February 2013 Newsletter

Klahanie Nursery School Newsletter

February 2013

The study of love and its utilization will lead us to the source from which it springs, The Child.

Dr. Maria Montessori

January Reflection

Thank you Teachers Sara Bennett and Jordan Beck for all your wisdom and care offered to the Klahanie AM & PM children while teaching with Emmy during Lauren’s maternity leave!  We are excited to have you back in the classroom soon!

Welcome back Lauren, we missed you!  As Lauren re-enters the classroom with her infant son Stanley, we will take time to reconnect and form deeper bonds in our class communities.  This will undoubtedly hold many tender and profound moments. 

February Topics

·      Infants: Welcoming Stanley to our class as well as our theme of love and joy this month, we will explore the needs of babies and the gifts of understanding they offer us daily as they express his/her needs.

·      Dr. Maria Montessori: Our second Peace Maker who helped reshape the method of honoring the infant and child through observation and creation.  With the assistance of a child appropriate story telling (during group), we will talk about her life and work she passionately provided for many children and educators around the world.

The unknown energy that can help humanity is that which lies hidden in the child.

Dr. Maria Montessori

·      Love and Other Emotions: What is an emotion and when do we feel differing emotions.  We will use stories, puppets and for the PM class, introduction to our Peace Area and Talking Stick (This will be included in the Montessori In The Home Parent Night) to begin essential practice of Listening and Expressing of emotions with loved ones.

·      Honoring of Friends: During group our class will have a special tray for serving tea.  Children (yes in the AM class too J) will have the opportunity to invite friend to tea.  The host will serve his/her friend tea and toast. 

Reminders, Meetings & Celebrations

·      Congratulations Gray-Miller Family on the Birth of Cyrus! 

·      

Valentines Day & Sing-A-Long: Please feel free to bring Valentines for each of your child’s classmates.  We will have Valentine envelopes children will bring home that day.  At 3pm we will host a Klahanie Valentine Sing-A-Long for Parents that Both the AM & PM classes are welcome to attend.  We will move the class furniture and sit in a big circle to sing a couple of Songs about Love J and have a special treat.

·    

  Winter Break: NO SCHOOL FEB.18-FEB.22

·      Birthdays: If you want to celebrate your child’s birthday in class, please feel free to call Emmy for the day you wish to share a Photo of your child when he/she was a Baby and a brief write up of what your child was like as a baby (what he/she loved, ate, where he/she was born, etc) that will be read during group.  We then like to read On The Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier.

·      Montessori In The Home Parent Meeting set for Thursday March 21, 2013 7pm-8: 30pm: Get a babysitter and come join us for a fun night of Montessori ideas for your home, light appetizers and time to discuss parenting process in a supportive space.

·      Reminder For Snow Days—Klahanie will go by the Vashon School District snow closures.   Snow day school cancellations will not be made up.

·      Please Remember to Park in Designated Klahanie Parking (please refer to the Parking map posted on our school board.)

·      Please feel free to call teachers if questions/concerns arise regarding your child, always happy to take time. 

·      We will begin our Re-Enrollment for the 2013-2014 School Year this coming March 2013.  Invitation for parents to come in to observe before spring conferences (the observation and Parent Conference Calendar will be posted on the school board to sign up in March).  Klahanie is a Montessori inspired Birth-To-Three Years School where children graduate to other programs at age four.  Parents of our PM Elder children who will be graduating this summer are encouraged to begin looking at other wonderful Vashon Preschools, as many schools are starting the enrollment process soon.  Please feel free to call Emmy if questions arise or recommendations requested. 

Thank you for all your support and looking forward to the coming week!

Beginning of our Peace Maker Unit

Wyatt so comfortable during ending group :)

Rolling practice

Reptile, amphibian and mammal sorting

January Newsletter 2013, Happy New Year!

photo by Glenn Kellow

Klahanie Nursery School Newsletter

January 2013

Only in the darkness can you see the stars.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

December Reflection

Our December was cut much shorter due to all the illnesses!  Here’s hoping the latter part of our winter quarter is healthy for us all.  Happy Solstice and New Year!

What fun it will be to hear all the children’s stories and excitement about their holiday break and witness the changes they all have experienced.

Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

January Topics

     Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—an age appropriate telling of Dr. King’s work.  Dr. King is the first Peace Maker we study for our Peace Work around the world unit.  The second half of the Klahanie school year we feature individuals of varying background that all hold the same intention of peace making and what peace maker means to one’s self, community and greater world.  As the unit progresses, we connect peace work to our own class community and share how the children too are peacemakers.   Words we will be using are: Compassion, Listening, and Equality.   A wonderful reference for Dr. King’s quotes is on: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/23924.Martin_Luther_King_Jr_

·       Winter Birds—we like to include animals in our Peace Maker unit and winter birds are wonderful reminders during this time of year of supporting the health of the birds.  We will talk about winter birds we see on the island, their environment, what they need to survive and what we can do to help them (suet and water basins safe from cats and other bird eating animals).  A wonderful bird resource is www.birdnote.org   

·       Winter—what is snow and what is ice   

Reminders, Meetings & Celebrations

·      Congratulations Lauren and Family!  Congratulations Teacher Lauren on the healthy, happy birth of your darling son Stanley!  We love you!

·      

   Montessori In The Home Parent Meeting set for Thursday March 21, 2013 7pm-8:30pm: Get a babysitter and come join us for a fun night of Montessori ideas for your home, light appetizers and time to discuss parenting process in a supportive space.

·    

      Reminder For Snow Days—Klahanie will go by the Vashon School District snow closures.  Emmy will text all families with additional information.  Snow day school cancelations will not be made up.  

May our new year bring the welcome completion of our new school building--we are getting close!

December 2012 Newsletter

Klahanie Nursery School Newsletter

December 2012

Goodness must come out of reciprocal helpfulness, from the unity.

Dr. Maria Montessori

November Reflection

The holiday season can bring many lovely experiences as well as unintended strain and fatigue from the burst of fun opportunities and additional transitions to get ready for these wonderful occasions.  Children can become more emotionally fragile, erratic tantrums, greater intensity of demands during the holiday season.  In class we observe these holiday day strains in differing degrees in the children and continue to do our best to support the children’s need for calm and contemplative concentration as a mode of offering an outlet to process the hustle and bustle of the outside world. 

For fun take a morning or afternoon with your child, throwing aside the “to-do’s” and snuggle with your little one on the couch with your favorite-shared book or movie, bake some goodies to enjoy together or venture into nature during these busy days and walk silently, following your child to explore the forest, beach or meadow.   And here’s the biggest challenge: don’t bring a camera or phone, just enjoying the silence and moment-to-moment exploration with your child, no matter where you are.  We all deserve this gift!  

Connected to the idea of families and the holidays approaching, the following quote from Aline Wolf’s book Nurturing the Spirit in Non-Sectarian Classrooms felt like a lovely way to say our Klahanie gratitude and acknowledgment for all the warmth you wonderful families show on a daily basis!           

With so many young families today living long distances from their own extended families, the school community can offer them a welcoming place to belong.  Here they can meet other parents with similar aspirations for their children; here they can talk over their mutual concerns ….A community relationship that can be celebrated in this way is usually one that has matured over time in an atmosphere of openness and acceptance.  Such a community is nourished by supportive acts of kindness—one parent driving for another who is ill; one family sending a casserole when another family has a new baby; families helping teachers in the time crunch before the first day of school; teachers giving extra time when it is needed and many other gestures of mutual support.  As each individual feels respected and valued by others in the community, all gradually become comfortable in this family-like atmosphere that serves as a paradigm for our wider participation in the global community.  ‘The key to community,’ Scott Peck writes, ‘is the acceptance—in fact the celebration—of our individual and cultural differences.  Such acceptance and celebration…is also the key to world peace.’”

“The School As A Family/Global Community,” (133-134,141) 1996.

Reminders and Thank Yous

·      Please Submit a PHOTO OF YOUR CHILD by this week.  Thank you!

·      Thank you Kelly Reese for the wonderful Apple Butter the children enjoyed with their pumpernickel bread during a fun Practical Life Food Preparation during class this month!

·      HOLIDAY BREAK: NO SCHOOL December 19-January 1

·      PLEASE PACK EXTRA WARM, rain resistant, easy to get into clothing and boots for your child as well as labeled hats.  We go out no matter the weather!

·      PM Class: Teacher Sara begins this week through end of January with her baby daughter Dena!  As our class community adjusts to these wonderful shifts: Please help Teachers by supplying your child with:

o   Clothing that is easy for your child to get into (comfy sweat pants are perfect!)

o   Notes about your child’s morning if fatigue/illness/super busy morning, etc (as well as best contact number if parent needs to be called for early pickup)

o   Lunches (food and containers) that are easy to open for your child to do independently—please offer a mini lesson to your child on how to open the container/bag/etc before coming to class. 

o   Klahanie supplies filtered water throughout class in BPA FREE glasses

December Topics

·      Holiday of Lights: a brief, age appropriate celebration of Winter Solstice, Devali, Christmas, and Hanukkah,

·      Extended look and story-telling/songs of Giving Thanks

·      Winter days: animal preparation to hibernation (specifically bears--weaving the beautiful song “Douglas Mountain” sung by Raffi and written by Arnold Sungaard & Alec Wilder as a guide of storytelling to illustrate this subject.  Please note: in class we change the words to: “so Earth can bring the night.”

·      Fun Holiday gift making J

Meetings & Celebrations

·      Lauren on baby Stanley’s birth, as soon as we hear, you will too! A Meal Train Sign Up will be emailed out.  Thank you!

·      Montessori In The Home Parent Meeting set for Thursday March 7, 2013 7pm-8pm: Get a babysitter and come join us for a fun night of Montessori ideas for your home, wine/light snacks and time to discuss parenting process in a supportive space.

·      Celebration of Love Party February 2013! This party will be for fun, food, and dancing as well as a Raffle for goody baskets to support our School Financial Aid and future Parent Talks.  Please call Emmy if you have venue ideas and want to help organize!  Thank you! Date of party To-Be-AnnouncedJ