March 2015

NEWS

I really enjoyed our PTO meeting’s featured speaker - Ashley Parks. She spoke about the importance of establishing a healthy financial relationship in your child. That makes so much sense to me as a Montessorian and a mom! We are all using the Montessori Method in our classroom environments and in our homes to help create these fabulous, independent adults, but we do not go into great detail on how to save money or create a budget. I have to say, being financially aware and responsible is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to being truly independent as a young adult. Ashley’s book gives us the vocabulary and skills we need to introduce, beginning at the toddler level!

Ashley Bogard Parks, CFP, holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from Texas A&M University and a graduate certificate in Financial Planning from Southern Methodist University. She has been advising clients since 1999 in her hometown of Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her family. Her book, The Saving Seed: Growing a Financially Healthy Family Tree, is available for purchase on her website, www.thesavingseed.com.

The Saving Seed

Here’s a bit of information we went over:

What is the right age to introduce the concept of money?

Ashley Parks: “Children begin to count somewhere around age two. And at this age, role play, fine motor skills, verbal development and sense of self are blossoming as well. Each of these areas presents opportunities for introducing the concept of money. A child may not know the difference between a nickel and a quarter, other than one is larger than the other, but they can surely begin to count coins and sort them into like piles.

Simple, practical, everyday exercises such as this begin to develop a child’s awareness of money. In your make-believe play, bring in the concept of shopping with one person being the store owner and the other the shopper. Again, simple concepts weaved into everyday life and they’ll be off to a great start.

Use money words in everyday experiences. At the store checkout line, verbalize what you’re doing, “I’m now paying the clerk for the groceries we just purchased.” Whether banking online or at a physical branch with your child in tow, verbalize it, “I’m telling the bank how much money to pay for our house,” or “I worked today so I’m putting some money in the bank to save for later.” You’re planting these seeds that will grow into their understanding of money and its uses in the world.

Lastly, age two may be the time when the word “mine” is used quite frequently in the house-hold. Introduce the concept of sharing so that when giving is later introduced they have a base to build on. Children can understand more than we may realize. Exposure plants those seeds in them for future growth.”

Ashley also discussed the importance of establishing a routine of daily chores in your household. Toddlers, beginning at age two, could do 4 daily chores. Chores are done because we are all working together to make our homes nice. Allowance can be introduced around the age of 4 or 5, depending on your child. Here are some age-appropriate chores:

While I didn’t always absolutely love doing chores when I was a child, I believe they helped me develop an extremely strong work ethic. While I knew how to work hard I had no clue how to handle myself financially. Sadly, I don’t feel I prepared my own children as well as I could have. This is one of those classes/books I wish I could have experienced when my children were young!

I’d love to hear back from you on ways you educate your children about finances and how chores work in your homes! Shoot me an email and some pictures so I can share with our community, please!

Mrs. Loree

Dear MDO parents,

Wow, March newsletter time is here! Our school year is going by very quickly. It’s always a pleasure to see our children develop and grow day by day. Our month of March was full of St. Patrick’s activities. We worked a lot on our green and yellow colors. Our shamrocks and our rainbows were all independently made by the children. It’s so rewarding to see them painting and just enjoying what they are doing. It’s also very important to stimulate all of their senses by painting, coloring, singing, reading books, and by incorporating music. Some of the songs that the children like are “If all the Raindrops,” “Mister Sun”, and “Mary had a Little Lamb.” As we are getting into the spring season, we have also been spending more time watching the birds at the feeder outside our window.

We put out a few new works that are in our practical life area. We also have our dish washing station. The children have also enjoyed working with tongs, water pouring, dry pouring, gluing, painting, sewing, stacking, color mixing, sorting, and more. We’ve also added a variety of new food for individual snack, like hard boiled eggs, bell pepper, and carrot peeling. Exercises in grace and courtesy such as walking, sitting, manners, passing objects, following directions, and body control are all a part of our daily routine. We want the children to develop refinement of social interactions, be polite, and learn respect for others. This is the time of year that we notice the social relationships between the children really begin to grow. They are now very familiar and comfortable with each other and enjoy engaging each other on the playground and in the classroom. We see them wanting to play together more frequently and when we see this happening, we try to facilitate their ability to do this successfully! As the weather gets warmer, please remember to put sunscreen on your children, to keep them protected during our outside playtime.

Thank you,Mrs. Eva, Mrs. Bianca and Ms. Mary

MDO

These are some of the Montessori activities that the MDO children have been working on.

opening and closing clothes pins buttoning painting with corks

squeezing and pouring washing dishes scrubbing a dinosaur pink tower

Color sorting turning a book page threading flower arranging

Spring has sprung and the Toddler 1 class has started enjoying learning St. Patrick’s Day and Easter.

We read stories of St. Patrick and the lucky shamrocks, with sorting and counting the shamrocks. I think everyone in class was wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day. Works from painting, to sorting, to picking clovers on the playground were loads of fun.

Easter has been especially fun as we learn about the story of Easter and why we celebrate. Our felt board story shows the cross and the stone that covers the cave where Jesus was. The felt board in Christian Education has been a favorite in the class, especially the part where the stone has been rolled back and the cave is empty. Songs of “Jesus Loves Me”, with the hand motions is wonderful to sing and watch.

In cooking we have also incorporated the Easter story into the class with Easter Salad. Each cooking ingredient in the salad represents Jesus and the love he has for us.

Easter egg transfer, sorting, decorating, dying and gluing eggshells have been so fun! The children are so focused because they are concentrating on the beautiful colors, smell and textures of all these wonderful springtime works. In His Love,Mrs. Anna and Ms. Annabel

Toddler 1

shamrock counting and sorting

flowers transfer into pots eggs transfer and sorting

Easter salad Egg shell dying and gluing

Easter egg transfer

Spring is in the air!

After the much needed rain, the children were excited to finally get outside to play. This is our favorite time of year, when we watch everything start a new life. Trees begin to blos-som, flowers begin to bloom and we anxiously wait for the arrival of new birds in our gar-den. The children use the binoculars to look for any sign of baby birds in the garden.

With Easter quickly approaching we have started to talk about the meaning of Easter. We are learning the signs for Jesus, resurrection, and love. The children love hearing stories from our children’s bible and The Story of Easter by Patricia A. Pingry. In the toddler community we try to keep things simple and focus on the positive parts of the Easter story. Jesus died and it was sad, but then he came back, He has risen! Jesus loves each and everyone of us.

Toddler 2

Abby is focusing on using the corks to stamp circles to decorate the Easter egg.

Cora is refining her gluing skills by placing cut out eggs on the basket. (This is the class favorite art work.)

Asha is developing her fine motor skills by peeling small Easter stickers.

April 2nd will be a noon dismissal, our Easter egg hunt, and Grandparents day. We are looking forward to having grandparents to come to school and visit in the classroom. This is such a special treat for the grandparents and we enjoy it as much as they do. Grandparents are invited to come in our class at 9:00am. The egg hunt will begin at 9:45 and will last until 10:15 out on the playground. The grandparents can choose to then take their grandchild and have pictures taken with them and the Easter Bunny in the Parish Hall.

April, Lilly, and Eliane

The changes in the weather are clear; March is here!

The children are enjoying the changes! Wearing short sleeves and shorts. :) The beginning of spring means many new possibilities for the children because now we can go outside to work! I have begun to fill a watering bucket at the end of the day for plant watering for the next day. We are also excited to get use out of our sand and water tables out on our patio!

Children love to move their bodies; it is vital to their development. Giving them the opportuni-ty to work with nature in the sunshine and be able to move their bodies is extremely exciting to them! We will be introducing rock scrubbing and egg shell crushing in gardening among many more lessons! Last week the children got to plant new plants in the pots in the front and backof the school. They thoroughly enjoyed learning all of the different names of flowers!

Toddler 3 has also been busy working with smaller manipulatives in the classroom to refine their fine motor skills for primary. Scissor cutting, watercolor, and stamping have been popular works this month! Some of the older 3 year olds also have begun to combine the broad stair and pink tower work with much gentleness and beauty! All the children’s hard work is really showing in their skills!

Toddler 3

Our Best,Toddler 3Ms. Coral, Jaymie, Amy and Hanna

Families of Primary One,

Spring has finally sprung! There will be plenty of time spent outdoors—especially in the garden. Flowers, vegetables, and all kinds of other fun stuff will be in bloom this season. Our children have been eagerly viewing out of our classroom window, hoping to spot one of the birds they have learned about in previous weeks in gardening with Ms. Loree. We’ve already had cardinals visiting us in the morning and during lunchtime!

Children have been diligently working on their handwriting and math skills. Rainbow Writing and the Addition Strip Board are just some examples that provide them with opportunities for fine (small) motor movement and control in written language, and a hands-on approach to solving simple addition equations.

We continue to practice our letter sounds by using the sound book every day when we gather together for circle time. Ms. Amaris is utilizing the Large Moveable Alphabet to demonstrate how to combine individual letter sounds to form a three-letter, short vowel words (e.g. hat, pen, pig, mop, sun).

Cheers,Ms. Amaris & Ms. Kim

As always, if you have any concerns, questions and/or comments please contact us either before/after school, or at primary1.sjes.gmail.com.

We hope that our kindergarten parents are still having success and enjoying the weekly readers!

Remember that we will be celebrating Grandparent’s Day next Thursday, April 2nd. This will also be the day of our annual Easter Egg Hunt! The children can hardly contain their excitement!

Our younger children are having lessons in geography and are using the continent globe and map of the world to experience the land and water that make up our world. They are learning to name the seven different continents and identify various land and water forms.

Primary 1

AHHHHH-----recess everyday. Your children are very happy about that! BUT, “rain is good for the environment, rain is good for the environment.” We will gladly accept the rain when it comes; but when it does not come, we sure do enjoy the outdoor unstruc-tured play time.

In our classroom we are talking about seasonal changes and how wonderful rain is in enabling new growth. We have discussed how Spring is a season where the grass and the trees bloom green, and how certain trees and shrubs bloom in vibrant colors. We discuss this in “group time” so everyone has an opportunity to add to the discussion. We talk about how nature and theenvironment change in such a wonderful way. The students have so much to share about what happens to our environment during the different seasons. It is fascinating to hear a child’s perspective about what happens in nature.

We will change the “rotating” works in our classroom to materials that reflect Spring. We will soon start taking a “nature basket” to the playground so students can collect “nature.” We will put what is collected in the basket on our science shelf and it will be a “work” available for students to independently choose.

ENJOY THE OUTDOORS AND THE SPRING WITH YOUR CHILDREN!

All the best,Mrs. Barrineau and Ms. Marla

Primary 2

March has been an action-packed month! Between the winter storm, spring break, and some exciting visitors, the month has truly flown by.

This month, we have been studying the continent of Europe. We have been reading Anatole Over Paris by Eve Titus and The Littlest Matryoshka by Corinne Demas Bliss. We have discussed the flags, foods, animals, and different languages in Europe. And, of course, we pointed out Italy - the birthplace of Maria Montessori - and Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day.

On March 24, Maxim Chekanovskiy (Alexander’s dad) came to share with us about Russia. We learned about the Russian alphabet, language, and culture. We saw examples of toys, handicrafts, and looked at family photos. We even got to sample some Russian cookies! Yum!

Returning to school after spring break was a clear reminder of how quickly children learn and grow at this age. We notice new social awareness, attention to detail, and focus in the younger students. In the older students, we notice how their eyes light up as they master a math concept, blend their letters to read a word, or discover a new geography or science lesson.

Alex sewing a pillow Sterling cleaning her shoes on a muddy day

Maxim teaching the children about Russia

Yuki Whitmire (Patrick’s mom) came to visit on March 19 to share with us about Japan. (This visit had been schedule for February’s Asia study but was snowed-out and rescheduled.) The children learned about the Japanese alphabet, clothing, architecture, and geographic features. Yuki also brought rice balls and sweet rice crackers to share. The children loved them!

You may have heard (or seen the Facebook post) about our final visitor: Ms. Julia and baby MariaJose! She stopped by on the afternoon of March 20 and children were so happy to see her.

Our March birthdays are MJ Smith (turned 6), Chloe Tinker (turned 4), and Astrid Huerta (turned 5). Thank you also for the sweet surprise birthday celebration for Ms. Tamara (a June birthday)! It was wonderful to be surrounded by so many hugs, birthday cards, and lovely flowers! Thank you for that kindness.

Ms. Tamara and Ms. Monica

Primary 3

Yuki teaching the children about Japan

Ms. Julia and MariaJose come to visit

Primary4

March has been such an exciting month! We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day and the beginning of spring. We learned that St. Patrick was from England and was held captive in Ireland. After escaping, St. Patrick used a three leaf clover to teach others about the Holy Trinity. As a class, we located both England and Ireland on our classroom map rug.

On March 20, we all took a walk outside searching for the first signs of spring. The children heard birds chirping and discovered that trees in the garden were beginning to bloom! Even our zebra finches are enjoying spring; the female has laid 7 eggs and the children are excited about the pos-sibility of observing them hatch soon!

The weather has been so beautiful that we have spent some of our work time outdoors. The chil-dren loved soaking up the warm sunshine while having a lesson on the life cycle of a sunflower and reading books in the garden. The children also enjoyed many fun spring works including butterfly sorting, salt dough with duckling cookie cutters, apple tasting, and flower punching.

Miss Elizabeth and Mrs. Ashley

“Free the child’s potential and you will transform him into the world.”

~Maria Montessori

March in the Children’s GardenCashel trying to pull up the spent broccoli. It went to seed and needs to be pulled in order to make room for spring crops.

This is a big job that requires a lot of friend’s help!

Brady, Declan and Freddie are helping with clean up duties.

The toddlers helped replace all the fall color with beautiful spring flowers and festive Easter Eggs. Now our entryway containers are filled with Impatiens, Gerbera Daisies, Variegated Oxalis, Alyssum and Sweet Potato Vines! How beautiful!

After School Care:

The toddlers and primary are both enjoying new crafts and the lovely spring weather - may it continue. I have had several parents ask about playtime outside. To keep the children safe, we must allow the toddlers and primary to have separate playtimes. The primary will be on the playground until 4:30pm and the toddlers will be on the playground from 4:30pm – 5:30pm. As always, if you need to contact me during ASC hours, please call the school 214-348-1349 and listen for the prompts for the ASC exten-sion.

Happy Spring,Lisa Wilson

ASC

What a quick and exciting month! I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break, and this beautiful spring weather we have been having.

The second year students finished their Henri Matisse inspired project this month, and they turned out so well. Ask your child about their “hidden picture” and see if you can find it in their piece! As a different way to display their artwork, try putting their picture in a sunny window. The sunlight coming through the tissue paper is beautiful!

The kindergarten students have been working very hard on their self portraits. We have studied famous artists and their self portraits such as Frieda Kahlo and Picasso. We even did a Kahlo inspired self portrait where we gave ourselves uni-brows - just like she did. Everyone really got a kick out of it! The children have learned the correct placement of all their features, and they are now working on painting their final portrait. This is a difficult lesson, and I am so proud of all of their hard work!

In technology we completed our unit on lego robotics! We had a friendly compe-tition on the last day, and each team built their own robot. It was exciting! The children loved watching their Legos come to life!

Our next unit will be on PowerPoint! The children will get to choose their favorite Montessori work to present, and then incorporate it into a PowerPoint presenta-tion. They will get to use all of the skills they have learned throughout the year to create this project. I’m looking forward to this exciting and challenging unit!

Happy Spring!Ms. Hanna

Art and Technology

March is one of my favorite months to teach Chapel. There are so many wonderful lessons and stories to cover! March is when the bulk of Lent is observed in the church and is a time for repentance, reflection and reconciliation. We repent from bad choices we’ve made over the year by fully turning away from them. We reflect on where we have been and look forward to where we are going. Most importantly we are reconciled with God and join Him in the Easter celebration!! All of these things are taught to our students in a modified version. The children have really enjoyed learning about the season of Lent.

Another fun topic is that of St. Patrick! Did you know that St. Patrick was not Irish? He was born in Scotland in 387 A.D. He was kidnapped by Irish pirates and was sold into slavery. After he escaped, he returned to Ireland as a missionary. He used the three leaf clover to share the idea of the Trinity. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit! It is so important to know the history of why we do the things we do. It truly brings a whole new meaning to why we celebrate this great Saint who spread the word about God’s unending love.

I hope you all had a fabulous spring break and the next time you see a three leaf clover you will remember about God’s Great BIG love for us!

Blessings,Ashley WoodruffChristian Ed. Director Chapel