FebruaryNEWS

2016

It’s difficult to remember we are still in the season of winter with the iris blooming in the back garden and from the surge of green all around us! February has been a month of hard work and longer times on the playground to soak up the warmer rays of the sun.

It made me think of the book by Jeff Foxworthy. Here’s an excerpt-

February at St. James

This month we celebrated our 100th day of school this year. The children made 100 Valentines as a way to not only celebrate, but to also share love with the people living in the assisted living communities at Churchill. The Kindergarteners made a museum of their 100 items, and did an experiment testing 100 items against the gravitational force! We learned that even though the weight of the items was different, they fell at the same rate of speed. Gravity is pretty cool stuff!

Mrs. Loree

100 Valentines Gravity experiment

Field trip to see “A Year with Frog and Toad”

100 Museum

Dear MDO parents:

This month we have been focusing on observation. Observation plays an important role in a Montessori education. Montessori teachers make regular observations of each child’s progress and individual developmental trajectory. On the basis of these consistent observations, the teacher determines when the child is ready to be introduced to new learning materials in the classroom.

The reason behind the Montessori use of mixed-age classroom is so that younger children can learn from those who are older. They may also watch as the teacher gives a learning lesson to another child, helping them mentally prepare for the types of activities they will be expected to work with in the future. As we observe the children at work, we are seeing extended periods of concentration, and a general knowledge of the classroom routine without reminders from the teachers.

Puzzles are being completed independently, and dexterity and fine motor control skills are improving daily. We observed a child stringing the other day, unaware that he was so adept! The beauty of a Montessori classroom is how the younger children learn toaccomplish new tasks just by watching their older peers! The children are learning not to interrupt their classmates when they are working. The students have been busy with the all important milestone of potty training! They are learning to share, take turns, and work independently in the classroom. They will continue practical life works such as sponge squeezing, spooning, and pouring. Stacking blocks, color sorting, turning a page in a book, puzzles, opening and closing, pink tower, and nesting cubes are examples of activities that promote fine motor development in our room. For self help skills we are continuing to work sitting at the table, setting the table, and using utensils. Water science experiments with food coloring added to water will create changes they can see.

stamping brushing teeth

MDO

tightening screws

sign language

baby washing

parents reading to the children

MDO February Activities

The children did a great job learning the songs for our Valentine’s Day celebration and they are also spending quality time with their friends and creating wonderful memories.

We would like to give a special thank you to Mrs. Braley and Mrs. McConnell for volun-teering reading books to our children in the classroom.

Due to the weather changes, please make sure your child dresses appropriately for the cold temperatures. Thank you!

Ms. Eva, Ms. Mary, and Ms. Ashley

Toddler 1 has been having a lot of fun building up strong core muscles. It has been so nice outside the children have been really enjoying their time on the playground. The favorite play structure has been the climbing wall. We go up the climbing wall and down the stairs. Repetition is the key to building strong muscles and they don’t ever get tired of climbing.

Up and down they go, over and over.

Just climbing on the blocks is a tough workout.

On rainy days we are playing with the Imagination Playground in the Parish Hall. Building tall sky scrapers has been very exciting!

Toddler 1

No fear of the climbing wall... up and down over and over.

The scooter is fun and builds muscles and control of body movement .

The tire is a popular hang out. The children socialize and sing their favorite songs.

Spring is coming, spring is coming! Toddler 2 has been eagerly anticipating spring.

The children have been social butterflies in the classroom. It is an interesting thing to watch the beginnings of friendships form in children so young. Friendships and social play are quite advanced behaviors that many children won’t fully grasp for years. In the Montessori environment, where emotional intelligence is supported, and respect for others is fostered, children often form early friendships. Children also begin to collaborate or share what they are working on. The children work together to achieve a common goal. Learning to work as a team, collaborate, and treat others with respect are lessons that will stay with your child for a lifetime.

Toddler 2

February is healthy teeth month. The children have begun practicing brushing their teeth in the classroom. We have read books about how to care for our teeth. Brush, Brush, Brush by Alicia Pardon, and Smiley Shark by Ruth Galloway.

A big thank you to all our families who helped make our Valentine’s Day party a huge success! The children enjoyed the food and crafts - especially the tattoos - those were a hit!

Toddler 2 team April, Lilly and Eliane

Winnie is brushing her teeth

Sophi shows us hearts she has pressed with a cookie cutter for Valentine’s Day.

Will helps out washing classroom dishes :)

February has been a fun month in our classroom! The art shelf was filled with red, white, and pink, along with hearts to color, peel, and glue for Valentine’s Day. The children really enjoyed the “I love you” aspect of Valentine’s Day. We talked about who we love in circle time (our family, pets, etc.) and the children were really enthusiastic about this subject!

We sang “I love you, you love me” in circle time as well as “the more we get together.” They really enjoy these songs and it is beautiful to see them all sing in harmony in the circle.

Along with seasonal work, the children have been working hard on water exploration, as well as any new sensory work that is on the shelf. A very loved work in our classroom is the kinetic sand as well as play-doh (anything to shape or mold with the hands.)

Toddler 3

Henry tediously sorts and counts multicolored buttons.

Avery fits pegs onto a wooden peg board.

Cate, Olive, and Madeline trace dot to dot, practicing handwriting grips.

We’ve been having lots of success on the potty this month! Your little ones are really working hard to keep their underpants clean and dry! Thank you for supporting us at home as well as in the classroom during this transitioning time! Great job Toddler 3!

Ms. Coral, Amanda, & Amy

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day

Decorating goody bags with Ms. April and Ms. Lisa

Playing the Matching Game with Ms. Lilly and Ms. Mary…it looks like Ms. Mary loses this hand!

Mrs. Amaris and Mrs. Amanda are in charge of tattoos!

Playing with mini Imagination play blocks

Valentine Stay and Play

Painting Valentine canvases with Mrs. Martha and Mrs. Marla

Bouncing Fun!

Pizza Picnic

Valentine Stay and Play

Dear Families of Primary 1,

We have been taking advantage of the early spring like weather this month by enjoyingmuch of our time outside! The children have expressed much delight in the new rockpath in our garden, playing hopscotch in between botany lessons with Ms. Loree, andhelping take care of the outdoor environment. We even took our art materials and hada watercolor picnic on the playground one afternoon!

to construct and perform operations with very large four- digit numbers. The Golden Beads are a great material for our children to work with because they represent such an abstract concept but in a hands -on, concrete way that is simple to understand.

This month we dived into our cultural studies of the continent of Asia. The children are enthusiastic about the wide variety of animals that originated from that part of the world, and areenjoying learning about the culture, customs, and traditions in China.

The children in the afternoon have been working with the Golden Beads in mathematics and have been utilizing them

Primary 1

“Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.” -Maria Montessori

As always, we are here for you to help with or answer any of your questions/concerns.We are appreciative to have such a wonderful group of parents and caregivers to work with.

We have also taken time as a group this month to revisit the items in our CalmingCorner. This is a space in our classroom where a child may choose to go when he orshe feels that they need a quiet moment to center themselves, and revitalize their bodyand mind. We have added a few new tools, like a bubble maze, a gel infused lap pad,and other small manipulative materials that are suitable for meeting those needs for our children.

Much of our floor space in the classroom has been taken over by a Sensorial explosion! Rug after rug, you’ll notice a child exploring aspects that make up an equilateral triangle with the Constructive Triangles, grading various shades of colors with Color Box 3, and distinguishing/matching loud and soft sounds while shaking the Sound Cylinders.

Ms. Amaris and Ms. Kim

It is nice to watch students grow and learn and mature. The third level students have been doing their regular “folder work,” which consists of different language and math works. We rotate the works so they have a variety of language and math. We are diligently working on handwriting and consistently turning in neat work.

The second level students are working with the moveable alphabet at least two times a week. This, many times, is teacher requested. Most days we have two moveable alphabets out and we rotate the students through them. There has been some major improvement in putting the sounds together into words. Phonetically, of course, but this is the beginning of learning to spell and read words. When the students reach Kindergarten, they begin taking weekly spelling tests. The first level students have been working on basic phonics.

Primary 2

The entire class has been independently choosing work from every area of the classroom. We have Practical Life, Sensorial, Art, Math, and Language works that are independently chosen. WE DO STAY BUSY! The full day students must clean and straighten the classroom every afternoon. This involves the students independently looking around the classroom and discerning what needs to be done. Following the Montessori philosophy we do not direct their every move. All the best!Mrs. Barrineau and Ms. Marla

This month in the practical life area, the children learned to serve hot tea and use a ceramic mortar and pestle to grind fragrant cumin seeds. They also enjoyed transferring objects with modified chopsticks. We decorated our doorway with traditional Chinese New Year banners to bring good fortune, and hung brightly colored paper lanterns around the inside of the classroom. We enjoyed learning about the unique animals of Asia, including the Tibetan sand fox, the Asian house gecko, and the giant panda. We also read a variety of books about Asia, including Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India and Taro and the Tofu.

We also enjoyed learning how to play our beautiful Tibetan singing bowl. The children love to experiment with the sounds created by the different mallets, and the resonant echo made by tracing the rim of the bowl.

Happy Year of the Monkey to you! We have enjoyed celebrating the Lunar New Year and studying the continent of Asia this month. In February we celebrated birthdays for Mason Wilmer (who turned five) and Anna McIlvain (who turned four) and also enjoyed a wonderful Valentine’s Day party. Thank you to all the parent volunteers who made our party possible.

Hunter and Nico enjoy a fresh pot of decaf peppermint green tea

Jackson carefully cuts on the line to create a Chinese paper lantern

Sawyer expresses herself through music with the Tibetan singing bowl

Primary 3In love and friendship,Ms. Tamara and Ms. Jaymie

At this time in the year, we can see the friendships in the classroom deepening. One powerful aspect of friendship is the ability to communicate wants and needs with each other. As the children mature, their expectations of their friends increase, resulting in deeper bonds and deeper disappointments. The grace and courtesy curriculum of the Montessori classroom is designed to help children adjust to their growing social awareness and to interact peacefully with the world around them. We encourage the children to be respectful with each other, clearly communicating their wants and needs, but also learning to allow others to make decisions for themselves. We talk about communicating specifically with each other about the things that cause hurt feelings or disagreements, rather than using blanket terms like “mean” or “rude.” Children feel very deeply and often need time and support to work through complex emotions. The classroom calming corner provides a quiet place for reflection and the peace rug provides a safe place for conflict resolution with peers. Learning to be peaceful in a hostile world is challenging work but it is one of the most important skills that the children can gain.

Asha, Anna, Tara, and Jolene explore the items on the show and tell table

Mason and Sterling beam with pride after completing the global view of numbers

The month of February was jam-packed with lots of exciting events both in the classroom and outside the classroom for the children. In the classroom, we learned about Groundhog’s Day and enjoyed making our own guesses about whether or not we thought Phil would see his shadow. Our graph showed that most of the children thought he would see his shadow and we would have a long winter; however, lucky for us, he did not and it seems as if Phil was right with his prediction of spring coming early this year. We have definitely enjoyed this beautiful weather! We also celebrated the 100th day of school this month. We have been keeping track of our days with our counting beads and the children were thrilled when we finally put the 100th bead in our jar! The Kindergartners celebrated by collecting 100 special items and we got to take a tour of their 100 museum. The Kindergartners also went on a field trip to see Frog and Toad. This was very special for them as it was their first field trip outside of school, and many of their parents were able to attend as well. This month we also welcomed Ms. Bianca back from her maternity leave! The children missed her greatly and we are very glad to have her back in the classroom.

Around the classroom this month we have seen our first level students become more interested in writing. Many can be seen tracing their names at the light box, or having those first lessons with the Metal In-sets. These are great Montessori lessons that help the child learn to grip and guide the pencil, aid in the control of movement, and help in the process of hand-writing. The children are able to create beautiful art pieces on paper with colored pencils as well.

Primary 4

Our second level students love math! You can see them choosing the 100 board daily and diligently arranging each number in its family and then putting the numbers on the board all the way up to 100. Many of the second levels have also received a lesson on Golden Bead addition. This concrete lesson shows the children how to combine a quantity together to get the sum using the three-dimensional objects of the Golden Beads (i.e. unit bead, ten bar, hundred square, and thousand cube). It is a tedious work with many steps, but the satisfaction after completing the work is guaranteed!

Our Kindergarten children have been working on more abstract math lessons this month. The Stamp Game is a tool for reinforcing the four operations and introduces both static and dynamic (exchanging and carrying) equations. This work corresponds to the Golden Bead materials, yet is utilized for more individualized practice, as well as the memorization of facts.

Sincerely, Ms. Sarah and Ms. Bianca

Technology&Art

February has been a fun month in art! The children have enjoyed working on multiple-step projects over the past several weeks. The second year students have been working on their charcoal panda project. They started out by tracing an outline of the panda onto charcoal paper. They did this by making a “sandwich” with the outline, carbon paper, and charcoal paper. They were amazed when their outline showed up on their charcoal paper! It was like magic! Next they traced their pencil lines with charcoal. After all the lines were drawn, they started to fill in the panda’s spots, as well as their eyes and nose. When they had all of the black filled in, they used a smudge stick to blend the charcoal and shade the ears and neck. The children really enjoyed using the smudge stick and watching the color change from black to grey. After all the charcoal parts of the panda were finished, the children used oil pastel to color in the bamboo. Everyone has done a great job, and the pandas are so cute!

In technology, we have continued our unit on Lego Robotics. The children have loved working with the Legos and watching them move. We have run into a few problems when our robots haven’t moved like they were supposed to, but these students have figured out the problems! I am so impressed with their problem solving skills and their determination! We talked through the problems (for example, why the alligator’s mouth would open but not close), what should be happening, and how we might be able to fix the problem. The students came up with great hypothesizes, and were determined to make their robots work correctly. They even took the Legos apart and put them back together to make sure they followed the directions correctly! In the end, we have gotten all the robots to work like they were supposed to - all because of the amazing minds of the Kindergartners! Thank you,Ms. Hanna

The Kindergarten students have been working on a printmaking project. They started out by making a printing plate. To do this, they took a canvas board and created a collage using different kinds of materials. They used things like wallpaper, yarn, material, paper, leaves, and sticks. Some children created an image with their materials, while others made an abstract collage. Each one is unique! Next, they painted their printing plate with a gel medium, which will allow us to put ink or paint on the printing plate and then wipe it off. Next up, they will print their plate!

GardenFebruary In the Children’sI thought you all might enjoy seeing a few more photos of what the Children’s Garden looked like a little over 10 years ago. As you’ve heard, this was mainly a Parent/Teacher/Child led project that took over two years to complete. The design was made by parent and landscape architect, Jodi Simons, but the project had input from other voulnteers as we went along. The pond was a last minute idea that I simply can’t imagine our garden without.

Because of the work put in back then, here’s a little of the work it’s led your children to now:

Brooklyn is pulling weeds away from the Cauliflower. We have three heads of Broccoli and four heads of Cauliflower growing.

This is the “Hopping Rock Path.” Last week we practiced jumping with our feet together from rock to rock.

Sadie, Sebastian and Annie are pulling the brown leaves from the Lamb’s Ear. Did you know that Lamb’s Ear leaves smell like bubble gum when they’re crushed?

Weeding, weeding, weeding! We tried to pull up weeds with their roots attached. We then knocked the soil off the roots back into the garden bed before dropping the roots into our bucket.

ASC

Hopefully we are seeing the last of the cold weather. Please continue to send a jacket with your child if they are in ASC. Often times it might warm up during the day, but in the evening it is chilly.

I enjoy my time in ASC, your children are the highlight of my afternoon. The toddlers have enjoyed coloring and playing with play dough. We still enjoy the Imagination Blocks in the Parish Hall on cold rainy days. I think the blocks will always be the favorite activity for both Primary and Toddler children. The primary are always building a new structure and using their imagination. Some of their structures are spectacular!

Just a reminder, if your child is in a toddler classroom, Mrs. Barrineau’s primary classroom or Ms. Amaris’ primary classroom, their jacket will be in a basket in the ASC room. The same holds true for Toddler 2 & 3. Please be sure to take their jacket when you pick them up.

As always, if you need to reach me after 4:00 p.m., please call the school phone 214-348-1349.

Happy Spring (fingers crossed),Lisa

God’s Love Is Big

It seems the school year is flying by, and with it our Chapel services. We started February with the story of Jesus calling his helpers or Disciples. The children heard that being a disciple is simply learning about Jesus and sharing the truth that God’s love is big and available to everyone. We can all be disciples today and share what we know about the love of God! I believe they also really enjoyed being involved in the service and being called to come forward as a disciple.

With that in mind, I have started helping Ms. Hanna with the Chapel and art lessons on Tuesday, giving me the opportunity to have more contact with those Kindergarten students who are not in my class. This also allowed me to have a couple of students show their art and help talk about the current subject at the following Wednesday chapel service which was about “Jesus and the Little Children.” We learned that Jesus said, “Let the little children come unto me for they are as special as can be.” That we should all come to Jesus with open and willing hearts ready to receive God’s Big Love.

This week we are learning that a young shepherd boy named David played a beautiful harp and wrote songs from his heart about God, and when he was challenged by the giant Goliath he looked to The Lord for help, and defeated him.

As I am writing this I am reminded that whether it’s been an easy day or a challenging day, we can always look to our Lord, and He will provide the help we need.

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills, to find the help I need, my help comes from The Lord” Psalm 121:1

As always remember God loves your child and you, BIG!

Ms Amaris Chapel