Parents,
What an amazing first week of school! Your children are fantastic!!! Much of our work this week focused on getting to know each other and how our classroom works. Friday we had our first opportunity to make silence. This is a very common activity in an Early Childhood classroom, but it is also very misunderstood. We are not forcing the children to be quite. This exercise helps them become more aware and sensitive to the sounds around them. It also helps develop willpower and self control over their bodies. Finally this activity shows children that we must work together to achieve a collective goal. In the beginning of the year our silence may only last a few seconds but by the end of the year we may be able to be silent for several minutes. It is beautiful to see the joy that making silence can bring the children.
This week we will be beginning our sound study with the letters a, b, m, s, and t. We study these letter sounds by using a program called Zoophonics. Zoophonics is not a traditional Montessori work, but we have found that it makes learning the alphabet sounds engaging and exciting for the children and it follows one of the Montessori beliefs of learning the letter sound first and the letter name next. The reason for this is that children can begin to read if they know the sound the letter makes. In Zoophonics each letter is represented by an animal character, so for /a/ the character is Allie Alligator, /b/ is Bubba Bear, /m/ is Missy Mouse, /s/ is Sammy snake and /t/ is Timmy Tiger. The characters also have a signal that we make with our bodies while we say the sound. This way we are engaging as many learning styles as possible. Visual learning with the pictures and stuffed animals, auditory learning by making the sounds, and kinesthetic learning by making the signal. We will learn 5 new sounds the next 4 weeks and 6 sounds on the 5th week. We will also be putting the sounds together to make words.
We will be having a fire drill this week. This will happen in the morning, but we will also be practicing with our afternoon kids by playing an audio of an alarm on our ipad and exciting the school by ourselves. If you feel this will be difficult for your child please talk to them about it and how it is just practice. It may also be a good idea to practice this at home with your family.
We will also begin our study of the universe.
I know that for many of you drop off and pick up have been frustrating. Here are some helpful hints to make drop off and pick up easier
- Pull forward (all the way to the end of the lane)
- Pay attention to teachers and volunteers directing traffic (it’s a dirty job!)
- Stay in your car if you are using the pick-up lanes.
- Ask for help (if you pulled forward and your student was not paying attention ask a teacher to assist you)
- If your child needs help getting into or out of the vehicle, park in the parking lot. North Shore parking lot will be available after Labor day.
- Use the cross walk (it teaches children to use it too, and we always want children to use the cross walk).
- Come get your child, do not call for them to run across the parking lot to you.
- Bring a snack. You may be waiting a long time and nobody likes it when you’re hangry.
- Wait your turn.
- Speak to teachers before or after school.
- Be nice. I now it’s frustrating, but try to imagine your happy place.
- Pay attention. Stay off your phone, students will step in front of cars.
- Prepare other relative that may pick up, by explaining these rules and possibly sending them with a snack.
Snack
Each day we have snack in our room. Our snack is provided by donations from you. Snack is a very important part of our day. The first week or so we will have group snack. We will all sit together and use our best manners, saying words like please, and thank you, waiting for others, and cleaning up after ourselves. As time goes on we will move from group snack to individual snack. The main purpose of snack in our environment is to teach grace and courtesy, it also fills hungry bellies, but once again the main purpose is to teach us to take care of ourselves, the environment, and others. Once we begin individual snack, the children will have the opportunity to feed themselves when they have a need. However, we do encourage the children to only have snack once to make sure everyone gets the opportunity to eat. It is the child’s responsibility to regulate their own bodies, a skill that will help them throughout their lives. If Ms. Martha or I notice a student appears to be having a drop in blood sugar, by behaviors such as tired, frustrated, overly emotional, or mental blocks, we will ask some leading questions to help guide the child into having some snack. We will not however, be reminding everyone to eat. Some children don’t need snack or find it exhausting to follow all the procedures as in washing hands, getting snack, eating, and washing plates. So don’t be too surprised if they choose not to eat snack.
Here are the guidelines for snack. Typically we like to offer one fruit or veggie and one whole grain each day. Our snacks portions are small, (think 2 apple slices and a 1/4 cup of goldfish) but we have 28 students in each class. Check the ingredients on any processed food, if the first two ingredients contain sugar than they are not appropriate for school snack. If there are any peanuts in the food they are not appropriate for snack. If we are not able to serve snack items in our class we will send them home with your child. Please know we are not passing any judgment. There are plenty of snacks in my cupboard at home that would not qualify as school snacks.
Here is a list of some appropriate snacks: (you may have other ideas and that is great!)
Un-prepared produce (we will prepare them in class)- Apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, grapes, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, blueberries, jicama, beets, cherries, olives, sweet peppers, cucumbers etc.
Grains: Goldfish crackers, Ritz crackers, wheat thins, corn chips, pretzels, sunflower seeds, popcorn, club crackers, graham crackers (check sugar), veggie chips,
Other: Cheese, humus, guacamole, salsa, yogurts (check sugar), dried fruit, fruit snacks (check sugar)
“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.”
― Maria Montessori
Have a great week
Ms. Jen & Ms. Martha