"Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3 

As we strive to press on and acknowledge Him who brings us the seasons, we are celebrating spring's arrival with all things rainy, sunny, muddy and wriggly. Splashing in puddles, digging for worms and watching for rainbows are some of the children's favorite activities these days, and we're loving all of it! Take a look at what we have been up to in the classroom over the past few weeks.

LITERACY: We are enjoying all of the reading that is going on in the classroom right now! Confidence is growing in many of our students as they start to master the skill of blending sounds together into words, and it's so fun to see. And for those who are not yet in their own personal "reading readiness window," they are enjoying stories, puzzles, games and activities that continue to expose them to letter names and sounds. This is a widely varied area of development for children at this age, so we continue to see many different levels of readiness. Our job is to meet each child where he or she is at the moment, encouraging and supporting along the way.

As we continue through our year of fairy tales, we have finished many different versions of Little Red Riding Hood, combining these stories with our study of safety and stranger awareness as well. Next we are moving on to The Three Little Pigs, both traditional and fractured versions. These are really fun stories, and the Kindergarten group will enjoy a day of building and experimenting with wind as we finish up this study.

MATH: There is a whole lot of math progress hitting the classroom lately! Most of the younger students are mastering the numerals and quantities up to nine, and many are beginning to correctly write the numerals as well. Many of the "middle-aged" students are now working with our beadstairs for addition work and for mastering the concept of equivalencies.The Kindergarten children have worked extensively with the gold bead material, focusing on place value up to 999 and have also enjoyed writing their own number sentences on the white boards.

We have introduced more shapes to the children, looking at quadrilaterals. They particularly enjoy saying the word parallelogram! Soon we will learn the names of the solid shapes, as well.

SCIENCE: Our invertebrate study is fully about worms right now as we spot them every time we are outside for recess. The Kindergarten boys even went to the trouble to build a worm hotel! Worms are truly fascinating animals and are vital to healthy soil and, therefore, vital to a healthy food supply, too. Of course, the most fun part of this study has been the freedom to talk about worm poop on a daily basis! Does your child remember what gardeners and scientists call it? (Castings!) Is your child able to tell you some worm facts?

The fun we are having with worms leads us right into our seed and plant study. This week each child will start some seeds in his or her own little greenhouse. Once the seeds begin to germinate, they will be planted in soil...some to go home and some to remain at school. This is always a fun activity as we watch dry, wrinkly seeds swell up and begin to sprout into living plants! 

Now that the Kindergarten group is finishing up its project of making some beautiful world maps (on display in the classroom), the whole class will begin the ever-popular study of our solar system!

SOCIAL STUDIES AND MUSIC: As we prepare for our spring performance of Children Around the World, we are learning about what life is like for children from all over the globe. We are also enjoying learning a whole lot of new songs to sing for all of you! Please plan to join us on April 26 for this special program.

THINGS TO PONDER:
​A Return to Gentleness
As we are currently studying gentleness in our Bible time, I can't help but be reminded of  “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” a wonderful show from my childhood. With the recent release of a documentary on Mr. Rogers, along with an upcoming movie about him, the show has been in the news again. When I think of Fred Rogers, I think of the perfect embodiment of the fruit of the spirit, gentleness, an attribute that is sorely lacking in our world today. Mr. Rogers was actually an ordained minister who chose a children’s television show as the vehicle for his ministry. Although he may seem slow and deliberate and old-fashioned in our current fast-paced, loud society, he was an unfailing example of gentleness. His show was quiet, calm and well-planned, rich in vocabulary and concepts. Each episode was crafted to encourage children to be kind, helpful, confident and creative. Unfortunately, we are raising children in a world that is anything but gentle; we see this in conversations and interactions and as we are bombarded by horrific news stories that remind us of just how broken our world is. As parents and as teachers we strive every day to model gentleness to the children and to encourage their gentle behavior and choices. Although we are not big proponents of screen time, we encourage you to consider allowing your children to watch some episodes of Mr. Rogers. They will be exposed to a true spirit of gentleness that will serve them well and, perhaps, help them contribute a little gentleness to our world.

We enjoy being fully back into the swing of things after the Christmas break and are thankful that God has continued to bless the teachers with good health and energy during this nasty flu season. God's spirit of strength and steadfastness is evident in the classroom as we watch the children growing and learning by leaps and bounds. They are really amazing! Here are some of the things we have been working on:

LITERACY: We continue to see great strides in this area as children are solidifying their letter and sound recognition, starting to read and write independently and enjoying a lot of fun fairy tales in class. We finished our alphabet snacks with Zoo Animal Crackers and have been spending time learning about our important vowels, A-E-I-O-U. Some of the students are now working on long vowel rules, which can be a tricky transition, so we are reminding them to be patient. This takes time! We are thoroughly enjoying more fairy tales, spending time with Goldilocks and the Three Bears right now. The fractured versions of this classic story are proving to be very entertaining! So far, the favorite has been Somebody and the Three Blairs. Rhyming and opposites are the literacy concepts we are tackling next. These can be difficult concepts for children to grasp, and we don't expect mastery at this level, but it is a good introduction as a foundation for later skills. For some of our students who are learning English as a second language, parents can help support these ideas at home in the child's first language. Once they understand the concepts of opposites and rhymes in their first language, they are more likely to transfer that knowledge to their emerging English vocabulary.
MATH: Measuring and graphing is our newest area of work in the classroom. We are using non-standard measurements and collecting data that can be presented in a graph. So far we have measured the children with wooden blocks, allowing the students to predict their heights, compare their data and build a graph together. The children have also been providing ideas for a type of food that we can do a taste-test on to create another graph...pie seems to be the favorite suggestion so far. Our Kindergarten group is well into our gold bead material in the classroom, working diligently on grasping the concept of place value and, for some, multiple-digit addition.
SCIENCE: Our study of invertebrates now moves into the marine world of cnidarians (jelly fish and corals) and poriferans (sea sponges). How about those new vocabulary words?!?! We are also enjoying learning about how animals survive in the winter, especially the fascinating phenomenon of hibernation. Some of the children might remember what a "true hibernator" is. These animals, such as hedgehogs, stay in a deep sleep through the winter, with their breathing and heart rates slowing to the point they almost appear dead. Other animals, such as bears, go into a light sleep and wake occasionally for a little bit of food and then go back to sleep. The Kindergarten children and soon-to-be Kindergarten children enjoyed a day studying winter, and we had fun wearing "blubber gloves" to see how animals can stay warm in the cold.
MUSIC: We are beginning our study of the orchestra's instrument families as we enjoy listening to Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens. We will also be learning about musical concepts such as tempo and volume during this time. Soon we will be working on our songs for the spring performance with our joyful Little Lambs! 
SOCIAL STUDIES: As we continue our study of the continents, the Kindergarten children are preparing to create their beautiful world maps. This is always a popular rite-of-passage project for our oldest students! As a group we are also studying safety and good choices, beginning with fire safety. Soon we will talk about stranger safety before moving into a look at good choices in relation to screen time. Your child may have asked you to test your smoke detectors at home and might be able to teach you our smoke detector song (sung to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?"):
​If I hear the smoke detector, I get low. Then I go!
Get out of the house, get out of the house.
Now I'm safe! Now I'm safe!


THINGS WE THINK: 
“This is a real job!”  These are the words we overheard one day when a child started raking leaves with his friend.  Word spread quickly that there was a real job to do, and soon children were lined up to get a turn with the rakes.  This perfectly demonstrates the value of meaningful work for children. This was a job with tangible results, a job that helped clean up the playground, and a job that fostered the children’s sense of pride and ownership in their school. Unfortunately, work has quite a negative connotation in our world today, as it has somehow turned into the thing that stops us from being able to do what we truly love, but this is a dangerous idea to give our children.  Good, hard work is valuable and meaningful, in a home, in a business, in a classroom and in the community, and our children need to see that.  The age group we serve at Little Lambs is perfectly suited to enjoying meaningful work; 3-6 year olds LOVE to have jobs that are helpful and useful.  This is the perfect time, then, to instill a desire to work hard and to enjoy the results of a job well done.  This is the perfect time to teach children that, no matter the job, hard work is valuable and worth their effort.  This is the perfect time for children to learn that the type of job you do doesn’t define you, but rather the joy and energy you put into doing it well should give you a sense of worthiness and value.  Taken further, this plants the seed that a child’s “worthiness” comes from the fact that God created him with a plan…regardless of exactly what that plan is.  Whether our children grow up to be teachers, doctors, painters, janitors, truck drivers or farmers, they are worthy just by the nature of their creation, and they can take pride and joy in their hard work and their “real jobs.”  Ecclesiastes 5: 18-20 instructs us that “…it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot.  Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God.  He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.”  It is our prayer that our students would grow to be happy in their work and to be occupied with gladness of heart! 

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As we prepare to come back from Thanksgiving break, we want to be continually mindful of all the blessings for which we are so very grateful. Our Little Lambs students are absolutely one of those blessings! Their beautiful voices, lifted in joyful song during our harvest performance were just amazing. Now we enter the Christmas season with humble hearts, eager to celebrate the arrival of our King. We have a lot of activities going on in the classroom, but here is a peek at what we have already accomplished.

GRACE AND COURTESY: This area is seeing significant growth in the classroom as the students strive to follow our classroom rules and to treat each other with kindness and respect. They are doing very well with being responsible for their environment (cleaning after snack, moving carefully through the classroom, putting away activities, etc.) Some parents have asked how they can foster these "classroom cleaning habits" at home as well, and with Christmas coming up, you may find some interesting gift ideas from a company we use quite a bit, For Small Hands. 
https://www.forsmallhands.com/
LITERACY: We have been enjoying many fun books and activities in this area. Has your child mentioned our "alphabet snacks"? Each day we have a snack starting with a different letter of the alphabet. So far we have enjoyed all of the following: A-apples, B-bagels, C-cucumbers, D-donuts and dairy (string cheese), E-English muffins, F-friend's birthday treat, G-grapes, H-hot dogs and hot cocoa...this was the favorite so far! It has been fun to hear the children guess what the next snack will be, allowing us not only to reinforce the phonics aspect of this activity, but also to talk about the scientific concept of predictions/hypotheses. And in the social and emotional realm, this gives the children chances to handle being "wrong" if they don't guess our snack. This is really difficult for some children, but it is an absolutely essential emotional skill to have. On an individual level, we have a whole lot of independent reading going on in the classroom, with several of the students working through our reading and spelling equipment. Many of the children are also working on lower case alphabet printing, enjoying one-on-one time with Mrs. Sallak for this activity. In our fairy tale study, we have been reading all kinds of Gingerbread Boy variations and discussing what is similar and what is different among all of the stories. Does your child remember some of the books we have read? (Gingerbread Boy, Gingerbread Girl, Gingerbread Cowboy, Gingerbread Baby, etc.) Soon the children will be acting out the story in class!
MATH: The class' math skills are marching right along, with each child making his or her own steady progress. Our younger children are working on recognizing numerals and quantities to 9, and some are also working on the written numerals. Many of the older children are working with concepts of addition and place value, up to 19. The children are also enjoying activities that encourage sorting, categorizing, classifying, comparing and contrasting. Soon we will be exploring graphs and measuring!
SCIENCE: We have now moved into our second invertebrate group, arachnids. We are enjoying learning about the fascinating world of spiders and the amazing things they can do. We will have some fun craft projects and songs as we study these little critters.The Kindergarten students will be starting a series of science lessons on magnets this week. This is always a fun series as the students also start to learn how to work within the scientific method.

Parenting Thought: With the Christmas season upon us, I'm sure most of your children are already making wish lists and dreaming of new toys and gifts. As parents, though, how do we navigate this time of year in a way that fosters reverence, kindness and thoughtfulness? How do we avoid a sense of entitlement and the appearance of greediness in our children as they are bombarded with commercials promoting all the latest and greatest items? How do we encourage grateful hearts and selflessness, while still allowing our children to enjoy the excitement and joy of Christmas traditions? These can be difficult questions to answer, but now, while your children are young, is the best time to be mindful and intentional in how you choose to handle this season, setting habits for years to come.

I had an eye-opening moment several years ago that prompted my husband and I to significantly change our gift-buying habits. I was cleaning out our kids' closets right after school got out for the summer, and I found four Christmas gifts that had never even been taken out of their packages. They had been unwrapped and then stashed away and forgotten. Clearly, our children had been inundated with so much "stuff," they couldn't even enjoy it. After that, we made drastic cuts to what our children receive each year, aligning our choices with the following poem: "Something you want, something you need, something to do and something to read." Each child gets two gifts per category. This has worked well for our family and has forced us to think carefully about the gifts we choose, while also freeing up time and money that can be used to help others during the holiday season. With those thoughts in mind, here are some ideas to get you started as you ponder the best way for your family to celebrate "the most wonderful time of the year." 

• With the starting point of 2 Corinthians 9:7, "...God loves a cheerful giver," help your child focus on what he or she can give to others during the Christmas season. A hand-drawn card for Grandma and Grandpa? Inviting a friend over to play? Helping shop for toys for underprivileged children? Helping clean up the children's area at church? Shifting your child's focus away, even briefly, from what he wants and onto what he can give, is very meaningful. 
• Plan gifts that are not "things." Although toys are fun and exciting and provide some entertainment on Christmas day, also try to include gifts of your time and attention, such as a planned trip to the Children's Museum, the ice rink, a local park...anything that gives you time together. 
  
• Limit your child's exposure to screen time. Corporations actively seek to market their wares to children as young as 18 months old, hoping to build brand loyalty and a customer base as early in a child's life as possible. The more your child has access to screen time, the more she is flooded with enticing advertisements that inevitably lead to the "gimmes,"  especially in the time leading up to Christmas.
  
• Plan a few nights during the hectic Christmas season that your family can be together at home, without an agenda, without electronics. Use this time to play games, build with blocks, bake, craft, read and relax.
• Approach each decision regarding gifts, events, gatherings, etc. with purpose and intention. Carefully consider how to, even in this hectic time, keep your plans in line with 1 Corinthians 10:31, "...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 
  

We have enjoyed a wonderful start to the school year as we get to know all of our joyful Little Lambs. They are filling the classroom with happiness and energy and enthusiasm...it's wonderful! Here is a look at what we have been working on during our first month of school:

GRACE AND COURTESY: This area has been one of our biggest focuses in the first few weeks of school as we establish classroom expectations and routines. We have focused on learning and living the classroom rules: use gentle hands and feet; use calm words and voices; obey the first time. These are simple to remember with repetition, and they work in any situation. The children also have been learning to greet teachers with good eye contact, a handshake and a "Good morning," as well as working to remember to stand and offer a greeting when an adult enters the classroom. In addition, our students are learning how to care for their environment by being responsible to push in their chairs, to move carefully around their friends' activities, and to clean up after themselves at snack time. They are doing a wonderful job!
​LITERACY: We enjoyed beginning our year with a Read-a-Thon fundraiser for the Aloha Community Library, reading a lot of books to go with our studies. We raised $160 for the library! Our year has also started with one of our favorite lessons...fairy tales! We will continue with this at least through Christmas, enjoying many different stories, some fractured fairy tales, dramatic reenactments, science activities and even fairy tale snacks. We have also introduced the lower case letters by name and sound and have read many books highlighting the alphabet. As we move through the alphabet, we are learning how to sign each letter in sign language. As children demonstrate readiness, they will begin working with the reading activities in the classroom. This readiness develops at a different pace for each student, but typically is present sometime during a child's four-year-old year. How can you promote literacy at home? Very simple...provide plenty of books and limit screen time!
MATH: Patterns, patterns everywhere! Our year has started with a lot of time looking for, recognizing and creating patterns. The children are getting very adept at this skill! We are also enjoying sorting and classifying activities with the Montessori equipment and are getting to know the ten plane geometric shapes. As they are ready, children are working on numeral and quantity recognition, written numerals and the concept of addition. We are counting our days of school, leading to the ever-so-popular 100th Day of School sometime in the spring. As we mark days off on our chart, we are looking at how the numbers lead to the next group of ten. The Kindergarten children are working with the gold bead materials in the classroom to understand the decimal hierarchies as they prepare for future math activities.
SCIENCE: Our year began with a look at how to classify the things we observe in creation, first learning the difference between living and non-living. We learned that living things are then classified into plants (living things that make their own food) and animals (living things that have to hunt/harvest their food). Animals are then classified into vertebrates (last year's study) and invertebrates. We certainly don't expect that every child has mastered all of this information. As with everything in the Montessori classroom, we want to provide exposure to concepts and information so that children can absorb as they are ready. We have just started our first invertebrate group, insects. Can your child tell you something that makes an animal an insect? (Three body parts, two antennae, six legs, exoskeleton.) In the plant world, we are learning about the parts of a tree and the parts of a leaf. We will also be learning the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees as we discuss the autumn leaves that are now falling all around us. It's a beautiful time of year to be a little scientist!
MUSIC: This group of children likes to sing! We are thoroughly enjoying music time with our Little Lambs as we learn new songs, explore rhythm and practice how to respectfully use the classroom bells. Are you hearing any songs at home? We are now learning the songs and poems that will be part of our harvest celebration and performance on November 9. There is truly always a joyful noise in the classroom!

Parenting Thought:  This section is used to explore topics and struggles that frequently arise in parenting and to address common questions we receive from parents. We will start with a look at fairness and sharing.

​One of the most common things we hear in the classroom is, "Hey, you have to share!" This can be a tricky area to navigate with young children because they tend to think that sharing and fairness mean that everything must be equal. So if a child sees that her friend has gotten two pink ponies out of the box, and she wants one, she is likely to say, "That's not fair! You need to share." In reality, the child who first got the ponies has every right to continue playing with them, if he or she chooses to do so. The fairness in this situation is that the "wanting" child still has access to the other ponies in the box. The child with the pink ponies is not obligated to make everything equal. Some children certainly might choose to offer one of the ponies, but it shouldn't be required. Forcing one child to give up something he or she has a right to have typically fosters resentment, not cooperation. The goal here is to encourage communication and awareness, as children in the 3-6 year old range are usually still in a pretty egocentric time of development. In the classroom, we facilitate this kind of situation by modeling the following requests and responses:

* Instead of "You have to share," we encourage the child to say, "May I have a turn with one of those when you are finished?" This allows the child to state her desire to her peer and creates awareness for the peer that the first child has a request. More often than not, this results in the peer quickly offering to share, without being forced to do so. 
* If a child tries to grab a toy from another child, we encourage the "non-grabber" to say, "I wasn't finished with that yet. May I please have it back?" The child should then wait for the item to be offered back. This can be a little trickier to navigate and occasionally requires teacher assistance to make it work smoothly. 

These habits and behaviors take time and repetition to develop. Many children do not need to deal with sharing at home yet, so the classroom is the perfect place for all of this practice. It isn't easy or quick, but it is well worth the time and effort!

After all the crazy weather at the beginning of the year, it has been nice to have a steady schedule in which to continue and complete our "good work" in the classroom. The children have been busy! Read on to see what we have been working on the past few months.

Grace and Courtesy: We are thrilled to see the growth and maturity in this area for our students as the year moves along. In fact, they are so doing such an amazing job, we consistently receive compliments from members of the community when we are at the park or out on field trips. And last week our photographer said that our class is the highlight of his year because the children are so polite and well-behaved. Thank you for all you do at home to help foster good habits in your children...it is working! We consistently see them demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit, love, kindness and patience. What a blessing!
Literacy: As the class continues to make great strides in this area, we are enjoying stories, songs and games to enhance the children's love of language and reading. These stories and songs are also strengthening our current literacy concept of rhyming. The children are getting good at hearing and recognizing rhymes in our classroom work.
Math: The students are moving full steam ahead through our math curriculum, each at his or her own pace, and they are doing great! In addition to numeral and quantity recognition, place value concepts, subtraction and addition, and written work, we are working on measurement and the concept of ordinal numbers. We also continue to use games and Montessori activities to work on organizing, sorting and classifying, skills that carry over into every area of study. Next up is the study of solid geometric shapes.
Science and Social Studies: We are nicely caught up in these areas as we finish our study of vertebrate groups with a look at birds. The Kindergarten group enjoyed a chilly "Mammal Mania" field trip and hike at the THPRD Nature Park and will have another trip in May to the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge to become further bird experts. We are blessed to have so many resources nearby! It is now time for us to begin our solar system study, always a popular topic with the children. In addition, the Kindergarten group will be studying rocks and minerals as we "dig in" to our beautiful Earth. We are also finishing up our look at the seven continents and the different animals, people and cultures that make up our wonderful world.

THINGS WE THINK: This month we take a look at reading readiness in the Montessori classroom.

Out of all the academic areas of development, reading is probably the one that brings the most questions, worries and, eventually, excitement from parents. Will you teach my child letters? When will my child read? Why isn't my child reading like other children yet? These are very common questions from parents, as we all recognize the joy and confidence that come with reading, as well as the fact that it is a critical skill for future success in any area of study. 

As with all other areas of instruction in the Montessori classroom, our reading curriculum is highly sequential and repetitious in order to allow the child to achieve mastery at his or her pace. All students are given an introduction to the alphabet phonograms at the beginning of the school year, working on both letter names and sounds, primarily with lower case symbols. At that point, the materials and activities are made available to each child individually on a regular basis, as we watch for the child to enter the "sensitive period" for reading acquisition. Most children enter this period between age 4.5 and 5.5, but that doesn't mean each child will fall exactly in that range.

How do we know when a child is in a sensitive period? Some typical clues include the following: the child suddenly craves repetition of a certain skill, wanting the same type of activity over and over; the child shows intense concentration when working with a particular skill; the child is quick to become angry or throw a temper tantrum if interrupted during these moments of concentration and repetition. This is the same regardless of the skill being mastered, such as walking, learning to speak, mastering a sense of order, etc. So, what can be frustrating and confusing behaviors to see as a parent, are often signs that the child has entered a period of sensitivity and is ready to learn a new skill!

In general, once the phonograms have been introduced, and once we see signs of readiness in a child, he or she will begin working to recognize and isolate beginning sounds in words. There are dozens of these activities in the classroom, allowing for plenty of repetition and much language development. When this has been mastered, students move on to blending and building words with three phonetic sounds, followed by those with four phonetic sounds. Once this is a solid skill, the child is introduced to long vowel rules, and we continue from there. The children also work with our set of books that they read in class and then take home to read to their parents so they can share this great new skill!

Watching a child learn to read is one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of parenting and teaching, but it does require patience. We can't hurry it; we can't force it; we can only wait for the child's sensitive period of readiness. It will come!

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"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will."  Romans 12:2

Well, 2017 has gotten off to an interesting start so far, with minimal class time since Christmas break thanks to the beautiful snow we received. We are indeed renewed in our bodies, minds and spirits with this extra time to rest and enjoy God's creation. This has been a peaceful example of God's "good, pleasing and perfect will." However, we are eager to get back into a normal routine in the classroom, whenever the weather allows. Although our schedule has been scattered and rearranged since Thankgiving, we have been able to accomplish a fair amount. Here is a quick recap of what we have been up to, and rest assured that our next few months will be very full as we get back to normal!

Grace and Courtesy: With so many interruptions in our schedule lately, much of our work in this area has been reminding and reteaching the skills we developed at the beginning of the school year: shaking hands and greeting teachers upon arrival, standing when an adult joins us in the classroom, walking carefully around classmates' activities, etc. With our current Bible lessons on forgiveness, we are working on how to apologize and how to accept an apology. For some children, these skills come naturally. For most, however, apologizing is rather difficult...just as it is for adults! We do not force a child to apologize immediately after a bad choice/behavior. Frequently the child needs time to calm down and to process the situation. He or she may not be ready to apologize right away, or even for quite a while. A forced apology doesn't really accomplish anything, so we usually ask the child if he or she is ready to say "I'm sorry." This may need to be repeated several times before an apology happens. In the meantime, the child has lost the privilege of playing with the toy/activity that created the difficulty. Often children have fallen into the habit of responding to an apology with "That's ok." We try to change that habit since the initial behavior, if it resulted in requiring an apology, wasn't ok! This is a chance to lay the foundation for the idea that our behaviors have consequences. That is, although we receive forgiveness, we still may have repercussions from our poor choices. We teach the children that when someone apologizes to them, a good response is "Thank you for apologizing." 
Literacy: There is a whole lot of reading going on in the classroom! We are seeing good, consistent progress that is just right for each child. Many students are now bringing books home as part of our reading program, and several of our younger students are getting very confident with letter names and sounds and with identifying the initial sound in a word. The activities in these pre-reading areas also include a lot of vocabulary for children to learn, so we are now hearing a lot of English from our English language learners! We are just starting the concept of opposites, with books, puzzles and games. This is not only a good literacy concept, it also helps us further develop the children's vocabulary.
Math: Our students are in full swing with our math curriculum as we are seeing daily progress for all the chldren in this area. Depending on his or her readiness, your child may be mastering numeral and quantity recognition to 9, writing numerals to 9, identifying odd and even numerals, sequencing and organizing by size, measuring in non-standard units, adding, subtracting or demonstrating place value concepts to 19, 99 or 9,999! There is a LOT going on in this area of development right now. It's so exciting!
Science: This is the area that is most in need of catching up after all the weather closures, but we have wrapped up our study of reptiles and are moving on to fish as we continue our look at all the vertebrate families. Can your child tell you some of the similarities and differences between mammals and reptiles? We will be working on a Venn Diagram graph to illustrate this idea. We will also be spending some time discussing hibernation and the winter season. More in this area next time!
Social Studies: Much of our work in this area has been tied in with our literacy and Bible times. Many of our stories are focusing on how people live all around the world, and we are particularly enjoying learning about how people lived in the time of the Old Testament stories we are studying. As we look at different homes, clothing, food and transportation, we can also use skills such as classifying and describing, further growing the children's English vocabulary.
Music: Now that we enjoyed a successful Christmas performance, we will be spending some time getting to know the orchestra. We also continue to work with our classroom bells, learning the notes in the C major scale as we train our ears to hear the differences in the notes. There will be more to report from in our next update. In the meantime, enjoy the following "music notes."

THINGS WE THINK: This month we take a look at music in a Montessori classroom.

Music is a vital component of a Montessori classroom and is part of the natural work time on a daily basis. It is used in many ways: as part of sensorial education, to further the development of creativity, and to help reinforce lessons and memorization. Our music instruction includes singing, listening, production with instruments, movement and history. Rather than being separated into its own "class time," music is integrated into our day wherever it fits or wherever it naturally arises. Lessons include work with the bells and work on rhythm, learning note names and rhythmic notation, instruction in dynamics and instruction in the lives of composers. There is a lot going on in this area! Montessori classrooms typically do not bring in specialists to teach subjects such as art or music because we do not want to give the impression that only certain people have those skills. We want the students to feel joyful in their music education, finding happiness in singing and listening to music, finding connections in learning about musicians and composers, finding confidence in approaching a new instrument. If we can help children develop a love and appreciation of music in these early years, we hope it can be a source of joy for a lifetime.


Thank you for letting your Little Lambs make music with us! Happy New Year!

"Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us." Psalm 67:6

It's hard to believe that we've finished two months of school already...it's been so smooth! God has indeed blessed us as we watch your children reap the harvest that their hard work is yielding. They are doing amazing things in the classroom, progressing in all areas every day. We so enjoyed getting the chance to talk with parents at conferences this past week and look forward to continuing to work as a team for your child. As we enter into the busy holiday season, ready to give thanks and to celebrate our Savior's birth, we will continue to work diligently in the classroom. Here is a quick rundown of what we have been doing over the past month.

Grace and Courtesy: This continues to be a good area of growth for the children as we work each day to model polite etiquette. We are increasing our expectations for the children's behavior as the year progresses, and they are very capable to meet the demand! During our Bible lessons on Noah and patience, we incorporated lessons about interrupting. We continue to give reminders to the children, as this is a very hard habit to break at this age. We show them how to wait with patience and ask them to trust that we can see them and will attend to them as soon as we are able. This isn't easy, but they are doing well!
Literacy: We have finished introducing all the basic alphabet phonograms (lower case). We are also learning the alphabet in sign language for some extra multisensory work and greatly enjoy our "Gilly Gilly Good Morning" song that provides more practice in remembering the sound each letter makes. The Kindergarten group has also begun to work on sight words and some of the "H brother" phonograms (sh, th, ch, etc.). Many of the children are working on writing their names independently, using sandpaper and cornmeal as they begin this process. This past month we enjoyed many of the books in the "There Was An Old Lady" series, which provide a great look at both rhyming and sequencing concepts.
Math: We have wrapped up our big look at patterns and are moving into graphing as a way to organize our data. So far we have created two graphs in the classroom, and the children are enjoying these projects. Thank you to all the moms and siblings who tasted apples with us to add more data to our apple graph. Red apples were the clear winner! In addition to our work with graphs and charts, we continue to do activities that develop concepts of comparing, sorting, spatial awareness and geometry. And, of course, there is always much work in the classroom on numerals, quantities and place value. As each child shows his or her readiness to move forward with math skills, we gladly provide the opportunity!
​Science: As we conclude our mammal study with a look at marine mammals such as dolphins and whales, we are amazed at all of the information your children are absorbing! Next we will spend time with reptiles, learning as much as we can about this fascinating group of animals. We also will be observing the changing leaves and learning about this process as we watch the fall season unfold. Our Kindergarten students have been enjoying different science lessons on shadows and gravity over the past few weeks. There was a heated race in our gravity game last Friday; you can see photos on our Facebook page.
​Social Studies: This time of year brings our lessons on the Native Americans and Pilgrims as we prepare for Thanksgiving and our harvest party and performance. The children are learning what it was like to be a child on The Mayflower and about how helpful Samoset and Squanto were to the Pilgrims, helping them survive in this new land. These lessons continue to incorporate our look at maps and our work to learn the names of the continents.
Music: Much of our music time in the past few weeks has been spent learning songs for our upcoming performance. We can't wait to share with you all they have learned! We also continue to work with our classroom set of bells, learning how to match the bells by sound and how to discern the difference between going up the scale and going down the scale.
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​THINGS WE THINK:​ This month we take a closer look at math in our Montessori classroom.

Long before there is any awareness of the complex processes involved in algebra, calculus and geometry calculations, the young child will ask "How many?" or "How far?" or "How long?" These questions naturally lead the child into the world of math. Dr. Montessori, after lengthy, detailed observations of young children, developed the math curriculum that is used today in Montessori classrooms around the world. She came to realize that once a child could count to nine and comprehend the quantities to nine, he could just as easily count to nine tens, or nine hundreds, or nine thousands. She created the gold bead materials that so perfectly and simply illustrate the decimal system. They allows the child to visually recognize the hierarchies involved and their relation to one another. In keeping with her methods and philosophy, at Little Lambs we begin by introducing the numerals and quantities 0-5 until the student has mastered those concepts. We then build on that to introduce 6-9. Once these are solid concepts for the child, we transition into 11-19, focusing a great deal on place value here, working with the gold bead system. This is often the most challenging area for students as there is a lot to absorb, but once this is mastered, the child usually moves fairly smoothly into grasping 20-99. The plan stays the same, focusing on place value concepts throughout. The same system is then used to master 100-9,999. This is not necessarily a fast process, but it is very logical and systematic and always supported by manipulatives. Dr. Montessori's equipment allows for both numeral and quantity recognition all the way to 9,999 in the early childhood classroom. Our Kindergarten group works on this a great deal with one-on-one work with the teacher. As a child is ready during this process, he is also introduced to the concept of equivalancies and addition, always with the use of manipulatives. Dr. Montessori's materials allows the elementary child to progress through addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in a clear, hands-on way, always working with concrete materials before being expected to master memorization. The goal in our classroom is simply an introduction to these concepts without any expectation that the child will memorize any math facts. In this way, we hope the child develops a sense of confidence and competence in math, firmly understanding basic concepts, ready to tackle higher level work as he progresses through his school career.

As we close out the first month of school, we can attest to the power of "the Helper, the Holy Spirit" in our classroom. This has been an amazing beginning to the school year, probably our best ever! We have seen evidence of all of the Fruits of The Spirit in the children: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. We are so blessed by our students and their families every day. Here is a look at what we have been working on in this first month of school:

Bible: We use The Beginner's Bible curriculum for this portion of our day, alternating from year to year between Old Testament and New Testament. This year we will be studying the Old Testament. We began the year working on the ideas of Who Is God? and What Is The Bible? Now we are moving fully into the OT curriculum, beginning with creation. 
Grace and Courtesy: We have spent much time this first month working on habits that are gracious and courteous and that help keep the classroom running smoothly. The children have been learning to respond quickly to the bell, giving the teacher their full attention in order to receive instructions. The bell is our primary classroom management tool, as it is quick and easy, as well as being portable for field trips and for play time at the park. The students have been mastering other practical and polite skills such as being careful with our books, walking in the classroom, pushing in their chairs and walking around a friend's activity, rather than through or over it. In addition, we have worked on other courteous manners such as shaking hands, greeting the teachers with good eye contact and a "big" voice, standing when an adult enters the classroom to visit, and answering the teachers with "Yes, Mrs. _______" rather than "yeah." We are so impressed with how all of the children are doing in this area!
Literacy: Our days have been full of books and songs as we strive to enrich the children's emerging vocabulary and grasp of the complex English language. We are enjoying clapping the rhythm of our names and objects in the classroom. At this point, it is just a fun game, but it is actually training the children's ears to hear distinct syllables in the language. We have started our formal introduction of the letter names and sounds, and will continue working our way through the alphabet. We use a phonics-based method of instruction, so much emphasis is placed on learning the sound each letter makes, not only its name. We use primarily lower case writing in the classroom since this is how most of English is written. Please keep in mind that this is an introduction, only. In no way are we expecting that our 3- and 4-year-olds are mastering this skill. In keeping with the Montessori philosophy, the information is offered and available, but we wait on the child to show his or her readiness. And when it comes to reading, the span of readiness is huge! Some children come to us reading at age 3, and some children are ready to read around age 5 or 6. There is no rush right now! September was Shel Silverstein's birthday, so we have enjoyed some of his books as well, especially The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece. Our Kindergarten students have begun independent writing in their personal journals. This is a fun way to see each child's progress through the year!
Math: This particular group of students has a fairly firm math foundation in place already, so we are just moving right along. The children are in various stages of learning numeral recognition, producing accurate quantities, mastering written numerals, grasping the idea of place value as well as understanding concepts of addition and subtraction. This is an enormous range of skills because we have a wide range of ages and abilities. Please don't worry if your child isn't doing any or all of these activities yet. We also are working on "non-numeral" math skills such as shape recognition, pattern recognition and categorizing. These are vital to future math success and can be introduced in fun ways with this age group.
Science: This year's science curriculum will focus on the vertebrate family in the animal kingdom: mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians and birds. We will finish the year with some time on invertebrates. Right now we are learning about mammals and learning specifically about squirrels; bats will be up next. Our look at these animals will also tie in to our study of the changing seasons and hibernation. Is your child able to tell you something that makes an animal a mammal? (Has fur/hair, has a backbone, is warm-blooded, mother's body makes milk for babies, babies are born live-except the platypus and echidna). We learned that a squirrel home is called a drey and that it has two rooms, one of which is a nursery for the babies! The Kindergarten group will be kicking off their science lessons soon with a look at gravity.
Social Studies: Social studies is highly integrated into our entire curriculum, from Bible to science, as we look at cultures, geography and animals from around the world. We began with a brief introduction to globes and maps, and we are working on learning the names of the seven continents. We do not believe that children at this age require "diversity" instruction; the integrated nature of this area of study just naturally teaches children about many different regions and cultures and peoples. In keeping with our Bible curriculum, we are learning that all of God's creation is valuable and precious.
Music: In addition to enjoying many songs in class as we prepare for our harvest performance, we are working on the idea of rhythm as a "sound pattern," and we are learning how to use our classroom set of bells. The bells allow the child to create beautiful music, while developing a strong pincer grasp and good self-control. Eventually the bells are used to introduce the names of the notes in the C Major scale and to train the child's ear to hear matching tones. Along with all of this joyful noise, we are also teaching the children the importance of "finding silence." We do some brief deep breathing to calm our bodies and then just enjoy a few moments of silence in the classroom. In our noisy, overwhelming world, this is a valuable skill for all of us to learn and practice on a regular basis.

THINGS WE THINK: This section will be used each month in a variety of ways, such as to highlight a particular area of our curriculum, to answer common parent questions or to provide developmentally appropriate parenting tips. Please comment or email if you have any particular topics you'd like to see addressed! We will begin this month with a look at our Bible curriculum and our approach to Biblical instruction for this age group.

As you well know, it is an awesome privilege and responsibility to deliver God's Word to a child. At Little Lambs we use The Beginner's Bible curriculum that is designed to offer a scripture verse each week, highlighting a certain character trait as illustrated form a story in the Bible. We read the story on Monday and begin practicing the verse. On Tuesday and Wednesday we have more stories that highlight Monday's lesson, as well as more practice on the week's memory verse. On Thursday, the students have a chance to recite the verse in front of the class, and then they have a picture to color and take home.

This year we are studying the Old Testament (with a brief journey into the New Testament at Christmas and again at Easter). The OT allows us to delve into the character of God as powerful, strong, loving and eternal, and it lays a foundation for children and adults to learn what God expects of us. However, the OT also includes many of the stories that can be overwhelming or frightening to a child. Stories such as Joseph being sold by his brothers, and the plagues on Egypt are confusing, at best, for this age group. Fortunately, most of our students have been shielded from the true ugliness that is in the world...it is baggage that is too heavy for a child to bear. Some of these stories can raise questions to which the children are not yet developmentally ready to hear the answers. Our goal during our Bible instruction is always to deliver God's Word in an age-appropriate manner that first and foremost exposes the child to God's loving and eternal nature. Although we do focus on God's expectations and rules for us, and we do discuss the very real presence of sin and its consequences, we want God's love and forgiveness to be front and center in the students' minds so they can grow in a confident, loving relationship with God, one that allows them to unwrap and understand more and more of His Word as they grow and mature.

"May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us - yes, establish the work of our hands." Psalm 90:17

Dr. Montessori observed that the child's hands lead his mind, and we see this daily in the classroom. But we are reminded in this scripture that God establishes the work of our hands, and it is our prayer that we would be good guides for the busy little hands that have been placed in our care. God has clearly rested His favor upon Little Lambs as our school year has gotten well under way, and we are so happy with all that the children are accomplishing. Here is a look at what we have been doing in the classroom:

Bible: This year we are studying the New Testament, primarily the life and ministry of Jesus. Most weeks, your child will bring home our Bible story and verse on Monday and then have an opportunity to recite the memory verse on Thursday.

Literacy: The entire class has had an introduction to all of the letter names and sounds, and we have been working on recognizing the five vowels. The Kindergarten group has also been working on 2-letter phonograms, specifically the "h family": sh, th, ch, ph. They have also been focusing on sight words in their reading and in their independent journal writing. As each child is ready, he or she will work through our phonics-based equipment and activities in the classroom. Please remember, the acquisition of reading skills is highly variable from child to child. Our job as teachers is to continue offering access to the materials and to be ready for the child's personal window of readiness. It is so exciting when it comes, but in the meantime we wait patiently and allow the child to seek what he or she needs in the moment.

We enjoyed our "Fall Into A Good Book" fundraiser for the Aloha Community Library, easily meeting our goal of 100 books to raise $100 for the library. We are looking forward to attending story time at ACL on November 18th. Currently we are working on sequencing and retelling with some of the stories we read in the classroom, putting events in order. We have also spent time understanding the components of a book (cover, title, author, etc.) and how to take care of a book.

Math: The children enjoyed studying patterns as the school year began, and they did very well with this concept! The Kindergarten class made lovely nature patterns at the park, with leaves, sticks and acorns, and they enjoyed finding patterns at the apple farm on their field trip. We are now studying the idea of odd/even numbers, working on putting items in groups of two to see if anything is left over without a partner. This concept has been coming along nicely for many of the students! As children are ready, they are building their numeral and quantity recognition and being introduced to the idea of place value. Our Kindergarten group is now working extensively with our gold bead materials to explain and solidify place value up to 9,999. 

Science: Our science studies this year revolve around various habitats around the world. We just wrapped up our woodland forest study and are beginning a look at our amazing oceans. We had fun building "nests" in the park and collecting leaves for our leaf rubbings. Perhaps your child can tell you about some of the animals we learned about during the first months of school. Can he or she tell you the difference between nocturnal and diurnal animals? Or the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees? We very much enjoyed this study and are excited to dive into our ocean time!

Music: We have been enjoying a lot of time in the classroom singing as we prepare for our performance on November 12th. Many of our songs also fit into our forest study as we sing about trees, owls, squirrels and more. Our set of classroom bells is now out and available as children demonstrate responsibility and readiness to use this special Montessori equipment. We have focused on proper care and use of the bells and will soon move into matching the bells by sound and learning the names of the notes in the C major scale.

Grace and Courtesy/Personal Responsibility: As exciting as it is to observe the children's academic progress, their growth in the social and emotional areas of development is truly our greatest joy. These are the areas where we can see the Fruits of The Spirit growing and maturing, and it is wonderful! To this end, we spend a lot of time in the classroom working on grace and courtesy (eye contact, shaking hands, standing to greet a visitor, table manners, etc.) and on personal responsibility. The children are really doing an amazing job in these areas, and it will be an ongoing process. In general, we work on having all classroom behavior fit into our three rules: use gentle hands and feet, use calm words and voices, obey the first time.

We have had a fantastic first two months of school and look forward to these next weeks leading into the holidays!

Field Trip: On Thursday, April 30, we will enjoy a field trip to Gilchrist Art Camp to create some masterpieces. The children will have about two hours in the art studio, with Gilchrist camp counselors, Little Lambs staff and Mrs. Carver to assist them. We will need several parents to transport students for this field trip, but, unlike other outings, most parents will not be staying to chaperone while we are there. The studio is very close to Washington Square, Starbucks, etc., so parent drivers will have the chance to enjoy some time on their own before returning to the studio to pick up children for the drive back to school. Thank you for understanding the need to limit the number of adults in the studio. Please be sure your child is dressed in clothes that can get messy. Art is not clean and tidy! Here is the link for their website, if you are interested in more information for your child:
http://gilchristartcamp.com/


Screen-Free Week:  May 4th–10th. Little Lambs will be joining in with “Screen-Free Week” by helping the children to think of activities they can do instead of watching TV or playing video games. Although we recognize that an entire screen-free week may be difficult and unrealistic, we encourage you to choose at least 2 days that can be screen-free for your children. The research on this topic just keeps rolling in, and we want to do whatever possible to help your children recognize appropriate limits on screen time. More information will come home after we finish the Spring Program.

If you are looking for some good outings for your family, consider a hike at Hoyt Arboretum, Cooper Mountain Nature Park or Jackson Bottom Wetlands. These local places offer easy hikes for families, with some great opportunities for viewing wildlife.  So go ahead, get out and get moving!

 
Classroom Notes: The children have been busy, eager learners the past few weeks. They are so comfortable and self-sufficient now, they are able to be highly self-guided during our Montessori times. Visitors are amazed when they walk in and see 17 young children actively, yet peacefully, engaged in the learning process. You should be very proud of your children…we certainly are! Here are some highlights of what we are finishing and what we will be studying as we enter the final weeks of the school year:

Literacy: We have been enjoying many fun poems, mostly from Shel Silverstein, as we continue to look at poetry and rhyming words. This also blends well with some of our music lessons on rhythm. The children have been listening to the rhythm of the poetry as we learn that poems are sort of like “spoken songs.” We have enjoyed more fairy tale time with a few different versions of Sleeping Beauty, including a story called Snoring Beauty. We will finish the year looking at Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk. In addition to our formal literacy lessons, we are hearing SO MUCH ENGLISH in the classroom! Most of our Little Lambs who started the year without any English language are totally communicating with teachers and peers. It’s so exciting!

Math: We are spending time now on the idea of ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, etc.) and sequencing. The concept of sequencing is important in all academic areas, but it is one that can be tricky for some children. We use number lines, puzzles, the calendar and stories to help develop this concept. All of the children continue to be exposed to the idea of place value in our daily work; most of the older children are also now receiving direct instruction in this concept through both our Sequin Boards and our teacher-made equipment. These items give the students a wonderful, concrete understanding of place value with tens and ones. The Kindergarten students have all been introduced to the idea of exchanging in addition…just an introduction, but it helps plant the seed for later math mastery.

Science: The class is enjoying its study of our magnificent solar system as the Kindergarten students prepare to make their own representations. Although the size and magnitude of the solar system is beyond the grasp of children this age (and many of us adults, too!), it is a fun study for instilling a sense of wonder. Equally exciting, is our study of seeds and plants. This is much more concrete for children this age as they watch seeds send up shoots and leaves in our classroom greenhouses. This also happens to coincide perfectly with our upcoming look at Jack and the Beanstalk. Our Kindergarten group is concluding its study of simple machines. We have had great fun with pulleys, wheels, levers, etc. We will wrap up with a fun "Simple Machines Day" on (tentatively) April 24th. The children will have a chance to use some tools that are actually simple machines, we will have some "machine snacks," and they are invited to bring bikes or scooters that day to enjoy some time on wheels. This day will include a special field trip to Mrs. Sallak's house to look at a pulley in action. More information will come home next week. 

Social Studies: We are preparing to wrap up our study of the continents over the next few weeks as we conclude our time with Australia and then move on to Africa. It has been fun to look at animals, clothing, foods, money and other items from so many places around the globe.

 
Parenting Thought

This month’s “tip” is simple but heartfelt: take some time simply to get outside and play with your children.  Splash in mud puddles, hunt for worms, listen to birds singing, watch a budding tree’s progress each day, kick a soccer ball, play catch, time yourselves running around the block, draw with sidewalk chalk, go for a hike.  The list of possibilities is pretty much endless, and most outside activities don’t require a great deal of time or money to enjoy.  Many parents today have fallen into the trap of thinking their children need sophisticated toys and games to be entertained, but it’s just not true.  We have watched children spend 40 minutes simply looking for flowers.  We have watched children race endlessly around the tennis courts in a game that only they understand, giggling and gleeful with their friends.  I have watched my own children throwing rocks in a pond for an hour with their cousins.  It doesn’t have to be complicated to be worthwhile and important.  So enjoy our longer days by getting outside to play.  It’s worth the time!

It doesn't seem possible that we only have three months of school left! This school year has been one of stretching and growth, in so many ways...including the growth of two families who are expecting babies in the coming weeks! We have been thrilled to watch everything the children are accomplishing in the classroom, and we look forward to helping them continue their good work in the remaining months. 

100th Day Celebration:  We will celebrate the 100th day of school on Tuesday, March 31st, with games and craft projects. The children are welcome to bring 100 of something to show to the class on that day.  It could be four groups of 25 or two groups of 50 or ten groups of ten or 100 different things...whatever gets to 100!  It is totally optional to bring something in to school for this, and please don’t go shopping for anything.  Feel free to help your child look around the house for items to bring and show.  Or perhaps your he or she would like to make 100 polka dots/x’s/hearts/etc. on a piece of paper. That counts, too!

Classroom Notes:  Here are some of the things we have been working on:
Literacy: We continue to work on the concept of rhyming. This is a difficult concept, but the children are making good progress with it. We have used many songs, books and puzzles to help develop this literacy skill. As we recognized Dr. Seuss' birthday, we enjoyed many of his stories that clearly reinforce the idea of rhyming. There's A Wocket In My Pocket was the class favorite! We are also working on the concepts of “identical” and “similar” as we work with our set of art reproductions and other classroom activities. The children are doing very well with this!

As we finished our study of various Goldilocks books, the children performed a dramatic reenactment of this classic tale. They did great! Almost every child participated, and we were treated to an Oscar-worthy performance by Alan…as Goldilocks! They have asked to do it again, so we will try to fit that in this week.

Math:  We have continued developing concepts introduced earlier in the year, such as place value, odd/even, sorting and classifying by attribute. We will soon begin studying the concept of ordinal numbers.  Many of the children have also been working on the idea of “counting on” in addition using a number line.  This is used to reinforce the process used in addition, not memorization. As we prepare for our 100th Day of School party, we will also continue to reinforce the idea of counting in groups of ten, and how that is represented in numerals.

Science:  Our Kindergarten children have completed their beautiful continent maps that are now on display in the classroom. Well done! They have also begun a unit on simple machines, beginning this past week with inclined planes and levers. The lever we used to build a catapult on Friday was very efficient at flinging ping pong balls all over the tennis courts! Soon our class studies will take us from the tiny promise within a seed, as we study plants, to the vastness of creation, as we study the solar system. We also have now begun a study of health and wellness, starting with the importance of sleep. Look for a small “homework” assignment to come home this week!

Social Studies:  We are finishing up our time with Asia this week and preparing to move on to Australia. This is always a popular continent to study! We will also spend some time learning about different people in our own community: police officers, fire fighters, librarians, doctors, etc. This will lead up to a class favorite…Hat Day! (date TBD)

Music:  This week we will begin studying Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. We will read brief scene descriptions and then listen to a shortened piece of music to accompany that scene. This is a great way for the children to hear the instruments we studied earlier in the year and to be exposed to one of our world’s greatest composers. 


PARENTING THOUGHT:

As we begin our study of health and wellness, focusing on sleep, exercise and nutrition, we encourage you to consider the following sobering facts that show we are, literally, facing a health crisis for our children:

*75% of children get fewer than 20 minutes of vigorous exercise per day.
*1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, putting them at greater risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and depression.
*Children are averaging 30-40 hours PER WEEK of screen time.
*We have the first generation of children who will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

These are frightening statistics to us as teachers and as parents, but the good news is, there is a remedy: EXERCISE!  Children should get 60 minutes a day of structured physical activity (PE classes, sports teams, school activities, etc.) and at least 60 minutes of unstructured physical activity (bike riding, playing tag, swimming, etc.)  This sounds like a lot, but the great thing is, it can be cumulative.  If you play tag for 10 minutes after school, your child has a 20 minutes swim lesson, and you go for a 10-minute walk after dinner, you already have 40 minutes toward that goal!  And it doesn’t all have to be vigorous exercise; spending some time stretching and working on balance counts too.  To make it even easier, while the children are at Little Lambs, they get at least 30 minutes of physical activity each morning, so you can be even closer to that 2-hour goal.  It really is very simple to sneak a little extra exercise into each day.  When we practice our Bible verses, the children say the verse while doing various activities, such as jumping jacks, hopping on one foot, balancing on tip toes, spinning in a circle, etc.  At home, if your child is helping to put his or her folded laundry away, leave the laundry basket a few rooms away so your child needs to take some extra steps with each trip.  See if your child can hop like a rabbit while putting his toys away. 

In addition to overall physical health, exercise also brings the benefit of making children better learners.  The more their bodies are engaged, the better they can absorb and retain information.  Studies have shown that when students are allowed time for vigorous physical activity before a test, test scores go up.  The more children actively use their bodies during the school day, the better they are able to learn.

Exercise doesn’t need to be regimented or overwhelming; it just needs to become habit.  We have been blessed with healthy children who are very capable and are eager to play.  Our hope is that, with good habits, they will all stay that way!  

“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  Colossians 3:14
 

Valentine Party, February 12th:  The children will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Thursday, February 12th, with a party, songs, games and a card exchange.  If you would like to volunteer for this day, please speak with a teacher.

You may send Valentines to school with your child any time.  We have 17 students; if you choose to do Valentines, please allow your child to bring one for each classmate.  We LOVE to see homemade Valentines, so this is a great opportunity for the children to use the skills they have worked on in class this year: tracing, cutting, coloring, gluing and, for some, writing their name.  If you are looking for simple ideas for your child to make homemade Valentines, just talk to one of the teachers.  We are happy to share some ideas.  It is usually easiest to have your child sign his or her name to each Valentine without needing to include specific classmates’ names. 

 
An Opportunity for Ministry:  Pregnancy Resource Center is a local Christian organization that seeks to protect human life by assisting girls and women with unplanned pregnancies.  Formerly called Crisis Pregnancy Center, PRC is a ministry near and dear to our hearts, as Mrs. Sallak was one of their founding board members.  Over the next few weeks, Little Lambs will be participating in PRC’s “Fill the Bottle” campaign.  We will have a baby bottle in the classroom in which parents and students may drop in spare coins to be donated to the Center.  We will explain to the children that sometimes mommies and daddies do not have all the help they need to take care of their new babies.  This money will be used to help them do a good job of taking care of their children by providing things like diapers, clothes, bottles, etc.  At Little Lambs we are blessed enough to minister every day to children who are cherished and who have had all their basic needs met.  This is an opportunity to minister to children who are not starting life with the same amount of support but who, through God’s grace, are at least getting a chance to start their lives. 

We recognize that many of you already have causes you support financially; please do not feel that there is an obligation to join us in this fundraiser.  We count it a great blessing to serve your children every day, and we are thankful that we are able to help PRC bless other children as well.

Classroom Activities: We hit the ground running in the new year! Here is a glimpse at what has been going on in the classroom:

Literacy:  As promised, we have been working on prepositions, building up the vocabulary to go with the concepts of “over, under, next to, behind”, etc.  The Kindergarten children will soon be unveiling their “Preposition Book” in the classroom! This concept has been challenging for some of the children since it is fairly abstract, but we’re seeing good progress. 

The children have also been introduced to the idea of fiction and non-fiction as we finish up our fairy tale time. While studying many different versions of “Goldilocks and The Three Bears,” we have also been reading non-fiction books about real bears. As luck would have it, the storyteller at the Aloha Community Library even had a bear theme when we went for our field trip! Can your child tell you about some of the different Goldilocks stories we read? My favorite is Goldie Socks and The Three Libearians!

The Kindergarten group has now finished all of the Mercy Watson books, a delightful series of stories about a feisty pig named Mercy. We have been reading these aloud for the Kindergarten group throughout the school year. We worked on being able to compare and contrast the different stories through the use of a Venn Diagram. The children did great with this concept!

We are moving into a study of rhyming words this month, listening for matching endings in words. We will primarily use books to work with this concept as the children train their ears to discern rhymes.
 
Most exciting of all right now, we are hearing an enormous amount of English from our students for whom it is a second language, and we are seeing a reading explosion for many of the children! It is so awesome to watch these skills develop, and the confidence that follows is tremendous.

 
Math:  We have now finished introducing all of the solid geometric shapes in our classroom set, and the children have shown a remarkable knack for remembering them, even with some complicated names! We are learning some vocabulary that goes with these shapes, such as “face” and “base.” Bonus point…those words rhyme, fitting in with our literacy studies! We also have two new activities in the classroom that allow children to manipulate different versions of these shapes and to build a 3D construction that is represented in a 2D photograph. These are wonderful exercises for the children, challenging their mental perception and concentration and their small motor manipulation of the objects.

The children continue to enjoy our “Kid Sort” game in which they try to discern a common attribute among a chosen group of children. The teacher chooses children based on an attribute that only the teacher knows, such as wearing stripes, and then the students try to guess what the common attribute is. Some of our guessers are really good at this!

Several of our Kindergarten children are now moving into multiple-digit addition, solidifying the concept and process in preparation for addition with carrying. We also continue to work with all the students, as they are ready, with the idea of place value in both physical quantities and written numerals.


Science:  Are any of you hearing endless renditions of our water cycle song? It has a lot of big words – evaporation, condensation and precipitation – but the children really enjoy it. As we are finishing this area of study, we have talked about different types of precipitation. Of course, snow is the class favorite, even though we haven’t seen any this year. Nonetheless, we pretended to be snowflakes during a music and movement activity and have enjoyed several snowman books and songs. Soon we will be moving into one of our favorite spring activities…learning about plants!


Social Studies and Geography:  As we move through our continent study, we are now arriving in Europe. There is a lot to learn as we look at the people, animals, foods and customs from many different countries in Europe. We have been looking at the differences between globes and flat maps (map projections) as the Kindergarten children get ready to make their own maps.


Music:  We have been doing a lot of movement and rhythm work, learning about quarter notes and rests as we learn to follow simple rhythm notation. This has proven to be a very popular activity, so we are trying to add it in to our schedule more often! The children enjoyed a fun lesson on tempo with their rabbits and turtles that came home a few days ago. Could your child explain what we did? When we heard music or rhythms with a fast tempo, we all held up our rabbits; when we heard a slow tempo, we held up our turtles. The kids did a great job! Soon we will begin learning songs for our spring performance.


P.E.:  The children have been enjoying activities with music and movement, as well as games that promote balance and coordination. The parachute and balance beam are very popular, as are the obstacle courses. Our older children had a chance to try out our brand new jumping bags on Kindergarten preview day last month. In general, balance and body-control activities are VERY important for this age group, and these are great areas to support at home. (See parenting thought below.)

 

Parenting Thought: A key component in Dr. Montessori’s educational philosophy is that the hands lead the mind. Children should be working consistently with their hands in order to foster strong, life-long brain development. Scientific research in the form of MRIs and other brain scans now backs up what she could only learn through observation. It is for this reason that we are so adamant that our students are using their hands in meaningful, purposeful, challenging ways every day at school. Whether it is coloring, tracing, squeezing play dough, building with blocks, wringing out sponges or sweeping up crumbs after snack, we want to see our students working hard to build up their hand strength and dexterity.

With the rise of screen time, scripted play dates and “scheduled” free time over the past few years, we have seen a sharp decline in small motor skills that were commonplace for children a decade ago. A significant amount of instruction time is now spent on things such as how to hold a pencil or a pair of scissors, before we can even get to the skills of using these tools. Self-help skills that were well in place by age three several years ago (putting on shoes, using spoons and forks) are now part of our instruction time for many older students. So, how can you help support this area of development for your child? Here are a few ideas to get started:

*Significantly limit screen time. Pediatricians recommend NO screen time before age two, and no more than two hours a day after that. We strongly recommend no more than 20-30 minutes per day. There are endless amounts of worthwhile non-screen activities for our students. And you might be surprised how quickly screen time adds up. Some families use iPads or Kindles for story time or devotionals, not always noticing how many minutes can pass in this way. We humbly suggest that you use the “real” thing instead.

*Put away the academic workbooks. Unless there is a clear academic delay that needs extra support, your preschool or Kindergarten child does not need to work on his or her “ABCs and 1-2-3s” outside of school. Natural play time and reading with an adult will meet this need perfectly for most children.

*Allow unscheduled play time for your child. Don’t worry about scheduling extra-curricular activities for your child. Our students are working hard all morning; it’s critical that they have plenty of free time to build, color, run, climb, rest, read and play without a schedule. And let it be MESSY play time once in a while. Encourage your child to use his or her hands in activities that may be sticky, or dirty or messy…nothing a bath can’t fix! Get outside whenever possible and let your child have time to wander, time to wonder, time to fall and get back up and try again.

*Don’t do for your child what he or she can do alone. When your child asks for help, wait a few moments to see how he or she does without you. Sometimes a simple comment such as, “I know you can give it a good try” can be enough to encourage your child to accomplish a task on his own. Sometimes we use this little trick in the classroom: “You keep trying while I put away my things. If you still need help when I’m finished, I’ll help you then.” You’d be surprised by how much a child can figure out with just a couple more minutes and no one hovering nearby!

These early school years are ideal for setting the foundation for life-long skills. At this age, children have such an innate curiosity and love of trying new things, they can accomplish a tremendous amount without even realizing they are learning. It just takes some time and patience, some of the best things we can give our children.

“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17

WELCOME BACK!  WE HOPE THAT YOU ENJOYED A BLESSED HOLIDAY!

Kindergarten Preview Day: Any student who will be eligible for Kindergarten next September (i.e. five years old by September 1st) is invited to join us for the morning of Friday, January 23rd, to get an idea of what Little Lambs Kindergarten is like. Students may bring a lunch with them to school that day and enjoy some Kindergarten-ready activities. The schedule is 8:30am-11:50am. The preview day will be offered Friday, February 20th as well; students may attend one or both days. Please tell Mrs. Ratten if your child will be joining us.


Aloha Community Library Fundraiser:  We are tentatively scheduled to enjoy a brief field trip to the Aloha Community Library’s story time on Wednesday, January 28th, in order to present our donation to their matching grant fundraiser. The children read 122 books leading up to Christmas Break, so with parent donations, we are able to give $150 to the library! Way to go! If you would like to drive for the library field trip, please let me know as soon as possible. Due to space constraints, we have to limit the number of parents for this trip.

Valentine Party:  Your children already may be asking about Valentines for their classmates.  We always encourage the children to make homemade Valentines, if possible, so it can be a good idea to start early.  And remember, it’s the thought and effort that count, not a “perfect” result!  Some simple heart shapes, traced and cut out of construction paper, make great Valentines. We currently have 17 children enrolled.  More information about the party will come in February.

2015/2016 Enrollment:  We will begin enrollment for the 2015/2016 school year by February 13th.  Registration forms will be available then.  If you know any other families who may be interested in enrollment, please feel free to give them my phone number (503.706.1161) or email address (kristinratten@gmail.com) so that they may be added to our waiting list.  Thank you!

Receipts:  If you need a year-end receipt from us, please let us know as soon as possible. 

We appreciate you:  We extend a sincere “thank you” to parents and students for thinking of us at Christmas.  The kind words, gift cards, and many other remembrances were greatly appreciated and enjoyed.  We look forward to sharing the rest of the school year with you and are anticipating God’s blessings in 2015.

Classroom Notes:  As we begin the new year, the children will again be very busy in class. We anticipate a slight “readjustment” period as we re-establish routines and expectations for all of the students, but here is a look at what types of activities are on the horizon:

Literacy: We will continue our study of the fairy tale genre, finishing with Goldilocks and The Three Bears. Below you will find an article we wrote for the Aloha Community Library's newsletter regarding the benefits of fairy tales. We will also begin a study of prepositions (e.g. behind, next to, under, etc.) as we continue to build up vocabulary and conversation skills for the children. This can be a tricky concept for students in this age group, particularly when English is a second language, so we will take some time with it.

Social Studies: Moving on with our continent study, we will wrap up our look at South America and spend some time in Antarctica. This study allows us time to learn about many various aspects of our world: people, cultures, foods, stories, plants and animals. The Kindergarten children will begin their continent maps soon! This is always an exciting rite of passage for this age group…it’s one of those “big kid” activities they look forward to accomplishing.

Science: We will begin learning about the water cycle, including looking at ways we can be good stewards of God’s creation.

Math: After a review of the plane geometric shapes, we will introduce the solid forms this month. We will also continue our look at the concept of odd/even; the children have done quite well with this and keep asking for more activities in this area! Many of our students are now ready to work with concepts of addition and subtraction, so you may start seeing some of these activities coming home. This is purely an introduction to the concepts, without any expectation at this point of memorization.

Music and Art: We finished meeting the instruments of the orchestra right before Christmas, but we will spend some time reviewing them again this month. We will also begin learning about quarter notes and rests as we continue rhythm work during our music times. We will start learning about individual artists in the coming months, and the Kindergarten group will enjoy a fun project about Michelangelo. 


More Than A “Grimm” Story: A Look At What Children Can Learn From Fairy Tales

Once upon a time there were stories to be told. Stories that may have involved royalty, talking animals and magic. Stories that pitted good against evil. Stories designed to teach a lesson. Stories that were...fairy tales. 

Fairy tales have been around in written form at least since the seventeenth century, and in oral tradition for thousands of years before that. They have evolved into well-loved stories, immortalized in word, in illustration and even in films. On their surface they are fantastical tales that have entertained children for centuries, but if we dig a little deeper, we find that fairy tales can provide a wealth of learning opportunities to support a wide range of ages, across multiple academic areas. With just a few simple stories, you can find ways to incorporate concepts related to math, science, art, social studies and, of course, literacy. The fairy tale genre is a wonderful vehicle for entertaining and teaching the young and the old, boys and girls, readers and not-yet-readers. 

So what can a child learn from these time-honored stories? Consider the following ideas and concepts the next time you enjoy a fairy tale with your child.

Math: 
*Using the story of The Three Little Pigs, introduce the concept of ordinal numbers. Which house was built first, second, third? How do these correspond to the numerals 1, 2, 3? 
*Introduce story problems using a couple of fairy tales. If the three pigs and the three bears had dinner together, how many animals would there be? If Goldilocks and The Big Bad Wolf join them, how many characters would there be? 
*Looking at castles in the fairy tales, talk about basic geometric shapes. Can your child find squares, rectangles, circles or triangles? As a creative extension, encourage your child to cut out shapes and build his or her own castle.

Science:
*Allow your child to build houses out of straw, sticks and stones. Can any of the houses withstand your child blowing on them? Fanning them? Blowing them with a hair dryer? How can you make the houses stronger?
*In the story of Little Red Riding Hood, what type of path would be the shortest way to get to Grandma’s house? Let your child use toothpicks or blocks to construct different paths and measure them: zigzag, curvy, straight?
*How could the three bears have cooled their porridge more quickly? How do we change the temperature of things? Encourage your child to design an experiment to determine the fastest way to cool off something that is too hot.

Social/Emotional:
*Research fairy tales from other cultures and communities. The story of Cinderella, for example, has many different variations from around the globe, including African, Appalachian and Korean versions.
*Discuss the various emotions we see in fairy tales. How are the characters feeling? Are they happy, sad, anxious, angry, excited? What do they do or say that shows us how they are feeling?

Literacy:
*Use fairy tales to demonstrate and allow simple retelling and summarizing. What happens first, next, last? Is there an overall lesson the story is teaching?
*Encourage your child to predict what will happen in a story, perhaps in a different version your child has not yet heard. Can he or she use prior knowledge from other fairy tales to make a prediction? 
*Discuss the concepts of characters, setting, plot and theme as you read different fairy tales.
*Use fairy tales to introduce the idea of a literary genre. Look for common elements among the fairy tales that link them as a literary family. Check out ACL’s bulletin board display for some information on this genre!

Creativity:
*Can your child reenact Goldilocks And The Three Bears with dolls and stuffed animals?
*Can your child sculpt a castle out of clay?
*Can your child write a story detailing what would happen if Jack (Jack And The Beanstalk) had met Little Red Riding Hood on the path to the market? How would that change each character’s story?
*Enjoy fractured fairy tales, stories in which the traditional characters, plot or setting are altered in some way. 

The fairy tale genre is full of unexpected learning opportunities, so the next time you are at the library, stock up on some great stories and see where they lead you and your children! (Reprinted from Aloha Community Library's newsletter.)