Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!

We first want to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us and discuss your child. We loved getting the chance to get to know you and your families better and talk about your amazing kiddos! Thank you for trusting us with them.

This month we are learning all about our incredible bodies – what they do and how they work. We’ve learned about our five senses: sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell. Ms. Jessie taught us that our eye isn’t flat, but a big ball. We learned about the iris too and how we all have different colored irises. We’ve learned the spanish words for hard – duro, and soft – suave. We got to feel many different items that had different textures and feels to them. Our sense of taste can taste things that are bitter, salty, sweet, and sour. We learned that some things smell really nice like baked cookies, or laundry, but other things smell yucky like garbage or rotten food! Lastly, we learned how our ears work and how we respond to loud or soft noises.

Our esqueleto or skeleton! We learned all about our bones and how they give our body structure. Some living things like worms or jellyfish are invertebrates and don’t have skeletons. Our bones protect our internal organs and we have bones of every size! BIG bones like our FEMUR, and little bones like our stapes in our middle ear. Ms. Julie brought our Mr. Esqueleto and we got to see all of the bones in our bodies!

We’ve also talked about our main organs and how they help our bodies work. We learned about our heart, brain and lungs! Wow! Our bodies are incredible!

If you’re looking for something new to read with your child, check out our October book suggestions:
Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young
The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin
The Listening Walk by Paul Showers
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Please click here for some pictures from the last two weeks!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wS5bX9wh9E37HzjCfd9Dd1a24KAhufKY?usp=sharing

Dates to Remember:
October 29: ICD (International Children’s Day), Half Day
October 30: NO SCHOOL

Love,
The P2 Team

“The senses, being the explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge.”
~ Maria Montessori

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

Let’s Talk About Peace!

We can’t believe we’re already three weeks into the school year. Wow how time flies! Your children have truly been doing such an amazing job with all of the transitions and seem to be well adjusted by now.

Every week friends have a new spot to sit in the classroom. This gives them the opportunity to sit in a different area, and to sit with new friends they might not have spent time with before. We do our best to switch up young friends with older friends and girls with boys.

Lavate los manos= wash your hands! Ms. Jessie has taught everyone all of the parts of the hand in Spanish. We’ve talked about just how important it is to wash EVERY little part of your hands. From your unas (fingernails) to your palmas (palms). Everyone is working so hard to make sure they are properly washing their hands. We wash our hands when we come into the classroom in the morning, before snack, after recess, before lunch, and before snack again (and of course after using the restroom)! They are getting lots and lots of hand washing practice and are professionals by now!

We’re learning that sometimes we feel an emotion but we aren’t able to put it into words. We’ve been talking about many different feelings and what can make us feel those feelings. Sometimes we’re disappointed, astonished, angry, sleepy or excited. Talking about our feelings helps us to cope better when our emotions get super big. We’ve been learning about feeling cansado (tired), muy fantastico (very fantastic!), and molesto (mad).

Ms. Sadie taught a lesson on conflict resolution and how to use the peace rose. We talked about how sometimes our feelings can get hurt or we can feel mad at another friend. When that happens, the child can go get the peace rose and bring it to that friend to talk about the problem. Whoever is holding the peace rose gets to speak. The children take turns holding the rose and saying how they feel. At the end, when the problem is resolved, both friends hold the rose at the same time and say “friends.” We encourage our friends to solve their own problems as much as possible. Of course we are happy to guide them through the process, especially when problems are too big for a peace rose talk.

We’ve also been busy exploring the four seasons and what delights each season brings. Whether it’s the drizzly days of spring, the beach days of summer, pumpkins in the fall or snowmen in the winter we’re learning that each one can be fun. We encourage children to think about what their favorite season might be and why.

You can view pictures from the last two weeks at this link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CdyAWZ1GbuOkPlmqV3DF_1W1oLbh3s5?usp=sharing

The following link has some great lunch ideas in case you need some fresh ones!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y6simNytdZ-wE_yOXNDuHArFe-mwymvmR3UwWhYaAAQ/edit?usp=sharing

Upcoming Dates to Remember:
September 7 – Labor Day – NO SCHOOL
September 8 – Teacher in Service – NO SCHOOL

Love,
The P2 team

“Peace is what every human being is craving for and it can be brought about by humanity through the child” ~ Maria Montessori

Welcome to P2!

We are so excited to be back at school and see everyone again! We hope that you all had a rejuvenating, and fun summer spent with your family and friends. We truly missed each and every one of our students and have enjoyed getting to know our new friends!

This summer, Ms. Jessie got to spend two weeks in Mexico visiting with her family as well as spending time teaching summer camp. Ms. Sadie spent her summer taking the Montessori Training and is super excited to share all of her new information with everyone. She also got a new puppy named Finn! Ms. Julie spent some time in Utah at Lake Tahoe with her family. She enjoyed hiking and visiting the museums there. We all had a lovely summer but are ready to be back at school.

We know that this first week of school has been filled with so many changes and we cannot thank you enough for your patience, trust and understanding as we figure out this new normal together. We are doing everything we can to keep your children safe and healthy. There are so many extra procedures and precautions in place, and lots of extra cleaning to ensure their safety. Please keep in mind that while it is mandatory for kindergarten friends to wear a mask, it is not mandated for our younger pre-k and pre-school friends. We highly recommend and encourage them to wear it, but it is not mandatory.

Our first week was SO busy! We’ve been getting to know your child, and friends have been getting to know each other. We’re starting to feel more comfortable with each other and new friends are getting used to the classroom. For some friends this is a big change and it does take time to adjust. We are so proud of each and every one of them for how well they have adapted to this new environment and to these changes. They are AMAZING!

We started this year by reviewing classroom procedures such as how to walk around another friend’s work, how to ask for help, how to sit at circle and how to practice grace and courtesy. We’ve been working on saying please and thank you, and how to have a conversation at lunch. Our friends have also been learning new procedures like taking their shoes off when they enter the classroom, sitting at a designated table with their name, wearing a mask, and lots of hand washing. We are so proud of how hard everyone is working!

You can view pictures from the first week of school at this link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XFebe8qd1l19wiuy-VxNJBKdgaO7AIGQ?usp=sharing

“Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child open himself up to life.”
~ Maria Montessori
Love,
The P2 Team