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Casa de i Bamb i n iE d u c a t i o n f o r t h e 2 1 s t . C e n t u r y
November Newsletter
2014 Vol. 14, Issue 2
eScrip ProgramRemember Casa dei Bambini’s exclusive I.D. # 150239486Please go to www.escrip.com and register your credit cards today! This is a great opportunity to help our school.
Community Partner in Edu-cation with Kepler’s Book-store
Casa dei Bambini and Ke-pler have partnered to bring Author Showcases to school.
Kepler will donate 10% of your purchases when your mention “Casa dei Bambini” at the register.
ContentCasa Classroom 1Room 13 3Pre-Primary 5
Children become very creative while exploring Montessori material. In this particu-lar example, the child spent a long time realizing “sculptures” with a material used to explore the colors of a rainbow in the Sensorial Area. The use of this particular mate-rial inspired him because it was there to meet his needs at that specific time. His own path of exploration may also inspire teachers to create an extension for further steps in the use of this piece.
Casa dei Bambini School 457-463 College Ave.Palo Alto, Ca. 94306650-473-9401 650-473-9595 Fax: 650-566-1272
1215 O’Brien Dr. Menlo Park, Ca. 94025650-321-2773 650-391-9905 Fax: 650-485-2781www.casadeibambini.net
Casa ClassroomDear Families,
Two entire months have passed since school started. We feel honored to have had the opportunity of spending them teaching and learning with your children. Fall season is a blessed moment for teachers at Casa dei Bambini. Yes, fall is an exciting and significant time, because we are called to the duty of making plans for the future. Throughout this season we harvest what has grown in our pupils during the delightful experience of Summer Camp, and we observe what still needs to be nurtured in them. This is a moment when we carefully choose the next steps to create a foundation where our pupils can build on their unique spirits and minds. This year, the introduction of Character Education to our curriculum gives us the opportunity to see how new tools can be linked to Montessori philosophy to make a significant difference in the process of “learning for life” that Montes-sori intends for our scholars. During our Open House Night, we had interesting questions regarding the use of the curricular Montessori material. One parent asked if the children could explore the material
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Casa Classroom - continued
in a more personal way. We answered that if the child uses the material appropriately and logi-cally, showing deep concentration in the task chosen, we have no other limits than the safety, happiness, and development of the child. We think it is important to note that Montessori materi-als were scientifically created based on the observations of children using them over the span of a century in schools around the world. Montessori teachers are trained to learn the scientific principles built in each item pre-sented to the child. Adults in the classroom have the precious mission to link each child to that material according to his or her unique path of learning, presenting each piece precisely, and at the moment when the child can take maximum benefit from it. Besides our material, extensions are also fundamental to our curriculum at Casa dei Bambini. Our monthly lesson plan provides a good example of what extensions are. For ex-ample, in the month of October, we used pasta to create sculptures and collages of a skeleton. The subject was chosen because most of the children were excited for the upcoming Halloween celebration. Books and nomenclature cards were specially created and brought into the class-room to facilitate learning about Vertebrates and Invertebrates. The children explored how to make a simple model of a backbone with common objects such as egg boxes, rubber bands and buttons. Also, we used pumpkin seeds to make personalized collages to honor the harvest season.
Everything they make is sent home weekly in their Friday Folders, which need to be returned each Monday, or on the first day the child returns to school after the weekend.
For family fun, we would like to sug-gest a couple of links that list some East Bay Area Family friendly events:
http://www.ebparks.org/features/free-3rd-fridays
http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/Get-In-volved/events/marine-science-sundays.html#.VDrnZ7awS0w.email
Thank you,Mrs. Rosella, Mrs. Adriana, & Mrs. Xianjing
Thank you to Mr. Marcos for providing a fun and fascinating presentation on his visit to India.
Gratitude Corner
Birthday Corner
Casa Class - Julie LexiRoom 13 - Bruno Samuel Thomas ZahraPre-Prim - Aadi Rachel
Montessori teaches skills for life. It is a primary task of the teachers to bring the world to the children. This child is helping to prepare a classroom snack by removing the husk from an ear of fresh corn.
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Dear Parents,
November is a great time of the year for the children as there is much to explore with the cooler weather and autumn season. There will be many sensorial explorations including pumpkin seed tasting. We will talk about changes in the weather, trees, and enjoy fun arts and crafts projects. Students are excited to learn about this festive season through different cultures, foods, and clothing.
In October, we had the opportunity to celebrate one of the most important Chinese holi-days, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival（zhong qiu jie). On Friday morning, the Casa dei Bambini campus in Palo Alto was decorated with Chinese cultural art in celebration of this important Chinese holiday. In the main hall, we saw beautiful and colorful Chinese lanterns. There was a full table of fruits and food, such as longans (gui yuan), tangerines, moon cakes (yue bing) and a very healthy fruit tea.
During the presentation and the activities, we watched a movie about a famous and interesting Chinese story “Chang E Flew to the Moon.” We also learned the very famous Tang dynasty poem, “Jing Ye Si 静夜思” (Longing in the Night) by the famous poet, Li Po (Li Bai). The children were not only able to read the poem in Mandarin, but they also could sing the poem in a joyful melody. In addition, Ms. Jenny showed the children how to make a beautiful traditional Chinese lantern.
All of the children were very attentive during Ms. Jenny’s presentation on how Chinese people cerebrate the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. They saw a beautiful decorated Chinese teapot set. The children learned how to properly serve tea to their guests the traditional Chinese way. While she was pouring the fruit tea, the whole hall was filled with the delicious aroma of fresh fruit tea.
Room #13
Halloween is celebrated in several countries and is one of the world’s oldest holidays. This holiday’s roots are in the Celtic festival of Samhain. Irish and English immigrants introduced Halloween to America. Today it is celebrated with costumes, parties, and trick-or-treat-ing. These students are astonished and delighted by the various Hallow-een decorations and the assortment of sound and lighting effects that add much more curiosity to the excitement.
Parents’ Corner
Parent-Teacher Confer-ences: 11/7/14Primary & K Classes (3-6 yrs)No classes - group conf. only*as always, no child care
Thanksgiving: 11/27/14 - 11/28/14Gobble Gobble! No School!
Veteran’s Day: 11/11/14Yay Veterans! No School!
Minimum Day: 11/26/14Half-day: School-wide noon pickup
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Info Corner
Public Health DepartmentSanta Clara County up to date information on Sea-sonal Flu and H1N1. This is the place where schools are directed for information.http://www.sccgov.org/por-
tal/site/phd
Need to Update Info.?Here are the “Emergency form”, “Contact form”, etc.http://www.cdeib.com/forms.html
Did You Know We Are on Facebook?Find CdB on our commu-nity page for information & updates, educational inspi-ration, and all things CdB directly on your feed. This is a CdB family-only page. http://www.facebook.com/
FriendsOfCdB
Find us on
School Email Contact Info:
Casa [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
The children were eager to have a bite of the yummy moon cakes from the famous bak-ery, Choi Heong Yuen in Macau. They also had an opportunity to try some sweet tangerines and the delicious fruit tea. While the children were drinking the tea, one child exclaimed, “This is the best tea I ever had!” Hearing that made us feel good! You can practice reading the poem, “Jing Ye Si (静夜思)” with your child. Please find it by clicking on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEW-n20BFJg
We also learned to sing this traditional poem, “Jing Ye Si(静夜思)” ？(Longing in the Night). Here’s the link to the song. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP8vKPpf86w
The children had a great surprise with an interesting presentation about traveling to India, by Mr. Marcos. The children were fascinated to learn how people in India use their hands to eat food from their plates, which is different than traditional western customs. The children were taught how people greet each other in India (by holding both hands together and bow-ing their heads). Namaste! Namaskar! The children learned where to find India on the globe and map and about the great temples, sacred buildings, beautiful artwork, and gigantic stones (monoliths) used in their construction. Mr. Marcos answered the children’s questions about India as he passed out the photos showing Indian culture, temples, foods, animals, and the geography. One very special point of interest that he shared with the school, was the fact that our founder, leader, teacher, mentor, Dr. Maria Montessori actually studied and wrote some of her educa-tional books in India. She loved India and India loved her!
Room #13 - continued
Character Education continues to be one of the most important aspects in a Montessori curriculum in all age-groups and levels. Montessori teachers and parents are important role models and guides towards the education of the whole child. This is achieved through thoughtful practice, guidance, and shared experience. In this picture an older child is seen nominating a class-mate to receive the key of “respect.” This achievement was acknowledged and celebrated by all of her peers in the classroom.
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Dear Parents,
October was a busy and fun filled month of art projects and Halloween celebrations. We learned songs and the names of the animals that live on a farm. The song “Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play” was a favorite among the children, and the teachers got several requests to sing that song.
We also had a new student join the class in October, Jun Ying. All his classmates were welcom-ing and made him feel comfortable during his first few weeks of school. Throughout the month of Octo-ber, all the children were settled-in and busy work-ing on their lessons. In particular, art and Practi-cal Life are very popular among the pre-primary children.
“The Skills learned in the Practical Life curriculum lay the foundation for the rest of the classroom as well as home. The skills of concentration, coordina-tion, control, independence, and order to provide the child with LIFE SKILLS as well as a better under-standing of their learning environment” – Maria Montessori
During the Month of November we will be discussing the topics of food harvesting and the fall season. This unit will include learning the meaning of Thanksgiving, and we will talk about how appreciative we are to the farm-ers who grow our fruit and vegetables. We will also be doing various art projects using fruits and vegetables.
Pre-Primary
It was a pleasure to see all families who attended our Open House. We hope you enjoyed the visit and left with a good understanding of your child’s classroom setting, daily routine, and their activities. We also were delighted to see our students and their families at the Breakfast in the Park. We hope you had the opportunity to make new acquaintances as you enjoyed the beautiful day.
Celebrating Halloween at Casa dei Bambini is a tradition we look forward to each year. This year students had a blast. They tried out different costumes and wigs. Face painting and tattoos were great additions for the students. They also enjoyed a special Halloween treat as a snack. It was a joy to see their happy faces.
During the month, in addition to learning about different celebrations around the world, we will study the harvest seasons in different countries where we will learn about other cultures and their harvesting rituals. We will explore how harvesting takes place in large and small farms and how food is transported to factories and markets. The following links will give you more information about harvest festivals around the world:
http://www.pickyourown.org/CAharvestcalendar.htmhttp://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/harvest-festivals/
Sincerely,Mrs. Roshan & Ms. Jenny
Room #13 - continued
This is a Practical Life Exercise. Mopping helps the student develop concentration, gain control over their movements, and become more independent and aware of order. The child learns to take care of their environment.
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Pre-Primary - continued
Matching the young farm animal to the adult animal is a vo-cabulary classification and matching exercise. This helps develop visual perception, enrich vocabulary, and serves as a pre-reading exercise by teaching left-to-right movement.
Here are some suggestions if you would like to incorporate this unit into your home-life:
•Visit a local farmer’s market to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables•You can also send fruits and vegetables to share with the classroom. We can cut or peel them together with your child to serve to their friends. This will also encourage them to taste a variety of fruits and vegetables.
These are some of the links for local markets:
www.pafarmersmarket.orghttp://www.sigonas.com/
Finally, please be sure to label your child’s clothing to make it easier for teachers to identify and return at the end of the day. We also recommend that your child wear front and back covered shoes so that he or she is comfort-able while playing outside.
We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank You,Mrs. Mala and Mrs. Lidia.
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