Ms. Christie's Classroom

Welcome to 2019-2020 school year.

Blog

Please check out the BLOG, if you have not signed up please do so- this is a key communication tool.  Weekly blog updates are sent by Sunday every week. This is a great instrument to keep you updated on what we are studying and the community resources available to enhance your child’s learning and reading. This is a great avenue to integrate school learning with family time.  The classroom blog also provides critical dates of projects or activities.

Blog link: http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/christie/

Classroom Information and Student Achievement

The first six weeks of school are normalization period.  Please, if you need to have your child absent, please be respectful of this time.  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 are creating a community in our classroom and building teams by playing cooperative games and other team building activities. 

The class is experiencing and hearing historical stories to help put the curriculum into a greater scope and perspective, and following up with artistic lessons, experiments and projects.  This is a great time for child exploration, a time for the children to express through many different forms and also to encourage their greater thinking skills and to get them engaged! This is also a time for placement testing and for understanding the classroom dynamics.  This is a pivotal time to establish the classroom climate. 

Attendance

School starts promptly at 8:30 a.m.  If your child is not in the building by 8:30 in the morning you will have to walk your child into the school and check him/her in at the office, and they will be considered tardy.  Please help your child be on time to school. It is very important to his/her education to be here on time and start their day calm and relaxed, not rushed and stressed.

  Homework- Long Term Projects

Homework will not look traditional.  Children have long-term individual or group projects that are assigned, generally given with between 2-6 weeks to work on, depending on the assignment. We focus on long term projects that pertain to what is being studied in class.  Projects are correlated with class presentations to further the education of their peers and to practice their presentation skills.

They will be given dates and guidelines for when these projects are due and are to be presented to the class. 

Leadership and Montessori

• Learning to take initiative for decision making, taking responsibility for choices and consequences that follow
• Discovery and make goals
• Self management, time management, learning to prioritize
• Valuing and respecting all people, learning how to compromise to accept all peoples choices and practicing inclusion vs. exclusion
• Learning to use empathetic listening- listening with your whole body (eyes, ears- body language), focusing on them and not on what you are going to say!
• Synergize- team-work, combining the strengths of everyone, accomplishing from the work of everyone- not just one.
• Taking care of our bodies, our minds.  Practicing and living a healthy lifestyle- exercising, eating healthy- finding balance.

Please seek opportunities for your child to be a leader outside the classroom. Recognize and compliment them when they are acting as leaders, and please share these stories with us. Practical life lessons, caring for the classroom environment, are implemented as part of the elementary curriculum and as well as leadership opportunities with peers.

 Grace and courtesy is part of our everyday culture in the Montessori classroom; pushing in a chair, closing a door quietly, self-control and conflict resolution a few examples of practicing grace and courtesy.  Don’t be surprised if they want to implement some of these at home! 

Slippers & Shoes

Slippers are worn inside as we spend a lot of time doing work on the floor. This is to protect your child’s hands and feet from being stepped on while they are working, also maintaining a peaceful working environment and prepares the child’s mind for work. 

Wearing slippers indoors helps keep our school clean. Slippers need to have hard soles for emergency purposes.  We ask that the slippers and shoes have no commercial logos or characters on them. 

 Snack

There is a philosophical reason behind snack time in the Montessori Method.  Your child will gain the skill of helping to prepare (cutting apples, etc) and clean up snack and serve their classmates. This teaches leadership and is one of the children’s favorite activities. We will be teaching healthy eating habits and ask that only healthy snacks be brought for this time. We really need your help for this food preparation/snack time to work. If everyone participates you will only have to provide snack once every 2 months! (That’s only 2 times a year!) We will have a link to snack sign ups on the blog where you can sign up or we will just assign you a slot.

Recess and Lunch

Recess will be after lunch for the upper elementary, 12:30-1:00. Lunches must be brought from home. Please send a small ice pack in your child’s lunch box if the food needs to be kept cold. Please do not send anything that needs to be warmed in the microwave longer than two minutes. Please do not send drinks with colored dyes to protect the carpet. Soda, candy, and other types of similar foods are not allowed.

 Birthdays

When it is your child’s birthday, we honor your child with a Celebration of Life. In our classroom we will have our Celebration of Life in the afternoon after 2:30 or in the morning at 9:00.  We ask, if possible, for you to come and provide pictures for each year of your child’s life as well as sharing something specific for each year of life. We ask that no younger siblings attend so that we can focus on your child’s special day. Please NO food for celebrations. If you would like to donate a book in honor of your child you may.  If your child’s birthday occurred in August before school started, you may opt to have a Celebration of Life after the first six weeks of school or at your child’s half birthday. For June and July birthdays, we can celebrate your child’s half birthday. It is a fun and special way to honor your child on their birthday. Let us know if you are interested.

Suggested Healthy Snacks

 Celery/Carrots/broccoli and ranch dip

Carrots and ranch dip

Pretzels

Graham Crackers 

Bagels and cream cheese

Strawberries, cantaloupe, oranges, grapes, apples, pears, 

Snack-sized fruit cups

Raisins or fruit leather

Granola or granola bars 

Whole Wheat Crackers

Dry cereal (not sugar cereals)

Goldfish crackers

Rice cakes

Jerky

Tortilla chips & salsa

Tortillas

Whole wheat bread and butter/jam

Please do not prepare the snack beforehand. Children and a teacher will do this. 

Please! No candy, soda-pop, chips/Cheetos, or red drinks (to prevent stains).

 Thank you for understanding our commitment to healthy minds and bodies.