Room 7
Ms. Nicoletta and Ms. Susan
Welcome to 2016-2017 school year. We are so excited for this school year.
BLOG
Please check out the BLOG, if you have not signed up please do so- this is a key communication tool. Weekly blog updates are sent every Sunday. This is a great instrument to keep you updated on what we are studying and the community resources available to enhance your child’s learning and reading. This is a great avenue to integrate school learning with family time. The classroom blog also provides critical dates of projects or activities.
http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/nicoletta, on right hand side subscribe by entering your email address, go to your email and open up the invitation and accept.
Classroom Information and Student Achievement
The first six weeks of school are normalization period. Please if you need to have your child absent or take out, please be respectful of this time. This period of time is essential where the dynamics of the classroom are being formed; the children are learning their environment and curriculum, establishing time management skills as well as establishing themselves intellectually, emotionally and socially. We are creating a community in our classroom and building teams by playing cooperative games and other team building activities.
The class is experiencing and hearing historical stories to help put the curriculum into a greater scope and perspective, and following up with artistic lessons, experiments and projects. This is a great time for child exploration, a time for the children to express through all forms and also to encourage their greater thinking skills and to get them engaged! This is also a time for placement testing and for understanding the classroom dynamics. This is a pivotal time to establish the classroom climate.
Attendance
School starts promptly at 8:30 a.m. If your child is not in the building by 8:30 in the morning you will have to walk your child into the school and check him/her in at the office, and they will be considered tardy. Please help your child be on time to school. It is very important to his/her education to be here on time and start their day calm and relaxed, not rushed and stressed.
Daily Notebooks
This year we have daily notebooks with dividers for each of the subjects in class. On the front of the daily notebook is a calendar for each month- this is where due dates for projects will be written. The daily notebook is a great resource to look at your child’s daily work.
Planners and Expectation Sheets
Student will be utilizing the planner to track their work- inside the planner will also be long term due dates. Students will use an expectation sheet of the areas of the classroom and how often they should be working in the areas, to help plan their weeks.
Study Guides
At the front of their daily notebook you should find their cultural study guides. This is a resource for them to help guide them in their cultural studies when they are not in lessons.
Grading
Each child will progress at his/her own pace through the lessons for their level. As teachers we constantly observe the child and provide them with an environment (lessons, materials, guidance and encouragement) that will help the child strengthen their interpersonal development.
Your child’s work will not be given a traditional grade, but will often have a percentage or a score with an attached rubric. Rubrics help students to see their areas of strengths and areas to work on. At times there will be self-assessments, teacher assessments and/ or student- assessments. Students will also be conducting parent teacher conferences.
Homework- Long Term Projects
Homework will not look traditional. Children have long-term individual or group projects that are assigned, generally given between 2-6 weeks to work on, depending on the assignment. We focus on long term projects that pertain to what is being studied in class. Projects are correlated with class presentations to further the education of their peers and to practice their presentation skills.
They will be given dates and guidelines for when these projects are due and are to be presented to the class.
Please attend Parent Education nights and Parent Teacher Conferences- these are opportunities to see your child’s work and progress and to better understand the Montessori curriculum..
Reading Homework
Your child will have many opportunities to read and be read to in the classroom and we highly encourage reading at home. We’d like to recommend at least 20 minutes a day. The students will have monthly book reports with specifics book genres and rubric to follow.
Cultural Subjects
In the afternoons Botany, Geography, History, Zoology, Physical Science and Physiology are covered. Music and PE are on Thursdays.
- Study Guides
At the front of their daily notebook you should find their cultural study guides. This is a resource for them to help guide them in their cultural studies when they are not in lessons.
Cultural Volunteer opportunities:
- I will be teaching a more extensive Physiology lessons this year. One week per month we will be focusing on one of the eight systems of the body. If you have a background in the field of health and physiology and are interested in coming into the class for a small lesson, please contact me. I am looking for nurses, doctors, scientists, surgeons, etc. As well as if you are a hunter and would like to donate any body parts for these experiences it is greatly appreciated!! Last year we dissected dear hearts, livers, eyeballs and sheep brains.
- If you have expertise in any of the other cultural or humanities fields and would like to come into the class to share the knowledge, please contact me.
Procedures, Routines and Leadership
We are excited to be implementing Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits from The Leader in Me into our classroom:
- Be Proactive– take initiative for decision making, taking responsibility for choices and consequences that follow
- Begin with the End in Mind–self discover, make goals
- Put First Things First-self management, time management, learning to prioritize
- Think Win- Win– valuing and respecting all people, learning how to compromise to accept all peoples choices and practicing inclusion vs. exclusion
- Seek First to Understand then to be Understood–use empathetic listening- listening with your whole body (eyes, ears- body language), focusing on them and not on what you are going to say!
- Synergize- team work, combining the strengths of everyone, accomplishing from the work of everyone- not just one.
- Sharpen the Saw– taking care of our bodies, our minds. Practicing and living a healthy lifestyle- exercising, eating healthy- finding balance.
Please seek opportunities for your child to be a leader outside the classroom. Recognize and compliment them when they are acting as leaders, and please share these stories with us. Practical life lessons, caring for the classroom environment, are implemented as part of the elementary curriculum and as well as leadership opportunities with peers.
Grace and courtesy is part of our everyday culture in the Montessori classroom; pushing in a chair, closing a door quietly, self-control and conflict resolution a few examples of practicing grace and courtesy. Don’t be surprised if they want to implement some of these at home!
Slippers & Shoes
Slippers are worn inside as we spend a lot of time doing work on the floor. This is to protect your child’s hand and feet from being stepped on while they are working, also maintaining a peaceful working environment and prepares the child’s mind for work.
Wearing slippers indoors helps keep our school clean. Slippers need to have hard soles for emergency purposes. We ask that the slippers and shoes have no commercial logos or characters on them. No flip flops, open toed or high heeled shoes.
Shoes must be closed toed shoes, for the protection of their toes!
Snack
There is a philosophical reason behind snack time in the Montessori Method. Your child will gain the skill of helping to prepare (cutting apples, etc) and clean up snack and serve their classmates. This teaches leadership and is one of the children’s favorite activities. We will be teaching healthy eating habits and ask that only healthy snacks be brought for this time. We really need your help for this food preparation/snack time to work. If everyone participates you will only have to provide snack once every 2 months! (That’s only 2 times a year!) Fresh produce from your garden is a welcome snack as well.
Recess and Lunch
Recess will be after lunch for the upper elementary, 12:30-1:00. Lunches must be brought from home. Please send a small ice pack in your child’s lunch box if the food needs to be kept cold. Please do not send anything that needs to be warmed in the microwave longer than two minutes. Please do not send drinks with colored dyes to protect the carpet.
Birthdays
When it is your child’s birthday, we honor your child with a Celebration of Life. We will send a note home reminding you of this event. In our classroom we will have our Celebration of Life in the afternoon after 2:30 or in the morning. We ask, if possible, for you to come and provide pictures for each year of your child’s life as well as sharing something specific for each year of life. We ask that no younger siblings attend so that we can focus on your child’s special day. Pleas NO food for celebrations. If you would like to donate a book in honor of your child you may. If your child’s birthday occurred in August before school started, you may opt to have a Celebration of Life during the first few weeks of school beginning next week or at your child’s half birthday. For June and July birthdays, we can celebrate your child’s half birthday. It is a fun and special way to honor your child on their birthday. There will be a Celebration of Life calendar coming via email shortly.
Suggested Healthy Snacks
- Celery/Carrots/broccoli and ranch dip
- Carrots and ranch dip
- Pretzels
- Graham Crackers
- Bagels and cream cheese
- Strawberries, cantaloupe, oranges, grapes, apples, pears,
- Snack-sized fruit cups
- Raisins or fruit leather
- Granola or granola bars
- Whole Wheat Crackers
- Dry cereal (not sugar cereals)
- Goldfish crackers
- Rice cakes
- Jerky
- Tortilla chips & salsa
- Tortillas
- Whole wheat bread and butter
Please do not prepare the snack beforehand. Children and a teacher will do this. Please! No candy, soda-pop, chips/Cheetos, or red drinks (to prevent stains).
Thank you for understanding our commitment to healthy minds and bodies.
Ms. Nicoletta and Ms. Susan