Front Class:
Hello 2020 and welcome back to class!
We hope you had a lovely break and we would like to thank you for all the wonderful gifts we received! You are very generous and they were all appreciated, we hope all our Thank you cards made it back in return.
We are off to a great start. January is the time of year when the children come back refreshed from the break and eager to try new things or get right back into the swing of more involved works.
This month we will be talking about land and water forms with the children (lake, island, peninsula, gulf, cape, bay, isthmus, straight). After the introduction in the large group setting everyone will have a chance to experience these forms for themselves in the practical life area.
A new land, air, and water work were also added to the geography shelf amongst other new works throughout the classroom.
We hope to see many of you at Kindergarten night. The third-year is when it all comes to fruition and the children are excited to be leaders in their community (especially a middle or younger child can benefit greatly).
Just a couple of housekeeping items in the end:
Our front door opens from 8:55 till 9:05 after that we are giving lessons to your children in the classroom. Pick up time to go home is from 11:25 till 11:35 after that we are helping students with their lunches in the classroom.
Please remember to bring a pair of indoor shoes for your child as we do fire drills once a month. We file outside as quickly as possible, we cannot stop for outdoor shoes and it will be wet in socks.
Show and Tell is every Wednesday! We encourage parents to help the children come up with three interesting facts about their object.
We hope all of you made it safely through this year’s first snow, let’s hope this was all we are getting this winter.
Back Class:
We hope all of you had a wonderful start to the New Year! Time sure seems to fly by – we are so busy, we often feel that way. We never hear a child say “It is January already!?” Children seem to embrace the present. They live in the moment. This is why we work very hard in our classroom to allow each child to spend as much time as they want on any activity they choose, with as few distractions and interruptions as possible. It is our goal each day to prepare the classroom environment in a way that ensures this can happen.
This month we learned about several people who in a peaceful way contributed to change and made our world a better place, people who are or were ‘Peacemakers’. We talked and read about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Maria Montessori, and others. We talk a lot about peace in our classroom, about helping others, responsibility, respect, honesty, equality, and just being a good human being. We introduced the Peace Rose, which is specifically for two children to use when they are arguing about something, or for one child to use when they are feeling a bit overwhelmed by their emotions and need to take a break.
January was also, of course, all about snow. We had three snow days after all! The children enjoyed learning and talking about how snow is made. We started learning about landforms, about opposites, AND about the Lunar New Year.
Kindergarten Information Night was rescheduled for Wednesday, January 29th. If your child will be a Kindergartner next year, please come with questions about this very important year. The Kindergarten year in a Montessori classroom gives the child an experience like no other. Not only do they get to be a leader and a mentor, but they also develop skills they have been practicing for a couple of years here. The Kindergartners continue to grow socially and emotionally while still in a safe and nurturing environment where they know everyone, staff included, and everyone knows and loves each child.