Giving Back ideas to mini-projects through the explorations of what the meaning of donations, and making daily efforts in the Little Things we do to help our communities.
- Stars, Snowflakes: the intricacies and science wonders of their geometric messaging, and the sciences of stars.
- Mysteries and wonders of the Moon and lunar activities and Incredible Dr. Neal deGrasse Tyson
Startalk Podcast: Cosmic Queries Lunar Geology with Dr. Neal deGrasse Tyson
December 2025 Topics
- Winter Solstice and Festivals of Light
- Giving Back ideas to mini-projects through the explorations of what the meaning of donations, and making daily efforts in the Little Things we do to help our communities.
- Stars, Snowflakes: the intricacies and science wonders of their geometric messaging, and the sciences of stars.
- Mysteries and wonders of the Moon and lunar activities and Incredible Dr. Neal deGrasse Tyson
Startalk Podcast: Cosmic Queries Lunar Geology with Dr. Neal deGrasse Tyson
Introduction to felting and weaving and art through nature
Introduction to Identity Exploration Self Portraits: Our discussions will include awareness-introduction of pronouns and binary identified in our community. Please review the Antibias film and handbook for detailed study and methodology within Early Education settings and beyond–the work is very adaptable. We will use guidance foundations from Antibias and our local DOVE’s Prevention Specialist to best practice inclusive language and age appropriate practices for inclusive conversation. This will be gentle exploration throughout the school year, how we feel inside (deep emotions and light emotions), our awareness of self and classmates-teachers, and also awareness of the greater world all through wonderment and openness to new and hearing what is similar, what is different and then celebrating both. Guided by our Antibias foundations, we will also open circle prompts to explore with puppets and role play of continued helpful conversations and language to use in class and garden, and beyond in their practice of inclusion when discussing world and class-family traditions, identity and culture and permission based play.
Permission/consent based play is inclusive, safe and fun large motor-imaginative play. Stop means Stop, and No/Maybe/Silence means No and Stop. We listen for what we can do when someone feels the deep emotion of fear or hurt feelings, and how we can shift our choices to support alleviating that deep emotion, broadening our sensitivities practices, as well as acknowledgment for the fear-pain is, how to then make it better and fun instead. Our intention daily is to witness, acknowledge, amends and solutions, “how can we play the longest together? How can I make this feel better? What do we need to do to help make people feel safe so we can play the longest together, and explore this as a group and find answers as a group. And have so much fun in the process. We will use add-on stories to help anchor us to sharing from the heart and being safe to be creative and cognitively aware. This time of year is a very special exchange in friendships forming and rejoicing in the similarities and differences celebrations. We all start sharing more with one another to find more areas to connect. This is the beginning of a very rich and rewarding time we dive into specific Peace Maker explorations.
- Routines of Self Care Explorations: This busy time of holiday season offers us time to look at daily and meaningful self care routines we each can establish to maintain calm and care to ourselves throughout the day. This unit will focus on Equity-peace makers resiliency methodologies that supported them during the hardest times.
- Examples will become: Journaling & Journal Making, laughter, intention based storyboards, still life art and still life meditation pauses, interpretive-therapeutic dance/movement, water explorations, stringing beads, raking sand/molding items, sensory pressure & tapping and other meditative body movements, 1-1 talk and listen it through practices.
- Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan : below are links from recordings of the past of both educators, advocates and brave equity based individuals Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. As well as a wonderful Reading Rainbow episode called “Silent Lotus” exploring life with hearing loss and ways of communication.
How Helen Keller Learned to Talk.
- Koko the magnificent gorilla:
Water Catchment, underground exploration of Mycelium and underground water streams.
- MORE ABOUT the Importance of mycelium, fungi, trees, forests for preventatives within our winter months.
- Erosion explorations & preventatives, and soil amending will be a large focus.
- Importance of Eel grasses and Estuaries
- Canadian Geese, ducks and seashore bird of Vashon-Maury
- Eagles: an eagle family lives across the street, offering us opportunities for connected explorations of these incredible island community members.
- Hibernating amphibians and what we large mammals need to do to support them in our shared habitats.
- Gardening in the Winter–Garden bed insect habitats and ways to prepare beds.
- Grace and courtesy practice and fun role playing of lining up for airplanes, sitting for long periods in vehicles and public spaces will be our focus. December through the remaining school year we as a class will do ample story acting (even beginning stand up comedy, group skits, solo singing/dancing). This is a fruitful time of the school year.
- Holiday Songs and use of our parachute.
- Please KEEP phones on if weather closures occur for Klahanie. We follow the Vashon school district closures and if they are late, we are closed due to the Ellisport hills here. And thank you for continuing to park so well, driving so SLOW and safely, this is the BEST group of parent drivers we have ever experienced! Thank you so much!
- Cold Days! Please & thank you for remembering to layer your child coming to school (cozy-warm pants, long underwear, pj layers)in coats, hats, mittens, socks that stay on, long sleeves. Please keep replenishing change of clothes and rain gear as moisture protection.Please pack lots of extra socks (can be mismatched): socks are great mitten substitutes when needed and practice at home or when at the beach or forest walks! Name labeled hats, mittens and everything please. A helpful song while learning to maneuver learning to put on mittens: Thumbs in the thumb-place, fingers all together. This is the song we sing for our mitten weather. Thank you for continuing to name and label everything, we want it returned to you too. Thank you also for practicing at home taking foot wear on and off.
- REMEMBER TO KEEP KIDS HOME WHEN SICK, THANK YOU! The school maintains sanitization and ample hand washing/covering cough reminders, blowing noses–thanks for help at home with reminders as well.
RE-Enrollment Registration opens February 2026. Our estimated budget above is based on estimated students registered-enrolled and scholarships requested, school monthly expenses (teacher salaries, insurance, CPA Accountant, rent/communications), and adhering to WA state licensing requirements for site square footage per child. Tuition totals will be finalized by re-enrollment. Klahanie will continue to seek submission of grants, donor requests and local fundraising to supplement scholarships. Klahanie School is 501c3.
November 2025 Reflection
Thank you Klahanie School incredible Klahanie interns-staff for providing such a fun and thoughtful week for the small group. We all missed your children, and have enjoyed the time re-connecting. We have had an incredibly fun, charming, warm and loving month together making our class this November very intimate and joyful. The very wet periods of time have allowed us to practice more for the winter months and put on layers, making this part of our class routine and taking care of ourselves and friends. We are honored to be beside your child and wishing all a warm and peaceful day of Gratitude.
Quick note that the board approved 2026-2027 scheduling switch, and to be specific, the intention for budget committee attentions are on:
1. Maintaining the same hours in options for families for the 2026-27 school year programs, with the slight variance of our multiage class ending at 12:30pm. This was out of response to some families seeking PM varying island programs.
2. Evaluating 2027 weekly summer tuition amounts for each program to reflect exact if not, very similar tuition pricing totals to the current 25-26 budget amounts families currently pay. Communicating with families that if they have been signing up for two programs, inclusive of PM childcare, those hours offered for school to care will remain the same (8:30am-3:30pm) and tuition total goal for committee to remain very near the same. Monday-Thursday / 1 program multiage class: 8:30am-12:30pm, 2 programs multiage and childcare: 8:30am-12:30pm and 12:30-3:30pm
2027 Summer learning lab has option for weekly signup in weeks of June-July 2027: Summer 2027 will remain the same format, mirroring the current daily class schedule and lessons/records. We value offering our students continuity in the learning fun in class in all the seasons. The difference will be that families can opt for specific weeks if traveling or saving in the summer. PM childcare will hopefully lead by teacher aides and fun daily arts, relaxations and great fun to students. All our content and daily focuses will remain the same in summer learning lab weekly time. Families will have the option to sign up for all the weeks.
Thanks so much, and here for additional inquiries when we return this holiday break, healthy and happy family holiday to all!
Klahanie School 