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.)

“Sing to the Lord with Thanksgiving!"  Psalm 147:7

 “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His loving kindness is everlasting.”  Psalm 136:1

 Dear Parents,

 As a reminder of why we have set aside a special day of thanksgiving, we would like to share the proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln:

The year that is drawing to its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.  To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they came, others have been added … They are the gracious gifts of the most high God …

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole of the American people.

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

Abraham Lincoln
October 3, 1863

Can you imagine the blessings our country would reap if the American people would “solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledge” God as the source of all our gifts?  The staff extends warm wishes to each family for a very special time of thankfulness!



Classroom Notes:  Thank you so much for taking time out of your day last Thursday to join us for the children’s performance. They did such an amazing job! We were just thrilled to see how well they did. Even with the time spent preparing for the performance, however, our Little Lambs have been very busy the past month!  Here are some of the highlights:

Literacy and language:  The children are all working diligently at their own levels in this area.  We have spent time as a group reciting the alphabet and reinforcing the idea that letters make specific phonetic sounds.  We are learning the American Sign Language alphabet as well; the children have done great with this!  This week we will begin learning a fun alphabet song, “Gilly Gilly Gilly Good Morning,” that incorporates letter names and sounds. You may hear this one a lot! Over the next few weeks we will spend some time with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book, incorporating puzzles and art projects to further our phonics study. The Kindergarten children have also started working on the “H Family” with the phonograms sh, ch and th.


We are continuing our fairy tale study by moving on to Cinderella stories. We will begin with the traditional version and then spend time with different versions from around the world.

Some of the children are getting ready to begin using our set of classroom books in their reading work. When your child is ready for this step, he or she will follow the routine below:

1. Read the book to himself or herself.
2. Complete a paper that accompanies the book.
3. Read the book to a teacher.
4. Bring the book home in a book bag to read to parents at home.
5. Parent signs the reading slip; student returns the book within 2 school days.

 

Little Lambs is excited once again to support the Aloha Community Library with a Read-A-Thon during the next month. ACL has received a matching grant that will match each dollar donated, up to $15,000. We will do our small part by making a donation on behalf of the students, offering $1.00 to the library for each book they read. When you read a book at home with your child, please write down the title and send it in with your student, and we will keep track of all the books the students read, including ones we read together in class.

Math:  There are a wide range of activities in the classroom in our math curriculum, and each child is working on skills appropriate for him or her, ranging from size and shape sequencing, to quantity and numeral recognition, to place value work.  As a group we have worked on the concept of odd/even, leading up to a later skill of counting by twos and other skip counting. The Kindergarten children have worked extensively with our gold bead math equipment, building numeral and quantity recognition up to 9,999.  We have such capable students!

Many of the older students are now being introduced to the concept of equivalencies, in preparation for addition work. As this concept becomes solidified for them, you will see addition papers coming home. Please keep in mind, this is NOT memorization work. Rather, the children are working with beads and other manipulatives to understand the concrete idea of addition.

Science and Social Studies: We are moving into a study of living/nonliving as we begin to discuss plants, animals, people and landforms in our continent study. We will wrap up our look at North America shift to South America.

Our time spent with various Three Little Pigs stories in our literature studies (The Three Little Javelinas and The Three Little Tamales) overflowed into science and social studies as we learned about the saguaro cactus, tasted tamales and talked about life in the desert.

Now as we look at fall changes around us, we will also study the parts of a tree and the parts of a leaf. We will enjoy making leaf rubbings, and the Kindergarten class will learn how and why leaves change colors.

We are finishing our study of the Pilgrims in the New World, discussing ways their lives were both similar to ours, and different from ours. Can your child tell you how Pilgrim children had to eat? They had to stand up at the table, since there wasn’t enough furniture, and they had to be silent unless spoken to by an adult. We tried eating like Pilgrims at snack time one day last week, and the children decided they prefer our ways of eating in modern times!

Music: It is time to begin meeting the instruments of the orchestra, family by family.  We will discuss how the size of an instrument helps determine how high or low the notes are.  We will learn which instrument plays the highest notes (the piccolo). And the lowest notes (the double bassoon). This is always an enjoyable part of our curriculum.

We continue to work with our classroom bells, training our ears to hear differences in the notes. Some of the children are now able to match the bells by sound, without any help from the teachers! We are also learning how to distinguish between high notes and low notes, and what it sounds like to go up the scale or down the scale.

 
Outdoor recess:  We will go outside as much as possible this fall and winter.  It is very important for the children to bring a warm coat EVERY day (please label it with your child’s name) and to wear sturdy tennis shoes for running and climbing at the park. 

Inclement weather:  In the event of inclement weather, Little Lambs will follow the Beaverton School District in determining closures or late openings.  If the Beaverton School District announces a late opening of two hours or more, or if Beaverton schools are closed, Little Lambs will be closed.  Please listen to the news should there be any questions as to whether or not school will be in session.  Once Beaverton School District makes a determination, I will send an email to confirm.

 


*****Parenting Thought*****

“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!

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9

Wow! How did a whole month of school already go by? We have been very busy as the children have settled into classroom routines and expectations. This is our biggest group of new students ever, but they are doing great! Here is an overview of the topics we have been studying or that are coming up soon in our curriculum.

Literacy:
We have begun our phonetic study of the alphabet with an introduction to the concept of letter names and sounds, along with beginning to learn the alphabet in sign language. We are reading many books about the alphabet, and some of the older children are being introduced to putting words in ABC order. We will progress through the entire alphabet, introducing the letter names but focusing heavily on the sound each letter makes. This is the basis for phonics instruction. Most of our time will be spent with lower case letters, since the majority of English is written in lower case. We also have puzzles, toys and building materials available to the children to support letter recognition.
We are also using our songs and stories throughout the day to work on significant language development as we introduce and reinforce new vocabulary words.

We are now well into our study of fairy tales, providing great fun for all of us. Fairy tales are the first genre of literature we will study this year; we will stay with this topic for a few months before moving on. Can your child tell you some of the ways we know that a story is a fairy tale? This is a very rich form of literature, with a lot to offer little learners, so we are taking our time and enjoying the stories.


Math:
We started the school year with a study of shapes, introducing the 10 plane geometric shapes. The children have access to our geometric cabinet to explore different shapes in various sizes as they learn concepts and vocabulary such as “straight,” “curved” and “angle.” As the year progresses, we will study solid geometric shapes.

We are also studying patterns in many forms: patterns of color, shape, position, sound and even food. The children are getting quite adept at noticing patterns all around.

Children are also working individually, as they are ready, with concepts of numeral and quantity recognition, place value, addition and subtraction.

Science:
Our science lessons right now are revolving around the fall harvest. We have learned about sunflowers and apples and are moving on to pumpkins next as we enjoy this time of year. The Kindergarten class enjoyed a trip to Bell’s Orchard to pick enough apples to make some fabulous applesauce with the whole class.  We will be enjoying that treat tomorrow! And for all of you parents whose children “won’t eat the peel,” almost every child in class today ate the spiral peels that appeared when we used the peeler/corer/slicer tool. They gobbled them right up!

Our Kindergarten group started the year studying shadows and playing shadow tag. Next they will move on to a study of gravity.

Social Studies:
We have started our continent study that will last the whole school year. We began with an overview of the globe/map/continents and then moved on to North America. This topic really will show up in many academic areas as we study cultures, foods, languages, animals, climates and stories from around the world. This is a great area to consider for Show-and-Tell ideas!

Soon our studies will include lessons on the Native Americans and Pilgrims as we prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The children have been working on learning the words to The Pledge of Allegiance. This can be very difficult to learn, so we are in the beginning stages. We have given the children this brief explanation of the vocabulary:
I PLEDGE: a pledge is a promise
ALLEGIANCE: allegiance is being a loyal friend
TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: the flag is a symbol of our country
AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS: in a republic the people help choose their leaders and laws
ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE: our nation cannot be separated
WITH LIBERTY: liberty is freedom
AND JUSTICE: justice is fairness
FOR ALL: for all people who are part of our country

Grace and Courtesy:
We have also spent a lot of time working on grace and courtesy in the classroom: how to shake hands when greeting a teacher, how to make eye contact when greeting a teacher and how to move quietly and carefully through the classroom so as not to disturb anyone’s activities.  In addition we have been working with the children to remember that “all good manners start with please.”  We hope to hear “please” as the first word in any request from the children.  For example, “Please may I have more snack?” Or “Please will you help me tie my shoes?”  The children are also working on answering the teachers with “Yes, Ma’am” or “Yes, Mrs. Sallak/Johnson/Ratten.” We are working on breaking the habit of answering with “yeah” and hoping moving to a more polite response. This may seem a bit old-fashioned, but we feel it helps set a gentle tone of respect in the classroom, and it is a habit that will serve the children well in years to come. Our world could greatly use more gentleness and respect.

Music:
The children have enjoyed a great deal of singing as we revisit old songs and learn some new ones. We have worked with rhythm instruments to develop concepts of patterning and to begin listening for a four-beat measure. This will eventually feed into an introduction to reading musical notation. We have also introduced the children to our classroom set of bells, explaining proper use of the mallet and damper to make music. Soon, when we are confident all of the children can be gentle and careful, we will move into matching the notes of the bells as the children train their ears to discern the different notes.

As we gear up for the children’s first performance of the year, they are diligently learning a lot of songs and also how to follow the director’s lead. Busy, busy, busy!

As you can see, the children are working very hard each day at school. We certainly don’t expect that they are grasping and remembering all of the above concepts and terminology, but we are confident that each child is absorbing what he or she is ready to learn.

 
Illness: Thank you in advance for your diligence this cold and flu season.  Please remember that no child may be at school with a fever, vomiting or diarrhea.  Children must be free of these symptoms for 24 hours, without the benefit of medication, before returning to school. 

 Halloween: We recognize that each family has a different perspective on Halloween, and out of respect for this, Little Lambs does not celebrate Halloween.  Please do not send your child to school in any type of costume or allow them to bring Halloween things for sharing.  We will celebrate the fall season with our pumpkin patch field trip and in November with our Harvest Program.     

Classroom Volunteers: If you are interested in volunteering in the classroom on a regular basis, please speak with Mrs. Ratten regarding which day(s) you would like to join us.  We love having extra helping hands!

 
****October’s Parenting Thought****

“Go out and play!”
Those of you who have been with Little Lambs for a while will recognize a familiar theme in this month’s Parenting Thought: PLEASE let your children get outside and play!  We are huge advocates of children having lots of unscheduled, unscripted, good old-fashioned play time.  Recent research supports how critical this is for both children and adults.  Allow your child time to explore things that bring him or her true joy.  Is your child fascinated by bugs?  Flowers?  The stars?  Does he love to run? Bike?  Paint? Whatever it is that is a source of curiosity and joy for your child, try to encourage it and allow time for it.  While classes and teams and lessons can all foster some of these loves, it is important for children to have time to learn and explore through play on their own, without adult planning.  Ideally, unscheduled play time won’t be an afterthought or something to squeeze into the day but, rather, a natural component of the day, without stress or agendas.  Research suggests that children who engage in self-directed, unscripted play are better learners and problem solvers than those who do not.  In the Montessori philosophy, “play is the child’s work.”  In other words, play is not frivolous or silly; it is useful, purposeful and critical to a child’s healthy development.  Our Kindergarten children provided us a wonderful demonstration of this. As we left the park one Friday, one child turned to another and gleefully said, “Phew! I’m tired from all that work we just did!” And, indeed, they had been “working” hard as they played. They worked together to gather sticks and leaves and then to plan and build little houses. They searched and explored for what they needed and, unbeknownst to them, used math and logic as they built their sturdy little structures. We live in a results-oriented world that puts a lot of pressure on parents to have their children producing results.  But, please, give yourself permission to just get out and play!

 

“Know that the Lord is God.  It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.”          Psalm 100:3

Welcome to Little Lambs, Too!  We are very excited about the new year.  We try to keep our parents informed about monthly events by posting a notice similar to this at the beginning of each month. 

Parent Volunteers: We LOVE our volunteers at Little Lambs, and there are many ways to help:  in the classroom, on field trips, doing prep work for art projects, sharing a special talent.  Parents who would like to volunteer in the classroom will need to go through a brief orientation.  If you are interested in helping out, please talk to a teacher.  We will begin scheduling classroom volunteers in October.

Safety: It is very important that you hold your child’s hand at all times when coming from your vehicle into the building or from the building to your vehicle.  Please DO NOT send your child ahead of you to your car.  Also, please DO NOT leave siblings unattended in your vehicle.  We are required by law to report this.  You are welcome to call ahead and one of us can bring your child to you if you have a sleeping younger child in the car.

Missing equipment: We hope the materials in the classroom appeal to the children, but not so much that the equipment goes home with them.  If your child brings anything home from school that is unfamiliar to you, no matter how small, please check with a teacher.  Thank you for your help in keeping our “treasures” on the shelf.

Outdoor play: It is our policy to go outdoors for play if it is not raining and if our yard is not too wet and muddy to be safe.  Please dress your child appropriately for outdoor play.  Your child should wear clothes that are comfortable and safe to run and climb in and that can get dirty during play (no fancy dresses, please).  Also, children should wear shoes that are safe for outdoor play, with secure straps (no flip-flops, Crocs or dressy shoes, please).  If your child is not wearing safe clothing or shoes, we may need to restrict his or her recess activities, and we REALLY do not want to do that.  Please mark all jackets, sweaters and sweatshirts with your child’s name.  Thank you for your help in this matter!

Classroom Activities:  This month we will spend a lot of time getting our new students acclimated to the classroom routines and expectations and allowing our returning students to reconnect with one another and to settle back into their space.  Please consider not scheduling too much in the afternoons for the first few weeks of school, as this transition can be quite exhausting for the children, especially our new Little Lambs.  All of the children will have ongoing training in how to care for their classroom and their materials appropriately and, especially, how to be a kind, friendly part of the class.  We will begin assessments on all of the students, which will continue throughout the month, to be used during conferences in October.  September will also find us studying many different topics, including apples, colors and shapes.  By the end of the month we will also begin a study on fairy tales; we have been asked to prepare a bulletin board for the Aloha Community Library, so we will work on that, as well. Our science and social studies lessons this year will revolve around the seven continents, and we will begin this month with North America.  We are so excited to get the school year under way!

Show-and-Tell: Tomorrow morning will be our first Show-and-Tell session of the school year. Children are invited to bring ONE item from home to show to the class. Please be sure the item can fit in your child’s cubby and that it doesn’t include any weapons. This is a great chance for us to learn what kinds of activities/subjects your child enjoys. We love seeing what the children choose to bring.

Parenting Thoughts: It is our strong desire to be good partners to you as you face the amazing job of parenting, so our goal is to offer monthly tips in our Parent Notes.  Please accept these just as ideas to think about as you go about daily life with your children.  These tips and ideas come from many years of teaching, parenting, observing and studying, and we hope you may find some of them helpful.  In addition, we have a small library of books on children’s development and behavior that you are welcome to borrow at any time. 

Facebook Page: You can find us on Facebook now, as Little Lambs, Too LLC. We hope to see you there! 

 
***SEPTEMBER’S PARENTING THOUGHT***

As the school year begins, many parents eagerly ask their children each day, “So what did you do today?” only to be greeted with “I don’t know.”  Please be assured that this is completely normal!  There are many reasons why your child may not be sharing a lot of school information with you, including:

          * “What happens at school stays at school.”  That is, some children instinctively divide school and home, and the two don’t mix.  For these children, we rarely hear anything about home, and you rarely hear anything about school.

          * “That’s so 5 minutes ago!”  Some children just truly may not remember what they did at school, especially as more time passes.  By the time they’ve had lunch and a nap, school is a distant memory for that day.

          * “How do you say…?”  Sometimes children do not remember what the different school activities are called.  A Montessori classroom has some specialized equipment and vocabulary that can take a long time for a child to master, so he or she may not be able to name the activities accomplished in class that day.

          * “I don’t want to talk about it.”  Your children work hard here every day and may just be ready for a break when they go home.  Similar to a parent who doesn’t feel like discussing work at the end of the day, your child may feel the same.  It is for this reason that we tend to discourage parents from using workbooks and such at home; children can get weary of it quickly if there is too much emphasis on “academic” activities.

So, how do you find out what your child is doing each day?  First, try giving a little time before asking about your child’s day.  You could greet your little one with just a hug and “I’m happy to see you,” and then wait a bit before asking much.  Often, without any prompting, your child will just have things to tell you on the ride home.  Second, you can try asking more specific questions.  So instead of “What did you do today?” you could ask “Did the teachers read a book today?” or “Did anything make you laugh today?”  (By the way, even if your child doesn’t remember, the answer to the first question is always “yes.”  We read several books every day.)  Third, if all else fails and you really aren’t getting any information from your child, please don’t hesitate to ask us.  We’d be happy to share what your student has been accomplishing!

Although it feels like the summer has flown by so quickly, we are eager to get back into the classroom with our new and returning Little Lambs. God has seen fit, once again, to keep our school full and the doors open, allowing us to serve our precious students and their families. For this we are humbled and thankful. 

This is a unique year for Little Lambs because we have a much higher number of new students and families than usual. We are SO excited to get to know all of them as the school year gets under way! Given the number of children who are new to being in a school setting, we want to take this opportunity to provide some tried-and-true tips for a successful first day of school. These ideas and pointers come from our combined 60+ years of teaching experience and are helpful for brand new students, as well as for our returning "veterans." 

• First, be careful, as a parent, how you define a "successful" first day or week of school. It is VERY likely your child will cry, but that doesn't mean he or she was unsuccessful. A successful day is one in which your child is able to be distracted from feeling sad or worried so that he or she will join in with the class on some or all activities. That's all! Some children will go in and out of tears those first few days or weeks of school, and that's totally normal. This is a big change for your child, so just be supportive and patient.
• While we're on the subject of tears, please don't offer your child a treat or other bribe if he or she doesn't cry. First, this is an unrealistic expectation for most new students and even for some returning students. Second, most parents end up giving the promised treat anyway, setting the precedent that the child doesn't need to meet an expectation to receive a reward. We pray the children will learn that education is its own reward. This understanding comes naturally to children who are allowed the time and freedom to succeed in the classroom, without artificial external expectations.
• Make your goodbye quick. After a couple of minutes to allow your child to observe and get his or her bearings, give your student one hug and one kiss, allow a teacher to take him or her from you, and then you are free to scoot on out the door. Please don't linger, trying to convince your child not to cry; it most likely won't work. If your child truly cannot be consoled or distracted within 10-15 minutes, we will call and let you know. We have only needed to do this once in over twenty years, so the odds are good that your child will settle in just fine. 
• As wonderful as school is for children, and as much as they will come to love it, please don't build up too many expectations for your child's first day. Often, in parents' eagerness to make school sound fun and exciting, they tell children, "You will get to paint, and play with playdough, and go to the park, and play at the sand table" etc. The children will do all these things...eventually. It doesn't all happen for every child on the first day; that's just not possible. Encourage your child with the knowledge that he or she will have time to try many different activities. Every day will include stories, singing, play time and snack time, but the specific activities vary greatly from day to day. Your child will definitely be busy!

“It has given me great joy to find…your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.”
2 John 1:4

Screen Free Week: Little Lambs is participating in Screen Free Week again this year; information is in your child’s cubby. For more on this topic and the organization behind it, visit www.screenfree.org or www.commercialfreechildhood.org

Jog-A-Thon and Library Field Trip: Wednesday, May 7th (weather permitting) will be our second annual Jog-A-Thon to benefit the Aloha Community Library. The children will run laps at the park, and Little Lambs will donate $1 per lap to the library. The library has a matching grant available through the end of May, so every dollar we raise will be doubled! Parents are welcome to sponsor their child or make a donation as well, but it’s totally optional. On Wednesday, May 14th, we will have a short field trip to the library to present our donation and join their story time. We will need a few drivers for this, so please talk with a teacher if you are able to help that morning. If you would like to learn more about the library, visit www.alohalibrary.org

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Conferences will be held Tuesday, May 13th – Thursday, May 15th. A sign-up sheet is posted in the classroom for any parent who would like to schedule a conference for their child. Reminders will be sent home next week.

Memorial Day Closures:  Little Lambs will be closed Friday, May 23rd for staff development and Monday, May 26th for the Memorial Day holiday.

Kindergarten Graduation: We will celebrate our graduating Kindergarten students on Thursday, June 5th at 7:00pm. This is a special evening just for our Kindergarten class and their families.

End of School:  The children will have a small “carnival” on Monday, June 9th at school.  We can always use extra helpers on this morning, so if you would like to join us, please speak with a teacher.  The last day of school is Wednesday, June 11th.    We will have school as usual in the morning, and there will be a barbecue dinner at school for all families that evening.  At 6:00pm we will take a few moments to recognize the children’s accomplishments and to say “Goodbye” to students who are moving on to other schools.  Dinner will be served after.  Little Lambs will provide the meal; you just need to bring your appetite!

Classroom notes: Here are some highlights from our past month:
Literacy: We have read an enormous amount of books the past month…our bookshelf keeps filling up quickly! We have been working on recognizing the difference between fiction and non-fiction, as well as making predictions about a story based on the cover and title. As always, the children also work on treating books respectfully and carefully. We can proudly tell you that all of the Kindergarten children are reading at least at a full grade level above their ages. It has been amazing to watch this group of readers develop! Our Kindergarten students also have been doing a lot of independent writing as they create their own fiction stories about dogs and cats. In addition, they have learned to recognize and label nouns and will soon move on to verbs and adjectives.

Math: There has been a math explosion in the classroom this past month. The children are all making great progress, in all their various appropriate levels. The concept of place value is now solid for most of the children, along with the ideas of ordinal numbers and addition. Older children have been working with concepts of subtraction and multiplication. The whole class worked on counting by fives as we kept track of the date on the calendar. Can your child tell you which umbrellas were yellow? The Kindergarten children are working on addition into the thousands and doing extensive work with our gold bead system.

Science: We have wrapped up our solar system study, and soon you will see the completed Kindergarten solar systems on display. They have worked so hard! We are also coming to the end of our animal study for the year as we spend our last few weeks of school studying insects. Can your child tell you about our friend Mr. Fab? The next time you are in, you will be able to find Mr. Fab on the classroom wall. Watch for details about an upcoming field trip to the pet store! Our Kindergarten class enjoyed a beautiful trip to the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals as part of our rock study. The weather was amazing, the museum was fascinating, and after two hours, the children still didn't want to leave! Our final weeks of school will also find us studying food/bodies/the five senses. We will talk about good ways to keep our bodies healthy, just in time for summer fun!

Social Studies: We continue to look at communities around the world and at the people in our own community right here. We are exploring ways we are alike and ways we are different as we model and discuss the fruits of the Spirit and how they allow God to build up our community into a good place.

Music: The children provided an incredible performance in our “Children Around The World” program in April. We were so proud of them! Now they are enjoying making music with the instruments, singing every silly song they’ve learned and gaining control over their bodies through music and movement with scarves and movement on the line. They’re always excited when the conga drum comes out of hiding!

Parenting Thought:  Just as we did last year with summer approaching, we encourage you to think about the types of activities your children will have access to during this break from school.  Our plea to you as teachers is that you allow your children to do the following three things this summer:

1. PLAY HARD.  Let them get messy, dirty and sweaty.  Let them try and fail and try again at some new skill, such as bike riding, jumping rope, skipping, catching a ball, etc.
2.  READ.  Alone, with a parent, with a sibling, at a story time.  This is a perfect age to instill a lifelong love of reading, and many libraries and bookstores have free summer reading programs in place to reward children for their efforts. 
3. ENJOY SILENCE.  Children are so bombarded by noise and other stimuli in today’s world that they are losing the ability to appreciate and accept silence.  Allow your child some time every day without TV, video games, schedules, lessons.  Allow them the opportunity to choose a quiet activity, on their own, to enjoy a break from the overwhelming sensory input with which we now live.  Allow your child a few minutes’ peace, and you may get to enjoy some peace as well!

Welcome back from Spring Break!  We hope everyone had a chance to rest and to enjoy some fun in the sun before our rains returned.  It's hard to believe that we only have 11 weeks of school left.  We have a lot still to accomplish, but here is a look at what we have been doing over the past month:

Math:  We spent a lot of time preparing for our 100th Day of School, especially focusing on counting to 100 by groups of ten. We used this time to work more with our gold bead materials to further supplement place value concepts. We had a great party, with treats, counting activities and games. Check out the new photos in the photo gallery!
Literacy:  Reading, reading, reading! There is so much independent reading happening now in the classroom for our older students, and the younger ones are eagerly enjoying stories and songs to further their pre-reading and language skills. The children are continually surprising us with all they are learning! 
Science:  As we (anxiously) await changes in our tadpoles, we are leaving amphibians and reptiles behind and moving on to a study of fish.  As luck would have it, we will also be receiving a couple of new platies from the Wong family to introduce to the classroom fish tank.  We are also now well into our study of the solar system, working on learning the order of the planets (in spite of my mistakes) along with plenty of new vocabulary. The Kindergarten children are now beginning a unit on magnets, rocks and minerals, including a trip on April 28th to the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals.  This is always a favorite!
Social Studies:  This month we will be studying communities and community helpers, as well as children and communities around the world.  We will use stories, songs, puzzles and crafts to celebrate these topics, ending with Hat Day on April 30th.  Children are invited to wear hats to school that represent different cultures/communities...or just silly hats to wear for fun! 

****PARENTING THOUGHT****
Read Aloud Time Shouldn’t Stop
For many of us, when our children arrived in this world, we diligently began reading to them. Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Harold and The Purple Crayon…we eagerly read both the classics and the newcomers to our little ones.  After all, the long-term research is clear and persuasive: reading to young children has enormous benefits as we prepare them for school.

But what happens as our children get older and, hopefully, become proficient readers on their own? What happens when they have homework and required reading? Is it time to stop reading out loud to our kids? In a word, no. Although it may not remain a daily part of your routine, don’t let this carefully established habit fall completely by the wayside.  Jim Trelease, author of the Read-Aloud Handbook, has discussed numerous benefits of reading aloud to older children. Reading aloud to your children will help them become better…
        …speakers. You can choose books that are up to two grade levels above your child’s independent reading level, exposing him or her to a vast amount of new vocabulary. The more they hear, the more they can incorporate into their own daily use.
        …readers. Listening to someone read out loud is, as Trelease puts it, like hearing an advertisement for books. Research shows that by about 6th grade, many children stop reading for pleasure; it is strictly utilitarian to get through required assignments. Reading out loud to children can “advertise” the enjoyment they can get from books.
        …writers. Our spoken conversations typically consist of short sentences, often without a great deal of elevated vocabulary. Reading out loud to children exposes them to proper grammar and syntax and allows them to hear longer, more complicated sentence structures. This, in turn, allows them to develop their own more sophisticated writing.
        …learners. Research is clear that students with bigger vocabularies do better in school.  Most instruction, especially up to third grade, is verbal, so having a vast vocabulary helps children to understand and follow teacher directions, right from the very beginning of Kindergarten. Reading aloud to your children, regardless of their age, benefits their total learning experience.

As our kids get older, and other activities seem to fill up all available hours, reading aloud to them can get trickier, but it is worth the time to make it happen, even if it is just once a week. Maybe evenings don’t work as well for your family anymore, but a Saturday morning is available. Maybe you can’t find 20 solid minutes to read together, but you can keep a book in the car to read for five minutes while you wait for swim lessons to start. If your children are restless while you read to them because the books no longer have as many pictures, perhaps they can color or doodle or work on a puzzle while you read. Here are a few great titles to consider:

         *Toys Go Out, by Emily Jenkins: This is a funny, energetic book about the adventures of friends…who happen to be toys.  Follow it up with her other books, Toy Dance Party and Toys Come Home. Good read-aloud books for ages 5-10.
         *The Poppy series by Avi: Avi’s rich vocabulary in these books gives young listeners excellent examples of how to use interesting and precise language in their own writing. Good read-aloud books for ages 7-14
          *Roald Dahl’s James and The Giant Peach, Frank L. Baum’s The Wizard of Oz and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden are all good choices to read and then enjoy the movie version.

Admittedly, keeping up the read-aloud habit is an investment of time and energy, but the benefits are worth every minute!

100th Day Celebration:  We will celebrate the 100th day of school on Wednesday, March 19th, 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.  If your child would like to participate in this activity, you could help him or her look around the house for items to bring and show.  Or perhaps your child would like to make 100 polka dots/x’s/hearts/etc. on a piece of paper.  That counts, too!

Spring Break – March 24th – March 28th:  We will be closed for Spring Break.

Classroom Notes:  Here are some of the things we have been working on:

Literacy/language: We have spent several weeks working on the concept of rhyming.  This can be a very difficult concept to grasp, but the children are making good progress with it.  We have used many songs, books and puzzles to help develop this literacy skill.

Math:  We have continued developing concepts introduced earlier in the year, such as place value, odd/even and 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.  The Kindergarten students have been introduced to the concept of regrouping, or exchanging, with our gold bead materials.  This is in preparation for higher-level addition and subtraction.  All of the students have been introduced to our solid geometric shapes and have looked at how they relate to the plane geometric shapes.  They are getting good at spotting spheres, cubes, cylinders and prisms!

Science:  We are well into our reptile study, enjoying many books about snakes, lizards, alligators and crocodiles.  It’s an amazing group of animals!  The Kindergarten group is finishing up their world maps, as well as a study of the water cycle.  Soon we will move into our study of space.  To infinity and beyond!

Social Studies:  The children have been studying various forms of transportation.  Can your child tell you the difference between passengers and cargo/freight?  Soon they will be creating their own transportation artwork to add to the bulletin board.  We are continuing our look at people and cultures around the world as we prepare for the spring performance.

Music:  We are about half way through Mozart’s opera Magic Flute.  We are using this time to learn some more music terminology: opera, soprano and tenor.  The children have enjoyed identifying the instruments they know, as well. 


***Parenting Thought***

AVOIDING THE “PERFECT” CHILD

 As parents, we look forward to seeing what our children will master next, which milestone will be achieved, what talents will surface.  It’s thrilling to discover where there passions lie and to see them work hard to learn a new skill.  In the classroom recently, we have witnessed an “explosion” of new skills developing as every day another child begins to read, grasps a new math concept, controls a pencil or gets a challenging puzzle put together.  It’s so exciting!  

Along with all these successes, however, we are also seeing some signs of anxiety in quite a few of the children, mostly centered on the notion of being “perfect.”  As they are striving to learn new skills, unlike in previous years, many of the children are hesitant, afraid of making a mistake.  We are working really hard in the classroom to foster an atmosphere of confidence and capability so that each child feels successful in his or her effort, without worrying about a perfect result.  This is the age for children to learn with joyful abandon, without hesitation or fear.  This is the time to lay the foundation for confident acquisition of knowledge, without anxiety about performance. 

As parents and as teachers, we can help build a child’s intrinsic confidence by using the following steps:

1)    Praise the effort, not the child. For example, “Wow!  You worked hard to finish that!”  Try to avoid using “Good boy” or “Good girl.”

2)    Make our praise specific and honest.  For example, rather than “That’s the most beautiful painting I’ve ever seen,” try “I love all the colors you used.  They make me feel happy!”

3)    Model an appropriate response when we make mistakes or when something doesn’t turn out as planned.  Allow your child to see you handle a mistake or a disappointment without stress.  It’s good for our children to watch us work through a problem and either accept the result we have, or try again. 

Simple habits like these can help tremendously to foster confident, competent children who are ready to learn with eagerness and excitement. 

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

Show-And-Tell:  In honor of the Winter Olympics, our theme this month for Show-and-Tell will be sports and exercise. There are many items that can fit into this category, including photos of your children participating in a sporting activity.  We look forward to seeing what comes in.  For this theme, your child's item does not need to fit into his or her cubby.  Sports equipment can be pretty big!

Book Orders:  Scholastic book orders are due Thursday, February 6th.  Please write one check for all your orders, payable to Little Lambs.

Late Arrivals:  We have been having a bit of trouble with late arrivals again.  Children should be at school by 8:30am, finished eating and ready to go.  If you do not arrive by 8:30, please do not come into the classroom until 9:00am.  If you are finding it hard to get your child up and ready for school on time, please consider adjusting his or her bedtime.  Children in this age group need a MINIMUM of 10 hours of sleep each night.  We understand that everyone has the occasional rough morning, necessitating a later arrival, but please keep in mind that your child misses a lot of instruction time when this happens consistently.  We cherish every minute we can spend with your children, and we don’t want to waste any opportunities to help them succeed. 

Fred Meyer Rewards Cards:  You can now link your Fred Meyer’s rewards card to various non-profits to assist in raising money for them.  If you do not have another organization you are supporting, please consider choosing the Aloha Community Library.  Little Lambs has been able to support them in the past year through our Jog-A-Thon and Read-A-Thon, and they are now ready to apply for admission to the Washington County Library System.  This is a great way to support a local organization!

Valentine Party, February 13th:  The children will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Thursday, February 13th 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 16 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.

Monday, February 17th:  The Center will be closed in observance of Presidents’ Day.

Friday, February 21st:  Kindergarten preview day.  Please let Mrs. Ratten know if your child will attend.

Wednesday, February 26th:  Picture Day!    Order forms will come home soon.

2014/2015 Registration:  Registration forms for the 2014/2015 school year will be sent home on Monday, February 10th. 

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 have been so busy this month!  Here are some highlights of what we have been studying:

Literacy:  We have been working on positional words, building up the vocabulary to go with the concepts of “over, under, next to, behind”, etc.  This has been challenging work for some of the children, but we’re seeing good progress.  We also have a whole lot of reading going on.  Nine of our students are now reading at least basic phonetic words…it’s so exciting!  We also spent a lot of time this past month working on vowels, both long and short.  The children did very well with this.  Can your child tell you which vowels are in his or her name?  Our Kindergarten group is also now working on their dictionary skills; it’s so impressive to see all they are accomplishing!

Math:  We continue to work on building the concept of place value and the terminology that goes with it.  Many of the children are now ready to work with the equipment in the classroom that reinforces these concepts.  The class has also worked on naming and recognizing ordinal numbers (e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd) particularly in our calendar work.  We have also worked on recognizing and organizing by attributes in our “Kid Sort” game.  The teacher sorts the children into two groups based on an attribute she has in mind, and the children try to guess what it is, such as wearing long sleeves, or having something in their hair, etc.  Some of your children are really hard to stump!  The Kindergarten children have been working on multiple-digit addition, with fabulous success.  They are working on understanding the process in preparation for addition with carrying.

Science:  Are any of you hearing about life cycles and metamorphosis?  We are deep into our amphibian study right now, and the children are loving it!  We have learned so many interesting facts about amphibians in general, and frogs in particular.  When your children arrive at school tomorrow, they will even see some surprise new friends in the classroom!  Tomorrow we will wrap up our hibernation study and let all the little animals head back home.  Thank you for helping your children to participate!  The Kindergarten children are now studying states of matter, specifically with water and the water cycle.  They will even be enjoying a States Of Matter treat this Friday!  After a classroom vote, Little Lambs is now the proud sponsor of two birds at the Portland Audubon Society.  The children chose Jack Sparrowhawk, an American Kestrel, and Finnegan the Peregrine Falcon.  We received photos and information of our birds; please take a moment to take a look next time you are in the classroom.

Social Studies and Geography:  We are beginning a study of the continents, looking both at the geography and the people, as we prepare for our “Children Around The World” program this spring.  The Kindergarten group will begin making their own maps of the world this week; this is always one of the favorite Kindergarten projects!  We are also starting a transportation study, looking at the many ways people and cargo get moved all around the world.

Music:  In addition to learning songs for our spring performance, we have been doing a lot of movement and rhythm work, as well as learning how to make beautiful music with our classroom bells.

P.E.:  We have enjoyed an unusually dry winter with great opportunities to play outside, both in free play activities, and in organized large motor games.  We have also had fun with obstacle courses, balance work and silly games like Hot Potato.

“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!

Friday, January 17th:  Kindergarten Preview Day- Any student who will be eligible for Kindergarten next September is invited to join us for the morning 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 the same as other days, 8:30am-12:00pm.  The preview day will be offered Friday, February 21st as well; students may attend one or both days.  Please tell Mrs. Ratten if your child will be joining us.

Monday, January 20th:  School closed in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

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 16 children enrolled.  More information about the party will come in February.

2014/2015 Enrollment:  We anticipate beginning enrollment for the 2014/2015 school year by the end of February.  Registration forms will be available then.  We anticipate more openings than we typically have, so if you know any other families who may be interested, 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 2014.

Parenting Thought:  Although we have enjoyed a pretty dry winter so far, we are bound to have a lot of inside time coming our way.  This is the perfect time to re-commit to good reading habits for your children.  A quick trip to the library, or some time looking through your own bookshelves, will turn up some good books to enjoy. You are also welcome to borrow books from our classroom library.  Research supports the clear benefits of children reading, or being read to, at least 20 minutes per day, so don’t wait to get this habit started.  Why is reading so critical?  Consider the following statistics, from the National Education Association and Begin To Read:

• Twenty-six percent of children who were read to three or four times in the last week by a family member recognized all letters of the alphabet. This is compared to 14 percent of children who were read to less frequently.

• The Educational Testing Services reported that students who do more reading at home are better readers and have higher math scores.

• Two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.

• Illiteracy and crime are closely related. The Department of Justice states, "The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure." Over 70% of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.

Consistent reading is one of the biggest predictors for future school and life success, and one of the greatest gifts we can give our children.  It’s worth every minute of our time to get our kids reading!  

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  II Corinthians 9:15

Christmas Program:  Our Christmas program is scheduled for Thursday, December 19th at 7:00 pm.  Please let us know as soon as possible if your child will not be participating.  Costume information will be coming home soon. The program will be at school, and refreshments will follow.

December Field Trip:  We will be going to Out of This World on Friday, December 20th.  This field trip is for ALL Little Lambs, even though it is on a Friday.  We are scheduled to leave school at 9:00 and to return by noon.  We will eat a pizza lunch there.  All children are required to wear socks for the field trip.  In addition, long pants and long sleeved shirts are suggested to avoid scrapes.  There is a waiver in the classroom for parents to sign; children without a signed waiver will be unable to accompany us on the field trip.  For this field trip, parents are offered the opportunity to meet us at Out of This World, rather than at school.  If you would like to do that, please speak with a teacher.    

Christmas Break:  The Christmas holiday begins on Monday, December 23rd, and school will resume on Monday, January 6th.

Christmas Center:  The children are now busy at work and play in our Christmas role play area, wrapping “gifts” and reading books and singing songs.  If you have any extra Christmas gift wrap/tags/bows that you would like to donate, we will happily accept them.  Thank you!

Classroom Notes:  Thank you so much for taking time to join us for our harvest celebration and the children's performance.  We were so impressed with how they all did!  It was a VERY successful first performance for the year. Here are some of the activities and studies we enjoyed the past month:

Science:  We had a fabulous time in November studying leaves and fall changes.  The children made beautiful leaf rubbings, and the Kindergarten class made the crayon-resist leaf paintings that are displayed in the classroom.  The Kindergarten students can tell you some information about chlorophyll and how the leaves change colors.  We also introduced and refined the idea of living/non-living.  The children learned that plants, animals and people are living; everything else is non-living.  We are now finishing up our bird study, looking extensively at owls and cardinals. They're really amazing animals!  As we conclude this study, the class will be choosing a rescued bird to sponsor at the Audubon Society.  Stay tuned to see which bird they choose!

Language/Literacy:  We began a study of opposites, with many books and puzzles.  The Kindergarten class began making a book of opposites that should be on display soon.  In addition, children are making huge individual strides in both English acquisition and literacy skills.  Half of our students are reading independently at some level now, with several more who are very close.  Our younger students have been introduced to all of the phonetic sounds and are working with these as they are ready to do so.  This is a remarkably capable group of learners this year!  

Math:  In extending and continuing our odd/even study, we have started to work on skip counting by 2's and 5's.  We continue to work with the class as a whole on the concept of place value, and children are working individually as they are ready for this concept.  We are tracking the number of completed school days as we look forward to celebrating our 100th day of school in a few months.  

Music: In addition to preparing for both the harvest and Christmas performances, the children have been enjoying listening to Camille Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals."  This was a generous gift from Charisse Wu's family, and we have loved every minute of it!  We have also spent time working with our classroom percussion instruments and are learning how to make music with our set of bells.

Other:  We have spent the past month working on several health and hygiene topics, including fire safety, dental health and the importance of sleep.  Thank you to the Briscoe family for letting us borrow some Duplo blocks for our teeth-flossing lesson!


Inclement Weather:  In the event of inclement weather, Little Lambs will follow Beaverton School District’s closures.  If BSD opens late or closes, we will be closed as well.

Parenting Thought:  'Tis the season to be careful!  This time of year brings with it many hazards along with the fun and joy.  Here are a few safety tips to consider:

*When heading out to a large event (tree lighting, concert, shopping, etc.), tuck a business card or piece of paper with your cell phone number on it in your child’s pocket.  Be sure your child knows that it is there in case you become separated.  For younger children or those who may not remember the card, consider writing your cell number on their arm with a Sharpie.

*Once the number is tucked away, use your cell phone to take a few pictures of your child in whatever he or she will be wearing while you’re out.  Take one with a coat on and one with it off.  If you become separated, you can instantly show authorities exactly what your child looks like and what he or she is wearing. 

*Teach your child this important rule:  if you become separated, your child should sit down immediately and not move.  If the child stays still in one place, it is much easier for an adult to find him or her.  If another adult approaches to help, your child should give the adult the card with your cell number to call, but should still stay sitting right where he or she is until you arrive.