Friday Letter - 09.23.11

September 23, 2011

Dear River Run Families,

Despite the rain we have been able to get outside for much of the week. On Wednesday we celebrated World Peace Day established by the United Nations in 1981. We started our celebration by talking about peace. We read Peace Begins With You, by Katherine Scholes and exerts from the book Paths to Peace: People Who Changed The World, by Jane Zalben, a book on loan to us from the Kelly-Menyuk family. We practiced and then sang the song “Light a Candle for Peace” at 11 a.m. on Wednesday with other traditional and Montessori schools around the world. We hope to have the video of the children singing on the blog. I would like to thank Maddy Kelly for learning the song on her viola and bringing it in to accompany us while singing.

Also on Wednesday Nancy joined us as a substitute for Debbie who was out for the day. Nancy did an art project with the children. They made peace bracelets and she was our videographer. It was nice for our students from the previous year to be able to spend time with Nancy as she was a co-teacher last year, and they miss her presence. Thank you also to Juliana, Liam's mom, who is coming in once a week to work with the children on sign language. She taught us some signs to accompany “Light a Candle for Peace”.

This week I presented The History of Math, one of the Montessori Great Lessons. The children noticed that the abacus, invented by the people of China, looks similar to the small and large bead frames they use in their classroom.

The three hour work period is normalizing for both our new and returning students. I have already found that I can take time to sit down and observe. Observation allows me to make sure the environment is set up in a way that every child's needs and interests are being met and that the flow of the classroom is working. Just 5-10 minutes are needed daily to focus either on the class as a whole or an individual.

The Writer's Workshop is a treasured time for us; you will all enjoy reading the Author's Notebooks when you come in for conferences.

Best Wishes for a joyful weekend.

Namaste,
Amy and Debbie

Important Dates:
Sept. 29 No School- Rosh Hoshana
Sept. 30 No School- Staff Day
Oct. 6 Dinner/ Silent Auction
Oct. 10 No School-Columbus Day
Oct. 13 Field Trip to Farmer's Museum

Please put this date on your calendar! Our Parent Education Evening is Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 7:00 PM.