This Week in the Maple Room

In the Maple room, we have been quite engaged with activities to continue learning about continents, fall harvesting and getting ready for celebrations. Many children are focused on lengthy works and seem to be progressing well.

We decided to have a Thanksgiving fruit salad for our own  Thanksgiving celebration on Wednesday the 21st. Each one of us will be bringing in a fruit that we chose from our artificial fruit basket. The info slip will be found in their cubbies. Please send in the fruit on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. The children will be washing, cutting and arranging the salad, so NO preparation is needed at home.

We will also make a dessert—a no bake pumpkin cheese cake to go with our fruit salad, on Tuesday the 20th.

The ingredients are – pumpkin, cream cheese, brown sugar (some of course!) cool whip, and graham crackers. I did not see any child being allergic to these ingredients in my records. Please let me or Jama know if there is a concern.

Pratyush, Laasya and Anaya’s Moms (Pavitra ,Kavita and Alpa) gave us a presentation for Diwali. It was an awesome experience for us. The children got to experience the lovely skit about the story of Diwali, acted out by Arhan, Pratyush and Laasya. Pavitra brought several novelties from home to share with us.

 

They brought in snacks to taste, costumes to try out and music to dance to. Thank you to all the volunteers for providing this extraordinary experience for our children.

We made some Diwali lights (diyas) from clay and decorated them. We lighted the one that Ms. Jama made with a handmade wick and coconut oil, for silence today.

 

We are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving and then many more holidays in the weeks to come.

Children need to get out and play and get their energy out and build a strong immune system. We will be out for 15 minutes in the morning 9-9:15 am and then 11:40-12:00, as long as the weather permits and it is above 37 degrees.

As per the Old Scandinavian saying and  Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes:

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”

We will try to bundle up our children as best as we can.

This Week in the Oak Room

Giving and donations. This has been a theme for discussion during circle this week. We talked about why we were donating food at school, where it was going and why it is needed.  Children at these young ages are very aware and sensitive to the concept of helping others, so this Thanksgiving season is an excellent opportunity to discuss with your child the benefits of being a giving member of our community.

“Down by the Bay” has become a song we sing daily in our classroom. The children love it.  We make up our own rhyming endings!  Ask your child to sing it to you; they all know it.  This song is an excellent way to pass the time when you have to wait in a line at the store or for the food to get to the table at a restaurant.

If you have not seen Brenda’s post on our Facebook group, we donated 270 food items to the local food bank.  The elementary students made the delivery, toured the facility and helped to stock shelves.  If your family would like to be involved with this particular charity, Brenda has information on how to get contact them.

Happy Diwali!  On Friday, we celebrated the Indian holiday Diwali.  Thanks to the moms who brought in instruments, outfits and snacks for us to enjoy.  Please see our group on Facebook for pictures!

A Note:  We are beginning to see a lot of runny noses in the classroom.  Yes, it’s that time of year.  But even this can be a learning experience.  We often tell children to blow their nose, but has anyone actually shown them how?  Think about it and practice, practice, practice!

Child quote of the week:

“I have a dream-catcher in my room but it must be broken.  I still have bad dreams.”

“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.“ – Maria Montessori

This Week in the Tulip Room

What an exciting week in the Tulip Room! Like most Americans we got our vote on! It was a good lesson in privacy, respecting the opinions of others and independent thinking. We also received a “visit” from a couple of past presidents (ask your child who they were), learned about the constitution & bill of rights and immersed ourselves in voting & government conversations. The children have taken a real interest in researching our presidents, learning many interesting and fun facts along the way (did you know that all the presidents have had siblings?).

As you may know, we have been collecting non-perishable food items for the food bank and the elementary class will be delivering them and touring the facility on Friday, November 16th. We will leave the school at 9am, please be punctual this day. Also we are looking for parents who might be interested in transporting & chaperoning on this day.

The mathematical mind is evident in our classroom every day. Even as parents most of us, when we first visited a Montessori school we were drawn to the bead chains. As a  student the children use these chains, first in the primary classroom to practice their linear counting, then to practice skip counting and now as elementary students to explore squaring & cubing of the numbers one through ten. Kate even discovered that if you add up all the numbers on the Pythagoras board it equals the same as if you were to add up all the cubes of one through ten. Watch your email in January as we are working on scheduling “A Walk through Math in the Elementary Classroom”.

This Week in the Oak Room

The Oak room was a busy place this week.  Our students continue to amaze us with their passion for learning!

Air, air, it’s everywhere.  This week we talked all about air and how it takes up space and does work.  We tried a few experiments and were surprised by the results!  A particular favorite you may want to try at home.

Materials:  small glass, tissue or paper towel, medium bowl filled by half with water

Prepare:  Stuff tissue or paper towel into glass cup.

Question: If I turn the glass upside down and place it in the water, will the tissue get wet?

Experiment:  Turn glass upside down and place in water.

What happens? Why?

Our peace education has been focusing on being kind and having good manners.  These are concepts that children need to practice continuously, so these topics make for excellent family discussions concerning respect for those around us.

Thank you to our families that have donated items for our food drive!  We have until Thursday before we make our delivery, so there is still time to make a contribution.

A Note:  A reminder about dressing for cold weather.  Our children need fresh air every day, so if the temperature is above freezing, we try to go out, even for just a little while.

Child quote of the week:

“I couldn’t watch the election, Beyblade was on.”

“These words reveal the child’s inner needs: ‘Help me to do it alone.’“- Maria Montessori

Webinar: Preparing Your Home the Montessori Way

  • Ever wish there were a way to create a home environment that supported your child’s Montessori classroom experience?
  • Are you confused about what it means to do things in a Montessori manner?
  • Do you think there should be an easier way to help your child gain independence?

 

In Preparing Your Home the Montessori Way you’ll learn–

  • Key ideas about preparing environments that are child, and adult friendly
  • Important Montessori ideas that can act as your guiding light
  • What is the most important skill we need to develop as parents and teachers

You’ll leave this webinar with–

  • Great ideas of how to prepare every room in your home in a child friendly way
  • Activities your child will love
  • Books that can help you continue your preparation
  • Places to shop for “real” child sized tools

This complimentary webinar is for parents, teachers, school administrators–anybody who works with children and cares about their future.

Register now for a fun and information packed 45 minutes!

Where: This is an online event.

When: Thursday November 15, 2012 from 4:00 PM to 4:45 PM PST, 5:00 PM to 5:45 PM MST, 6:00 PM to 6:45 PM CST and 7:00 PM to 7:45 PM EST

Can’t make the webinar?  I’m going to record the session, so you’ll be able to listen and watch again.  But you do have to register here to get the recording.  Thanks!

Please feel free to e-mail if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Maren Schmidt

Webinars with Maren Schmidt

MarenSchmidt.com

maren_schmidt@me.com

503-550-3143 HST

 

This Week in the Maple Room

The children had a great time with the costumes on October 31st.  Each one of them stood in the middle of the group to display their costume with pride! We had a group snack and had our own music band parade in the classroom. It was so much fun to create a lot of noise/music together!!

We learned about the human skeleton and parts of a spider in the spirit of the month of October. The painting of their hand to make a spider was a great hit.

We will continue to study about the earth and the continents. Next we will be exploring North America along with stories, crafts and songs about Thanksgiving.

As always at CGM, we strive to let our children experience the value of giving to those in need.  We will be accepting nonperishable food items to be donated to a local food pantry. The elementary children have set a goal for us. We would like to donate 180 food items. Each family is requested to  bring in three canned, boxed or packed items, if possible.

The items need to be collected by the 15th of November. The elementary class will take them to the donation center on the 16th.

This Week in the Tulip Room

….big anxiety! With the end of the month coming in the middle of the week we decided to put off our month long work plans until Monday and get out some B I G work! Students were very Montessori in their approach to this big work and it made us smile & tear a little at the wonderful humans we get to spend our day with! Some are making a map of the world (countries on continents) and some were re-creating the timeline of life or getting out our BIG timeline of human needs (it’s so interesting to see how our needs have always been the same across the B.C. /A.D. line but the way we meet them is a little different) and others chose to research things they have been hoping to research but didn’t have “time”. All of these ideas were their own and were so big and enjoyable and exhausting…..for them… But we are so happy, lucky and thankful to spend time with these amazing people each day who really do have a desire to learn and grow and be peaceful individuals. Thank you all for this amazing opportunity!

Calendar items: the elementary class is stressing about field trips!!! YIKES! We are currently accepting donations for non-perishable items that we will take to a food bank in Greenwood on November 16th. We figured that each student in our school needs to collect 3 items to meet a 180 item goal by the 15th! Can we do it? YES WE CAN! So please clean out your pantry, ask a neighbor, ask a friend, so we can help make this time thankful for all of us! We also plan to visit the statehouse this month as part of our government studies! Watch out for those dates soon!

No hablo espanol? Me too! But this week we will begin Spanish language studies! I can’t wait!

This Week in the Oak Room

Halloween was spook-tacular in our classroom this week!  Hopefully all of our families enjoyed the decorations, pumpkins and crafts that the children made. They were so creative!  We had a great time during our Halloween parade, playing games and decorating cookies! A special thanks to Arhan’s mom,Pavitra, for helping with the costume changing and parade.

We have begun our study of “stories” in the Oak room and have even begun to compose some of our own “books” at the new writing center.  Every story has a beginning, middle and end.  Parents, please consider this as a topic for a discussion you can have with your children when you are reading together.

As always as CGM, we are teaching our students the value of giving to those in need.  We will be accepting nonperishable food items to be donated to a local food pantry beginning next week.  The older children will have a goal for us to strive for, so look for more information at Miss Brenda’s desk!

A Note:  The Oak room open house time has been moved to 2 pm on Saturday, Nov. 10.

From the front desk:

Thank you so much to all the parents!  We placed a Small Hands Order of $1200!!  There were lots of donations from that order to our classrooms as well, thank you!  Keep those box tops coming!  We got almost $100 in box tops! Scholastic is a hit, with a number of new books going into our classrooms. Look for T-shirt orders to arrive and Pizza Fridays to start next month. Thank you!! Miss Brenda.

Child quote of the week:

“Miss Holly, a five-year-old just does what a five-year-old does.”

“There is a great sense of community within the Montessori classroom, where children of differing ages work together in an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competitiveness. There is respect for the environment and for the individuals within it, which comes through experience of freedom within the community.” – Maria Montessori

Food Drive

We are having a food drive November 5th – 15th to help support local families in need of food.  Please have your child bring in at least one can,jar,or boxed food item and talk with them about the importance of giving.

Photo Retakes

From our Photographer, Tonya Henderson: I’d like to extend an opportunity for people that missed photos or were unhappy, to have pictures retaken. I can be at Westside Park, 820 West Main Street Greenwood, on November 3rd from 2-4. Come by for a short session and get a few pictures taken. It will be 1st come 1st serve. Please contact me to let me know you will be coming to the park via email, call, or text. 317-502-2382 Thank you!

Where is CGM Located?

© Copyright Center Grove Montessori School. All Rights Reserved. Photos are copyrighted by J Simpson Photography.