Tuesday, September 10, 2013

September 2013 Newsletter


Klahanie School
September 2013 Newsletter
Welcome back everyone!  Hoping you all had a full and fun summer and now ready to set into the excitement of a new school year.  We teachers are elated to share the new classroom space, greet our returning students and warmly welcome our new classmates!  

Topics
·      Our Environment: We will take the first couple weeks to explore our classroom environment inside (the enclosed classroom and deck lanai/bathroom) and outside (the new school entry, the garden and our pick-up bench).  These gentle and slow steps to fully welcome and acclimate the children to the school, ensures levels of safety and harmony experienced in the school environment.  Thus, creating a space to learn.   And away they go independently and as a connected group of great learners!  Learning on all the important levels at such a young age: social, emotional, cognitive and physical. 
·      
Who I Am: To introduce children and teachers to one another, we spend the month of September singing, finger-plays and story-telling a lot about who we are and what is important to us.  Using the tune of “Old McDonald” or “Mary Had A Little Lamb” we make-up name and people memorizing songs.  We will also begin our first art project: Self Portraits.  If interested in helping with this project, please call or leave a note with teachers.
·      Year after year, we observe the importance of beginning our school year on the note of creating group connectedness so peace work can be throughout the children’s school experience.  That being paramount to Klahanie staff, we hold “group” or circle time.  This is our class time to work with each other to rejoice, process, express and learn in a sincere and sweet space as a group.  As the year progresses, the group times become a very important peace tool for us.
·      
Harvest: The end of summer means much harvesting and preparation for the cooler seasons.  We will do art projects, language/math, botany, zoology, and sensorial and practical life activities. 

Reminders
·       
Please park in the designated Klahanie School driveways and keep 201st/81st and neighbor driveways clear.  Loads of kids in our neighborhood, so please drive between 10-15 miles/hr.  Please arrive 5 minutes before pickup to ensure on-time pickup.
Friday November 8th 6pm-8pm please get a babysitter and come enjoy some wine/appetizers and time to connect with other Klahanie parents as well as hear more about your child’s classroom Peace studies and how to incorporate peace practice within your home and the importance of doing so.
November 18-November 21: Autumn parent conferences.  Times will be announced later
Please consider automatic deposit or scheduled mailed tuition, please make amount alterations prior to September and contact Emmy for school account information.
Tuition is due the 1st of Every Month.  Tuition paid after the 5th a $50 late fee will be applied. 
Please call school Director if needing to explore a different day of the month to pay tuition.  We are here to support and problem-solve.
We will begin Show & Tell in October—Thursday Show & Tell: something from nature or sound of the alphabet (example: “a” abalone shell).  And if you accidentally forget, no worries! J
Please call or email Emmy if questions arise.









Thursday, August 15, 2013

Grief in Child Eyes


Grief is universal.  Grief comes in all sorts of shapes, shades and situation.  All communities, all families, all personal experiences are introduced and touched by grief.

Children feel grief alongside and separate from the family collective.

A wonderful book "Lifetimes: The beautiful way to explain death to children" by Bryan Mellonie and Robert Ingpen is a fantastic resource for the practical and poetic explanation of death to children that we all can benefit from reading.

If your family has been significantly altered from a grief experience, please consider calling your family physician, community center and/or church for grief therapist/counsel referrals and local support groups.  



Monday, June 3, 2013

June 2013 Newsletter

Painting by Finley Graham 2013 "Earth"

June 2013 Newsletter

May Reflection
This month we said thank you to those children making their way to new adventures for the summer and beyond.  This has been a wonderful experience to honor relationships in class—ways friends can stay connected and discussion of change.  We talked at circle time in both our AM and PM classes about what feelings sometimes come up while experiencing change and that change is a natural part of life.  Change is transition to something unexpected and most of the time, amazing!  

The children have been really enjoying Show & Tell!
Show & Tell: Tuesdays or Thursdays feel free to help your child find something small and special from nature or object starting with any of the letters from our alphabet (example: “a” for apple) to bring to class for beginning group.  Please place Show & Tell items in a name labeled plastic bag.

Welcome Carter Suchy to our PM Class!  Please feel free to introduce yourself to Vince and Kay Hardy and Carter! 

June Topics
·      Life Cycle of the Butterfly & Insects: our Painted Lady caterpillars are close to chrysalis phase!  We will continue our scientific observations.  Vocabulary: egg, larva, caterpillar, chrysalis (pupa, cocoon), butterfly, sphere.  And talk/building butterfly houses.
·      Primary and Secondary Colors: color mixing and color wheels.
·      Rainbows—What makes a rainbow: with the wild spring weather, we will look at what makes a rainbow and fun stories and folklore surrounding rainbows.  Vocabulary: rain clouds, sunrays and rain drop/prism.
·      Tie Dying:  Please send one or two pre-washed white tee shirts to school.  We’d love to get our tie-dye on soon!  
·      Woodworking: hammering projects and tool/function vocabulary and use.
·      Loads of outside time and water play! Please put sunscreen on your child!

Reminders
·      June Break/No school: Tuesday June 18th and Wednesday June 19th 
    July: No School 
    Saturday August 24th is our end of the year potluck celebration & Graduation. More details to come.








Bead stringing






Sandpaper Letter Lesson practice


AM circle time Show & Tell









Magnets





Baking corn muffins to send our thanks to friends.



Monday, May 13, 2013

May 2013 Newsletter



April Reflection

The wild winds of April calmed and we have entered the magnetic month of May!  Children are undergoing great spring growths themselves and we adults are moving quickly to keep up with the busy spring days.  Parents, you are doing a wonderful job!  And what an honor for us teachers to feed the children more and more skill specific works (i.e. larger projects, more specific topic enrichment and math/language exploration) based off the children’s interests.   We are having so much fun introducing more acting exercises as we transition to outside time or ending our group.  We are laughing and smiling together a great deal these spring days!

We have had a wonderfully rich and joyful month together and the children are interested in beginning Show & Tell for our circle times (group). 

 Show & Tell: Tuesdays or Thursdays help your child find something small and special from nature or object starting with any of the letters from our alphabet (example: “a” for apple) to bring to class for beginning group.  Please place Show & Tell items in a name labeled plastic bag.

May Topics
·      Life Cycle of the Butterfly & Insects: our Painted Lady larva will arrive soon and our classes will be able to see the life cycle play out before our eyes!  We will release the butterflies in the school garden after they have emerged from chrysalis form.  Both classes made beautiful posters of the life cycle.  Vocabulary: egg, larva, caterpillar, chrysalis (pupa, cocoon), butterfly, sphere.
·      Parts of an Insect:  head, thorax, abdomen, six legs, antenna
·      Maps: those interested in class will make maps.  This is preparation and care for the children (as some are embarking on new adventures) for upcoming changes and breaks, so they can place stars on their maps to show where friends live, schools are, etc.  This is a delightful exercise to ritualize and honor the child’s understanding of some things ending and something new beginning while mixing in practical and personal geography!
·      Tie Dying:  Please send one or two pre-washed white tee shirts to school.  We’d love to get our tie dye on the last week of May!  

Have a wonderful month and please feel free to share with teachers if you (or a grandparent) would like to share a talent in class, being your child’s Show & Tell for a circle time—we’d love to have you!  Please call Emmy if interested.



 Practical Life: Nail Care

The gifts of empathy development with an infant in class.  Thank you Stanley!

Window washing


Planting our Mother's Day Sunflowers












Sewing

Dish Washing











Painting our Mother's Day Portraits