​ ​One of my best-loved songs is from the musical The Sound of Music. The song, My Favorite Things is sung by Julie Andrews. In the musical she plays Maria, the young nanny to the Von Trapp children. Julie sings the melody to ward off unhappy times and thoughts. The song has been performed countless times by other artists as a centerpiece of their Christmas repertoire because it employs a sense of hopefulness, and winter imagery. The song begins with the stanza: Raindrop

Flagship units are learning themes that the whole school engages in over the course of a week or two. There is nothing better than walking through our school, and finding everyone engaged in learning about the same topic—yet benefitting from the individuality of the classroom teacher, and interests of the students in their classes. This past week we enjoyed our first flagship unit, and it was a great hit. This year our school made a commitment to include learning nature-ally