LEW Holiday Newsletter

Season's Greetings!

I hope this message finds all of you well and in the company of loved ones.  I'll try keep and keep this brief as I am sure you are all busy with the holiday bustle. 

I've attached some pictures and highlights from last week. There are pictures from the Winter Solstice Celebration and Clara's Dream - Behind the Curtain.

Winter Solstice Celebration

Let me just say how much fun it was to celebrate with all of your children. We legitimately celebrated 5 holidays in 1 day to celebrate the Winter Solstice from around the world and they pulled it off beautifully. We had one group dedicate their display to the holiday of Santa Lucia which is celebrated in Scandinavian countries. They made crowns with candles and had fun crosswords and coloring pages. We had a group do a Hogmanay (pronounced: hog-MUH-nay) celebration for the Scottish New Year, accompanied with a fun play and sing along of Auld Ang Syne. They also created their own color by numbers and coloring pages to commemorate the one of the largest fireworks displays in the world. Going further east, we had a group create a Teng Cheih exhibit to celebrate the Chinese celebration of Winter Solstice. There were lanterns and dragons and little gifts in red envelopes as well as a huge, beautiful Pinata made by one of our students and her grandmother (love the fusion).  We also had a classic game of dreidels and the students generously shared delicious chocolates to play the game properly. The Hanukkah group was quite busy of course.  We then had a stand to celebrate Boxing Day which is celebrated in the U.K., Australia, and Canada. The students created a play and demonstrated how boxes are stuffed with gifts to give to those in need.  I just wish I had more pictures to truly show you how much fun (and exhausting) this celebration was.  I'll be sure to try and send video of the plays to you once I figure it out. 

Clara's Dream

What a great way to cap off 2015! We got to see our friends Michelle and Preston from the St. Paul Ballet and they gave us a fun sneak peak at their rendition of the Nutcracker.  They showed us the famous Snow Scene and snippets of all of the dances in the Land of Sweets. I forget how there are so many songs from this show are so well known and so timeless. The dancers also took us back stage to see the costume areas, the props, the back drops, the box office, and their rehearsal space. It was an absolute blast. 

As if things couldn't get any better, Erik surprised us back at school when we returned. Only a few of the students got to see him, but it really was a incredible surprise. He's looking great and definitely healing. After being in the classroom, he felt excited to be back in the swing of things. His hope is that he will feel strong enough to return on January 4th with the rest of us. Sending him thoughts and wishes of healing :)

Finally, I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all an incredible holiday and we look forward to seeing you in 2016!

All the best,

--

Jessy Eaton Fabel

Lower Elementary Guide

"Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." ~ Maria Montessori    

LEW Newsletter 12-12-2015

Good afternoon on this toasty December day,

First of all, just wanted to happily send the news out again that Erik is back home and on the mend. Hooray! Thank you for the quick responses to sending a meal to his family today.

Kind Language

With the holidays approaching and what with the added excitement and energy that comes with it, I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the importance of the community and how we try to nurture it in LEW.  At the core of community is how we relate and communicate with one another.  The students themselves declared that our community should sound..

"Considerate, Peaceful, No Harmful Words, and that we All Do Our Part"

Recently, we've noticed that we need to refer back to these beliefs.  On the one hand, the students are truly bonding with one another - even across grade levels. On the other hand, since they are more comfortable with one another, we tend to forget our grace and courtesy and talk more forcibly with one another when there are disagreements. Even so, saying things like "shut up" or calling people names is not only unacceptable, but it completely goes against what the students believe our community should sound like.  Language that is harmful or intended to hurt is not what we want the students to fall back on. Instead we coach them to use "I language." For instance, "I felt frustrated when you kept interrupting my work and I need to you wait for me to be available."  It's inevitable that we will disagree with one another once in a while, but we can still problem solve respectfully.  

One way we intend to help the students feel more comfortable using this language is to model some scenarios in meeting where we use "I felt..because...and I need..." language to solve our problems. Also, if we notice that a student is using harmful language, we help them take a moment to calm down.  Then, we go over what happened and practice using the appropriate language the second time through. The goal is that the harmful language is addressed as soon as possible, but if for some reason we are not able to walk through the problem that day (because it's the end of the day or what not), then I will send a note home to the students' families so that they can practice at home.  Then the next day the students will make things right with one another - i.e. restitution.  

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the use of kind language, I would be more than happy to talk with you.

What we're working on

We're winding down, but we're still working!

First years are studying the story behind the months of the year, working with money quantities, and learning about how we can help conserve water.

Second years are finishing up the fundamental needs, creating physical maps of north america, and brushing up on subtraction with borrowing. 

Third years are continuing their study of the Timeline of Humans and writing fascinating origin stories - like the first fire, the first boat, or the first piece of art. They are also continuing their practice with 4-digit subtraction with borrowing and checking with addition.  They are also practicing their x facts - see if they can do the multiples of 3, 6, 7, 8, or 9 up to times 10. 

Gex needs a home for the holidays!

Unfortunately, I am somewhat late with this request. Gex, our beloved Bearded Dragon, needs a home for the holidays.  He is extremely docile and very easy to care for. The students are professional caretakers at this point! If you would be interested in housing a bearded dragon from December 18-January 2, please let me know. 

Book Drive

Thanks so much to all of you for your book drive donations. There is still time to donate! Please bring any gently used books to school by Dec. 18. The Minnesota Literacy Council and the children they serve would be incredibly grateful.

Clara's Dream and Winter Solstice Celebration

Thursday and Friday will be special days in lower el.  We will have the chance to have a little winter solstice party planned by the students and a chance to take a trip and see the ballet, Clara's Dream at Macalaster College. What a great way to send off 2015! 

I hope all of you are finding time to enjoy the season ... and also finding time to relax :)

All the best,

--

Jessy Eaton Fabel

Lower Elementary Guide

"Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." ~ Maria Montessori    

Update on Erik and Saturday Meal

Hello all!

I'm happy to let you all know that Erik is finally back home and on the mend :) 

Also, we have an opening for someone to bring a meal for his family tomorrow.

If you have the time and are willing, please sign up by clicking on the link below:

http://www.takethemameal.com/meals.php?t=ZHQX7732

Happy Friday everyone!

--

Jessy Eaton Fabel

Lower Elementary Guide

"Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." ~ Maria Montessori    

Last minute chaperone request for Wed. December 8th

Hello all!

We have the opportunity to see the GRS dress rehearsal for Annie on Wednesday afternoon at the Wellstone Theater. We would like to have 1 chaperone come with us. We will be leaving GRS at about 1:00, so it would be great if you could be at school by 12:50. We will be back by 3:00.

Let me know if this interests you.

All the best,

--

Jessy Eaton Fabel

Lower Elementary Guide

"Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." ~ Maria Montessori    

LEW Newsletter 12-5-2015

Good afternoon to all!

Gratitude

As I took a stroll around Lake Calhoun this morning, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to all of you and your children. I told the students the other day that I absolutely love coming to my job and working with them each day. With Erik being away and with all of us missing him dearly, it's heartening to see the students stepping up and helping out in any way that they can - like greeting each other at the door, or showing someone how to do a lesson that they missed, or problem solving together at the peace table with little to no guidance at all. I'm not going to say that it has been easy - this kind of work is never easy - but it's obvious that the students believe in this community and they enjoy working with one another. 

On Monday, Erik's wife, Monica, will be coming to the class to talk to the students a little bit about appendicitis and to answer any questions they might have. We're grateful that Monica has offered to do this for us :)

What we're working on  

This week's lessons were really fun. We are all studying the water cycle and we've created our own water cycle experiments. See if they can tell you what we did. 

First years are studying the months of the year and the history behind the name of each month. They are also practicing subtraction with borrowing and researching amphibians.

Second years are practicing fraction addition and beginning their study of invertebrates - yay porifera!. They have also been introduced to the Fundamental Needs of People lesson - we will be seeing some big work come out of this.

Third years are practicing multiplication facts and long multiplication. They are also getting really good at using protractors. They need to prove that when you add up all of the angles in a triangle, it adds up to... ask them :) We have also begun our study of the Timeline of Humans. They have been asking for this work for a while now, so they have already made a lot of progress, making their own timelines, studying the origins of the first tools, the first fire, the first shelters, the first burial... This work will take us all the way to winter break.

Upcoming Events

LEW Book Drive - December 1-18 

Have loads of books gathering dust? Are they books that are appropriate for young students between Kindergarten and third grade? We would love to have them for our book drive! This will be the second year that we will be gathering books to donate to the MN Literacy Council. The Council will donate the books to families that cannot afford to purchase all the books their children crave.  If you would like to learn more about this organization, click on the link below:

http://mnliteracy.org/support/book-donations

Clara's Dream - December 18

We have a field trip to see the St. Paul Ballet once more on December 18th.  This time the SPB will be performing Clara's Dream just in time for the holidays and the student will get a behind the scenes look at the costumes, set up, and stage.  Thank you to the families that already offered to chaperone :)

Enjoy this unseasonably warm weather and the rest of your weekend.

Peace,

--

Jessy Eaton Fabel

Lower Elementary Guide

"Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." ~ Maria Montessori