2015
December
NEWS
Have I told you how much I love being with the children and staff of St. James? It’s a heartwarming place to be after spending a day or two in the retail frenzied world! The Christmas season at SJES is an especially peaceful and endearing time as we see the children bring gifts for those in need, and hear their sweet voices singing their Christmas songs. I especially love when a child donates something that is very special to them. There’s also a slightly different atmosphere in the classrooms - a kind of excitement brewing in the children as they count down the days. Surprisingly, this season doesn’t diminish the amount of work that they choose, in fact it seems as though the children become more focused and introspective. As I walk tours through the classrooms I notice bigger, more challenging works are being chosen. Many of the children have mastered works and are now exploring the materials through extensions to the lessons as we draw to an end of this first semester. Each classroom also has a variety of seasonal works, each with a purpose and intent. Even through the work and the whispers of Santa, Elves, and Christmas wishes can be heard through the classrooms, Jesus remains front and center. How blessed are we that we can share the true meaning of Christmas together? Enjoy your holidays with your family and friends- and have a very Merry Christmas. Mrs. Loree
A Christmas Day prayer for children Little baby Jesus was born upon this day Lying in a manger, laid upon soft hay. His mother Mary cared for him, His dad Joseph felt proud, To be given such a precious boy, They felt safe within Gods plans. Shepherds came to greet him, Wise men carried gifts, And gave them to the baby, They knew he would be king. So we too on Christmas day Come to worship him. And celebrate, with love and hope, To play and laugh and sing. We love the lights upon the tree, The presents and the food. We share this special time together And say our God is good. So good he sent us Jesus To walk and shine the way, For us all to follow him, Into a heavenly day. Amen. Read more: http://www.living-prayers.com/events/christmas_prayers.html#ixzz3uOiav
Dear Families: As we watch the final leaves drop from the trees, we realize winter is almost here. We hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving break and that everyone was able to spend some quality time with their families. A big thanks to all of you for making both of our Thanksgiving Feasts a success, and a special thanks to our awesome parent volunteers who helped to set up and clean up! MDO children continue to work on refining their skills, including completing a work cycle. There are many steps involved with completing a work cycle, including pushing in a chair, cleaning up spills, rolling up rugs, returning the work to its proper place, etc. Our students are learning many great skills that will continue to develop into the new year! Also, we are teaching the children how to blow their own nose and wash their hands. Please help us by reinforcing these lessons at home. After all, practice makes perfect! In the classroom, some of our grace and courtesy lessons are that of teaching the children to apologize after making a “sad choice,” and how to say “please” and “thank you” when they feel appreciation for something or someone. This practice allows the children to focus on the good. These lessons help them cultivate an attitude of gratitude from an early age. We have begun our celebration of winter holidays with new works on the shelves that reflect some of various symbols of the season. We have learned about the Nativity from a special book. Children love to arrange the Nativity figures in a manger. So far at Spanish circle, we have introduced a special song “Diez Angelitos.” We hope you are hearing this song at home. We wish you a happy and healthy winter break! Ms. Eva, Ms. Mary and Ms. Ashley
smelling work
Science
MONTESSORI ACTIVITIES IN THE MDO CLASSROOM
Nativity work
Gluing work
Painting work
SEASONAL WORKS
MDO
Merry Christmas, We have been having so much fun cooking pancakes on Fridays and making birthday bread, our room has had such a great baking smell all month.
We are also working on Christmas gifts. Our gifts have been a 3 step art craft. The children have really out done themselves this year. Gluing, painting, cutting construction paper for triangles and stars, and using poms to create an amazing masterpiece for their families.
We are also learning the story for the season. “Baby Jesus is born.� They have been recreating the felt board story, working with the wood and cloth mangers, and practicing our Christmas program songs. Rocking the classroom out with our jingle bells.
Love this time of year and all the fun learning activities in the classroom. Love, Mrs. Anna and Ms. Annabel
Toddler 1
Just like that, with a blink of an eye 2015 has come to an end. As we are rushing around finishing up last minute plans so we can celebrate the holidays with family and friends, let’s not forget that toddlers can get overwhelmed very quickly. Though it can be very tempting and seem harmless to give our children our iPhones and iPads to entertain them while we finish up shopping, dining out, or cooking, young children who have too much screen time aren’t getting a chance to development many social skills. Toddlers especially, need lots of face to face interactions. This helps them develop their speech and language, develop empathy for others, problem solve, and build patience and attention span. During this break try to spend some time outside letting your child explore nature. Some ideas; collecting leaves/acorns, taking a nature walk, riding bikes, and playing “what’s that sound” making silence and then say what you hear. Maybe if we are lucky we will get to build a snowman :)
In the classroom we kept busy with all the new Christmas work, here is Adam putting felt ornaments on the tree. Samuel is working on his fine motor skills putting red and green links together.
Annemarie is sorting the red and green bears. Ryan is hanging actual ornaments on our class tree.
Victoria is having fun creating a picture using the Christmas stamps. Alisha is working on transferring little gift boxes with tongs.
We look forward seeing you in 2016 and we wish everyone a safe and happy holidays! Toddler 2 team April, Lilly, and Eliane
Toddler 2
Toddler 3 has been getting into the Christmas spirit! We have once again switched the works on the shelves to match the season. We are still learning about fall, but are easing into winter works. Some children have a very fond love of the Sensorial bin (a bin of crepe paper, bows, snowflakes, and bells) while others are engrossed in Christmas art work! The children have been painting in green and red, peeling Christmas stickers, and gluing their very own Christmas trees! The art shelf is always popular, but is being used constantly because the children are so excited for Christmas and to see Santa!
Fitz painting a Christmas tree.
Olive using her fine motor skills to match a small-knobbed puzzle.
Toddler 3
We have also made some fine motor works seasonal such as the jingle bell transfer (with a spoon), and eraser and bow transfer (with tongs). The winter book with seasonal pictures has been very popular on the shelf. The children get very excited when they see new work to experiment with! Lilly practices her fine motor skills as she sews hearts with yarn.
Avery happily stacks wooden blocks.
In circle time, we have been practicing daily for the annual Christmas pageant as well as learning the story of the birth of Jesus Christ with the flannel board. Of course, the children love to single Christmas songs and Jingle Bells seems to be a favorite! We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe Holiday Break! Henry loves to drum while the children sing at circle time. Sophi recreates the birth of Jesus Christ with the flannel board.
Happy Holidays, Toddler 3 Team
Families of Primary 1, It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Excitement for the holiday season fills the halls of our school as we prepare for Christmas celebrations and the coming of the New Year. December seems like such a short month for us in the classroom, but the children have kept busy with all sorts of great work. ‘Tis the season of giving, and the children are spreading holiday cheer by crafting Christmas cards and exchanging them with each other. Collective art creations of Christmas trees line the back wall of our classroom, all of which the children helped to decorate with drawings of ornaments, lights, and gifts under the tree. We have stocked our bookshelf with stories that stir up the magic and wonder of the season, and the children have enjoyed hearing holiday classics like The Polar Express, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and The Twelve Days of Christmas.
We have been preparing for our annual Christmas pageant by coming together and practicing singing songs for all of our families and friends to hear. The children are excited to share with you their efforts and fill your heart with a little bit of joy.
We want to wish you all a very merry everything this holiday, and we hope that you spend the rest of 2015 surrounded by family and friends, and welcome in a New Year filled with joy, love, and happiness. Cheers! Ms. Amaris & Ms. Kim
Primary 1
We have had a flurry of Christmas activities and works, along with all of the regular Montessori works, in our classroom. With the addition of the Christmas works we have been very busy. And we have had fun busily preparing for Christmas.
Stringing beads on pipe cleaners is a tradition in our classroom. The students string beads on pipe cleaners and hang them on our classroom tree. The older children start independently “patterning’ the beads on the pipe cleaners. Their minds are very busy deciding which pattern and colors they want, then finding them in the bead basket. Our tree looks beautiful. The students take the “ornaments” home when we leave school for the holidays.
Additionally we have Christmas “pin pricking” works, coloring works, lacing works, sorting works, and a wonderful stash of items in our Art Cache to help with Christmas Art creations.
Practicing the songs for The Christmas Program is always a favorite of ours. Listening to the students sing and learn the songs is just priceless.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Enjoy this blessed season with your children, families and friends. May we always remember to count our many, many blessings! Much love. All the best, Mrs. Barrineau and Ms. Marla
Primary 2
The month of December has flown by! On any given school day, the children were busy counting, practicing letter sounds, building with the constructive triangles, looking up words in the encyclopedia, writing stories with the moveable alphabet, and making books about a multitude of things!
Cole and Benton count along as Nico matches the numerals to the number rods.
We also studied the wildlife and climate of Antarctica, with special emphasis on the importance of camouflage and the life cycle of the emperor penguin. Our December birthdays were Daniel Smith and Nico Ledesma (who both turned four), Ms. Jaymie, and Jackson Anderson (who turns five over the holiday break). In addition, our class said goodbye to one of our kindergartners this month. Astrid has been a leader, a friend, and a diligent learner in our class for the last two-and-a-half years. Her family is moving to Austin, Texas over the holidays and we wish her the very best at her new home and school.
Chloe copies her very first moveable alphabet story onto handwriting paper.
Audrey and Jolene are proud of the initial sound and object work that they have completed together.
Naturally, there has been a flurry of holiday activity in the classroom as well. We have spent time each day practicing our carols for the pageant, making Christmas ornaments, and exploring seasonal works. The children have enjoyed talking and singing about Santa but there have also been sweet conversations about God’s big love, his gift of the baby Jesus, and how we can share what we have with others. The best conversations about the meaning of Christmas have occurred spontaneously between the children and rightfully so. As Maria Montessori said, “We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit” (Education for a New World, p. 69, 1989).
Sawyer gets ready to trim her tree with the playdoh work.
Daniel enjoys a Christmas themed tracing on the line work.
This Christmas, we wish you peace, joy, and love in abundance. We will see you in the New Year! - Ms. Tamara and Ms. Jaymie
Primary 3
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, in the classroom that is. The children have had a most enjoyable time decorating our Christmas tree (both big and small) with handmade bead stringing ornaments, using a wooden Nativity set in replace of our traditional Farm work, and lacing Nativity themed cards. Our older children have been creating wonderful Christmas stories using the Moveable Alphabet and some of the children got together to combine several Sensorial works into a Christmas tree. We are definitely feeling the holiday spirit!
Stella decorates our classroom Christmas tree.
Emily reads noun cards and matches them to the correct item on our Nativity set.
Anna laces our Nativity themed lacing cards.
Merry Christmas from Primary 4!
The children have been so lucky to enjoy weather that is more delightful than frightful this holiday season and we have soaked up every minute it, from adding on just a couple of extra minutes of outside playtime to spending every last second in the garden on Fridays with Ms. Loree working on special holiday themed works. We are so fortunate to be able to take delight in such wonderful weather this December! Our classroom has also enjoyed reading many holiday themed books. We have read my personal favorite, The Nutcracker, as well as The Wild Christmas Reindeer, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and The Christmas Story. All books have been loved dearly, especially The Nutcracker—we even listened to the wonderful music of Tchaikovsky during our work period to add even more Christmas spirit.
Enjoying the beautiful weather: Cora, Abby, and Annabelle play follow the leader; Vivian and Mark working on Cheerio wreaths in gardening; Ms. Loree strings popcorn and cranberry garland with the children.
Wishing a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our amazing families! Ms. Sarah and Ms. Bianca
Primary 4
The month of December has flown by! We’ve had a great time in art this month. We worked with clay, which the children love! The Kindergarten students made pinch pots. We used air dry clay, which is very easy to work with. Everyone started out with a ball of clay and kneaded it until it was warm and soft. Once it was soft, we rolled it out on the table into a long snake. Once the snake was long and skinny, we started to coil the clay. We created the base of the pot, and then built the coil up to create the sides. After we coiled all the clay, we used our fingers to pinch the coils together and give the pot a shape. The children loved shaping the clay! Some children chose to make their pot a square or a triangle, a heart or a star, or simply to leave it round. After everyone was finished, we let our pots dry. Then they were time to paint! Each child was able to chose what colors to paint their pot. I love the way all of them turned out!
Art & Technology
The second level students also worked with clay this month. They made fossil clay, which we turned into an ornament. We started out with a ball of white air dry clay, and we kneaded it until it was warm and soft. Then we pressed the ball flat onto the table to make a round or oval shape. Then we used different leaves and branches that we collected from the garden to press into the clay. Each leaf, twig or branch made a different impression each time it was used. The results are really neat! When everyone was happy with their fossils, we put a hole in the clay and let them dry. We added a piece of yarn, and now each child has a unique fossil ornament to hang on the Christmas tree!
In technology this month we finished our special project -a calendar! We took all the drawings that the students made, and compiled them into a calendar. It is amazing! Each Kindergartner will get to take a calendar home to share with their family. I hope you enjoy it! The students worked so hard and I am so proud of them! Merry Christmas and have a safe and happy new year! Ms. Hanna
In the Children’s
Garden
Christmas Season in the Children’s Garden We have finally had our first winter weather in our garden! We’ve had to do a lot of clean up, but we also planted more winter hardy plants such as kale, spinach and Swiss chard. It’s fun to watch the garden change through the seasons! We also made Christmas ornaments for our bird and squirrel friends who visit the garden by stringing cheerios onto pipe cleaners and making garland of popcorn and cranberries.
Christmas is Forever
Christmas is forever, not for just one day, for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf. The good you do for others is good you do yourself. I hope this Christmas season is a time together with all those you love and hold dear. Merry Christmas! Mrs. Loree
All of the ASC staff enjoy spending time with the ASC kiddos. We are a large extended family that get to spend time together each afternoon. We will always try to have outside time, so please remember to send sweaters/jackets for your child. If we are not able to go outside we will use the Parish Hall as our playground so that children can have a large space to move around and play. Potty-training will begin in the MDO and toddler classrooms in January. If your child is potty-training and in ASC, please make sure that we have extra clothes. Typically if your child is in the beginning stages of potty training, they will come to ASC in diapers or a pull up. We will still encourage using the potty chair and as they progress and they are using the potty on a more regular basis, we will keep them in their cotton underwear. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me. ASC wishes all of our St. James a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2016 Lisa Wilson
ASC
God’s Love Is Big Wow, I can hardly believe it’s already December break. Our Kindergarten students continue to do a great job in our Chapel services. All of the students are really learning the prayers and songs. They love to get the chance to interact with whatever subject we are talking about. Maria Montessori believed that children should be a present and viable part of church services. We are very fortunate here at St. James to have a beautiful Chapel where the children have the opportunity to do just that! Maria Montessori thought it a pity that children would often miss the significance of Christmas because of all the distractions. How much more true that is today, with the seemingly endless distractions. Our services have been focused on Advent and the birth of Jesus Christ. We spoke of the miracle that God’s Son was born to a young girl named Mary. We spoke of how God’s big love came to us in the form of a baby who would grow to be the King of Kings, Prince of Peace and that Mary would call Him Jesus, the bright morning star. As the star shone brightly over the manger announcing the arrival of the Messiah, the saving light of the world was born. That same light of God’s love continues to shine on the world. I encouraged the children to remember that light in them and to let it shine bright for all to see as we celebrate the birth of Jesus! I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and as always remember God loves your child, and you, BIG! Ms Amaris
Chapel
From our St. James family to yours, we wish you a
C
y r r e M tmas s i r h and a Happy New Year!