// Weeks of May 27 (Field Day!) and Jun 3 //
// Curriculum Update, Mid-May //
Week of May 20
This week we celebrated each and every child in the Yellow Room for their accomplishments throughout the 2018-19 school year. Our end of the year ceremony was a great success and we hope that everyone enjoyed it. Thank you to all the parents who joined our celebrations this week, it was lovely to see you all. Yellow room children worked really hard and were excited, happy and proud to perform in front of you all. They enjoyed some treats at the park after the ceremony.
All of our caterpillars have now formed a chrysalis and are hanging in our butterfly pavilion net. One of our chrysalis opened up and some of our students saw the beautiful sight of a butterfly making its way out. Yellow room friends are eagerly waiting to meet all the four butterfly friends and set them free in their natural habitat.
“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” - Jane D. Hull
Week of May 13
Yellow room children have been practicing guided meditation since a past few days and the one we practiced this week is called ‘Shine Your Light’. It speaks to them about having an inner light within them that they share with others when they interact, but at the same time it also tells them to keep some of their light for themselves. Guided meditation is a wonderful tool to help kids relax or deal with any stressful situations. Children in Yellow Room are constantly learning to express and talk about their feelings, thoughts and even stress with everyone and are always looking forward for their turn to share during our meditation circle.
Some of classroom caterpillars have already transformed into a chrysalis and have moved from a little jar to our live butterfly pavilion net. Children are observing and making colorful notes with pictures and words in our butterfly observation book and they cannot wait for the butterflies to spread their wings out and fly. They are also using materials on the shelf that help them explore and learn about the ‘lifecycle of a butterfly and different kinds of butterflies in the world.
Last but not the least, our Yellow room children are rehearsing hard to make their end of the year celebrations look super awesome. They are excited to have you all come and see them perform next week. And a big thank you for all the beautiful cards, thank you notes and thoughtful gifts for teacher appreciation week......we truly felt special!
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”- Nathaniel Hawthorne
// week of May 20 //
// week of May 13 //
Parent Association Meeting Notes
May 10, 2019
Ø HUGE, HUGE, HUGE THANK YOU FOR THE THOUGHTFUL AND CREATIVE TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK CELEBRATION~ STARTING THE DAY WITH CURBSIDE HELP AND THE ENDLESS TREATS HAVE BEEN APPRECIATED!!!!
Ø HUGE THANK YOU TO HOLLY (JETT’S MOM) AND JENNIFER (LUCAS AND ARI’S MOM) FOR ORGANIZING THE WEEK AND BEING INCREDIBLE PA COORDINATORS FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS. HUGE THANK YOU TO JULIA (HARRISON’S MOM) AND YASSMIN (AIDAN AND NOAH’S MOM) FOR AGREEING TO THE BE THE PA COORDINATORS FOR THE 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR
Ø THANK YOU for supporting the Book Fair ($6,500 was raised) and donating boots!
Ø CONGRATULATIONS to the HPMS Basketball Team for playing an incredible game verses Village Montessori~ we finally won (46 to 18). The UE team won against Stevens (18-16).
Ø Please enjoy the video on the HPMS balloon launch (yes, that’s really the curve on the Earth from the balloon launched by HPMS students). This project has been happening for four years:
· Year 1 ~ focus was on altitude
· Year 2~ focus was on creating an environment for an insect to go into space (balloon had a hole and ended up in a lake)
· Year 3~ focus was on creating an environment for a small mammal to go into space~ students had ethical concerns if it didn’t work so they changed it to using the air supply to launch a rocket (but no trash was to left in space)
· Year 4~ focus is on communication~ there will be a live stream on the 6th floor for K students and up to watch on May 21
Ø Upcoming Events (it’s that time of year!!!) ~ EOY Celebrations begin at 9:15 on the 6th floor unless otherwise noted:
· May 21~ Blue/Red Room EOY Celebration
· May 22~ Indigo/Yellow Room EOY Celebration
· May 23~ Orange/Silver Room EOY Celebration
· May 24-27~ School Closed for Memorial Day Weekend
· May 28~ Homework Discussion ~ 6 pm
· May 31~ Field Day (PLEASE KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE SUG!!!!)
· June 4 ~ Earth Room EOY Celebration at 9:30
· June 5~ Sky Room EOY Celebration at 9:30
· June 6 ~ Ocean Room EOY Celebration at 9:30
· June 11 ~ UE/MS EOY Celebration & 8th Grade Graduation at 6 pm on the 6th Floor
· June 12 ~ Last day of School
o PA Meeting ~ 9 am
o WEE & Bridge EOY Celebration at 11:15 am for Wee and Square, 11:00 for Circle and Triangle
o End of the Year Picnic~ “BYOB”~ Bring Your Own Basket & Blanket at 5 pm in Hamilton Park
o HPMS will provide plates, utensils, water and treats.
o Please bring food for your family (or buy dinner at the Farmer’s Market!)
· June 19 ~ Silverman Golf Tournament supporting HPMS
Ø Year Book is now available for purchase~ please keep an eye out for the SUG
Ø Discussion for next year…thoughts about fruit as the go to birthday snack (child shares their favorite fruit with the class) and changing the snack sign up (parents bring in one item once a week instead of enough snack for the class for an entire week).
// Week of May 6: Curriculum Update //
Yellow room children were excited to read new books that the classroom received from the book fair last week. One of the books that we read was ‘We Are All Wonders’ by R.J. Palacio. The book taught us how to accept each other’s differences and be kind and friendly towards each other. We also learnt that even though we all have different colored skin and hair, we are all humans and we need to respect everyone around us.
Our bean plants that we planted have now grown and some of our friends have taken them home to nurture them further. We are still watering some plants in the classroom and giving them the time they need to grow. Our little caterpillars are not little anymore and Yellow room friends are taking turns to observe them and record their observations in our Yellow Room observation notebook.
Lastly, our preparations for the ‘end of the year celebration’ are in full swing. We have been singing our performance songs in the classroom and sometimes even while walking to and from the park. We all look forward to seeing everyone at the celebration .
“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” - Audrey Hepburn
// Teacher Appreciation Week //
// curriculum update: May 3 //
This week in Yellow Room, children were introduced to all about turtles including the lifecycle of a turtle. Yellow room friends are enjoying a hands-on activity where we created a turtle’s habitat with water beads, kinetic sand, a number of different turtle figurines, sea weeds, a scuba diver and even a treasure box! They are also learning ‘how to draw a turtle’ in the art area step by step.
We are nurturing our seeds that we planted last week with enough water and plenty of sunshine. Some of our seeds have started growing and children are excited to see their plants grow. Yellow room was also thrilled to welcome tiny little caterpillars in the classroom this week which are eventually going to turn into butterflies and fly away.
We were happy to see you all this week for parent-teacher conferences and thank you to all the parents who bought us a book from our wish list at the book fair. Reading is incredible and our yellow room children are happy to read and share the new books in the classroom.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
// week of April 29 //
// before & after spring break: look how much we have grown! //
// It's April! //
This week in yellow room, children are learning about flowers. Our shelves now have activities that provide them with opportunities to learn about the parts of a flower using real flowers and also make a parts of a flower booklet. Surrounding our study of flowers, we also introduced children to the art of ‘Still Life’. Yellow room children are taking turns to draw and color roses which they can see in front of them as a part of our still life shelf work. Their work will soon be put up in our hallway for everyone to see.
We were fortunate to bring in more spring fun this week by welcoming a few of our parents who present ‘Holi’ in our classroom. Holi is a colorful festival which marks the onset of spring in India. Yellow room children where thrilled to read all about it and watch videos of Holi celebrations that take place in India during spring.
“Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower.” - John Harrigan
// Week of April 1 //
// Week of March 25: Curriculum Update //
We welcomed Spring in our classroom this week by introducing new works on the shelves like ‘lifecycle of a bean’ and ‘parts of a flower’. We took pit stops at the park to simply observe the onset of spring around us. Yellow room children spotted new tiny flower buds on the trees and also felt the change in weather.
As a part of our mindfulness study, we continued with some more mindful activities in the classroom like the ‘Silence work’ and reading books on how we can be mindful towards our planet Earth. Our hallway now has an entire display of how beautifully our yellow room friends have worked towards being mindful.
“The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter!” — Jen Selinsky
// Week of March 25 //
HPMS is celebrating World Down Syndrome Day on March 20! Wear your jeans and/or silly socks, too.
// This week.... //
Yellow room this week enjoyed beautiful nature walks to observe the first signs of spring. Children were asked to get their scientist eyes ready and quietly observe and listen while they were walking. When we came back to our classroom, our yellow room children shared and discussed about all the things that they saw and heard.
We spoke about how the weather change affects nature and also reviewed our study on deciduous and evergreen trees. Yellow room children are now eager for spring to officially arrive so that they all can get more time to be with nature.
“We have an impact on nature, and nature has an impact on us.” - Barry Sternlicht
// Week of March 11 //
Thank you to all who joined us for the HPMS Winter Gala! It was a BLAST!
// What we have been up to these days... //
Week of February 25
We had a lot of ‘Cat In The Hats’ walking around in the yellow room this week. Children made hats from the famous ‘Cat In The Hat’ book by Dr.Suess to celebrate his birth anniversary! It was one of the most popular works on our shelves this week. Yellow room also had other materials on the shelves in honor of Dr.Suess’s birthday which we all enjoyed working on.
Along with Dr.Suess week we also celebrated Montessori week marking 112 years of Montessori education. We read ‘Our Peaceful Classroom’ a book that explains the Montessori environment and method in a very simple and beautiful way and also made some special Montessori artworks which are now displayed outside our classroom.
“The first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil.” - MM.
Week of March 4
This week our yellow room children learnt how to become an active member of their own community - their classroom. An important part of our Montessori classroom work is learning to take care of not only ourselves but also our classroom and community at large. Yellow room students are enjoying washing their water glasses, paint containers, wiping down tables and sweeping their classroom floor clean. We also stop and find the time to help a friend if they are struggling with their jackets, boots, zippers or buttons!
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” - Dr. Suess