SHOW AND TELL
Bring a food native to North America
Topic: Native Americans
Learn about the culture of our Native Americans
The value is honor, which means we never lie, cheat, or steal. That can be hard to do.
For ecology we’ll take a nature walk.
Outside we’ll have a ceremonial dance.
The songs we’ll be singing are This Land Is Your Land, God Bless America, Catch a Falling Star, and Bluebird. We’ll also practice patterned singing and clapping.
Our art activities are teepees, rock painting, totems, weaving, and sand painting.
Creative dramatics will be learning about the peace pipe.
For body development, we’ll work on stamina with kick ball and ceremonial dancing. For motor development we’ll do postural response exercises with jack in the box, tracking through the woods, balancing, and walk across a log
BEING AND DOING
Parenting is one of the hardest jobs you will ever do, mainly because it confronts us with the necessity of growing up ourselves. A growing, questioning, mimicking child in front of us brings us face-to-face with what our own values and practices are.
The bigger issue is the doing. We all know that to loose weight, we have to eat less. We know that to be fit, we have to exercise. But we don’t do it. So to be good parents, we have a list as long as our arms of things to do. Then as we feed our kids French fries in front of the TV, we beat ourselves up for not doing what we truly wanted to do. An incredibly more effective way to get where we want to go is to “be” the quality we’re trying to achieve. As we consider what to eat for dinner, if we get in the mindset of “we are a healthy family”, we know at the most elemental level that healthy families eat lots of fruits and vegetables, no fried foods, and minimal sweets. On Saturday morning, if we’re in the mindset of “we’re a fit family”, our gut tells us that a fit family goes hiking, biking, or camping instead of to the movies. It’s the “being” that gets us doing what we know we should do, what we want to do.
This energy extends to other characteristics that we want for our families. If we are a family that honors integrity, if we are “being” people of integrity, then we do things like tell the truth, do what I said I would do, and share. If we are “being” a family who has fun, then we jump on the trampoline, play in the sprinkler, and decorate cookies together.
The mind shift of “being” that kind of person is what enables the characteristic. We see it with our children when we talk about being brave, being kind, or being polite. Unfortunately, this power works the other way, too. If we use words with our children that even hint that he’s shy, she’s not so good at math, or there’s a bully at school, the child begins to think of herself as shy, dumb at math, or a victim. The good news on each of these negative characteristics is that we can “do” ourselves out of them. History is full of stutterers who became famous orators and singers, poor students who became renowned geniuses, and grandmothers who began painting now-famous pictures. All of us can establish new habits by doing a thing for 26 days. Benjamin Franklin did it by setting up 14 characteristics he wanted to “be”, and he cycled through focusing on one characteristic at a time until they became ingrained in his personality.
Many of us review each day with our children as we tuck them into bed at night. It’s very revealing to review what your child thought was the happiest, funniest, or even scariest part of his day. It’s a way to complete the business of the day and then to move on into what we want to “be” tomorrow. It’s a powerful seeding exercise that our subconscious then works on overnight. It works equally well for adults.
General
Halloween – Our Halloween Carnival will be Wednesday, Oct. 31, from 10 to 11 A.M. We’ll all dress up in a fantasy costume for a jolly good time. Please don’t plan on a mask or face paint. It will really help if you can contribute trinkets for our games. Party favors work well, as well as pencils, sea shells, pretty rocks, etc., by Monday, Oct. 29. Volunteers to help the children change into costumes are also helpful. We can guarantee you a fun afternoon.
CLASSROOM NEWS
In preparation for reading students are taught the sounds of letter rather than the name of the letter. Kaylee has been learning the sounds of various letters and it was time to put those sounds together to form words. Using the letter A and the letter T when the sounds are put together you get “at” than to take it a step further letters C, H, F, S, and others were placed in front of “at” and as Kaylee connected the sounds her joyful emotion took over and she shouted “ I’m reading, I’m reading!” Soon she will be reading sentences and then books. Sae, one of the newest students in the toddler class is no longer crying while at school she feels safe and comfortable in her new school so much that she beginning to show interest in the work. She enjoys painting and the mosaic pumpkin work where she uses cut up paper to fill in the pumpkin shaped.
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