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Announcements:
Ms. Kelly
December was full of excitement as students prepared for the Christmas Show. It was amazing to see hundreds of family members at our show in support of our students and teachers.
Each year our students bring the excitement of Christmas into our halls and classrooms with their innocent anticipation of the wonderful surprises awaiting them on Christmas morning. We can't help but join in with students singing carols as we work on Christmas themed projects throughout the month. Preparing for our Christmas Show is a great way to kick off the season!
Our anticipated evening began with our Kids Bop and Ballerina dancers showing off what they have learning in their first recital of the year. Next up, Ms. Courtney's totally tubular 80's crew entertained us with Bruce Springsteen's version of Santa Claus is coming to Town featuring a saxophone and guitar solo! Up next was Hey Santa and then they knocked our socks off with a dance they prepared to the iconic New Kids on the Block's Funky Funky Christmas!
The second performance of the evening was Ms. Kate and Ms. Brandy's class. Dressed for the part, students sang all about Santa Claus! From Jolly Old St. Nicholas to Must Be Santa students knew their movements and sang their songs beautifully!
The last class to perform was Mr. John's class with their cheeky Christmas theme! Resembling reindeers, students sang about Rudolph and they even dashed through the snow in their rusty Chevrolet singing Jingle Bells!
Before our finale, we had a small group of students recite The Night Before Christmas; using sign language too! I am so proud of each of our students. What a great experience they have had using the microphone and understanding what it's like to be on stage. All of their hard work paid off and we had a wonderful evening! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
Christmas Show DVD Order Forms
If you would like a copy of our amazing Christmas Show to keep for years to come, order forms are available in the school office. All forms are be due by January 20th! DVDs can be purchased for $10.00 each.
Christmas Show Pictures
Lisa Radecky of Lisa Radecky Photography spent the evening of the Christmas Show capturing the special moments of our very talented students! If you would like to view and order pictures of your child during their performance or a picture taken with Santa Claus please visit www.capturereallife.com and follow the below instructions:
1. On the home page click "Customer Sessions"
2. Click on "AMMS Christmas 2011"
3. Enter password: 121611
A big THANK YOU to Lisa Radecky for taking such amazing pictures of our Christmas Show. Enjoy!
Kids Bop and Budding Ballerinas
Our dance program will be resuming on Monday, January 9th. If you would like to enroll your child for the second part of the school year, now is a great time to join! Our Kids Bop Dancers and Budding Ballerinas will continue learning with Ms. Elisabeth and will showcase their new skills at our International Festival in the Spring. Please email me (kelly@TheSmarterKids.com) if you would like a registration form.
Alumni Update
If you have an Absorbent Minds Alumni Student send us an email telling us about what your child has been doing since graduating from Absorbent Minds. We want to know about all kinds of accomplishments; from school, to extra curricular activities and personal growth displayed in any environment!
Please email me and put "Alumni Update" in the subject line. We will do our best to include as many alumni updates as possible. I look forward to hearing from everyone!
The Smarter Heroes:
Absorbent Minds has launched The "SmarterHeroes" Program this year. We are really excited about what these service projects will teach our students! Please see the last section of this newsletter to receive updates on Luis (our sponsored child) and what our Smarter Heroes are up to.
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| Ms. Brandy's Corner:
written by Ms. Kate Case
I can't believe the holiday season has finally arrived! I love the cold, crisp air, the holiday music and the twinkling lights. But what I truly love the most is surrounding myself with family and friends. As the holidays approached our classroom we enjoyed learning about why our weather gets cold and how snow is formed.
One day while sitting at line time, I asked each child how they believed snow falls: Jade replied, "Because it's very cold," Anthony replied, "It snows because it snows" and Kendal replied, "When it's warm it rains and when it's cold outside snow falls to the ground." I proceeded to explain how snow is formed by rain turning into ice and the ice breaking apart, thus forming snow. We also reinforced these lessons and concepts through various educational books.
Throughout December we also had the opportunity to make holiday crafts. Our first project was a candy cane the children put together with colored paper, glue and markers. Through this project the children gained cutting and other fine motor skills. They also learned about patterns and how to create these out of colored paper. Students also enjoyed forming snowmen out of cotton balls and creating snowflakes out of craft sticks, paint and buttons.
The children were able to sort the different buttons by color and size, creating their own unique snowflake. When the children were asked to sort the buttons, Sophia exclaimed, "Pink buttons, I love pink Ms. Kate!" Anthony then said, "I'm trying to find all the really small white buttons to glue" and Kendal said, "Look at all my buttons Ms. Kate, isn't my snowflake beautiful?" I really enjoyed seeing the children get so excited about this project.
During line time we talked about the special activities we do with our families during the Christmas season. I explained to them the concept of a tradition and then we spent time discussing everyone's own unique traditions. Jade replied, "Every year we get together with my grandma and open presents." Evan said, "We eat dinner with our family" and Laynee said, "Every Christmas we fly to Colorado and stay with my family." It was really sweet to hear what the children had to say and to discover their own viewpoint of this special holiday and time with loved ones.
During the last week of class our field study student came in and introduced the children to the senses. During line time, she discussed sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. She read various books to them and asked questions such as, "What are some things you can touch" and "What sounds can you hear inside this classroom?" After their discussion each child made a snowman using materials that related to each of the five senses. Students enjoyed exploring their senses with Ms. Breanna.
 | | A student alumni and parent visited and read our class a story! |
Our students worked very hard throughout the month of December studying lines and memorizing song lyrics in preparation for the Christmas Show. Students also worked on special gifts for their parents; a cinnamon dough ornament and a Santa pin crafted out of clay by each student! They turned out perfect; I hope you enjoyed these treasures! The show was spectacular; I enjoyed practicing with each student and am very proud of them!
I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays with their families. I am looking forward to January and spending more time with our students and getting to know our families. |
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Mr. John's Corner:
Line Time Lesson
To kick off December we discussed family and what persons are a part of the family. Many students have older or younger brothers and sisters. Some students are the only children in their family. We talked about cousins and how they are fun and how moms and dads have brothers, sisters and cousins too. They are called aunts and uncles. And who can forget the ever loving grandparents. Some children have great grandparents. We asked each child if there was a special name for their grandparents. Mimi, Papa, Peepaw, Yiayia, and Papou were among the unique names given to the grandparents. We were all in agreement; pets are definitely part of the family as well!
The next two weeks of December we practiced for the Christmas program, which paid off. Your children did a phenomenal job on stage! At first there was a lot of shuffling, twirling, and hopping when we lined the children in their places during our classroom practices. But as we continued to work together, and as you saw, they did a wonderful job during the performance.
The children also did many projects in the classroom during our three weeks of December. They made snowman pins and snow globes, and any and all gifts were put in a wrapped shoebox. Ms. Danielle worked really hard helping students work on these special gifts for you! Scarves were also made and stockings were laced with family photos. Students even made reindeer food!!
Cultural Subjects
We rounded out the year by being able to count to 10 in thirteen different languages. The languages are English, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic (w/ the Lebanese dialect), Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, and we added Togalog to the list!
Kindergarten Lesson
We ended the year identifying the characteristics of living things. All living things, take in nutrients, or eat, exchange gases, or breathe, reproduce, and grow. We then identified different characteristics of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish. We also identified parts of each animal. Since we determined that plants are living things as well, we decided to identify parts of the leaf, flower, and tree. I am looking forward to beginning our math unit in January. |
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Ms. Courtney's Corner:
What a memorable December in Room 24! We spent most of the month preparing for our Rockin' 80's Christmas show but still found time to study and learn a lot too!
The month started out with a lesson on dinosaurs. We talked about many different types of dinosaurs, what they ate and where they lived. Some class favorites were the Stegosaurus, which is a plant-eating dinosaur with triangular plates on its back and spikes on its tail and the Triceratops, which is also a plant eater, and has three distinctive horns on its face but by far the most popular was the Tyrannosaurus Rex. This was the largest dinosaur that ever lived. He was also a very fierce and dangerous carnivore. The class had the opportunity to go around and imitate their favorite dinosaurs while Mr. C, myself and the other students tried to guess which one they were. We made some fun Dino crafts and also sang a Dino tune or two.
Within the dinosaur lesson, the class learned three big words; herbivore, carnivore and extinction. They are now able to classify dinosaurs into either herbivores (plant-eating) or carnivores (meat-eating). They are also able to distinguish that dinosaurs are no longer around or living (extinction). After dinosaur adventure, we continued our animal theme and dove right into the world of fish. We discussed many creatures living in the deep waters and also pets that live in just a tiny bowlful of water in our homes. The lesson focused on the basic characteristics of fish. They all live and breathe under water with gills (not lungs), have scales and fins, lay many eggs and are cold blooded.
We talked about some interesting fish facts such as in a fish race, the sailfish would win as he swims through the water at top speeds of 68 mph while the poor shrimp would always lose because they do not have any fins and can only swim backwards! We also learned some sharks have as many as 3,000 teeth and have the most powerful jaws on the planet!
Our last week before Christmas break, the children spent most of their time practicing both morning and afternoon for the Christmas Program. They were exhausted with the "two a days" but I firmly believe that it was worth it! Mr. C and I had a stage full of stars that night! I am so very proud of them and I hope that you enjoyed the show as much as I did!!
I hope you and your families had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year! I look forward to a very exciting 2012 with all of your children.
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Enrichment Programs
Spotlight on Dance:
Ms. Kelly
What a fantastic first half of the year in Dance Class! It is a joy watching Ms. Elisabeth share her talent and passion with the students of Absorbent Minds. Our students love to see her and Ms. Abby at the start of every class. Ms. Elisabeth taught her students so many things already during the first 12 weeks! Our kids bop students learned many "fresh" new moves and also how to work with an 8 count beat of a song. Every week our ballerinas practiced pointing their toes and moving their bodies with elegance and grace. Most importantly all dancers are developing their skills of working together with their classmates and experiencing the reward of hard work and dedication.
We are very proud of their first performance this year! We are looking forward to the second half of the year in dance and what Ms. Elisabeth has planned for their next recital! |
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Luis (Our "sponsored" child) Update
 In case you haven't heard, Absorbent Minds has "sponsored" a child through World Vision this year as one of our service projects. His name is Luis and he lives in the Dominican Republic. In partnership with World Vision we can provide Luis with sustainable access to appropriate life-changing basics like nutritious food, clean water, health care, and education. We are excited to take part in helping these families and communities lift themselves out of poverty by providing job training and business education, along with guidance to help farmers learn new ways to irrigate and grow crops.
Luis made a Christmas card for our students and we received it just in time for our students to see it before Christmas break!
We would love for you and your family to get involved too! Please let us know if you would like to participate in sending letters, pictures or gifts from home. We welcome your ideas of ways to be a blessing to Luis!
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Upcoming Events
School Resumes
Tuesday, January 3rd
PJ & Movie Day
Friday, January 13th
MLK Day
NO SCHOOL
Monday, January 16th
Valentines Day Party
Friday, February 10th
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 Update:
We were thrilled to hear about another alumni student this month and would like to share with you what we heard. Lilly attended Absorbent Minds Montessori School for two years and has now moved on to a new school. Here is an update on Lilly: "Lilly is doing really well this year! She absolutely loves Kindergarten. At her conferences, her teacher lamented that Lilly may be bored with the first quarter of school because she was going over lessons that Lilly had already mastered. Her teacher is constantly looking for ways to challenge her more. She's at the top of her class in reading already. Her teacher also mentioned to us that she was impressed at how Lilly is always willing to help other kids out and partner with anyone. She was chosen to be one of the "Star Students" in the class. These are the kids that other kids are to go to when they need help tying their shoes, zipping coats, etc. All of this is a reflection of your wonderful school and the dedication of Ms. Courtney. Keep up the great work!"- Amy Santuomo
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