Sunday, January 30, 2011

February 2010 Klahanie Nursery School Newsletter


January Reflection
The New Year has welcomed some wonderful changes!  Welcome darling Lucy and family!!  

Now that our group is primarily 2-year-olds, there is a recognition of possession and request from the children for independent work.  Thus, I have introduced work bandannas for the toddlers. This stage is important for the initial step of moving the child toward independent concentration, which generates greater imaginative play and problem-solving.  

When your child chooses a new work off the shelf I assist them in placing his/her choice on their bandanna.  Once exploration begins I use the following language with the younger children, “__ wants to concentrate alone on this work.  Lets find something fun for you to do too.”  Many times all four children become enthusiastically interested in someone else’s work so they will repeatedly approach and attempt touch which can create discomfort to the concentrating child.  During these times, I whisper the reminder and gently move the inquisitive child to another work or to sit beside me as we watch the older child discover and problem-solve the work.  Already I am seeing amazing growth in each child as they piece-together the initial practice of focus and awareness of other’s needs. 

These concentrated work sessions last between 15-20 minutes and they are pure magic!  The children set the rotation and pace and many times pick-up on one-another’s need for transition to a group activity (songs, books, dancing, bubbles or moving to play outside).  Many times they end a work cycle by heading to snack together where they eat and connect.    

It is lovely to see the organic, effortless methods the children use for blending concentration with group joy and connectedness.  

Notes regarding language: 
My use of the word “work” is to describe the children’s activities in class because what they are doing is their important work—figuring out the world.  Offering children a calm environment allows him/her to seriously work at something until they master the task (removing container lids, rolling balls, sweeping, ect.).  Once the activity is mastered, they child finds new and creative ways of using the material. A child’s understanding and love of the world is shaped from the exploration and practice of how we humans use our bodies and minds with the materials offered. I find using the word “work” shows respect for his/her process.

February Topics
We will connect February to January by making the month about love and celebration of family.  I have picked a couple of sweet books, poems and Raffi songs that celebrate what we as families share together.  

When you have time at home, please talk to your child about what you love doing with them.  We also will create more space and time in class for care of our friends (tea parties, massages, silly faces in the mirror, scarf dancing).  We will continue to enjoy our peacemaker music—Michael Franti, Woody Guthrie, Raffi and Bob Marley.  The children hug and dance as freely and majestically as could be!

Reminders:
Please check your emails for monthly invoices and quarterly tuition receipts.  Also, please periodically check the Klahanie Calendar for revisions--hopeful we will have one or two more families in our Klahanie community in the next month or so and snack week assignments might be altered!!   

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

January 2011 Klahanie Nursery Newsletter


December Reflection
Welcome New Year 2011!  We at Klahanie finished the year of 2010 with beautiful grace, kindness and extreme growth—physically, emotionally and absolutely mentally! 

The children LOVED dancing and listening to the different holiday songs/music presented throughout class.   The most beloved piece was the second act of the Nutcracker.  Either dancing with scarves or hand-in-hand, all the children amazed me with his/her pull to the emotion of the music.  

This month we made great leaps and bounds in the areas of acknowledgment and response to the requests I had regarding safety, patience and care of the environment.  I began using the word “safety” and/or “safe-space” as a redirection phase instead of the easy but sometimes back-firing “no.”  This has become a very effective for the children in understanding areas of the classroom as well as response to Kai's crawling and attempts to pull himself up.  Each child has been increadibly aware of Kai's body safety and needs which has been a delight to witness.  

Connected to safety is the patience each child shows as they find new (and repeated) ways of exploring connection with friends.   The children attentively work to care for the environment as well as show signs of patience when listening and responding.

A delightful tribute to Divali and Winter Solstice has been the children’s appreciation of the lights in the house and classroom.  We talked/sang a lot about the dark winter weather and the importance of shimmering light—stars, sun, moon, candles and home lights. 

We continue to enjoy the wonders of outdoors--listening to the calls of winter birds and watching them find seeds in the garden.  Each day we enjoy 20-30 minutes of outside play.  Thank you for dressing your darling children so warm for this important exploration time!

January Topics
This is my favorite month for study!!  As a preschool teacher I used this month to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day by also celebrating all the important past and present peacemakers and keepers of our world.  Some figures we will have photos of and talk about (age appropriately) will be Mahatma Gandhi, Wangari Maathai of Nigeria, Dalai Lama, Present Obama, Michael Franti/Bob Marley and most importantly children.  This month is a celebration of our practice of peace, calm and loving toward self, others and environment. 

The poem we will use as a guide for each peacemaker will be:
Martin Luther King was (is) a mighty, mighty man (woman) and a mighty, mighty man was he.
He stood (stands) for peace, he stood for love, he stood for harmony.

I encourage families to find one picture of Dr. King to place in your home this month as well as using the words “peacemaker” and “peace-keeper,” even in reference to our own modest actions to illustrate the true meaning of peace.  Our Klahanie children are the seeds for peaceful change—each kiss, hug and offer of food to a friend is his/her glorious method of showing us all that children are the most peaceful of the world.  Cheers to them!!

Reminders

*     Please check the Klahanie 2011 calendar for snack schedules!  Thank you!