We had a wonderful first week back to school.  The students were reviewing their grace and courtesy lessons, working on team building, making new friends, and learning about the Montessori great lessons.  We have an amazing group and they are already coming together as a community.

A few things to think about as you are helping your child prepare for school each morning: please try and avoid allowing them to come to school with unnecessary items from home.  Stuffed animals, fidget spinners, toy erasers, and such items are a real distraction and management issue.  We are trying to build trusting relationships with your children and that can be easily hindered if we need to take items from students that are not needed inside the classroom.  Also, please think about the items of clothing they are wearing.  Is your child independent in fastening certain clothing?  If your child is wearing shoelaces, have you worked to help them learn to tie?  We do have work inside the classroom that can help support this learning, but ask that you help reinforce this at home.  Another area that is sometimes forgotten is lunch.  We have several students who are sent to school with lunches that require preparation.  Please make certain you give your child a lesson on how the item needs to be opened or prepared, instant macaroni and cheese is a perfect example.  (We try and limit anything that needs to be warmed to only 1 minute).  Please just take an extra thought while purchasing and packing lunches for you children and make certain it contains items that they can navigate.  I would also like to encourage that your child is involved or responsible for packing their own lunches.  Food for thought, “Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed” Maria Montessori.

I wanted to remind everyone about our Normalization Period.  This is a critical time for your child to develop their independence within the school and classroom.  Please refrain from entering the building with your child until this normalization time has ended. We have a supportive community which will allow for your child to be successful without your assistance.  Normalization will continue until October 2nd, after this time our classroom will be open for parent involvement.  I know several of you are anxious to start helping within the classroom and we too are excited and welcoming of the help.  Once we welcome October I will be contacting families for volunteer opportunities.  We have had a wonderful first week back and will continue to work on classroom community, grace and courtesy, and team work.  If you have individual concerns, please feel free to contact me via email.

Normalization Period

Please respect the first 6 weeks of school. Please try to avoid being absent during this time, including vacations.  This period of time is essential where the dynamics of the classroom are being formed; the children are learning their environment and curriculum, establishing time management skills as well as establishing themselves intellectually, emotionally and socially. We will be creating a community in our classroom and building teams by playing cooperative games and other activities. We’ll be getting to know the children and doing placement testing.