IMPORTANT DATES:
11/11 Veterans Day - No School or Childcare
11/23-27 Thanksgiving Break
12/1 Giving Tuesday
12/21-1/4 Winter Break
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LIFE AT VMS: The Value of a Montessori Education
by Ann Clark, Head of School
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We had our own election this week at VMS. Students in the Cedar classroom exercised their right to vote by selecting a name for their new Betta fish. Drumroll please… the winning name was Flame! At a young age, VMS children learn their voices matter! |
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Thank you so much for joining us on Friday for our Parent Teacher Conferences. We Truly enjoyed being able to discuss your children and hear of all the exciting things they are doing and bringing home to you.
This week, we would love to share with you a simple Montessori principle that we use in the classrooms to build confidence and independence in your children. It pertains to the words we use. Instead of PRAISE, we use ENCOURAGEMENT. This is one of the “little secrets” of why Montessori children exemplify a love of learning and self-regulation that astounds others.
When a child finishes something, such as a painting, and brings it to an adult, exclaiming, “What do you think? Do you like my painting?” As they hold it up, a Montessori teacher brings questions back to the child and sticks to the facts. “Would you like to tell me about it? I see blue and….” One of the single, most difficult habits to break is offering children praise, instead allowing a child to discover their own confidence. Praise is ingrained in our vocabulary. It’s in our expressions and everything we do. It’s seemingly always at the tip of our tongue. The best expression that Montessori teachers find to be adequate enough to address this complex issue is the phrase, “You did it!” which seems to say everything.
Simply stated, motivating children to make good choices for themselves is key to helping them develop self-reliance and true happiness. Your responses to their behavior will guide how they are motivated.
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Praise invites your children to seek approval. An example of praise is “That's the best ever, l am so proud of you. Here is your reward.” This develops extrinsic motivation.
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Encouraging statements invite self-evaluation. An example of encouragement is “You worked on that by yourself. How do you feel? You must be proud of yourself." This allows your child to become internally motivated.
Following are a few additional examples. If you have questions, we are happy to answer them or to practice with you on how to replace praise with encouraging dialogue.
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Dear parents,
Solar System
We have begun a new unit all about the Solar System. The children have enjoyed learning all about our Galaxy and the surrounding planets, stars and constellations. We have many new works for the children to explore. Be on the look out for some “out of this world” materials to come home. We have been learning many interesting facts. Did you know that Jupiter has at least 61 moons!? We look forward to learning more about our fascinating Universe.
Attitude of Gratitude
As we welcome the month of November, we are encouraging students and families alike to have an “attitude of gratitude”. While we begin to wrap up what has been a challenging year for many, it feels like the perfect time to create some mindfulness around being grateful.
A few strategies that can be easily incorporated into the classroom as well as the home are taking a “brave breath” and being silent. Being silent, a common practice in the Montessori philosophy is treasured in our curriculum. The lesson of being silent has become quite useful as the world around us seems to rush by in a busy society. Stillness can bring about an awareness to our surroundings, a silent awareness of breath, and center us to our own feelings. Valley Montessori School also incorporates the Choose Love curriculum, which helps children understand what it means to be empathetic, mindful, compassionate and forgiving. This year, we invite you to print the calendar from this curriculum that shares ideas of how to be actively grateful. For the month of November, we will be doing this as a project around the concept of gratitude. We will be implementing this with the children in the classrooms and welcome you to partner with us.
Wishing you a wonderful week ahead!
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Dear Lower Elementary Parents,
We greatly enjoyed having the opportunity to speak with all of you last week at Parent Teacher Conferences. As Montessori teachers, we continually strive to partner with you to provide your child a joyful, exciting experience. This year, we are doing that in such new and different ways like online, in-person lessons for your child to engage in and fun follow-up activities to solidify your child’s understanding of concepts from our curriculum. We appreciate all of the kind sentiments and gratitude you expressed to us in the conferences and we send all of you thanks as well for the incredible trust you place in us.
Book Sharing
This month, the children are asked to select a fiction book and create a "Book Share Sandwich." See instructions on the lower elementary webpage. It is due Friday, December 4 . Please reach out with any questions.
Lower Elementary Curriculum Highlight
By now, your Lower Elementary child is working daily on solidifying math concepts, reading to decode words and to extract meaning from context, and practicing and refining his or her writing skills. Frequent journal entries or poems help your child express feelings or ideas and increase the flow of creative thought. Engaging in practical life activities such as bed-making, dishwashing, caring for a pet, scrubbing the bathroom sink, or setting a table help your child contribute to your home and internalize his or her importance in your family, which develops self-confidence and respect.
The exploration of the cultural subject of Botany aims to fill students with wonder and awe about the world and their place within it by touching, feeling, and identifying plants. Dr. Maria Montessori didn’t just present plants to children because they see them growing around us, but instead she wanted to instill in children a sense of humility for all of the living things in our environment. In our Botany lessons, we take time to present children the individual function of each part of a plant, which begins a building of respect for a plant as a living, contributing entity in the world. This also allows students to classify the information into organized, understandable chunks and store that information in their brains to retrieve easily later. Did you ever realize how much depth exists within Montessori’s academic curriculum?
Upcoming Parent Zoom
On Thursday, November 12 at 6:00 pm, Lower Elementary teacher Molly Oto will host another Parent Zoom for you. We will focus on the importance of building intrinsic motivation in our children. We will talk about why and how Montessori education empowers children to work and display respect and empathy without rewards or prizes. Common compliments your Montessori children receive from community members such docents on field trips, coaches, and neighbors are that the students often step in to help without being prompted, they are inquisitive and eager to learn, and they display independence and enthusiasm at tasks that other children do not seem to enjoy. If you wonder why this is, please join us next Thursday.
Zoom Link:
Meeting ID: 835 5636 0624
Passcode: parents
Fall Season
The season of fall here in California brings beautiful colors to the leaves and brisk breezes. We share pumpkin recipes and celebrate family. At VMS, we appreciate our differences as well as our similarities with celebrations like last month’s United Nations/World Cultures Day (if you missed it, please take a few minutes to view the wonderful video of our students) and Thanksgiving Friendship Feasts/‘Gatherings. While these events look unique this year due to the pandemic, we still have the ability to enjoy who we are and what we have, to express gratitude, and to honor our loved ones.
Wishing your family peace and good health,
The Lower Elementary Team
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Thank you!
We so enjoyed sitting down with each of you last week. The whole UE team feels quite lucky to get to work with a group of such resilient, curious, creative, hard working children! Thank you for making the time to meet with us. The slides and letters your child created are available for review anytime on Google Classroom. Feel free to venture into your child’s virtual classroom and browse the stream and assignments.
Civic Duty
Yesterday, UE students cast their votes and submitted their ballots to elect the next President along with the rest of the nation. We discussed the difference between the popular vote and the Electoral College, how presidents get elected by electors, other big races happening in 2020, and how the branches continue to check and balance the power of each other. Please enjoy the photos that follow -- the students wore their “I Voted” stickers with great pride!
BIG Life Journal Buddies
On Friday morning, we will begin an exciting addition to our curriculum -- Big Life Journal buddies! Each student at home will be paired with a student at school. For the next six weeks of Communication classes, students will meet weekly, get to know one classmate more deeply, continue to develop a growth mindset, and build confidence, self-belief, positive thinking, and relationship skills.
November Biography Book Report - Due: 11/18
Today marks the two week countdown to the Biography book report due date! If your child has not yet finished their book, encourage them to finish by the end of this week. Requirements for this report are listed in Google Classroom. A few tips to support elaboration: take notes on post-its while reading, flag pages with key quotes, use index cards to draft paragraphs. Remember to include both the first draft and the edited version when submitting the final report!
Upcoming Events
November 11 Veterans Day - School Closed
November 18 Biography Book Report Due
November 23-27 Thanksgiving Break - School Closed
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“The only true freedom for an individual is to have the opportunity to act independently … there is no such thing as an individual until a person can act by himself.” —Education and Peace
Conferences
It was so wonderful to connect and reconnect with our VMS families on Conference Day—to sit, even for a few minutes, virtually face-to-face, and share our mutual hopes, concerns, and goals for our students. It was a reminder of our promise to partner with you as your child navigates the joys and challenges of middle school. We miss you greatly and are so glad we spent some time together. Thank you.
Frequently asked questions:
As a reminder: Jupiter is the place to check when looking for scores and to identify missing assignments. It is each teacher’s “grade book”. Google Classroom (classwork) is the place to find the assignment, plus any notes, suggestions, or requests that each teacher may have exchanged with the student.
Also, if your child sees that an assignment is missing in Jupiter and they feel certain that they turned it in, you might ask them to look at Google Classroom, click on the assignment and check that they hit the “submit” button. It is very normal for us to find that nothing has been attached to a “submitted” item. We request that they resubmit and will receive credit for the assignment. We know the students are making their best effort to use the technology that is necessary and expect mistakes. No worries, we all learn from those mistakes!
Please check our next newsletter for more helpful hints and resources!
Election study
In our History/Science combined classes we have looked at the 2020 election with the students. We introduced the history of voting and choosing leaders; the concept of the Electoral College, the election process itself, privacy in casting a ballot, and mutual respect for others during the election and aftermath. Discussions were rich and curiosity was obvious. We are very confident that our future voters have gained a new understanding of their rights and responsibilities as citizens!
Middle School Ancestry video for UN Day/Cultural Heritage
Please see the VMS UN/World Cultures Day Video. It is a schoolwide video so it starts with toddlers and goes through all levels ending with our Middle School portion created by each middle school student. They all interviewed or researched the ancestry and immigration of either a family member or close family friend. For UN Day, a team of students volunteered to gather - from each middle school student -a picture of each student, a picture of the person they researched/interviewed, a map of the person’s journey and created a headline for the slideshow. They then designed the slides that make up the middle school portion of the video. Other students volunteered to read the “spoken word” pieces. Finally, Sandra Myers helped us complete the finished video and added the beautiful “Canto della Terra” instrumental music. We are grateful for the work from everyone involved in this project. Please enjoy the finished piece.
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Valley Montessori School
1273 N Livermore Ave Livermore CA 94551
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