January 2013-BB.pdf - Montessori Children's House

Blue Bell Montessori Children’s House

January, 2013

Principal’s Corner

Dear MCH Families, Maria Montessori considered lessons in history central to peace. For the younger child, this means learning about oneself in relation to time through following the daily calendar, participating in the celebration of life (birthday) ceremony, marking the flow and cycle of the seasons and the weather, celebrating holidays, learning about children who lived during other times and places, and recognizing personal growth. Through these lessons, the child senses that they are both big and small in relation to the world. They are big in that they matter – they have special gifts to contribute to the world, and this is their time! They are small in that they are part of a world so much greater than any one individual. These realizations become integrated for the child during their Montessori leadership year (the third Primary year/kindergarten year). This dual realization is the foundation for a peace- oriented young citizen of the world. The personal opportunity to make your mark, along with awe and respect for the world through time leads to a sense of responsibility to make the world a better place. I wish all of you a happy, healthy, and peace-filled 2013. Thank you for sharing your children and their special gifts with us! May peace prevail on Earth,

Marsha

Marsha Hirschhorn, Principal Why Montessori for the Kindergarten Year?

This article, written by Elizabeth Coe and Tim Seldin, originally appeared in Tomorrow's Child magazine.

Every year at reenrollment time and in thousands of Montessori schools all over North America, parents of four–almost–five–year–olds are trying to decide whether or not they should keep their sons and daughters in Montessori for kindergarten or send them off to the local schools. The advantages of using the local schools often seem obvious, while those of staying in Montessori are often not at all clear. When you can use the local schools for free, why would anyone want to invest thousands of dollars in another year's tuition?

It is a fair question and it deserves a careful answer. Obviously there is no one right answer for every child. Often the decision depends on where each family places its priorities and how strongly parents sense that one school or another more closely fits in with their hopes and dreams for their children. Naturally, to some degree the answer is also often connected to the question of family income as well, although we are often amazed at how often families with very modest means who place a high enough priority on their children's education will scrape together the tuition needed to keep them in Montessori. So here are a few answers to some of the questions parents often ask about Montessori for the kindergarten age child. In a nut shell, what would be the most important short–term disadvantage of sending my five–year–old to the local schools?

When a child transfers from Montessori to a new kindergarten, she spends the first few months adjusting to a new class, a new teacher, and a whole new system with different expectations. This, along with the fact that most kindergartens have a much lower set of expectations for five–year–olds than most Montessori programs, severely cuts into the learning that could occur during this crucial year of their lives. In a few cases, kindergarten Montessori children may not look as if they are not as advanced as a child in a very academically accelerated program, but what they do know they usually know very well. Their understanding of the decimal system, place value, mathematical operations, and similar information is usually very sound. With reinforcement as they grow older, it becomes internalized and a permanent part of who they are. When they leave Montessori before they have had the time to internalize these early concrete experiences, their early learning often evaporates because it is neither reinforced nor commonly understood. What would be the most important advantages of keeping my five–year–old in Montessori?

Montessori is an approach to working with children that is carefully based on what we've learned about children's cognitive, neurological and emotional development from several decades of research. Although sometimes misunderstood, the Montessori approach has been acclaimed as the most developmentally appropriate model currently available by some of America's top experts on early childhood and elementary education. One important difference between what Montessori offers the five–year–old and what is offered by many of today's kindergarten programs has to do with how it helps the young child to learn how to learn. Over recent years educational research has increasingly shown that students in many schools don't really understand most of what they are being taught. Howard Gardner, Harvard Psychologist and author of the best-selling book The Unschooled Mind goes so

far as to suggest that "Many schools have fallen into a pattern of giving kids exercises and drills that result in their getting answers on tests that look like understanding. Most students from as young as those in kindergarten to students in some of the finest colleges in America do not understand what they've studied, in the most basic sense of the term. They lack the capacity to take knowledge learned in one setting and apply it appropriately in a different setting. Study after study has found that, by and large, even the best students in the best schools can't do that." (On Teaching For Understanding: A Conversation with Howard Gardner, by Ron Brandt, Educational Leadership Magazine, ASCD, 1994.) Montessori is focused on teaching for understanding. In a primary classroom, three and four–year–olds receive the benefit of two years of sensorial preparation for academic skills by working with the concrete Montessori learning materials. This concrete sensorial experience gradually allows the child to form a mental picture of concepts like how big is a thousand, how many hundreds make up a thousand, and what is really going on when we borrow or carry numbers in mathematical operations. The value of the sensorial experiences that the younger children have had in Montessori has often been underestimated by both parents and educators. Research is very clear that young children learn by observing and manipulating their environment, not through textbooks and workbook exercises. The Montessori materials give the child concrete sensorial impression of abstract concepts, such as long division, that become the foundation for a lifetime understanding. Because Montessori teachers are well trained in child development, they normally know how to present information in developmentally appropriate ways. In many American schools, children do exercises and fill in workbook pages with little understanding. There is a great deal of rote learning. Superficially, it may seem that these children are learning the material. However, all too often a few months down the road little of what they "learned" will be retained and it will be rare for the children to be able to use their knowledge and skills in new situations. Learning to be organized and learning to be focused is as important as any academic work. Doing worksheets quickly can be impressive to parents, but there is rarely any deep learning going on. More and more educational researchers are beginning to focus on whether students, whether young or adult, really understand or have simply memorized correct answers. In a class with such a wide age range of children, won't my five–year–old spend the year taking care of younger children instead of doing his or her own work? The five year olds in Montessori classes often help the younger children with their work, actually teaching lessons or correcting errors. Anyone who has ever had to teach a skill to someone else may recall that the very process of explaining a new concept or helping someone practice a new skill leads the teacher to learn as much, if not more, than the pupil. This is supported by research. When one child tutors another, the tutor normally learns more from the experience than the person being tutored. Experiences that facilitate development of independence and autonomy are often very limited in traditional schools.

Isn't it better for kids to go to school with the children from their neighborhood? Once upon a time people bought a home and raised their family in the same neighborhood. There was a real sense of community. Today, the average family will move two or three times before their children go off to college. Many public schools expect a turnover of more than 20% of their population a year as families move in and out of the area. The relationships that once bound families living in the same neighborhood together into a community have grown weak in many parts of the country. In many Montessori schools, families who live in different neighborhoods but who share similar values have come together to create and enjoy the extended community of their school. Children growing up in Montessori schools over the last fifty years often speak of how closely knit their friendships were with their school mates and their families. Since most children will eventually have to go to the neighborhood schools, wouldn't it be better for them to make the transition in kindergarten rather than in first grade?

The American Montessori Society tells of one father who wrote, "We considered the school years ahead. We realized a child usually does his best if he has good learning habits, a sound basis in numbers and math, and the ability to read. We realized that he has had an excellent two–year start in his Montessori school. If he were to transfer now to kindergarten, he would probably go no farther than he is now, whereas if he stays in Montessori, he will reap the benefits of his past work under the enthusiastic guidance of teachers who will share his joy in learning." Many families are aware that by the end of the kindergarten year, Montessori students will often have developed academic skills that may be beyond those of children enrolled in most American kindergarten programs. However, parents should remember that academic progress is not our ultimate goal. Our real hope is that the children will have an incredible sense of self–confidence, enthusiasm for learning, and will feel closely bonded to their teachers and classmates. We want much more than competency in the basic skills; we want to them to honestly enjoy school and feel good about themselves as students. Once children have developed a high degree of self–confidence, independence, and enthusiasm for the learning process, they normally can adapt to all sorts of new situations. While there are wonderful and exciting reasoning to carefully consider keeping a child in Montessori through elementary school and beyond, by the time they are first grade they will typically be able to go off to their new school with not only a vibrant curiosity and excitement about making new friends and learning new things. If I keep my child in Montessori for kindergarten, won't he/she be bored in a traditional first grade program? Montessori children by the end of age five are normally curious, self–confident learners who look forward to going to school. They are normally engaged, enthusiastic learners who honestly want to learn and ask excellent questions. What teacher wouldn't give her left arm for a room filled with children like that? Well,

truthfully over the years we've found some who consider these children "disruptive." Disruptive, you ask. A polite independent Montessori child, disruptive? Well, first off, let's remember that Montessori children are real human beings, and not all children who attended Montessori fit the idealized description. However, enough do that the generalization is often fairly accurate. Montessori children by age six have spent three or four years in a school where they were treated with honesty and respect. While there were clear expectations and ground rules, within that framework their opinions and questions were taken quite seriously. Unfortunately, there are still some teachers and schools where children who ask questions are seen as challenging authority. You can imagine an independent Montessori child asking his new teacher, “but why do I have to ask each time I need to use the bathroom?” or “why do I have to stop my work right now?” So the honest answer is that it depends on the teacher and school. From an academic viewpoint, Montessori children will generally be doing very well by the end of kindergarten, although, once again, that is not our ultimate objective. The program offers them enriched lessons in math, reading, language, and a wide range of lessons in science, geography and other cultural areas. If they are ready, they will normally develop excellent skills and become quite "culturally literate." When one of these children enters a traditional first grade, they may have already mastered the skills that their new school considered first grade curriculum. Some Montessori children are still more advanced. Once upon a time in America, elementary schools had only one course of study for every child at each grade level, and the only option for children who were academically gifted was to skip them ahead one or two grade levels. This created all sorts of resentments and jealousies among students, and social stresses on children who socially and physically still belonged with their own age group. However, as Dr. Montessori's educational strategies have been incorporated to a greater or lesser extent by more and more school systems, it is becoming more common to find elementary schools that are willing and able to adapt their curriculum to meet the needs of individual students who are ready for accelerated work. The key concept in Montessori is the child's interest and readiness for advanced work. If a child is not developmentally ready to go on, she is not left behind or made to feel like a failure. Our goal is not to ensure that our children develop at a predetermined rate, but to ensure that whatever they do, they do well. Most Montessori children master a tremendous amount of information and skills. Even in the rare case where one of our children may not have made as much progress as we would have wished, he will usually be moving along steadily at his own pace and will feel good about himself as a learner.

Credits

Dr. Elizabeth Coe is the Past President of the American Montessori Society and Director of the Houston Montessori Teacher Education Center in Houston, Texas.

Tim Seldin is the President of the Montessori Foundation and Chair of the International Montessori Council.

Reprinted with the permission of the Montessori Foundation. © 2007 The Montessori Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

New: Chess Instruction for Kindergarten Children!

Beginning mid-January we will be piloting a new chess instruction program for our kindergarteners! Each Friday afternoon, our chess teacher, Carl Bady, will work with small groups to teach the basics of this classic game of strategy! This program is designed specifically for kindergarten children! .Check mate! Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As a Montessori community, we are dedicated to educating our children about peace and peace heroes. We will celebrate and honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the month of January at BB-MCH. Our school will be closed in observance of Dr. King’s birthday on Monday, January 21st. We encourage you to use this as a “day on” rather than a “day off” by joining your child in a community service project that day. Some suggestions appropriate for young children include: making cards to deliver to children in the hospital, taking home baked cookies or muffins to a senior center near your home, cleaning up a garden or local park, helping an elderly or infirmed neighbor with a home repair or errand, or delivering your old blankets and towels to a local SPCA or animal shelter. 2013-2014 School Year Re-enrollment

Look for your 2013-14 school year re-enrollment form in your parent mailbox early January. Current families have priority in reserving spots for next September as long as re-enrollment forms are returned by the deadline listed on the form. After current families register, I will be able to open registration to new families! Cold Weather Clothing

We go outside most every day, so please make sure your child is prepared for cold weather play. Send your child ready for outdoor play with a warm jacket, a hat and mittens. Please do not send gloves (send mittens instead) unless your child is able to put them on independently. Do not send scarves because they can get caught in playground equipment. We recommend you NOT send special or expensive hats and mittens because each winter these items are on our “most likely to be lost” list! When snow arrives, please send boots. Very importantly, please refresh your child’s extra clothing supply with items appropriate for colder weather. And since children have a way of growing overnight, make sure extra clothing still fits! PLEASE, PLEASE. PLEASE LABEL ALL CLOTHING, INCLUDING JACKETS, HATS, AND MITTENS. A silver sharpie marker works well to write names on dark clothing. Emergency Closing Information Colder weather is here, so it’s time to again review our emergency closing information. We have communication procedures in place to deal with events such as snow closing

days, late openings and/or early dismissals. You can access our information in the following ways:

KWY newsradio (1060 AM) will announce our school closing number of 384 in

Montgomery County.

Register at CBSphilly.com to have text alerts sent to you in the event of a school closing/late opening. NOTE: Even if you registered last year, you will need to re-

register this year.

Go to CBSphilly.com website and click on ‘school closings’; look for our school number (384 in Montgomery County).

Call the school telephone (215-646-6816) and listen to the message. Birthday Book Donations Thank you to the following children for donating a book to our children’s library in honor of their birthdays: Sophia B. – Press Here Maddox C. – How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? Grace H. – Spot the Plot Luke J. – The Peace Book Dominic C. – Trouble with Trolls and The Wild Christmas Reindeer We know many children will enjoy reading these special books! Happy Birthday! Guidelines for Health and Safety Please review the health guidelines and procedures outlined in you 2012-2013 Parent Handbook. Remember, do not send your child to school if he or she is too ill to comfortably take part in the regular school activities (including outdoor play), or if he or she will infect other children. Children who are ill may return to school after being fever and symptom free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever- reducing medication. Thank you for helping us keep our school community healthy! News from the Classrooms Primary A – Miss Chandana and Miss Krystal Oh, the month of December is filled with holidays! Hanukah, Kwanzaa and Christmas are marked in special ways. We enjoyed books by various authors like Trudi Trueit on the holiday season that enriched our verbal communication and vocabulary skills. Sharing meaningful stories about special holidays of lights like the eight day long holiday of Hanukah, seven day festival of Kwanzaa and the joyful and merry spirit of Christmas gave us a strong sense of community. During our circle time, we talked about how and why these festivals are celebrated all over the world. Eating potato latkes prepared by Ms. Marsha, carefully placing nine delicate candles one by one on the Menorah and spinning the dreidle were a lot of fun. Coloring the Kinara which holds seven colored candles in black, green and red made us aware that the Kinara is a major part of the Kwanzaa celebration. Decorating the tree with ornate ornaments and celebrating with friends and family is a significant part of Christmas. In Practical Life, we learned how to weave ribbons with the over and under technique on our loom and created striking patterns that resembled an attractive

quilt. Dexterously transferring bows, bells, colored stones and beads, skillfully opening and closing holiday boxes of various shapes and sizes, and putting up attractive ornaments on our squiggle hooks to bedeck the tree was our focus. During snack, we prepared and then ate yummy gingerbreads and cookies with our friends. A big thanks to both Ryan’s and Madeline’s family for volunteering to send in a special snack for the class. In zoology, we talked about the significant and habitual transitory relocation of birds. We saw stunning pictures and spectacular posters of gorgeous birds that live on our planet. We realized that migratory birds fly south to avoid cold weather, to discover food, and to breed. Migratory birds fly more at night and use the sun, stars, landmarks, sense of smell or follow in a flock in a J or V shape to warmer lands. We established that birds have feathers, sharp eyes, light but strong bones, sturdy claws that help them soar at various altitudes. They are faced with various hazards when they migrate, such as predators, food shortages, and severe weather conditions. We created our “Types and Parts of Birds” informational book. We became aware of diverse bird varieties such as cardinals, arctic terns, pelicans, flamingos, eagles, roosters, turkeys, and ducks and noticed they have varied beaks, feet, tails, wings, feathers and are of various colors. We worked on a bird puzzle and explored an authentic nest and realized that twigs, hay, straw, leaves and natural materials are used by birds to layer a nest where they hatch eggs. In math, we colored in a mini bird counting book where we had to use our motor skills to color in minuscule birds and then write a number of how many we tinted. Our yoga pose for the month was the bird pose that made us stretch our hands and feet. While on the playground we looked up at the sky and saw a flock of geese travel south which was exciting. Our engrossing discussion on ornithology will continue next month. Hibernation was an intriguing topic for the children. Reading special books on sleep patterns and looking at amazing pictures on how and why animals hibernate was interesting. We noticed that when animals hibernate they are in a long deep sleep where they wake up only to eat, store food and fat and then revert back into hibernation. Bears, squirrels, hamsters, skunks are hibernating animals that surface in the spring. Observing the animal models in our basket helped us further grasp which animals hibernate. Seasonally for winter, we punched out vibrant mittens in an assortment of colors indicating our right hand and left hand, and stamped snowmen, hats, and mittens in tiny squares. We painted on the easel in holiday colors making masterpieces of art. We matched pairs of socks, sorted and arranged picture cards of icicles, snow, hats, mittens, winter clothes, boots under the season winter and recognized objects that represented this snowy, slippery, cold season. The process of tracking weather one day at a time by gazing through our window has been fascinating. We observe and then illustrate what we witnessed outside on our weather sheet to show us various weather changes and patterns. In French, we are trying to retain information about the days of the week, names of animals and objects as we sing fun songs and listen to beautiful stories. In gym, we are stretching, bending, jumping over and under, crawling through tunnels, energetically throwing balls up high and catching them, kicking soccer balls thereby

always being on the go. In music, we are using our vocal chords to sing melodiously to Ms. Margot’s lively songs. We thank Elliot’s dad Dan for volunteering to demonstrate percussion instruments which made us aware of varieties of drums and the sounds they reverberate. In January, we will be exploring the continent of Africa, reading books by author Jan Brett, and learning about transportation by land, air and sea. We wish all our beautiful children and their wonderful, kind families a festive, bright, joyous holiday season and best wishes for a Happy New Year. See you in January 2013! Ms. Chandana and Ms. Krystal Primary B – Miss Brenda and Miss Jayanthi

The month of December began with the celebration of Hanukkah. The children took pleasure in listening to the story Our Eight Nights of Hanukkah. In the Practical Life area, transferring candles to each holder of the menorah was practiced as the children understood that each candle represented one night of Hanukkah. They also learned that the Shamash is a helper candle that is used to pass the flame to the eight candles. Pin punching paper dreidels was well-liked as the children concentrated on the completion of the task. The Dreidel Game was shared by a group of children as they took turns spinning a dreidel and reading the symbols Nun, Gimmel, Hey and Shin. To conclude our celebration of Hanukkah, Ms. Marsha was kind enough to make Latkes for all of the children and teachers. The children loved them as they asked, "Can we have more?" In continuing our celebrations, the holiday of Christmas was shared as we decorated a real tree. Before we decorated the tree, we had to cut the bottom of the tree with a saw so that it would fit into the tree stand. The children were happy to participate and helped saw the tree (with some assistance of course). After placing the tree in the stand and giving it a big drink of water, we decorated it with lights. A variety of paper was decorated with yarn, glitter, ribbon, glue, hole punchers and tape. The children created special decorations and strung them around the tree. It looked beautiful! Caring for the tree was a main focus for some of the children. Upon arriving to school in the morning the children felt responsible to immediately water the tree as well as sweep the loose pine needles from the floor. On the December 21st, we enjoyed a pancake brunch in our classroom. The children joined together to set the table with winter napkins, plates, cups and utensils. But most of all, they couldn’t wait to eat the chocolate chip pancakes. The children also enjoyed an interactive performance of The Nutcracker presented by professional dancer Johanna Wood (MCH graduate Ainsley’s mother). The children delighted in dancing like the characters in the story. As the children listened to The Story of Kwanzaa, they discovered that the holiday is observed from December 26th to January 1st, concluding in a feast of gift-giving. There

are seven core principals involved; Unity, Self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. We discussed the principals as the children were given examples to understand their importance. In celebrating the holiday of Kwanzaa, the children painted pasta red, black, and green and then strung them on yarn to create a necklace. During the first week of January, the children will enjoy a special Kwanzaa dance and drum program presented by professional dancer Antoinette Gilmore. THANK YOU to all who donated clothing to Cradle to Crayons! On December 21st, the Kindergarten children traveled to the Giving Factory in Conshohocken to drop off the clothing and were invited to take a tour of the factory. They assisted in sorting the clothing and were so excited to be a part of this community project. Wishing you peace! Ms. Brenda and Ms. Jayanthi Primary C – Miss Pauline and Miss Nancy We started the month with Science, continuing our tree unit. As they entered the classroom, the children noticed that our classroom tree no longer had the beautiful fall leaves hanging from it that they had decorated last month. I asked them where they went and they said they all fell down because winter was coming. So we finished reading Nature Walk as the children moved about the classroom like various animals, insects, reptiles and even trees preparing for winter. We took a moment to look out the windows at the trees on one side of the classroom, which had already lost their leaves, and the trees on the other side of the classroom that still had their green needles. We then categorized pictures of various trees under the correct label, insidious or evergreen. Also, we have been very active in our culture studies this month, celebrating the various December holidays. We began our culture exploration of the holidays by reading Celebrate Hanukkah. The children recognized that in this story there was a King who would not let the Jewish people practice what they believed just as the Pilgrims left England to escape a King that would not allow them to practice their religion. As work in practical life the children placed candles in a menorah and decided which night of Hanukah it was. They ate latkes and made Hanukkah booklets. At our art center they cut out and decorated dreidels and made menorahs using their handprints and glitter. In math the children spun dreidels and counted how many gold coins they won. The second week of December we read A Child was Born. The children noticed the baby called Jesus did not have a bed like theirs or even a house like theirs and certainly no toys. This led to talking about helping others, which tied in very nicely with the clothing drive for Cradle to Crayons. Thank you so much for all of your generous donations. As a practical life activity, making use of their pincer grasp, the children hung ornaments on a Christmas tree. In the art center they made Christmas collage decorations, which we hung on our bare winter tree along with colorful dreidels. We also completed our monthly class project together, which was a large Christmas tree made of everyone’s handprints. Also, in the art center the children decorated gift boxes and glued a special holiday gift inside. The third week we read My First Kwanzaa Book and the children made beautiful bracelets by stringing beads. They also added decorations made of Kwanzaa colors to

our winter tree. To complete our studies we read Holiday Lights, comparing the idea of lights used in many holiday celebrations. Special presentations included dancing to African American music; watching The Nutcracker performed by and for our class. We learned about a holiday in Spain called The Three kings. Thank you Tara (Mateo’s mom) and thank you Miss Nancy for sharing with our class the traditions practiced in Mexico. Our class cooking project this month was not edible. Instead the children mixed applesauce and cinnamon to make your gifts. This recipe required a lot of cinnamon. So over the last two weeks as preparation and a practical life activity the children use a mortar and a pestle to crush cinnamon sticks. The children were also active in all other areas of the classroom this month. In sensorial the third color box was popular as was making geometric cabinet shape booklets and triangle box booklets. In math the younger children worked with dreidel cards and counters and the older children explored the decimal golden bead material, addition strip board and the division board. In language the younger children still enjoy making metal inset booklets and working with the sound bags and boxes, while the older children are making three letter word booklets, reading and even working with phonograms. Take Care, Miss Pauline and Miss Nancy Afternoon Kindergarten – Miss Brenda and Miss Jayanthi

The kindergarteners had pieced together x-rays of a human skeleton and labeled the different parts. They became familiar with words such as skull, neck vertebrae, rib cage, scapula, pelvis, femur, tibia, and phalanges. A student shared a story about his father breaking his femur bone and asked to bring in the x-rays to share with the class. The children were quite interested and had asked many questions. We shared a few fun facts about bones. Which has more bones: the hands or the face? The hand has 27 bones and; the face 14. How much does your skeleton weigh? Your skeleton makes up less than one-fifth of your total weight. Divide your weight by five and you'll know how much your skeleton weighs. We also enjoyed sharing a few skeleton riddles. How do you make a skeleton laugh? Tickle his funny bone. Where do teenage skeletons go to class? High skull. The children discovered how important calcium is for their bones. We conducted an experiment using chicken bones and vinegar. The bones were submerged into a jar of vinegar and after two weeks they became rubberized. The children understood how important it is to eat foods with calcium to support healthy bones. We enjoyed sharing a book called The Listening Walk. After listening to the story, we went outside for a "listening walk." The children were asked to walk in silence for five minutes and listen for the sounds they could hear. They heard cars driving by, birds flying and tweeting, the wind blowing, and a truck going over a bump. We continued to walk for five more minutes and stopped. The children were then asked,

"What new sounds did you hear?" We returned indoors and made a list of all the sounds the children heard on their walk. Then we spoke about the new things that were heard as they listened more and more carefully. They also enjoyed drawing beautiful illustrations of what they heard in their journals. French class with Ms. Margo has been interesting for the children as they continue to understand new words in French. Elephant - 'el'ephant, spider -araign'ee, butterfly - papillon, kangaroo - kangourou, whale - balene, and ice- cream - glaces. Also many stories in French are shared by Ms. Margo about Berta the Witch and then translated to English. Also Ms. Margo offers a variety of puppets and the children take turns naming them in French. They do quite well with this task. I wanted to thank Michele (Jack's mom) for organizing our garden and helping the children as we planted fall bulbs. She helped the children design a grid that offered planting for 45 bulbs in our garden. The planting took place last month. In the spring we will see beautiful tulips bloom. On Friday, December 21st the kindergarten children took the clothing that has been collected for Cradles to Crayons to the Giving Factory located in Conshohocken. The children noticed that the doors and windows of our cardboard “giving factory” were bulging due to the enormous amount of clothing donations. The children were invited to take a tour of the factory and help to sort the clothing. Thanks you parents for offering your time to drive the children and the clothes. Thanks to Julie (Ronnie's mom) for organizing the community project! To conclude our last week of school before winter break, the children enjoyed making Ginger Bread Houses. Graham crackers, a variety of chocolates, gummy candies and lots of vanilla icing were used to create each house. Oh what fun we had! Wishing you peace! Ms. Brenda & Ms. Jayanthi Prep A – Miss Val, Miss Vanessa, Miss Sooksun, and Miss Jacy The holidays quickly approached, and everyone was very busy! In Practical Life, the busiest area, the children are enjoying transferring blue and white, sparkly balls using tongs, very little red and green rings with a lollipop stick and snowflakes using a spoon! They have also enjoyed sweeping up little plastic Christmas bulbs using the table crumbing work. These all require patience, focus, and concentration! In the Sensorial Area the mystery bag with the geometric solids continues to be a favorite! Many of the children know the names of the solids in the bag (cylinder, cone, cube, sphere and pyramid)! The knobbed cylinders are also popular after I added the longer, more advanced primary knobbed cylinders to the mix. Other popular works are the matching activity where the children match a colored pompom to the corresponding light bulb, and the light box activity which allows the children to pour colored glass stones and create glowing designs of their own! The last two works were created by one of my assistants In the Math Area the snowman counting work using 1:1 correspondence and buttons for the counters is a favorite, along with the dreidel counting, using dreidel cards and counters 1-5 without 1:1 correspondence and the star cards with bells as counters 1-3. The Language Area favorites have been the snowman matching work; the sequencing work and the new animal puzzles. Our Art Area is always busy because the homemade play dough is there! The children have also been busy decorating trees with glue and stars, menorahs with glue and candles, and drawing what they choose with multi-colored pencils!

The children were very excited about the holidays and we have enjoyed talking about them and reading holiday stories. We are looking forward to the New Year!

Prep B – Miss Stacia, Miss Margaret, and Miss Melissa December was another FUN-TASIC month!!! This month we discussed holidays, seasons, and families. We had so many wonderful holidays to celebrate this month. Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanza were just some holidays we discussed during circle. What we focused on for each holiday was a brief background on each holiday, but we really focused on that each holiday has similarities. During each holiday, we are with people we love, we give thanks for our blessings, and light is used in each celebration. Children and families from all over the world celebrate surrounded by love, by light and by togetherness. We were also welcomed by a small amount of snow this month. We talked during circle about winter, spring, summer, and fall. Each season brings a special change to our world. Spring brings rain, flowers, and warmth. Summer brings, heat, swimming, and fun in the sun. In autumn the leaves change to beautiful oranges, reds, and yellows and gently fall to the ground. In winter it becomes colder out and snow covers the ground. The books we read this month are: On our Practical life shelf we have out a menorah. The children place the candles in the menorah. This helps with their concentration, eye hand coordination also the ability to admire such a beautiful symbol of light. We also have a small Christmas tree with small ornaments and a star. The Children decorate the tree by gently placing an ornament on a small branch. One of our favorite works on the shelf is the baster work. On a tray there are two small blue bowls one empty and the other containing blue water. The purpose of this work is to use the small baster to transfer water from one bowl to the other by pinching the end on the baster to suck up the water and squirt it into the other bowl. The helps build their pincer grip, their concentration and coordination. On our sensorial shelf we have the quiet and loud work. This work consists of six bells in a bowl. Three make a loud ringing sound and three make no noise. The purpose of this work is to listen and match which one has sound and which one does not. We also enjoy working with the Christmas lights color matching. Each light bulb is a different color and the children match colorful pompoms to each light bulb. In math we have out the Christmas tree counting work from 1-8 and we are introducing the symbols for 1-8. Another work we really enjoy in the Menorah counting work. There are 8 candle sticks that need 8 flames. The purpose of this work is to count how many dots are on each candle stick and match the number on the flame to it. On the art shelf I am sure you have seen all of the wonderful crafts the children brought home. Christmas tree dot art and the menorah candle stick pasting work were two favorite activities. We also have out the beautiful blue play dough that we made in class, and stamping work. The songs we enjoyed singing this past month were Holiday Light, and Seasons Come and Seasons Go. For our morning song we learned how to say hello in Hebrew: Shalom! The books we read this past month are: Frosty the Snowman (we really enjoyed singing along with the pages), One Light which is about how we live together on one earth. Right before winter vacation, Briar Bush Nature Center visited us to talk about animal senses, and to let us meet some animal friends: a snake, a gecko, and a bunny. They were so cute! We made cookies from scratch for our families. And we had a Holiday

party with Miss Val’s class on the last day before break! I hope everyone has a very happy holiday and an amazing New Year! Enjoy the break and see you all next year.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 New Year’s

Day

School and

Supplemental

Care closed

2

Back to

school!

Music

Pizza

3 4

Kwanzaa

program

(rescheduled)

1:00PM

(Primary)

5

6 7 Music (Prep)

8 Library

French

9 Pizza

10 11 Chess—P.M.

Kindergarten

12

13 14 Lil’ Sports

15 Library

French

16 Pizza

Music

17 Mystic Drumz

presents

“The Button

People”

(Primary)

18 Chess—P.M.

Kindergarten

19

20 21

Martin Luther

King, Jr.. Staff In-Service Day

School and

Supplemental

care closed

22 Library

French

23 Pizza

24 25 Chess—P.M.

Kindergarten

26

27 28 Lil’ Sports

29 Library

French

30 Pizza

Music

31

January 2013