Parents,
This month we will begin a new continent/biome study: the grasslands of Africa. The new vertebrate we will be studying is birds. For botany we will be talking about fruit. Our simple machine we will introduce is the incline plane and we will be talking about the element of form in art (it’s like shape but 3D).
We have a lot of fun and exciting activities to go along with our new units of study but there are a few I want to make you aware of. To kick of our study of birds we will be having a presentation at the school with some live birds. Your child should have brought home an information sheet just before spring break but if not here are the details. The bird show is happening on Tuesday April 9th at the school in the small gym. We are having one presentation for both the morning and afternoon classes. This means that the morning class will stay late on Tuesday and the afternoon class will arrive at school early. I apologize now to those of you who are creatures of habit, this might mess up your schedule on Tuesday. We are asking that our afternoon students be dropped off at 11:15 am and our morning students be picked up at 12:00 pm. Families are welcome to attend.
This month we will be doing a partici play. We have this scheduled for Friday April 26. I will post more information when it gets closer but we want to invite families to mark that date and plan to attend it will be amazing.
We have some new practical life activities out like peeling, slicing and eating hard boiled eggs as well as making quesadillas. If you would like to help with some of the supplies needed for these activities here is the link to sign up https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/468810
With the warmer weather (hopefully its coming sooner rather than later) we would love to have a few new sand toys for recess. If you would like to donate an item to use in the sand box we would greatly appreciate it!!
My Montessori thought for the week is one that I recently shared with my colleagues. I was in a Montessori class taught by Paul Epstein. He posed the question “What do the children in your class want most from you?” I would add what do the children in your house/family neighborhood want most from you? Many of the Montessori teachers who were there gave answers such as love, attention, a friend, a confidant. He accepted all the answers but said that we had all missed the mark. While children might want all of these things at some point it is not what they want most. At this point he had my full attention. What was it that my students wanted most from me? Dr. Epstein said what children want most from the adults in their lives is for the adults to be authentic, meaning giving them our true selves. This then raises the question of how do we give the children in our lives our true, authentic selves? In the book The Tao of Montessori Catherine McTamaney says ” Authentic, selfless love for the child revolves around an authentic, self-love”. It’s so important to take time to refill our reservoirs so we can in turn refill the reservoirs those wonderful little people around us. So spend a little time this break refilling your reservoir!
Have a great rest of your spring break! See you on Monday
Ms. Jen, Ms. Jess & Ms. Kimber