Topic: Christmas
Why we celebrate Christmas.
The value is peace, which is a calmness and quietness. It’s like a starry night in the country.
For manners, we’ll talk about saying Hello and Goodbye and how to say thank you for a gift.
Outside, we’ll play circle jump; Santa, your present is gone; and Rudolf, Rudolf Reindeer.
The songs we’ll be singing are Let There Be Peace on Earth, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Deck the Halls, Twelve Days of Christmas, Up on the Housetop, and Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer.
Creative dramatics is The Night Before Christmas.
Our art activities are Santa face lid, standup tree, snowman ornament, candy cane animals, and hand-y Christmas tree.
For motor development, we’ll work on coordination by carrying Santa’s toys and a kind of musical chairs. For proprioception we’ll do standing push-ups, pass a heavy object around the circle, leap frog, and pull a heavy thing.
THE STRENGTH IT TAKES TO BE GENTLE
The basic premise of Montessori is to “follow the child”. In this simple phrase lies a challenge that’s almost insurmountable for over-controlling super achievers. We have arranged our lives so that every nuance is managed, supervised, and secure. Unfortunately, it also seems to be counterproductive for children. There is a story told in a classic Montessori film about the little child who was watching a magnificent butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. Unable to stand idly by while the beautiful creature struggled, the little child wretched the shell of the butterfly and proudly held the butterfly up to let it fly away free. The still weak wings would not support flight and the insect fluttered to the ground, where it died. The child ran broken hearted to the teacher, who explained, “The struggle makes the butterfly strong. Without struggle, butterflies cannot fly.”
It is difficult to hold back when we watch our little ones working so hard. Mostly, however, we help in non-helpful ways. It takes a great deal of strength to allow a child to dress herself, pour his own milk, or climb to the top of the playground structure alone. Teachers must constantly examine themselves and the environment they create for their children to insure that it is the most effective in empowering the child to grow into the adult she is meant to be.
As adults, we somehow seem to gravitate toward trying to create children who are passively compliant. But as forest rangers are discovering, many years without small forest fires creates a tinderbox that is massively more destructive than regular small fires. When we allow our children repeated small victories, they begin to understand their pattern of success. When we allow our children repeated small failures, they learn to learn from their mistakes without having a serious crisis. Being the caring adult who creates the child’s environment, we have to be strong enough to stand aside, gently and patiently encouraging.
Each child in the classroom has his own special success pattern and her own special talent. It takes a great deal of intelligence, patience, and energy to create situations that enable children to be the best they can be. Let’s talk together so we can create as harmonious a style as possible in which our children can grow. We notice that the best teachers talk about how much they learn from their students. When all the adults in our children’s lives pay attention and take intelligent action, we can make the world in which we want to live. It just takes a great deal of strength and a good tribe to be so gentle.
‘Tis the Season
General
School Closed – As a reminder the school will be closed December 21-25 and January 1.
Covd 19 Testing -The City of Houston has asked us to inform you that you can get free COVD19 testing by calling 832-927-7575. This free testing is for any age and with or without insurance. The turnaround time for getting your results back is 2 - 4 days
CLASSROOM NEWS
Luke likes using some of the work as if it were a hammer and while reaching for his favorite hammer (the tree stacking work) it seemed like to perfect time to give him a lesson. Without saying any works just a demonstration Luke was shown how to place the object on the vertical dowel, after getting just one lesson Luke repeated the work several more times. This work helps develop hand eye coordination and also helps to improve his attention span. This week we welcomed our newest student Luca to the class. Kenny is learning how to keep the classroom organized and remembers the correct location of all the materials and really helps during cleanup time.
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