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 October 18, 2018

Bucket filling and Bucket dipping

We read the book “Have you filled a bucket today? A daily guide to happiness for kids” by Carol McCloud

A few key ideas from the book that we continue to talk about at school:

-       Everyone has an imaginary bucket to hold our good thoughts and feelings about ourselves

-       When its full, we feel happy; when it’s empty we feel sad and lonely

-       We can help fill others’ buckets by doing kind and helpful things – even just a smile. Filling someone else’s bucket also fills your own bucket!

-       Doing and saying things that are unkind dips from someone’s bucket – and dips from your own bucket too.

-       When we notice someone feeling sad or upset, we can think of a way to fill their bucket to help them feel better – and we will feel good too!

There are many video recordings of the book online if you’d like to read the full book at home.

                  Greetings

We are practicing how we greet one another. We make eye contact, smile, shake hands, and say “Good morning, ____!” to each other. The children each exchange a greeting with a teacher when they arrive to the classroom in the morning, and can also practice with each other.