January 2018
“If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.”
-Dr. Maria Montessori
classroom news
After a holiday break from the school routine, it was so lovely to come back in early January and observe the children return with such eagerness to work in the classroom once again. By this point in the year, they are relaxed and veryfamiliar with each other, ready to explore the opportunities in the environment and moreconfident to try some new things that would have seemed too daunting back in October.They are truly enjoying all aspects of the classroom and are choosing workwith renewed purpose. We welcomed many new students into our classroom communities, Maddox and Elle (upstairs) and Orion, Taylor, John and Sophia (downstairs). The children welcomed them with open arms and are doing a beautiful job of helping our new friends find their way and get to know the rhythms and routines of the classroom environment. Welcome, to all of the new students and families!
Math and Language materials are being used in collaborative and individualexplorations into simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, beginning sound, wordbuilding, handwriting, and cultural explorations - so many things that we cannot name themall.
It is also after the extended holiday break that we seem to notice those leaps indevelopment in a more striking way. The children seem to have grown so much in only ashort amount of time and we recognize that these interludes from the environment allowfor deeper integration and they return to the classroom with deeper curiosity and skill. Itis truly inspiring to behold!
In the first part of the month, we continued our study of birds and made bird'snests with edible eggs. The observation area for the backyard contains bird booksand binoculars. We keep our feeders outside well stocked to encourage as manyvisitors as possible and invite the children to try to identify which birds are still aroundthis time of year.
Our continent of study has moved to Asia and materials in practical life and the art areasalso reflect this theme. The children are learning to count in Chinese, greet one another, sing, and do brush calligraphy. We have had two cooking projects from Asia this monthas we prepared Chinese tea eggs for snack and cut vegetables for fried rice. Keep your ears open for word of our Chinese New Year celebration in February. The children will enjoy our festivities, complete with music and food. We have also opened a tea table in the classroom, which is a graceful place for conversation and making tea together.
Part-way through the month we shifted to a study of ocean life in our science area. Thechildren are learning the names of fish and other creatures who call the ocean home. Ask them for a rendition of "Seahorse, seahorse, in the ocean" and they can fill inmany other names of sea creatures as well.
In honor of the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we read a book about his lifeand talked about how he was a peacemaker and how he helped people to get alongand respect each other, even when they looked and seemed different from one another.We have identified a peace table in the classroom where children can come if they needto resolve a conflict with someone. They know that even friends can havedisagreements and that using words to talk it through is the best way to handle thosetimes. Our discussions about "the art of the apology" have reminded us that an apologyis best delivered the way we create something artful, with care and purpose.This will be a valuable skill to help them manage their relationships in theclassroom. Experiencing successful friendships will be celebrated in the coming month as werecognize Valentine's Day and share our love for one another.
Our backyard has been the backdrop for wonderful snow play and we are grateful to have had many days of outdoor recess despite a fewdays indoors due to subzero temps. Now with an abundant amount of snow, we have plenty to play with! We seem to have cleared a round of viruses and flu that made its way through both classrooms. Thank you for continuing to monitor your children and letting us know if there are any symptoms that we should be on the look-out for. Also, thank you for continuing to send appropriate snow gear for our recess time outside. We love to take advantage of our beautiful backyard and appreciate your help in keeping the children warmly dressed for outdoor time.
Extended Day
The Extended Day class continues to be busy and occupied with many interestingactivities. On Mondays, we often do a science-related exploration and this month we hada lot of fun with winter science, conducting our own experiments on how ice is formedand melts. We enjoyed a field trip to River Bend Nature Center to explore their interpretive center and bird feeding station.
We have also enjoyed learning more about the instruments of the orchestra throughlistening to "Peter and the Wolf" and playing instrument lotto, where we had to identifyan instrument simply using our ears.
Our writing work on Fridays has included discussions about what inspires us and whatwe are curious about. Authors often use ideas of what inspires them to form a story. Weread about "Snowflake Bentley" and how he was so fascinated by snow that he spenthis whole life studying it.
Art class involved several projects, including snow painting and geometric salt and watercolor designs.
This coming month Megan will begin studies in Chinese and calligraphy asthe children work to master the challenge of using a brush and liquid ink.Each student will chose a meaningful Chinese name as we take the opportunity to explore poetry and expressive painting when we study Mandarin. The students are gamely attempting to write characters and count and greet each other, too. We will learn about life in Asia and some of the favorite stories the Chinese have told for centuries about dragons and the Lunar New Year. The Extended Day students always do a fabulous job leading our Chinese New Year parade through the school – they are awesome!
Keep your ears open for news of the 100th day of school, also coming up in February. The Extended Day class will have some special activities on that day, including an invitation for an activity the whole school community can share in. How happy we are to enjoy theopportunities we have to work and grow together, sharing thejoy of life in a Montessori classroom.
Open House
On February 3rd MCH will have a public Open House to open enrollment for the coming school year. As in past years we offer advanced enrollment to current students and their siblings. We hope families will let us know their re-enrollment plans as soon as possible so that we know what we can offer to new families who will be visiting. A re-enrollment form came home to you today. Please return it promptly and don’t hesitate to call us if you have any questions about the 2018-2019 school year. Thank you, parents of four year olds, for looking at the information about the important third year in the Montessori classroom. We are pleased to be a vital choice for early childhood education in the Northfield area, and look forward to realizing some of our new dreams of growth next year and beyond. We thank all of you families for your support and your help in spreading the word about Montessori Children’s House. Please tell your friends and neighbors who might be interested in the Montessori approach but don’t know much about it to stop by the school on Saturday between 10:00 and12:00. The Open House is also intended to be a time for your own family to visit and have a little mid-year tour from your resident Montessori student. If you haven’t been to school for a while, please feel welcome to stop by—we would love to see you there.
What a pleasure it is to speak with parents about our Extended Day/K class. The presentations we have always lead to thoughtful and intriguing discussions about the program and education in general. If you would like to view the information or meet with your teachers, please send a request via e-mail. Here’s a little taste from one of the videos:
Why Montessori?
Parent Library – books on Montessori-check ‘em out!
Web site reminder
Don’t forget to visit our web site community page to see all the wonderful new photos from school and to view newsletters and calendar updates.
Birthdays we celebrated in January:
Fiona Flannery – 5 on January 1st
Rowan Flannery – 3on January 11th
Valentine Exchange
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day at school on Wednesday, February 14th. If your child would like to bring valentines for his/her classmates, we ask that they be signed by the giver but not addressed to recipients by name—this helps immensely in the “delivery” process.
Field Trip
We’re going to the ZOO! We will visit the aquatic areas of the Minnesota Zoo on Friday, February 23rd. This should be a rewarding trip while we are learning all about creatures of the sea this month. Look for the permission slip coming home to you soon and please consider coming along as a chaperone for this fun outing – if you do not have a zoo membership there is an entrance fee.
Calendar
February 1—re-enrollment for ‘18-‘19
February 3—MCH Open House 10-12
February 14—Valentine’s Day Party
February 16—Chinese New Year of the Dog Celebration
February 23—All School Field Trip to the MN Zoo
March 22—Visit School Night
March 26-30—Spring Break-no school
March 31—school resumes, Alumni Visit Day
-Zai Jian