Mr. Andre's Class : November

Issue: November 1- 30

“Every child is a different kind of flower, and all together make this world a beautiful garden.” (Anonymous)

Hello Families,

​

It is hard to imagine that November is here already. In the classroom we have really made the effort to focus on peace in our environment. The children have signed a peace agreement. The peace agreement states that we will take care of our environment, use kind words, and stay safe. With this agreement came a discussion on what it means to respect each other. The children learned how that this is what led Maria Montessori to develop a philosophy of teaching that centers on respecting the child. We try to continue the idea of having peace throughout our day. When conflict arises, the children go to the peace table and on that table, we have peace flowers. The children are encouraged to get the peace flowers to work out their differences. At time this does require teacher guidance but the goal long term is to have the children be able to work out their conflicts and come to understanding without needing the teacher.

​

Please make sure you update your child’s change of clothes as the weather changes. Note that we go outside every day if we can. Please send warm clothing hats, mittens, snow pants, boots. We continue to encourage the children to be as independent as possible. Remember to label everything.

​

We are excited to announce we have a new child in our class, together let’s welcome Ana and her family!

Parent-Teacher Conferences:

Conferences will be held virtually on Friday, November 19th. We know this a day the children will be home with you but when we are having a conference it is extremely important that the children are not in the same room since this is an adult meeting. Please call Donna in the front office at 914-472-4404 to schedule your appointment.

School Closed:

November 2 - Staff Development

November 11 - Veteran’s Day

November 19 - Parent-Teacher Conferences

November 24, 25, 26 – Thanksgiving Recess

With Love,

Mr. Andre, Ms. Francine, Ms. Janice

Our theme is: Pumpkins, Continents, Nutrition

Art: We will focus on using materials from outdoors as a part of our art area. Collecting leaves, acorns and sticks for the children to explore. We will be making a class picture using melted crayons.

​

Cultural Arts/Geography: Here the children are working on understanding where they are in the world. We break this down in stages by starting with the earth. We will continue by explaining all the continents. After we will begin focusing on North America.

​

Language: We will begin focusing on a letter of the week. We focus on the letter sounds. There are times where we will not introduce a new letter if we feel a particular letter sound needs more attention from the children especially with short vowel sounds as they sound so similar. We will continue to have the children who are ready to build on words phonetically use works like the chalkboard and moveable alphabet.

​

Math: Continued focus on counting 1-9. Using different manipulatives (pumpkins, seeds, cars, spiders). We will work on the decimal layout for the children who are ready for more challenging materials.

Practical Life: Continued working on taking care of the environment. Sweeping, putting works away, flower arrangements. Tongs, eyedropper, tweezers to strengthen fine motor.

​

Science: We are going to explore the life cycle of a pumpkin. We are going watch a small pumpkin decompose. We will look at the parts of the pumpkin and begin to explore with planting.

Sensorial: We are going to focus on color mixing, primary and secondary colors. We will also focus on patterns, shapes, large and small Hexagon boxes.

​

Here are some books that we have read:

The Hello Goodbye Window by Norton Juster

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

The Family Book by Todd Par

A Million Visions of Peace by Jennifer Garrison

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

Pumpkin Cycle: The story of a Garden by George Levenson