Montessori Radmoor

12/22/17

Dear Parents,

Here we are at the end of the year. I would like to talk this moment to thank you all for trusting me with the education of your children. It is a true blessing to have them in my life. I learn from them every day how better to “follow the child”, to quote Maria Montessori. 

I am looking forward to 2018 and the adventures that we will all share together. Some are the continuations of lessons that we have already started and some will be brand new. Have a wonderful and restful holiday. I look forward to seeing all of you in the New Year.

“December is full of the beauty of light and love we can bring into our life. You can choose to be stressed or you can choose to let the small stuff go and be peaceful this Holiday season.

It really is a choice you make.” 

Eileen Anglin

Warmest Wishes,

Miss Christine 

12/15/17

Dear Parents,

This week Miss Autumn has started to make bath products with the children. I appreciate all the time she spends with the children doing this product because they are learning so much more.

During the work cycle, Miss Autumn takes small groups of students that I have chosen. Many times the students are able to choose who they are working with but sometimes I choose the groups so they can experience working with other individuals that they may not have thought about working with before. Working with “classmates” is different from working with “friends”. Practicing working with different personalities allows the students to practice civility and respect. Sometimes a new friendship can bloom.

Miss Autumn takes the time to work with each group with the practical mathematics that comes from having to double or triple a batch. The children have done this in cooking using cups and tablespoons and teaspoons but in this process all ingredients have to be weighed precisely or else the chemicals will not react together properly and your product will be spoiled.

She also discusses how you need to take care in product making to present to a customer a beautifully crafted product as well as cost and profit.

Who knew that through learning the practical experience of making bath products, this would allow the children to work together in a positive way with classmates, learn how to be precise with measurement and product making, and finally, discover cost and profit?

Have a great weekend,

Miss Christine and Miss Sheena

12/8/17

Dear Parents,

This week I would like to share with you information about relational aggression or sometimes called social aggression. At some point in our lives we have experienced this type of aggression by either being on the receiving or the giving end; most of the time it will have probably been both. 

What is relational aggression? Webster’s defines it as this: Relational aggression or alternative aggression is a type of aggression in which harm is caused by damaging someone’s relationships or social status. Although it can be used in many contexts and among different age groups, relational aggression among adolescents in particular, has received a lot of attention.

Part of the Montessori curriculum is helping students navigate socially as well as academically. Our classroom had begun a program targeting relational aggression for students in the 4th and 5th grades. It is by the Ophelia project. 

The curriculum focuses upon:

  • Defining peer aggression with a special emphasis on relational aggression
  • To help students share personal experiences, when appropriate
  • Identify three major roles in peer aggression: aggressor, target and bystander or person in the middle.
  • Create a safe, social climate by teaching students pro-social behaviors.

The objective of this curriculum is to create a safe social climate for all children by:

  • Promoting non-aggressive pro-social behavior throughout the school
  • Encouraging students to express their feelings in appropriate, healthy ways
  • Equipping each child with strategies and skills they need to protect themselves and others in a healthy, constructive manner.
  • Providing opportunities for children to develop alternative solutions to conflicts. 

What we will be working towards are these goals:

  • Every one of us participates in creating a safe social climate
  • We treat everyone with respect and civility
  • We are accountable for our actions
  • After we make a mistake, we make it right
  • Adults help us deal with aggression
  • WE protect each other
  • Aggression is everyone’s problem

In addition, lessons are geared towards students to promote these empowering beliefs by understanding that:

  • I can make a choice to care about other people as well as myself
  • I have the ability to contribute to a positive solution
  • I can solve problems without bullying my peers or engaging in relational aggression

Here is a list of lessons with their objectives. You can view the scope and sequence online:

http://www.opheliaproject.org/teaching/KidsHelpingKids.pdf

Lesson 1: What is a friend?

The students discuss the differences between a friend and a classmate, can a classmate be a friend, and what do the two have in common? Students fill out a questionnaire that they will also fill out again at the end of the project.

Lesson 2: How do we treat our classmates and friends?

Students will explore the qualities that they look for in a friend as well as list out and recognize the ways in which friends can positively relate to each other. Students will also discuss qualities that they do not like in others. Students will come up with ways in which they can treat all peers and create a code of conduct. 

Lesson 3: What can you do to help kids feel better? Stop look and listen: what is it? Who does it hurt?

Students will list behaviors into three groups: physical, verbal or relational and define them in terms of how they can relate to relational aggression. They will discuss their experiences with different types of aggression and how peer aggression can be a problem in school. 

Lesson 4: Who does relational aggression affect? Relational aggression hurts: we all play a role.

Discussion with the children identifying and naming the roles of the aggressor, person in the middle and the target and identify the effects of relational aggression. Students will label their own behavior and attitudes (feelings) associated with relational aggression.

Lesson 5: What might Emily be thinking and Feeling? Look inside: What’s really going on?

Students will define and understand the reasons why the aggressor and the target act the way they do. They will practice identifying other’s feelings and imagine taking on another person’s perspective. Students will be asked to discuss empathy toward another person (e.g. hand on shoulder, smile, words of encouragement, etc.)   

Lesson 6: What choices do you have when you see someone’s feelings being hurt? Resist relational aggression: What can you do to be a part of the solution? 

Students will take part in a discussion by brainstorming various ways to address and deal with hurtful behaviors in more positive ways. 

Lesson 7: What is the difference between assertive and aggression behavior? Just do it, the right thing. What are your options?

Students will be asked to explore various solutions to address hurtful behavior. They will identify “helping” resources in their school, family and community. They will practice appropriate responses that the person in the middle and target can use in aggressive situations. 

Have a great weekend,

Miss Christine and Miss Sheena

12/1/17

 
Dear Parents,
 
The days are quickly approaching for holiday break. We are very busy this time of year! Our bake sale starts next week on Monday. The children have been very busy baking treats to raise money to purchase gifts for the Greater Lansing Area Foster Children’s Holiday Party. WE will be shopping for gifts also next week and wrapping them for delivery on December 7th. If you would like to donate a gender neutral gift that is approximately worth 25 dollars it would be greatly welcome. I would like to thank those that were able to take time from their schedule to bake and to those that were able to donate ingredients. 
  
There has been a lot of science going on in the classroom. There is a student who is researching crystals and how they grow. Below is a photo that was taken through a microscope of crystals grown with cupric sulphate. 
 
Have a great weekend,
 
Miss Christine and Miss Sheena

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