Who are the Helpers in our Neighborhood?

We are so happy to be back to school and teaching everyone in person. We missed you all! Thank you for your support and commitment the last two weeks.

At this young age, communication is such an important skill to learn. Sometimes we don’t do it often enough. We tend to get caught up in our favorite television shows, tablets and smartphones that sometimes we forget what it’s like to have an actual conversation. Having conversations during dinner is one of the best ways to gather and share your day. Asking your child “how was your day” or “what did you learn” are large scale questions that children tend to answer with one word. Keep questions simpler, such as, who did you eat lunch with today? What part of today made you happy? What part of today made you feel sad? Even if you don’t talk about school you can talk about what the weather felt like that day, how dinner tastes to you, and don’t forget to tell your child about your day! Car rides are another easy time to squeeze in some chit chats and sometimes children are apt to tell you more in the car because you’re not face to face.

We are wrapping up September by talking about helpers in our neighborhood. Ms. Jessie taught us some different signs we might see and what they mean. We learned that an octagon has eight sides, and that a stop sign is an octagon. Ms. Sadie taught us about police officers and the different ways they can help us. We’ll also be talking about firefighters and mail carriers. We learned that there are lots of ways that we can help out in our neighborhood too. We can help by picking up garbage outside, or by saying thank you to those who are helping us.

For our October calendar art we had fun making pumpkins using our knuckles! What a fun and different way to make art!

Click the link below to view pictures from the last two weeks. 🙂
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dS-T91TWmQ74z8ZEtCoTq27x_6Pd3D34?usp=sharing

Dates to Remember:
October 2: NO SCHOOL (Parent Teacher Conferences)
October 6: Picture Day

“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength, use it to create.”
~ Maria Montessori

Love,
The P2 Team

It’s September, and we have been enjoying the (slightly) cooler weather!

While inside we have learned about our love lights. Ms. Sadie taught us a peace lesson on how every single person is different, but we all have a light inside of us. Sometimes that light is shining bright (like when we’re happy), but sometimes it gets very dim (like when we’re angry). We were taught that taking deep breaths can help our love light to shine bright again. There are love lights for us to pin punch out and tape to our chests if we want to show everyone how bright our love light is shining. 

Chicken, peaches, broccoli, cereal and milk all belong to different food groups. We’ve learned about each group and what foods might be in that group. For protein we discussed how we can get protein from many different sources, not just meat. We have talked about what food groups our lunches are coming from, and what food groups our breakfasts belong too also. Did anyone have cereal for breakfast? That belongs to the grains (or granos) group! Some of our works this month have included sorting foods into the right groups, as well as looking at the different names of foods in Spanish. 

We’ve learned about the differences between fruits and vegetables; fruits have seeds. Some foods that we were pretty sure were vegetables, like eggplant and bell peppers, turned out to be fruit! Boy were we surprised! We’ve also looked inside an apple and talked about the exocarp, the endocarp and the pips. Ms. Jessie taught us how to correctly pick an apple: twist it off! Don’t pull or it may damage the branches.

Our friends are learning how to politely interrupt a teacher when they need to ask us a question or if they need help. They are taught to place their hand calmly on our shoulder and quietly wait. When we feel their hand on our shoulder we may touch their hand briefly so that they know that we know they are there. Everyone has been practicing lots and have been doing so well with peaceful interruptions. 

Please keep in mind that the mornings are starting to get cooler and the outdoor classroom is in the shade all morning. It is important for your child to have a light jacket or sweatshirt so that they may still enjoy their outdoor activities and stay warm.

Reminder: Please make sure to label your masks. We have many friends, and labels make it much easier to keep track of everyone’s masks! Thank you in advance.

Pictures from the last two weeks can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Jjgy1Q7gu1Ka5maRTSNOOeaqS-YoIQXg?usp=sharing

Dates to remember:

September 14-18 On-line Scholastic Book Fair

September 18 – Scholastic Book Orders Due

October 2 – NO SCHOOL – Parent Conferences

Joy, feeling one’s own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.

Maria Montessori

Love,

The P2 Team