“Creativity is not just a good idea, it is the future”
–Maria Montessori

Daily Living

The daily living area is busier than ever, with new activities added in coordination with the unit studies or the arising needs: sink and float, washing leaves on house plants, making bubbles in soap water, grating soap to make soap flakes, sorting and transferring, opening and closing jars and boxes, or hanging decorations.

Sensorial

Our sensorial materials are explored with new ideas on how to use them, combining different sets as the children become familiar and more skilled in manipulating them. Air and water, gas/vapor, solid and liquid, warm and cold, heavy and light, were words used to describe sensorial experiences in conjunction with our science lessons.

Science

To understand how changes in weather occur as a result of heat, wind, pressure and moisture, we started with simple experiments with air and water.  A balloon, an empty plastic bottle, a piece of paper, soap bubbles, can perform magic tricks that capture attention, raise questions, and keep the thoughts moving. We finished the dinosaur projects by digging a pretend fossil out of a petrified egg, looked at aquatic invertebrates, and begun the vertebrates with the study of fish.

Cultural

After a few more short stops in Europe we moved through Turkey to Asia. Ms Parna talked about India, the seventh largest country in the world and the second largest in population. India, a land of diversity, is a rich mixture of cultures, with Hindi as national language and English used for political and commercial communication. The children had fun greeting each other saying “namaste” which means “hello”. They learned that some people in India wear western fashion and others wear traditional saree and loose pants known as pyjamas and shirts, “kurtas”. Mrs. Carla had fun trying a saree on, and children had fun trying traditional Indian clothes and fancy jewelry.  We also learned about Taj Mahal, a shimmering white marble tomb which is the biggest attraction in Indial. We also learned about Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, and China.

Language

Language progress is showing at all levels: with more sounds and letters being recognized by the newest and youngest children, with movable alphabet writing without pencils, with better pencil control for the hands not yet used to writing, with better letter formation and space control for the oldies, and the joy of reading on their own for pre-K and kindergartners.

Math

The new attractions are fractions. Using different wooden pegs cut in halves, thirds and quarters the children learn how to put them together to reconstitute the whole.

The snake game has also taken wings, and is checked out most of the time by old and young alike, since it can be done at different levels of ability. More of the middle age children are following the older ones in lessons with the decimal system. The pairing between a less experienced child and a more advanced one happens often in working with math materials. They find each other themselves, or with some guiding hints from us, and we are left to admire them.

Arts & Crafts

The children tried their own clouds, rainbows, monochromatic shades of blue for the sky and the ocean, made their own invertebrate creatures and a school of fish, a scaled classroom fish, forsythias, and doves with peaceful thoughts.

Thank you for taking your time to come for conferences. It is the best time to touch base with one another, and always a good exchange that helps all of us, and most of all your children.

Kindergartners

Getting older at this age it is an everyday celebration of the brain’s conquests. We see children making more complex connections and getting enthusiastic about their self-discoveries. Following them, we extend the topics of the morning class or develop new ones.

Following the visit to the Ben’s Sugar Cove the children wrote thank you notes that were put together into booklet and sent to Mr. Ben. We learned in the process how write a letter and how to address an envelope. Researching a book for a subject and writing about it is the newest favorite activity during the afternoon hours.

Our Easter trip to Washington D.C. was great – but it did set me back a bit with traveler’s tummy the beginning of last week. The class was none the worse for wear under Ms Sue’s capable handling!  Here then, are the areas and projects we continue to advance:

• Many of the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th year students are working on (and some have completed) their SECOND comparison and contrast paper.Their first was the porpoise and dolphin – this one is the crocodile and alligator. While still difficult we are seeing many improvements on content and form.
• The first year students are learning the parts of speech. They should know the noun family (articles, adjectives, and nouns) and verbs. We covered the pronoun this week. You can reinforce their learning by playing games by composing sentences and jazzing them up using descriptive adjectives.  Remind them to use the best verbs they can think up as well.
• Our timeline of life studies are ongoing with an introduction of the clock of eras. This is where an analog clock of 24 hours is compared to Earth time. Some children are making posters and charting the Archean, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mezozoic, Cenozoic, and Quartenary Periods.
• Our Scientists group made predictions and observed the rate of decomposition and mold growth on several foods; broccoli, salami, bananas, cheese and cooked egg, to name a few.  The bread, which we cut in half and had a control piece and a piece we ALL handled has done nothing. We expected the handled piece to look a sight and the less handled piece to keep. But owing to the number of preservatives in the bread…We’d love to do another bread study with homemade bread. Any takers? I mean bakers?
• The oldest in the class ready to move on are LOVING their decimal  work. We are setting a good foundation and should be working some operations soon.
• DANCE! Also a high point of the year. Our children are focused, joyful, and gaining in co-ordination and listening skills. Please mark your datebooks Moms and Dads as you really shouldn’t miss this event on the last day of class. Kathy Blake loves CVMS!

Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.
-Maria Montessori

Daily Living

With new materials to sort, transfer and rearrange, with water to be poured, spilled and cleaned up, with tables to be scrubbed, fun and learning go hand in hand.

Sensorial

The sensorial experience was enriched by touching and feeling various textures of the rocks. Several collections of rocks and minerals were available for comparing, sorting, and matching by color, shape, size, and weight.

Language

Sound lessons advance along with the children’s ability to recognize beginning sounds/letters. The rhyming and word games engage more and more participants. Some of the intermediate children started writing with the movable alphabet.

Favorite books on this topic: “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” by  William Steig, “If Kisses Were Colors” by Janet Lawler, “Never Too Little to Love” by Jeanne Willis and Jan Fearnley, “Varenka” by Bernadette.

Math

This month we worked with counters made of ruby-like glass hearts, shiny polished pebbles or fuzzy teddy bears. That made the point of interest to shift heavily toward the Cards and Counters lesson, and now we have more children who know how many objects they need for each number.

Cultural

Romanian artifacts, folk costumes, music, stories and snacks were a good start for our trip to Europe.We will continue in March with Italy, Spain, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Ukraine and Russia.

Science

The topic of this month was very popular, and the children surpassed our expectations in the interest they showed, the keen observations they made, the accurate matches of the rocks with the pictures from books, the facts they knew, and the questions they had.

In summary, we:

• “cracked” the earth to see the hot insides that once in a while burst out through volcanoes,
• simulated earthquakes by moving cardboard with “jenga block” buildings on top,
• examined a rock collection and noticed the differences in structure, texture, and hardness,
• talked about the use of rocks,
• learned that salt, chalk, coal, and sand come from rocks.

Reptiles came to us not only from books, but also from Mrs. Carla’s private collection. Floyd is a Russian tortoise that used to live in Ms. Claire’s classroom. He is full grown at about 5 inches across. Willie is an African Spurred tortoise which is third largest in the world, she is currently about twice as large as Floyd. She was given to me by a friend and although we like having her, eventually she will need much more space, outdoor space in a warmer environment. Both tortoises eat a diet of dried tortoise food, fresh greens, vegetables and fruit. Kayla and Dontello are baby gargoyle geckos that belong to Anna and her sister Lexi. They enjoy being handled and are very easy to care for. I also talked to the children about our baby veiled chameleon. Unfortunately, chameleons can become stressed easily and I felt it was better not to bring him in at this time. However, we did look at pictures of many different kinds of chameleons in books.

Art & Crafts

Mosaics with little magnetic tiles were the biggest attraction and a great trainer for patience, focus, refining small motor skills and coordination, and developing self control. Paper and glue were also handy for quick projects: crazy hearts, concentric circles for the inner structure of the earth.

Music: We had fun singing and moving on Old Saint Helen, a song about the volcanic eruption from 1980. Songs about love and peace are always in big demand.

In March we will finish the dinosaurs and continue our geology lessons about erosion as we move into the theme of the next month: weather and changes in nature during spring. Experiments with air and water will be part of our hands on science lessons.

Reminders: Spring Parents/Teachers Conferences will run in the afternoons beginning March 12. If you cannot come to school in the time slots offered, you may choose to teleconference.

Kindergartners

We worked on complex projects involving refined skills from different areas of Montessori classroom. Among the most popular were:

• Broken hearts: Addition problems were written on half hearts. After solving the problems the children had to match the equal results, cut and paste the pieces to rebuild the hearts. This activity revealed that addition is commutative, and that there are more ways to make the same number. It was also self-corrective, and the children learned to fix their mistakes.
• Circles: Spatial relationships: concentric, tangent, and secant.
• The long cube chains (7, 8, 9 and 10) are taken out more often either as individual attempts or as a team. Age is not a factor when it comes to dedicated work, and the sense of accomplishment makes the efforts worthwhile.
• Reading has become a favorite activity. The large selection and variety of topics are beaconing with irresistible illustrations and beautiful stories.

Field Trip: Ben’s Sugar Shack in Temple (12 minutes drive from school, Route 101 west). Tentative date: Monday, March 12, 12:45-2:15 (pending on weather and your response to volunteer – we need transportation for 5 children)

Photos from Children’s House this month

On the evening of February 14, 2012, the elementary students at Country Village Montessori School presented their 5^th Annual Poetry Café to the delight and amusement of parents, friends, and staff. The stage was set with the audience seated at candle-lit tables.

Poetry Café was established in 2007 as a way to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a non-traditional way. Each year, the children are introduced to several different kinds of poetry, including rhyming couplets, haiku, free verse, limericks, sonnets, and several others in the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day. To prepare for their Café performance, they each compose original poems and compile a book complete with illustrations.

This year, in addition to presenting their original works, some children also memorized or read published works from favorite poets like Ogden Nash, Edward Lear, Shel Silverstein, and Dr. Seuss.

The parents and children of Country Village Montessori School began their program at 6:00pm and concluded with cupcakes and a Valentine exchange by 7:30pm.

A look back and a look ahead from January, so named for the two-faced God Janus…

Your children are hard at work at several big writing projects. We are all waist high in crafting up to 8 different kinds of Poems; acrostic, limerick, personal, rhyming couplet, cinquain, diamante, free verse and haiku. We have all shared a fact or two about dolphins and porpoises.  Elders are learning how to construct a multi-paragraph comparison and contrast paper on the difference between porpoises and dolphins and construct and write a multi-paragraph history research paper on the Sumerians.

Younger children are hard at work writing booklets about the parts of a flag and the parts of a horse. The former moves us along our geography studies in concert with our maps of the countries of the world. The latter finishes up our study of vertebrates which moves us closer to the studies of all the different kinds of life on earth: biodiversity.

All the children continue becoming proficient in their math facts and the levels they are working on. We are introducing the concept of fractions to the first year student and decimals to some elders.

Favorite work across the board has been dynamic addition and subtraction, multiplication, division with snake games, bead bars, stamp game, and racks and tubes. Checkerboard has resurfaced to clarify multiplication operations as well.

We hope you will consider attending our 5^th Annual Poetry Café to be held here at school on Tuesday, February 14^th at 6pm in the evening. Your children have a variety of poems to read and perform for you. Some children have written all 8 forms we have introduced and other have found their niche and written several of their favorite form! In consideration of the children we ask that no younger siblings attend. We know you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

We continue to enjoy poetry, creation stories, Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling and we are using these short stories as an example of IDEATION in story crafting. The elders are particularly paying close attention to the 6 Traits of Good Writing with “Ideas” being our first focus. The other five traits we’ll study are: Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency and Conventions. Their first experience with this rubric will be coming home shortly. Parents of younger children: I’m sending this home so you can see where we will be going with the development of their written expression. It is nice to see the children embrace these exercises and give them their all. First year students are learning how to craft sentences – so their story may not be as involved as the rubric suggests.

And now, here is my last shameless plug for poetry. Your children have been enthralled with a book and CD I recently received with several poets reciting their own poems. At a quiet moment in the day I invited a few children to look at the poems with me while the poets (including. Robert Frost, Roald Dahl, and Ogden Nash, to name a few) performed. Their eyes were as big as saucers as they recognized some poems and could barely contain their excitement. Bottom line: go out and grab your dusty sonnets off your book shelf, run do not walk to the library and gather up armfuls of poetry and snuggle up and enjoy!

Thanks for all you do!

“If the idea of the universe is presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than to arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying”

–Maria Montessori

In January we talked about the Earth as part of the solar system.

We started with a Polynesian folktale about five brothers who wanted to catch the sun; the children were quick to point that “nobody can catch the sun” and were delighted to put on their scientists’ hats and analyze what was true and what was fantasy in the story. Then we moved to science books that explained how people learned that the Earth is round, spins around itself, and moves on an orbit around the sun. Balls of different sizes helped us learn the names of the planets in the solar system, which of them are larger or smaller, farther or closer to the sun (photo).

Magnets were another popular subject. The children had different sets of magnets available to experiment with on their own after a short demonstration and discussion. We learned that the Earth behaves like a huge magnet.

From the animal kingdom we looked at amphibians and their adaptations to live in water and on land. “Five Green and Speckled Frogs” filled the classroom for many days.

We looked into Africa’s rich and diverse habitats, cultures, colors, and music.

We revisited materials in the classrooms related to the topics of the months:

• Lessons at different levels on geometric cabinet and geometric solids.
• Looked for spheres and cylinders throughout the classroom.
• Compared the size and the weight of different balls used to represent planets.
• Sound games: Changing the beginning sound to make another word (family  words).
• Connected the names of the planets with the names for the days of the week.

Group discussions about true facts versus fiction in the stories from “When the World Was Young” by Margaret Mayo and Louse Brierley , “When Stories Fell Like Shooting Stars” by Valiska Gregory and Stefano Vitale.

Art & Crafts

• Draw/paint planets, and made “orbits” with marbles rolled through paint.
• Splashes of paint on black paper for the whole universe (photo)
• Build “African style” instruments using recycled materials.

Music

We tried several African instruments, listened to songs from Africa and selections   from “The Planets” by Gustav Holst.

Coming up…

In February we will come down the earth and continue to explore our planet as geologists to learn about minerals, rocks, fossils, and reptiles. We will visit Europe.

For Valentine’s day we will help children exchange cards. Please do not send attached candies and do not write names for the addressee. We encourage the children to spend their time and creativity in making the cards themselves and practice writing their names.

Thank you to Mei-Ling and Justin Mother who brought the Chinese New Year’s celebrations to our classroom with crafts, artifacts, books and delicious snacks.

Parent’s Night – Monday, February 20, 6 p.m. – Math in Montessori classroom

Kindergartners

We used the planets and Africa to extend the math and language work.

• Writing and illustrating a story prompted by pictures of people from Africa or imagining a new planet they might discover in the future (photos: Story 1-3)
• Find the best title for a story. What makes a good title?
• Identifying nouns, adjectives and verbs.
• The Numbers’ Pyramid, a fun approach to multiplication.
• Work with decimal system.

The maps of the continents remain a favorite work. More countries are recognized / memorized. The repeated coloring after the puzzle maps trains the spatial orientation and improves penmanship. It is also a preferred activity because it provides opportunity for cooperation and social interaction.

Photos this month

Elementary class party plans are underway and due to the fact that Thursday IS the last day we will all be together, we will Celebrate the Season on Thursday 15 December with fun, games, crafts, and songs. Your child is encouraged to bring in a game or two for fun. Did I mention the cookies? Please bring a plate of homemade cookies to share after lunch when our festivities will take place. Of course, you, their parents are invited to attend.  *Your presence is not mandatory. We’ll wrap up the day from approximately 1:00pm -2:15pm with the goodies.

Friday is a ½ day for all. Dismissal is 11:15-11:30. Children in Ms Dorina’s class will have their Holiday Party. If you have a child in both classes and your elementary children would like to go to that celebration with you (as it is a parent-accompanied event) and their siblings – then by all means, enjoy the day with them. Otherwise Ms Sue and I will be in the elementary class conducting our last class of the year! The one caveat is that there will be no up and down. Your child has the choice whether to be in their classroom with us or upstairs with you.

I neglected to thank the Meisner Family for the beautiful wreath that graces our front door.  Thank you, you are spoiling us!

And thanks to the dedicated drivers to our Martial Arts for the past eight week program. We could not have done it without you. Enclosed with this newsletter is a promotional offer from A.T.A. Martial Arts Studio.

Please note: Swimming begins Friday, January 6^th.  Please see to the paperwork sent home in this packet. We need ALL paperwork back ASAP, before the break. Pickup will be at Hampshire Hills as last year. Unless you are driving and have other children to pickup at CVMS, we will expect you to be able to pick up your child from Hampshire Hills on swimming Fridays. If this is not agreeable to you, please see Ms Claire or Ms Sue. You may also choose to make other arrangements with other parents as you like. From our end our concerns are two-fold: Ms Claire will not be attending swimming as she will be in Children’s House providing staff training and conducting observations and Ms. Sue will not be driving any children in her car. We appreciate the time and dedication it takes from many of you to make this excellent P.E. Unit a reality, especially our drivers, and the understanding and indulgence of all of you. * A Special Thank-you to Becki Stevens for setting this up!

Conferences have begun! I have openings on the January Calendar (also included with this packet).E-mail your preference. I will confirm.

REMEMBER: Thursday – crafts and cookies. Friday 1/2 Day for all. You do not have to accompany your Elementary child either day.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight!  Thanks for ALL you do!

“Every blade of grass is a study” – Abraham Lincoln

With the dramatic display of colors and the whimsical dances in the air, the leaves took the main role in the nature’s show for October.

Science

We looked at parts of a tree, a leaf, talked about why leaves change colors, identified oaks, maples, sassafras, dogwood, and birch. We measured the circumference of the red oak on the playground in wide stretched hugs (three old children, or four young ones, or two grownups). We discussed some of the practical uses of tree products: Fruit, medicine, industrial, environmental. Trees in different hypostasis: Yoga, Mosaic, Fractals.

We learned about mammals, what are their distinctive characteristics, and some odd representatives. We compared the body parts of rabbits with those of bats. We analyzed the differences in the habitats of these two mammals.

In the last week October we invited bats, spiders and owls to our science lessons and learned where and how they live, what do they eat, and discussed why they seem scary to some people.

Math

Counting, comparing quantities and sizes, and estimating exercises are used in games at circle time.

Individual lessons are presented according to the child interest and ability, starting with sandpaper numbers, spindle boxes, number rods and cards and counters. Various materials from the science themes are used as extensions for math lessons. E.g. we had acorns for counters, leaves for sorting exercises, and to approximate geometric shapes.

Cultural

With Columbus Day we took a look at the globe to locate Europe, Asia and the Americas. Throughout the year we will take a trip around the Earth, spending a month on each continent. We started with North America and will still be here in November, with the Native Americans. Then, we will move to South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica.

Mrs. Parna talked about Divaly, the celebration of light, enchanting us with traditional music and dance.

The international snack is another opportunity to learn about other cultures. So far we had a taste of Italian, Indian, German, Romanian and Chinese.

Art and Crafts

Rubbing textures of wood and leaves, leaf prints, collages, modeling and painting Diyas

Music

Rhythm patterns, high and low pitch, Vivaldi, Beethoven; Songs: Nocturnal Animals, Skeleton Dance.

Books

Shell Silverstein helped us with his story “The Giving Tree” in our science lessons and into thinking about relationships with others, giving and taking, carrying and being selfish.

We will continue discussions on these topics following “The Quiltmaker’s Gift”, a beautiful story by Jeff Brumbeau.

In November we will focus on:

• Native Americans,
• Evergreen trees
• Animals in winter (birds and mammals).
• Thanksgiving

Reminders

• Send in a labeled seasonal change of clothing for your children (long pants, warm sweatshirt undies & socks).
• Check for “user friendly” fastening devices (buttons, laces, zippers, belts). If your child can not handle them at home they can’t manage them at school either so send in a different choice.
• At school the children practice to turn the sleeves the right side-up, to fold a sweater, to put on mitten and gloves, to button and zip. The flip-over style to put on a jacket is fun and easy to learn: the child lays the coat on the floor with the hood/collar toward him/herself, put the hands in the sleeves, lifts the coat over the head, and slips the arms into the sleeves as the coat covers his/her back. Just ask the children to show you, and take the time to allow them to be independent instead of rushing to assist them.
• When the ground is covered with snow send your children dressed in snow gear on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and have the snow gear in a bag on Tuesday and Thursday (those two days we start inside, but the children will need the snow suits later in the day).
• Footwear should be comfortable and warm, even if there is no snow on the ground.
• Last, but not least, remember to have your children use the bathroom before you bring them to school.

Thank you

• For taking your time to meet with us during Parent Conferences.
• To all parents who took the time to pick leaves with your children and send them to school for sharing.
• To all the Friday snack parents for international day
• To all who send in Box Top and Campbell Soup Labels.
• To all who order Scholastic Books.
• Thanks also for the Small Hands order (they should be arriving soon)

Mark your Calendar

• Language Art Parents’ Informative Night
• Kindergarten parents are invited for a Thanksgiving celebration on Monday, Nov. 21st, 6-7 p.m.

Kindergarten Notes

The Kindergarteners feel comfortable working with materials in all areas. The most visible acceleration is in language arts. Keep reading to you children at home daily. We will continue with word games, enriching vocabulary and expanding conversational skills. Selected stories are followed by discussions about the plot, characters, messages, and we look for parallels in our real life experiences. You can have the same discussions at home. Keep building your child’s language, vocabulary, concept and conversational skills.

One of the favorite lessons this past month was building antonyms using prefixes (un-, dis-, non-).

Another one was building fractals with bead bars, and seeing fractals in pictures of ferns, trees, corals, snowflakes, and crystals.

In November the children will work on projects for the Thanksgiving celebration (Monday 21^st, 6-7 p.m.).

We will discuss about what it means to them to be thankful. We will be putting out our “Basket of Hope” as we do each year and have the children bring in canned and dry goods for those in need. We gently explain what we have to be thankful for and also that helping other in their time of need is a wonderful way to show caring and sharing.

More photos from our class this month

Looking forward to getting in our routines from last week’s weather (ah-hem) interruption!  The class is all sorts of busily engaged. Engaged in what you say? The children are engaged in nothing short of their learning.  It is a thriving environment chock full of projects and undertakings that are teacher prepared and child managed. This month we have seen the fulfillment of our first Art Unit centering on the Native American Indians. We have painted a Chief, crafted clay pots reminiscent of the Sioux, fashioned masks; paying particular attention to face structure and painted markings, as well as learned how weaving on a loom is accomplished. Our last tasking of a landscape painting at sunset with teepees was finished at The Currier on our latest Field Trip.

Elementary is for “going out” excursions. Montessori said this age of developments has the child ready to explore their surroundings in a new and meaningful way at some distance and in some places far from their close, cozy, and safe home and school settings.  We take to that philosophy in a big way. As a group we took our “maiden voyage” to see The Mayflower reproduction and Plimoth Plantation. After years of yearning to bring a class close to that fictional reality of time and place we were finally able to do just that ( in between pelting spats of rainstorms) on a picture perfect day in September! We’ll be calling on that experience as we move towards Thanksgiving with an eye to Fundamental Needs of both the Pilgrims and Natives.

Our History Studies are off and running as a result of both our Art and Field Trip experiences. It is Montessori’s Cosmic approach to education that begs the questions, who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? And how do I get there? Otherwise known as the interconnectedness of things – it is genius at the core. We are moving into our third study of Native Americans of the Southwest after the Eastern Woodlands and Plains Indian studies. These studies have captured the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th year students.

The 1^st years are getting their “sea legs” learning how to discipline themselves to accomplish math and language tasks daily. Apart from the three R’s they are off and running learning about our Earth and the various land forms and the 5 Classification of Vertebrates (parts of the animal studies). I “think” their sticker shock has worn off and they are all digging in with less and less fatigue. Work actually energizes. We love to see the gradual shift from Children’s House student to Elementary student.

All did a wonderful job on their Peacemaker Study.  We kicked off our study with an Amherst Library visit to get in the research mood. This year we were treated to the life stories of Annie Oakley, Dr. Seuss, Maria Tallchief, Mahatma Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Jane Goodall, Queen Elizabeta of Romania, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mother Theresa, Pocahontas, George Washington, Buzz Aldrin, and Ole Kristenson.  Don’t know the last one? That’s Mr. Lego. I can’t say enough about the time, effort, and dedication your children put into this project. I even heard MANY say, I can’t wait for next year – I know who I’m going to study!

We are knee-deep into our Martial Arts P.E. Unit. I wasn’t sure how the children would enjoy this unit but overall I would have to say we have scored another winner. Their instructor is kind and knowledgeable and seems to keep the class alternating between listening, practicing, running and exercises in a well-balanced blend. We have 4 more sessions. After the holidays we’ll be starting another unit TBD.

You may not have been aware, but we had an outreach program from Bridges an organization that provides services and support for domestic and sexual violence victims.

For three weeks before lunch we had 2 young women for ½ hour in duration provide the children with information through books, scenario and role-play that would have them appreciate the kinds of bullying that can occur, the places it can occur and what they can do about it. We really call it Bully Prevention – or Bully Proofing for our kids. The instructors were amazed and complimentary firstly, about how much our kids already knew and secondly, that they are an empowered bunch to help other in circumstances as well. I am proud of our community and have always said if your school needs a bullying policy- it is too late; bullying occurs there already. To date we have had no need for bullying policies. I know pride goes before the fall – but we’ll keep our traditions until such time as necessity forces us to do something different. It is a luxury of being a small community.

Moving swiftly into November – This week we will be treated to a presentation from Barbara Medlyn a.k.a. The Rock Lady from The Quartz Source store in Milford. Look for your children to suddenly become passionate about rocks and minerals. Some may be making booklets, other posters in the coming weeks.

We should be finishing up the state studies very soon. These will continue to serve as our backdrop as we move beyond the first inhabitants of what is now the United States and we move into early American History; the founding of our country.

In Mathematics, our beginning of year focus has been to see what your child has retained. After extensive review, we are moving out into fraction operations for some, introduction of fractions for others, large division for some, carrying and borrowing for others, beginning multiplication and memorization of multiplication facts as well as word problems for all.

Have fun with math and instead of turning on the television set in the car or at home make up some math word problems and discuss what operation you need to apply to be able to solve it. Make math a topic of conversation at every chance you can.

Elders (2^nd grade and above), are studying Rivers of the World and the Work of Water and will be getting homework soon. This is their geography unit which will relate to Fundamental Needs yesterday, today, and tomorrow here, there, and everywhere and will relate to an end-of-year cultural study. * Back to the cosmic nature of the elementary studies.

In Science, other than our ongoing study of Plants, elders will take up the topics of cells; the parts of a cell, the difference between plant cells and animal cells. We will also begin a study of the nature of the elements. You will see a homework assignment on an element of their choice! All topics will begin before the first of the New Year.

Lastly, we need to know the last day your child will be in school before the Thanksgiving Holiday. This will help in our planning of an evening event of 1 hour in duration for our class. We would like 100% participation so we will schedule it as soon as we can secure all your info. Forgive me if this is a repeat question – but if it’s not on a piece of paper in front of me…….so send it or jot it down and we’ll confirm a date for our last event before Thanks-giving for you ASAP.

And – a final request. We need magazines all kinds! National Geographic, Smithsonian, nature as well as fashion and entertainment, historical, car and home handyman, decorating, cooking,  or travel in short, magazines you are soon to dispose of for a class project. If you don’t have any but care to buy one and donate it to us – we will happily accept.

Thanks for all you do,

Claire and Sue