mailto:lbengel@golikethewind.com
Walking
in a winter wonderland…
I’m
quite sure you’re all aware of the beautiful surroundings that encircle Go
Like the Wind Montessori School. I’ve watched the seasons change from
preparing the classroom environment over the summer, to the children entering
in the fall, and now the winter wonderland that is ours for the taking! We
have obviously enjoyed the outdoor space that is our playground, but more
importantly, we have spent quite a bit of time on the trails that surround our
school.
Each
walk on the trails is a new adventure. Day to day, season to season, nature
presents us with a freshness that cannot be replicated elsewhere. In a
Montessori preschool curriculum, Geography is a core part of our Cultural
Studies. Soon into the school year, we explore the differences between land,
air and water. We are fortunate to be able to do that right on our own
trails…no field trip needed! We explore the children’s questions about so
many things each time we embark on a journey on our trails; whether it be the
change they feel underfoot as the ground slopes, why one tree’s leaves change
color and another didn’t or what animal left that particular ‘footprint’.
Their questions are numerous and always a joy, yes joy, because one of the
many beauties of a Montessori environment is that the children will try to
answer the questions amongst themselves and if unable to, will eagerly look
for the answer upon our return to the classroom environment.
Perhaps
you’re saying to yourself, ‘Sure you feel that way – you’re their teacher,”
rest- assured the children are as eager as I am to head to the trails and/or
what we affectionately refer to as “the clearing.” On snow-filled days where
it was just not possible for us to head to either location and our playground
was the place we were heading, the children quickly expressed their
disappointment. They wanted to see what fresh tracks were visible, if any
berries were still on the trees, was the moss still growing on the sides of
trees, etc.
Nature
calls to children with a strong internal voice. Years ago, it did not take
planned outings for us to enjoy time in nature. We all know times change, and
now it generally takes us to schedule the time to expose our children to the
outdoors. Again, I’m not referring to parks, environmental centers or our own
backyards. I’m referring to time outdoors in the elements of nature. I would
encourage you to read Richard Louv’s book titled, “Last Child in the Woods.”
As a class, we will continue to relish our time on Go Like the Wind’s trails
and our ‘clearing’, and I invite you to do the same. Just before the December
break, one of you shared with me that you were trying to decide what to do as
a family over breakfast one Saturday morning when your three-year old
suggested you go for a walk in the woods. Thank you for sharing that with
me. More importantly, thank you for going for a walk in the woods.
The
classroom is all a bustle with activity as the children who entered in the
fall have a new-found sense of competence and with that, self-confidence.
Skills we could not do for ourselves are for the most part, easily achieved.
Whether it’s the three-year old exclaiming, “I zipped my own coat – all by
myself!” or the four-year old who can successfully complete the first two
parts of tying their shoes, because “they’re getting bigger” or the
kindergartener who takes on any and all challenges with their work. We are
becoming independent beings who try to solve our own problem(s), which then
allows us to apply the knowledge we are learning between our classroom and
home. It’s a good thing.
Recently, we were honored with three presentations by students from our Lower
Elementary. Each student had researched and then created a presentation board
for one of our 50 states. Amanda Dyke (third level student) shared
information on California; Jessica McHugh (second level student) discussed the
state of Oregon, while Anna Romei (first level student) presented her work on
New Mexico. Not only were the lower elementary students poised in their
presentations, but they were courteous and helpful to one another and to us.
Additionally, each student took time to receive and answer questions from us
–their audience. We look forward to your next presentation.
Valentine’s Day will soon be upon us and we will be celebrating with a craft
party. Children are welcome to bring Valentine’s cards for each of their
classmates, which number 21. You are welcome to have your child sign their
name if they would like, but I discourage you from addressing the cards to a
specific child. It’s easier on all of the children if they simply have 21
cards that are good for one and all.
We will
soon have a sign-up sheet for parent craft volunteers. You would help the
children at a given craft station with their project. We’ll celebrate from
9:00– 11:00 a.m. It’s sure to be loads of fun for all of us!
Shiva
provides the children with a weekly lesson on Diversity and Peace. As you
know, we’ve read and practiced how to be ‘bucket fillers’ versus ‘bucket
dippers’; we’ve learned how to let our ‘love lights’ shine, we’ve explored
how we’re all alike, while honoring that each one of us is different from the
person next to us. These lessons are an integral part of the Montessori
curriculum you have chosen for your child.
Don’t
forget we have our ‘Take the Next Step’ meeting for parents whose
children will be moving up into Kindergarten or First Grade next school year.
We’d love to have you attend and hear all we have to offer your child on this
leg of their Montessori journey. Mark your calendars for Tuesday, January
22, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Our
second leg of parent-teacher conferences have been scheduled for Thursday,
January 31st and Friday, February 1st. Although school
will be closed, our Pre-Primary Daycare will be available to you. Please be
sure to sign-up for daycare on either or both of the conference dates, if
needed. My conference sign-up sheets are posted outside the classroom on
our communication board. I do look forward to discussing your child’s
growth with you.
Until
next time,
Laura,
Patti and Shiva
We begin to gain confidence as we
head for life’s ‘wide open spaces’…
We’ve made tremendous strides
in internalizing our classroom ground rules and the room is now in full
throttle! So, what happens when we’re up and running… our intent is for the
child to develop an understanding that mistakes are spectacular opportunities
for growth/learning. We all need the space to make mistakes and the space to
overcome them. Self-confidence comes from our success with those
things
that are difficult, not those things that come easy to us. Our classroom
environment has been designed for optimal independence on the part of the
children. As explained in last month’s article, this is independence with
accountability for oneself. It is in this way that the children have the
freedom to do for themselves what may normally have been handled by an adult.
Many of you have shared the increased independence you have seen unfold in your
child, thus far. We encourage you to watch their confidence levels continue to
grow throughout the school year.
Fall has lent itself to an
exploration of leaves (margins and leaf parts). As you may or may not know, Go
Like the Wind’s grounds offer various trails through the outdoor landscape. How
fortunate we are to have those trails to explore, and we did just that! We then
created a large bar graph depicting the leaves gathered on our trail hikes,
which allowed the children the opportunity to classify their leaves by their
margins. You can imagine the level of enthusiasm amongst us!
Not too long ago, I was told
how helpful it is to describe a lesson within the body of the newsletter, so
that you, as a parent, have a chance to visualize the essence of a Montessori
presentation. I’ve opted to do that this month with our introduction to the
Continent globe. First, let me describe the material to you – it is a small
globe of the earth. Whereas the Sandpaper globe’s direct purpose is to present
the two basic elements that constitute the earth’s surface (land and water), the
Continent globe’s direct purpose is to give the names, location and shapes of
the land masses (continents). So, for this globe each continent is painted its
very own color. The water on the globe is one shade of blue.
As
with most materials within a Montessori classroom, there is
inter-connectedness. So, prior to presenting the continent globe, one would
first go into both the Language and Sensorial curriculums and introduce the
language of same and different, along with the primary and secondary color
boxes, as well as the geometric solids (sphere). In this way, we have isolated
the difficulties of language, color and form. The child is then able to focus
solely on the purpose of the lesson, the continents themselves. With that done,
we bring both the sandpaper and continent globe to our rug and explain that
‘both globes represent the earth. Each piece of land has its very own color.
Each color is a different part of the earth’s land. We call the land
continents’. We would then point to North America and say, “Here is where
we live. We call it North America. North America has the color orange.” This
would then continue for the remaining six continents – colors as follows:
- South America – pink
- Africa – green
- Europe – red
- Asia – yellow
- Antarctica – white
- Australia – brown
We would invite the child to
trace the shapes of each individual continent as we introduced it to them. In
this way, we can utilize the hand’s muscle memory.
This is a work that will take
the child repetition to internalize before moving them onto the next lesson
within the sequence of materials in Geography. It is not shown once and
forgotten about. As with everything, there is ebb and flow between the whole
and its parts.
The child generally has a
natural curiosity with the planet they live on. Montessori designed the
continent globe with the emphasis on the shapes, colors and names of the
continents. Eventually, this same emphasis moves toward the oceans.
Please let us know if you
find it beneficial to take a close look into one particular lesson each month.
If it provides you with insight, we’ll be happy to continue in the month’s
ahead.
Thank you to those of you who
attended our Practical Life workshop. It was thrilling to hear that many of you
went home to implement the concept behind Practical Life into your child’s home
environment. We extend heartfelt thanks!
As many of you mentioned
during our recent conferences, we love to sing in our classroom. Children are
coming home in the midst of learning a song, that you may or may not know, and
you want to join in on the fun. In response to your requests, here is a list of
many of the songs we are singing:
- Jennie Jenkins
- Puff (The Magic Dragon)
- It’s Raining
- Do-Re-Mi
- I’ve Been Working on the
Railroad
- Cluck, Cluck Red Hen
- She’ll Be Comin’ ‘round
the Mountain
- You Are My Sunshine
- This Little Light of Mine
- The Continent Song
- This Old Man
- Five Speckled Frogs
- Ten Colored Bottles
- One Elephant Went Out to
Play
Complementing our classroom
singing, Ander’s mother, Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, DMA has developed an Early
Childhood music program that she is sharing with our older students twice per
month on Thursday afternoons. The class is 30 minutes in length. Assisting
Pamela with this instruction is Maria Welborne, Maya’s mother. Maria has
introduced the song “Let There Be Peace on Earth” to the children and will
continue working with them on this selection as part of the program. The
children are enjoying this opportunity.
Last, but not least, thank
you for taking the time to attend the first conference. Equally important,
thank you for continuing to share your insights and then joining us in a ‘plan’
for your child and his/her needs within this Montessori environment. It was
truly a pleasurable experience meeting with you.
Until next
time,
Laura, Patti and Shiva
We have friends and icky sticky bubblegum…
Our classroom is off and running
(oops! I mean walking with two careful feet). The children already have
learned a few songs, which are near and dear to our heart. We have been
starting our mornings with ‘Rags’, followed by ‘We have a friend and her name
is….’, and Icky Sticky Bubblegum. All of the songs involve movement in
addition to the words. We have also begun to learn our first poem, titled
‘The Little Turtle’ by Christina Rosetti.
We’ve already been on our first
bear hunt with Helen Oxenbury’s book, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
Again, in addition to the words, there are movements, which we love!
Montessori classrooms are noted
for the amount of freedom students are given. While this is most certainly
true, it is not without accountability. In other words, we teach the children
pivotal ground rules that allow for individual endeavors. At no time is the
group as a whole put at risk for the indulgences of one. It is freedom within
limits. Let’s take a look at a few examples of ground rules.
-
Children may use inside voices
while in the classroom.
-
Children may walk in the school
building.
-
Children may move on to another
work rather than disturbing another child’s concentration.
-
Children may walk around rugs on
the carpet.
-
Children may respect the work of
others.
You get the general idea. Believe
it or not, it is the ground rules that allow for the children’s freedom of
movement. Quickly into the school year the students learn and internalize the
expectations upon them. Our role as the classroom staff is to consistently
carry out our expectations. We simply practice and practice and practice.
Without the ground rules and our consistency in expectations, the children’s
ability to have such an expansive freedom of movement would be inhibited. In
short, we would more than likely have some level of chaos if everyone simply
did as they chose without regard/respect for those around them.
The classroom is functioning just
as it should for this time in the school year and the children are eager to
experience the world around them, which is their classroom environment. Each
Montessori classroom, regardless of the grade levels housed within it, is
truly a miniature version of the world community. For the preschool child, it
is often one of their first places of being and functioning independently
without family. We are truly grateful to each one of you for entrusting your
child to our care. Rest assured our goal is to give each child the best
possible individualized Montessori education we can.
We’d like to remind those of you
who have not turned in your child’s birthday forms and photos to do so at your
earliest convenience. Accomplishment pages are well on their way and we look
forward to receiving all of them.
Before closing, we’d like to
extend a personal thank you to those of you who attended our Pizza Picnic and
Parent Orientation. It was a delight to put names with faces. We also extend
a thank you to our hard-working PTSA for the fun-filled Ice Cream Social! It
was yet, one more opportunity to network with one another.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
for making us feel so supported and welcome! We truly look forward to a
school year filled with many accomplishments.
Laura Bengel, Patti El-Amin, Shiva
Asrari
