Hello!

I can’t believe we are already two weeks into the school year.  Its been an awesome two weeks!  I have enjoyed reconnecting with my returning students and getting to know my new students.  I love our class!  We have a really great group of students.  I have a good feeling about this school year!

So far we have been doing lots of getting to know you and team building activities.  It is important that we build a strong community and learn to work together.  We have done really well at sharing ideas, compromising, and working out solutions to problems. We are focusing a lot on being kind and filling each other’s “buckets”.  We are determined to have a class that is positive and treats others with respect and kindness.  I think we are off to a great start!

We have had two of the Montessori Great Lessons.  We joined our lower el mentor class for a lesson about the Birth of the Universe and followed it up with a fun art project.  We also learned about The Coming of Life.  We learned that bacteria was the first life to appear on Earth.  We swabbed different things around the school and are growing our own bacteria in a petri dish.  We will hopefully see something really cool (and a little gross) when we come back to school next week.

We read a book about Maria Montessori and learned about her amazing life.  We celebrated her birthday on August 31st and remembered all the great things she accomplished.

We started learning about the 7 Habits and focused  on the first one which is Be Proactive.  Being proactive means that you are in charge of your actions, attitudes, and moods and you don’t blame others.  We learned about being proactive versus reactive.  We also learned that each of us has a circle of things that are in our control and a circle of things that are outside of our control.  We actually had a really great discussion and learned a lot!  We will continue learning about the 7 Habits in the coming weeks and try to implement them throughout the school year.

We have started doing some assessments in math, spelling, and writing.  Next week we will continue with more math, reading, and language.  We are establishing a baseline of what the students know and getting an idea of where we need to start lessons this year.  I’m hearing a lot of, “I forgot how to do this!”  from the students.  Hopefully we can recover from the summer slide and start moving forward soon!

We started doing planners this week and so far it has been a struggle.  Please help your student remember the get their planner signed every night and bring it back the next morning.  This is a great way for you to see what your child is doing at school every day and a way for us to communicate with each other.

Also, there are still some students without inside shoes.  Please do your best to make sure your child has slippers or inside shoes when they return to school next week.  Also, just a reminder that jeans/denim are only allowed on Fridays and that shorts should be below the fingertips when your arms are extended down the sides of your body.  Also, leggings should not be worn as pants.

Thursday, September 7th is Back to School Night from 6:00-7:30 PM.  From 6:30-7:00 there will be a Montessori 101 presentation in the gym for those that would like to learn more about a Montessori education.  This night is meant for parents only please if possible.

There is a parent meeting on Tuesday, September 12th at 5:30 PM in the library for 6th grade students attending the Redwoods field trip. Sixth grade students and parents should plan to attend this meeting.

One last thing:  Please sign up for snack if you are able.  It is an important part of our day and we only have a few weeks filled for the school year.  Thanks!  https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/qgsbx

Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.  kgonzales@mariamontessoriacademy.org

Kirsten