Week of Nov 13th to Nov 15th, 2013

 Parents, please note if you plan to join your child for the Thanksgiving luncheon on Thursday, Nov 21st, full day students will be in the lunchroom at 10:55 am, so you can meet your child in the lunchroom. If your child is a half day student (3 year olds), please pick them from the classroom sign them out and then proceed to the lunchroom.

We have been learning to say hello in many different languages, Jambo in Swahili, Bonjour in French, Hola in Spanish, ask your child in what languages they can say hello.

Large Movement in the classroom-

 Turkey Pokey

(Hokey Pokey)

You put your right wing in

you put your right wing out

You put your right wing in

And you shake it all about.

You do the turkey pokey

And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.

Add'l verses:

Left wing

Drumsticks (legs)

Stuffing (tummy)

Wattle (head)

Tail feathers (bottom)

Turkey body (whole self)

 

Sound for Next Week-

k- Kayo the Kangaroo

Make two fists and give a kick with one leg, and say the letter sound ’k’.

Reminders-

Soup ingredients needed by Wednesday Nov 20, 2013

Thursday, Nov 21^st - Thanksgiving Luncheon

Nov 25- 29^th-Thanksgiving Break

 

Classroom Pet Sitting and Rugs Washing- Please let me know if anybody is interested in taking care of our classroom fish and if anybody is willing to take the classroom rugs home to launder during Thanksgiving Break.

 A Big Thanks to all the parents who bought materials for our classrooms through the Small Hands Catalog, they are truly appreciated.

 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

 

 

 

Week of Nov 4th to Nov 8th, 2013

A Peek at Our Week

In Geography we began visiting the continents starting with North America, the children were introduced to the countries of North America.

In Zoology, we began our study of fish, another group of vertebrates. The children had a lesson on the Parts of a Fish, Fish Puzzle and different kinds of Fish.

Other popular works have been corn tweezing and pin-punching the world map.

We would love some donations of Indian corn so that we can continue with corn tweezing. This is a great activity that promotes concentration and fine motor skills and always a favorite amongst the children.

Next Week

We will be making stone soup (taken from the story,’ Stone Soup’) and fresh butter next Thursday, November 21, 2013 with the class, so we will need some ingredients to be brought in. To be sure we get all the ingredients; I assigned certain items to each student. The children will wash, cut and prep the vegetables to make the soup on Thursday and on Friday we will eat our soup for snack.

If there is a problem bringing in any items, please let me know and I can take care of it. We need all these items by Wednesday, Nov 20, 2013 except for the bread if we can have it on Friday that would be great!!

 Ingredients

3 year old boys- one potato each

3 year old girls- one carrot each

4 year old boys- one celery stalk

4 year old girls- one small zucchini

Kinders-

Cameron- can of black beans

Jack- veggie broth

Mazie- frozen green beans

Adrian- can of tomatoes

Lily- frozen corn

Nika-a can of tomatoes

Spencer- a onion and a couple of garlic cloves

Alex- frozen peas

Teagan-heavy cream(quart)

Tommy-Loaf of bread

Sydney-Loaf of bread

Sound Of The Week

J-Jerry the Jellyfish

(stretch arms out in front of you and shake them and say the letter sound ’j’)

Reminders

Scholastic Orders due Fri, Nov 15, 2013

 

 

Week of Oct 31st to Nov 1st

 

 

 

 Thank you, Kiowa for carving our Jack O Lantern. Thank you, Crissy, Nathan, Alicia, Scott Whitington, Scott Baldermann, Nathan, Jeanette and Lisa for volunteering in our classroom and helping out with the centers for the Halloween celebration, it was quite a blast!!.

 

I Did It All By Myself- Support the Children’s Independence the Montessori Way

Is there anything more rewarding than being able to care for one’s own self? Help your child on the path to independence with home activities that support similar self-care “lessons” in the Montessori classroom. A little planning and a lot of patience will go far!

The most important (and the hardest!) part? Allow plenty of time for learning and practice, so your child can master new skills without pressure from the clock (and you can get to work on time).

Maria Montessori tells us in The Discovery of the Child, “If teaching is to be effective with young children, it must assist them to advance on the way to independence...We must help them to learn how to walk without assistance, to run,...to dress and undress, to wash themselves...All this is part of an education for independence.”

“Care of Self” activities children can do at home

• Dressing & undressing
• Washing hands
• Cleaning one’s shoes
• Nose blowing
• Buttoning, snapping, zipping, tying, lacing, and buckling
• Brushing one’s hair & teeth

It’s cold outside! How to put on a coat or sweater?
Teach your child the “up and over” method. Place the child’s coat on the floor with the collar near the child’s feet. The child bends down, places his arms in the arms of the coat, lifts the coat up and over his head, and voila! He’s wearing his coat.

Even very young children are capable of independent work,
Suggested activities: laundry, setting the table, helping to prepare dinner by washing fruit/veggies, clearing the table, pouring their own breakfast cereal or spreading butter on their own bread/toast, pouring their own beverages from easily accessible small pitchers, pet care, sweeping/mopping with child size brooms/mops, window washing with a spray bottle of water and a squeegee/towel, etc. The list is endless and children will help point out their interests to you, as you go through the day together.

A Peek At Our Week

Scooping out the Pumpkin seeds

Estimating the Pumpkin Seeds ( there were 638 seeds in the pumpkin)

Graphing and Voting for the eyes, nose and mouth for our Jack O lantern- circle eyes, triangle nose and scary mouth

Lifecycle of the pumpkin

Cutting apples for the Applesauce

Tasting the roasted pumpkin seeds and applesauce

Sound of the week

‘i’ – Inny the inchworm

(Bend your index finger up and down, say the short letter sound ‘i’)

Reminders

No school on Nov 4^th for 3 and 4 year olds, as all of the ECE team will be at a CPR/First Aid Training. The kindergartners will work in Ms. Therese’s room and we will have two subs for that day. Please drop off and pick your child through Ms. Therese’s door tomorrow.

Picture Retakes is on Friday, Nov 8^th

^{Thanksgiving Luncheon RSVP’s due by Tue, Nov 5th}

^{No School Nov 11th and 12th}

 
^{Have a wonderful November!!!}

 Transfer with a baster, observe the concentration.

 Van Gogh Inspired Sunflowers!!

 The 45 Layout

Week of Oct 21-25, 2013

Week of Oct 21-25, 2013

·         Thanks to all the parents for attending Parent-Teacher Conferences. It was a pleasure to meet with you and share your child's progress.

·         A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who ordered from the Small Hands Montessori catalog. Your orders will be arriving before the holidays. We’ll keep you posted.

A Peek at our Week

·         Pumpkin Scrubbing

·         Apple estimation- the children had to guess the number of apples, we had about 50 apples

·         Apple Tasting- we tasted Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples

·         Favorite Apple Graph- the Red Delicious apples were by far the most favorite apples and won by 13 votes.

·         Johnny Appleseed

·         Lifecycle of an apple

·         Parts of an apple

·         Bats

·         Parts of a Skeleton

Song

Knock, Knock

Trick or Treat

Who are you?

I am a cowboy, I am a little cowboy

Knock, Knock

Trick or Treat

Who are you?

I am a cowboy, I am a little cowboy

(Then the children act out the part)

Repeat chorus

(Ghost, Pirate, Monster, Ballerina)

Sound of the week

‘h’- Honey the horse( Slap both sides of your thighs, suggesting a horse galloping. Say the letter sound ‘h’.

Reminders

• Halloween will be a fun-filled day in our room. We will celebrate Halloween with fun themed centers and have a special snack at Circle Time. Please remember no costumes at school.
• No school on Nov 4^th for 3 and 4 year olds, as all of the ECE team will be at a CPR/First Aid Training. The kindergartners will work in Ms. Therese’s room and we will have two subs for that day. Please drop off and pick your child through Ms. Therese’s door on that day.

Parent Resources

Here the link to the newsletter, if you would like to see pictures of children working in the classroom, I am unable to post pictures and send it through emails.

http://mssheela002.blogspot.com/

http://www.loveandlogic.com/t-Free-Articles-and-Handouts-for-Parents.aspx

http://www.starfall.com/  - Use this site to practice letter recognition, letter sounds, rhyming words, word families, and many more literacy concepts.

 

Happy Halloween!!!

Apple Counting

Apple Sorting

 

How many apples long?

 

Brown Stairs and Knobless Cylinders

 

Creative exploration with the Triangle Box

Week of Oct 7th to Oct 18th

I plan on sending a newsletter at the end of every week, as this was a short week I am combining last week and this week's information.
Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Tue, Oct 22 and Thu, Oct 24
from 4 to 8 pm, please sign up, on the Signup Genius website, http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C054DA5AC2CAA8-october if you haven't done so already, parents of new students who started late Sept or Oct, I will meet with you at end of Nov/Dec to talk about your child.
We talked about some of the changes that happen in Fall/Autumn, and why leaves change color.
Cultural Topics
Fall
Living/Non Living
Plant/Animal
Vertebrates/Invertebrates
Mammals
Leaf/Fall Walk- Full Day students went on a Leaf walk
Van Gogh- Introduction to the famous paintings of Van Gogh


Songs/Finger plays
Five little Pumpkins sitting on the gate
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late"
The second one said, "There are the owls in the air"
The third one said, "But we don't care"
The fourth one said, "Let's have some fun"
The fifth one said, "
Then Whoo went the wind and off(clap) went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Art
Fall Trees- using torn paper
Sunflowers inspired by Van Gogh
Sound for next week –'g' - Gordo the Gorilla
We practice Zoo Phonics sounds as a large group activity; these are animals that represent each letter/sound of the alphabet, they have a little rhyme and an action that goes with it. For example for the letter 'a', the rhyme is Allie the alligator, 'a', 'a', 'a', and the action is arms extended out to represent the teeth of the alligator
a - Allie the alligator-Extend arms out to form alligator mouth, open and close mouth ay the a sound
b - Bubba the bear- Reach an arm above head to an imaginary honeycomb and bring the honey to your mouth
c - Catrina the cat- Pretend you are a cat washing your face with your paw
d - Dede the deer- Use two fingers of each hand to form deer ears in head
e – Ellie the elephant- Clasp hands and swing them from side to side as a trunk
f – Francie the fish- with hands in front of you place the palm of one hand on the back of the other hand to form a fish, wiggle thumbs
We are getting ready to begin a new and exciting unit on Johnny Appleseed/Apples, and we need your help! We have a lot of fun and educational activities planned to teach us everything from graphing, patterns, measurement and cooking applesauce.
In order to do all this we will need lots of apples! We are requesting that each student bring in at least one apple of any kind by Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013.
We are looking for a variety of types of apples for our various projects, so we'll take anything we can get.

Talking to your preschooler about school

Some great opener questions to start a conversation about school with your child might be:

• What work did you like the best today?
• Did you work with anyone?
• Do you remember any songs you sang today?
• Did you do a sorting work?
• Did you do a pouring work?
• Did you do a number work?
• Did you do some art work?
• Did you do a matching work?
• Did you do an animal work?

Matching the Color Box with Objects in the classroom

 

 

Story writing with the Movable Alphabet

 

Addition with the Bead Bars

 

 

Chair Scrubbing

  

 

Plant Care   

 

 

 

 

Sounding out words with the Movable Alphabet

   
 



October Newsletter

Ms. Sheela’s Classroom

                                                                          October Newsletter

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Parent/Teacher conferences are set for the third and fourth week of October. I will send the link to sign up for conferences by tomorrow.

I will also have a signup sheet on the clipboard at drop off and pick up, if you would like to come in to observe your child in the classroom before conferences,

 In class we have been talking about:

Leaves/Trees

Seasons/Fall

Living/Non Living

Continents and Oceans

Work Period in a Montessori Classroom

 In Montessori schools the activities are called "work" so that children will associate positive feelings with the term which will hopefully carry over into their adult lives. During the work period the children are free to choose anything they have had a lesson on. Teachers give new lessons, assist and observe. By now each child has had lessons in every area of the classroom. They are encouraged to practice each skill again and again as teachers look for areas of special developmental interest for each child. Much of the work period up to this point has been spent remembering to put work away, push in chairs, use "inside" voices and feet, use "careful" hands, use words rather than hands when a problem arises with another person, and respect the work of others.
                                                                           

Circle Time

We finish each class with a "circle" lesson including songs, calendar, and weather and sharing (the opportunity for each child to have a turn to talk). At circle time we usually read a story, sing songs or play a game. The first weeks of class were spent focusing on routines, rules, good manners and the concept of "community”.

Picture Day

Friday, Oct 5 at 10:10 am

Montessori Services Fundraiser

We are going to participate in the Montessori Services Holiday Fundraiser again this year.   Montessori Services is a material supplier to Montessori families and classrooms.   The fundraiser will begin soon.   Depending on our total order, the participating classrooms will receive between 10% and 15% to spend on materials for their classrooms.   I will also be posting wish lists, if parents would like to purchase materials for their child’s classroom.   The Montessori Catalogs will be sent in this Thursday’s folder.

Thank You’s

Bella (Nika’s mom) and Kebbie ( Zach’s mom) for taking care of our laundry(towels and nap sheets)every week.

 Crissy, Alicia, Kebbie, Joe, Lisa and Nathan for coming in to listen to our students read.

 “What do you like about Fall?”, when asked of our students-

Nika-color of the leaves

Cameron-Jumping in the leaves

Adrian-Jumping in the leaves

Mazie-Halloween

Jack-Burying myself in the leaves

Sydney-Jumping in the leaves

Teagan-when the leaves fall

Zach-Jumping in the leaves and Halloween

Marley-Halloween

Clio-Jumping in the leaves

Madeline-when leaves fall

Spencer-Jumping in the leaves

Maddox-apples

Welcome Letter 2013-2014

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to the 2013-2014 school year.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful summer. We hope that all of you are as eager to start the school year as we are. If this is your first year, we hope to look forward to knowing you and helping you to know our families at Lincoln Elementary. If you are returning, we are very happy to work with you and help your child reach even greater success.

Please plan on joining us for a picnic before school starts for the Primary Montessori Families at Platt Park, on Fri, Aug 23^rd, 2013 between 5:30 to 7:00 pm, more details to follow soon.

First day of school will be Monday, Aug 26^th for kindergartners. Four year olds will start on Wednesday, Aug 28^th, 2013. Three year olds will start Sept 3^rd onwards and will be staggered in two or three at a time.

The first couple of weeks will be a transitioning period. Even though the classroom and the layout will be the same, I might make a few changes with regards to furniture and placement of materials. The first week will go by with children getting used to the classroom, catching up with buddies and getting to know new friends and learning new works and routines.

Please note that Ms. Kristy has taken up a job at Montessori School of Washington Park and Ms. Paula, who is a trained Montessori teacher, will be replacing her. We are very fortunate this year as we will have almost three trained teachers in our classroom as Ms. Kelly is also training to be a Montessori teacher and she will be my student teacher for this year.

A few reminders before school starts-

1. Please remember to apply sunscreen on your child.
2. Please remember to sign in and sign out your child every day.
3. Lunch bags, snack and water bottles must be labeled.
4. Full day children should bring in a morning and an afternoon snack.
5. Please place a pair of clothes in your child’s locker throughout the school year.
6. All students will need clothing and shoes that they can easily manage themselves. If your child cannot yet tie laces, please provide school shoes with buckles, Velcro or slip-on styling.
7. Children can bring items for show and tell starting Sept 3rd. We will again be using the alphabet sounds to guide your child’s choice of items. The sound for the first week is ‘a’ as in apple. The sound for each week will be posted on our bulletin board. We ask that you help your child choose an item that begins with the sound of the week. Also, help your child think of clues such as what color the object is, or what the item is used for, as your child will keep their item hidden and give these clues to the children at Circle Time. The other children will then guess what the item is. These items will be available to take home from the basket at dismissal. These can be anything interesting and educational such as books, drawings of the child, pictures, any nature collections etc.  

8.     Please always make sure a teacher is in attendance before leaving your child. There will be one of the assistants at the door each morning until 9:00 am. All students should be reminded to say good-bye to their teachers when leaving, not only as a matter of etiquette but also to ensure your child's safety.

9. Please look out for our food prep calendars every month on our sign in sheet clipboard.  We hope you can help us out by bringing in fruits or vegetables for that week. Children will learn how to clean, cut and prepare the food which will be served as an additional snack to have in the morning.
10. Please make sure to add names to the emergency contact sheet, of people who will be picking up your child other than parents. Let us know about any allergies or special circumstances.
11. Please check in with front office to see if your child’s immunization records are up to date.

The beginning of school is both exciting and a bit overwhelming. Occasionally children become teary eyed when thinking about their parent leaving them at school. If your child cries as you leave them at school, please know that the adults in the room will give lots of tender loving care to the children. We have such a wonderful time at school that children usually move quickly into the classroom activities and thoroughly enjoy their day.

Please say good-bye quickly, lovingly and go. This is important for your child's transition. The teachers are skilled at easing the transition for your child and we will let you know if there is a problem. Groups of parents lingering in the classrooms or in the hallway can affect an otherwise calm routine.

You may want to discuss and/or role-play saying good-bye with your children. Be sure to convey your confidence that school is a good place for them to be. Some families establish a ritual such as "hug-kiss-snuggle" that reassures them both at parting. Saying good-bye quickly, warmly, lovingly and matter-of-factly just as you rehearsed (no matter how anxious you are feeling!) will ease them through this transition.

Enjoy the last few days of summer vacation!

 

See you all soon!!!

“Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world.” Dr. Maria Montessori

Thanks and regards

Sheela, Kelly and Paula