SJES NEWS January 2017
February certainly feels like a short month, but oh, have we packed a lot into it! We kicked off the month by voting on whether the groundhog would see his shadow, and by celebrating our 100th Day of School. Valentine’s Day was so much fun too, thanks to our parent volunteers! Can you believe this is the last party of this school year? Time definitely flies by here. Next on the calendar will be a visit from the Dallas Zoo… this will be the third time this program has come to SJES and by far one of the most popular. In the past we’ve met flamingos, a sloth and monkeys! I can hardly wait to see who will visit this year. We also arranged a small favor from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for this year…a Violin Duet will perform for the children who are 4 ½ and up. We are preparing for their visit by reading “Welcome to the Symphony” which also has auditory cues to play as examples.
Here’s to learning more about animals and music‌ stay posted for photos! Mrs. Loree
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 and they may also watch as the teacher gives a learning lesson to
ABACUS 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.
BROWN STAIRS
MDO
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 to accomplish 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 PUZZLES 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 on 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. GLUING 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. Due to the weather changes, please make sure your child dresses appropriately for the cold temperatures. Thank you! Ms. Eva, Ms. Mary and Ms. Pamela
Toddler 1
The Ground hog saw his shadow, and these sweet children enjoyed a class pizza party for being one of the annual fund winners! We had a dentist visit from Dr. Diep Truong and to top it all off we enjoyed sweets for the sweet Valentine's Day party.
We have been working with pink, red, white, and purple hearts all month. We also transferred hearts, glued hearts, and used heart stickers. We even added two colors to the easel painting work. Thank you to our room moms for another fun Valentine's Day class party. We enjoyed fun, food, and smiling faces. Happy February, Mrs. Anna and Mrs. Andrea
February is healthy teeth month. The children have begun practicing brushing their teeth in the classroom. If you haven't brought in a small toothbrush, please do so. AnneMarie chose to practice brushing her teeth for her morning work.
Viva dental came and brought their friends to show us proper teeth brushing.
Toddler 2
We thank everyone who helped with our Valentine's Day party! The children enjoyed eating lunch and making crafts with their loved ones. We couldn't do it without all the wonderful volunteers.
Toddler 2 team April, Lily, and Annabel
The Month of February (Love) This month we have rotated the works on the shelves to include hearts and the colors red, pink, and white. The children have enjoyed mixing white paint with other colors to make a pastel. Also, they have been busy painting and coloring hearts as well as making stamps and sticker pictures with hearts. We have been talking about how February is the "month of love" and how we love our families, friends, and mommies and daddies. We are singing "I love you, you love me" and
"the more we get together" in circle time and talking about loving ways to treat our friends! Identifying emotions is important at this age because it helps the child recognize what they are feeling when they are feeling it.
Our friends at Viva Dental came to visit and to give us a demonstration on tooth brushing and oral hygiene. The children were very attentive and are more enthusiastic to brush their teeth so they don't get "sugar bugs." Thank you to our friends at Viva Dental! With all this changing weather we are getting the children outside as much as we can! Happy Winter! Toddler 3
Toddler 3
Dear parents, We have gone back to the basics of self care in our classroom. Dressing and undresssing ourselves independently, potty learning, dish washing, baby washing, and tooth brushing, just to name a few. Our classroom environment is so clean as the children independently sweep and mop the floors, tidy the shelves, and place dirty laundry in the hamper. New vocabulary is happening everyday and the shelves are full of new and exciting math and sensorial works.
Logan baby washing. Cole sweeping the pavement. Cole also enjoys helping keep the classroom tidy.
Toddler 4
February is dental awareness month. Penelope is working hard on demonstrating tooth brushing on the clay mold. Our classroom was buzzing with excitement as the children enjoyed the Valentines party! Thanks for your help and participation! Love, Mrs. Amanda and Ms. Ashley
100
Days of School
Thank you Kindergarten Class of 2017 for creating a super creative 100th Day Museum!
Dear Primary 1 Families, We have had quite a busy month. The children have enjoyed having visitors to the classroom and have even wanted to give the young visitors lessons and share their knowledge and excitement for our classroom and Montessori works. We have also had new valentine themed works on the shelves that all of the children are exploring with joy. This month we also had a fun Valentine’s Day party, and have explored the idea of loving our neighbor and who exactly our "neighbor" is. We have been reading BOB books in class as well as chapter books. We have been studying the continent of Asia this month and using our atlas as well as other works to explore the various countries and customs from
that continent. We had a lot of fun with Groundhog Day, voting on whether we would have another six weeks of winter. Most of our class voted “yes!” We'll just have to wait and see who was right.
Primary 1
In the meantime, remember to label all of your child’s outer clothes, including hats and gloves. Ms. Anna and I want to say thank you to all the parents and all that you do for the classroom. Ms. Amaris and Ms. Anna
Dear Primary 2 Families, This month is always exciting to all of our lovely students because we celebrate Valentine's Day, and of course have our fun filled party. When we commence rug time we have been listening to a cd full with really fun alphabet songs. The children have memorized many of the songs and they absolutely love it. Plus, it really helps our children who are still working on sounds of the alphabet. We hope you might catch them singing these wonderful songs at home! The children have been swiftly moving along with challenging works. We love to see the creative short stories they come up with. We have also been dedicating time to pricking out the many different countries of our world. This is something the kids really enjoy, they realize it takes a lot of effort and time. Sometimes they will get side tracked but with some encouragement they jump right back into it, and accomplish it. They love to see the results and they feel so proud when they finally finish!
Primary 2
Last month we decided to add a practical life work that became very popular. We filled a bowl with ice and added the animals of Antarctica to go with the theme of winter. The students had to use tongs to get the animals out of the bowl and transfer them to another container. This benefits the child with concentration and fine motor skills, and it was also something they really enjoyed! This month we chose to put out a Valentine's Day “cupcake work". We also refer to it
as a sensorial bin. We filled a large bowl with colorful pom poms and other fun materials we threw in there. They then use a scoop and fill silicone cupcake liners with the materials from the bowl. This is also a very popular work this month! Around our rug time we like to discuss friendship and respecting our fellow classmates. We like to mention that it's important to love one another and take care of each other. As always, thank you for all of the love and support you have given us! Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Mrs. Barrineau and Ms. Sheila
Primary 3 parents, Welcome to March! This year is flying by and we are excited for what is to come this spring! February was a busy month and we have seen huge growth in the children. We have had a lot of children who are blasting through the reading curriculum and challenging themselves every day. We are seeing them truly love the process of learning and they are taking so much pride in their new skills.
Primary 3
This month we will be starting to talk about the continent of Oceania. We will be exploring foods and culture from that part of the world. I will be visiting Australia and bringing back a tasting activity as well as some cultural material for the class. We will be expanding on our peace making activities and working on communication skills with the children. As we help to develop the whole child we will continue to teach problem solving skills that's help each child be confident in themselves and be able to independently solve issues as they arise. Thank you all for another wonderful month. We are so impressed with all of the children and love seeing her progress and growth.
-Mrs. Eloise & Ms. Jaymie
Primary 4
The month of February was jam-packed with lots of fun holidays and events to celebrate. We learned about Groundhog’s Day and enjoyed making our own predictions about whether or not we thought Phil would see his shadow; 15 children said he would see his shadow and 9 said he would not. This year our predictions were correct, as Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow. I guess we’ll have to keep our coats handy for a longer winter this year! We also celebrated the 100th day of school on February 3rd. 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 Kindergarten celebrated by collecting 100 special items and we got to take a tour of their 100 museum. Emerson adds apples to our 100 day salad Noah had 100 jelly beans, Zane collected 100 Pokémon cards, Anna found 100 beautiful vintage buttons, and Annabelle got crafty with 100 paintbrushes! After our 100th day celebration, we geared up for Valentine’s Day in the classroom by enjoying all kinds of themed works. The children made their own Valentine necklaces and cut and sewed P4 loving the Valentine's party Valentine hearts. We also enjoyed a visit from the dentist, the Dallas Zoo, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s violin duo. Talk about a busy, The Kindergartners set up a big lesson on multiplication with the Golden Beads but exciting, month!
The month February is not only busy for the children, but for us teachers as well. February is the month where we invite future students to come into the classroom during the work period. My favorite part about this is how enthusiastic and welcoming the children are to the visitors. The Primary 4 children are always eager to get to know the incoming children and enjoy helping them learn the ropes of the classroom. You might see Emerson enjoying snack with a new friend, Stella showing the visitor how to sit nicely for group, or any one of the Kindergartners sharing their knowledge of Practical Life lessons. Ms. Bianca and I love seeing this interaction between the children and find it quite special that they are so kind and welcoming to each and every person that steps foot into the classroom. Our classroom studies Mackenzie feels and matches this month focused on different fabrics Earth. We discovered that the earth we live on is made up of 3 main things: land, air, and water. We looked at pictures of land, air, and water and sorted them. We also learned that Earth is made up of 4 different layers: the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. To show an understanding of this, we made a small Earth model out of playdoh and cut it open to observe each of the layers. Finally, we discovered volcanoes! We learned that volcanoes erupt because the earth’s movement causes openings, or vents, in the crust. We Second level students enjoy discovered there were 4 types of volcanoes and watercolor works after a les learned the parts of a volcano. Finally, we made son on different artists our own volcano in the classroom and watched it erupt! The children were quite intrigued with this experiment and this was a wonderful way to end our month! With love, Ms. Sarah and Ms. Bianca
In the Children’s
Garden
We have cleaned up and re-planted much of our gardens this month. We’ve added all types of lettuces and cabbages. We’ve planted broccoli and brussels sprouts and sprinkled in some Viola and Sweet William for pops of color here and there. I’ve introduced 3 new works: Leaf Polishing - the children spray water onto a cotton ball, choose a leaf and polish away. We are placing the used cotton balls in our bird nesting box because we know these would make such a soft nest for spring baby birds.
Straw Blankets - We are using clean, compressed straw to insulate and fertilize our garden plants. The children can get a handful of straw, place it in the bucket and then gently put the straw around the base of the plant.
Color matching - Using the Color Box II tablets, children find a color match in the garden!
The green tablet matches the leaves of the Viola and Sweet William! Happy Gardening! Mrs. Loree
This month the children have been working hard on their art projects. The Kindergarten students are finishing their penguin project and the second level students started a new project based on Piet Mondrian. The Kindergartners finished shading their penguin with charcoal and then cut him out. They then glued the penguin onto their gradient background. Next they lightly painted a shadow under their penguin on the snow. Their winter friends are so cute!
The second level students started a project based on Peit Mondrian, a Dutch painter, who contributed to the De Stijl movement. His style of painting, which he called neoplasticism, consisted of a white background on which he painted black horizontal and vertical lines, and filled them with primary colors. The second level students are re-creating their own version of a Mondrian piece. The drew a grid on a piece of white paper, and then they filled squares and rectangles with red, blue and yellow paint. Next, they will paint over their pencil lines with black paint.
In technology the Kindergartners have been busy with Lego robotics. Most recently they made an alligator who snapped his mouth shut whenever something was put in his mouth. The students are really enjoying the engineering behind this unit! They are able to look at a picture of the Legos, and tell me exactly what is going to happen when it is built and plugged into the computer. I love seeing how their minds work and figure things out!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Ms. Hanna
art & technology
The after school care area continues to be a burst of activity. We love spending time with your children. I noticed that the primary and toddler both enjoy reading or listening to teachers read to them. It is a long day and they love to cuddle with a teacher. It is a nice and relaxing way to end a day, thank you for sharing your child with us. ASC has continued to grow and there are a large number of children staying in the afternoons. We want to make sure that we have staff to cover our large numbers and we ask that you reserve a spot. The snack is prepared before the children arrive in ASC and if we happen to have drop-ins that we are not expecting, it makes it difficult to prepare more snack. If you arrive after 3:30 to pick up your child, please make sure that you let me know that you are taking them. Just a reminder - if your child is in a toddler classroom, Mrs. Barrineau’s classroom, or Mrs. Amaris’s classroom, their jacket will be in a basket in the hallway outside of the ASC room. Please be sure to take their jacket when you pick them up. We would really appreciate if all jackets were labeled. So often a child does not recognize their jacket and it makes it difficult to get ready to go outside to play. As always, if you need to reach me after 4:00 p.m., please call the school phone 214-348-1349. Lisa Wilson
ASC
Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind...Love your neighbor as yourself. Mathew 22: 37-39 This month in Chapel we've learned how Jesus and his disciples traveled around to tell others about God’s love for them. Jesus taught the people how to pray and how to live, and taught them to love one another. The story of Zacchaeus shows us the miracle of a changed heart. He was a very unpopular tax collector who cheated the people, yet Jesus wanted to dine with him. The time he spent with Jesus changed his heart to the point that he repented of his cheating and gave back the money x 4. We then learned about Saint Valentine and discussed the different valentines that we give and receive today. We looked to the cross as a symbol of the greatest "Valentine" to have ever been given, that of Jesus’ love for us. We learned that it says in the Bible that there is no greater love than when a man lays down his life for another. We also talked about how the best “Valentine" we could give Jesus is to follow his teachings - to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. In chapel art with Ms. Hanna, the Kindergarten class made beautiful little crosses with the verse “We love because God first loved us" 1 John 4:19. I also taught them one of my favorite hymns “They will Know we are Christians by our Love." Please remember Father Gardner in your prayers as he recovers. Ms. Amaris
chapel