March 4, 2011
Dear River Run Families,
This week we continued to both talk about and do works related to the history of writing. We learned that St. Patrick was a missionary from Rome who was sent to Ireland to bring Christianity. He was probably the first person to bring the Roman alphabet to Ireland. Also, China had both paper and printing press for hundreds of years before the Europeans found out about them. The Chinese used block printing as early as the year 800. The children have been experimenting writing with quills dipped in ink made of soot and vinegar. They are writing in Hieroglyphics, Phoenician & Greek.
An addition to our morning routine is two minutes of meditation. It is amazing how long two minutes feels when you have to concentrate only on yourself. We have talked about deep breathing and getting good oxygen in our bodies in order to get ready for a productive, peaceful day.
Enjoy your weekend,
Amy
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In the afternoon program we have begun several new units, one of which is yoga. In music, we are learning about recorders and each student has one for use in making music with as we begin to explore group songs. We look forward to welcoming community member Esther Willison on Monday, March 14th, when she will bring her recorder collection to our classroom and share her music with us.
We have also started a health unit with discussions about things that are good and bad for our health. Our conversations will continue and will cover the benefits of proper nutrition, regular exercise, and adequate sleep as well as the dangers of alcohol and drugs. This would be a good opportunity for you to reinforce these concepts in your own way at home.
This week we completed our project of mapping out the United States, learning abbreviations and interesting facts, and exploring which states RiverRun folks had visited. As we suspected, the only state not yet visited by any of us is Hawaii! Students worked on interest projects learning more about the state of their choice. Each student gathered information and made a visual depiction of that information on a mobile. Students also worked in pairs to create acrostic poems which described some of the states. We learned about the minting of US money and the 50 States Quarters program. Finally we worked on timelines while exploring the presidents of the U.S. and the order in which states joined the union.
Looking ahead, we have an exciting agenda for the month of March which includes several community guests and special activities. Next Friday, our students will be attending (in our own school building) the Lake George Opera’s performance of “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Set to the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan, in this story adaptation by John Davies, the characters discover that “You must treat other people the same way you want people to treat you!” We are looking forward to having our students attend this fully staged, fully costumed performance, complete with professional singers and a professional pianist. Please send $5 per student in to the classroom by Wednesday, March 9th, to cover RiverRun’s contribution to the show cost. Next Friday, March 11th, will also be our Pizza Friday for the month of March. Please send in $1 per slice for one or two slices of pizza on that day if your child is interested.
Finally, we are planning a cooking activity and family meal for Friday, March 18th. As part of our cultural studies, we are interested in learning more about St. Patrick’s Day and preparing some traditional Irish foods. We are looking for a volunteer who may be interested in helping the students research and prepare these foods. If you are interested, please read our Cooking Program Guidelines which are available on the RiverRun blog at http://www.riverruncommunitymontessori.blogspot.com/ and then contact Amy or me to let us know of your interest.
Thank you for your on-going support,
Nancy Adis
Upcoming Dates:
March 11th – 10 a.m. Jack and the Beanstalk school performance and Pizza Friday
March 12th – 7:00 p.m. RiverRun Movie Night at the Foster's residence
March 14th – 1:30 p.m. Community Visitor, Esther Willison (recorders)
March 15th – 9:30 – 11 a.m. RiverRun Open House
March 16th – 11 a.m. Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure at Proctor’s Theatre
March 17th – Cooking Day
March 18th – 12:30 p.m. Family Meal
March 24-25th – No School
How fun that Esther is going to be in the classroom playing music with the kids! No doubt she's going to have a great time with it and the kids are going to love her!
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