Mrs. Carroll’s Class: A Season for Celebration

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

‘Tis’ the season for celebrations!  A time to honor the many beautiful and wondrous ways that people observe the diverse collection of holidays from around the world. All of these occasions are a wonderful way to reinforce the idea that people around the world have distinctive yet similar celebrations.

This week the children celebrated the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. They were completely engaged by the story of ancient Jewish people’s triumph over their enemies. Thank you Leah Mayor (Newman) for your compassionate Hanukkah storytelling, and delicious latkes.

Our Christmas celebration began with a brief discussion on the story of Christmas, from a historical and cultural perspective.  This was followed by our Santa celebration and Lisa Manca’s enthusiastic reading of The Night Before Christmas.  No true Christmas celebration would be complete with out a brightly colored, incredibly sweet Christmas cookie. Thank you Francine Wheeler for the delicious sugar cookies. We had fun icing and then decorating our holiday treats.

Learning about the holidays of different cultures embraces the Montessori principals of inclusion and peace and helps students understand that celebrations have had a great significance to people throughout time and across all cultures. Rituals and celebrations are a large part of human history. They have to do with your culture, your time and place in history. So let’s take a look at creating rituals in our own families, specifically towards the end of the year, the festive season.

Your children will be bringing home a very special gift for you this week. Please enjoy this token of love and gratitude. We had a great time creating these gifts and know you will appreciate your children’s creative efforts.

A gentle reminder. Please send your children into school with warm winter attire.

May your holidays be merry and filled with moments you’ll always remember.

Cindy & Sharlene

Ms. Kayser’s Class: Winter Wonderland

Posted on by skayser

The classroom has been transformed into a winter wonderland! The students walked in Monday morning to discover that the holidays had taken over. It is always so exciting for everyone when new works appear on the shelves. It brings so much joy to both us and the children as their curiosity guides them to re-explore all the shelves.

In geography we have traveled across the globe to Antarctica. The children have really enjoyed learning about this cold continent and how different it is from North America. As the month progresses, we will be learning all about the scarce number of animals and plants that are able to live in the harsh climate of this continent and explore how they survive!

Outside of the classroom, this week brought us a special visitor: Aris, Officer Felicia, and Officer Matt! Aris is a two year old German Shepherd from Slovakia who is training to be a part of the K-9 Unit in the Newtown Police Department. Officer Felicia spent time on Tuesday to talk to the children about how Aris and the rest of the department are working hard every day to keep us all safe! We even got to learn some of the German language they use to train Aris and watch as he listened to commands. The children were ecstatic to watch Aris work.

Thank you Officer Felicia, Officer Matt, and Aris, as well as the rest of the Newtown Police Department, for going out every day to protect us and our community.

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: Special Visitors

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

This week we had two special visitors.  On Tuesday, Officer Felicia, Officer Matt, and Aris from the Newtown Police Department spent some time teaching us how they all work together to keep us safe.  Aris is a two year old German Shepherd who is still in training and part of the Newtown K-9 unit.  He comes all the way from Slovakia. The children loved hearing that his favorite food is ice cream and that he lives at home with Officer Felicia.

On Wednesday, we learned who St. Nicholas was. St. Nicholas was a Bishop who inherited a lot of money from his family.  He was also a very gentle, kind man who lived by the virtues of personal generosity, charity towards those in need, and taking care of the young and the most vulnerable.  We learned that  St. Nicholas loved to perform random acts of kindness for those in need. Many people around the world celebrate St. Nicholas Day by leaving a pair of boots outside their door.  So, we left them outside our classroom door.  To our amazement, the boots were beautifully decorated and filled with candy canes the next morning.

Wishing you a warm and wonderful week!

Mrs. Doyle & Mrs. Lyga

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: Canine, Color, and Compassion

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

Officers Felicia and Matt from the Newtown Police Department K-9 Unit visited this Tuesday with their canine, Aris. The officers shared with the children how canines are used to support the police department in keeping us all safe. Aris kept us all captivated by both his beauty and allegiance to his trainers.

In Art, the children learned about the Northern Lights, complimenting this months’ study of Antarctica.  The students were able to create their own  “dancing light” drawings by layering various colorful lines using chalk pastel. Miss Jen encouraged the children to blend the colors with their fingers to create a glowing effect to represent the glow of the Northern Lights. Enjoy!

The class celebrated Saint Nicholas Day on December 6th.  St. Nicholas is known for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.  On the eve of  St. Nicholas Day children traditionally leave boots outside of their doors in hopes that he will leave a small treat in them. We were thrilled that St. Nicholas visited Fraser Woods School and left a tasty gift, a boot full of candy canes. His life mission remains a continued model for compassion.

Until next week,

Cindy & Sharlene

Ms. Kayser’s Class: Thankful

Posted on by skayser

This month has been filled with so many amazing experiences! From the visiting firefighters, to our STARlab field trip, and Thanksgiving just last week, it has been non stop excitement. The most amazing part of all this is that your children still had the most beautiful focus and drive within the classroom. Although there were so many other things going on, they still were able to come into our quiet sanctuary and get lost within the works on the shelves. They are continuing to grow each and every day and are proving, now more than ever, that their curiosity and love for learning is able to persevere through the excitement happening around them!

In the classroom this month we have been studying North America in geography! The children absolutely adore learning about the continent that they live on, and are eager to explore everything there is to know about it. We have been learning about the people of North America, the animals that inhabit North America, and even got to weave our own Native American rugs! Mrs. Reid taught the children the history behind rug weaving and then gave the children the opportunity to create their own; it was a beautifully done project that had the children completely absorbed!

On another note, we hope that you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week. It is such a blessed time because  it gives us a chance to sit back and really think about the things in our lives that we are thankful for. Ms. Alli and I agree that, aside from being thankful for our families and friends, we are truly so thankful to have each and every one of your children in our lives. We took time in class to talk to the children about what they are thankful for before our Thanksgiving celebration and wrote them on their turkey headbands! We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did, some definitely put a huge smile on our faces!

All the best,

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Mrs. Carroll’s Class: A Sea of Rugs

Posted on by Cindy Carroll

 

The love of ones environment is the secret of social evolution.-Maria Montessori

Retrieving a mat, picking it up carefully, finding the ideal space to work, and rolling it out provides an opportunity to practice gross motor skills and body consciousness. Everything that gets placed on the mat thereafter becomes the responsibility (and privilege) of the child working on that mat.

Montessori work mats delineate a work space as the child’s own and sets an intention to “work”.  Not only does the child know that their lesson is exclusive to them (unless they invite someone to join them on their mat), they also have the responsibility to put their materials away when they are finished before they roll up their mat, and signal the end of their work session.

Our floors have been a sea of rugs!  Your children are skillfully maneuvering themselves throughout the environment, careful not to disturb a friend’s work.  I continue to be amazed at their growing control and respect for both friends and the environment.

Until next week,

Cindy & Sharlene

Mrs. Doyle’s Class: What Makes An Animal A Mammal?

Posted on by Michelle Handibode

 

Children love learning about animals.  They know that there are many different kinds of animals found all over our planet.  They also know that animals come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They move in many different ways and have many different kinds of coverings on their bodies.

Scientists like to classify things to make them easier to understand and study. There are different animal classes and every animal in the world belongs to one of them. Each class of animal has certain characteristics or traits. The six most well known classes are mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects.

The first class we are studying this year are mammals.  So what makes an animal a mammal? Mammals are warm blooded, have live births, drink milk from their mother, have a backbone, and have hair or fur. Mammals can live on land or in the water. The largest mammal is the blue whale and the smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat. Learning that people are mammals is always a great source of enjoyment for the children!

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Doyle & Mrs. Lyga

 

 

 

Ms. Kayser’s Class: STARLAB Planetarium

Posted on by skayser

 

The primary students got to experience the wonders of our solar system inside a portable planetarium brought to us by The Children’s Museum of West Hartford. Our experience started with one of the staff members sharing stories of old that explained what was in the night sky. He continued to say that the people would look up into the sky and connect the stars in shapes of different animals. To spark the children’s imagination, the presenter brought in a milk snake for the children to feel and examine first hand. They were able to then use that mental image when they went into the STARLAB to try to find the constellation, Serpens.

When the children were ready, the presenter brought the classes into the inflatable STARLAB. This amazing structure allowed the children to sit inside of it as they projected 3D images on the walls around them. We were able to watch the sun set and the constellations appear above our heads! We got to use our own imagination to try to connect the stars in different shapes before he used the technology to map them out right before our eyes. The children were so excited to experience the stars all around them, but the best part of the experience was taking off from Earth and landing on the moon.

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli