Would you like to care for Gex for 1 week over break?

Hello Families!

We have a gracious family that will be able to take care of Gex, our beloved bearded dragon, for one week over break. Which means there's one remaining week up for grabs. If you're interested in taking care a super, easy-going reptile over your holiday, just let me know.

Stay warm!

--

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    

Winter Clothing and Slippers

Hello families!

This is just a friendly reminder to send the following winter items with your children every day:

- jacket

- gloves

- hat

- snow pants 

- boots 

Also, if your child does not have indoor shoes, please make sure your child brings them from now on.  Tracking in dirty boots does not bode well for a clean classroom.  

We will be going to the park tomorrow, so thank you in advance for helping your child come to school feel prepared to play in the cold. 

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 12-2-2016

Hello Dearest Families!

A number of the students exclaimed how shocked and excited they are that it is already December! Hoping you're getting excited about the upcoming holiday season as well.  On that note, as a community we put an emphasis on "Giving Back" and one of the traditions that we've begun in LEW around this time of year is to have a book drive. If you have a plethora of children's books laying around, we would highly appreciate it if you could have your children bring 3 or more books to donate to an organization called "Books for Africa." On the last day of school, we'll take a look at all of the books we are giving away and talk about the importance of giving.  Here's a link to their website, in case you're interested in finding out more about the organization and see below for more details.  

This week was our final week with Mariann, our embroidery guide. The children have created adorable cushions with their names and designs embroidered into the sides. They've also made journals, coasters, and have left this residency with many different sewing skills like... the running stitch, the chain stitch, couching, overstitching,  blanket stitching, how to thread a needle and tie knots. We're incredibly grateful for the hard work and care that Mariann has put into this residency with the children.

Lessons from this week:

First Years

• Creating North American Maps
• Golden Bead Addition
• Adjectives
• Amphibians

Second Years

• Landforms of North America
• Clock work
• Fundamental Needs of People writing
• Poriferans

Third Years

• Creating their own island, using advanced landforms and water forms
• Invertebrate Classification
• 2 Roles of the Adjective
• Timeline of Humans
• Abstract subtraction

Reminders and Requests 

LEW Book Drive: Please send in books with your children by Wednesday, December 14th.  There will be a bin outside of the classroom where you can drop them off.  

Dishwashing Soap: We are running low on dishwashing soap which we need on the regular in the kitchen. If you're feeling generous, please send in a bottle of dishwashing soap with your child.

That's all for now. Have an incredible weekend!

Best wishes,

--

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    

Picture Day Retakes Tomorrow & Parent Education Tonight

Hello families!

Just sending you a friendly reminder that tomorrow we will have a chance to do retakes for student photos. Also, tonight there will be a great parent education opportunity that will focus on executive functioning. It should be a rich discussion and I hear the instructors will share ways to promote executive functioning at school and at home. 

Enjoy the rest of your evening, 

--

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 11-4-2016

Hello LEW families!

Thank you to all of you that could make it to our work share today! The children were thrilled to share their works with everyone. We also had some curious administrators and directors come in to see what was going on. It was a great feeling to see all of the hard work that the students have done in just these last 9 weeks (!!) and see how seriously they take this work.  

Lessons from this week:

First years

• Introduction to bar graphs and collecting data
• Classifying geometric solids (cubes, cylinders, prisms, pyramids)
• Simple classification in science
• The year and its parts

Second years

• ><= with fractions
• Identifying and creating 6 quadrilaterals
• Word study: Suffixes
• Finishing up First knowledge of animals and abstract addition

Third years

• Advanced classification of triangles with mathematical notation
• Creating line plots and collecting data
• Word study: Homophones
• Timeline of Historical Figures

Upcoming Events and announcements

• Wednesday, Nov. 9th. - Half Day - We will not be having lunch on Wednesday. Busses will still come to pick up the bus riders, but there will be no Big Canoe Kids Club

• Thursday, Nov. 10th-Friday Nov. 11th - No School - Parent/Teacher Conferences - In lower elementary we still prefer to just have the conference between parents and teachers, but if you bring your child along, they may read or do a quiet activity in the hallway. If you still need to sign up, please do so by clicking here.

• Thursday, Nov. 17th 7:15-8:30 - Parent Education Night. The topic will be executive functioning and the role of practical life work across the levels at GRS. Childcare will be provided for ages 3-12.

• Calling on Spoons, Forks and Knives! It appears that many of our utensils have gone home with students. Common mistake.  If you notice any unfamiliar silverware or happen to have any extra utensils lying around, we would be very happy to receive them :)

• The importance of healthy lunches - with Halloween still lingering in the air, we understand that there might be a surplus of candy about (maybe).  Please remember that we encourage the children to eat healthy options for lunch in order for their bodies to feel nourished and ready to do big work. Thank you for your support in this :) 

Have a wonderful weekend in this wonderful weather!

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 10-21-2016

Dearest Families,

 

It was a short and sweet week in Lower El West mixed in with excitement and plans for the long weekend. We hope that all of you have a chance to enjoy some rejuvenating downtime with one another. This week, we started our weaving classes with Mariann. The students bound their own personal notebooks, created designs with pattern blocks and browsed through books about sewing and weaving.  If you're interested in being a volunteer to assist Mariann during our weaving time (T,Th,F 2:00-2:45), please respond back to this email. She would love to have you and she is an incredible teacher to work with.

 

Lessons from this week:

 

First years

•  Characteristics of fish
• Dynamic addition with the snake game
•  Making progress on their globe pillows

 

Second years

 

• Internal characteristics of vertebrates
•  Money practice, using dot counting (ask them about this)
•  Cursive practice

 

Third years

• Study of the BC/AD timeline
•  Wrapped up space study. The students have:

o   Collected notes by writing lists or creating concept webs about their topic.

o   Wrote topic sentences, using attention getters. They chose from two writing tools:

§  Imagine statements

§  Ask the reader a question

o   Took their notes and wrote about their topic in their own words for a rough draft.

o   Edited their rough draft for spelling and proper writing conventions.

o   Wrote up their final copy to be "published."

o   Created an illustration to go with their writing. 

 

Upcoming Events

•  Third year field trip to the Bell Museum on Wednesday, Oct. 26^th – The students will be going on a trip to the Bell to wrap up their space work. Right at the start of the day, we'll take metro transit to the U o fM (the students love this). Then, we'll participate in an astronomy lab and get the chance to spend some time in the planetarium!

•  Spirit Week arranged by the A3 students Oct. 31-Nov. 3
  

o   Monday: Costume Day for Halloween! (Please no weapons or masks)

o   Tuesday: Twin Tuesday

o   Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday

o   Thursday: Class Color Day (Lower Elementary is Orange)

o   Friday: Pajama Day 

•  Work Share Nov. 4^th 1:30-2:45 (and it looks like we'll be wearing pajamas for Spirit Week  [see above] so be prepared J )
  

o   This will give your children the chance to share some different works and teach you how to use some of the Montessori materials! Should be a great time. Hope you can make it!

 

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

 

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 10-7-2016

Hello on this brisk, Autumn-like afternoon!

We just got back from our adventures at Buttermilk Falls Farm! We harvested carrots, broom corn, and marigolds. We planted garlic and made apple cider. We visited with the animals and we hiked around Buttermilk Falls.  We had incredible chaperones join us (Thank you!) and if you happened to take any pictures, please share them with me :) We'd love to put them on the blog. Also, the coordinators for the Harvest Festival (next Saturday BTW) would love some Fall-themed photos of the kids as well.  

Other than our field trip, all of us were working hard on literally very large work this past week. 

Erik took each of the grades out to collect different types of leaves and analyze them. They came back with some great specimens. Our lessons included...

For the First Years: lessons on sewing a Globe Pillow, search for 10 and the Snake Game (ask them about this!), Cursive Writing, and analyzing the Parts of a Leaf. 

For the Second Years: lessons on Telling Time by 5-minute intervals, Fraction Equivalence (ways to make one-whole, one-half, etc.), analyzing Leaf Margins, and classifying Rocks & Minerals (Ask your child if they can tell you the difference between a rock and a mineral. Thanks again for the donations!)

For the Third Years: lessons on the Protractor and measuring angles, the Fundamental Needs of Humans, and classifying Types of Leaves.  This group also had a tremendous space exhibit where they got to share their projects and their knowledge about their topics. They were very proud of this work and they should be! Check the photos below :)

A few notes:

• Picture Day: Friday, October 14th. We sent home the envelopes to select and pay for the type of pictures you would like of your child. Please have your child bring in the payment envelope to school by next Friday. 

• Harvest Festival: Saturday, October 15th from 2-5 PM.  Hope you all can make it, especially for the lower elementary folk dance performance!

• No School - MEA: Thursday, October 20th - Friday, October 21st

• Save the Date: Lower Elementary is planning a "work share" on Friday, November 4 from 1:30 to 2:45 in the afternoon.  This is a chance for parents to come and do Montessori work with their children.  We are waiting for calendar approval and will send out a final Yes on this event as soon as we get it.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Warm regards,

--

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