9-18-17 GBH Newsletter

Important Events (Always defer to the parent calendar on our website, if you notice a discrepancy.)

• Next Early Release:  Monday, 11:30 Sept 25 (NOTE: This is still an earlier early release time than last year.)
• Thursday, October 19th- Open House/Parent Ed Night - Look for more details, we are hoping for 100% attendance, because we want to update families on some new routines and be able to say hello.
• Monday, October 30th- Historical Halloween.

Reminders:

• The weekly reflection letter, should be signed by a parent  and returned each week by Thursday.
• Students are expected to have a LABELED water bottle for water (hydration is important)
• Student may have a LABELED travel mug for tea.  These mugs must be insulated, and they should close, some students are trying to use  thin water bottles and we are concerned about burns from the hot tea.  

In Search of:

• If any families have an extra working vacuum that they do not use, our vacuum is on its last legs, and before we purchase one, we wanted to ask if anyone had an extra one they wanted to donate.

Weekly Update:

On Monday of this week we gained a new classmate!  Devon Farmen is the older brother of a student in the lower elementary.  He enjoys working with his garden and building legos.  We are excited to have a new fifth year to learn from and with this year- especially another student who enjoys building and botany.  If you see him, welcome him, and introduce yourself.

Last week we completed our first set of student conferences, and we are excited for that new system being in place.  We have set up the schedule for students to be able to have 10-15 minutes a week just sitting down with a teacher discussing what they are working on, what they are excited by, and checking in on their organization and progress.  This is a very important part of a Montessori classroom, helping the adult and child work together to find the Freedom and Responsibility balance that helps children practice learning to be responsible for their learning.  

We are in our second full week, and our art lessons are coming along wonderfully.  Last Wednesday, Nicole led a Kente cloth exploration with about eight students.   On Fridays, a volunteer named Kristen, an experienced Montessori guide comes in. She is starting the year giving drawing lessons that students can opt into.  Last week they were drawing Winnie the Pooh characters.  It has been fun to see the concentration and focus.  

Looking around the room you can already see the excitement for independent research projects, and so many forms of writing.  We can already tell that we are going to be a community of writers this year!  It is fun to see students exploring multiple genres of writing so early in the year.  Please feel free to ask your child:

1. What project(s) are you working on?
2. What are your next steps?
3. What challenges is your group facing right now?
4. What have you learned so far on your project?

Gratitude Corner:

• Thank you to Alex’s mom for making a beautiful poster for helping us reflect!
• Thank you to several more families who brought in more  tissues!  It is so nice to have a stock.