Ms. Lavigne's Classroom Blog:  From the Loon's Nest

May 11, 2010

From the Loon’s Nest

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice Mother’s Day weekend and Tea here at school. The children worked so hard to make sure the occasion was special for you. From the many smiling faces I could see that it was! The interviews are so fun to do with the kids; I hope you enjoyed them too. We keep the questions the same year after year so parents can keep them together with years past to see the growth and to compare comments!

Thank you to Todd Bross for helping the children plant the flowers for you. Also, thank you to the Lupien family (Anna’s parents) for donating them from Moose Crossing.

We have a nice, yet transitional, month planned for the last few weeks of school. The kindergarteners are preparing for their moves onward and upwards with visits to the lower elementary class and their new school and the rising kindergarteners are starting to really step up to their roles as leaders in the class. Those children are always there to help out a friend, give lessons, help the teachers…in fact we are having to come up with things to have them help us with because we are getting so many requests from our rising Ks, “Can I help you with that? Can I go with you to do that? How can I help?”! This is a wonderful aspect of this environment-the children really taking pride in their room and want to help out in their community.

Speaking of community… We have been have been having class meetings and playing cooperative games to make sure that even with the changes coming up we are still feeling like a tightly knit group now. Our class meetings have proved very helpful to all, those that might be feeling anxious about a change happening in their lives and those that are staying behind.

As part of the class meetings the children have also had a chance to speak up about their voices being heard and wishing that everyone would listen when they are saying something. Conversations have occurred in which the children have voiced their feelings about others playing and talking when they are sharing and how that makes them feel. This has helped all realize that they are important members of the class and that everyone warrants respect. It has also helped all realize that we care about them and want them to see our sharings or lessons. It is wonderful to see the children helping to make our class a respectful and cooperative place for all!

Have a great week!

April 27, 2010

Welcome back from Spring Break!! Can you believe most of our school year is over now? I have a calendar in my basement that is still on February; I think that’s when time stopped for me. I really am having a hard time believing the end of the year is almost here. I guess it’s because we have been so busy and having so much fun that the time has just flown by!

What a great couple of weeks we’ve been having for example. We were just rocking and rolling on our quilt squares to get them done before break. The children really worked so carefully and diligently needle pointing their sea life animals onto their square. They each show the personality of the child with vibrant colors, detailed stitches, or design choice.

While the quilters were stitching, lessons continued and a few of our new readers have become so confident that they are now trying to teach their friends how to read; giving them Moveable Alphabet lessons and Sand Paper Letter lessons. I even heard Jack say to a younger child, “Now you really have to practice. You have to learn alllllll the sounds and then you can read a book like me.” The kindergarteners are testing each other on their math facts giving each other really hard addition, subtraction, and multiplication equations. Conner announced that Ryan got the answer to a tough one and “He didn’t even need the chart!”

The children diligently scrubbed shelves, tables, and floors preparing for Grandparents Day! The children welcomed their grandparents or friends for a wonderful day of sharing and showing their classroom, classmates and jobs. It was a great event and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time!

With the Spring Auction just days away, this Saturday, I wanted to put out some thank yous to folks from our room who have really helped make it happen again this year. Jenny Villeneuve is the chair again and has worked tirelessly to make this event a special and financially rewarding night for the school! Kerri Lily has also joined the committee this year and she brings new ideas and great energy to the event. The Sweetsers are again helping with getting advertisers, donations and helping the day of. Susan and Joe Hilton generously purchased the fabric for our quilt and Courtney Lee made an emergency run for fabric markers for us! A huge thank you to Eliza Morrison who, with her partner at Kindred Gifts, is sewing the quilt together for us! Kerri Lily and Todd Bross helped the kids with the stitching right when we needed help the most. Thank you to those who also offered to come in if we needed you. We so appreciate parents who have advertized their businesses to help offset the costs and the many donations that have come in for the silent and live auctions. Because of you the auction will again be a great success for the school!

Please try and join us for a great night of fun and you could come away with these, donated by families in our class, and other wonderful things: manure for your garden, piano lessons, horse back riding lessons, books, yummy mushrooms, a handcrafted bag, an original painting by Robert Colburn, gift certificates for vegetables and restaurants, theater tickets and yards of mulch!

One last exciting auction note: the teachers are coming together and providing you with an opportunity for an evening out while we watch your kids. On June 17^th we will be hosting a one night “mini camp” experience for the children. Each primary room will be opening their rooms from 5-7:30 pm and the elementary will be hosting from 5-10:00 pm. The primary themes will be sock puppet making and theater production in the Puffins Nest and Kooky Concoctions making in the Loon’s Nest. Their will be a flat rate of $25 for the primary spaces, that will be limited. The primary spaces will be offered for 3-6 year olds and each “camp” is open to children from either class and siblings if they meet the age requirement. There will be sign-up sheets available during the silent auction! It should be a fun night for the kids and parents alike!

Looking ahead to next week, our class will have our Mother’s Day Tea on Tuesday, May 4^th at 10:30 am! This is a very special morning for Moms and their children. We hope that all Moms can be there. Look for more information to follow on this special event!

Again, welcome back and Happy Spring!

April 5, 2010

WOW! I hope everyone enjoyed the treat of the nice weather for the Easter weekend! How nice to be outside. The children were just beside themselves with joy when the sun came out last Wednesday and then when we felt how warm the temperature was, it was hard to keep them inside Thursday and Friday!

I have been reading a book suggested by Chip, children: the challenge by Rudolf Dreikurs, M.D. It is from Dreikurs that Jane Nelson bases her Positive Discipline work that we so often reference with you. There is a chapter that I particularly was taken by on ‘encouragement’.  This is something that is certainly present in a Montessori classroom, helping children gain INNER confidence and significance through the Montessori lessons. We are constantly encouraging the child toward independence. I remember being told over and over again in my Montessori training, “Don’t do for the child anything that he can do for himself!” Driekurs writes, “Encouragement, then, is a continuous process aimed at giving the child a sense of self-respect and a sense of accomplishment. From the earliest infancy he needs help finding his place through achievement.”

I challenge you to think of all of the things that you do for your child that your child can do for him or herself. We are all guilty of putting on shoes or coats, pouring a drink, or cleaning up a game because we can do it faster and there is the pressure to get to some place else. We think we are helping the child, but Driekurs points out very clearly that we are not. He suggests that by doing for the child something that he can do for himself, we are sending the message to the child that we are much more capable then they are and we are discouraging them instead of encouraging. But by allowing the child the chance to try, even if they fail, we are allowing the child to gain independence, self esteem and courage. He writes, “Parental love is best demonstrated through constant encouragement toward independence. We need to start this at birth and to maintain it all through childhood. It is made manifest by our faith and confidence in the child as he is at each moment. It is an attitude which guides us through all the daily problems and situations of childhood. Our children need courage. Let us help them to develop and keep it.”

I am suggesting a consciousness of all of us; I am certainly including myself, to examine what we do for the child and what they are capable of. I think through our observations we will find that there are many ways in which we can all help the child to develop and strengthen his feelings accomplishment. Let’s welcome the words, “I can do it myself!”

Have a great week and enjoy this Spring weather!

March 22, 2010

What a treat last week with all those beautiful days of sun and warmth! Back to reality this week, I guess. We have a short week though, no school on Thursday and Friday. The teachers will be attending the American Montessori Society annual conference in Boston. This is an excellent opportunity for us to catch up on the latest research, new trends, review curriculum and collaborate with other Montessorians. I always come away from these conferences with great ideas for the classroom and fresh perspective on the curriculum.

We had some really great lessons last week. So many of the older children are right on the cusp of reading or have just mastered their first book, it is a really exciting time in the classroom. The children share this excitement of reading books with their friends. I will have a five year old reading and a three year old will have a book right next to them, ‘reading’ too. The three year old will even say, “Look, I’m reading a book!” And they are to some degree. Taking in the pictures and looking at the letters coming together to form words is part of the pre-reading curriculum.

We have also continued to explore the wonder of wordless books. I introduced A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog and A Boy, a Dog, a Frog, and a Friend last week. Each child is having a turn telling their version of the story and I am recording them to make a collection of their stories. So far we have had very interesting and funny versions of the same book, with each child’s personality and their view coming across a little, or a lot, differently from the others. A very fun exercise!

Auction update:

We have a meeting this afternoon at 3:30. It’s not too late to get involved! Come join in on the fun!

We have decided to make a quilt again this year as our class contribution to the auction! Yea! Eliza, Olivia’s mom, has agreed to put our squares together to make our masterpiece! Our need right now is for a volunteer to purchase and cut the muslin for the squares. Let me know if you are interested in this task!

We will be needing volunteers to help in the classroom decorating the squares eventually. I will let you know when we are at that point. Thanks!

Have a great week…I look forward to sharing with you my experiences in Boston!

March 1, 2010

From the Loon’s Nest

Whew, glad that mess is over. Not having power is not fun! Hope everyone is safely back to normal at their homes and businesses!

Besides the crazy weather we’ve been having, the return to school after the break was really wonderful. The children seemed very happy to get back to work and to see their friends. Children find joy and comfort in routine and the familiarity of the classroom and work cycle. In fact a few friends have even had frowns when it was time to leave at the end of the day…remember those days of tears happening at the beginning of the day? Part of their comfort and feelings of confidence in being at school stems from the atmosphere of mutual respect and belonging that they feel they are part of. A Montessori education in itself breeds confidence and a moral awareness of community and belonging. When you add the bonus of the Positive Discipline techniques and methods, children are free to learn in an environment where they feel safe and empowered to be contributing members of their classroom and school. I refer to the very first page of Positive Discipline in the Classroom,

          “We have a dream. A dream about schools where young people are treated with respect and have the opportunity to learn the skills they need for a successful life. A dream about schools where children will never experience humiliation when they fail but will instead feel empowered by the opportunity to learn from their mistakes in a safe environment. It is a dream about students and teachers helping one another to create an environment that inspires excitement for life and learning because fear and feelings of inadequacy and discouragement are no longer part of the learning environment. The end result is an educational system that nurtures young people and gives them the skills and attitudes to help them be happy, contributing members of society.” (Jane Nelson)

This is our dream too. We work everyday to provide an environment like this. We are human and make mistakes. But this is our goal and we are lucky enough to have the guidance of Maria Montessori, her materials and writings, and methods from Jane Nelson that have enhanced our practices.

It is my dream as well for all the children in my care to continue with Montessori throughout the years. I know this is not always possible and I respect each family’s need to make the decision that’s right for them. Though, if you are still trying to decide whether or not to stay with Montessori, we have several articles available for you to read and observations are always a great idea. There are valuable youtube clips (A Time to Blossom-Montessori for the Kindergarten Year is one) to watch as well as we are always available to answer questions you might have about Montessori, Kindergarten or the Elementary years.  Just let us know if we can help you in this important decision for your child.

The children were introduced this last week to the Land and Water forms as we are learning about topography. The children are introduced through pictures, books, and actual forms in which they pour water into opposite forms (lake, island). We have land animals and water animals and they enjoy putting the animals where they belong.

We also have started vision experiments. We read Seeing last week and looked into our friends’ eyes to look at their pupils and irises. We turned off the lights to see how our pupils get bigger to let in the light!

A QUICK AUCION NOTE:

We are having a planning meeting this Wednesday at 3:30 in the library and we need volunteers!  The auction will be held on May 1st at the Anchor Inn in Round Pond. It is a fantastically fun night out. AND it is fun to be part of the planning process…very fun getting to know parents in the community and helping to make the auction a success is very rewarding! Of course, it is the kids who benefit the most in the end when we have a great night!  If you would like to help but can’t make the meeting, please let me, Kim Tolley, or Jenny Villenueve know and we can get you involved.

February 6, 2010

From the Loon’s Nest:

Wow! What a great turnout for the Contra Dance. It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces and great dancers. It is always a pleasure to visit with students and parents outside of our regular school day. I hope all who attended had as much fun as it looked. Sorry not to join in on any of the dances…I didn’t want to risk the progress I’ve been making with my back which is feeling so much better!

Last week was fun chasing shadows and learning tales about groundhogs and other animals forecasting the weather. We learned that Phil did see his shadow and that means 6 more weeks of winter. It seems the ground hog was surely right forecasting a continued winter for the Mid-Atlantic States getting pounded with snow this week! We could actually use a little snow to soften up the playground.

Along with playing with shadows last week we also enjoyed putting crystals in sunlight watching them make rainbow across the floor, or the walls, or our friends! We learned that the prism cuts break the light into its color spectrum making those rainbows all around. We also used a flashlight to see what type of things light can pass through. We looked at some classroom items that are transparent (light passes through them), translucent (light glows), and opaque (light does not pass through).

At group time we are continuing to go over ground rules and safety lessons. We have had some good classroom meetings with the children contributing and being influential members of their classroom! Children are much more likely to be responsive to a request to use walking feet inside, for example, if it comes from a classmate. Plus once a problem like running in the room has been brought up in a class meeting, everyone is more conscious and reminders are constantly given from the children to the one running. There are signs, drawn by students, up on the walls to remind people to walk and I’ve seen a child take another by the hand and gently guide them across the room using walking feet! Before long the problem passes with children learning how their behavior affects others!

This last week before Winter Break is full of pink and red and hearts all over! We will be making our Valentine mail bags to receive cards from friends in Monday and Tuesday. We will start to have children share their cards from home (if they choose to participate) with their friends on Wednesday. We will also do some fun crafts, sing songs, and enjoy our friends. I’m sure the Gratitude Basket will be over flowing this week!

Have a great week!

February 1, 2010

From the Loon’s Nest

Ready to get out of the house and Contra Dance? This Saturday we will be having our Cabin Fever Pot Luck and Contra Dance at the Nobleboro School gym. This is a great opportunity for our DMS community to gather and socialize while getting some great exercise. I will probably being doing more socializing than dancing as I recover from this bad back that I have.

You probably noticed I was in and out this last week trying to get my back to settle down from constant spasms. I seem to be on the mend and hope to be back to normal soon. Mrs. Roberts did a great job keeping the normalcy of the classroom in my absence.

Last week we focused on weather phenomenon through books and pictures. Monday proved its self to be a perfect day to start these lessons as it rained, snowed, turned sunny and then cloudy again in a matter of a few hours! I’ve heard the expression, “If you don’t like the weather in Maine, wait 10 minutes”. This was surely one of these days. We will continue to explore how animals and humans adapt to the different weather challenges.

This week we will also focus on Light experiments. Tuesday is Ground Hog Day. We will take this opportunity to talk more about weather and forecasting but also shadows and light. There are some fun things we plan to do experimenting with light.

Please remember to sign up for our Check-in Conference scheduled for

Friday, Feb. 13^th. This is a chance to ‘check in’ to discuss your child’s progress, answer questions you may have about this year or next year as this also coincides with re-enrollment time. I look forward to talking to you then!

Have a great week and hope to see you Saturday at the Contra Dance!

January 18, 2009

Enjoying all this snow?? It sure is beautiful, but I’m ready for some sunny days!! We were so spoiled on Friday with those warm temperatures that I was sure I was going to wake up to Spring on Saturday, not another foot of snow over the long weekend. Oh well! The kids LOVE it! Some of the children are building a snow mound that they want to burrow a tunnel through! They are packing and digging, packing and digging with great determination!!

Well we had a fun week continuing our experiments with magnets. We found out that magnets DO work through sand, but that the magnet we tried to use to attract metal through the table was not strong enough. This week we will make a boat ‘sail’ through the water, pulled by a magnet!

Another fun thing we did this week was to bring back out the rhythm instruments. We will continue to play, explore the sounds and to learn simple beats with the instruments. I have a great CD that has lessons for us to follow that was developed by a Montessori music teacher. We will work with the instruments on different days of the week so that all the children get introduced to the fun!

We also have been reviewing the ground rules for our classroom. We have been going over the list of rules the children came up with at the beginning of the year to make sure we have an ‘almost perfect school year’. One exercise we did this week after reviewing our list was to close our eyes and think about one thing that each of us could personally do to make sure our classroom was a safe and peaceful learning space.

Another exercise was to think about things and people that make our ‘love lights shine’. We brainstormed things that we are thankful for and talked about our Good Deeds Tree and how it is often blooming with ‘thanks’! We introduced a new writing and/or drawing work to the peace shelf where we can put on paper those things that we are thankful for and appreciate, the ‘Gratitude Basket’. The children can draw or write those things and then fold them up and put them into the basket. I told the children that when the basket filled up we would look at the papers together. It only took a day for the basket to be over flowing! Some children wrote “I luv you…” to a certain friend, others drew pictures that represented the whole class, another child’s gratitude was for the sky, another’s was for “all the people of the whole world, every where”, another child is planning to draw each of the planets, “but not Pluto”, because he was grateful for each oother,

I got the idea for the Gratitude Basket from a recent article in Montessori Life magazine written by Cathleen Haskins. This was only one of a several excellent ideas about how to help children generate a ‘gratitude attitude’. Here is a snippet of the article,

          “As early as the first decades of the 20^th century, Maria Montessori warned of the dire consequences to befall humanity if we continued to ignore the needs of the inner self. At the same time, she foresaw the unlimited potential waiting to be released when the inner life of the young child was tended both at home and in school. Nurturing gratitude is an authentic response to Montessori’s call to protect and nourish the child’s inner life, for living a life of gratitude promotes happiness, respect, contentment, satisfaction, inner calm, and harmonious relationships. By teaching children gratitude, we invite them to observe, acknowledge, and express appreciation for a world filled with simple pleasures.”

Let me know if you would like a copy of the full article.

Plus let me take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the opportunity to be part of your child’s life. It is truly a joy to join your child on their journey through this time of their life!!

January 11, 2009

Happy New Year and welcome back! We hope everyone enjoyed a peaceful holiday and a nice break.

We have a special welcome to two new students with the start of the new year, Clare (4 1/2) and Nora (3)! You probably recognize Nora, she is the younger sister of Ella V. and daughter of Jenny and Jon. Please welcome the Villeneuve’s back to the Loon’s Nest. When you see Clare and her parents, Robert and Laurie, please say hello and welcome them to the Loon’s Nest and the DMS community!

We had great fun playing outside this last week. The snow on the playground is so much better for play than that ice of December! We get all bundled up and head outside as long as the temperature (or wind chill) is 15 degrees or above and their outdoor clothes are dry. You might find us inside for afternoon dismissal sometimes because their snow pants are wet from earlier play. Thanks for sending in those extra socks and a complete outfit for snow play-hat, mittens, boots, pants and heavy coat. Don’t forget to put their name or initials on everything!!!

We focused last week on mapping our left and right parts of our bodies. We sang the songs Hokie Pokie and Loobie Loo where we repeatedly shook a right or left body part. We put red stickers on our right hands to have that visual reminder of red for right! We also marched, hopped and tapped our different sides.

In science, we have started our experiment units with magnets. We tied them in with our recent lesson on using a compass. We have been having sensorial experiences with magnets pushing them at their poles or experimenting with what things attract or not to the magnet. Thank you to Ahlwynn and Mrs. Tabor for allowing us to use their collection of magnets for our lessons. If you have a Magna Doodle or any other magnet activity we would be happy to add it to our activities. This week we will see if magnets will work through materials such as water, sand, our wooden tables?!

Some things on the calendar of importance:

Today there is a PA meeting and the Kick-Off for Auction planning right after school. Also there is a Community meeting this evening. Hope to see you there.

Saturday, Jan. 23^rd is our Montessori Discovery Day. We will focus this year on Grammar and sentence structure analysis. We will journey through these lessons from the 3-6 classroom to the Upper Elementary level. Come join us for a day of walking in your child’s shoes having lessons and working with the Montessori materials. The lessons for the primary level include the classic lesson of labeling the farm and fun sensorial games. You will be fetching objects from the environment depending on their description or tying flowers together, joining them for the conjunction game. You will get to jump, clap, sing, and grin when learning about action words! Before lunch though you will learn to label a sentence with the grammar symbols, dissect a sentence and make corrections to grammatically incorrect paragraphs! You’ll have to join us to see what else we have planned for you! It’s a fun day of exploration, discovery and community building. Hope you can join us!

Have a great week…stay warm…hope to see you at the meetings this afternoon and evening!

December 22, 2009

Holiday Greetings to all! Allison and I hope everyone enjoys a wonderful holiday break filled with lots of family time and good cheer!

The children have been really enjoying this time of the year. We have had a nice hum of business and quite the cooperative spirit, working together on projects! We have worked together to make a treat for the animals, stringing popcorn, bread, craisins and dried apples to hang on the bushes. We read the poem by Robert Frost, 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' to get us thinking about feeding the animals on these cold, short days and long nights around the Solstice. We had a great lesson with the globe and a flashlight on Monday learning about the Solstice!

We worked together to make a Ginger bread house as well. A fun project that was only successful because of patience, cooperation, and lots of concentrated fine motor work. We have also been practicing those fine motor skills cutting out snow flakes, paper ornaments, and gingerbread babies. Even the decorated ornaments the children are working on require lots of gripping of tiny sequins as they place them on the ball. And the children have really focused on making our room sparkling clean for the holiday-dusting, sweeping and washing. So although we have had a few extra fun projects going on we are still focused on the important aspects of concentration, cooperation, building skills and working together.

It has been nice to hear the children telling us about how they have contributed at home too, helping wrap presents, bake in the kitchen, cleaning their room for company!  Children of this age love to help out and it gives them such a feeling of importance and responsibility!

Well enjoy your time off with the kiddos. We will surely miss them and I bet they will miss school too!

Have safe travels, cozy home time, and a very Happy Holiday!

December 14, 2009

This is such a wonderful time of the year! Everything is so beautiful outside, including the lovely decorations on the school. Our class will be adding some garland to the plants outside as well. We are going to make edible garland for the animals this week as a gift to them!

Everyone seems very much in the holiday spirit. The children are singing as they do their work or putting on their outdoor clothes. One little boy just sings away to himself as he puts on all that gear! By the way, thank you for sending your child in with hats, mittens, boots, snow pants, warm coat…what a difference for them when they are playing outside. Does anyone have an extra pair of snow pants tucked in a closet that they would be willing to loan us as an extra set just in case someone forgets? Don’t forget those extra socks and extra clothes for they boxes! Thanks!

We had a great time outside in the snow last week. The children are making a snow fort, a few snow people, a snow cat that turned into a snow bunny, and flying down the slide into a pile of snow! Hopefully the rain hasn’t turned the playground into an ice skating rink. If it has you might find us playing in the soccer field that tends to be less icy.

Last week we also started a fun lesson on mapping our bodies and will make a life size self portrait this week! We looked at sedimentary rocks and listened to Miss Frizzle’s and the children’s adventures inside the earth in the Magic School bus story. Miss Katie sang some holiday songs with us and we’ve been ringing bells to go along with our carols.

As the holiday approaches and as Hanukkah has already begun, we will be learning some of the traditions and stories of the season. We approach the holidays in a matter of fact way of learning history and culture. We try to keep the excitement level down so that learning can still continue in a calm environment. We will sing songs and make some crafts, but will try to keep their day as usual for them. Consistency and calm are so vital for the children, especially during this busy time of the year!

Have a great week enjoying the beauty of the season!

December 6, 2009

Oh boy, here we go with the snow! I was so excited Sunday morning about the snow though! I woke up early to go play in it with my dogs! This being only my third winter here in Maine, I still love the snow and get gitty like the little ones to get the chance to play in the white stuff! I guess we’re in for a week of it though so watch your televisions for any delays or closings!

We will go outside for playtime throughout the winter so please make sure daily your child has a heavy coat, snow pants, boots, hat, mittens or gloves, and extra socks in case their feet get wet! Now that it will be cold on most days it’s a good idea to send in all those things even if there isn’t snow on the ground, just to keep them warm. We check the thermometer every day before going out and will have them dress appropriately. Since we are starting our mornings inside, feel free to pack those warm items in their bags for later or have a “school set” that can stay in their cubbies. But please remember to label everything! Even their initials on a tag with a Sharpie are helpful in matching a lonely mitten to its owner!

Also, we will be going through everyone’s extra clothes box this week to make sure there’s a full set of winter clothes. If your child is missing something we will send home a note of what you need. Even those older children need to change sometimes, especially in the winter after snowy play!

We had a great start to December after the break. We have been busy, busy, busy with lessons and fun!

We celebrated Nicholas’s 3^rd and Celio’s 4^th birthdays last week. Happy Birthday to the two of them!

We have a new tree in our room called the Good Deeds Tree. It ‘blossoms’ every time someone has done something helpful or kind. We have flowers that the children apply to make it blossom when their love lights are shining because of kindness bestowed on them! Our environment has always encouraged helpfulness and the children do help each other naturally. We are seeing now that the children who were the ones being helped are acknowledging their friends and are showing their appreciation. I observed last week that one child had lost part of their work under the shelf. Another child came over and moved the shelf so that the work could be reached. The one who had been helped quietly went over and put a flower on the tree and then found their friend and gave them a hug!

In Geography we labeled the classroom with direction cards and are practicing using a compass to find N, S, E, and W. Don’t be surprised if your child starts noticing your GPS in your car and tells you that if you keep driving north you will end up in Canada!

In Science, we started to exploring rocks. Last week we looked, handled and named some igneous rocks. This week we will look at some sedimentary rocks. We are also having simple discussions on how rocks are formed. At the primary level we are having simple, sensorial lessons with the rocks: touching, looking at, naming. The materials we are using are actually from the elementary classrooms and Mrs. Bickmore’s upper elementary children are learning about rocks and minerals also this year. By giving our children the opportunity to touch and hear the names, just an introduction, they are taking ‘snap shots’ of those rocks and putting them into their brain. When in elementary class or geology class in college and those rocks and names appear again, the child will go through their mental filing cabinet and think, ‘I’ve seen those before’, ‘I’m familiar with those’ making learning more fun and children more confident. This is just one example of an area of study that we introduce the children to now that they will see again in the future. Really everything that we do in the primary class is preparation for later learning. In the primary class, the children are learning how to learn! Taking impressions and starting to process them. The brain is so open to learning at this age; Dr. Montessori referred to children’s brains as sponges titling one of her books The Absorbent Mind. So we touch and feel, gaze at, wonder, and absorb those rocks (and the geometric shapes, the sounds of the letters, the counting patterns of the numbers, the direction of the letters, the placement of Costa Rica on the map, the pectoral fin on the fish, and so and so on).

We had a great trip on Friday to the Waldo Theater to hear a brass quintet play their instruments. The children really engaged and had a wonderful time watching and listening!

We have a new student to welcome to the Loon’s Nest! True just joined our class. She is 4 years old and just moved from Portland. We welcome her and her family to the DMS community!

Have a great week. Enjoy the snow!

November 23, 2009

It was so great to see so many of you for our Parent Teacher conferences. It is always wonderful to share with you the accomplishments of your child and to work with you to make your child’s experience the best it can be! Learning more about your child from you is so beneficial for us in the classroom when guiding his or her development. We hope that you also find information we share with you helpful in your home environment. We have check-in conferences scheduled for February 12^th, but remember we do not have to wait until then if you have a question, concern, or just want to check in. Let me know and we can set up a mutually convenient time to meet.

Volcanoes, volcanoes and more volcanoes! The children couldn’t get enough of the erupting volcano. We made it erupt for three days in a row, probably 15 times each day! Just as much as they enjoyed watching, they were learning. Ask your child about the earth’s plates, mantle, magna, vents, lava, and the forming of new islands. We will next learn about the different kinds of rocks and minerals that are in the earth’s crust after the lava has hardened. The children will learn to sort different kinds of rocks and learn to identify many by name. I know they are looking forward to this as many rocks have been coming to school as sharings. If you have a DK Rock and Mineral book or any children’s books on rocks, please consider having your child share them with us to help in our identifications!

The kids want to thank John and Benjamin Moon-Black for their donation of the Tree-house to the school. They love it and are enjoying the opportunity to role play and use their imaginations. I have overheard all kinds of play, providing opportunities for language, communication and social skill development!

Another popular addition to the classroom has been the start of ‘research’. Many of the children have been looking through animal encyclopedias and finding things of interest. They then trace or draw the animals, we read the facts and then help the child put those facts into his own words on story paper. This is not just about facts and knowledge though, but encouraging curiosity. One child and I discovered that a dog fish lives in 300 feet of water this week. We then wondered what other creatures might live at that depth? One child traced a horse and then spent the rest of the day dreaming of raising a foal and training to ride it. Well what would that include we wondered? Curiosity is so powerful. In the Montessori classroom the child is allowed to follow his own interests and discover his world. By providing opportunities for a child to spend hours perhaps looking through a book on the earth or animals or space or musical instruments we allow that child to be inspired. An inspired child is a happy child open to learning, having a love of learning!

We have a short week this week, just Monday and Tuesday. We will be making turkey crafts and singing Thanksgiving songs. We will think about things we are thankful for and enjoy the company of our friends that we are so grateful for! Have a wonderful holiday and safe travels to those who are going ‘over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house’ or to where ever your travels take you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 9, 2009

I have been re-reading a book written by Dr. Montessori, The Montessori Method, first published in English in 1912. One of the things that struck me so far in reading this is her ideas about the necessity to keep things simple. She isolated the one factor that she was teaching. In Montessori schools we continue to do this using her ‘3 Period lesson’; isolating 3 items, 1^st naming them, 2^nd naming them again and asking the child to show me which one I am saying, and 3^rd asking them to tell me what each one is. The lesson is simple, no tricks or fanfare, simply drawing the child’s mind to the lesson at hand. After reading this section, I have been watching ads on TV for toys. Many of the toys are any thing but simple. Some toy manufacturers have made toys that stimulate so many senses at once, while at the same time trying to teach children letters or counting, I was over stimulated just watching the commercial! Children really do love simple, beautiful, and quiet!

One of the simple lessons Dr. Montessori did with her children was the ‘Silence Game’. One day last week, we played this. I brought out our peace candle, lit it and turned off all the lights. This at once seemed to instill silence and awe. I introduced the word silence and we practiced, setting them up for success. Once we had practiced, we made silence again and I moved across the room. One by one I called their names, barely audible, for them to join me. When they heard their names they lit up with a smile and tip toed over to the new group forming. Not only were the ones with me silent after they came, but the ones across the room awaiting their name were patient and silent too. Once everyone was together again and the game a success the children did not cheer or jumping around, but quiet and peacefulness remained, in celebration of their achievement. Dr. Montessori wrote about her student’s experience, “This game delights the little ones beyond measure. Their intent faces, their patient immobility, reveal the enjoyment of a great pleasure…The children, after they had made the effort necessary to maintain silence, enjoyed the sensation, took pleasure in the silence itself. They were ships safe in the tranquil harbour, happy in having experienced something new, and to have won a victory over themselves.”

Now I do have to say we are not always silent or even quiet. Friday I introduced rhythm instruments and we any thing but silent! We are learning the names of the instruments, identifying the instrument by isolating their sounds, and starting to play a steady beat with them! Simple lesson, but definitely not silent!

We also had a great lesson on the layers of the earth, inner core, outer core, mantle and crust!

It was very nice to see so many of you being given lessons by your children at our Bring Your Parents to School Night. Hope you had fun!

Hope to see you Thursday or Friday for our Parent Teacher conferences! We will be meeting this year in the library above Ms. Wilson’s room. Mrs. Roberts and Ms. Casey will be with the children those days.

Have a great week and remember, “Simple is good”!

November 2, 2009

Happy November! What a busy month!

This Thursday at 6:00 pm you are invited to come with your child to ‘Bring your Parents to School Night’! Your child will be your host in the classroom and show you his or her favorite works, give you lessons, and introduce you to new friends. This is a very special opportunity for your child to give you lessons and to share his space!

Please keep a few things in mind while you’re here:

* Our classroom is filled with materials to meet the needs of children  2.5 to 6 years of age. There will be works brought out by your child or perhaps an older child that you will see and be curious about. Feel free  to ask your child about the different works but keep in mind that all  the materials in each area are presented sequentially and it is possible that your child has not yet had the lesson. Mrs. Roberts and I will be        available to answer questions about the different works.

 * Out of excitement your child will most likely try to bring you one of these works  that he or she has not had a lesson on and try to show you or want you to teach it to them. Feel free to ask your child if she has had a lesson from Mrs. Lavigne or Mrs. Roberts yet; if not, please remind them that each lesson is done a special way and that maybe  you both could have a lesson from a teacher. We can either show you or at least explain the lesson to you and your child if he or she is not  yet at that work. Also, if your child is a 2^nd or 3^rd year student, don’t  be surprised to see them pick a work that they had a lesson on a year ago. Children will often choose works they have already mastered to    practice them, build confidence, teach it to another child, or just to  feel really good doing something that he’s good at!

* Use this time to observe your child and how he is going through the process of the lessons he is showing you. Notice that your child will get a mat first, carry only one thing at a time, use care and concentration when using the material, put everything away when finished. Each step is a lesson in itself and the children have been practicing every day!

* Use this time as well to start thinking about our Parent Teacher Conference next week. Hopefully you will see some of the lessons that your child is currently focusing his learning on. I will have available some of the materials during our conference and will be able to explain their purpose and how your child is learning from them then. Perhaps you will notice something about his learning style or work choices that we can also talk about at the conference.

* Also please keep in mind that the energy in the room will be very different than when it is just the children and 2 adults. Your child might be extra excited or perhaps much more shy than usual.

*With the new space we should all have plenty of room to work and move around with ease. So come and join us and have a great hour with your child in their space, with their materials and their friends!

Our Parent Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Nov. 12 & 13! You will be given a progress form and we will have about 20 minutes to talk about your child’s progress and the materials that he or she is working on. If you have something that you’d like to discuss in more depth, we can always arrange another time to meet as well.

Lots of working on maps last week as you can see below. We had a great lesson using a string around the globe to show the hemispheres and that Antarctica is really one piece even though when we flatten the globe it looks like two! This week we will slice open a clay globe to see the layers of the earth!

Have a great week. Hope to see you Thursday evening!

 

October 26, 2009

What a great day yesterday! The Harvest Fest was great fun and the weather couldn’t have been better!  Mrs. Roberts and I hosted relay races and spent most of the day laughing along with the children as they 3-legged raced each other. Some of the groups found that team work was the key! We also had a scarecrow relay that some elementary children enjoyed. They had to dress up as a scarecrow, run to designated point, take off the straw hat, flannel shirt, bandana, and mittens and then dress their partner! Oh, those buttons got one group all tangled up! 

It was fun to see the children painting pumpkins, making masks and apple prints, getting their faces painted, searching the hay for treasure, tossing rings on pumpkins or whacking a ball as it came down a shoot. Great food, wonderful music, and fantastic friends to chat with made for a really special day!

This week we will be enjoying some fun that comes along with Halloween. We will sing some songs, hear some stories, and carve a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. We will take advantage of the sensorial experiences of carving a pumpkin and smell the aroma, touch the smiley insides, roast pumpkins seeds to taste and have pumpkin bread for snack!

During group presentations so far this year we have learned about models of the earth-globes and maps. We have learned about where we live in Maine but that we also live in the US and on the continent of North America and that ultimately our home is the planet earth. The children have been shown how to use the maps and have learned names of continents and countries. Now we are going to explore what our planet looks like below the earth’s surface. The children will be introduced to the layers of the earth and we will explore rocks, minerals, and volcanoes.

When we have presentations at group this is an opportunity to introduce new words, new materials, and new wonders to the children. As Dr. Montessori wrote, “to stimulate life,-leaving it then free to develop, to unfold,-herein lies the first task of the educator.” Once the children have been given a presentation, at group or individually, they are then free to choose the materials at their leisure, when the interest sparks for them. A child might have a lesson and then work with that material immediately because they are so interested and excited or perhaps she won’t choose that work for a week, a month or a year.

That’s ok because our environment is filled with so many things in so many different areas from which the child can choose. Right now we have several children in a sensitive period for writing. It is all they choose. They might do letter writing, drawing a picture, tracing numbers or coloring a map. So even though having a pencil in their hand is their particular interest right now, they have opportunities to work in many areas of the classroom!

Have a great week! Happy Halloween!

October 19, 2009 From the Loon's Nest

Yuck, what a mess out there! Falling leaves mixing with falling snow just doesn’t make for a pretty picture. Better weather in store for us this week though! The children are so excited about the new swings and the boat so thank goodness for the up coming sunny days!

We will take advantage of the nice weather and take nature walks to look for signs of things living and non-living and to admire the changing colors of the leaves. We will learn this week about what happens to the trees and leaves as the colors change and the leaves drop.

Last Friday, DMS hosted a workshop for the Maine Montessori Teachers Association. The primary teachers were treated to a wonderful presentation on early literacy. Michelle Vogle, director of the Maine Montessori Institute, provided us with a day filled with new ideas to add to our curriculum. But, there was also confirmation that so much of what the Montessori language curriculum provides is what current research is encouraging traditional classrooms to incorporate. We already prepare the child for skills for writing, reading and comprehension starting at the earliest ages and progressing through all areas of the room.

The first lessons a child is introduced to in our classroom are lessons of Practical Life and Sensorial. But these lessons are indirectly preparing the child’s brain for later reading and writing. All of the lessons in the classroom are presented in a top to bottom, left to right fashion. All lessons encourage visual discrimination, training the eye to isolate specific things. Spoons, tongs, Pink Tower pieces, Knobbed Cylinders are all grasped in the child’s hand using the pincer grip strengthening the prehensile muscles for writing. Sound cylinders, books on tape, stories and songs at group time are all enhancing the child’s listening skills. And, we have books available all over the classroom for the children to look at and enjoy at any time during the day. We have science reference books; books about feelings in the peace area; books to explore the rest of what the world looks like in the geography area; story books and books about letters spread around the room to enrich the environment.

The actual language shelves are filled with materials teaching children how to form shapes and letters for writing, recognize the sounds of the letters, how to put those sounds together to make words, and how to decode those sounds when reading a word and then a book!

During our up coming Parent Teacher conferences I can let you know the materials your child is doing in the language area as well as the other areas of the classroom which are helping your child prepare for the exciting world of literacy!

Have a great week. Hope to see  you on Saturday for the Harvest Fest!

October 13, 2009

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice long weekend. Did you see the giant pumpkins downtown? How fun!

A huge thank you to the parents who participated in the playground work day on Saturday! The new swing set looks great; the bench and chairs are wonderful; the boat will be so much fun to play in; and the kids will be excited to be able to climb on the dome again! As a flower lover, I am so glad the daylilies got transplanted—what a job, thanks to all those who helped with that too!

We had a nice week last week. We had our first rainy day and it looks like today will be another. That’s ok, we play indoor games, sing silly songs and do movement activities. A ‘movement job’ was introduced as well for the children to do during work time-chair and table washing. Below you will see Sam and Nicholas had at work scrubbing those chairs. This and the polishing jobs available are wonderful movement activities that allow the children to develop large and small motor skills.

Dr. Montessori believed that children learned through movement. She wrote that the hand was the instrument of the mind. Through purposeful movement, the child will develop internal order and calm. Movements have to be practiced and muscles strengthened, but it is the mind that strengthens the most with repeated strokes of the hand on the scrub brush. The washing and polishing works have many steps built into them and the child will find he is not finished until all the steps have been completed. We have two and three year olds who do the polishing and washing works start to finish, which sometimes takes 20-30 minutes! They follow the sequence of steps and I can almost see into their minds as the wheels are turning as they think, ‘ OK, I have bubbles on the chair…what next? Or, I have used the q-tip to put the polish on, used the cotton ball to run the polish off, mmmm. Oh yes, the mit is to rub it shiny!”  So the child is developing independence, coordination, control of the mind and body, and sequencing and order. Dr. Montessori was brilliant!

We will have a short, but busy week. We are going to learn about globes and maps; extend our living/non-living lesson to the needs of living things-land, air, water, energy.

Have a great week.

October 5, 2009:  From the Loon's Nest

I love October! The weather is beautiful, there is so much to do out in the community, and the children get into a really good groove working in the classroom!

The job chart is working out nicely. The children really enjoy having a special responsibility; an opportunity to help out in their space! I even observed children, once their jobs were complete, helping others! A community feel is establishing!

Other ways that we are establishing the feeling of community are snack times and lunch. For snack, three children sit together at a time at the snack table. They enjoy snack, chit chat, and practice grace and courtesy manners.

On Fridays, we share snack all together at group. Children will often chat about what they will be doing over the weekend or planning what work they will do together or what game they will play together outside. This is a nice social time for them.

For lunch, we started something new this last week. We started eating ‘family style’. We put tables and chairs together; start and finish together. We use placemats, plates, put napkins in our laps, and pour our drinks into cups. We also have pitchers of water for the children to pass to each other.

To start, we wait until everyone has washed their hands and then we sing a little song thanking the earth for giving us what we need. Then we unpack everything from our containers or baggies onto our plates. A child comes around to see if anyone needs a fork or spoon. Once everyone is ready we say, “Bon appetite, you may eat”. We then focus on eating over our plates, keeping our legs under the table, only talking when our mouths are empty, using our napkins to wipe our hands and face, and enjoying each other’s company! We then pack up and wait to be excused to nap, work, or clean-up jobs. It has been going fantastically so far.

Below are some things to think about if you have a child that stays for lunch. 

·                     Consider having them help you shop for foods they like and have them help you make their lunch. This opens up conversations about healthy eating!

·                     Have your child practice opening and closing their containers or baggies so that can be as independent as possible at lunch (gives them confidence and pride)!

·                     Send a cloth napkin in their lunch box

·                     Water in pitchers is available so don’t feel that you have to send in a drink. If you do want to (which is certainly OK), please consider using a container that can be easily poured from. The children are pouring their drinks into cups. Some children have small metal bottles with a twist off top-these are a great choice. They are easy for the children to open and pour from.

·                     Consider serving sizes. We have your child bring home what they don’t eat for you to see. Most children graze, eating a little bit from a variety of things.

This week, we will continue to learn our Global Address from our street to Planet earth as our home. Also we will start to learn about our local community, local geography. In science we will discover what characteristics classify living and non-living: heartbeat, move on its own, needs air, water, sun, etc. In our peace studies we will brainstorm peaceful choices and make a new tool for our classroom-Wheel of Choice-to use when we are feeling mad, sad, or afraid.

Have a great week!

Sept. 28, 2009:  From the Loon’s Nest

Leaves are changing and the air smells crisp. It must be Fall! Yes, on Tuesday the children celebrated the beginning of our new season. We have been eating delicious apples this week for snack, collecting fallen leaves, piling up acorns for the squirrels, and singing songs and saying poems about Autumn!

We are also really getting into the Montessori works. As the children are acclimating to the classroom they are choosing more and more of the Montessori materials verses the blocks, play dough, or puzzles that are brought out for the beginning of the year. Even our youngest children are choosing material after material; wanting lesson after lesson! This is when the returning children really start to take on their leadership roles. They are helping with the follow-up of the lessons.

Once a child has had a lesson from a teacher, the teacher stays close to observe and help as necessary. But once the child seems confident, we allow the child to practice the material for as long as they feel they need. This might be for one minute the first day, but then four minutes the next. Then it might become a job the child chooses every day for a month. During this time of practice and internalization, the child might need some reassurance, reminders or a follow-up lesson. So I might ask an older child who has mastered that material to go help out.

For example, last week I noticed Olivia had been trying to build a tower with the Knobless Cylinders but she was frustrated and had left the work. So I asked Faith to go back to the job with Olivia and see if she could HELP her (not do for her). Before I knew it we had a tower, a giggling Olivia, and a very proud Faith! When the children help each other it not only benefits the younger child with the feelings of success and having a person to look up to, it also helps the older child by giving them this confident “I know this work sooo well that I can teach it to someone else” feeling!!! This is one of my favorite aspects of a Montessori classroom!

Another aspect I find special about a Montessori classroom is the children really take pride and ownership of the environment as their own. The children recognize that the space is made for them with the small tables, chairs, brooms, counters, shelves. Those small brooms and dusters just call to them, and they use them! Doing cleaning jobs in the classroom is just another ‘work’ that a child may choose.

When there is a job to do like setting up lunch, there are always more volunteers than we need; who would think a child would choose to wash a table over playing outside? But after the 12:00 morning dismissal (and 30 minutes of playing), some of us go in to get ready for lunch; washing tables, drying tables, putting out placemats, plates, cups, pitcher of water, and lunchboxes. Because this has been so popular, this last week we started a Job Chart for setting up lunch so the jobs could be rotated! We still had friends who were disappointed that they didn’t have a formal job to do so starting this week we have another Job Chart with enough jobs so that everyone has a special responsibility for the week and then it will rotate as well. Some examples of jobs: feed fish, mat monitor, chair monitor, shelf monitor, book monitor, sweep cubbies, dust shelves. The monitor jobs are ones that carry on through the day, making sure chairs are being pushed or mats are being rolled properly. At first, these two jobs in particular are given to older children so that if a child does leave a chair out or a mat unrolled, the older child can give a reminder lesson to them.

Just as giving a lesson on the knobless cylinders, taking care of our classroom gives children the sense of pride and confidence. As Jane Nelson writes in Positive Discipline, “There are many ways teachers could allow children to help… Imagine the jobs children would be allowed to do. They would then feel needed, which would lead to feeling of belonging and significance.” 

This week:

Peace Studies-making peaceful choices-wheel of choice

Geography-start learning our Global Address

Science-Germs! Hope you received the email from the office about Flu prevention. We will read several stories this week about Germs and practice ways to prevent spreading them!

Have a great week!

September 21, 2009:  From the Loon's Nest

 Happy Fall! This week we begin the new season of Autumn. With the coming of fall we will be having lessons this week about the change of seasons. For the remainder of this month we will focus on apples and next month we will be watching for the leaves to change and drop.

 As the temperatures drop, please remember to update your child’s change of clothes in their box in the bathroom. Remember too that we ask that all children have at least one set of clothes to change into at school. Even those older children need to change every once in awhile; a spill, wet slide, or lunch in a lap does happen!

 We continued our lessons on grace and courtesy and peace making last week with special emphasis on using the peace rose and putting the ‘feeling’ language to work. The children use a conflict resolution method that we call the ‘Peace Rose’. When a conflict arises the children use the peace rose to talk it out. We have a mat for the children to sit on so they become the ‘work’. They bring the peace rose and sit facing one another on the mat. The first child takes a turn saying, “I feel…when…and I wish….” The second child then repeats what they heard so that the first child knows their message was received. The second child then gets to say how they feel…when… and wish. The first child repeats what they heard. They then decide if how they handled it before was peaceful and respectful. If not, then they decide what they should do now. They make suggestions and pick a resolution. At the end they say ‘peace’ with both of them holding on to the rose!

It is a beautiful process to watch. Even the youngest children participate with only a little prompting needed from a teacher or mediator (often a child)! This method or one like it is used in all the classrooms here at DMS and is common in most Montessori schools. The idea of peaceful conflict resolution is not new to Montessori school. Dr. Montessori herself was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Giving the child means for self expression; allowing the child to make thoughtful decisions; encouraging the child to accept responsibility and be part of the solution are all ways that will help the child become an independent thinker that can solve problems. Dr. Montessori writes is Peace and Education, “If education recognizes the intrinsic value of the child’s personality and provides an environment suited to spiritual growth, we have the revelation of an entirely new child, whose astonishing characteristics can eventually contribute to the betterment of the world.”

September 14, 2009:  From the Loon’s Nest

It has been a pleasure to get to know the new kids and families over the first two weeks of school. We have a fun, energetic group of children this year.  Everyone seems to be bonding together and beginning to form a nice supportive community; helping one another. We of course have ones still continuing to make a transition into the school setting; learning daily routines, establishing a work cycle, and transitioning. Smooth transition times to and from group time, in and out of the classroom for playtime, and to and from snack takes lots of practice and time. It usually takes at least six weeks for the class to settle into itself and the routines!

We continued to spend time learning about our feelings and identifying how we feel in different situations. Sometimes we feel happy, but other times we might feel sad, mad or afraid. We are learning it is OK to feel those emotions. We are learning appropriate ways to express these emotions with our words and appropriate ways to calm our selves when we feel upset. We have been singing a version of the “If You’re Happy and You Know it” song where we take a deep breath, relax our muscles, talk to a friend when we are sad, mad or afraid. When we are feeling happy we can express it by wearing a ‘love light’ pin. These love lights represent the love that each of us has inside and it shines especially brightly when we are feeling happy; having that warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

At group time we have been taking turns sharing things that have made our love lights shine. Some comments have been “When my mom gives me a hug” or “When Ryan played with me outside”. We have started to add to these comments, “so you appreciated  Ryan playing with you!”. This is preparation for Class Meetings. The first part of a Class Meeting is a time called Compliments and Appreciations. On Friday, I had tears of joy in my eyes as one child started to put everything together, "I really appreciated it when Sam worked with me. It really made me happy. My love light was shining really bright!" So was mine!

Best wishes to all of you for a week ahead full of days when your love lights are shining brightly too!

Sept.8, 2009

Welcome to the first of the year’s blog from the Loon’s Nest! This weekly post will give me an opportunity to share with you information about what is happening in our classroom. It will also serve as a tool to communicate to you information about Montessori education and the Positive Discipline methods we use at DMS. Parents in the past have found the information helpful in starting conversations at home about school and our activities.

So I begin…

Last week was the start of what I’m sure will be a fantastic year! The children settled right into our newly renovated space and were pleasantly surprised by the amount of room we have and seem to love the shining new bamboo floor! Jack summed up what we’ve been thinking with his big eyed expression and simple, “wow”, as he walked in! The new children, who have just had a day or two, are transitioning into a new routine, seeing new faces and a new place.

To help with the transition we have given lots of hugs, encouraged returning children to be a buddy, spent lots of time playing outside, sang familiar songs at group, had available in the classroom familiar games, blocks, puzzles, play dough, crayons, a wooden farm, and lots of fun books to look at. Also the new children have had new lessons in the Practical Life area pouring, spooning, twisting nuts and bolts, and scooping beans. The Practical Life lessons are just as their name. They help develop practical skills needed for life. Your child might start off pouring rice from one pitcher to another, but will eventually pour water from pitcher to pitcher, and then put this practice to practical use pouring himself water into a cup at snack time. That moment of independence, those feelings of self confidence and joy as the last drop of water lands into the cup, is the essence of a Montessori education! I will come back to the importance of these lessons often in my blog because the area of Practical Life helps to develop the whole child, physically, mentally, and morally and is the spring board for all other areas of the curriculum.

For the returning children, it has been pure satisfaction on their faces. They are thrilled to see their friends; are excited about being the big kids with the chance to help the new friends; and are taking off with lessons happy to be back at work! They have been great role models and helpers giving lessons and setting the tone of the environment.

One of the activities we did with the returning children was to brainstorm and start a list of things that would help us to have the best year possible. In years past, I have gone through my list of ‘reminders’ about the ground rules and being safe. This year we brainstormed together and the list is much more thorough than I would have come up with myself! A few of the things the list includes: keeping quiet voices inside, keeping the classroom clean, using kind words, being respectful, pushing in our chairs, and not making a wave or wind when we unroll our mats. Interestingly, some of the ideas they came up with were items that had come up at Class Meetings last year because they were not being done and had become problems affecting the class. So months and months later these same items were the first on their minds to ensure were done properly this year! I will also spend time in future blogs discussing the POWER of the Class Meeting!

This first month of school we will be preparing the children for Class Meetings and cooperative problem solving using peace lessons from a book Honoring the Light of the Child by Sonnie McFarland, and using Positive Discipline tools. We have started first by giving names to the feelings we might feel some times-happy, sad, mad, or afraid. We will examine times when we feel these ways and brainstorm ways to feel better if sad, mad or afraid. By acknowledging the feelings, we can express how we feel and start the process of making things better. This might mean we use the Peace Rose to settle a dispute, go to the Quiet Area to calm down or do yoga to relax. These are lessons the children will be having over the coming days and weeks as they learn ways to peacefully engage in a place where they hopefully feel safe and significant, our goals for them!