Hello again and Happy Spring, all Montessori families! Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, and next week begins our third and final trimester of the school year.. We sent out our second trimester report cards, via e-mail, yesterday. If you didn't receive your child's report card, please let us know through Remind app. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email Ms. Krista or Ms. Teresa (see Contact Infos and Schedules page on this website).
Students came home today with a shamrock necklace. This isn't just a cute Spring/ St. Patrick's Day activity, it is symbolic of an important religious lesson. Ms. Rachel told our children that St. Patrick used the shamrock to illustrate the Holy Trinity. One leaf for the Father, one for the Son, one for the Holy Spirit. Each student pinched off a shamrock from the plant Ms. Rachel brought in, which she then enclosed in the plastic so they could wear it for the rest of the day. In the countdown to Easter, Ms. Rachel is also talking about the Stations of the Cross with the children each day. We buried our "Allelujas" a while back, and now learn about this solemn time when Jesus was being persecuted and his journey to crucifixion. But the good news is, at the end of this journey, he was resurrected into everlasting life! And we will sing "Alleluja!" once more!
0 Comments
. We have been counting, from day 1, every day of school, by adding one little golden unit bead to a dish. Every two weeks, it becomes another child's afternoon job. Once we got ten unit beads, we traded them for a ten bar. On March 4, we finally got to trade ten ten-bars for a full hundred square. Then, we decided to count to 100 in a different way - using the color bead bars from 1-9. Each 3 -and 4-year-old student colored in a picture of one color bead bar, and our Kindergarteners' special job was to label each bead from 1 to 100! We are still counting! Every day, one student adds another little, golden unit bead to the cup, to go along with our hundred square. March is our month for learning about fish and other creatures of the oceans. Our students are now classifying animal pictures into mammals, insects, birds, and fish: Each time another class of animals is added, we have a full-group lesson to review the previous classes, and introduce the new one. We are also learning about food groups this month. We are using the MyPlate model of nutrition. Our main focus is that we learn to identify if foods are fruits, vegetables, grain, protein, or dairy. The children are starting to identify these food groups in their lunches! On a final note, the weather is changing as we move to Spring. Please continue to dress your child for the weather, keeping in mind that our morning playtime is considerably cooler than the projected high temperature for the day. We want our kiddoes to have fresh air and exercise as much as possible! Thank you!
Hello from the Montessori classroom. We hope you had a great, restful Winter Break! We are now back in action, ready to finish our month of February themes. We have been learning about the Presidents on our money, the names of the money, from penny to five dollar bills, and classifying animals into mammals, birds, and insects.
Ms. Rachel has been conducting daily Lenten Devotions with the Montessori children since Monday. Today, we buried our "alleluias." "Alleluia" is a joyful word, and Lent is a solemn time, so we, with Father Luke presiding, buried a box with the word "alleluia" in it. We will sing and shout it again; once Easter comes, knowing with happiness that Jesus has risen! This Friday, we will have a school-wide Lent retreat. We have been learning about the role of the pretzel as a Lenten treat. The shape of the pretzel mimics how praying children used to cross their arms over their chest. On Friday, our children will recite a prayer to get their pretzels, and a choice of dip..We are reading "Father Giovanni's Little Reward" to the class, and have a guide to make pretzel shapes in our play-doh sets. Next month, we will celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 3. We will also learn about fish and sea creatures, to add to our animal classification work. In addition, March is our month to explore food groups and nutrition (great lunchtime conversation!). We will also be learning about the transition from Winter to Spring later in the month. As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns, contact Ms. Krista or Ms. Teresa via Remind or email. You can find our contact information on the "Contact Info & Schedules" page. Thank you for your partnership in education. As we say goodbye to January, we say goodbye to the wonderful work we explored with landforms, rocks and minerals, and, of course, our model volcano! We also read several versions of the old folktale, "Stone Soup." Through each telling, we learned about elements of literature, such as characters, setting, and plot, as we compared and contrasted these stories. Unfortunately, this year, we were not able to make a stone soup in the classroom, but we believe the lesson of sharing and cooperation is still important!
February is our month to learn about Presidents, money, and, of course, Valentine's Day. We do allow students to exchange Valentines. Each child will decorate a "mail bag" in which to collect their Valentine cards and gifts. We do ask that you do not individually address cards and gifts to children, as that slows down the process of delivery. Of course, we encourage every student who is able to sign their own names! Reminder: we have 32 students in class.
Hello! Hopefully, you've all read the email from Mrs. Aiken about returning to In-Person School on December 7th. This will involve testing 100% of students and staff on Saturday, December 5. Please see details in yesterday's email.
On December 7th, students returning will please bring back school-provided Chromebooks, rest mats, and journals, as applicable. Please also send back in your child's extra clothes. School-provided lunches will again be offered beginning December 7th. The deadline to order is midnight of Wednesday, December 2nd. You may use this link.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c044caead2ca3f94-lunch16
We will pick back up with all Covid 19 Protocols, that involve taking temperatures and cleaning. Please do not forget to let teachers or the school office know if your student can answer yes to any of the following questions: Have you knowingly been in close (unmasked/un-distanced) contact with anyone who has tested positive for COIVD-19 in the last 14 days? Have you knowingly been in close (unmasked/un-distanced) contact with anyone who has or had symptoms of COIVD-19 in the last 14 days? Have you tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 14 days? Have you experienced any symptoms of COVID-19 in the past 14 days (upper/lower respiratory or gastro-intestinal symptoms) and had a temperature greater than 100°? Traveled internationally or from a state with a widespread community transmission of COVID-19 per the New York State Travel Advisory, within the last 14 days? Additionally, we are emailing your children's report cards today. They will arrive via the same emails from which you receive communications from the office. Please read them over, and sign up for a Parent/Teacher Conference if you have any concerns or questions!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c044caead2ca3f94-montessori1
Finally, thank you for your hard work during distance learning, your support during our technical difficulties, and your continued diligence to keep us all healthy! See you soon! 1. Sign in to your child's St. Mary's email address. It will end with "stmaryschoolswormville.org," which will allow you to access Google Meet and Classroom. The paper with the username and password was sent home, stapled to a Virtual Learning Schedule.
2. Find the Classroom links and codes. These were sent via Remind, and are also on the Contact Info & Schedules page of this website. We have codes for Montessori Children's House, Spanish, and PE. The information for Music is coming! 3. Make copies of the worksheets that came home, if at all possible. Please resist letting your children use the worksheets until seeing a lesson for the various ways they can be used by children of different ages and skill sets. 4. Please read over the Distance Learning Lessons Lists. These are posted in Google Classroom and on the Contact Info & Schedules page of this website. There are links, and there are also suggested activities with concrete materials. As teachers of young children, we do not favor excessive screen time. So, please consider some of the activities that involve materials you may have around the house. 5. Monday morning, 8:45 am, please sign in to the Google Meet posted for attendance. We will try to do live attendance each morning, as a way to say hello, and also help children plan their day, if necessary. 6. Follow your child. We will begin this process slowly, in order to acclimate to this new routine. Play-doh and paint and blocks are appropriate works, especially for young children. Just because it might be relaxing, does not mean there's no value to it. Try to follow your child's moods and needs as much as you can . You know them best! Well, we hoped it wouldn't happen, but here we are again - going to Distance Learning. However difficult, we are more prepared than we were last Spring, and we've learned some techniques and strategies for using technology.
We are sending home materials and resources today and tomorrow. Please do not get overwhelmed! We will begin slowly. A good thing would be to look at the schedule, begin your child(ren)'s email account through .stmaryschoolswormville.org, and sign up for the Montessori Children's House Google Classroom. Every student will have a school email this year to access all of the Google resources. The main tools we will use will be Google Meet and Google Classroom. For the Kindergarteners who received Chromebooks, the student's email will be used to log in to their account. Click on "Add Person" on the startup screen. All others can use any device that gets them internet. Our Activity Lists will be posted under the Contact Info & Schedules page on this website, as well as periodically on Google Classroom. I prefer to send them as links so that they can be edited as needed, and it updates instantly. I will add resources that I find, and delete things that don't work. That's all for today! Like I said, we'll go slowly, much like the first day of school in person! The good news is we all know each other better now! Have a good night, and God bless. First, a look from a little over a week ago: The students of the Children's House had a marvelous Halloween celebration! There were stations for cookie decorating, lots of festive art projects, and a special friend named Jack was carved!
Now we are in full swing in November. One change that is happening is that, now that the 4-year-old students have learned about the rules and routines of choosing work and asking for lessons, they are now expected to choose from the math area, language area, and science or geography area every day. The children are learning quickly where those shelves are, and are now beginning to explore work that might be outside their comfort zone. Sometimes, they choose, and sometimes, teachers invite them to lessons. It's another layer of our expectations to make sure that our 4-year-olds get the skills they need to be successful in Kindergarten. Of course, 5-year-olds continue with their weekly work lists. Additionally, every child in the classroom is assigned a job every two weeks, to help our room stay tidy and run smoothly. We're all learning to take responsibility for ourselves, our learning, and our room! We are also adjusting to the free breakfast and lunch program. Please keep an eye out for the St. Mary Buzz for the deadline to order lunch for the week ahead. Breakfast is delivered to our classroom daily. As you've probably seen, these consist of bags containing cereal, some kind of cracker or cookie, and a fruit or juice. As I explained in our last newsletter, we are incorporating this food into our self-serve snack in the classroom. We've broken up the bags so that children may choose one item for their morning snack (or 2, if it's a juice and a food item). We have found that it is simply too much food! So we have been sending home the bags daily, so as not to waste it. Don't worry, we still have LOTS of snack in the classroom! For each family's snack week, we are more likely to ask for classroom supplies and perhaps one kind of fresh fruit or vegetable (that can be served whole, or sealed in bags, due to sanitation concerns). Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. This month, we are learning about winter squash. Last week, we introduced five different kinds. We have learned the names of butternut squash, acorn squash, hubbard squash, spaghetti squash, and of course, we know about pumpkins .These squash are on the shelf for observation and exploration. Right before Thanksgiving, we will predict what each of these will look like inside and cut them open to see if we were correct! We have an eventful week coming up! First, on Tuesday October 27, we will have School Picture Day. This will be a one-day event this year, as only individual portraits will be taken. Class photos will then be assembled using the students' individual shots. Tuesday will be a non-uniform day, and children are encouraged to dress up. We will be amongst the first classes to get pictures taken, so your little ones will not have much time to show "wear and tear" from their day! We always restrict any potentially messy activities, such as snacking, painting, markers, etc, before student pictures are taken. Being on time that morning will greatly facilitate getting to the photographer on time!
On Friday, October 30, we will have our Halloween class celebration. Montessori students are encouraged to dress up in costumes, and we will have Halloween-themed snacks and activities throughout the morning. There will be no school parade. Please be aware that this is still a full day at school, including lunch and rest. Therefore we ask that children don't wear make-up or face paint, that their costumes can be comfortably worn all day, and that they don't bring small or fragile costume accessories that you don't want to risk getting damaged or lost. Families may, if they like, send in Halloween treats to share (individually sealed, please), but it is by no means required, so please don't feel obligated. Finally, this coming week, a free breakfast and lunch program will begin at St. Mary's. You may order lunch for your child online, through the "What's for Lunch?" icon on the school's website. Details were in the last Buzz newsletter. School breakfast will be delivered to the Montessori classroom daily, where we will utilize it for our students' self-serve snack. Therefore, the nature of our snack program will change. As you know, the expectation was that each student's family would be responsible for one week of classroom snack for the year. Well, we're pleased to say that this burden will be greatly eased with the addition of the daily delivery of breakfast foods. Our snack wish list will transition to a "Snack/Classroom Supply" Wish List. Many families have asked what we need for the classroom, especially regarding cleaning and other consumable supplies, and have delivered! For that, we thank you! So for your future Snack Week, you will still get a wish list, but it might not ask as much for food as glue sticks, or Lysol, or paper cups, for example. Either way, the cost to families should be less than buying snack for 32 children for a week! As always please reach out with any questions or concerns, either through the Remind App, or using the information provided on the Contact Info & Schedules page on this website. And enjoy the rest of your weekend! Hello from the Montessori Children's House. Above are photos from our rainy St. Mary's Marathon Walk! Thank you for all who pledged money and volunteered. We took one quick, wet lap (to singing of "It's Raining, It's Pouring") and went back inside! As we continue the themes for the month of October, several children have had lessons about the parts of deciduous leaves. Who knew a leaf had so many parts? We have enjoyed watching the colors of trees change, and have learned about the characteristics of deciduous trees (as well as learning the word "deciduous"!). This weekend, I would like your child's homework to be to bring in one special leaf that they've found. We will see how many colors and shapes can be collected among the class. As you know, Ms. Rachel gives religious lessons to the Montessori students. This past week, she has given a lesson recommended by the Diocesan plan, "Protecting God's Children" that revolved around teaching personal safety. She read the book, "God Made ALL of Me: A Book to Help Children Protect Their Bodies." The lesson focused on age-appropriate bodily autonomy. God made us all, every part of us, and all of it is good. We have the right to say no to others if we don't want to be touched. It's a good thing to ask a trusted adult for help if someone doesn't respect your wishes. And that we don't keep secrets from our parents; if someone asks us to not tell Mom and Dad, that's not a good thing! Of course, we encourage you to talk to your children to reinforce these lessons often.
On a final note: We sent home rest mats to be laundered. We also ask that masks be laundered frequently. Young children often chew on their masks, or put them on before they are quite finished chewing and swallowing that last bite of lunch, and they become rather wetter and dirtier than an adult's mask probably would. We encourage you to do a bookbag sweep every weekend to throw masks into the wash. Thank you! As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns! And enjoy the rest of your Fall weekend! |
Author
Ms. Teresa is just one of the three fantastic teachers in St. Mary's Montessori Children's House! |