Hi Folks,
    Woo-Hoo! What a incredible experience we all had at the ribbon cutting yesterday.  Thanks to everyone who came to see the new building. It felt incredible to see our students gather in the new classroom, and we are so excited to spend time over winter break to get ready for a new year in a new space! We still have about a month until we can move in, but we would love your help to begin the process-stay tuned for specific details on how to help!
    As we wrap up our introduction to Chemistry lessons, we  launched our Physics unit with much enthusiasm. Beginning with a key lesson that told a story involving the Egyptian Pyramids, students had lessons involving buoyancy this week. Upcoming lessons include gravity, inertia, and simple machines.
     We also had an art lesson with Ms. Michelle teaching about painting in the style of our artist of the month, Picasso. Students explored abstract paintings and created their own portraits-look for them on display in Morado!
    Morado was excited to start Adopt-a-Family program.  The 3rd graders and Upper Elementary  made posters and gave speeches to the EC classrooms about the importance of giving the reasons we choose to help families in need.  We will be handing out tags starting tomorrow, November 18! Look for our students and their posters during drop-off and dismissal.
     On Friday, we made delicious Stone Soup with the help from Karolina (Iza, 3rd grade).  We had  a lot of different vegetables to add to our soup (and a clean stone) and had a lot of fun recreating our own version from the classic folk tale. 
    Next week is the last full week before Thanksgiving break.  In Geography, students will have a chance to go from big to small as we start small research projects on continents, countries, and capitals around the world.        We also want to thank the Parent Association for helping us bring new, exciting math games to the Elementary! Turquesa won the classroom bonus for the SEED campaign this year, and Ms. Jessie took it to Math-N-Stuff to bring many different math games for students to have fun together while practicing their fractions, money, and math fact skills.
Have a good week, Jessie & Ben 

Hi Folks, 

This week was a lot of fun. We all had a great time on our field trip on Tuesday to see Pippi Longstocking.  After seeing the play, we had a lot of students excited for our theater unit later this year.  On Wednesday, we had our art specialist Ms. Michelle return to give a lesson based around the artist Vemeer.  The students used pastels to create a picture of several pots by the windows.  The students had a great time practicing creating shadow and perspective with Ms. Michelle. Thursday, we had our annual Spooky Lunch and Super Spooky Lunch.  Ms. Jessie had a delightfully warm and cozy Spooky Lunch with fun stories and props in Morado.  Ms Nicole had slideshows and sound effects helping her enhance her super spooky stories in Turquesa.

We have also been very busy adding more math fact practice and finishing up our chemistry lessons.  We were so busy we ran out of time to have a classroom meeting.  We will keep you posted on meeting details next week.

In Choices this week, we are working on Decision-Making. We have discussed the steps everyone should take when they make choices.  When making a decision one should STOP, THINK, and CHOOSE.  It is very important to always STOP and take a moment before deciding.  Then, there are many questions one must THINK about to make sure it is the right decision to make.  Finally, one must make the CHOOSE that they decide.  We have been practicing and role-playing what people think about when making decisions and how other people’s decisions can affect you.  

As a Montessori classroom, we place the highest value on peace and have a unique historical connection to peace education. After all, Dr. Montessori was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. This year in Morado, I have a feeling that our students would make Dr. Montessori proud as well.

One more thing, we hope you will be joining us for our Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 16. Our new building is finished! We are incredibly excited and proud. You will find an invitation to Ribbon-Cutting in your child’s Friday folder today. We will be moving the classrooms over the Winter Break and start class in our new digs on January 6, 2014. The children will be helping us pack up our current spaces in the two days leading up to Winter Break, so that they can experience the closure of moving and the reality of the new spaces. If you would like to help us with the packing adventures, you will be welcome to join us in that process. I’ll send more information about the dates and times in December.

Have a great weekend.

Jessie & Ben