It's a wrap - week one back at school September 2020!  We did it! Exhausted teachers and I'm sure exhausted children too!! 

 

Business first: Thanks for your patience, especially at arrival and dismissal times - it's getting more efficient each day but here's a suggestion and an approved option:  if you are dropping off/ picking up preschoolers, Kindergartners (and siblings in first or second grade) feel free to park in the area opposite our playground and carefully walk your children across. If you prefer to stay in the drop off line, that's fine too.

 

Our three Montessori classes are referred to as follows: Garinim (hebrew for seeds) our two year old class with Morah Nicole, (and shared days) Morah Sherri and Morah Miriam.  Alim (leaves) three and four year olds with Morah Sandy and Morah Marisol. Anafim (branches) with Morah Lana and Morah Sheryl. Morah Theresa is our Extended Day teacher.

 

MAZAL TOV to Nicky and Serge Golos and big brother Zev  ( Garinim class) on the birth of baby Ella May! Looking forward to meeting her one day!

 

Here's a little of what we did this week:

 

We had a great first week of school. The children are getting acclimated to our classroom and are learning where their cubbies are, how to take things from shelves and put them back, and our daily routine. We have begun group time learning the days of the week, and the weather song; see the lyrics below:
What’s the weather, what’s the weather?
What’s the weather like today?
Can you tell us what’s the weather, what’s the weather like today?
Is it sunny, is it cloudy, is it windy or is there rain?
Is it foggy, is it snowing, what’s the weather like today?
We have been talking about colors in our classroom and made “paint bags”, ziplock sealed bags filled with different colored paints. It allows the children to “draw” on the bags or just squeeze the paint. A great sensory experience! The big easel has been a hit in our classroom too, and the children take turns stepping up on to the stool to take their turn with the paint brushes.
We are looking forward to another busy week! 

 

 

Everyone was happy to be back at school! Most returning students and a few new children helping one another navigate a Montessori classroom.  We spend the mornings together; everyone working on various activities, refreshing on the familiar and moving on from there... Our general theme this week was FRIENDSHIP and included discussion and ideas of what constitutes a good friend. Fox makes a Friend, by Adam Relf is a favorite story and encouraged some to 'make a friend' with recycled materials and some colorful tape.  Each day we present one classroom rule (referred to in a Montessori classroom as a Grace and Courtesy) which included, this week, how to carry a chair, unroll a work mat, how to politely interrupt someone and how to walk around a friend's mat without disturbing them.  We have assigned jobs, changing daily, starting this week with a calendar friend (updating the date and weather board) and someone drawing the day's weather on the weather chart. After snack and lunch children help clean up, including sweeping and vacuuming!  This is OUR classroom and we all help.  We played 'Morah Lana Says' with body parts called out in English and some in Hebrew (goof - back, beten - stomach and rosh - head).

The children are delightful, engaging, making new friends and enjoy time on both playgrounds, including jumping in puddles and getting wet and muddy. Gym this week with Coach Oren was an obstacle course on our playground, jumping through hoops and in and around cones, rope climbing up the ramp and down the slide.  

 

Keshet(rainbow) is the name for our kindergartners. In addition to our Montessori activities, Keshet students have Hebrew with Morah Shira, and additional music, art and gym class each week.  In math we are exploring number bonds,  As number stories were told, the children used little colored bears (Tuesday),  various toy cars (Wednesday) and colored cubes (on Thursday) to manipulate, sort and compare.  On Wednesday they were already asking what the story was going to be.  We read the big book Will You Be My Friend? by Eric Carle and started with story telling. All the words were covered up and we picture read, each child taking a turn to suggest the text, page by page.  When the words were revealed, we discussed quotation marks and created voices for words spoken.  

 

See our first week's pictures here photos.app.goo.gl/sDJUCpHTAXSW7fc78

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy Labor Day!

Shabbat Shalom.

See you on Tuesday,

 

Morah Lana, Morah Sheryl, Morah Nicole, Morah Sherri, Morah Miriam, Morah Sandy, Morah Marisol, Morah Theresa