DECEMBER

From Mrs. Tracy's Desk...

I hope that all of you have had an incredible Thanksgiving celebration! As we move into December, please let me know if I can help you/your child in any way. Here are a few bits of exciting news:

1.       Friendship Groups are kicking off this week in Lower EL and next week in Upper EL! Yay! I will start groups by sharing my role, talking about what he/she can do if/when they are struggling with emotions, who they can talk to and what that looks like in the classroom. We will also talk about promoting “Peace & Kindness” within our classrooms and in our community.

Friendship Groups in Room 107

Today Mrs. Tracy joined us in the classroom for Friendship Group! Mrs. Tracy and the children talked about what peace looked like and how they could be peaceful.

Friendship Groups provide a safe setting where children increase their:

1) self-awareness
2) cooperation and communication skills,
3) ability to have fun with peers.

Children learn from each other and help each other. Ultimately, the goal of our Elementary Friendship Group is to PREVENT problems in the future by teaching children new skills.

Friendship Groups in Room 106

Giving Thanks

2.       As part of giving thanks and encouraging kindness/peace, over dinner, come up with three ways, you (as a family) can make a difference for others in need! Once you have all of your ideas, choose one and get excited to do it together! Here are a few ideas:

-Clean out and donate toys, books, clothes

-Call or donate to our (wonderful!) Center for the Homeless! You can see a list of their “needs” on their website. Or if you’re interested in volunteering, as a family, contact them directly!

http://www.cfh.net/

-Research an organization that’s important to your family and donate time or money (volunteer at an animal shelter, donate to your favorite cause) etc.

-If you celebrate with presents this month, ask your child/children to choose 1 item to donate for every 2 items or 4 items on his/her wish list. Get them involved and excited to help others!

3.       Looking for ways to become more “Montessori” aware…at home? Check out this fun, resource!

http://www.thepreparedenvironment.com/resources/top-items-for-starting-a-montessori-home

4.       Mindful Montessori:

https://www.parentmap.com/article/montessori-promotes-mindful-learning

5.       Mindful & Montessori gift ideas for our family:

             http://liveboldandbloom.com/12/lifestyle/40-mindful-and-meaningful-holiday-gifts

            https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=montessori&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Amontessori

A Message From Ms. Tracy

HAPPY OCTOBER!!

Our student support programs have kicked off over the last few weeks, and we are already hearing/observing such positive, success stories with our students. Wonderful! In case, you haven’t heard, we have the following programs running and available for our students who may need some additional support. If you have any questions, please contact me at etracy@tma-el.org.

HeartMath:

At Montessori Academy Edison Lakes, the social emotional well-being of our students, is of primary importance. For that reason, we have invested in a phenomenal program called HeartMath. The program, developed by the HeartMath Institute, is a tried-and-true, research-based approach to lowering stress and anxiety through deep breathing for our students in Upper Elementary and Junior High. We kicked off this program in the fall of 2015 and have seen amazing results!http://www.heartmath.com/

Mindfulness:

We are fortunate, in that, as a Montessori Community, mindfulness is already part of our philosophy and thereby, embedded into our practices. For our younger students, Early Childhood-Lower Elementary, our “Walking the Line” work and “Peace Corner” environments (for example) are set up to allow our students, to refocus, pay attention to their body, pay attention to their emotions and take some time for themselves. We will continue to incorporate yoga, stretching, works, peace time and breathing time for a break to center and regroup.

This is a great link, that allows us to remember, the importance of slowing down, allowing our students and ourselves, to take a moment to “Just Breathe”.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVA2N6tX2cg

A beautiful, song, done by a Montessori School: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vnr30jYQQ4&sns=em

Friendship Groups:

Montessori Academy Edison Lakes also offers “Friendship Groups” rotating throughout Lower and Upper Elementary and taught by myself, Erin Tracy. These groups are guided lessons on social and emotional skills for our students. Students work on character building lessons, the “power” of kindness, conflict resolution, identifying their own feelings and the feelings of others. It is a program that is embedded into the curriculum, as a means of guiding our students along the social emotional path, as they develop into unique individuals. At the foundation of who we are, at Montessori Academy, is a belief in the importance of “connectedness”. Please feel free to reach out to me or teachers, should you have any questions or concerns.

Speech

We are thrilled to introduce the optional service for those students requiring speech support/remediation. The program is called “Tiny Eye” and it is based online. An accredited speech pathologist logs in and works with our students, based on their goals. It has incredible reviews and we are so happy to offer this as an option for our students. Please contact me with further questions.https://www.tinyeye.com/

Read Naturally

We are now offering a research-based, online reading intervention program, called Read Naturally. Read Naturally is a reading intervention program, which targets fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and assessments in reading, for those students in the 25% or below in reading skills. To learn more about this program, please see the link below or contact me with further questions:  https://readnaturally.com/