SJES NEWS October 2016
Fostering Self-Discipline in Our Children I just finished conducting a class as part of our Montessori Tips series and thought I would share my notes for those who couldn’t attend. Maria Montessori believed if we prepared the environment for children to be successfully independent, they would naturally build self-discipline. Honestly, it’s easier to do this in a classroom than your home, but here are a few ideas for you to consider.
1. Establish Behavior Expectations: This is ever evolving as your child grows and learns new ways to test you! As Mom and Dad, it’s extremely important to determine the household rules and even more important to not only get behind the rules, but be willing to lovingly insist that our children follow these rules.
2. Set your routine or rhythm of your household: I know this is challenging, but children thrive and feel more at peace with an established routine. We of course, want to model flexibility when things sometimes happen to interrupt this rhythm.
3. Give your child “Purposeful Work” in your home: Many of us call these chores! Study after study speak of how chores help the child find their place in the family. I’ve attached age-appropriate chores and ways to track chores independently.
To truly promote independence in your child, prepare your home environment to meet their need to care for it…add small whisk brooms and dust pans, brooms, mops, rags for cleaning spills, etc. Simplify the environment to help the child know where things belong. House works in beautiful containers/ baskets to draw the child to them. Allow your child the time to work and focus. Remember that mistakes are opportunity for learning!
Chores are something we do as a family, so there’s not typically a reward associated with it. Also, a young child sees chores as play (because they are in the sensitive period for care of environment and self) and enjoy it much more than we do! Here a few ways to allow chores to become independent:
MDO Parents: Well, the month of September has flown by like a leaf in the wind. All the children have adjusted well to the school routine and we are well on our way to a productive school year. The children are all excited about fall! We will be painting, stamping, tasting new foods, and reading fall books. Our upcoming themes are pumpkins, acorns, leaves, etc. We are going to learn about the life cycle of the pumpkin. The children in the class have enjoyed learning the Montessori works. They especially seem to enjoy our practical life and sensorial lessons.
Elliott and Miller love the seasonal works
Reilly is enjoying the gardening class
We continue to work on practicing letter sounds. The children have been introduced to new sign language vocabulary words. Our colors this month are orange and black and the shape is the square. We also are learning numbers and colors in English and Spanish.
Saylor is scrubbing a pumpkin to improve hand coordination
Fall weather can be quite unpredictable and we try to go outside every day. Please be sure your child has a change of clothes that is appropriate for the fall temperatures. Please label all jackets, hats, gloves, scarves, etc. with his/her name. Enjoy the beautiful weather! Parent checklist: • Please remember, if your child has an accident please return dry clothes the next day your child comes to school. Go over these ground rules with your child: • We use soft voices in school • We return work to the shelf when we are finished • We never disturb another’s work • We walk in school
Beckett practices how to put her shoes on
We really appreciate all your feedback. Working together, we can provide the best classroom experience for your child. Thank you very much for all of your support!
Avery is taking a washing hands lesson
Eva Soldevilla, Mary Peterson, and Pamela Pedraza Miller is playing sweet notes with Ms. Mary
MDO
“Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas.� - Dr. Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood Toddler 1 has been enjoying the some what cooler weather outside to run, jump, climb, and swing into fun. Outside time encourages problem solving and critical thinking. It also hones in on risk taking skills - not only with physical well being, but with making life decisions. Physical energy ignites a sense of awe and wonder about the world around us.
Jules learning to pump her legs to make the swing move.
Toddler 1
Lyndon jumping from one mushroom to another.
Gross motor skills are fun, seem to make children happy and definitely build confidence and self esteem. Mrs. Anna
and Mrs. Andrea
Maddox using his upper body strength to swing on the monkey bars.
Berkley learning to slide down the slide.
Maddox, Siena and Ryan learning where to put their feet in order to climb the wall.
In October the weather begins to cool, but the temperature isn't the only thing changing in the autumn season. The children begin to work with more sense of purpose, with more focus, and specific intent. There is a calm buzz around the class and you notice the children working through the full cycle of activity and completing each task with finality and the pride of a job well done. The daily routine is automatic and few reminders are necessary. The teachers and guides in the class are suddenly free to observe the children, give quiet lessons and silently help to maintain the environment with very little intervention. The moHannah is gluing shapes ment is unto make a jack o lantern. imaginable a few short weeks before it occurs, but when it happens it is magical, tangible. This moment is what Montessorians refer to as normalization. It is the moment when the young child's strong will is distilled with purpose. Domenico is exploring with the color orange.
Toddler 2
We have begun to experience the normalized community and are excited to witness this transition. The children enter the classroom excited to work. Many of them know what work they want the moment they walk through the door and set off to complete the pre-ordained task. Some parents have even mentioned that their children
Winnie is pumpkin scrubbing
The children helping Mrs. Lily with our pumpkin. They scooped out the seeds and pulp. We roasted the seeds and made pumpkin bread.
discuss their choices of work in the car. These are children who love to learn, are self-directed, motivated, and disciplined.
What a joy and freedom they must feel at having to chosen, worked with, and restored the very thing they wanted to perfect. Toddler 2 Team Henry trying Prickly Pear..He liked it!
Ms. Coral's class is loving learning about the seasons! Fall seems to be one of their favorites! We are talking in circle time about Fall and Halloween. The children really enjoy all of our pumpkin themed songs and finger plays.
Jones scrubs a pumpkin until it is squeaky clean!
You can find fall inspired works all around our classroom this month. Some of these Alexandra proudly shows us her works include: Halloween foam sticker work. pumpkin scrubbing, seed transferring, fall mystery bag, Halloween themed art work, along with our l anguage cards about the seasons and the parts of a pumpkin. Luke paints with orange paint at the easel.
The children are loving community time in the classroom. Community time is such an important aspect of the Montessori environment. Circle time is the prime time we have community time, however, we also have individual lessons throughout the day that become group lessons. This happens when a child is working but attracts “observers.� The observers quietly stand with their hands behind their back to signify respect for the person working. The children are learning so much from observing one another. It is beautiful to see them have such focus with others working around them. Happy Fall! Toddler 3 Team Ms. Coral, Amy, & Brittany
William squeezes orange juice to drink. Olivia molds kinetic sand into different shapes.
Toddler 3
Dear Toddler 4 Parents, Happy October! We are thrilled about the beautiful fall weather and eager for colder days! As we begin to enjoy the much needed cooler weather, please be sure to label sweaters and jackets with your child’s name. Please refer to the student handbook on the school’s clothing and shoe policy to see what is allowed and acceptable to wear. We want to make sure your child stays safe in the classroom and on the playground. October has been a busy and fun month! Each month, we will focus on a certain color and shape. The colors of focus for this month are orange and black, and the children are learning all about squares.
The children are learning about and tasting the prickly pear during circle time.
Monthly, the children will also be able to taste a new food. For the month of October, we were able to taste prickly pear. Yum! Yum! We also carved and learned about the parts of the pumpkin. Mae is transferring pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin to the bucket.
The children are enjoying new fall works in the classroom, including pumpkin scrubbing and strengthening the pincer grasp by using tongs to transfer pom-poms. Most of the children are in a sensitive period for water. Water transferring with a dropper and window washing are examples of works being used on a daily basis. We have started lessons on teeth brushing which they love! Along with the daily class calendar, days of the week, and the weather, we are incorporating Spanish into circle time. The children are learning the color song, singing the different colors in English and Spanish. As we finish out the month, we have a delicious cooking project coming up and will put our final touches on Halloween themed artwork!
Cole is using tongs to transfer pom-poms.
Thank you for your continued attention and support! Ms. Ashley and Mrs. Amanda
Toddler 4
Amelia is proud of her Jack-O-Lantern artwork!
Dear Primary One Families, We are beginning to feel the fall weather finally! The children have been very excited about the seasonal works that we have added to the classroom. Joy fills our room as we await our Halloween parade and class party! Practical Life is the area where most of our seasonal works are. The children have enjoyed pumpkin scrubbing, counting spiders, hammering tees into a pumpkin, using their pincer grip to put spider clothes pins on a Halloween themed bucket. They have also enjoyed using small tweezers to pull individual kernels off of a dried corn cobb, as well as learning to independently put on Halloween gloves! So much fun is happening while learning takes place. Please remember that while some of these works seem simple to you or like "play," they are in fact helping your child build skills, such as concentration, hand/eye coordination, and order.
Primary 1
The older children in class are diving into some more difficult works with gusto! The multiplication bead board, hundred board, and snake game are very popular math works. The addition strip board and " rainbow writing," as well as making books of cvc words are also enjoyed by many of our students.
Please remember to check Montessori Compass for messages, and to see what your child is working on! There are some pictures that you can not see the entire picture unless you click on it, so please take a look. We enjoy taking a moment here and there to try and give you a glimpse into your child's day.
Happy Halloween! Ms. Amaris and Ms. Anna
October is such a wonderful month. We had our Fall Break. The pumpkins arrived in the Pumpkin Patch. We are singing Halloween songs in the classroom. The leaves started changing color. The class gets to dress up for Halloween and have our first classroom party. The weather is FINALLY starting to get cooler which makes recess all the more enjoyable. And now for a glimpse into the classroom…
PRACTICAL LIFE
Practical Life exercises are the foundation on which all of the various exercises in all areas of the classroom are built upon. It is in these exercises the child begins to form control of movement, build concentration, hand and eye coordination, order, and physical as well as mental independence. These exercises may appear very simple or even like “play” to the child and the other adults in the environment. But as the child repeats various exercises he is working on perfecting a specific skill or movement. It is through this movement that the child develops and actually builds his own abilities.
The child watches a presentation on a skill then is allowed to repeat the skill at his/her own rate. There comes a time when the child no longer feels a need to repeat the skill. The child no longer has to concentrate to bring about a certain movement, it gradually becomes an unconscious action. Through practice, the child builds himself. Finally, the child learns good working habits as he finishes each task and puts away all of his materials before beginning another activity. Throughout the year, the Practical Life activities gradually increase in difficulty. The child will continue to choose the same works, such as sorting, pouring water, stringing beads, etc., but the teacher modifies the content to make the work more challenging.
All the best, Mrs. Barrineau and Ms. Sheila
Primary 2
Primary 3 families, We have had an eventful month, full of lots of learning and fun. The children have been learning about their fives senses and how they use them to absorb their environment. We have used our tasting sense to try new foods, and learned to describe the things we have tasted. In the practical life area the children have been busy scrubbing pumpkins and working on their gross and fine motor skills. Strengthening these areas will help the children be more successful and well rounded in all areas of the classroom.
During this time of year we see lots of friendships forming in the classroom. We have been talking a lot about how to be a good friend and how to communicate your feelings with everyone in class. We have discussed diversity in our friends and how to respect the fact we are all different and special. The grace and courtesy aspect of the Montessori classroom really helps the children learn how to be socially aware and move through life in a peaceful way.
We are looking forward to learning more about the continent of North America next month and exploring what it means to be thankful. Thank you all for the continued support and communication! We are really enjoying this year and are so blessed to have such a great group of children and parents! -Mrs. Eloise & Ms. Jaymie
Primary 3
Happy Fall! I always love this time of the year, not only because the weather begins to get cooler and the leaves begin to change, but also because we begin seeing a big shift in our classroom as well. The children have settled into their daily routine at this point and have already received many lessons. We are seeing them begin to branch out into different areas of the classroom as they are ready to try new things. The children move from quiet, watchful observations to joyful focus on their new lessons. This is the time Ms. Bianca and I like to take a step back and just observe the classroom as concentration has set in. Maria Montessori famously said in The Absorbent Mind, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.� She believed the duty of the teacher was to present new things, then watch as the child went to work on the task at hand without the help of the guide. This is where we, as teachers, learn so much about the children and are able rejoice with them as they master new concepts.
Primary 4
Zane puts together our skeleton puzzle; Noah labels his world map; Annabelle copywrites Halloween words.
This month the classroom was filled with many fun-filled fall activities. We learned the life cycle of the pumpkin, took a tour through the pumpkin patch, discovered mammals, more specifically the flying mammal, the bat, and identified the scientific names of all the bones in our body by singing our bone song. We scrubbed pumpkins, hammered tees into a pumpkin, put together a life size skeleton puzzle, looked at x-rays of bones, and spelled spooky Halloween words! Our first level children began branching out to new Sensorial lessons and extensions, working extra hard on their visual sense using the Pink Tower and Brown Stair to create and the Color Anna leads Tate and Eva through the Secret Number
Game; Noelle and Claire laughing and chatting during snack time; Jetty makes a book of shapes using the Geometric Cabinet.
Ethan using a flashlight to observe the skeletal system; Charlotte pricks a pumpkin; Katie hammers tees into a pumpkin; Emerson and Ben work together on an extension using the Cylinder blocks.
Tablet box to match and identify colors. Our second levels have enjoyed learning new shapes with the Geometric Cabinet, mastering numerals 1-10 with the Secret Number Game, and some have even begun reading beginning 3 letter phonetic words! Finally, our Kindergarteners have been engrossed in the Cultural area. They are working hard on creating new maps, pricking out the parts of a fish, and making their parts of the skeleton books. Here’s to fall, -Ms. Sarah and Ms. Bianca
October in the Children’s
Garden
Who doesn’t love gardening in the fall, especially when it actually begins to feel like fall? Some of the works we’ve had lessons on this month revolve around the pumpkin! We have pumpkin matching, parts of the pumpkin, and even pumpkin hammering.
Lenna has found the match for the Turban Squash
Fulton pumpkin hammering
Jack Preston found the Swan Neck Gourd
That’s not all that’s happening in our garden, though. We also are learning how to “dead head” Marigolds and Chrysanthemums, which basically means pulling off the dead flowers and harvesting the seeds. We are also harvesting beaucoup amounts of peppers!
Clockwise from top: Jules found the Peanut Pumpkin, even though it was hiding amongst the Rainbow Swiss Chard; Reilly sprinkling crushed eggshells on the purple Aster; Wow! Look at this collection of peppers we grew; Reese harvesting peppers.
Happy Fall! I can't believe October has come and gone! I have always loved October - cooler temperatures, pumpkins, fall leaves, and more pumpkins! What's not to love about that?! We have carried the theme of fall into our art projects this month! The second level students experimented with using aluminum foil as a way to paint a picture. Amazingly enough, painted foil ends up looking like leaves! First, they painted a tree trunk and branches with a paintbrush. Then, they took a piece of aluminum foil, crumpled it up, dipped it in paint, and then pressed it onto their paper. They repeated this process many times with red, orange and yellow paint. The result was a beautiful autumn tree! The kindergarten students have been working on a sculpture project this month - a pumpkin sculpture to be specific! They are creating a sculpture based on "Five Little Pumpkins!" By now I am sure you have all heard your children reciting the "Five Little Pumpkins" poem. It is a fall favorite around here! The children love the story, the hand motions, and the different voices. Now, they have a piece of art to memorialize it!
To create the pumpkins, the students used a balloon, yarn, and glue. They soaked the yarn in glue and wrapped it around the balloon. They let it dry and then popped the balloon. The yarn stayed stiff because of the glue, and it is shaped like a pumpkin! Then they added a piece of green pipe cleaner to the top to make a stem. Each kindergartner made five pumpkins!
The students also made a gate (fence) - because those five little pumpkins need somewhere to sit! Each child got two fence posts and one cross bar. They used a hammer and nails to put together their fence! I loved the look of concentration on their faces as they pounded in those nails! Then they painted their fence. Once the paint is dry, we will take their five pumpkins and sit them on the gate! The projects turned out so cute, and I hope you enjoy putting it out in your house for years to come! In technology, the kindergartners have started working on their digital drawing project. For this unit, each student is tasked with drawing images on the computer. They use a Bamboo tablet and stylus to accomplish this. It sounds simple, but it is actually extremely difficult. The tablet is blank - much like how a laptop mouse pad looks - and doesn’t display an image. Therefore, you cannot see what you are drawing when you are looking down at the tablet. Because the tablet is connected to a computer, the images show up on the computer monitor. The children have to look at the computer screen in order to see what they are drawing with their stylus. This is a learned skill, and takes a lot of hand/eye coordination and practice! The students are doing a great job with it, and they seem to really enjoy it! Hopefully you will enjoy the final project too! Happy fall! Ms. Hanna
Art &Technology
After school care continues to be a buzz of activity. Everyone has settled into a routine and I see lots of smiles and hear lots of happy chatter during the afternoon. The toddlers love their circle time routine. They sing songs that they are familiar with from their classrooms. They also love colors and stickers. The primary children love crafts during ASC. Crayons, markers, and stencils are always the favorites! Blocks and building are also high on the list of favorites. The ASC staff certainly enjoys their time with your children. We like to keep their day similar to their classroom routines and that holds true for their snack time. We post the snack on the bulletin board outside the school lunch room area. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Just a friendly reminder that we are asking all ASC families to park in the back for pick up. Cooler weather is approaching. Please make sure that your child has a jacket WITH THEIR NAME LABLED, thank you.
Happy October, Lisa Wilson
ASC
Blessing of the Animals We are very fortunate to belong to a school that recognizes the importance of the animals that God has given us charge over, to care for as pets, and to stand up for those endangered. We learned that God’s creation of all living things was so important to him that he gave the very special job of naming each one to Adam. We also learned that even when we make a mistake (sin), God does not desert us, he loves us and is with us always! Father Gardner and Mother Rebecca led us all in blessing our pets. What a beautiful sight that was! Noah and the Ark was our next lesson. Noah's steadfast faith and belief in what he had never seen before, and his willingness to obey, saved the animals as well as his family. The kindergarten children were able to walk their wooden animals two by two up to our "ark" in chapel as we sang "Old Man Noah." The kindergarten children are also beginning to learn their special jobs more and more, and it is a pleasure to see everyone, adult and child, listening and engaged. Adults, please remember to get a handout to follow along with the service. The more the children hear you saying your parts the more they will follow your example. Coming up we have Joseph and his coat of many colors as well as the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Our next Eucharist Celebration will be November 2nd. Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow, Ms. Amaris
Chapel