The week of October 29th

Parents,

I apologize for not posting last week.  I got back late from fall break and then by the time I had time to post it was the end of the week.  Here is a recap of what we did last week.  To go along with our habit of being proactive we read a book called Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin.  The cat gets new white shoes but throughout his day many things happen to those white shoes and they do not stay white.  Pete never gets upset.  He chooses to remain happy.  We looked at another set of land forms: gulf and peninsula.  We talked about different types of spiders and did a science experiment on why the leaves change colors. On Friday in art we talked about the artist Jackson Pollock. After looking at his art we went outside and tried our hand at making our own.  We have one canvas for the morning class and one canvas for the afternoon class.  These will be available at the Gala in the spring.

This week we will write our mission statement using several of the books that we have read this past month.  Once we get it written we will say it at the beginning of class every day.  I love writing these.  They are so powerful and help us begin each day with the end in mind!

We will be making maps of our classroom and your child will bring home a paper to make a map of their bedroom.  On Wednesday we will carve a pumpkin and toast the seeds.  Just as a reminder we will not be dressing up.  We will have a few fun activities in class but we are not having a party.  Please leave all candy and costumes at home.  Thanks for your support with this.  In art we will talk about shades.  A shade is any color that has black added to it such as navy, magenta and forest green.

I want to give everyone a heads up on an important date in November.  We will be having our annual feast on Friday November 30.  All parents will be invited to attend the feast with their child.  Morning class will be from 10:45 – 11:30 and afternoon class will be from 2:15 – 3:00.  We will also have opportunities for parents to help with the preparation.  I will give you more details as it gets closer.

 

At conferences many of you asked what their child does while they are in class.  This brings up one of Montessori’s core principles.  The concept of choice.  In a Montessori classroom children are free to choose what they would like to work on – within limits.  There are two basic ground rules: you have to have had a lesson and the material has to be available.  Maria Montessori said “These children have free choice all day long.  Life is based on choice, so they learn to make their own decisions.  They must decide and choose for themselves all the time . . . they cannot learn through obedience to the commands of another”.  In Angeline Stoll Lillard’s book Montessori: the science behind the genius she talks about the many studies that have been done that support the idea that having choice is a great benefit to education, learning and desire to learn more.  Let me share just one with you.  A study was done where children were asked to play a computer math game.  Half of the children were able to choose the name of their space ship that took them through the game and half were not.  The children who were able to choose the name of their space ship liked the game better and played it more than the children who did not name their space ship.  They also choose more challenging tasks in the game and asked for fewer hints.  They showed greater improvement from pre-test to post-test.  “Having a sense of control over one’s environment is associated with better learning and better performance in children.  A wide range of positive outcomes stemmed from a very simple choice manipulation” (Lillard, p. 84).

Many parents often confuse “choice” with “no limits”.  These two could not be more different.  The choices we offer to children need to be appropriate, direct and  simple.  One example might be “Sally which shoes do you want to wear today? Your tennis shoes or your sandals?”  Note that not wearing shoes was not one of the options given.  We empower our children when we offer them appropriate choices.

Have a great week!

Ms. Jen & Ms. Jess

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