Ms. Jen's Blog

Parents,

Valentines day is coming soon.  We will be having a special formal snack that day.  Here are the sign up sheets for both classes.

Morning class

Afternoon class

We could use 1 or 2 parent volunteers to help with the day.  Please email me if you would like to help.  Please have your child  prepare 28 valentines. DO NOT ADDRESS them to a particular child, just have them sign who the valentine is from.  You don’t need to worry about having them make a box or bag, we will be making those in class.  Please email me if you have any other questions.

Ms. Jen

Parents,

Here is the link to sign up for this months parent teacher conferences https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/gqkrz

Please sign up for one slot.  Please leave the little ones at home, they will join us for the last conferences.

Parents,

A big thanks to all of our parent volunteers who helped with our 100th day of school celebration.  All of the kids counted to 100 (with or without help) and received a medal.  It was a great day.

Our peace lesson this week will focus on making positive choices.  We will also play catch up from some of the lessons we missed last week due to the late starts.  We will begin our study of the mountain biome of Asia.  We will introduce static electricity as well as measurement and our element of art for the month of February will be texture.  We will also begin a new author study – Dr. Seuss.

If you would like to volunteer this week here is the link https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/ggngs

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

Parents,

We will have a visit from scales and tails this Thursday.  They will be doing a bird show for us.  The show is from 11:30 to 12:30.  We are asking that the afternoon kids be dropped off at 11:20 and that the morning kids be picked up at 12:30.  Please email me if you have questions.

We will be talking about the plants and animals of the polar regions in Asia and doing an experiment with stems.

There is no school on Friday the 13th and Monday the 16th.  Enjoy a long weekend!

This week we will be talking about Steven Covey’s 4th Habit of Happy Kids which is “Think Win-Win”.  In this habit we will be moving from the private victory to the public victory.  Our first 3 habits were all about bettering ourselves and improving our own lives.  The first three habits are really the most attainable habits for our early childhood students who are still in the process of developing an awareness of others .  However, the next four can be done with adult scaffolding and are certainly things children should be exposed to and practice on a daily basis.   With “Think win-win”  we will learn about 4 outcomes that are available when you interact with someone else; win-win, win-loose, loose-win, and loose-loose.

Win-Win-  “Let’s find a solution that works for both of us.” These are people who search for solutions that make them happy and at the same time make others happy. People in this category have both the courage to say what they want and the consideration to listen to what others want. With win-win you think of cooperation, communication and seeking for mutual benefit.

Win-Loose- “I am going to beat you no matter what”.  People who fit in this category are only concerned with themselves they want to win and make others loose. They have the courage to say what they want, but are low on consideration for others. With win-loose you think of competition, comparison, power, and position.  This is actually a very common interaction in our society.  As parents we naturally have position over our children and sometimes put our agenda over theirs.  We must remind ourselves to constantly be on guard for situations in which we can change a win-loose to a win-win when interacting with children.

Loose-Win- “I always get stepped on”.  People in this category have lots of consideration of others but they lack the courage to express and act on their own feelings and beliefs.  Too much time in this category creates the victim mentality and people who just follow the crowd.  They may bury a lot of their feelings, have no demands or expectations of others, and they are quick to please others even at the expense of themselves.

Loose-Loose- “If I’m going down, you’re going down with me.”  People in this category are low on courage and consideration they envy and criticize others.  They put themselves and others down.  This situation can be the long term result of a win-lose.

In class we will talk about ways to make situations win-win.

We will be doing a project at the end of the month that requires toilet paper or paper towel rolls.  If you could collect and send them by the 23rd of January that would be great!  Thanks so much.

Have a great week!

Ms. Jen and Ms. Martha

Parents,

I hope you all had a wonderful winter break, I know I did.  Ms. Martha and I want to send  a heart felt thanks to everyone for all the gifts and holiday wishes.  We are so blessed to have each one of you in our lives.

School is back in session on Wednesday January 4th.  This month we will be studying Asia, polar regions, magnets, birds, stems, Pablo Picasso and the element of line in art.  We will also be studying the author Jan Brett.  Our habit this month is think win win and we will focus on making positive choices with our peace curriculum.

Here are just a few things to look forward to this month.

*Thursday Jan 12th we will be having a visit from scales and tales.  We will only have 1 show for all our classes so the morning class will stay late on this day and the afternoon class will come early on this day.

* No school Friday Jan 13th and Monday Jan 16th

* Our 100th day of school is Friday January 27th (and no that is not when school gets out for the year)

Here are the links again for snack so you can check and see when you signed up

morning snack https://wejoinin.com/sheets/pncxi

afternoon snack https://wejoinin.com/sheets/ufqar

If you would like to volunteer this week please sign up here https://wejoinin.com/sheets/agkxz

Parents,

I apologize for not posting last week.  This month time seems to be getting away from me.  We had so much fun on Friday.  We joined with Ms. Joy’s class and talked about how people celebrate Christmas around the world.  Ms. Jessica talked about Christmas in Germany, Ms. Joy covered Australia, Ms. Martha talked about Africa and I talked about Christmas in Mexico.

This week the elementary classes are participating the schools 7th annual international festival.  The early childhood classes do not participate  but this is a great opportunity for you to come and take your child around to the different displays.  On Monday the festival goes from 9 to 11.  It’s open house style.

Remember our field trip on Tuesday.  We will be meeting at the Treehouse Museum.  PLEASE DO NOT DROP YOUR CHILD OFF AT THE SCHOOL.  The morning class will be meet at the museum at 9:15 and stay until 11:30.  The afternoon class will meet at the museum at 12:15 and stay until 2:30.  We will be kicking off our study of Asia by exploring the traveling Chinese exhibit.

Winter break is from December 21st until January 2nd.  School resumes on January 3rd.  We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!

Have a great week.

Ms. Jen & Ms. Martha

Parents,

This week we will look at the different parts of roots and read the book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. We will also talk about the plants and animals of the rain forest.  We have begun to build our own rain forest outside of our classroom.  The students have added the leaves to the different layers of the rain forest and we will be adding animals and flowers to it.  We will also be talking about gratitude this week.  We are so lucky to get our junior high mentors twice this week.  They will be reading with us  as well as making a snowman craft with us.  On Friday we will be making and launching air rockets as part of our experiments with air this month.

A big thanks to all the parents who helped out with preparing materials!!! I really appreciated it.  Here is the link this week if you would like to volunteer this week. https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/ybxmt

Have a great week!

Ms. Jen & Ms. Martha

Parents,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break – I know I did.  It was so great to see so many of you at our feast.  Thank you for all your support!  We simply could not it without you!!

Whats happening this week

This week we will finish off our study of mammals by looking at marsupials, specifically the opossum.  We will begin our study of roots by planting an amaryllis in our room.  We will also begin our study of tropical forests (I know it ironic to study this as we head into winter but it will be fun to imagine ourselves somewhere warm and tropical 🙂  We will read the book The Umbrella by Jan Brett.  Another topic we will be looking at this coming month will be snowflakes.  We will kick off this topic by reading the book Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. It is about a small boy in Vermont, Wilson Bentley, who saw snowflakes as small miracles, and he determined that one day his camera would capture for others the wonder of the tiny crystal. Bentley’s enthusiasm for photographing snowflakes was often misunderstood in his time, but his patience and determination revealed two important truths: no two snowflakes are alike; and each one is startlingly beautiful.  This week we will become aware of our muscles and will talk about how important it is to use them to keep our bodies healthy.  We will be experimenting with air all month long and this week we will be racing pom poms by blowing air through a straw.

Volunteer

I know that a few parents have asked about doing things at home to help them get their service hours in.  If you would like to help with stuff at home I have several options.  I am in need of help with the following:  cutting out paper stockings, cutting out wrapping paper for the kids to wrap gifts with, cutting out felt trees, folding snowflakes, and cutting out lamination.  If you would like to help with any one of these please send me an email and I can send the items home with your child.  Thank you in advance for your help.

Field Trips:

We finally have all of our field trips planned and approved.  Some time this week we will send hope a field trip form for all of our field trips.  Please initial each field trip you would like your child to attend. (This is a new form and only requires one signature for all of this years field trips.   Your Welcome!) There will also be a cover sheet for our upcoming field trip to the Tree House Museum scheduled on the 20th. This is the same day that the elementary classes will be doing their international festival, so if you have older students you may not want to volunteer to help on the field trip.  With that being said, if you would like to chaperone send me an email.  All of our field trips require students to be picked up and dropped off on location.  We try to choose local places and stagger the pick up and drop off times to accommodate picking up and dropping off siblings. If you are having trouble arranging a ride for your student, our room mom’s have graciously offered to help arrange carpools.  Their email addresses will be at the bottom of the cover letter you will be getting before each field trip.

Here is the list of field trip.  Also, if you click on the page labeled 2016/2017 field trips on the blog,  you will see an in-depth description of each field trip.

• December 20, 2016           Treehouse Children’s Museum
•  March 31, 2017                   Ogden George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park
• Jan 12, 2017                        Scales and Tails Bird Show
• May 17, 2017                       Ogden Nature Center

Have a great week!

Ms. Jen & Ms. Martha

Parents,

I apologize for not posting what our class mission statements are last week.  Here they are:  Morning class – We will keep working hard.  We will help others.  We never give up.  Afternoon class – We will work hard in school.  We will be nice to others.  Never give up!

This week we will talk about the earth’s moon.  This week is special for the moon because we are going to have a  super moon.  The moon will be the closest it has been to earth in 70 years, and it will be a full moon so it will look a little bigger.  I would encourage you and your family to go outside and view the super moon.  They are saying Monday night is the best time, but I am sure it will be good all week.

We will continue our study of mammals by looking at the bison.  We will talk about the people and places in the grasslands of North America and we will try our hands at making shades of colors by adding black to a color.  We will have a fire drill on Tuesday.  We will also get to hear some more stories from our Junior High peer mentors.

This week we are also having our Thanksgiving Feast.  We are inviting parents to come join their child for our annual feast on Friday November 18th.  The morning class’s feast will be from 10:30 am  to 11:30 am and the afternoon class’s feast will be from 2  pm to 3 pm.  The children have been practicing a few songs and they are excited to share them with you, Ms, Joy always tells the story of Squanto and we will enjoy some good food.  We are still in need of a few items to be donated.  Here are the links again

morning class  https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/okdgj

afternoon class  https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/avrup

We are still in need a a few more parents who would like to come help out before the feast begins.  We need them in the morning from 8:30 to 10:30 and in the afternoon from 12:00 to 2:00.  Please email me if you would like to help out. Thank you so much.

If you would like to help out with reading this week here is the link to sign up https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/smqpf

Have a great week and we look forward to seeing you on Friday!

Ms. Jen & Ms. Martha