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Kensington April 2023 Newsletter

Monday, May 1st, 2023
Category: Kensington Campus

💐 Spring Clean up and Campus Planting

Campus is looking amazing with the flowers THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
If You are interested in watering and volunteering with the children in the garden we would love to have you! Please check with Julie to schedule a time. Anyone staying longer than 15 minutes should follow the volunteering protocols with the Community Care Licensing. (*Per Community Care Licensing regulations, each volunteer must have the fingerprint clearance, immunizations checklist, covid vaccinations complete).

⭐ Montessori Uniquely Ours

Discipline from Within

Self-discipline. The discipline in a well-run Montessori classroom is not a result of the teacher’s control or of rewards or punishments. Its source comes from within each individual child, who can control his or her own actions and make positive choices regarding personal behavior. Self-discipline is directly related to development of the will. Four main components include:

Clear Language to emphasize cause and effect
Asking Questions to help consider the natural consequences of a child’s choices
Focus on Freedom by offering multiple choices
Validate the child’s emotions using a non judgmental stance


đŸŒ± Bonsai News

We always love it when the children come in and put their belongings such as water bottle, back pack, jackets, etc. It gives them such great joy that their belongings have a place to go and they feel accountable. In keeping with that Practical Life Grace and Courtesy philosophy we created a welcome station where the children get their water bottles/napkins after circle time to get ready for snacks. It works so well and they love it.

Our classroom is bursting with sorting activities, and new Practical life work. For example, we added the “clotheslines” activity where the children hang clothes. A basic, and foundational activity, yet so pleasing and peaceful. There are so many indirect values that involve the work that goes along with the practical life curriculum.

Thank you for the flowers in the garden. If you have not had a chance to peek in, take a moment and enjoy the beauty of the flowers that the classroom cultivated in their raised garden. Even though we have potted the plants, feel free to bring more if you want to add to the collection! Along with the plants, we are adding more outside work into the playground like the rug and blocks. They love that picnic style and some bring the books to the rug to read.

We have been working hard on the art show projects and we don’t know about the children, but we are so excited for them.

Our neighboring classroom, Bamboo, is now set up for extensions and expansion of our work period. And the circle time is always a combination of Spanish and English work.


🌳 Willow News

Our new cultural unit is the Continent of South America, and its animals, its flags, its physical and cultural geography and the people of the continent. The children are loving the animals and making the flags. Each was talking about what color goes where and which part of the flag post is what. They also poke (with a huge thumbtack made for pencil grips) the continent of South America as part of their pre-handwriting project, making each product uniquely different from each other but looking similar at the same time.

For May, we are focusing each week on themes: Reptiles and their habitat in week 1, and in week 2 we are making a Botany book of “parts of a flower” and Labeling the book with its parts. Why do we make books? We make booklets because children at this age are sensitive to the preparations and the independence that comes with learning about the world around them. They find it in the books, and connect it to the world around them. Making books ground them in the reality of material from concrete to abstract.

And in week 3, we are doing one of our favorite art projects, Cherry Blossoms. Using the nature ALL around them with the spring flowers blooming, cherry blossoms blooming, we emulate art from our environment.

In week 4, we will move on to the unit study of insects. Talking about the insects and connecting with the ladybugs, butterflies, and at times bees in the garden bring excitement in their learning. The greatest observers are the best learners and nurturing the joy of discovery is the way to go.


đŸŒČ Live Oak News

Australia!!!

With each continent, we make an A to Z book of the continent. This is a great and important way of learning a Continent and its cultural backgrounds by introducing the amazing facts and landmarks that make this continent what it is. There are some animals unique to the continent and some commonly known animals from other continents. We use objects to match them and sometimes we read books to classify them.

Their math skills are found in the numberation, operations and skip counting materials. You may hear them say “I did the 10 chain” . That is, they are skip-counting in tens, and when they say “I did the addition book” , that is their “math facts” in the process. Our stamp game, as funny as it sounds, is not playing with stamps, It is their 4 digit operation or large number operations. The most amazing thing about these facts is that they have the capacity and joy to take it all in.

With the birds chatting outside it is a good time to start making “parts of the bird” and make booklets on the facts and label them. Metal insets and looms continue to be popular items around our neighborhood.


đŸ‡ČđŸ‡œ Spanish News

Teacher Ana is on fire with her Spanish curriculum. The community room B is fully equipped with Spanish works and the children are loving it! Right now the children are focused on learning:

Feelings
Los colores
Los animales
Canticos | Sol Solecito / Little Sunny Sunshine | Aprende inglés | Educación preescolar is a beautiful song I get to hear next to the office.

💛 Aftercare News

Teacher Jiab, Teacher Connie and Teacher Nomita are preparing for the art show as they love that part of the year. The back of the community room houses many art projects that they’ll be showcasing during the art show. The teachers talked to each child as they worked on their art and asked them what they made. The descriptions of their art are adorable!

Warmly,
Julie Heitman, Site Director
Growing Light Montessori School

Lafayette April 2023 Newsletter

Monday, May 1st, 2023
Category: Lafayette Campus

Director’s Message

Hola Familias,

Our spring Parent Teacher Conferences are complete and, on behalf of the staff here in Lafayette, I want to say thank you for making the time so we could check in about your child/ren. We know how precious your child is and we value your trust and welcome the opportunity to partner with you in facilitating your child’s development.

As the weather continues to get warmer, we will be spending more time outdoors, both in play and in educational activities. In keeping with Maria Montessori’s belief: “Modern observations and child-study have led us to realize that as soon as the child can go out of doors, we must take them with us.”
This time of year there are plenty of opportunities to teach children about nature, insects, birds, trees, seasons, botany, gardening, ecology, mindfulness, Spring cleaning, just to name a few!

Now is a great time to talk with your child/ren about your love and appreciation for nature, trees and the earth. One activity that children love is to take a “nature walk” and bring a plastic bag/gloves to pick up litter on the trail. You can talk about how this is a kindness for our planet.
“There must be provision for the child to have contact with nature, to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty in nature
 so that the child may better understand and participate in the marvelous things which civilization creates.”

A special “Thank You!” to Lindsay Tran for offering her time and energy to refresh the classroom planters, as well as partner with Ms. Pat to work on creating butterfly habitats for the children to observe and enjoy. I feel filled with gratitude to be part of this GLMS Lafayette community!

Mireya


🐞 Ladybug Classroom

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a relaxing spring break. After the break, our children are seeing a new classroom! We are studying the continent of South America. We have decorated our classroom using forest animals to represent the Amazon rainforest and are learning about the animals, plants and birds.

Math

In math, the students are counting flowers. Gradually, the children are learning numbers 1 to 20 using the different colors of the flowers. This job develops thinking levels and patterning, while engaging them on a sensory level as well due to the different textures of the flowers.

The Ladybugs have been sorting, matching, counting, and numbering colored eggs.

Language

The Amazon rainforest has many beautiful birds. We are using the Montessori three part cards to learn about different parts of a bird (e.g. beak, wing, eye, etc.)
We have introduced 13 flower cards with words, and the children are loving matching the right card with the correct flower. At the end of this job, they know the terms of the flowers and get more knowledge about flowers, building a strong vocabulary.

Writing

We continue to practice writing symbols, numbers, and letter tracing with the Ladybugs. They learned the letter A and number 0 last month, and they will practice letter B and the number 1 next week.

Cultural

Looking ahead, we will teach the children about South American food, historical places, and the map of South America. Also, they will learn about certain musical instruments and the colorful textiles of Peru. We will also be learning about animals and geography through various yoga poses.

Science

We are learning about botany (the life cycle of flowers) and zoology (the life cycle of chickens.) The Ladybugs are very curious to know how a flower blooms. Each day, our project is checking the buds around the school yard and observing the buds open. We have been having a great time with the new project.

Sensorial

The kids have been working with the color cube box, using different colored cubes to make patterns.
We presented the triangle box. Each child is learning the triangle shape and how different shaped triangles can combine to create new triangles. This helps develop a child’s memory, sense of order, and also improves concentration while promoting focus. This activity enforces fine motor skill development and hand-eye coordination.

Spanish

Miss Mari introduced flower shape matching and more Spanish vocabulary cards. She also is teaching the Ladybugs new spring songs and more fun art activities.

Thank you for your participation in parent teacher conferences, it was wonderful to meet with you all.

Rasika, Jackie, and Mari


🐝 Bumblebee Classroom

Dearest Families,

How wonderful it is to see students refreshed and happy from their Spring Break! With renewed energy, they came back with lots of stories to share with the class and a readiness to be back into the classroom action. It is so interesting to observe their joyful interaction with one another- from big hugs to breathless catch-up stories!

Our classroom lessons are in full swing: fish animal classification, spring season, the rainforest and more Español. Social grace and courtesy is a regular classroom discussion. Australia is an upcoming topic and what perfect time that we have Mr. Dan to tell us more about the Land Down Under! The older TK level children have been doing their level-appropriate reading and writing skills: sounding out phonetic words/ introduction to phonograms. We are all exploring addition facts, with varying levels of presentation for the different age levels in the classroom.

We look forward to our upcoming Parent Teacher conferences
 we cannot believe that it is already that time of the year! We are rolling up our sleeves and preparing for the Art Show, it’s going to be a creative extravaganza with a theme that is so important for our future generation. The Rainforest will be such a fun theme, engaging our imagination and senses!

Warmly,
Ms. Pat, Ms. Marisela, Ms. Jenny


🐛 Caterpillar Classroom

Dear Caterpillar Families,

Parent Teacher Conferences were a great success. Thank you for your support and partnership. It has been a great year and both of us are excited for your Caterpillar to transform into a Butterfly while also feeling a bit nostalgic, remembering last August as your children came into our classroom as brand new students. What a year it’s been!

As of Saturday, April 22, all Cats are 5! We have two April birthday’s; Ella (4/4) and Holly (4/22.) Some of the Caterpillars have already been discussing their new schools. We will be discussing their transition into butterflies more seriously in the next 2 months. Alumni will come and answer questions and we will give children a chance to talk about their feelings – excitement as well as concerns. There are also great books we read to help them with the transition and we’ll share the titles with you.

Speaking of books, some of you may be hearing that we listen to Little Bear stories during rest time. These stories are very sweet and can be found on YouTube. We don’t watch them as episodes but listen to them as the children are resting on their mats. I know some Caterpillars have shared that parents are trying to find them.

We have jumped into spring and this warmer weather with our Botany unit. We are planting various seeds and will watch them germinate. The Caterpillars will get to take turns watering and observing the seedlings and eventually bring them home to plant in your gardens.

Last week, friends of our founder, Rachel LaField, brought a special surprise to the classroom – tulips from Amsterdam! We listened to Don and Dennis share about their travels and we looked at the map to see just where on earth the Netherlands is! The Caterpillars promised to take turns watering the bulbs and are currently working on sweet thank you cards. Shhhhh
a little bird told us that Don and Dennis are back in the Netherlands and might be bringing back some bulbs for the children!

As a class, we have been acting out the 3 Billy Goats Gruff. The kids take turns acting out different roles and are quite amazing actors! Thank you to Preston for bringing in the story on share day. The kids are doing an amazing job memorizing the different parts and are really looking forward to performing this story to the younger classes.

Speaking of Memorization, it’s a great idea to have your child memorize at least one parent’s phone number. We asked the children if they had a parent’s phone number memorized and several did. Some children thought they did but gave out a 4 digit number instead of a 10 digit number.

On Fridays, Ms. Nasrin (Nana) has been bringing in various crafts to do with the children. The kids love it and take so much pride in their work.

This week children will practice the art of Ikebana:

Ikebana flower arranging is the centuries-old Japanese art of arranging flowers. The practice, which roughly translates to “making flowers come alive,” uses carefully selected blossoms, greenery and other flora to convey a specific feeling or emotion to an observer – just as a painting or sculpture might.
This dovetails nicely with the Montessori values of creating art, celebrating beauty, flower arrangement as a practical life job that emphasizes grace and courtesy.

Next week we will send out an email asking you to please send your child with one or two flowers from your yard. This could be a blooming flower or blossoming tree branch. They will be bringing home their creation and can keep the metal “frog” used in Ikebana.

“Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and, when the grass of the meadows is damp with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath it’s shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning as it wakes every living creature that divides its day between waking and sleeping. When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength.”

-Mireya & Roxanna

Kensington March 2023 Newsletter

Saturday, April 1st, 2023
Category: Kensington Campus

Dear Families,

Here is our first monthly newsletter! We hope that this finds you and your families in the beautiful weather and looking forward to spending some sunny Spring days.

Observations & Volunteering in the Classroom

With the new Covid guidelines as of 3/1/23, we are opening up the classrooms for observations. Please check with me for the teachers’ availability and the optimal times you can observe. The in person observations are 20 minutes at a time and we are attaching an observation guideline which was appreciated by the parents that have observed. Please read them thoroughly and ask any questions that you may have prior to the observation.

We are happy to welcome volunteers to the classroom! There are certain requirements and documentation needed by CCL* in order to come into the classroom. Please reach out to Julie and your child’s teacher and we will get you set up with steps to be cleared to come to campus. There are lots of ways to volunteer with the children! One great option is to come and speak to the children about something special: community helper (what you do), science experiments, songs, dances, country, yoga, etc.

(* Per Community Care Licensing regulations, each volunteer must have the fingerprint clearance, immunizations checklist, covid vaccinations complete.)

Spring Clean up and Campus Planting

As I write this newsletter, I am so thankful for the sunshine that’s behind my office and reminiscing about the sunshine that’s been missing for weeks. Great weather is ahead and we would like to start the campus beautification project. Every year, it is so beautiful to see the children bringing in flowers and plants they had picked out with their parents in the store and later planting them in the planter boxes. When we return to the school from our Spring Break on Apr 10, 2023 We will start planting the planter boxes with flowers. Would you please stop by the nursery of one of the big stores “Home Depot” “Lowes” “Tractors Supplies” or the best nursery in this area “Annies” and get a little tiny baby flower? The kids and their teachers can cultivate them, watch them grow into big beautiful flowers, and study their Botany unit together along with the three part cards they do inside the classroom.

Heard around the campus:

My coffee:
As I fashionably carried a coffee in my hand each morning, Colin approached me. He said, “I’d like one of whatever you are drinking in there (pointed at my covered mug), and a blanket please”
. Curious to see what he wanted to do, I asked, “Why?” He replied, “I’d like to make sure Saanvi is warm”💕awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww💕

Uniquely Ours: Our Sensitive Period

There is a unique phrasing we use in our Montessori Jargon that is called the “sensitive periods”.

Children from birth to age six are in their “sensitive period” for exploring the world through their senses. Maria Montessori encouraged us to provide children with many opportunities to organize the sensory impressions they’ve been receiving since birth. By your careful selection of items of different textures, colors, sizes, and geometric shapes, children will discover relationships and exclaim, “This bolt is a hexagon,” or “This cloth is rough.” Sensorial experiences also indirectly prepare children for future exploration of language, mathematics, geometry, art, and music.
Displaying


Bonsai News

The classroom is back!!!! It looks better than ever!!!! See the pictures below.

Our greatest and biggest news is that we were able to move back into our classroom and we are so happy with the renovation. Let our pictures speak a thousand words.

Congratulations are in order for our wonderful teacher Sheryl on her new chapter in her life. It was so nice to see her pictures and she looked so happy.

In the new room there is a kind of peace and productivity amongst the young Bonsai students as they return to their new room.

In practical life, the teachers have lovingly prepared a lot of water pouring, eye dropper work, transfer work, clothes pins of all sizes and many dexterity exercises. Simply put, the soul and the heart of this classroom is fully prepared. Their preparation for the children speak volumes for the indirect preparation of the children’s reading and writing for many years to come.

In Sensorial, there are full sets of brown prisms and pink cubes and knobbed cylinders. There is a great variety of lessons given to the children in this area each time we look in.

The overall theme for the classroom for the month of April is Spring. There is talk about birds, insects and flowers. Books in the library have changed to fit the theme.

At circle time, we introduce the Bee and the Butterfly life cycles.

For Language, we are using object to picture matching, Metal insets for indirect preparation of writing, and two basic sounds “Aa” and “Mm”.

In Math, we are using red rods and numbers rods to introduce the one-to-one correspondence of the first three numbers, namely 1-3.

You would be happy to know that Spanish is overflowing with music and circle time. Some of the songs they sing are: “Buenos Dias (good morning)” “Cinco monitos (5 little monkeys)” “Que clima hace hoy (what’s the weather)?” “DĂ­as de la semana (days of the week)” “Lluvia Lluvia vete ya (Rain rain go away)” and “La araña pequeñita (itsy bitsy spider)” to name a few.
Bonsai pictures


Willow News

We say Welcome to Leo and goodbye to Liam. Leo is joining Willow from Bonsai and Liam will be heading back to Tennessee. We will miss Liam and his family!

The Sensorial area is our most popular area for this season. It appeals to their sense of order and concentration they are sensitive to as they mature in their learning and observations. Sensorial materials are specifically designed to provide concrete examples of abstract concepts (such as color, texture, sound, taste, and scent.) This form of child learning provides students with a structure and vocabulary for information received through each of the five senses. Here is Liam using the geometric solids in the Sensorial area.

A very attractive Montessori math material is beautifully presented by Aylin with her Montessori bead stairs work. The short bead stair is a way to visually represent number values; making abstract concepts more concrete so that children can better grasp mathematical principles.
Introduction to the decimal system is of our basic and highly crucial material for our golden bead material. In a Montessori classroom, we introduce numerals of the Decimal System to the child in early Montessori Math lessons. In this area of math, the child is introduced to zero as a place value. The Golden Beads are fascinating for all children and help them learn concepts easily. Here is Galaxy using the Golden bead material for this lesson.

We will be doing transitions with a few of our friends this month. Some of our friends will be moving next door to the Live Oak classroom and we will be publishing a new roster on April 10.
In geography we have been studying the continents of Africa and Asia.
Also, please enjoy the myriad of birthdays we celebrated during this month.
Here are the pictures for the Willow Classroom.


Live Oak News

Buzzzz buzzz buzzz
 🐝little busy bees at work!

Theme for the month is Europe, not only Europe in the Geography puzzle, but many other lessons and activities. The children take A-Z of Europe where they take a letter and study the picture, for example A is for the Alps and they research about the Alps and where they are located and what landforms they can see in that geographical area. Or, Flemco 
 where they see this little girl dancing but where? Or M for Matador. And they read the book Ferdinand the Bull and see the different types of Matadors, etc. If you need help, just ask Elliot, he will explain.

Let’s talk about the Bank game. No, they are not headed to the bank and play a game there. Rather, the name of the lesson is the Bank game. The children who are versed and have mastered the golden beads material are adding in 4 digit equations with these materials. Let the pictures do the talking here. So impressive.

Do you know what 9x9x9 is
 you may not remember right off the bat. Ask these hungry caterpillars, they count each bead to get to the cube of 9. The answer = 729. Imagine being patient enough to just count to 16, but they count to hundreds, sometimes thousands to do this work 
 such amazing workers. Look at these pictures. Their work speaks for themselves.
Handwriting work is ongoing each day, but it is not always seen as handwriting. They are in the form of Practical Life work, or Art work or fusible beads, or looming yarn. These little friends don’t even know that their little hands are being trained to hold the pencil while they are having fun. Thank you so much teacher Maria Luz.


Spanish News

With the return of the Bonsai students back in their room, the community Room B is swarming with Spanish lessons again. Teacher Ana comes around with different sets of students each day to do Spanish vocabulary, Spanish songs and Art that goes along with them. Here are some Spanish pictures!

Aftercare News

The aftercare locations are fun these days. Sometimes you will find us in the large yard and sometimes in the toddler yard. And on rainy days, back up in the Community Room A. No matter where they are, teacher Jiab, teacher Nomita and teacher Connie are having a blast with the kids.
Please know that with the change of the nice Spring weather, you would mainly see us in the yard.
Please don’t forget to sign your child in and out.

Warmly,
Julie Heitman, Site Director
Growing Light Montessori School

Lafayette March 2023 Newsletter

Saturday, April 1st, 2023
Category: Lafayette Campus

Directors Message

Hola Familias ,

We hope this finds you all well and enjoying the spring weather! Spring break is upon us.
I encourage you to treat it as a reward. You deserve a fun, relaxing escape from the daily routine . But, of course, here comes the serious part to my message: We need your smiling faces back on campus happy and healthy.

No matter how you spend next week – whether it be faraway in a sunny paradise with friends, at home with family, remember to have fun.

The Spring weather brings us outdoors and back into sunscreen and hat mode! Please apply sunscreen every morning and it is great to have your child bring or keep a hat at school (name on the hat please!).

We apply sunscreen before the afternoon play time outside.

Thank you for all you do and Happy Spring!

Mireya


🐞 Ladybug Classroom

Dear Parents,

At the beginning of this month, rain made us spend more time in our classroom. But I am sure our children didn’t miss the outside activities because we planned energetic activities called “camp light yoga“ and used a unique lantern to practice by.

We jumped, crawled, danced, and sang. We did the “Dark Rainy Day” five minutes of meditation on rainy days to calm their minds and bodies. Also, we talked about how the rain happens during circle time. Along with those rain activities, we followed this month’s curriculum learning about stems, fish, St. Patrick’s Day, and the continent of Europe.

Math

We used the leprechaun’s gold pot for a math job. The teacher gives the child a number that corresponds with one of the pots that hangs on a holder. The child finds the correct number on the pot and hangs it on the hanger. The Ladybugs loved that job!
Fish counting cards: children learn the numbers by placing the correct amount of fish under the number.

Language

Shamrock color matching: children are learning the colors and matching shamrocks.Children are also learning the name of vegetables and their colors. We are learning about the animals of Europe using Montessori’s three part card method.

Writing

The Ladybugs started to practice their names by tracing the sand paper letters.

Cultural

We planned to teach the children about European food, historical places, and the European map. Also, my little travelers made their travel passports to visit European countries.

Science

We are learning about botany (the life cycle of plants) and zoology (the live cycle of fish as well as parts of the pig.) The ladybugs are naturally curious and interested in learning about everything and they have been having a great time.

Sensorial

Using Maria Montessori’s iconic Pink Tower, the children are learning patterns and matching the correct sized cube to pictures.

Practical Life

Children are learning to pour pasta from one container to another. The Ladybugs are also making spaghetti using playdough. This develops their fine motor skills while also learning about European food from Italy.

Spanish

Ms. Mari introduced the St. Patrick’s shamrock shape and also shared a story about five little frogs who are living on a farm.

As usual, our child had great fun dancing with Miss Kira and celebrating St. Patrick’s day. We were looking forward to celebrating our Ladybug Emiliano’s 3rd birthday at the end of the month.

Please enjoy this newsletter until we are back with new experiments.

Rasika, Jackie, and Mari


🐝 Bumblebee Classroom

Dear Parents,

We cannot wait for spring! The Bumblebee class has been busy with botany themed lessons: parts of a plant, needs of a plant, parts of a flower and root systems. We are eagerly anticipating the warm sunshine for our future growing projects. We are thrilled to share that we will have a kids garden project, both indoors and outdoors. We would like to ask for your help with donating seed packets, as we would like to put together a gardening seed organizer binder for us to keep for future planting. We plan to grow a microgreen “chia pet”, veggies, herbs and flowers throughout the warm season and into fall. Growing our own plants will provide many benefits: a connection to nature, fostering patience and responsibility, hands-on healthy diet habits, activation of senses and appreciation for the natural environment, to name a few! There are many fun projects to extend at home like growing kitchen scraps and experimenting how seedlings grow towards the direction of a light source.

The next continent for spring will be Asia. We will learn the flags of our classmates’ cultural backgrounds like India, China and Philippines. We will tie-in the animal kingdom of amphibians, covering the frog life cycle.

The Spanish lessons with Ms. Marisela have been fun and lively. We are learning the colors as we correlate it to our environment. We play “I Spy” games in circle and integrate the Spanish words into our daily activities. We are busy bees and it is fun to see happy faces in the classroom!

Warm regards,

Ms. Pat and Ms. Marisela


🐛 Caterpillar Classroom

Dear Caterpillar Families,

Just like the buds bursting forth into blossom at this time of year, the children have been filled with exuberance and excitement for school! Although they have had many many days indoors, the Caterpillars have navigated the extremes with their usual flexibility and exuberance.

March is a month of celebrations that the children love: St. Patrick’s Day and the first day of Spring. We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by hosting a little golden leprechaun in the classroom who brought gold coins on Friday! The children were amazed and pleased. They planned their green outfits for days in order not to get pinched. As teachers, we feel so lucky (pun intended) to work with preschool children and experience their natural joy.

We will celebrate Spring by planting flower seeds in peat pots and learning about the life cycle of the plant in real, first hand experiences. Look forward to those seedlings coming home sometime in April.
This dovetails nicely into our Botany unit; where the children study plants; roots, stems and leaves. We are also studying the Amazon Rain Forest and all its biodiversity as we focus on the continent of South America. We will focus on birds, animals, flowers and fruit as well as the many layers of the Amazon rainforest. If you are interested in learning more, ask your child about the 3-toed sloth and what lives and grows in its fur. You’ll be amazed!

The kids have been eager to challenge themselves in language; sounding out words, rhyming and recognizing “sight words” = simple words that don’t adhere to the rules of sounding out, like ‘the’ ‘she’ and ‘he’.

The children are enjoying sewing. Sewing, weaving and loom bands have many benefits for preschoolers, including strengthening hand- eye coordination, increasing fine motor coordination and attention span. Not only are these activities beneficial for the aforementioned reasons, they are also a lot of fun! The Caterpillar’s have graduated from blunt needles to real needles (with sharp tips) and they are currently sewing small pillows. It is such a treat to see the pride in their faces as they complete their projects.

Looking ahead, we will be studying the continent of Australia after Spring Break. We wish each of you a very enjoyable Spring Break and we look forward to seeing you all in April! As usual, thank you for sharing your children with us.

Mireya & Roxanna

Caterpillar Classroom – Nov. & Dec. 2018

Tuesday, January 1st, 2019
Category: Caterpillar Classroom, Lafayette Campus

In November and December, we continued our travel to North America and began our studies of Living and Non-Living things, Vertebrates and Invertebrates, Birds and Mammals. We studied the Parts of the Horse and Parts of the Bald Eagle and made books. We also talked about Feelings and have a “Feelings Chart” where children can place their photo on which feeling they are having (happy, sad, excited, angry, etc.) in both Spanish and English. We constructed a Gratitude Tree and children made leaves of what they are thankful for in their lives. We began our Word Study with word families -at, -an, -ap and had fun making up words with these endings. We worked on 1:1 correspondence of our “teens”: 11-20 and on counting and reading numbers from 1-100 (those tricky transitional numbers 29, 30…39, 40…49, 50, etc.).

We took walks to the Lafayette Community Center on Monday mornings and took lots of nature walks, bringing our clipboards, paper and pencils to draw and write what we saw. We finished our Skyhawks program with Coach Donut and started Yoga with Roxanna! We celebrated Kira’s birthday by making a card and singing Happy Birthday! She was so surprised! We practiced our Winter Welcome songs with the Ladybugs and Bumblebees every morning! We made wax votives by melting wax and dipping water balloons and putting flowers around them! They were beautiful as we walked into greet the families singing, “This Little Light of Mine” last Friday afternoon. We hope you enjoyed the program!

In January, we will be traveling to Antarctica and studying Penguins and learning about Arctic and Antarctic animals, Reptiles, Chinese New Year and the 100th Day of School and continuing our Botany studies by learning about roots.

Happy New Year Caterpillar Families!

Bumblebee Classroom – Nov. & Dec. 2018

Tuesday, January 1st, 2019
Category: Bumblebee Classroom, Lafayette Campus

The holiday months are here! The children have been enjoying themselves. The month of November was fun and full of Gratitude. The children were thankful for so many things. The Gratitude Tree was blooming with the childrens’ personal, “I am thankful” leaves. I hope you had a chance to check it out. This month we covered many subjects. We studied about the United States of America, Animals of the United States, and the Native Americans. In Zoology we learned about Vertebrates and Invertebrates, Parts of the Horse, and Parts of the Turkey. We are located in such an awesome spot. The children actually got to see horses trotting by on the trail and parking lot. We were so excited! In Botany we learned about The Leaf. In Math we continue to count with pine cones and pumpkin seeds. So fun. In language we have introduced grouped initial sounds with objects. Yay!

Our lovely Kayla celebrated a November birthday. Happy Birthday, Kayla!

Time flies when you’re having fun. December is here and so is the chill. The children are devoting themselves to the new material on the shelves. This month we are studying about the coldest place on earth: Antarctica! We are also learning about Penguins and their habitat, Snowflakes and Winter Plants. In Practical Life the children are transferring “ice” from one bowl to another and preparing hot cocoa. Mmmm, delicioso!

We have been practicing with the Ladybugs and Caterpillars everyday for our Winter Welcome!

Roxanna is back for Yoga on Tuesdays. Yay!! Welcome back, Roxanna.

A big Happy Birthday to all the December birthdays. Hunter, Luella, Brady, and Paige!
Thank you to the families for coming in and telling us all about your little ones.

Lastly, the Spanish Class is in full swing! Here is what we been covering. Sonidos Inicíales, Numeros, Colores, Dias de la Semana, Meses del Año, Saludos y Modales.
It is the holidays, and nothing says it’s the holidays more than tamales! The children will enjoy learning this hands on tradition this month. Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo!

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year Bumblebee families!

Ladybug Classroom – Nov. & Dec. 2018

Tuesday, January 1st, 2019
Category: Ladybug Classroom, Lafayette Campus

This month the Ladybugs learned about giving to the less fortunate through Nasrin’s donation jar which was a great success. We also learned about being thankful for what we have especially for our families. We celebrated a few birthdays in November and December and the Ladybugs are quickly maturing!

In December we learned about Penguins and our new Practical Life materials. A few of the Ladybugs are learning to put on their own shoes and a good exercise is learning how to string beads. We are always practicing our manners and using our words instead of our bodies to communicate with our friends. We are practicing our songs everyday with our Bumblebee and Caterpillar friends!

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year Caterpillar families!

Caterpillar Classroom – October 2018

Monday, November 5th, 2018
Category: Caterpillar Classroom, Lafayette Campus
 

The biggest news events this month were that Jake joined Caterpillar Classroom full-time!  We welcome him and his family to our classroom.  The second news item is that our play-yard in the back of our school was inspected by our State Licensing Board on October 17th and has been approved!  We have been playing everyday since then on our new equipment.  The children LOVE the climbing structure and the see-saw!  We will be adding new play equipment over the next several weeks so stay tuned. 

Our studies have kept us in North America studying the Bald Eagle and learning all the parts of these amazing birds (talons, beak, body, etc.).  We will be working on a life-size eagle drawing and hanging it up to get an idea of how large of a bird they are in real-life.  We had a presentation on Seasons and introduced our Science curriculum with talking about Living and Non-Living things, a lively discussion which included a talk about cars (they move, need water, solar cars need light, etc.) and leaves on the ground, flowers in a vase, etc.

We are working on our Original Artworks masterpieces which will be a surprise to each family and going home this week.  In Language children are practicing their sound-letter correspondence and learning to blend these sounds and read words like cat, hat, cup, pin, pot, etc., in addition to practicing our reading and handwriting.  In Math, we have worked on our teen numbers (11-19) as well as Odd & Even numbers, looking for patterns!  

In November, we will study Vertebrates and Non-vertebrate animals, Classification of Vertebrates, Mammals, Trees and Leaves and Gratitude and Giving Thanks.

Bumblebee Classroom – October 2018

Monday, November 5th, 2018
Category: Bumblebee Classroom, Lafayette Campus

Fall is here! The children are enjoying the new season, the falling and collecting of leaves and our new play area!

There has been so much activity this month. Our conferences came and went. It was a pleasure seeing and speaking to you all about your little ones. Picture Day was all smiles. Also, we had a practice Earthquake Drill. The children practiced “Drop, Cover and Hold.” Skyhawks and Kinder Dance classes are a hit. The children love both. Lucas had a birthday this month. Happy Birthday, buddy.

Please don’t forget to join us on Sunday, October 28, 2018 @ 3-5:30 for the Halloween Carnival. Please come in your costumes. Fun for all.

This month we started our Spanish Classes.
ÂĄHola y Bienvenidos!

In Practical Life the children are loving working on their fine motor skills. Tweezing spiders from one bowl to another and pumpkin sorting are some of their favorite jobs.

In Sensorial we have moved on to mixing the primary colors of red and yellow to get….. yes, you are right! Orange!

In Art we continue working on fine motor skills and our creativity. We have introduced paper cutting, watercoloring, and jack o’lantern coloring.

In Botany we are covering Parts of the Tree and Parts of the Pumpkin.

In Zoology we are studying all different kinds of Mammals like whales, bats, and us!

In Geography we are studying North America. We are talking about these 3 countries: Canada, United States, and MexĂ­co. We are also studying the animals of North America.

We are continuing learning and practicing Initial Sounds in Language and numeral counting in Math.

Lastly, our song of the month is “5 little Pumpkins Sitting On A Gate.”

Next Month, we are continuing our study of the Parts of the Tree and Leaf, lots of leaf art and talking about Gratitude and giving Thanks.

Ladybug Classroom – October 2018

Monday, November 5th, 2018
Category: Ladybug Classroom, Lafayette Campus

This month we celebrated Georgie’s second birthday! Happy Birthday Georgie!!

Our studies this month included learning about different animals in each continent and this is leading us to learn about animals with backbones or vertebrate animals (birds and mammals). In our studies of North America, we are learning about the different landmarks, the Statue of Liberty, White House, Hoover Dam, Mount Rushmore, etc. The children love this work as there are miniatures of each landmark and a matching card for them to match.

We are practicing our new letter sound “J”. The children are learning to count 1-10 in different languages and our older Ladybugs are practicing their 1:1 counting (object to symbol) by using the Spindle Boxes (5 spindles have to go to the section with the number 5, for example). We are also learning the life cycle of a pumpkin, doing lots of painting and stamping and working on our Original Artworks masterpieces which will be a surprise to each family!

We had our first Earthquake Safety Practice and the children did great practicing Drop, Cover and Hold. We love the new play equipment in the Courtyard and our new Play-yard in the back of the school!

In November we will be working on Halloween and Leaf art work as well as studying Trees and Leaves, talking about being thankful and Thanksgiving works.