Dear Parents,
As the school year progresses you may here stories from your children about other children misbehaving in some way. There are many reasons why children misbehave. It could be that they are suffering from some form of loss in their family,(a parent being deployed, a divorce, a death, a new baby, moving to a new place). It could be that they have a disability that makes it more difficult for them to be part of our community. Whatever the reason is, we all struggle sometimes and as adults it is our job to teach our children compassion, and empathy by example.
Our school has recently moved toward a more inclusive model when it comes to children with special needs. This means students with special needs are being serviced in the regular classroom. We have specialists helping in our rooms and they are there to give a helping hand to all the students in the room. Often times the children won’t know who has learning differences and who does not. This model of teaching benefits all children. The children with learning differences learn how to become a successful member of the community by interacting with their peers who already have the skills to be a successful community members. In turn, the students who already have these community skills learn compassion, and empathy for others, enabling them to grow into confident, caring adults.
Please be aware that every child is first and foremost a child. Meaning that they are all still learning appropriate was of interacting with one another. Also know that I love and respect each one of them like their 2nd mother and I am offended if you talk bad about them. We as adults should be able to help our children find peaceful solutions toward conflict with their peers. If you are having difficulty with this I may be able to help you find ways for your child to interact peacefully to resolve conflict with others. I will not however discuss other children’s behavior or needs with you unless you need to know specific things pertaining to assisting in the classroom or on fieldtrips.
Here are the letters we will be learning this week:
- c-Catina Cat
- e- Ellie Elephant
- g- Gordo Gorilla
- h- Honey Horse
- r- Robby Rabbit
We will have a peace lesson this week about our “Love Lights” a Love Light is the feeling you get when you do something that makes you feel good inside, it is also that place inside you that tells you right from wrong. You may refer to love lights as a gut feeling, the Holy Spirit, your conscience, intuition, inner voice, etc.. At school we will call them Love Lights, but it would be a great conversation to tie this vocabulary with whatever vocabulary you use at home. This way the children will be able to make that connection from school to their own family community.
In science this week we will be learning about the planets, classifying living and non-living things and learning the needs and how to care for living things.
In our art studies this year we will be learning the basic elements of art. We will start out by talking about color and we will learn the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue.
Have a great week
Ms. Jen & Ms. Martha