October 27, 2008
Dear Parents,
I hope you enjoyed the Maine DVD with your child; we all obviously had a wonderful time! The Maine trip and Chili Fest are behind us, and we have many more exciting events to come.
Karin Nelson, our room parent, sent home a “Wish List” for our classroom on Monday (please check your child’s green folder). We did not participate in the school’s “Little Hands” fundraiser because it was not age-appropriate for our classroom. We have an educational history CD here in the classroom, and the students absolutely love to use the computer to enhance their learning. However, that particular CD is getting a bit old (it’s the only one we have). We would love to build an educational CD-ROM library in the Greenwood Room. If you are able to purchase a CD for the classroom, please contact Karin Nelson. She has the master list so duplicates are not purchased. The PTO is also making a CD purchase for the room.
I would like to remind parents that we have room for students to keep extra hats and gloves in the classroom. Please be sure your child has a warm coat with him/her daily. In the spirit of keeping the kids healthy (but not always happy, in this case), on cold days, I will not allow the group to go outside unless everyone is prepared for the weather.
Halloween is upon us, and how exciting it is! However, please take pity on your child’s teacher and refrain from sending your child to school with candy or chocolate as a snack for snack time or lunch. We have enough “vibrant spirits” in our room without the addition of edible stimulants! Thanks for your help, especially around this particular holiday when candy seems to be floating around in abundant quantities.
Again, thank you for all that you do for your child and Brookwood.
Lisa
October 4, 2008
Dear Parents,
We are all very excited about the trip to Maine next week! PLEASE be sure that your child has the appropriate resources on the checklist. If everyone is well-prepared for cold weather and rain, then we will all be comfortable, warm, and dry.
Our first outing to the Cooperstown Public Library last week was a huge success! I am so impressed with the students' enthusiasm. By the end of the outing, they were all able to use the online catalog to find books in the regular and juvenile stacks. They knew how to read the screen to see if the book was in the library or when it was due back, and they could also request a book from another library. We will return the books we have read on Monday; students are always invited to take more books out. We have a special cubby for library books in the classroom so they don't mix with our classroom resources.
This week, we are converting our kitchen into a darkroom. When we return from Maine, we will begin our photography unit by learning how to make photograms in the darkroom. When we begin using cameras, they will be digital, so the photogram unit will be an important background unit in traditional photography for the students.
We are going to have penpals from Cairo, Egypt soon! My good friend, Bassem Adel, is an Egyptian teacher of English at a British school in Cairo. He has led KidMocracy groups of Egyptian middle schoolers to the Berkshires for the past three years. He will be choosing Egyptian students to begin the exchange this coming week. Due to the unreliable postal service in Egypt, we will need to correspond over email (we will use my email account to filter all student email). I am especially excited because Bassem told me that the Egyptian students are studying ancient Egypt right now as well! For the Egyptian students, taking a class field trip down the road to Giza to see the Great Pyramid and Sphinx is comparable to our class visiting The Farmer's Museum to study colonial life. I hope it will be a beneficial exchange for all.
I will send a waiver home this week for the Maine trip; it needs to be signed and returned. This is a waiver for students to participate in the Chewonki program in Wiscasset. Students and staff are covered under Brookwood's liability insurance on field trips; this waiver is a formality.
Please call or email this week if you have any questions regarding the Maine trip.
Have a wonderful week with your child,
Lisa
September 28, 2008
Dear Parents,
I logged in to update my parent letter tonight, and Quia changed the entire user interface! Hopefully you will find the new version just as helpful as the old version. It will take me some time to transfer the useful links from my old homepage. Meanwhile, you can consider this link the "home" page. I will still keep an archive of parent letters under my "parents" page.
We have a new addition to our class! Wriley has moved up from Ms. Allison's classroom. Wriley is currently homeschooled and attends Brookwood Wednesday through Friday. He is excited about the resources our room has to offer, and he will explore science and social studies during the morning choice block to complement his studies at home. He will not be attending the Maine trip, but he will join us on more local excursions. The students have been very welcoming, and we are excited to have Wriley with us.
We will begin our weekly "Going out" day this week. Our first outing will be a simple trip to the Cooperstown Public Library and Cooperstown Art Association on Tuesday. The students will search for materials for their Zoology project. We will leave following lunch at 12:30 and return by 2PM. All parents signed the parent permission form for outings at the start of the year; thank you. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.
I am sending the finalized Maine itinerary and packing list mid-week. I encouraged students to borrow items that they may not have rather than buying new, if at all possible. I am looking forward to exploring the tidal pools with your children; this is going to be a fantastic trip!
Please ask your child to spell and define his/her weekly words on Thursday evening. Any work that is not completed by Friday will be sent home as homework over the weekend. Students are expected to complete choice block assignments by the end of school on Friday; this is a reasonable amount of time if the students are "efficient" and "productive" (class words last week). True to the Montessori method, students should try the work independently and to their best ability first. If they need help, they should make use of print materials and then ask another student before using the teacher as a last resource. The teacher acts as a mentor and guide. The students learn by doing (this includes extensive research to answer a question or problem).
Thanks again for your support for the Maine trip. I hope you enjoy the week with your child!
Lisa
September 15, 2008
Dear Parents,
It was a busy week in the Greenwood Room! The students are adjusting to the daily schedule and morning Choice Block demands. This includes managing their time wisely and staying organized, often challenging endeavors at this age. Our week culminated in an all-school presentation of rain forest animals, a perfect complement to our zoology unit. I would like to have at least another week behind us before we begin venturing out into the community for “Going Out” mornings. It is important that the students become accustomed to the curriculum before deviating from the daily schedule.
As parents plan for weekly snacks and lunches, I would like to send a reminder that we have a refrigerator and microwave in the class kitchen. The morning block is your child’s most active and cognitively demanding time of the day, and s/he needs that little extra fuel to get her/him to the lunch hour without an energy low. Most students choose to eat snack between 10:15 and 10:30.
Fall is nearly here, and with it comes unpredictable changes in the weather. The classroom has an area to store extra jackets, hats, and gloves should you choose to leave a set at school for your child. We go outside three times daily unless it is inclement weather.
We will begin our Reminder Band fundraiser the evening of Boogie at Brookwood.
Bracelets will be on sale for $5 each, and the proceeds will pay for our Maine Zoology trip in October. We anticipate a good response from Boogie at Brookwood attendees. If your family would like to pre-purchase the rubber bracelets this week (they will be in by the 17th), checks are payable to The Brookwood School. Please place US Fundraiser in the memo section of the check. I am purchasing bracelets for the students in the classroom. You can learn more about Reminder Bands at www.reminderband.com. I have had great success with such fundraisers in the past, and I know this year will be no exception!
Please remind your child to leave electronic games at home.
As always, thank you for all that you do for your children!
Lisa Rosen
News from the Greenwood Room (September 1, 2009)
Welcome back! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with The Greenwood Room families over the past week. The little time I was able to spend with you and your children was invaluable as I simultaneously planned the new Upper Elementary curriculum. I am looking forward to working with you and your child in the years ahead.
You will find the daily classroom schedule at the bottom of this post. Our schedule involves receiving lessons, working with the materials and researching with the resources in the classroom and community. Students are encouraged to follow their own interests and drives, and at the same time they are encouraged to go out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves. This balance often provides opportunities for achievement that the children feel genuinely happy about.
Moral development and social responsibility become a continuity linking the child to the newly developing “Citizen of the World” in a gentle but constant progression that follows the child's own inner development. “Going Out:” out into nature, out into the community, out to research, experience, and share with each other and the world this newly emerging understanding of the interrelatedness of all life; this is the heart of the Montessori Upper Elementary.
Freedom of choice is important to the Montessori classroom. This choice, however, is based
on knowledge. The child is not free to do nothing or to choose merely whatever is interesting, but must operate within the structure of the curriculum. S/he is expected to complete work in a timely manner. If these responsibilities are not accepted, the freedoms of the classroom cannot be retained.
Lessons generate follow-up work, which must be completed on schedule. Work diaries and other techniques are introduced to teach effective time management. These experiences become the foundation for self-motivated and disciplined study.
Other than asking students to read and study spelling words, we do not assign homework. We encourage families to teach their children life skills such as money management, shopping, home repair, cooking, cleaning and tidying, and home maintenance during the time the student is at home. Learning to get along in the family is the most important homework!
As I mentioned above, weekly homework involves independent reading or reading out loud (of a book of your child's choice) every night for at least 15-20 minutes. Your child will be reading a combination of books in class; one will be a book at your child's reading level and the other will be a "reach" book. The reach book is a challenge book for your child slightly above his/her comfort level. I encourage families to set aside a routine time for reading, such as after school or before bed.
Your child will arrive home with a spelling/vocabulary list of five words every Monday. We call these "Weekly Words." On Friday he/she will have a creative writing prompt in which he/she will be asked to use the Weekly Words. The words are kept to a minimum so your child will absorb the words and feel comfortable using the words in sentences and conversation by the end of the week.
In the spirit of a greener environment, I would like to keep the paper trail as short as possible. Please bookmark this page as I will post weekly updates for parents here. You can also view your child's weekly in-class assignments and homework; click on your child's link below.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via email (lisamarierosen@me.com) or cell/home phone (607) 376-6096.
Thank you for all that you do for your children!
Upper Elementary Daily Schedule
8:00-8:30 Arrival
8:30-8:40 Morning Meeting
8:40-8:55 Writing Prompt
8:55-11:30 Morning Lesson and Choice Block
Snack (during choice block-student decides when s/he is hungry)
Work Diary
or
“Going Out” Block
11:30-12:30 Lunch/Recess
12:30-2:00 *Afternoon Activities (including daily group reading and independent reading)
2:00-2:10 Clean Up/Jobs
2:10-2:25 Recess
2:30 Dismissal
*Music, Art, Spanish, PE, Projects
Music: Thursday 1:00-1:45
French: Tu/Wed 10:45-11:15
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