It was wonderful meeting so many of you at our back to school evening.  I look forward to meeting more of you at our fall conferences mid October.  If you were unable to attend and would like to volunteer in some capacity this year, please let me know.  We are also in need of a room mother and if you would be willing to help this year, please send me an email.

We have such amazing group this year!  We have filled our days with opportunities to build our classroom community, create new friendships, establish routines, review grace and courtesy, and prepare ourselves for a successful school year.  I am so pleased to announce a resent change to our classroom, Ms. Chelsea Wilson.  She is our new classroom assistant.  The children met her Wednesday and she already makes a wonderful addition to our community.  We feel so fortunate to have her with us.

This week we have been focusing on the Montessori Great Lessons. These are stories and lessons that are meant to ignite the child’s imagination and curiosity.  The aim is to inspire the students to think big and ask big questions. Students learn the definition of the word “theory” and that not everyone believes the same thing about how the Earth was created or how life came to it, but that we all respect each others’ ideas and can discuss them openly with confidence and acceptance of differences. These lessons also lead to the study of many science and social studies topics throughout the rest of the year.  The students were presented the story of the Birth of the Universe, the black time line, which represents the age of our planet and the coming of man, the coming of all life on our earth, and their place in our universe.  We will continue with the story of language and numbers in the coming days.

We will continue during our normalization period and through out the school year working on building character and building community.  The students have been exploring ideas such as the Golden Rule and establishing their own classroom rules.

We are continuing with our observations and assessments and will be starting a more formal work cycle starting Monday.

I want to sincerely thank you all for your support and generous classroom donations.  It really is appreciated.  We are so fortunate to have a new mini fridge thanks for a wonderful donation and already it has made a big different for our classroom snack routine.

As always, if you have questions, concerns, or celebrations, please email me.  Your child’s success depends on our partnership.  I am looking forward to a wonderful year full of endless possibilities!