The week of January 23

Parents,

This week we will celebrate the 100th day of school.  Our celebration will happen on Friday Jan. 27th.  We will have several activities that center around the idea of 100.  We need 3 to 4 parents to help us.  If you would like to help please sign up here  One of the activities we have for the kids is to come and count with me in the hall.  We use this as one of our assessments.  A standard for kindergarten is for students to be able to count to 100 by 1’s and 10’s.  We have been practicing in class but it wouldn’t hurt to do a little practice at home as well.

We will also be celebrating Chinese New Year this Wednesday.  We will have the children rotate through stations for different activities such as the story of Zodiac, a dragon parade, making lanterns and maybe even some lucky money.

We will also continue our study of birds introducing their life cycle and doing a close read on cranes.  We will talk about Pablo Picasso and look at some of his line drawings to go along with our element of art this month which is line.

Often the idea of “work” is misunderstood.  Many adults spend their day miserable at “work”.  It is something they dread and thus we try to shield our children from that awful labor.  Work in a Montessori classroom is something quite different.  Maria Montessori spoke of our need to allow children to work without adults taking over and doing it for them, even when it is challenging (like putting on all of your snow gear by yourself).  Here is a quote from Maria Montessori’s book the Secret of Childhood “A child does not look for . . .assistance.  A child must carry out the work by himself and he must bring it to completion.  No one can bear a child’s burden and grow up in his stead. . .a man. . .must receive strength and courage from the child he was.”  The work we talk about is not only about academics but it is also about the child creating themselves – building who they will be.  To be able to assist a child in this effort is something to be considered sacred.

Have a great week!

Ms. Jen & Ms. Martha

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