2012
September
NEWS
There are cer tain things I know I can count on after being with SJES for 19
years, but surprisingly, the majority of the experience always feels new, fresh and inspiring, thanks to the children. While there are similarities and fond memories, each year is a new adventure! That being said, I want to share a few of my favorite things I never tire of as we begin our 44th school year at St. James: The dedication of the staff and teachers as they carefully prepare the environment for the children.
Witnessing the Montessori Method in action as the children begin to normalize in the classroom.
Seeing the first year children build confidence and independence as they make friends and choose works.
Observing the second and third year student’s growth socially and academically and dreaming about what wonderful things they might do in their future.
Hearing the children begin to memorize the Lord’s Prayer as our very own Kindergar ten leads them. Feeling the suppor t of our community of parents as they eagerly offer involvement in the life of the school The excitement of learning! I know I am so blessed to be a par t of this experience and I promise to always view it with a grateful hear t. As you begin your experience with your child(ren) this year, I hope you will take advantage of our Parent and Montessori education classes. If you missed the Parent education class, please read through the packet and feel free to ask questions. We have our conferences on October 5… if you cannot schedule on that day, just reach out to your child’s teacher to schedule another time. These two things alone will enhance your family’s experience at St. James!
Loree Birkenback head of school
MDO
Cooking with the Season
We are having such a great semester. The children are becoming increasingly independent. We are focusing on their indepenPumpkin Butter dence by encouraging them to put on their jackets, shoes and Snacks socks. Lessons have also been given in cutting with our child safe scissors and food preparations such as picking grapes off the stem or slicing fruits such as bananas. With their independence, potty training is been a part of our daily schedule. Many students are now wearing big girl/boy underwear and we could not be more proud of their success. Spring will be here soon and that will new works to look forward to and nature walks for discovering. Thank you for letting us be a part of your child’s life. We have enjoyed watching them blossom over 6 months. Lindsey, Eva and Yoli
With fall finally here we have been trying snacks with pumpkin butter on them! Our first snack with pumpkin butter was Ritz crackers with the pumpkin spread on them and then we sprinkled raisins on top of them. The children really enjoyed taking turns spreading the pumpkin butter. They enjoyed it even more when they were eating it! Fall time is a great time of year for snacks like this.
Yoga with the children
At the end of each morning before lunch time we like to take about five minutes to do some stretches and a little bit of yoga with the children. This is a great way to keep the classroom calm for the remainder of the day. It really relaxes the children and they love the calm music in the background while we do our stretches. Yoga is a great way to relax their bodies and their minds at the the same time.
MDO Art The children love art time. This week we learned about our body parts on our head. We are teaching the children to identify their body parts in English and Spanish. We had them glue hair onto the paper to identify where it should go on the head. Ms. Eva talks to them in Spanish while doing this and we also go over it in circle time. This was a great gluing activity for this week. We can’t wait to introduce our pumpkin works next week! Ms. Lindsey, Mrs. Eva and Mrs. Kim
Toddler
In Ms. Coral’s toddler class the children are blossoming with independence as they model putting on and taking off shoes by themselves. The children take much pride in knowing they can accomplish this. We are so loving to our children; sometimes we forget they are capable of doing so many tasks independently and in their own way. In doing this, tasks seem to take a bit longer but we find in time it boosts the child’s confidence by finding their sense of self. Modeling behavior and specific tasks for your child is one of the best things you can offer them. They absorb so much of what we do, and want to be just like us! Seeing a child who has their shoes and socks on backward puts a huge smile on our faces because we know they did it, and they did it with pride.
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e have started off to a great school year in Toddler 2! We have been learning how to roll out our working rugs and take ownership of the work and complete the work cycle by putting away our work and rolling back up our work rugs. This is a huge milestone in a toddler class and so proud of our new students for their accomplishments. We have started gardening, music, art and cooking. The children loved to learn how to make and eat pizza. Yummy! Art work will be going home this week; they love the color “red�. We have been easel painting, stamp painting and looking for objects around the room that are red. Some of our Toddler 2 students have started potty learning and are doing amazing. They are very proud of themselves. Yeah! -Mrs. Anna
Red
The cycle of activity in the toddler community
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orking through the cycle of activity is one of the most important things toddlers learn in our community. They are in essence learning to work independently by choosing a work space, delineated by a mat on the table or rug on the floor, choosing a work, completing the task to their satisfaction and restoring the environment. In the beginning this modeled for the children and little by little they embrace the order of the new environment. Before the children can progress to more challenging work they must master the ability to work through the cycle of activity. It is a wonderful thing to see such young children working with purpose and self discipline. They take pride in the community and thrive on order. Their is a calm, quiet buzz as the children work through the morning. And when transition time comes around, the children joyfully help put all the work away and meticulously return the community to a state of order. Each transition is marked by turning out the light, ringing a bell and singing our favorite kindermusik song. Try this at home to inspire your little one to tidy up their toys. Here are the lyrics: Work away, work away It’s time to put your work away, Thank you, thank you For putting your work away! Ms. Charlotte
Ty and Max work together to match the quantity to the numeral.
Cam and Lexi observe while Harry threads the button snake, Charles cuts the wooden velcro fruit, and Ethan transfers objects with tongs.
Tip!
Hoyt plays with homemade gluten free play dough and Nate is gearing up to do the weaving work while Talula does the open and close/ color sorting work and Lily guides Cooper through an early counting and sorting math work.
Cam with the lifecycle nesting blocks- great for science and language as well as a great stepping stone to the pink tower
Graham makes his mark...check out that pincer grasp!!.
Primary
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e have completed five weeks of school. We have been learning and working. One of the most basic lessons a child learns in a Montessori classroom is to choose a work, complete that work, (the student may keep a work as long as he/ she chooses) and return the work back to the place they got it in the same condition it was in when they picked it up. When the student stands up to return the work, they must remember to push their chair in (so no one trips over it and so that the room stays neat). We have been working on this most basic lesson since school started and will continue to do so the entire year. In addition, our focus has been on establishing some habits of our daily routine: sitting quietly on the rectangular rug, working quietly, using an indoor voice in the classroom, and staying in line as we travel as a class around school. If you have not already done so please send an extra change of clothes for your child to leave in the classroom. They do not have to be the school uniform. They will only be used in case of accidents. Please allow your child to independently put lunch boxes, sweaters, etc., in their cubbies and also independently retrieve those items at the end of the day. One of the goals of the Montessori classroom is to lead the child to independence. If your child comes home with a small object of some sort in his/her pocket that you do not recognize as coming from your home, suggest to your child that the object might possibly belong in their classroom and have them return it to a teacher. If you need to talk with me in the morning when your drop off your child, please write a note on the pad of paper on the table in the entrance to the school. I will check for notes ASAP. I welcome communication from you. Mrs. Barrineau/Ms. Ana
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ow! We are astonished that it is almost October and we have been in school for almost 30 days! We are so proud to see our returning students take up leadership roles by modeling behavior and taking care of our classroom environment. Our new students are learning that each child plays an important part in our classroom by making it beautiful and fun. Everyone has enjoyed having new lessons such as primary vs. secondary colors, music genres, cultural studies, compound word puzzles, and fractions! We are anticipating everything we will learn this coming autumn. There have already been many children bringing gourds and pumpkins to school for observations and works. The Pumpkin Patch is coming to St. James and we look forward to taking class trips to the patch! Fall is such a special time for many families; take the opportunity to talk to your child about weather changes, fun holidays and seasonal foods! Montessori Tip: Allow your child to help with dinner by; putting out place settings, preparing food, serving, asking to be excused and helping to cleanup afterward. Hope everyone has an excellent week and we look forward to seeing you all at conferences to discuss all the wonderful happenings of the classroom. Blessings, Elizabeth Stark and Ashley Woodruff
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e can’t believe it’s been a month since we started school! We have had an amazing year so far. The children are hard at work and becoming a close community. Since it is the beginning of the year, we would like to introduce some of the works that your child might be working on. Most lessons in the primary Montessori classrooms are individual and are taught one on one by the teacher. We do have some group lessons that we do during circle time or for special occasions and according to the seasons. The 3 year olds begin by choosing mostly practical life works. This helps them develop independence, concentration, and coordination (motor skills) order. These are everyday life skills. The practical life works start very simply with dry pouring and get more challenging such as table scrubbing, orange juicing, etc. The children work at their on pace. As Montessori teachers, we “follow the child” and give them the lessons as they are ready or as they show a strong interest. The four year old begins working in all five areas of the curriculum: practical life, sensorial, language, mathematics and cultural/geography. At about four and a half, most children start being invited to stay in the afternoon instead of napping. This is the result of the child’s increased maturity and a discussion between the teacher and the parents. Afternoon children get additional one on one time with the teacher and receive advanced lessons. The Kindergarten students work actively in all 5 areas of the classroom. They have what we call “kindergarten folders.” These include story writing, mathematical problems, language packets, labeling the maps and helping the younger children. They also get specials jobs in chapel and they are the leaders of the classroom community. They stay in the afternoon to work on their advanced lessons, and they have special classes such as Spanish, art, computer, and chapel lessons.
In the Montessori curriculum it is important that the children complete this 3 year cycle. It is a privilege for them to be the leaders in their third year. As kindergartners, the children have tremendous ownership of the classroom and love to help out when needed, especially with the first year students. They do their chapel jobs with honor. The primary curriculum builds up to the third year; for example, in their first year they learn the sounds of the letters, in their second year they spell out words, and in their third year they write sentences and begin building stories. These stories begin as just one sentence and can progress to two pages or longer. Julia and Tamara
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Thank you to all of the parents who came to our classroom on Saturday morning for the Parent Education meeting. We began a discussion about the needs and tendencies of the children in our care. One incredibly helpful Dad shed light upon the young child’s need for order and consistency. By simply making a child-friendly calendar for a busy family’s schedule, the child was greatly relieved and then able to make the transition from home to school. Maria Montessori wrote about the Sensitive Periods of the child in the First Plane of Development, between the ages of 0 to 6 years. We all received a colored Chart of these Sensitive Periods. Sensitive Periods were first described by Hugo De Vries, the Dutch biologist who experimented with the different stages of development of the caterpillar.The caterpillar lays its eggs on the bark of the tree at the fork of the branches. Caterpillars emerge with delicate mouth parts. They need very tender leaves to digest. These very tender leaves are at the very tips of the branches. Because the caterpillar is also very sensitive to light, he makes his way to the tips of the leaves in the light. As he gets bigger, this need for tender leaves disappears as does his sensitivity to light. To form the chrysalis, he goes back to the trunk of the tree. n the same way the child passes through periods of sensitivity which later disappear. These are psychic possibilities which later disappear. The child may be drawn to certain activities and materials at one time and lose interest at another time. When a child is going through a sensitive period, it is as though a search light is shining on something specific in the environment. The senses are focused on that aspect and through repeated activity gradual understanding and order are developed about that thing. It is a joyful and not fatiguing activity when it is satisfying a need of the child. The child is driven by an inner need to satisfy or acquire something in that moment.
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he Montessori Classroom is prepared with certain elements in the environment to provide for the needs of the child at his or her particular stage of development.The chart of The Sensitive Periods illustrates what Maria Montessori named The First Plane of Development for the child from birth to age six and how each of the Sensitive Periods peak at certain times. -Ms. Bailey and Ms. Woodruff
Aubrey chooses to use a pencil grip for Handwriting. She holds the pencil grip with the “pincer grasp�, using the thumb and forefinger as the pencil rests on her middle
Tip!
finger. She slants her paper
to write in our d’nealian print, holding the paper still and flat with the left hand.
Landon is working on a Multiplication problem using the Stamp Game. All four operations can be done using both the Golden Beads and the Stamp Game. The Golden Beads involve more movement than the Stamp game as there is lots of gathering beads back and forth from the work rugs to the Bead Supply. The Stamp Game is done at a table, when the child is ready to work alone. Writing Numbers on paper is a preliminary skill necessary for the Stamp Game work.
Miriam is noticing the red lines drawn on the work rug to look like handwriting paper. The children are beginning to notice which letters “have a tail” or hang below the red line. Our “short o” words this week had three letters with tails: “got, pop and you”.
Hayes is sorting the number arrows for the Short Chain of 10. She turns the arrows to the colored side, all pointing upward. In her initial Presentation Hayes counts each of the 100 beads, touching each one as she says its number. Then we fold the chain into a golden 100 square. Later Hayes makes a paper roll for the short chain of 10. We tie it with a golden ribbon
What a lovely Presentation of making a pink triangle using the Metal Inset work! Parker is concentrating intently and peacefully on her work. Our work is to protect her concentration.
Savannah is in her first year in our classroom. She is working on the latch for the Opening and Closing Box. Inside the box are 10 different opening and closing objects with various types of openers: zipping, snapping, screwing, clasping, gripping and twisting These are all Preliminary Activities that prepare the hand for Handwriting. In the first weeks of school the Preliminary Activities are offered to the children new to the classroom. They are used to demonstrate to the children how to choose work, then to spend time with the work using it purposefully, to develop longer and longer periods of concentration as well as finer and finer control of movements.
Villy is learning to play the Montessori Bells by touching the rubber ball of the mallet very softly on the rim of the bell.
Dawson is balancing his upper body with both hands turned inward as he writes his Spelling Words using a Small Movable Alphabet. He almost seems to be in a yoga pose. Dawson’s freedom of movement seems to be helping him concentrate.
Concentration is lengthening!
In the Garden
with Ms. Loree
The Watermelon Work This month we’ve had the parts of the watermelon lesson. We have a beautiful watermelon vine that is producing the very best, juicy vegetables ever! Surprise! Did you know that the watermelon is in the gourd family, and is considered to be a vegetable? Your child might be able to show and tell you the parts of the watermelon…here’s the visual part of the lesson to help you practice at home. Happy gardening everyone! Mrs. Loree
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n art, the Kindergartners are working on their 4 seasons tree. We learned how to draw a tree with no leaves and are using watercolor and stamps to finish up the seasons! Duke is showing the first step we did to prep our four seasons tree and Kate filled her spaces with the different season stamps. The 4’s are working on an Eric Carle inspired tissue paper fish! They did a great job drawing the fish with shapes and we are collaging tissue paper to make them colorful. Ava and Eddie explored with different colors and patterns to make their fish colorful.Since the annual pumpkin patch is coming in, we will be venturing outside to draw from nature and make beautiful pumpkin drawings.
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e are in for a treat because Highlands Café is asking St James once again to have our students’ artwork to be displayed for the month of November! Looking forward to the Fall!
Art with Ms. Judi
Technology with Ms. Judi
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t’s been a great start this year during Technology. The Kindergarteners received hands-on experience with Desktop PCs and Laptops learning about the parts of the computer. We also started to work with Microsoft Word and typing. During the month of October, we will continue to focus on Microsoft Word and I will introduce them to drawing with a digital paint program.
We have settled into a nice routine in our ASC program. Lilly, Delaney and Hannah continue to work with your toddlers. Each day they have snack ready for them when they arrive at 3:30. The next hour is spent eating snack, changing diapers/potty time, playing, singing songs and reading stories until 4:30 when the toddlers go out to play until 5:30. The primary are busy as usual, they also arrive in the lunch room at 3:30 and are served snack and immediately go out to play. Elizabeth continues to help me and Julia has now joined the ASC staff on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We welcome Julia and are excited to be able to allowed drop- in’s for Primary for ASC. We all are enjoying getting to know your children. Please remember that pick up time is 6:00 p.m. If you will be late, please call Tip!an estimated time of arrival. the school with Just a reminder, after 6:00 p.m. there is a charge of $1 per minute for late pick up. -Lisa Wilson Tip!
“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.� - Maria Montessori
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ctober is nearly upon us and we have started our Chapel services and classes. The Kindergarten children spent a full afternoon learning about their Chapel jobs and practicing them in preparation for the Chapel services. They have done a fantastic job of leading the younger children in Chapel. So far this year we have talked about God’s great plan for our lives, the creation story and the naming of the animals. We look forward to our first Eucharist service on Monday October 1. All baptized Christians are welcomed to receive communion and as always we encourage both children and parents to come to the alter to receive a blessing from Father Gardner. We have a really exciting event coming up on October 10! St. Francis’ day! Please help us celebrate this wonderful day by bringing your family animal up to join in our all school pet blessing at 8:30am by the flag pole. If you are not able to bring your pet, it’s a great idea to send your child with a picture of their animal! Enjoy the beginning of autumn and we hope to see you at Chapel!
Blessings, Ashley Woodruff Christian Education Director
Upcoming Events October October 9th october 20th Hearing and Vision Testing Park Cities speech,
Oct 31
October 10th Halloween Parties Noon Dismissal Blessing of the Animals October 12th Dads and Donuts October 15th Monday Morning Montessori with Loree Birkenback October 16th PTO Meeting October 23rd Take a tour of your child’s classroom October 29th Kindergarten Parent Meeting October 31st Halloween Parties - Noon Dismissal