Montessori Classroom News January 24, 2018

Reading tip: Asking Questions

While reading aloud to your child, asking questions can increase your child’s participation with the story and build reading comprehension skills that will benefit her/him for a lifetime. You can ask questions before, during, and after the story. Try to ask questions that are open ended rather than yes/no questions. Hint: Questions that begin with a “wh” question word (Who, what, when, where, why [and how]) will be open-ended.

Grace & Courtesy Lessons:

Some topics that we discussed and role-played at group times this week:

- How to observe another person’s work without disturbing them (we are quiet, not touching them or their work, hands behind our back)

- How to respond if someone forgets and disrupts our work or bothers us (a calm, strong voice works much better than yelling, pushing, or whining!)

- Catching coughs and sneezes in our arm so we don’t spread germs!

Does winter weather have your energetic children stuck inside?

On days when it is too cold to go outside for recess, we do a variety of movement songs and dances to keep the children active. GoNoodle.com is a website with many dances for kids. You can create an account for free. Some of the children’s favorites this year include “Jump like a bunny” (AwesomeSauce channel), “Dinosaur Stomp (KooKoo Kangaroo), and “Go bananas” (Moosetube)

Notes & Reminders

Next week is Catholic Schools Week! (Jan 29-Feb 2)

See February calendar for special events

Re-registration forms will be sent home Monday for the 2018-19 school year.  For children who will be preschool-age next year: there is high demand for the Montessori classroom, so please return your form promptly to reserve your child’s space!

Wednesday, Jan. 31^st – Half day (12pm dismissal for all)

Montessori Classroom News January 18, 2018

Winter themes

While we are in our coldest season of the year, we learn about the Polar regions, which are cold all year long! These areas around the North Pole (Arctic) and South Pole (Antarctic) are the coldest parts of the earth. This week we started talking about the Arctic region and the adaptations polar animals have to live in these very cold places.

Poem of the Week:

Winter is Cold!

Winter is cold

There is snow in the sky

The squirrel gathers nuts

And the wild geese fly.

The fluffy red fox

Has thick fur to keep warm;

The bear’s in a den, 

Sleeping all through the storm

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We read the story, “Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King!” and discussed how he and many others worked to change laws that treated people unfairly just because of their skin color.  We also read the story of Ruby Bridges, a courageous 6 year old who helped to integrate her New Orleans school district. We are all God’s children and deserve to be treated fairly and with respect. King and others were able to change many things, and there are also still many things that are not fair or right. We can learn from King’s example of courage in standing up for what is right.

Our class sings a second verse to the song “Jesus loves me”:

Jesus loves us, everyone

Every grown-up, daughter, son;

Every culture, every shade –

In God’s image we are made.

Montessori Classroom News January 11, 2018

Word Game: Rhyming!

Rhyming is fun! Say, “Let’s think of words that sound like (rhyme with) ____” (“bat”, for example).  The first few times you play this game, you may be the only one thinking of words at first – and that’s okay. Enjoy yourself, and soon your child will be offering words too. (Feel free to dramatize/act out words as you say them!)

Examples: cat/bat/hat/mat, bug/rug/mug/dug,

boat/coat/float/goat

A variation: Let your child say the first word, and then you (or you and the child) can think of words that rhyme with the child’s selection. This is a way to get your child involved in the game even if she is not yet able to come up with rhyming words her/himself, and still gives practice hearing the rhyming sounds

Rhyming is one of the best predictors of reading success, so practice with rhyming at home is a great support for your child’s language development at school. If your child doesn’t seem to automatically pick up on rhyming, don’t worry – it’s a skill that your child can learn and develop.

         In addition to playing this rhyming game, you can also read books (and poems) that rhyme, and notice when “accidental” rhymes happen in everyday conversation.

Notes & Reminders

Monday, Jan 15 – NO SCHOOL

Health & Wellness

Cold season illnesses are here. We continue to practice hygiene in the classroom – handwashing, using tissues, covering coughs and sneezes with an arm, etc.

Children must stay home if they have a fever, vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, pink eye. They may return to school when they have been symptom-free (without medication) for 24 hours.

We realize this can be inconvenient with parent work schedules, but it is necessary to prevent exposing other children to illness, and helps your child make a full recovery faster.