Parents,
Our first week of school was amazing! I have never had such a smooth first week. Thank you for having your children at school on time and ready for their day. Ms. Martha and I are looking forward to getting to know all the kids better. We are very excited for the year. I apologize for the long post – they will not always be this long.
Peace
We will spend the first 6 weeks or so focusing on our peace curriculum. These lessons come from the book Honoring the Light of the Child by Sonnie McFarland. Last week the lessons focused on 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 this would be a great conversation to have with your child to help them tie this vocabulary with whatever vocabulary you use at home.
Last week 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.
Our focus this week in our peace lessons will be on conflict resolution by using a peace rose. Each class will be making their own peace rose that can be used as an aide in talking through conflicts. It is used much like a talking stick. Students can take turns talking to each other in order to resolve an issue in the classroom. We find that this is a very valuable lesson, one that creates good life skills and empowers children to problem solve and resolve conflict without adult intervention. This leads me to the concept of saying sorry. When someone does something to hurt another they should apologize, this is the socially and morally acceptable thing to do. We often try to teach our children to apologize by forcing them to say sorry. Two things happen when we do this. The first is that the apology whether sincere or not looses it’s power to heal. Have you ever received an apology from someone who was forced to do it? You may feel better in that your feelings were validated, but it does not bring about good feelings toward the person who wronged you. It is the same with children, and some children will refuse to apologize putting you in a power struggle (Always avoid power struggles!). We must treat children with more respect. When two children enter the peace area each child will get a turn to hold the peace rose and tell their side of the story without any interruptions. If they need my help, I will validate how each child was feeling. Throughout the discussion, I will do my best not to make any judgment calls on who was right, and who was wrong. I will also ask questions to help the children better understand what happened or how their actions may have contributed to what happened. Then I will ask each child (if necessary) to ask the other what they can do to make it better. This is better than an apology in that an apology does not always make things better and it puts the power into the hands of both students. Sometimes a student will ask for an apology, sometimes it is just saying they won’t do it again, sometimes it is a hug/handshake or other appropriate physical contact and sometimes it is nothing. I also allow the students to refuse to do what is requested and offer another solution instead, this does not happen often in that students are usually willing to fix a problem when they see that their side of the story matters too. In the end both children hold on to the peace rose look each other in the eye and say “We declare peace”.
Snack
Beginning this week we will introduce individual snack. Each day we have snack available in our room. Our snack is provided by donations from you. Snack is a very important part of our day. Last week we had group snack. We all sat together and used our best manners, saying words like please, and thank you, waiting for others, and cleaning up after ourselves. The main purpose of snack in our environment is to teach grace and courtesy, it also fills hungry bellies, but our focus 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 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!)
Unprepared produce (we will prepare them in class)- Apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, grapes, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, blueberries, jicama, 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, bagels
Other: Cheese, humus, guacamole, salsa, yogurts (check sugar), dried fruit, fruit snacks (check sugar), cream cheese, milk
This week we will be introducing our solar system, talking about the differences between living and non-living things, talking about why we have day and night and introducing the artist Piet Mondrian as we continue our study of primary colors.
Back to School Night
This year we are hosting a parent/guardian only (sans students) Open House on September 7th from 6-7:30 pm. The schedule was set-up to accommodate families that want to attend early, attend later, and who have more than one child at this school. From 6-6:30 pm there will be classroom tours. From 6:30-7 pm we will host a Montessori 101 workshop in the gym for elementary and in the yurt for junior high. Then, from 7-7:30 pm there will be classroom tours again. If parents work late and want to attend the Montessori 101 and then do the later classroom tour – that works for them and vice versa for parents who want to attend and leave earlier. If parents have two children at the school they can attend both classroom tours. If our seasoned Montessori parents do not want to attend the Montessori 101, they can attend either the early or late classroom tours. We hope to see you there.
“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