SJES NEWS January 2018
Montessori Education The lead teachers and I just wrapped up Montessori education classes this month. Thanks to all of you who attended! One of the things we go over during our Toddler Montessori Class is the main goal of having a child develop a “Cycle of Activity.� This means the child places an underlay or rug to designate where they want to work, chooses a work, focuses and completes the work, cleans up the work, and places it back on the shelf where it belongs (or close to it). They then roll up their underlay or rug and put it away. When we see child can complete this cycle we know they are ready for the next lessons that will require memorization of a slightly longer sequence. At this early age we also encourage the children to work from left to right and top to bottom, which lays the foundation for later reading and writing.
One of the Montessori topics we discussed in the Primary Education Class was the “Three-period Lesson.” We use this method to introduce the majority of Montessori materials. Let’s use the sandpaper numerals, for example. The teacher would have the child sitting right beside her, preferably on her right-hand side. The teacher would ask the child to listen and repeat after her. The teacher would point to and say “Zero, one, two…” waiting for the child to repeat her words. The teacher would then say “Show me zero; show me one; show me two.” If the child points correctly, she would then ask “What is this one’s name?” for each numeral that was introduced. The child could then practice the numerals until they felt they had them memorized and were ready to learn the names of the next numbers. The child receives a three-period lesson again and again in the Montessori environment! If you were not able to attend our Montessori education classes please feel free to ask questions or come in for a tour.
MDO parents: Welcome back from winter break! We hope everyone enjoyed their time together as a family. We are excited to see the children back at school. Our students will be learning and exploring the sense of touch, by learning about what is cold and what is hot. The children will have the opportunity to dress themselves, practicing how to put on their jackets, hats and mittens before they go outside. The children are painting using a dropper and cookie cutters. They will be turning pages in a book, stacking blocks and puzzles to refine the fine motor skills which will help control and coordinate the small muscles in the hand and wrist. For practical life the shelves will feature spooning beans. For language, a matching animals work and for math /sensorial we have a color sorting work and the pink tower.
MDO
Hand washing station: The children are learning the importance of using soap and water to remove germs and avoid getting sick, and how a good hand hygiene can protect themselves and others. The main goal of the MDO environment is to help the children develop the skills to function independently, to allow them to explore the environment and manipulate the objects in the classroom freely, to assist them in their rapid language development and introduce them to methods of developing their minds and bodies. The classroom has activities meant to stimulate all areas of development: social, emotional, cognitive, physical and language. The children are allowed the freedom to choose activities based on their interests, and to master those activities at their own pace. The freedom to choose is tempered by the three basic rules of the environment: self-respect, respect for others, and respect for the environment. MDO children have really been settling in to their routine in the classroom. They look forward to choosing their own work and succeed by doing it correctly. They are capable of so much more than we realize! During January, we began introducing Montessori Style art in the classroom. Each work is on a tray with the materials necessary for the student to explore and try the work on their own. Due to cold weather, please remember to dress your child warmly. It is so important to LABEL. It is hard to keep all those hats and gloves straight and labeling really helps. Thank you very much! Ms. Eva, Ms. Mary and Ms. Pamela
The Toddler 1 Community has had a very busy start to the new year. We started out with the Annual Fund LEGO and Pizza party. Then we had parent /teacher conferences that went very well. We had a parent education meeting for transitioning into primary and we rounded out the month with Montessori Education. Whew! What a whirlwind, but it was all fun. In the classroom we are working on recognizing numbers, counting, colors, shapes and arctic animals. I think their favorite arctic animals are the penguins. We have also been looking for fossils in the sensory bin filled with ice. The children are enjoying excavating and working with the ice.
TODDLER 1
We have also been counting to 31 on the calendar for the month of January, and singing our “days of the week” and “months of the year” songs. The children have also informed me that we do not wear our bathing suits in the cold weather in January. So that brought us to the season of the year. It looks and sounds like we have really picked up the pace with language. Ms. Anna and Ms. Andrea
Happy New Year! The school year Is halfway over‌where has the time gone? We started off the month with Mother Rebecca coming in to give January birthday blessings. The children are all eager to see her when she comes in. She told the children the story of the three wisemen, and the gifts they brought to Jesus. We even had a chance to use our senses and smell items like frankincense, myrrh, and touch gold coin.
a
In the toddler classroom we are always learning new lessons. One of our biggest lessons of the year is potty training! We have begun working with our younger children this month, and they have been really excited to start “going potty� like their older friends. At this point in time we have 15 out 18 either fully trained or working daily. Thank you to all our wonderful parents for your continued support at home. When home and school are on the same page, potty learning is a smooth transition. When working on potty training during the work time, the children are in underwear and crocs. This makes it easier for the children to independently go on their own.
What you can do at home to support your child’s progress? Return their laundry each day. Take your child to the toilet often at home, don’t ask if they need to go, simply say “its time to sit on the potty.” Be positive and relaxed but do not offer a choice. Once your child begins using the toilet at home frequently, DO NOT put them in diapers again unless they need one for nap or bedtime. They need to know what an accident feels like so they are motivated to use the toilet. We are so proud of each of our children and their progress they are making! Toddler 2
Some potty books to check out: Diaper Free Before 3 by Jill Lelovic Potty by Leslie Patricelli A Potty for Me! By Karen Katz
TODDLER 2
Since the Christmas break a lot has changed in our classroom. We have changed works in the classroom to better suit the needs of the children, and we have put out several primary works the children seem to be loving. We also have started potty training the majority of our class! The older children have been happy to model these steps for the younger ones. Potty training is a process that the children learn according to their bodily cues. It also consists of teaching the children how to dress and undress themselves. It develops patience and bathroom etiquette such as learning how to wait for their turn, wipe, flush the toilet and properly wash hands.
TODDLER 3
Being aware of their bodily cues is a big part of potty learning. It may take some longer than others to recognize the feeling of having to use the potty or being wet, and that is normal. Potty learning will be one of the main subjects we focus on as we wrap up the school year, which provides plenty of time for the children to learn. It can be a long process, but consistency and patience are key; the children have responded well. Thanks for all of your support during this time! Love, Toddler 3 Team
Happy January! We certainly hope everyone had a joyous holiday season and a happy new year! We are so thrilled to start 2018 strong and confident! The children have settled back into their normal routine here at school. They are ready to learn new knowledge and expand their growing little minds.
John Tucker and Graham enjoy looking at a book together.
As the children enter the prepared environment, there is a sense of unity throughout the classroom. Unity is felt when individuals respect others and feel respected. Older students are helping younger students change shoes, helping complete a work, wiping up a spill, holding hands to help guide, and encouraging one another. There is positivity floating around our toddler environment, which we love to see around this time of year from our sweet students. As teachers, we help guide and establish a culture of respect; respecting the environment, respecting others, and respecting self. There is something so special about our toddler community and seeing everyone supporting and helping each other. The children feel safe, accepted, loved, independent, and most of all feel they are a part of something.
As we move forward into the month of January, we are focusing on refining and mastering gross motor skills, physical skills that use large body movement, and fine motor skills, skills that engage more precise movements. From using large muscles to push and build structures with the play blocks to climbing wall structures outside and building sand castles, we are working on those physical skills that involve our entire body. In the classroom, we are focusing on holding and cutting with scissors and building wrist and finger strength with playdough and A few friends are getting ready to jump tokinetic sand. gether after balancing on the mushrooms.
Did you know that our second-year toddlers have gardening class with Mrs. Loree every morning on Fridays? During each class, the children have a different lesson where they learn all about the outside environment. The children love to participate in a favorite gross motor exercise of walking, skipping, or hopping on the rock paths. Sweeping sidewalks, rock scrubbing, egg shell crushing, feeding the fish, and planting seeds are all wonderful gardening works that the toddlers enjoy doing together. This month, Mrs. Loree came to our classroom for gardening class. It was such a wonderful treat for the entire class! We learned about different birds and the sound they each make, and we made a special snack to display in the garden for our chirping friends to eat. Graham is using his leg and arm muscles to climb the climbing wall.
The children enjoyed gardening class inside the classroom!
As always, please feel free to send an email through Montessori Compass if there are ever any questions or concerns. We love hearing from you!! Love, Ms. Ashley and Ms. Anna Eleanor is practicing her cutting skills by cutting on the straight lines.
TODDLER 4
Happy New Year!!! We are so excited to have everyone back. The students have been doing an awesome job taking on new responsibilities, such as sweeping and cleaning the tables before and after lunch, in addition to being responsible for taking care of the room in other ways, such as folding laundry, looking around the room for missing objects, and making sure all of the dishes have been cleaned after snack.
A lot of students have been doing botany and zoology puzzles, such as creating their own flower or animal, push pining, and then recreating their own reproduction of the puzzle on a separate sheet of paper. They have also been hard at work, working to create their own map of the world.
Primary 1
As far as other academic work goes, the kindergarteners have been working really hard with the addition and subtraction worksheets with bead bars, in addition to utilizing the red and blue rods. Meanwhile, the second-year students have really embraced their math folder work, and are doing new math works, such as the cards and counters, which is corresponding number objects with the number, and then tracing the numbers. Our first-year students are also working hard as they are going through each of the object sound boxes, matching objects to the corresponding letter, while other students are working with the brown stair and pink tower, building really neat patterns with them. Everyone has done such a great job these past few weeks, and while we are sad to see Mrs. Amaris out, we are working hard and accomplishing a lot of great works. We look forward to keeping you posted on our new adventures in February. Sincerely, Martha Young
Hello Primary Two parents, We hope you all enjoyed the holidays! We are excited and ready to start the spring semester. The children are delighted to be back to their daily class routine, as well. It’s always a pleasure seeing them content and ready to work hard. As usual, the practical life shelf is always changed out every month. It is filled with the with new materials, and sometimes more challenging activities as we progress into the year. We love the children’s excitement when they discover the new materials. One of the most popular works is tweezing the animals of Antarctica out of ice cubes. Moving along to academics, our older students have also been working diligently with the math and language arts materials. They are confidently choosing harder projects and activities. We continue to work with our Waseca reading program, sandpaper numerals and letters. Maria Montessori once said Analise trying to get all of the animals out “Free the child’s potential, and you will free him/her into the world.” We strive to of the ice. do that here everyday.
Primary 2 Our students enjoy being back to hangout, learn and play with all of their friends. We are thrilled to see what’s in store for the next few months. Stay warm everybody! Lots of love, Mrs. Barrineau Ms. Sheila
Top: Riley perfecting her pouring skills. Left: Sawyer collecting the materials she needs to make a metal inset. Right: Jacob focused on pricking out the dog puzzle.
Welcome to February! The children have enjoyed getting back into a normal schedule and we have seen so much growth in them in the past month. The first year students have been enjoying our Valentine’s Day themed practical life work. They are busy working to learn their letter sounds and their rainbow writing. We are seeing them start to retain lessons and really immerse themselves in the classroom material. Second year students have been working hard on proper handwriting and reading consonant-vowel-consonant reading. Our kindergarten students have started to really be challenged, and they are given much more time consuming work. They have been starting to memorize math facts and increase their writing into full paragraphs.
Primary 3
This month we will be exploring the continent of Asia. We will be reading books and learning about different animals and cultures within Africa. We will be celebrating Valentines Day and taking time to talk about the children about how they can spread love to others around them. -Mrs. Eloise & Mrs. Anna
Dear Primary 4 families, January brings with it a change in the classroom vibe that fits the weather changes outside. The children are starting to show more of an interest in language, cultural and math, and are eager for lessons they see their friends (even the older ones!) are trying. The Practical Life and Art shelves are always the favorites and most of the children see them as a warm-up for their day. Before, most children would choose to stay in that area if not for a gentle nudge to the more academic works. Now we see them readily trying out counting, sounds, nomenclature cards, landforms, etc. Speaking of the weather, we have been learning about the different types of weather we see. The children have learned how to identify what the weather looks like daily from what we observe from the window. We have expanded on that by reading books about rain when it rains, and even snow when we thought we were getting snow! We have learned about water vapor, droplets, rain drops and the appropriate clothing to wear for the rain. We also have had lessons on the planets in our solar system and the relationship between all things. We had a lesson on the cosmic nesting boxes that showed us the relationship from smallest to largestthe smallest being energy, what we are all made up of, and the Solar System being the largest. The children enjoy stacking the boxes that much resemble the pink tower they love so much.
Primary 4
I have taken the lead from the children about how to plan the lessons this month. They have shown a great love for playdoh so I added clay and Arctic animals to our works. We have used the clay to make imprints of their paws and compare them to the others. The Kindergarteners have started addition and have enjoyed it immensely. I have offered them multiple manipulatives to assist them in their work and they are eager for more! We just started the snake game (adding in multiples to equal 10) and are working on addition families. When working on the continents map with the older children, I noticed they would take the pieces and go to our group rug to compare to the large-scale continents there. The visual memory and the song I sing with them helped them recognize the names of the continents and their place on the map as they constructed their own maps. I love to see the connections they make through the works that Maria Montessori so painstakingly put into her materials. It is truly an amazing and wondrous thing to see how the children have grown since the first day of school. Their interest and curiosity continue to increase, and along with it, learning grows.
Sincerely, Ms. Bianca and Ms. Brenda
January in the Children’s
Garden
Brrrrrrr! The freezing temperatures reminded us to take care of the birds while also giving us a clean slate for planting in the garden. First, we had to give everything a good trim and clean up anything that wasn’t coming back in the spring. We’ve planted a lot of clover and vetch for cover crops. We’ll till these into the soil in the spring to enrich the garden.
We planted cyclamen, pansies, stock, lavender, white onions, and Swiss chard. Before we know it the garden will look beautiful again!
All the Primary students had a lesson on Living/Non-Living. The Kindergarten students walked with Mrs. Hanna and me to search for, and photograph, something living and something non-living. They will be making these photos into a classroom work!
Here’s a song that helped us remember how to know if something is living. (Sung to the tune of Frère Jacques.)
It is living, it is living I know why, I know why, It breathes and grows and changes… It breathes and grows and changes… It’s alive, it’s alive. Happy winter gardening! Mrs. Loree
Welcome to 2018! It’s great to be back to school after a nice winter break. I hope you all enjoyed your time together! This month in art we are studying Eric Carle. The children and I looked at some of Eric Carle’s books and focused on his unique illustrations. Eric Carle uses a collage technique to create his illustrations. He hand-paints paper, then cuts it and layers it to create his image. Eric Carle’s pictures are very easy to recognize and very familiar to the children. For our project, we are going to create our own Eric Carle inspired picture. The children have been busy painting paper in a variety of colors. I have also given them different tools to add texture and dimension to their paintings. For example, they can use a Q-tip, a clothespin, a sponge, a scraper, etc, to give their painting a little something extra. Next, we will cut the painted paper, and assemble it into an object or a picture. The children have already have ideas of what they want to create, and I cannot wait to see what they put together!
From left to right: Hays and Keaton paint paper with a variety of colored paint. Mason uses a scaper tool to add texture and dimension to his painted paper.
Living
In technology, the students got to work on their photography skills again. We teamed up with Mrs. Loree for a science lesson about living and non-living things. The children walked in and around the school looking for things that are living and non-living. When they found an item, they took a picture of it! The children are going to turn their photos into a special work for their classroom! Thank you, Ms. Hanna
Non-living
Art & Technology
The After School Staff is happy to be back and spending time with your children. We were having crazy weather and it is hard to predict what it will be like! Please always send a coat or jacket. We like to have outside time as often as possible but we don’t want them to be cold. 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 is in full force with the toddlers. 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. Lisa Wilson
ASC