We have certainly had an exciting week. Some activity was good, some was great, and some needs improvement. Our studies within the Americas continued into the Ancient Civilizations of the Americas: Maya, Olmec, and Aztec. I am super excited to see the projects for the tribes this next week! Be sure to be working on them this weekend (due Thursday.)

I have noticed our students need much more executive functioning skills and impulse control. We have begun working on these things along with having our lessons in all subjects. That said, students now have the day broken down further into smaller chunks of responsibility. They are performing well at above 80% success on most of the first eight steps of the day: change shoes, bring water bottle to the classroom, sign-in for attendance, collect the appropriate journals, come to circle, record the quote, and record the note.  Entering quietly, working quietly, and staying quiet when someone else is speaking is a challenge for most of these students; that is where the impulse control comes in. Also, bringing planners in from home, signed, is not currently happening. Please check journals and ensure that your student is bringing it home to you daily.

The normalization process is not completely transitioning as expected. Dr. Montessori spoke of giving children more and more freedom as they showed they could handle the responsibility. Thus, I see we need to adjust those freedoms for now. In following the child, I am implementing a more succinct (chunked and descriptive) expectation checklist to help students stay on track, a morning work cycle one and a separate afternoon one. We had a conversation on Thursday about their responsibility to themselves, each other, and me to keep the environment ready and appropriate for everyone to learn. This included treating materials with respect, treating each other with respect and treating their time with respect. Then, we talked generally about what they had completed. Many admitted they had not completed their work for the week. They were quite behind. Thus, I am hopeful that reducing the big picture even further, students will have more immediate success in planning their time and using it effectively. They also admitted they were having trouble with their own volume. We are working on it ourselves; yet it could help if you would have them practice silence at home too. This involves sitting in silence for incrementally longer periods of time without any other activity occurring: one minute, two minutes, three minutes, etc. This type of practice will lead to more bodily and mindful self-control, which is critical in learning and life.

This change also leads to a change in the Friday reflection form. Students will now be doing letters home. On the letter home, the same format and language that is used on the “chunked” checklists is listed. Missing work is also described. Please review these and help your student both catch up and stay on top of their work. They need your support.

In other news, we have a field trip for 4th years coming up to the American Heritage Center and our Native American History Projects are due the same day, Thursday, October 4th. Our Fall Festival is the 12th. And Parent-Teacher Conferences are October 15th-17th.

We love our handwork in class and could surely use some more yarn, fabric, needles, and threads!

Thank you!

STEM Opportunity Flyer

Check out these directions and videos about how to use our MAPA program Track It Forward for volunteering and our classroom snack sign-up. We continually need families to help with things, so please sign-up for bringing in snack and many other classroom and MAPA sponsored activities!

In line with this idea, if anyone is willing and has the tools, we need some table legs cut – let me know by email if you can help!

This week has been a busy one! Our fourth years had an assembly about weather. All of us are about to embark on our first field trip to learn about our country at the time of the Constitution. Our fifth and sixth years had express lessons in writing and now have a daily journal writing assignment on their Google drive. All students are continuing their brilliant work in rounding, squaring, multiplication, parts of speech, sentence building and vocabulary. They worked on North American Tribe Maps this week, too; they can find a pdf of it on the pdf page if they didn’t finish! A few very key works I’d like you to help your student with are described below.

Vocabulary: Particular vocabulary words are listed on the board each week. Fifteen words total. Students need vocabulary development for their writing, their math reasoning and understanding and many other aspects of their educational career. Thus, the lists of vocabulary words have been built with this in mind. Here is last week’s list and the first steps. Please check that your student has done last week’s vocabulary work. This week’s words will be posted Friday afternoon. It will be homework for those who don’t complete it by Friday.

Spelling is currently a blend of sight words and the vocabulary words from lessons. It occurs during their handwriting time on Thursdays. Students are asked to use the handwriting or cursive they are practicing throughout the week to complete a spelling assessment. Students are provided a list of both the sight words and the vocabulary to work with through the week with a variety of activities. Ask your student about it and how they are doing in it.

Imagine Learning is a new tool our school is using to improve our math reasoning and skills. Please visit our new blog page to learn how to access it and use it each day with your student.

Skill-building work is what I call homework. It can take between 20 and 40  minutes, but really no longer. We want students to concentrate their world and home learning when out of the classroom. So, 20 minutes in a math area and 20 in reading/ writing is sufficient unless another personal arrangement has been made.

Home Projects are due October 3rd! The full write-up is located here AND can be found in our PDFs/Documents page. We have been speaking about how the early people of the Americas lived, worked, and what their lives were like. The next big thing is a deeper understanding through personal study. The paper copy of this project will come home tomorrow, Thursday, after a brief discussion of its expectations.

Lastly, today we had a “mock day ” enactment during our afternoon work cycle. We showed that we know and understand the expectations of the classroom and how to fulfill them. We talked about respect and what it is. Students said, “the Golden Rule, kindness, listening” and more. We also talked about responsibility and what it means, and how it includes doing what is right because it influences other people and things. Then, we talked about rules and how they protect us from chaos and pain, how they are not there to hurt us and keep us from fun but actually make the fun possible. In our case, the fun of learning. It turned out to be a beautiful discussion and I look forward to seeing the students produce a thriving, learning community. See you all Friday morning at 8:10 for our field trip!

CHECK OUT OUR STUDENT BLOGGERS ON THE STUDENT BLOG PAGE, STARTING THIS WEEK!

Congratulations Room 1! We have made it through four weeks and so many lessons. We are now ready to do works individually, in small groups and in large groups. All students have written their group names in the fronts of their planners. Take a look and ask your child what their groups are doing each week. These groups have lessons and follow-up work to do at least twice each week. Each group will have a lesson in geometry, math, history, science, language skills, reading and writing. When you receive your students’ yellow reflection sheet on Fridays, you can now ask more specific questions and expect more specific answers.

Some students are still learning the executive functioning skill of planning. For this reason, some students will be planning on an in-class planning sheet, copying it into their planners and bringing it home daily. Students might not plan a week ahead. This is okay. Help your student know which way works best for you and your student to communicate. That said, I will also be starting to send quick “reminders” to parents through Remind.com saying how many quality works your student did that day. We discussed at class meeting this week how quality of work is very important, that they can push themselves to do a great deal yet the minimum number of quality works per day is four and the maximum is really eight. More than eight and the quality comes into question. Students have also been alerted that not meeting the in-class works’ expectations will result in homework over the weekend. Weekend packets will be available.

Of course, every student is different and needs different direction and expectations. We teach fairness and equality. What is the difference? Equality is everyone gets the same thing. Fairness is everyone gets what they need. If two students wanted to look over a fence and one was tall enough to see over it, we wouldn’t give him a step stool. Yet, if another student wants to see over the same fence but is too short to see over, we would give that student a step stool tall enough to help him. In this way, in our classroom, this is what we do. Chat with your student about what they need to be successful and I will too. If you have any questions about how this applies directly to your student, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

This week we had lessons in the water cycle and fourth years have an assembly coming this next week. We also had lessons in Fundamental Needs. These needs are ones that all people have, from every walk of life: food, shelter, transportation, defense, and spiritual. We also talked about the Timeline of Humans and especially how and why migration occurs. Students learned a skilled way to take notes as they learned about migration. Ask them about it.

Plus, I need to offer a note about the mini-animals students are allowed in the classroom. Yes, students are allowed to bring a stuffed or plastic creature 8 inches or smaller to keep company and give a sense of familiarity and personality. These creatures are expected to honor the same behaviors as the students. If they are doing otherwise (playing during work cycle for instance or flying in the air,) the creature will sit in my area or leave the classroom. Just wanted you to know what the expectations are for them.

In closing, I will say I am so enjoying working with your children. I believe we are getting set for a great pace and thriving school year. Next week, let’s look forward to another awesome week!

Reminder: Freedom Lights Field Trip – Friday, September, 21st, meet at 8:10am at North Shore – Please contact Jennifer Whetton about the ride: jensden8@gmail.com. We still need drivers – Thank you!

The calendar IS up to date but not functioning properly. Please have patience as I work out the glitches.

That said  – This week’s Back to School Night is on THURSDAY, 6-8 pm. Teachers will be in their classrooms continuously; the administration will hold parent education meetings twice.

No homework tonight – Sept. 10, 2018

As the week’s progress, we are getting better and better at our norms and keeping our minds focused on our educational work. We had more than one golden day this week. Golden days are when students are so involved in educational learning that I stand back and don’t wish to interrupt to even call them to more lessons. I thoroughly enjoyed the feeling within the classroom this week when this occurred. Praise your child for their efforts in his or her learning this week.

Our class this week had more Great Lessons. We studied the Timeline of Life, the Clock of Eras, the Black Strip, the Timelines of Human Beings, and more. Several students are recreating the Timeline of Life on a blank timeline. Others are already diving into studies of early humans. Next week, we will investigate early peoples on our continent and Fundamental Needs.

Language and Mathematics lessons have begun in full force. Students have still been being assessed in some areas; however, all students now have a leveled group for reading, language, and math. Ask your student what works they are currently mastering. One brilliant moment was when some students had a rounding lesson and the “AHA’s” that happened. It was beautiful!

Time management is a very important skill. Every Friday, students are given time to reflect on their week’s work and plan their future week. Please look together over the weekend at their planners to see that they have included all expected learning activities. (The expectations can be found on our blog on the Class Expectations page under weekly goals.) Also, please initial their planners daily and their yellow conference sheets weekly. I check planners daily and collect the conference sheets each Monday.

In addition, students will begin writing for the blog next week. The student assignments for these is posted on the Blog Writer’s page. Check when your student is assigned to write. Write it on your calendar. They will have three times they get to write for the blog. It needs to be typed on their Google account and shared with me. They will learn this skill this next Tuesday. Topics will be posted by Tuesday also.

Plus, a mention – please send cold lunches on Fridays. We do not have access to a microwave due to our “tour of the school” while attending specials. Thank you for such awesome children!

This week has been amazing! We started off the week in full drive. We began with discussion of some of our Montessori Great Lessons: The Birth of the Universe, Earth’s composition and the Timeline of Life. We will continue our thread of historical science this next week with the Black Strip, the Clock of Eras, Timelines of Humans and feed right into our studies of the Native Americans. As part of this study, students had the opportunity to learn about the magnitude of a star’s explosion, gravity’s force, Earth’s inner workings, and the galaxy’s motions.

Also, as a continuation of our lessons from the week before in grace and courtesy, students had several social skills lessons. One lesson involved a book we are reading called “People You May Meet,” which talks about people with exceptionalities and how all people deserve our respect and kindness. Another lesson included positive language and a reminder to all students to call each other what we each would like to be called and none else. And yet another lesson revolved around our personal value. We gave each other compliments, read the lyrics to a song (“Gold” by Nicole Britt), and then listened to and watched its video. I sent a copy of the words home with each student; I hope you got the chance to read it.

We also dove into our pre-tests for the beginning of school in reading, writing, handwriting, and math. All students are being assessed in each area so we can provide them with the most appropriately matched, ability-based education. We will begin meeting within these smaller groups this next week. We will begin all areas in earnest.

Please do look at your student’s planner daily and discuss your student’s progress. On Fridays, they are bringing home yellow reflections forms for signature and discussion. Again, please speak with your child about these educational steps. These executive function skills are important in their progression

to Junior High and beyond. Plus, these tools help keep parents informed about your child’s personal progress in all subject areas. To the right here is a picture of when we did our first planning in the planners. We talked about what must be on certain days (computer lab, art, PE, Music, Class Meeting) and what has more choice to it (pretty much the rest.) Do notice what your student is accomplishing each week, where he or she likes to spend his or her time the most and what seems to get pushed aside and must be requested.

Whenever you have questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me at sellis@mariamontessoriacademy.org.

I love being with your children; thank you for letting me guide their learning this year – it is awesome!

A note to remember: Check the calendar periodically for upcoming events like our Back To School Night on Sept. 13th!