The Children's School Fall 2008

Here at The Children's School, our teachers are planning for the fall open houses. At your child's open house event, you will see your child's classroom, meet other children (and their parents) in the class and have a snack.
We will have games to play, puzzles to try, books to look at and new things to explore!

M-F Class
September 4
9:15 to 10:15
10:30 to 11:30

PreK Class
12:30 to 1:30
2:00 to 3:00

MWF Class
September 5
9:15 to10:15

Pre3 Classes
September 11
9:15 to 10:15
10:30 to 11:30
Monday, September 8 will be our first day of school.
The Lunch Bunch program will start on September 15th.

TUESDAY, JAN. 29TH - AND WE'RE OPEN!!

Don't touch that dial!! You're in the right spot!
January's weather has been unpredictable and confusing, has it not?!
All around us there is snow, and difficulty driving, but here in Seattle, we have bare streets and open schools! We are looking forward to seeing your children with us at The Children's School for class!

ALL THAT WE DO!!

The experience at The Children's School is vast and varied. I have several pictures to share here that may seem unrelated at best! But the common thread is that these experiences are child-driven, Montessori experiences, and the Staff of The Children's School wants to explore more of what this means with parents through an opportunity we are calling the Parent Lunch Bunch!


Our first Parent Lunch Bunch will be on Wed., November 14th from 11:45 am to 12:45pm. Our topic will be: The Magic of the Montessori Experience: What that means for our children, and how does that play into “kindergarten readiness!”


We hope you will join Mrs. Banks and Mrs. Jaques, and other parents as we explore this topic together. In the meantime - enjoy these pictures!!

The freedom to create - or not! Both options speak volumes to us!!

What a stunning idea to bring a little "Fall" inside! Lots of careful work displayed here!

Sometimes we prefer to work "solo." In some time alone, our friend Nikola created this zoo!

And here is an example of great cooperation - our friend, Dylan, in Miss Tierney's Pre-K class invited his friends to build a rocket ship, and later invited several to ride in it to the moon!!

And then there is always the completely unexpected! In this moment, our friend, Lina from Mrs. Banks' morning class was interested in watching Mrs. Banks create the Halloween invitations. So interested in fact, that she took her own clipboard and began to duplicate the invite on her own! There is no other word than "STUNNING!!"

This is just a small sampling of what our friends' imaginations, combined with the opportunities provided by our program, can lead to -- Pure Magic!!

The Magic of the Montessori Way!!

At first glance the task depicted in these pictures may not seem all that "magical," but you see, that's the beauty of it all!! It took me a little while to see it myself, actually, but now that I know what I'm privelaged to be watching, I watch with awe and admiration.

First, you take a fairly common, everday task, such as cutting bread, or in this case, bananas!

Then you invite a 3 or 4 year old to cut that banana, put it on a serving tray and then offer those morsels to his or her friends!


Sounds straightforward enough - but maybe you've had the experience of cutting a banana before, you know what it feels like to use a knife, to chase a slimy piece of banana with a toothpick, to arrange them on a plate, and even to carry that plate around without inadvertantly spilling banana to the floor.

Many of our friends in our M-F classrooms are new to these experiences, and are challenged by all those steps just named! How do you hold a knife so it can cut? Which way is up? How do you keep the banana from running away from you? How do you get the banana slices from tray to serving plate? How many pieces should you cut before serving? How do ask your friends if they would like a piece of banana - and not have it sound like it's directive?!

To be given the opportunity - the space, the quiet encourage-ment, the FREEDOM - to work this out for oneself, yet with the support of teachers, and even friends if you need it, is the quiet, everyday "magic" that happens here at the Children's School. It is each child's personal experience - journey, if you will - with even these simple everyday tasks that leads them down a road of discovery, success, self-confidence and joy!

In and amongst this kind of learning, there is also a great deal of just plain fun!! Laughing at a shared joke, playing castles with princesses and the ever-present "bad guys," singing and dancing, jumping and rolling! But always with a quiet acceptance of each child's gifts and skills, a gentle encouragement to try something new, a kind and loving word of all each child is willing to share with us! Oh, the magic, oh the joy, oh what a wonderful experience for all of us!!

Meet our friend, Mrs. Allen!

Every Wednesday our school is blessed with the quiet and focused presence of Mrs. (Bev) Allen, a Montessori "guru" of sorts. She shares her time with our 3 and 4 year-old classrooms. The picture above is very accurate in that it shows the environment you are most likely to find Mrs. Allen in: on the floor, with her Montessori "tools" (or games, as the kids know them), and a clipboard not far away! Very quietly, Mrs. Allen will take one, or maybe two children at a time out into the hall or to another room, and introduce them to a Montessori tool. The one above is a tool that works with colors, challenging the children to see the subtle differences between the color shades and put them in order of light to dark, for example. The children really look forward to this special, focused time, and using the very wonderful Montessori tools. (Many of these Montessori products are just fabulous to touch! Most are made of wood, and simply feel good in your hands!) They also look forward to all the wonderful games Mrs. Allen challenges them to play. As our friend Nikola so astutely pointed out today when he had his turn with Mrs. Allen, "I don't have these games at my house!" We hope you will say a friendly "hi" to Mrs. Allen when you see her! She is an important part of the magic we call "The Children's School Experience."

Is there a Doctor in the House??

Sitting in Lunch Bunch one day with some of our 3 and 4 year old friends, Mrs. Coleman sat on the rug and announced off-handedly that she had an owie. Of course, the response from several of these friends was, "Where??" and "Can I see? Can I see?" Now this was not a serious owie, and no blood was visible, but it was a very irritating paper cut that had been bothering Mrs. Coleman on and off all morning. She chose to share this small fact out loud, with the added invitation of "Would you guys like to help me fix it?"

Suddenly, it was Dr.'s Joe, Chae, Whit and Ailbhe to the rescue!!

The first problem our team of doctors had to overcome was locating the medical kit (pictured above). Here Dr. Whit stepped to the forefront, taking very few verbal clues from Mrs. Coleman and quickly locatiing and extracting the medical kit from its "home." Having procured the kit, the team quickly got it open to admire its contents. Dr. Ailbhe was quickly in charge of the bandaid, and set to releasing it from its packaging.

As Dr. Ailbhe was working on the bandaid, Mrs. Coleman asked if maybe this owie wasn't just serious enough to require the use of Neosporin, to which Dr. Joe (Dale) jumped in with "I can do that!!" and before you know it, had just the right amount of ointment carefully squeezed from the tube and deposited on Mrs. Coleman's cut!

Bandaid in place - and a Spiderman bandaid at that!! - Dr. Chae quietly asked "What can I be in charge of?" So we quickly went through all the steps again, and the "who had done what" list. Finding the kit? Check. (Dr. Whit); finding and subsequently putting on the bandaid? Check. (Dr. Alva); finding and putting on the ointment? Check. (Dr. Joe). Mrs. Coleman quickly identified that there had been no healing kiss placed on the injured digit, and asked Dr. Chae if she could be in charge of this particular step. Dr. Chae was kind enough to place the final, and maybe most important, medicinal treatment on the injury!

I think it's important to add here, before signing off, that no help whatsoever (other than the verbal clues mentioned above) was given to this team of friends. The help they gave to Mrs. Coleman was all their own doing. They are so capable when given the opportunities to show us what they know!! And when our friends were given this opportunity to "help," not once was there any arguement amongst our friends as to who was going to do what. There was instead a great example of cooperation.

Mrs. Coleman is extremely happy to report that the aforementioned papercut has healed stupendously - you can't even see where it was!! Thank you to this great team of friends!!

Hitting the Ground Running!!

Our Pre-K friends came to school with a great deal of enthusiam, and"Knowledge!!" They are all eager to help out, and show us what they know, and we here at The Children's School are all excited to let them do just that!! In Ms. Tierney's Pre-K classroom, working with apples and sunflowers has produced some extraordinary art for us all to enjoy! Aren't these beautiful!!

The Children's School wants to introduce something new and exciting for our parents and caregivers!!

Friendly Chats with Mrs. Banks!!
(aka Lunch Bunch for Grown-ups)

The Children's School wants to offer parents and caregivers an opportunity to get together with Mrs. Banks and other staff members to discuss a variety of what we trust will be useful topics.

Our first topic will be “Getting Ready for Kindergarten!” Our target date for this first session is late October or early November – giving us all a chance to settle into our new routines. It will be offered during our normal Lunch Bunch Program hour, starting at approximately 11:45 a.m. We will be inviting everyone who participates to bring a bag lunch. We are finalizing our plans for location, working to find a space that will be welcoming to adults in conversation, and also welcoming younger siblings who may also need a place to hang out during this hour.

We hope you find this new opportunity to be in conversation with Children’s School Staff Members as exciting as we do! To get started, keep an eye on our blog, and your child’s Take Home Box for our first announced “Chat Date.” We have several ideas for discussion topics, but we are also very interested in what it is that YOU want to discuss with each other and our very talented and knowledgeable staff members.

(Interested already?? Great! Drop a note or an email to Lisa Coleman at beanrhit@comcast.net. Knowing who’s interested will help us tremendously in our planning process. ©

We're Off To A Great Start!!

What a fabulous week we are having! We are singing and playing and learning! We are creating, writing, and cooperating!! Isn't it great to be back to school!
So on behalf of your Children's School staff, let me once more say "Thank You" for trusting us with your lovely, spirited, intelligent, caring, and always endearing children!
Oh! And did I mention how much we appreciate you getting back to us with your emergency packet information, profile sheets, contact information and immunizations (if you didn't get a chance to give those to us in the spring)! It's so nice to get paperwork out of the way!

WE HAVE OPENINGS!!

Do you have any friends looking for a last-minute preschool placement for their child? Perhaps you have a new neighbor who is looking for a great place for their child to start preschool and make some new friends?! Please let these folks (and others) know that The Children's School has multiple openings in our morning 3 & 4 year old classrooms, and in our afternoon Pre-K classrooms. It would be wonderful to add as many as 3 or 4 more children to each of these classrooms, so please help us spread the word! --Thank You.

What's Roofing Got To Do With It??

Our building is undergoing another structural improvement - a new roof!! This project started in late August, and is scheduled to last at least 3 months. You may have already "experienced" some of the impact this project has on The Children's School when you came to visit for your Open House. But just in case you didn't, let's take a minute and review some of the different ways this could impact your experience here at school:

• PARKING - always a "trick" at school, can be negatively impacted when the building has these big projects by the presence of additional workers' vehicles which ordinarily would not be taking up precious drop-off/pick-up parking spaces.
• NOISE - we in The Children's School are directly under some of the work being done, and can hear a great deal of pounding, etc. Most of the time, this drops into the "background" of other activity, but every once in a while, we have that extra loud drop or bang. If your child is sensitive to noise, PLEASE LET YOUR TEACHER KNOW! As the roofing company started on our end of the building, we are expecting their departure to the middle and south end of the building very soon!!
• Water - again, as we are directly under the roof, we have experienced a little unexpected water in our Rm. 340, and hallway. The roofers have been working very hard to find the source, and fix this problem. If you see garbage cans or towels in the hallway, please just walk around them. They should be gone very soon!
• Roofing Materials - One of the great things about our building management is their constant concern for their building users. Mr. Anderson has communicated to the roofers the presence of the 3 child-oriented programs in the building, and the importance of carefully disposing of roofing materials. This is particularly important in regards to their work around and over our playground. While this work continues, we ask that you be - as we at school will be - extra diligent in watching what your children are picking up off the grounds around our building.

Well, that should do it!! This should be over before we know it!!

Keep an Eye on our Blog!!

Check out the blog regularly! We are adding stuff all the time!!
There's an updated calendar for your convenience to check on dates for open houses, Lunch Bunch start date, teachers' meetings, school breaks, and SPS (Seattle Public School calendar adjustments).
We have started to add resource pages. Our first is one on good practices for saying goodbye to your preschooler. Look here for other useful information!

OPEN HOUSE SCHEDULE FOR 2007-08 YEAR

By now all of our 2007-08 families should have received a packet of information sent out in August. In that packet, each child enrolled in The Children's School starting Sept. 2007 would have received an invitation to their class' Open House. Please be aware that only 1/2 the class meets at a time. Check your invitation for your specific time! Note: There is NO PRE-3 OPEN HOUSE UNTIL THE WEEK OF Sept. 10th!
Here is the Schedue:

Mrs. Banks' M-F class has their Open House in Rm. 331 on Thurs. Sept. 6th!
1/2 at 9:00 a.m.
1/2 at 10:30 a.m.
Check for your time!!

Mrs. Jaques' M-F class has their Open House in Rm. 343 on Friday Sept. 7th!
1/2 at 9:00 a.m.
1/2 at 10:30 a.m.
Check for your time!

Ms. Tierney's Pre-K Class has their Open House in Rm. 341 on Thurs. Sept. 6th!
1/2 at 12:30 p.m.
1/2 at 2:00 p.m.
Check for your time!

Mrs. Jaques' Pre-K Class has their Open House in Rm. 343 on Thurs. Sept. 6th!
1/2 at 12:30 p.m.
1/2 at 2:00 p.m.
Check for your time!

It's Almost Picnic Time

Can you believe that we are almost at the very end of our year!!?? So much has happened, and so much is STILL happening. There was great painting with feet just today! There's been planting and singing, and worms, and airplanes and Open House, robots -- oh the places we go and the things we do here at The Children's School!!

Well, now we need to have one last great hurrah!! So mark your calendar for your class' picnic or field trip!

Here's the list:

M-W Pre-3s will picnic on Monday, June 4th at the Junior League Playground at the NW corner of Magnuson Park. Picnic Time is 10-11:30 am.

T-Th Pre-3's will picnic on Tuesday, June 5th at the Junior League Playground at the NW corner of Magnuson Park. Picnic Time is 10-11:30 am.

Mrs. Banks' M-F class will picnic on Monday, June 4th at the Matthew's Beach Playground.
PICNIC TIME IS 10-11:30 am.
Mrs. Jaques' MWF class will picnic on Monday, June 4th at the Matthew's Beach Playground.
PICNIC TIME IS 10-11:30 am.

The Pre-K Class is having their annual Field Trip to Discovery Park Beach on Wednesday, June 6th. This will be in lieu of a year-end picnic this year. Children, teachers and chaperones will meet at the Discovery Park Visitor's Center for an introduction to the Beach at 1:30 pm.

Have a fabulous summer. Keep your eyes on the blog for news and developments, and always for pictures!!

Our Hearts Doth Burst with Pride!!!

Do you recognize this tower?? This is the bell tower of our neighbor, University Presbyterian Church. If you stand in Room 341 (Mrs. Banks' snack room) near the painting easels, you will see this tower. That is exactly what our friend, Olivia, did one day. She looked out the window, and was inspired to paint this picture.....
Mighty accurate rendition, wouldn't you agree???

Kudos Olivia for your inspired work of art!

In another classroom down the hall, the T-Th Pre-3's were challenged to put together this foam puzzle of a rocket ship. Having put this puzzle together many times, our friend Gisela (2-1/2), painted this amazing picture of a pink rocketship!! Can you see it?! Genius I tell you!!

Welcoming a visitor!

To the delight of many, Mrs. Banks' brought a visitor, albeit somewhat uninivited, to her classroom today, via the bunch of flowers she had brought in for flower arranging.

Meet Sara Johnson, the baby slug!!

Why the name "Sara," you may ask? Because it sounded like a good name according to Annie, who took it upon herself to give our little visitor an identity. Naomi, who was right there when our guest was first discovered, was very concerned about Sara's survival, and overall happiness. Naomi wanted to set Sara free as soon as possible, but others in the class persuaded Naomi to let others see and experience Sara first before setting her out on her own in the great wide world of the playground! Naomi agreed to this, and Sara was given a temporary habitat, consisting of a blue tub, lined with papertowels, upon which Sara gifted us with a beautiful sluggie, slimy trail, and a jar lid of water. She was then toted to Mrs. Jaques classroom, where her habitiat was gifted with some leaves. After making the rounds of the morning classrooms, Sara was gently freed into the planter in the playground. She was a delightful distraction on this rainy day, and a thoroughly pleasant guest. May she live a long and productive life!

Thanks Puzzlemakers!!

Isn't this a beautiful wooden puzzle?

Making wooden puzzles from pictures that spoke to her was the brain child of Mrs. McArthur. After seeing some of the pictures that Mrs. McArthur had collected, and looking for a project that would engage her project-minded son, Mrs. Coleman created her own after-school program by combining these two needs. The following puzzle, and some others in the school, are the beautiful result.

After weeks of careful instruction and supervision, Philip has earned the privelege to "drive" the scroll saw, and help with the actual creation of these masterpieces. His instructor and supervisor (and creator of the correct sized puzzle patterns) is Philip's grandfather, John. We at the Children's School are very appreciative of these careful, dedicated artisans!

Staff Continues Work on Preparedness

It is the goal of your Children's School Staff to be prepared to care for your children in the case of emergency. What we have learned this year is a little more about what that means. Briefly it means you have supplies: food to eat, bandaids for ow-ies, lights for the dark, tools for communication, and lots of other things; you need a plan - something that covers not only where do you go, but who's in charge of what, and even what proceedures are used to release those children in your charge. It could be viewed as an overwhelming task, but the Staff has made great strides this year in all of these areas.

As you may remember, at the beginning of the school year, you were asked to participate in our preparedness by contributing to our food and first aid supplies. Here is picture of what we have done with those supplies.

In addition to the supplies, we have had 3 workshops for the staff to start to rough out our "plan." We have tackled issues such as, lines of communication, first steps following a disaster, dividing up on teams to deal with search and rescue, communicating with the other programs in the building, as well as the outside world, and most recently, what do we do to take care of ourselves and each other during those hours of post-incident activity.

Mrs. Jaques has been invaluable in tackling this last issue, and to the end of comfort and creative activity in a small, potentially dark, space has introduced the Staff to the above environment (A in-house camping experience): soft blanket to gather around, and even touch; hankerchiefs to be touched, smelled and even folded into dolls(!); chocolate (did you know that it is said to have calming qualities!!); a friendly lantern to do shadow puppets with, and keep us in the light; and any other object that could be used to ward off feelings of lonliness and powerlessness, known affectionately at The Children's School as "The Magic."

Is there more work to be done? Absolutely! There are details to work out, rituals to practice, paperwork to follow up with, personal preparedness plans to work on, and an on-going "updating" that goes on with every new school year. It can feel overwhelming, but the Staff are committed to working on this plan, this sense of being prepared. If you would like to know more about what we are doing to be prepared, contact any Children's School Staff member. If you would like to know more about preparing in your home environment, visit 3days3ways.org.

Heifer Project Update(s)

What's a good Heifer Project update without a couple of good pictures? Here are some pictures of animals that our friends Ethan and Ellis Andrews would send if they could:
Ellis would send a variety of animals if she could. Represented here are a leopard, a bird and a salmon (good PNW girl that she is!!)

Ethan, in no uncertain terms, would send everyone a zebra!



And my personal favorite -- the spotted cow, complete with label and arrow -- from my friend Ellis!!




“What animal would you send to a farm in need with our Heifer Project money?”

This was the questions posed to some of our friends in Mrs. Jaques M-W-F class during their time in music, and here are some of their answers:

Luke: chickens; they would give the people eggs.
Nikola: cow; they could give milk.
Zev: goat; Discussion revealed that goats can give milk and cheese.
Sophie: pig; Here we learned that pigs can provide bacon or a pork chops.
Mary Ellen: horses. Mary Ellen loves horses, and we learned that horses can do a lot of work; and you can ride it for transportation.
Julia: a cow for milk.

There was quite the lively discussion going on during this brief music time. It’s exciting to discover all the wonderful uses for animals on a farm. Mrs. McArthur helped out the class by pointing out that the poop or dung (a new word for some of our friends) from cows and chickens can be used to fertilize the gardens – good for growing stuff!
Teacher Cinda helped the kids know that goat’s milk can be made into something else, something we can spread on crackers and sandwiches ... When the kids tried to fill in this blank, they guessed “peanut butter? Jelly?” We all learned that what Teacher Cinda was getting to was cheese – cheese from goats??

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

Chinese New Year, which starts with the first New Moon of the year, started this year in February! That gave us a good chance to be prepared for this marvelous celebratory time of year. Keep reading and you will be delighted to see some wonderful examples of how the Children's School helps our friends use this holiday to learn about a fascinating place in the world!


This is a table in one of classrooms which shows several different items to spark an interest in maybe asking some questions. Can you see the chinese money? The shirt? The fan? Wouldn't that spark your interest?

Red is a very important color to celebrate this holiday with. In the examples above, friends in Mrs. Banks' M-F class, red is the starting color used to create these marvelous nametags. Elsa even used cuttings from a Chinese newspaper to decorate her nametag with!
What a fun opportunity to talk about these intriguing animals. Cloth Pandas, and later Pandas in rice, make a wonderful sensory experience.
Oh! And look what our friends in the Pre-K were challenged to do! To draw Chinese characters! Aren't they fabulous!!
And what is this? Why Chinese puzzles of course! They are commonly known as Tangrams, or Brain Puzzles. The story behind them goes something like this -- A tile worker in China has an accident and drops the tile. It breaks into several pieces. His goal was to put the pieces back into the shape of the tile, but in the meantime, the pieces put together in other ways created a myriad of other things: fish, dog, penguin or bird. With these puzzles, of which our school has several versions, our friends can experiment with this mosaic making experience!

What didn't I capture via photos? Oh my goodness - so much! Eating rice and soy sauce or Chinese noodles and fortune cookies! Doing the lion and dragon dances in music with small cymbals and triangles, and low bows at the end! Reading the story of Ping, and then painting our favorite scenes. Listening to traditional Chinese folk music while working in our classrooms. And painting fish!!

But Chinese New Year has passed. The songs have changed, as have our stories, puzzles and art projects. Look for our friends to create things with a transportation theme, build puzzles with rockets, cars and trucks! Sing wheels on the bus, and other songs about movement! And they continue their work with the Heifer Project. Whew!! How do they fit it all in?