SJES NEWS
November 2017
This is one of my favorite months in the life of SJES because the children are feeling comfortable and happy. Tours have begun and visitors see calm, peaceful, focused children who are also joyous about their learning! I always enjoy hearing visitors “ooh” and “aah” as they see children totally focused on a large variety of work. I often hear “How do you keep them all busy?” or “How are they so well-behaved?” I always attribute this to the fact that the child is choosing independently and therefore is interested in what they have chosen. I never get tired of seeing this magic, though. In November, we also begin living “others before self” as we collect food for the White Rock Center of Hope. Maria Montessori established this through her grace and courtesy lessons as well. Something as simple as offering to help a child fold the laundry or sharing slices of bananas turns to a child looking for other ways to connect and help.
I hope your Thanksgiving is a constant reminder of all your many blessings‌your children, that you entrust in our care, are definitely wonderful blessings to us! Mrs. Loree
Dear MDO Families, It’s the month of giving thanks! We are all so blessed. We still hold on to fall, the harvest, the turning of leaves and changing of the weather. It’s time for families to come together, to share their times. It is the time of sweet smells of cookies and pumpkin pies and listening to family stories. Now that the weather is changing, please make sure that your child has extra clothes that are warm! Remember, two of our main focuses are potty – training and independence. Having appropriate clothing helps that process be a success. MDO children very much enjoy learning life skills. Activities, which up until now have been going on around them, they can now do themselves: preparing snack, setting the table, sweeping the floor, etc. We also have many food preparation works, which the
Caleb making a Turkey craft with pasta
children love. You can do this at home by setting up a tray with the materials to cut fruit and/or vegetables. We continue working with shapes, color matching works, painting, counting, singing, etc.
Walker sorting sticks by color
We are learning a new prayer song for this month, sung to the melody of “Jesus loves me,” “Thank you for the world so sweet, Thank you for the food we eat, Thank you for the birds that sing, Thank you Lord for everything” For most of our children the story of the Pilgrims may be difficult to comprehend so we focus on the feelings of being “thankful” and “grateful.” Your child’s art work is very important to them and it’s a chance to see their development over the year. It’s why we repeat so many of our projects.
Augustus painting with a sponge brush
As always, it’s a true pleasure caring for your children. Thank you, Ms. Eva, Ms. Mary and Ms. Pamela
Miller working with the sand numbers
MDO
Dear Toddler 1 Parents, Gobble gobble! With Thanksgiving around the corner, we have been talking about what we are thankful for during circle time. The children are thankful for mommies and daddies, brothers and sisters, and friends and families. The children have also been enjoying the seasonal works that we have in our classroom like all of the turkey art, pumpkin washing, and pumpkin puzzles. The older children even have seasonal gardening works that they get to do every Friday with Mrs. Loree, like pumpkin matching, parts of the pumpkin, and even pumpkin smashing. We are finally starting to get more of the fall weather and the children love playing with all the leaves that are falling off the trees. They love picking up the big leaves and seeing if they’re bigger than their own faces. Along with the fall weather we have been getting some rainy
days. On these days, we get to go have fun in the Imagination Playground where the children use the big blocks to build all kinds of structures.
Along with being thankful and enjoying the beautiful fall weather, the children have also been practicing their manners. Walking around others rugs when they are working, saying please and thank you, getting works ready for the next person, and pushing chairs under the table when they are done with their work, are easy ways to show others respect. We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by all your loved ones. Safe travels and enjoy your week off. Love always, Ms. Anna and Ms. Andrea
Toddler 1
Happy Thanksgiving to our wonderful families! We hope you all get to enjoy spending it with family and friends. In a world where we are always on the go, it is nice to slow down and be thankful and count our blessings. This month we focused on giving thanks and practicing our grace and courtesy lessons. Early lessons of Grace and Courtesy develop positive interpersonal skills that will serve children throughout their lives. Demonstrations of practical life activities involving grace and courtesy, as well as modeling this behavior, are designed to nurture a child’s natural qualities of grace and courtesy, and their inherent desire to contribute to the peaceful order of the class environment. Though many are not “shelf work� they are all modeled and encouraged throughout the day. How may Olivia is peeling sticker leaves and this look in our making a tree classroom? Some examples are saying please and thank you, washing hands, respecting the space of others, sitting/walking on the line, rolling rugs, gently handling the works on the shelf, observing others, using quiet voices, just to name a few.
Toddler 2
Above: Louise and Carnes are hammering pegs into a pumpkin
During circle time, we have been learning some new sign language; thankful, turkey, pumpkin pie, and feast. We have focused on the colors red, yellow, orange, and brown. The shapes circle, square and triangle. The children have also enjoyed matching works, gluing feathers on turkeys, peeling leaf stickers, and hammering pegs into a pumpkin. The weather has been gorgeous outside so we have taken full advantage of the playgrounds. One popular place is our gross motor area where we ride bikes, blow bubbles, draw with sidewalk chalk, and use our new science house. The science house has been donated by a church member to our school, and inside Mrs. Loree has put all sorts of plastic bugs, magnify items, books, and shells. Learning is so fun! Have a relaxing thanksgiving, Ms. April, Ms. Lilly, and Ms. Annabel
Top: Delphine is buttoning turkey feathers on the turkey Bottom Left: Barrett is matching nuts to the vocabulary pictures Bottom Right: Connor looking at a gecko we caught
Normalization in the environment is something we strive for from the first day of school. The children have learned the environment and are so eager to take care of it and help one another. One thing they love to do is help each other with their shoes. Practicing and modeling how to put on shoes and socks at home is a great thing to do with your toddler and will help transition times in the classroom. On the shelves, the children are now enjoying dot markers, stickers, gluing feathers on a turkey, buttoning feathers on a turkey, sweeping the table with a crumber, water pouring, among various manipulatives to enhance fine motor skills! November is the month of “Giving Thanks� so we are talking about what we are thankful at circle time. It is a time to acknowledge everything we have and everything we love and are thankful for.
Keeping the classroom clean and neat are two things we teach the children to take pride in, along with their individual work. Many children like to help wipe down the tables with towels and soapy water, while others prefer to sweep and push in chairs so friends are safe. We are learning how to work together and be a team in Toddler 3. Toddler 3 Team, Ms. Coral, Mrs. Amy, Ms. Brenda
Toddler 3
Dear Toddler 4 Parents, Happy November! What a wonderful start to the month with cooler weather and fun seasonal works in the classroom. During our circle time, we have been discussing Thanksgiving and reflecting on all of the wonderful people and things we are thankful for this holiday season. We have also been fostering the children’s love of language through story time. This month’s favorite story time collection includes: Llama, Llama Red Pajama, I Love You Through and Through, Go to Sleep Little Farm, Goodnight Moon, and The Pout-Pout Fish. As part of an extension to the five senses lesson, the children enjoy listening to Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? We have also incorporated finger puppets to go along with our beloved nursery rhymes where the children learn aspects of rhyming and memorization. Nursery rhymes help the children understand and learn different sounds which is an important part of developing early literacy skills. November has been a month of embracing motor skills. Just as it is important to focus on fine motor skills, it is important to work and expand gross motor skills. Gross motor work lays the foundation for the use of fine motor skills. Maria Montessori knew how integral physical movement is to intellectual movement. “Movement helps the development of the mind, and this helps find renewed expression in further movement and activity.”
Clockwise from Top: Eleanor is working with a dust pan and small brush to clean up a spill; James is strengthening his arm and leg muscles while pushing the play blocks; Penelope is encouraging Grayson to climb up the climbing wall.
In the classroom, gross motor movements include movement around the room such as moving chairs and tables, pushing an object, sweeping and mopping the floor, or simply walking. In practical life, the children have also been introduced to mirror washing and table scrubbing. When the weather is beautiful, the children are able to play on the playground equipment such as the climbing frames, balance beam, slides, and swings. The back top is also a wonderful area of play to ride trikes, jump on the mini trampoline, kick and throw balls, and make new discoveries in the Garden House. Our second-year students attend gardening class every Friday where they love to hop on rocks and walk on the garden paths. On rainy or bad weather days, the children enjoy the imagination playground which is a wonderful gross motor activity. They are able to build structures with the big blocks and scoot around the Parish Hall with the red radio flyer spin and saucers. As we embrace the cooler weather outside, we are continuing our Grace and Courtesy lessons in the classroom. The children have been given lessons on observing, speaking in a low voice, self-serve snack, waiting for help, pushing in a chair, and learning how to set a table. As Montessori teachers, we strive to model and encourage these natural behaviors for a peaceful environment. These early lessons enrich each child’s development of interpersonal skills!
The children are given a group lesson on how to set their place setting for a group meal.
We would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Many blessings, Ms. Ashley and Ms. Anna
Palmer and Graham practice chapel hands while praying over their food before lunch.
Toddler 4
Happy Tha
anksgiving!
As we are approaching December, we have noticed so many changes going on throughout the classroom. It has been wonderful to see all of the children advancing their Language Arts skills, from metal inset work to letter tracing, and writing their names. In math, the children have started to work on more difficult works, such as the addition snake game, and the teen board work. The students had a wonderful time matching notes with our beautiful Montessori bells. We are so proud of everyone’s hard work.
Primary 1
From rainy day activities, to being out in the sun, the children have enjoyed being with one another and have formed wonderful friendships over the past few months. It has also been nice to see our younger students master the works in practical life and creating new and innovative designs with the brown stair and pink tower. We are very proud of our P1 students and look forward to seeing the new and wonderful changes that will inevitably take place over the next couple of months. We are very thankful for our students, and we are all very appreciative and supportive of one another. We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving! Ms. Martha Mrs. Amaris
Hello Primary 2 families, October flew right past us as we are now welcoming November. We’re so excited to celebrate the Thanksgiving feast this month. It’s a pleasure seeing the children enjoy it with friends and family. When we transition to a new month we change the practical life area of our classroom. These are still the same fine motor skills activities such as scooping small beans, pouring water, sorting objects etc. We change the materials according to the theme/ holiday for that month to engage our students and gain their interest. It is essential for our children to develop these fine motor skills so that they can ease into other vital areas and subjects of the classroom. The first-year students spend more time on practical life, but the older students always Solomon using a pegboard. love to re-visit the activities as well. Our first-year students are still working persistently with the sandpaper letters and numbers. The older students are taking on more challenges as they start to choose larger maps to prick out, or using the multiplication bead board. They also love to make books from the cultural area in the class. As a class, we are also dedicating time to make art. It’s such a Sienna focused while using the apple tree counting work. fun activity! We love to encourage their creativity.
To wrap this all up, we speak about being grateful for the blessings in our lives. It’s a wonderful time to remind us of that. We hope that you enjoy the weeklong break, and gobble up some delicious food with family and loved ones. Thank you for everything. Happy Thanksgiving Primary 2 Families!
Vera scrubbing a large pumpkin.
Love,
Amelia carefully inserts the leaves in the branches of the tree.
Julianne coloring a color box 2 sheet.
Mrs. Barrineau & Ms. Sheila
Primary 2
Primary 3 parents, The children are enjoying the cooler weather and are already looking forward to the holiday season. The younger children have been busy with our new fall practical life work. They are enjoying tweezing rainbow corn and scooping fall objects. The second-year children have been enjoying perfecting their handwriting as they begin the process of word building and reading. Our kindergarten friends have been engrossed in math this month and have been working hard on more advanced addition and subtraction with number lines and objects.
Primary 3
This month we will continue to study our continent of North America. We will talk about specific states within the U.S. as well as countries that surround us. During this month, we will talk a lot about what it means to be thankful and how to show others love and friendship. This time of year, we really like to let the children drive the lessons. We will be giving them more responsibility and freedom with their works while letting them be creative in their environment. Thank you all for an amazing start to fall. We are so incredibly proud of all of the children and are really enjoying growing and learning with them.
Blessings, Mrs. Eloise &
Mrs. Anna
Dear Primary 4, November has been full of more challenging lessons and lots of talk of peace and thankfulness. The Practical Life area reflects what would be used in a home in November- water transfer with a turkey baster, a kettle and cups for pouring, and a ladle spoon to transfer water. We have worked on table settings and have talked about types of food. In group we read the book “Gregory, the Terrible Eater” and talked about trying new foods at the Thanksgiving table. We read a book all about corn and discussed how important corn was to the Native Americans and the Pilgrims. Did you know corn was used as a form of currency? We looked at a piece of corn and learned the names of the parts of corn. The children used their fingers to pick Indian corn off of the cob and observed the parts of a cob with a magnifying glass. We felt the strands and husk with our hands and ate popcorn for snack. We also talked about why we celebrate Thanksgiving, about the Pilgrims who came from
Europe, looking for a new place to live. How they were in a strange place with strange people, animals and plants, and were struggling to find food. About the Native Americans who helped them and fed them. We practiced our Thanksgiving prayer and sang, “We give thanks for friends and food.” The children eagerly asked when we would get to celebrate our own Thanksgiving, so we counted the days down on our calendar.
At this point in the year we see some of our previous grace and courtesy lessons working in the classroom, such as wiping up spills or helping another child when they spill a big work or need help. We find we can do more observing of the children as they remind each other of the procedures in the classroom and have the freedom to present bigger works to them. Our three year olds have started pricking, metal inset, the second color box, and some have shown interest in tracing their name. The four and five year olds continue to get bigger works on the short math chains, the hundred board, the bead stair and numeral cards and counters. The moveable alphabet gets used almost daily as some sound out words and find the letters to match. The classroom continues to grow and thrive with its own vibe. We are just the directors of the learning that unfolds before our eyes. Every day is an exciting journey we find ourselves thankful to be a part of. A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Ms. Bianca Ms. Brenda
Primary 4
November in the Children’s
Allie Cate “dead heads” the Marigolds
Garden
What a fun season to spend in the garden! We’ve continued with our pumpkin works but the Primary children have added dead heading the Marigolds, and moving soil with a shovel. We dead head the marigolds to make more energy for the new blossoms and to harvest the seeds. The children only pluck off the brown flower heads. This is a great lesson that re-emphasizes that everything begins as a seed because when you split open the Marigold head, numerous black spear-like seeds are visible! The children will get to take some home to plant and we’ll keep the rest here to plant this spring.
Finley, Logan and Hannah take turns moving shovel fulls of soil into our garden beds.
We are building up our existing beds by movJolene and Aidan are splitting the ing shovel-full by heads of the Marigolds to harvest the shovel-full of soil seeds. throughout the garden. The children are learning how to use their strongest foot to push the blade of the shovel into the ground and then how to safely carry the soil.
The garden looks especially lovely with the pops of orange from the pumpkins and Marigolds. Be sure to take a walk through with your child soon and see if they can tell you some of the names of the plants or pumpkins. Happy Gardening! Mrs. Loree
Andrew shows how many Marigold heads we’ve collected
Happy Thanksgiving! We have had a busy couple of weeks this month! The art students have been busy finishing their projects, and the Kindergartners have been having fun with their digital drawings in technology.
The second level students finished their beautiful fall watercolor paintings. They are amazing! I hope some of them get framed with they get home. I’m really proud of how hard the children worked and persevered through this project. Watercolor is definitely not easy to work with!
The Kindergartners finished their hot air balloons! This was a long project, but the result is awesome. After they finished painting their balloon, they tied a tiny little basket underneath. We also added a hook in the top to hang it up. Come look at all the balloons hanging in the hallway outside of the library! In technology, we are wrapping up our digital drawings. All the drawings will be compiled into an adorable 2018 calendar! The kids have had fun drawing turkeys, snowmen, trees, flowers, and hearts. I cannot wait to see the end result! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Gobble, gobble, gobble!
Art & Technology
Ms. Hanna
It is hard to believe that it is almost December, the year has flown by. I have enjoyed getting to know your children this year. They make me laugh at the end of the school day. It will start to be chilly in the afternoons, so students from Toddler 1 & 4, Primary 1 & 2 will bring their jackets to ASC. When they are done playing outside, we will place their jackets in baskets in the hallway outside of the library. Please remember to check the baskets at the end of the day for your child’s jacket. Primary 3 & 4 will keep their jackets in their cubbies. Speaking of winter gear, please make sure you label your child’s jacket and if the jacket had a previous owner, please write your child’s name in the garment as well. We always like to go outside in ASC and sometimes this can be the coolest part of the day because the sun is starting to set. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me. Lisa Wilson
ASC
Dear St. James Families, Our first lesson this month was on Daniel and his unwavering faithfulness to God. The children heard how the king made a law that the people could only pray to him or face the den of hungry lions. Daniel continued, as he always did, and prayed to God three times a day anyway. Though he was thrown in with the lions, his prayers to God were answered and “the lions’ mouths were shut” keeping Daniel safe. In chapel art with Ms. Hanna the kindergarten students made beautiful lions manes. Our next lesson was Thanksgiving. We spoke of the pilgrims and their journey to the New World and how the Native Americans taught them how to hunt and what to grow the in the New World, such as corn. I also told the legend of the “Five Kernels,” though in my family we use five candy corns. The legend goes that the early pilgrims would keep five kernels of corn on their plate to remind them of five ways God had blessed them. 1. God loves us 2. God provides for our needs 3. God gives us friends 4. God gives us people who love us 5. God hears our prayers and answers us As we gather food for those less fortunate, I am reminded of the scripture, “I tell you the truth, whatever you do for the least of these brothers of mine, you do for me.” There is no one who has done more for us than God. I shared with the children that while we can’t really mail a thank you card to God, we can live a life of thankfulness, “thanks-living.” It is wonderful to see the children come in with their food to give to those less fortunate, and to remember that when we feed the hungry: we feed Jesus. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Ms. Amaris
Chapel