Winter and more!

Winter is close and more hats, scarves, mittens and puffy coats are making their way on to hooks, being flipped over heads and keeping children warm during our days at the park.
As we prepare for the second half of the year, we look forward to the short days getting longer, planting in our gardens, watching the changes at Kenilworth park, and hoping for a new playground in the spring.

We would like to officially welcome Bailey (Arugula), Xan (Arugula), and Ethan Nuno (Lavender) and their families to Puddletown. We will also be welcoming 2 or 3 more families in January and February. It is always such a pleasure to notice all the changes that have taken place in the classroom since September. Children who enter mid year are such a great way to notice how much our community has come together since September. We are also given a hint of what to expect next fall.

With the addition of new students the roster has changed. We will send out an updated roster as an email attachment. Let us know if you would like us to print one for you.

Our fundraiser seems like a distant memory but there are still lingering conversations in classrooms about items won, music enjoyed, and brownies eaten. We raised the most ever this year, almost $7000 that will go towards scholarships.
Thank you so much for everything you did to make it such a success. It was a great chance to enjoy your company and talents.

The children have been visiting our neighbors in the Holgate Center and sharing cards and songs with them. We find these visits to be so rewarding for everyone, with smiles and impromptu conversations among the children and residents. As the year goes on we hope to establish more relationships with the residents, inviting them to Puddletown to see what we do.

Anna (Arugula) set up the first Puddletown Food Drive. She and her mom will be taking all of your generous donations to the Portland Food Bank before the winter holiday. We hope to be a part of similar programs throughout the year. Let us know if you have an idea for a program we can donate to.

We have an ongoing pile of new applications for next year and are going to accepting new students for the 08/09 school year starting in March. If you will be returning please pay next year’s $50 materials fee to hold your place. There is a spot held for each current student until the end of February.

Please note that our photo calendar only has Puddletown days off for this school year. We will be giving you an updated Puddletown calendar with 08/09 days off once Pps publishes theirs.

Upcoming events/ days off:
Jan 21st: no school (MLK Day)
Jan 10th 6 pm: Kindergarten meeting (for families of children who will be kindergarten age for 08/09)
Feb 13,20, 27: Parent Series II presented by Montessori Institute Northwest (More info here or call 963-8992)

If you have extra pants or socks that your child has outgrown (appropriate for a 3-6 year old), please donate them to our spare clothes collection.

Finally, we would like to say good-bye to Chris (Arugula) and his family who will be moving on to another school. You will be missed.

Happy Holidays,
Andrea, Sam, Amy, Emily, Faye & Kimberley

24 Things That Parents Can Do To Help Their Montessori Child (borrowed from an ongoing list, published by Bayside Montessori)

- more to come

1. Help your child to have positive connections with people of diverse ethnicities, language, and beliefs.

2. Laugh a lot. Play with words. Tell jokes. Help your child to develop a sense of humor.

3. Share your profession or occupation with your child. Have him/her visit at work and have
some appreciation of work done in the world.

4. See that your child learns to swim -- the younger the better.

5. Have a globe or atlas in the house, and whenever names of places come up locate them with
the child.

6. Make sure your child has the tools he/she needs -- child size broom, mop, dust pan, whisk
broom, duster, etc., to help maintain the cleanliness of the household.

7. Learn to say, "No," without anger, and with firmness and conviction. Not everything children want is appropriate.

8. Arrange environments and options so that you end up saying yes more than no.

9. Avoid laughing at your child.

10. Alert children to upcoming events so they can mentally prepare, e.g., "In ten minutes, it will be time for bed."

11. Help children to maintain a calendar, becoming familiar with days and months, or counting
down to special events. Talk about it regularly.

12. Don’t replace everything that gets broken. Help children to learn the value of money, and, the consequences of actions.

13. Take a nighttime walk -- listen to sounds, observe the moon, smell the air.

14. Allow your child to use his/her whole body and mind for active doing. Save computers for the Elementary years and later when they become a useful tool of the conscious
mind.

15. If you must travel without your child, leave notes behind for him/her to open each day you are gone.

16. Expose your child to all sorts of music.

17. Teach your child his/her birthday.

18. Help them learn to sort: the laundry, silverware, etc.

19. Help them become aware of sounds in words. Play games: what starts with "mmmm?" "What ends with 'ssssss'?" (remember we use the phonetic sounds of letters rather than the names)

20. Talk about the colors (don't forget shades), textures, and shapes you see around you.

21. Provide art materials, paper, appropriate aprons, and mats to define the workspace. Provide
tools for cleaning up.

22. Evaluate each of your child's toys.
Does it help him/her learn something? Does the child use it? Does it "work," and are all pieces present? Is it safe?

23. Try to avoid doing for a child what he/she can do for himself/herself.

24. Alert the teacher to anything that may be affecting your child -- lack of sleep, exposure to a
fight, moving, relative visiting in home, parent out of town, etc.

News from Staff!

News from Amy:
While the weather outside is frightful, your children are so delightful! The children of Arugula have explored not only the complexities of friendship and cooperation, but also the magic of winter. They have delved into the beauty of snow and are excited to experience the crystals first hand. We have read about animals of the arctic and the ways in which they adapt to their environment. We have created our own snowflakes with the knowledge that no two are alike; the display on our back wall beautifully illustrates this point. The children in the extended day program have read about W. A. Bentley and his passion to capture the images of individual snowflakes and the need to document the beauty of nature in general.
We are hoping some of your children can begin to wear leather shoes to school occasionally so we can make them more beautiful with polishing.
I am grateful for the time you allow Faye and me with your children. They bring a wealth of personal experience and interest that adds so much to our days. We look forward to a new year filled with growth and learning!



News from Emily:
What a busy time it has been since Thanksgiving! Our potlatch was a success. Full bellies, fun and much interest in indigenous peoples of North America. Many children discovered an interest in walnuts, and other foods. Thank you for your participation and support.
We have been celebrating the winter and the return of the light with many art activities such as snowflake making, paper chain making, popcorn and cranberry stringing, making cards for the residents (which we delivered Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday while singing “Jingle Bells” and “Let It Snow” and reciting “I Heard a Bird Sing” by Oliver Herford), and of course, painting like crazy! We have briefly discussed several holidays that are celebrated around this time of year, keeping our focus on the universal themes of light and peace.