Kids' Issue 2016

Featuring

Montessori Center School

Cover Art by Lauren, age 11

Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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, Hi, I’m Echo cko! e G d r a p o e L e th ce, I eight years ago, and ever sin ss cla to me ht ug bro nt School. A stude r North at Montessori Center Doo wn mediately Bro in t pe ss cla e th I’m all those years ago and I im ho’ ‘Ec me d me na ly ve cti oom. They colle part of this Montessori classr Kindness, that have felt so lucky to be a unity of inquisitive learners. mm co ve rti ppo su d an d kin joyful, ry day, I am immersed in a ssroom. felt loved and included. Eve rience every day in the cla pe ex to d ge vile pri am I g ethin Montessori philosophy, is som essential element of the Kindness’ to ool is performing 50 ‘Acts of sch ole wh e th s, es dn kin of ily practicing s cause, in addition to the da ve witnessed the student ha I t This year is very special be tha s es dn kin of ts ac e many diverse ve been so impressed by th ha I . nt ary ers niv an th 50 r ou e Santa Barbara Independe Th celebrate in re sha to es nc rie pe ex out their positive w that they are writing ab no so re s and in our mo en ev d an ing perform ing up trash on our beache an cle to n ta nis ha Afg in ge tessori orphana ts range from donating to a Mon ts ac e Th . ue Iss s’ Kid i hearts for pediatric patien 16 20 local parks, from folding origam young sty International to support to writing letters for Amne proud in other countries. I am so ed son pri im tly jus un e opl pe d ity of young, passionate an to be a part of this commun purposeful people.

— Echo

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or North MCS Brown Do ra Independent partners Each year, The Santa Barba school to plan, prepare, and with one local elementary r . These pages compose ou create our annual Kids’ Issue s’ Issue, co-produced with twenty-second annual Kid Center School. Over the the students of Montessori providing a handsssroom with MCS students, cla e th in d rke wo ve ha members their past few months, Indy Staff of Brown Door North, led by rs de gra 6th d an , 5th , 4th publishing. The many facets of newspaper e th t ou e theme ab e nc rie pe ex ng on learni short articles surrounding th ote wr d an s se es sin bu al ads featuring loc her Cydney Miller, designed ac te s es arl fe d an s iou bit am of 50 Acts of Kindness. ses s, and to the local busines ne sce e th d hin be d an e classroom y staffers who helped in th d Echo Thank you to the many Ind of Brown Door North at MCS, an s nt de stu e th r, be Am y, ne Most of all thank you to Cyd hope that you that supported this issue. a pretty great team, and we ke ma We lls. ski n ma rhu smiles, spirit, and supe the gecko who shared their . enjoy the finished product

— Emily Cosentino

Independent Santa Barbara

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5473 Overpass Rd. Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Kindness Comes in Many Forms Who would even think that a mechanical device like a robot could be associated with kindness? Well, actually, in our world today, as technology has advanced, robots have arrived to help improve our everyday lives.

For instance, people who are allergic to dogs, and have always wanted a special companion, can now have a robotic dog. Robots can also help people with medical disabilities and help reduce human labor hours with dangerous materials. Robotic devices can even help people with vision challenges to see the world more clearly and to live more freely. A robotic system called the Argus 11 can bring back some vision in people made

blind by a damaged retina.

The person wears a pair of glasses with a small video camera attached to it, which captures images. Isn’t that amazing?

Companionship robots, industrial robots and medical robots all continue to improve many lives around the world.

All humans possess love and kindness in their hearts. We are the ones, with all of our good intentions, who have invented and built these helping hands. As you can see, kindness from robots comes in many ways, small and large.

-Lauren, age 11

“Echo is a very fun class pet. She is not difficult to care for, and she likes to crawl on us.” —Andreas, age 11

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Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Maddie, age 11 Finny, age 10

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14 West Gutierrez St. 805.963.6677 • ablitts.com This ad created by Lauren, age 11 Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Bake Sale for U.N.I.C.E.F Two students of Brown Door North named Summer and Jolie decided to have a bake sale for U.N.I.C.E.F. which stands for United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. We sold cupcakes for 50 cents and lemonade for 25 cents, and we also had Red Vines to use as straws for the lemonade. We sold in front of the Shoreline Park sign.

Most people were on a walk and didn’t have money on them, but usually they said something like, “That’s a good cause to donate to” or “I’ll go back to my house to get some money.” They usually kept their promises. Sometimes it took them a while to return, but they still did. After a while we got tired of being in the sun for three hours, but we kept going strong! In all, we raised about $57.63 to donate to U.N.I.C.E.F. Every year, our school trick-ortreats for U.N.I.C.E.F., and this year our class raised a total of $117, and our entire elementary raised a grand total of $1,510!

-Jolie, age 10 Helping the Homeless My mom and I always feel bad whenever we see a homeless person on the sidewalk. One day we decided that we should help them.

Instead of giving them money, we thought that we should buy some things online to put into Ziploc bags. We spent a while choosing what to buy. We ended up getting inexpensive toothbrushes, small tubes of toothpaste, gum packets, soap bars, washcloths, a few different types of snacks, socks, and so on. We put one or two

of each thing into the biggest size Ziploc bag we had in our house. We now have these bags in my mom’s car, and whenever we see a homeless person, we give them one.

It always feels good to give these packets to the homeless people, and they always seem to be really thankful.

-Devon, age 11 Too Much Trash Around the world we all have one mutual problem: TRASH. It is the deadliest thing on earth. It smells and it is a real problem. All around the world, trash is polluting our oceans. It is fi lling our landfi lls and in 10 years that could be a real problem. For example, you know that pair of shoes that you threw out last weekend?

It will take close to 70 years to decompose. So what can we do as everyday humans to help this epidemic? Well, it’s simple: when you go walking down the street if you see a piece of trash, PICK IT UP! If everybody in this world did that, then we would have no pollution in this world and just think about how awesome that would be! You need to ask yourself, are you a type of person where if you see a piece of trash on the street, will you pick it up? If you are one of these people, you do your part in society so that your children and grandchildren won’t have to deal with pollution. Please, I urge you to become a person who picks up the trash and not leave someone else to do it. Here at my school, Montessori Center, we have trash bins, recycle bins and compost. We compost our non-eaten food,

and we pick up two pieces of trash before we are excused for lunch. We maintain our environment, and Montessori Center urges you to maintain yours.

-Henry, age 11 What is kindness?

Kindness – the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.

I believe kindness is a choice that we can all make all the time if we choose to.

Kindness is a special way of acting that is unselfish and morally

ethical. After you do an act of kindness, you feel it inside you, and you feel strong and proud of yourself. Kindness not only makes you feel good, but makes others around you feel great, too. Being kind means you also have to be willing to sacrifice your needs to lift people up. If everyone was lifted up by each other’s kindness, imagine the world and what it would be now.

Remember, kindness might start small, but it will always grow, so let’s all be kind to one another.

-Connor, age 10

“I love Echo, our class gecko, because when you don’t have a work buddy, then there’s always her to work with.” —Lorraina, age 9

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Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Spreading Holiday Cheer One Fold at a Time For the past few years, Montessori Center School’s Brown Door North and Aqua Door have participated in an origami act of kindness.

Students have generously given their time to fold origami ornaments to hang on the Goleta Library’s holiday tree. We made many types of origami including cranes, Santas, butterfl ies, cubes, snowflakes, and other geometric models.

It was a lot of fun folding the origami, and we

“Echo is my friend. Whenever I’m working with her, she always crawls up my sleeve. I love Echo.” —Michael, age 12

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When you looked at the tree, it was fi lled with colors and beautiful shapes. The Goleta Library was very grateful for Montessori Center School’s decorating of the tree, and we enjoyed doing it. This year our effort was part of our 50 Acts of Kindness for our school’s 50th anniversary, so we tried to work extra hard on the origami. I hope that folding origami ornaments to spread holiday cheer can become a lasting tradition for our school.

-Craig, age 12

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This ad created by Aidan Cohen, age 10 8

felt proud to have our work on the library’s tree. People at the library were impressed with the origami and how hard we had worked. Folding the origami for the tree inspired some of us to fold more and more.

Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Kindness is Key The MCS Brown Door student government donates money every year to charity. Doing acts of kindness like this helps people in two ways.

It helps the people getting donated to because they are receiving something that they need. It also helps the people who are donating because they feel good for doing it.

earned (which can sometimes end up being several thousand dollars) to the chosen charity. In previous years, we have donated to nonprofits like Heal the Ocean and Make-A-Wish Foundation. Last year, we donated to the Ebola cause.

Earlier this year, we donated $500 to The House of Flowers, which is a Montessori orphanage in Afghanistan.

We have also trick-ortreated for U.N.I.C.E.F. and have added student government

money to that total as well.

We will be voting on another charity soon.

You can never be too young to experience the positive power of giving and turning it into a lifelong habit.

Brown Door earns profits from their student-run store and selling pizza on Friday.

Every student takes a turn working in the store during lunch and after school. The store sells healthy snacks like fruit bars, chips and Izzes.

We also sell handmade juice pops. At the end of the year, we pick a charity and donate a portion of the money “Our class companion, Echo, always brightens our classroom.

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Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

-Michael, age 12

We all enjoy her company during our work period!” —Lauren, age 11

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Aidan, age 10

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Happiness is Humans and Hounds Helping Each Other There are many organizations in Southern California that help dogs in many ways.

For example, humans fi nd abandoned or unwanted dogs and give them shelter, and sometimes they even fi nd homes for them. People who do this are greatly respected.

From our perspective, we feel it is better to get a rescue dog, as opposed to getting a pet shop dog, because you’re helping a dog fi nd a home. Another way humans help dogs is to rescue them from the pound

“Echo, the spotted leopard gecko with the nickname of ‘gecho’, is amazing.” —Aidan, age 10

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when they’re going to get put to sleep. Dogs also help humans by doing things like rescuing people that have been trapped under a fallen building or buried in the snow. The dogs might be scared, but they do it because they want to help us.

People also use dogs to help with therapy. For instance, if a person is scared or nervous about a medical appointment or about riding in an airplane, a therapy dog can bring them comfort.

Another way dogs help humans is by guiding the blind. This allows blind people to have more freedom in their life.

What would we do without dogs and, really, what would dogs do without us?

-Maddie, age 11 & Finny, age 10

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Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce 2016 Goleta Lemon Festival: Sept. 24 & 25 For more information visit www.lemonfestival.com This ad created by Zahra, age 9

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… f o … s t c A 50 … … o h c E … y Kindness … b

Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Kindness For, and From, the Farm Upper Elementary classes at Montessori Center School have been doing service projects to help Fairview Gardens as acts of kindness.

At the farm, we have done tasks that include mulching, harvesting, planting, and working on a children’s garden. On our last visit, while the other kids were mulching the apiary garden, the two of us interviewed the executive director of the farm, Tim Hueler. He lives on the farm with his wife and two sons. Tim shared with us that he wanted his family, and especially his kids, to know where their food comes from and how it grows. He also shared with us that Fairview Gardens donates some of the food that they have grown to the Food Bank during

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Thanksgiving. Tim Hueler said, “We grow food, we grow kids, and we grow teachers.”

Tim also told us that Fairview Garden has programs for toddlers as well as homeschoolers to learn to garden, mulch, harvest, and care for chickens. They offer those programs for a low price so everyone can afford it. It sure makes us feel good to know that we are helping a place that does so much to help others.

-Summer, age 10 & Jolie, age 10 Food For Thought I had no idea how generous a grocery store (one that I shop at) could be. Laura Koffman, a manager at the Goleta Trader Joe’s, told me that every day Trader Joe’s donates their unsellable

-Will, age 12

“I love Echo because she is cute, funny and very comfortable with us kids.” —Jolie, age 10

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food (which is close to the expiration date or slightly bruised) to the local community kitchen. They also give gift baskets of food, upon request. Last year, they donated $630,000 worth of food to organizations and the community kitchen! Another great thing they do is donate flowers to local hospitals.

All three Trader Joe’s in Santa Barbara donate. It’s nice to know that an organization that I support with my business is so generous to the community that I live in.

Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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3321 State St. • Loreto Plaza • State & Las Positas 805.682.6787 • chaucersbooks.com This ad created by Lauren, age 11 Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Sharing Good Fortune The past few years, our 4th, 5th and 6th graders of Brown Door North at Montessori Center School have helped out many schools and people in third-world countries. In my 4th grade class, we helped pack supplies at Direct Relief, an organization that gives people supplies after natural disasters. The supplies we packed were going to the victims of the Nepal earthquake. We packed fi rst aid and toiletries. We have also helped a school in India.

We sent them sunglasses, some school supplies and glass prisms to hang in their windows. This fall, Brown Door donated $500 to the Montessori House of Flowers Orphanage in Afghanistan.

The House of Flowers is the only Montessori orphanage in Afghanistan.

I feel fortunate that I live in a good country and go to an amazing school. I also feel good that we help the other kids who are not as fortunate as us.

-Andreas, age 11 SERVING THE HOMELESS Our experience serving a holiday meal to the homeless at The Santa Barbara Rescue Mission was a great way to make us see how lucky we are. When we made the people happy, it truly made us feel like we were making a difference. Many people came to eat, and we were surprised by how many different characters were in the room. One person was very nice to us. He started a conversation and made us laugh. There were others

that weren’t as sure about us. Another person came up to us and asked, “Does GOD know you are here?” We didn’t know what to say, so we just said, “Yes.” He asked us another question, “Are you the angels from heaven?”

Unsure again, we said, “Yes.” Then he nodded and walked off.

After everyone was served, people started praying. Then, they ate. We saw the happy looks on people’s faces. After they were done, they came back for seconds. They were served chile, pasta, bread, potato salad and dessert (we were in charge of that!). That was enough to get us hungry!!

When we were done with the job, our reward was a donut each (they were good!). When we walked out, we felt very happy for what we had done.

year, we do a monthly beach clean-up at Leadbetter Beach.

Also, people can donate their Girl Scout cookies to people in the service so that soldiers can enjoy cookies, too! So, as you can see, all of the money we raise from selling cookies to you goes to benefit other animals, people and things.

I love being in a group that helps the environment,and I hope you feel the same way.

Buy Girl Scout cookies!

-Lorraina, age 9 Hearts for the Pediatrics On February 12, 2016, the students of Brown Door North at Montessori Center School performed a special act of

kindness. They donated over 300 origami hearts to the Pediatrics Unit at Cottage Children’s Hospital. The beautiful hand-folded hearts were for those who could not leave the hospital on Valentine’s Day. We were told that the patients had huge smiles on their faces as volunteers, accompanied by therapy dogs, delivered the lovingly-made hearts of many colors and sizes. It sure made us feel good that the time we had spent folding the hearts brought so much joy to other people. It made us realize that everyone likes to be thought of on special days no matter where they are or what their circumstances are.

-Zahra, age 9

-Lyla, age 10 & Lorraina, age 9 GIRL SCOUT KINDNESS In Girl Scouts, we do some things that help people and animals in the world. For example, with some of our cookie money last year we donated to DAWG (which stands for Dog Adoption and Welfare Group.) They help sick dogs and homeless dogs to get well and to find a forever home. This year, we are going to donate to a place called Return to Freedom which helps horses. Every

“One thing I like about Echo is that she likes pretty much everyone! Echo is very curious about her surroundings, and I like that.” —Connor, age 10

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Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

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Hillside House Hillside House is an organization in Santa Barbara that helps disabled adults in their daily lives. When our class found out that they were going to do a shoe drive to raise needed funds, we decided that it would be a great thing to participate in.

A group called Funds2orgs was going to pay Hillside House for all the shoes they collected, and then they were going to send the shoes to third-world countries like Haiti, Honduras and countries in Africa.

Montessori Center School helped with the shoe drive

and collected 268 pairs of shoes! That mountain of shoes resulted in $321.60 raised for the 59 residents of Hillside House. We felt great contributing to a fundraiser that collected almost 1,000 pairs of shoes for a good cause locally and elsewhere in the world.

-Auguie, age 9 50 Acts of KIndness This year Montessori Center School is celebrating our 50th anniversary by doing 50 Acts of Kindness. We are at 39 and counting. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” I got that from a

magnet on our classroom door. Throughout the school year, we have had a goal to help out our community and beyond. Our school has done things ranging from helping out at Fairview Gardens to donating toys to Toys-forTots. We have also donated to a Montessori orphanage in Afghanistan and collected shoes that raised funds for Hillside House and eventually got sent to third-world countries. With the minds of the creative children here at MCS, we have been able to help the community in different ways. With only 11 more acts to go, we would love to go beyond 50 and help out our community even more. Before our 50th anniversary, we still have always tried to help out our community. This goal has just made it that much more exciting!

-Zarin, age 11 Amnesty International - Every Voice Counts Imagine living in a place where you don’t have the freedom to express your own feelings or opinions.

That is true for many people in the world. When my class learned about three young people imprisoned in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for promoting student rights and democracy, we decided to do something about it. We

wrote 36 letters to the heads of states and the prisoners themselves through Amnesty International. Imagine how excited we were to fi nd out, about a month later, that one of the prisoners we had supported was set free along with many other prisoners!

We realized that many small actions could make a big difference. Now we know that if there is an opportunity to try to make a difference as individuals, we should take it.

To learn more and become a difference-maker yourself, go to “Amnesty International” in any browser to fi nd out more!

-Aidan, age 10 Leave No Trace Our class just got back from our annual backpacking trip in the San Rafael Wilderness.

We believe in leaving no sign that we were there. In fact, we try to make it even nicer than when we arrived. We know we are lucky to live in such a beautiful place, and we try to keep it that way.

As we drove through the Los Padres National Forest to get to our remote campsites, we were thinking about the fact that it was the 100th anniversary of national parks in our country. Having national parks is like having two acts of kindness rolled into one! The people get the benefit of enjoying the beautiful parks, and the parklands are protected for all time.

“I love Echo the Gecko so much because she is such an amazing animal. She helps me stay calm and focused.” —Zahra, age 9

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Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016

-Brendon, age 11

14 State Street 962-0049 www.mountainairsports.com This ad created by Andreas, age 11

Art by

Craig, age 12 Michael, age 12 WIll, age 12

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This ad created by Will, age 12

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Thanks for reading!

Echo, out!

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Montessori Center School Kids’ Issue Insert . May 12, 2016