Dear parents,
How are you? I hope you got the two (5th-6th) or three (4th) field trip forms for the month of October. These field trips are so much fun. In my class, parents arrange their own rides to field trips. Last year, each field trip, the parents who could attend that field trip offered to drive other students, usually friends of their student, to the field trip. Through the students and parents carpools would be arranged. My room mother would facilitate contact between parents and find spots for students who could not find a car pool. I do a final check to see if everyone has a ride. Hopefully, patterns will develop among parents and you can each take a turn driving to a field trip. You’ve probably guessed that you are highly involved in making field trips a success in our room. Without parent help we couldn’t afford to do very many field trips because buses cost hundreds of dollars to use and my yearly budget for field trips is only a few hundred dollars. This is also why it is really important that if you can afford to pay for the recommended amount for the field trip found on the form, please do. Our funds run out fast and our field trips stop. Lesson: It takes all of us to give our students the experiences we want them to have. Thank you.
It is a new month. For the month of October, your student is responsible to read a fantasy book. There will not be a book report assigned to this book. They will need to come up with a simple creative way to share the book at the end of the month. The goal of these book assignments is simply to get your student trying different kinds of books and to be reading at home. The assignment at the end of the month is to create accountability to your student not stress for you. In the end, if your student hasn’t done the work let them own up to it. Don’t save them. In Montessori, at this age, there are no grades. The lesson is in them not being prepared and the continual retry to do better and improve their time management skills. It isn’t meant to be parent-buster where you have to run in and do the assignment for them at the last minute. Everything is done with kindness with your student. We discuss how they might do better next time and give them some tips. No stress.
Home Projects are the only other homework you will find in this class besides the book assignment. If you are new to this school, a home project is a project that you are suppose to be intimately involved in with your student. It is a way for you to assess and participate in your child’s learning. Each month, a new home project is assigned. This month the home project is an Ancestor Report. I want your student to research someone in his/her family from the past. It could be a grandma, grandpa, or any relative. It can go back generations. Accompanying this specific ancestor will be a family tree for your student’s family line as far as you know it. You also need to find the origin of your student’s family name. It also wouldn’t hurt to see if you can find your family’s crest. This project can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Getting really into it gives your student a much more valuable and fun experience. Along with the fantasy book this assignment is due at the end of month of October. A rubric will be posted this week on the blog at the top of the blog as well as a list of possible creative ways to present a book report.
Thanks,
Ms. Shanan