August 31st, 2017

Hello families,

I have been bragging on our class left and right because we have just had a really great start to our school year. We have been busy learning the expectations of the classroom and how to care for our materials appropriately. This week we worked on taking care of the library, the practical life shelf, learned about appropriate use of the iPads, how to roll out and put mats away, how to use the map cabinet, and more! We even did our first writing project which we will share with you at Open House.

Thank you to those who have been brought snack in already. Having snack for every child, every day, has been really lovely for everyone. We have had enough snack for a snack during the morning work session as well as the afternoon and I cannot thank you enough for this. It makes such a difference when our kids have energy to keep them powering through the day.

We are currently doing a lot of SEL lessons (social emotional learning) and we are beginning to focus in on the Montessori Peace Value lessons. This week we learned about "Do right" and we talked a lot about doing right by our classroom and what this looks like and sounds like. Your child should have gone home with a "bracelet" with a single orange bead. Orange represents this peace value and as we learn about each value their bracelets will grow. They are responsible for keeping track of these. We will also be making peace flags for each value that they will be taking home towards the end of September.

If your child has not brought in photos yet for their timeline books, please send those in by the end of next week. We are going to start putting together our books that will be used as part of our timeline lessons as well as for our Celebrations of Life this year.

The spelling words are posted for next week under "weekly spelling words". The kids will be practicing these at school twice per week on the computer and are welcome to do so at home but it is not homework or required. I'm going to keep our "word work", which is part of our Daily 5 (literacy activities), strictly Montessori materials so that they are not getting too much screen time at school.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to drop by for a chat or send me an email. Thank you for a really great start to our year and have a great weekend!

Christine Homan

Important Dates:
Pyrah's Peak field trip - September 13th at 9am 
Open House - September 14th at 6pm
Picture Day! - September 28th (Forms to go home soon)
Leo's Celebration of Life - September 29th at 2:45pm
In-Service day (No school!)  - October 20th
Half-Days/Parent Teacher Conferences - October 25th & 26th
In-Service day (No school!) - October 27th
Fall Carnival - October 27th