Klahanie School
February 2017 Newsletter
January 2017 Reflection
Establishing lasting peace is the work of education
~ Dr. Maria Montessori
January brought us amazing levels of connection, reflection
and presence with the core of focus being on Dr. King and Peacemakers. With the solid base of this unified
group making peace everyday within themselves and in friendships, a joyful and
magical time of “normalized class” has been created where children move about
at independent will, making choices that nurture their inner drive for more
learning, more growing and more helping friend interactions. All your children have shown tremendous
levels of kindness and focus of helping one another. The world at large could take some major lessons from this
dynamically loving Klahanie School peacemaker group!
Hawaiian Poem: Peacemaker (To make Peace)
Ua kuikahi ke aupuni e haawi e paa I ka lima ke kuike e mamua o ka olelo – alohaloha ua kuikahi ke aupuni ~ To unite as one and make peace you must give your hands up in agreement that you will ‘try’ to understand one another, speak kindly, entreat gently and go with love, yes, in order to unite as one and make peace
~Bonnie Flach, English Translation
Here is our class chant:
Klahanie kids are
mighty, mighty kids and mighty, mighty kids they are.
They work for peace.
They work for love.
They work for
harmony!
February Curriculum Topics
“Poetry is when an emotion has found
its thought and the thought has found words.”
This is a busy, full and wonderful month we will share together
in class. Neighborhood walks will
become more available. If your
child has a birthday this month and you would like to do a little honoring in
class, please let me know.
·
Love: exploring the power of love
emotion, how we show love to self and others, how it inspires arts and
peace. This will incorporate arts,
movement, spoken word, songs and poetry.
·
Dr. Maria Montessori and Aline Wolf: Peace Makers. Our global tour of peacemakers
continues and focus on Dr. Montessori’s reasoning for her observation based
research of poverty-stricken children and establishing Casa dei Bambini in 1907,
Italy. As well as Aline Wolff,
Montessori educator and author who took Dr. Montessori’s work and developed
more.
“I
think its purpose is to give children an experience of silence in our very
noisy world. It lets them see that silence does not occur automatically; one
has to make an effort to create silence. The Silence Game gives children the
rare opportunity to hear the tiny voice inside them.
I've
written a few meditations for children. The one on kindness will be in my new
book. I suggest that the children sit very still and close their eyes while the
teacher reads the meditation about kindness towards others."
~Interview
with Aline Wolf
·
Valentines: Monday 13th and
Tuesday 14th we will exchange Valentines (Jordan will help
parents distribute Valentines in name labeled envelopes inside cubbies). We will share a healthy treat we make
in class and sing and recite Valentine songs and poems.
·
South America: Because we have beautiful
cultural items in class from Peru, we will begin our focus on Peruvian culture
and beautiful geographical makeup.
If you or a family/friend have traveled to Peru and wish to share
stories, photos, foods, music please contact me to come it! Our peace-maker unit will expand to
South American peace makers into March.
Reminders/Thank You
·
Winter Break: February 20-24, No school
·
Sunday February 5th Thriftway,
help sell and support tickets sales to our annual scholarship fundraiser
·
Saturday February 11th 7-9pm
our and Pie Soiree, Camp Sealth/ Rounds Hall!
·
Valentines:
help your child make a valentine for each classmate for our little Valentine
celebration Monday February 13th (if your child goes to another
school Monday, we will have another mini celebration on Tuesday the 14th).
