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HOPE MONTESSORI SPRING NEWSLETTER, 2010
The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say,
"The children are now working as if I did not exist."
-Maria Montessori
Preprimary-K (3-6) Ms. Ann’s Blue Room and Ms. Shannon’s
Purple Room
Spring is here! Our children have blossomed! We are so
very proud of their growth this year! In their own
time, each child has balanced activities covering all
areas of the classroom curriculum. Visit our classroom
on any given day and you will witness frequent acts of
kindness, the excitement the children exude when they
master a new skill or concept, the confident way they
choose their work and interact, the concentration, the
self-direction, self-discipline, and the collaboration
involved in an assortment of activities….the
peacefulness and the atmosphere of respect for one
another…
Close your eyes; there is a hum as
children converse softly with laughter sprinkled in….and
smells of freshly ground coffee, food being baked,
flowers in little vases everywhere…Open your eyes again
and notice the assortment of activities. There are
usually children spread over all areas of the classroom
caring for the environment-washing, scrubbing, watering
plants in Practical Life…painting, working with clay,
drawing, using scissors in the Art Area….puzzles are
being worked, towers being constructed, materials being
compared, contrasted, and graded in Sensorial….The
Language area is bursting with reading and word-building
activities, sandpaper letters to movable alphabet to
computer programs which support our emergent
readers…Concrete math materials are being explored which
give the children logical understanding of concepts from
zero as the empty set to processes of addition,
multiplication, division, and fractions to understanding
the cube of 10,-deconstructed and counted out, and
working with large numbers and place value…In Science
the children are busy learning about the continents of
the world, making maps and learning basic land and water
forms, learning about the plant and animal kingdom,
hatching praying mantises, learning about light and the
colors of the rainbow with prisms, exploring the solar
system, discovering dinosaurs….
Maybe you’ve come at line time,
where each day the children learn about the calendar,
the weather, Spanish, read stories, play games, move,
dance, and sing! To quote from one of our songs, “The
more we get together the happier we’ll be!” So true!
It’s hard to believe how quickly
this school year has flown. We are a little sad to see
the end approaching..hopefully we’ll see many
of the children over the summer and return next fall.
Ms.
Traci’s Green Room
Movement
and Language is where it’s at!
The
2 year old class is on the move! We are so full of
energy! Sometimes, we make the whole building shake!
No, not
really,- but almost
J.
When we haven’t been able to go outside, we have made
the best of it by creating positive opportunities for
movement, indoors. We play games at line time, asking
the children to take turns and move to music. We dance
with scarves… we
pull out special equipment to challenge the children to
control their bodies and move through an indoor
“obstacle course”… We have
so much fun! Thank goodness that spring has arrived!
We love to play outside!
Language is also a strong drive at this age. Children
want to name everything. Classifying, sorting,
comparing, contrasting,- putting order to their world.
Can you imagine what it must be like for the young
child? There is so much to learn, to explore, to
discover, to wonder about!
We
are sometimes a little rough around the edges, -
sometimes we are on the border of hairy-town…but it is
usually quite peaceful in our classroom. Sometimes, you
can even hear a pin drop, everyone is so concentrated!
Like music to our ears, we often hear, “I
did it!”, as children master a new skill. Every step in
the growth of our children is so exciting! Maybe it
is a button fastened, or the potty used… maybe it is
counting to ten, or naming all the letters in the
alphabet… Celebrate your child!
Hope Teachers’ Wish List
ribbon,
old crayons (broken ones are fine), magazines, sea
shells, metal hangers, buttons, cloth scraps, trashed
jeans… knick-knacks for our continents’ baskets from
your travels around the world!
Parent/Child (Birth-3) Program
2 more Saturdays: May 8th
and May 22th
Calling all baby brothers
and sisters (and parents)! Would you like to check us
out?
1st visit is free;
Parent/Child tuition for those children who have older
siblings who have attended at Hope in the Two Year Old
or
3-6 Programs is 50% off!
If you know of any families that would enjoy this or any
of our programs…please help to spread the word!
Spanish:
Ms. Lety has really enjoyed working with all the
children at Hope in Spanish. She has always worked with
both classrooms, singing songs, reading stories, and
preparing food together with the children in Spanish.
It is wonderful to see (and hear) how quickly the
children are learning!
Flower
Power Fundraiser: With your help we were able to raise
$872.50 for our school. Thank you to all those who
participated! We plan to order some new materials for
our classrooms!
Parent
Survey: We were so happy with the responses of our Hope
parents. Thank you for getting the surveys in on a
timely manner. Keep them coming!
Hope Montessori
2009/2010 Calendar- the last Stretch
May 6
---Inservice Day – No School
May 15 --Spring Outdoor Workshop – 9am – 11am*
May 31 --- Memorial Day -- No School
June 1 ---Inservice Day – No School
June 7-11 –School Spirit Days – No Extended Hours; All
Children Dismiss 11:15-11:30**
June 12 –School Picnic 10-1***
June 14 –Summer Program Begins
OUTDOOR WORKSHOP – Scheduled
for Saturday, May 15th @ 9-11am
The whole family is welcome! We will be beautifying our
outdoor spaces, weeding our gardens, and filling our
borders and planters with annuals. We will also be
planting our herb garden, vegetable garden, butterfly,
and hummingbird gardens. So bring your garden tools
and gloves… together we will accomplish so much!
Truly, many hands together will make light of heavy
work- and we’ll enjoy the benefits of the garden all
summer and fall!
Sign up at Dismissals. If you wish to donate
something for our gardens, just let us know. Plants,
wind chimes, gazing balls, stepping stones, trellises,
garden gnomes… are all welcome gifts for the gardens.
As always, we look forward to seeing you here!
Outdoor Workshop Garden Wish List:
A
Dad (or a Mom) with a Drill:
to drill holes in our playground tires for water
drainage
Herb Garden (Full Sun)
Nasturtium seeds, Basil, Oregano, Dill, Thyme, Wild
Bergamot, Fennel, Anise, Curry, Parsley, Chives,
Marjoram, Rosemary…
North and East Gardens
(Shade, Full Sun in Places)
Begonias, Sweet Pea, Snapdragons, Spike, Ivy, Potato Vines
West Gardens- Butterfly (Full Sun)
Honeysuckle, Trumpet Vine, Lupine, Columbine, Butterfly
Bush, Butterfly Weed, Bee Balm, Lantana, Sweet Pea,
Snapdragon
Front Door Planters (Full Sun)
??????????????????????? - Let us know if you want to
adopt these planters!
Vegetable Garden (Full Sun)
Sunflower Seeds, Cherry Tomato, Hot Chile Pepper, Green
Pepper, Banana Peppers, Grapevines,
Etc.
Compost, Iris, Ribbons, Straw, Bird Seed- sunflower hearts
and chips, fruit and sunflower mix
SCHOOL SPIRIT WEEK
School Spirit Week will be on June
7th-11th. Children can show their school
spirit by participating on the days they normally
attend:
Monday: Tea
Party Day. Bring out the dress up trunk, or do creative
second-hand/garage sale shopping. Yes, we’re talking
boas and bow-ties!
Tuesday:
Sport’s Day. Wear a jersey, hat, uniform etc.-or your
favorite team’s colors.
Wednesday:
Plushy/Doll/P.J. Day. Bring your favorite stuffed animal
or baby doll to school and wear your jammies!
Thursday:
Crazy Hair Day. Do the do!
Friday:
We are the World Day. Bring something for “Show and
Tell” or wear clothing from a different part of the
world, representing your family heritage… or a place you
would love to explore.
SCHOOL PICNIC
We will end the school year with a Family Picnic on
Saturday, June 12th from 10-1pm at Lewis
Park. Lewis Park is our favorite neighborhood park,
located on Riverside Drive.
Please
sign up for Pot Luck. We will have a clipboard out at
arrivals/dismissals.
Besides sharing food and conversation, we are planning
to play games, have relay races, face painting, and an
award ceremony. There is also a very nice playground
for the children.
Some of the
children will be moving on to new schools in the fall,
so it is a chance to celebrate friendships with our
class one last time, and in some cases…a time to say
goodbye, (at least, for now). So, bring your family,
your picnic blankets, and be sure to wear sunscreen!
-Let us know if you have a bean bag
toss game that you can bring to the picnic.
If our picnic is rained out,
(stormy at 945 am) we will instead move our picnic
indoors at Hope from 11-12:30 p.m.
Thank
you all for such a wonderful year! We have really
enjoyed working with your children and getting to know
everyone!
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